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| Probably already pregnant again... |
I'm glad I got her when I did because it's no fun sitting around for hours in this heat. (It was over 100 F today.)
She has a spay appointment on Wednesday. Until then, she is staying in a huge dog crate in my bedroom.
I've kept other feral cats using this arrangement. Normally, I can clean the litter box and swap in fresh food and water while the cat stays as far away from me as possible. This girl ran toward me and almost made it out the cage door this evening. I might have to work on adding a mid-cage barrier so I can safely block her in the back while I clean.
Six more days. I can handle six more days.
Other Foster Stuff
Rooster, the black kitten I trapped in the alley a couple weeks ago (and the feral girl's son), has gone back to the shelter to get neutered and adopted. He's a good boy.
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| Rooster, the alarm clock with no snooze button |
Eight of the remaining 13 kittens should be going back next week. Theoretically, that should mean the bathroom will be free, but the shelter is overflowing with kittens who need fostered at the moment, so I'll probably end up coming home with a new bunch. The other five kittens have a date two weeks after that. But plans often shift
Nimbus is technically done with his FIP treatment, but he's going to be a difficult adoption and — as mentioned previously — there's no space at the shelter. So he'll stay here and babysit kittens for a while.
Francis Noodle has figured out how to get into the recording booth, which I'm not super happy about since he poops involuntarily and that closet has a yoga mat to keep the floor from echoing. But if I lock him in the big dog crate when he's not being watched, he has a tantrum and spills his food and water. It's a good thing he's so cute. (As I write this, he's trying to catch a fly in the office and I'm probably going to hell for laughing at the cat who can't walk very well throwing himself around the room.)
Writing Stuff
I have finished the initial draft of the starfish-shifter murder mystery short story ("Sleeping with the Fishes") that will be going out to my Patreon supporters in the next day or two. I have written the plan for revisions for the next Penelope Standing book, and I'll set up the pre-order this week so I can put a link in the next newsletter. And then I'll get back to writing the next Floodmouth book.
BUT ALSO! The 2026 Mysterious Murders Contest is open for submissions! This year, they are looking for locked room murder mysteries. Stories need to be in English, under 3k words, and not produced by AI. There's no entry fee and the prize amounts are huge. Seriously. I won first prize last year. It's an amazing event.
3 comments:
Hmmm. I do not have the energy to submit a story. Mainly because I'd have to write it first and honestly, I dislike locked room stories. Weird, I know. One of the feral cats we trapped, spayed and released (including her kitten) was named Scamper! She remained feral although we fed her for 8 years or so. We had a cat door and she would come in, check the room and then eat and leave. We had a cat doorbell at the door so when she came at night we could let her in to eat. Then she'd sometimes sleep in the house in the winter! But she refused to be handled. She was totally feral. But she did know where to sit when she wanted treat. Not that she would stay there when I put the bowl down, but she'd come back, scarf treat and then bolt for the cat door. I loved that silly cat.
The only one of my own cats still remaining is Gin, who is feral. She spends most of her time in the catio, but she also hangs out in the living room and her food is in the kitchen. I think it's been about six years since I trapped her (and her now-deceased son Tonic). At the time, I thought she might mellow a little. Nope! But she seems pretty content with her life, and we cohabitate peacefully.
That was Scamper. She tolerated us, but she remained feral until one day she stopped showing up. Part of that might have been Leo's fault. He was dropped off in the woods where we walked and we brought him home as a kitten. He was willing to be friends with her, but she was having none of it. We know someone else was feeding her or she was finding food because she had stopped coming by as often. She had full cat-attitude for as long as we knew her. She looked a little like your capture, only when we first started luring her with food she was not in good shape--very skinny and had just had 3 kittens. By the time we trapped her, she was down to one kitten (Junior. He was a piece of work). Cats. They are something. You know better than me!
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