LostWoods Blog

On Saturday afternoon Ken and I were sitting in the living room where suddenly he stared out the window and said, “there’s a fox out there!”

Sure enough, a rather scruffy looking fox (probably in mid-spring molt) was walking across our deck. He (or she) crept past the patio door and around the back side of the house, before heading down the steps to the backyard. He was then spotted by Colter who made quite the commotion over this unauthorized visitor to our yard.

In the meantime, I ran out to the shop and called Finny and the garage kitties to come in from the run. Once they were safely inside, I closed the window. I’m pretty certain a fox could figure out how to get into the run if motivated enough.

So now, Fin & Co are restricted to the stud room unless it’s daytime, we’re home, and someone is outside. The cats don’t think it’s fair, but I think they’d like it even less to be attacked by a fox. Granted, this is the first time I’ve seen a fox around the house and hopefully now that he knows Colter is here, he’ll stay away. On the other hand, one of our neighbors raises some kind of birds in an aviary at the edge of the gully, so Mr Fox may be sticking around trying to figure out how to make a meal of them.

Other random news for the day… Sondra, Brian & girls of the Rockatts welcomed a litter of six brown tabby & white kittens to the world on Friday. I finally got their website updated last night with the “F” litter’s pictures and information. (www.ourforestcats.com) Stop by and meet the newest babies in the LostWoods extended family. Rockatts Dasher — the dad of the litter — is the son of Ouijakatz Comet of LostWoods and LostWoods Kimbry of Rockatts. Norlights Maxine of Rockatts - mom - is McCoy’s littermate. Sondra is going to have her hands full soon with the Warrior Cats and the F Litter – eleven kittens in all – scampering through her home. But it’s summer… she and the girls are off work and school until August, so they’ll have lots of fun, too.

I’ve been trying to get a picture of Kali to share with you. She is HUGE! But every time I aim the camera her way she gets up and leaves the room. Maybe the poor thing is embarrassed about losing her sleek, girlish figure? Last year when she was pregnant I nicknamed her Kali Cantaloupe because she looked like she had swallowed a melon. By the time babies arrived, I said maybe she should be Kali Honeydew instead, but Kali Cantaloupe just rolls off the tongue.

So the other day I was joking that since I don’t have a litter theme picked out for her babies yet maybe I’d just name them The Melons — Honeydew, Cantaloupe, Crenshaw, Casaba, Galia, Ananas, Charentais, Pepino (not a true melon, but I might need another name!), Kiwano, Hami… Those aren’t terrible names. LOL! I don’t know… it’s awfully tempting.  

Since Buzzy promised I’d update the website with the new pictures of the Warrior Cats (thanks, Sondra!!!) I did it tonight. Their eyes are open and they are getting around better all the time. Tawny is the smallest — although not small — of the litter, but also the one who gets around the best. Sondra says she’s the most independent of the group, too. She does sleep with her siblings part of the time, but sometimes she goes off and sleeps alone. Needs her “me” time already!

I think Uncle Zekie must read the blog… This morning HE parked himself on my chest and refused to move when Basia wanted her morning loves. He’s onto her! LOL!

Today’s pet care tip of the day has to do with dogs.  NEVER feed your dogs grapes or raisins. They can be highly toxic. I had no idea until a friend’s dog died this week, but it’s a lesson I won’t forget. Here are a couple of links that are very helpful if you ever need to know if something is safe for your dog to eat.

http://www.dogpack.com/health

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dtoxin.html

I’m sure there are some sites out there with similar info for cats and I’ll find them and post links to them in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy the kitten pictures and your weekend.

Hi everyone! This is Basia talking. Well, I guess I’m writing rather than talking. But it’s me either way. Lisa-mom has been really busy. She worked in the garden. She cleaned house ’cause someone was coming to visit — although I don’t think the visitor came. Or maybe I was asleep then or something. She worked on NFCFA stuff. And she had work problems and stayed up almost all night one night. So when she wasn’t looking I ran into the office (I’m really good at that — I practice every time someone opens the office door) and decided I’d write in the blog for her.

Today’s blog is about how to get the best spot when cuddling with your two-legged mom and dad. So you might want to let your furry kids read this and skip it yourself.

There are a lot of cats here at LostWoods and some of them like to cuddle as much as me. Uncle Zekie thinks he owns lisa-mom when she’s in bed. He is soooo wrong! He snuggles up to her and thinks HE has the best place, so this is what I do.

I go over to him and I start rubbing against his face until he lifts up his head and gives me kisses. Then I push my head under his neck and put it next to lisa-mom. Uncle Zekie can’t put his head back down next to her and sometimes he gives up and moves over to where he can lie his head down. Then I snuggle up in the best spot right next to lisa-mom.

If that doesn’t work — sometimes Uncle Zekie isn’t in the mood to give me kisses and sometimes I’m not patient enough to flirt with him until he does — then I have another way to get what I want. I climb onto lisa-mom and lie down with my paws on her side right above Uncle Zekie. Then I just start sliding down her side with my body and next thing you know I’m squished in between her and Uncle Zekie. Once in awhile I don’t do a good enough job of pushing him away as I slide down and I end up lying on top him. But that usually works, too, ’cause he gets up and moves.

The other thing I do that works really well for getting lisa-mom’s attention and getting lots of loves is I lie down right on top of her chest, stare into her eyes and purr. She thinks I’m absolutely adorable when I put my paws on her chin, nose, and cheek, so if I don’t think she’s paying enough attention, that’s what I do. She can’t resist me then. The only problem with this is lisa-mom is wiggly and sooner or later she’ll roll over and dump me off. I land in some undignified position on the bed and that’s just not acceptable for the Queen of Everything in Training (that’s ME!) So most of the time I get up and leave before that happens. But only if I’ve had enough pets. If I haven’t, I hang on with my claws. A word of advice, that’s really not the best plan as your two-legged moms and dads might get mad at you for using your claws on them. But now and then it’s something you just have to do. A girl has to get her loves somehow!

Oh, by the way, lisa-mom has new pictures of the Warrior Kittens and she’s planning to post them to the website tomorrow night. She already went to bed or she’d do them tonight. I saw the pictures and they are kinda cute.

Oh! I just spotted the secret stash of teasers! Oh! I need to go! Bye!