March 2, 1997 Another month. And Rusty just got it off to a grand start. I spent hours cleaning the office yesterday. So, the work station is nice and clean, fresh smelling. Its about 65 outside and the door is open as is the screen door. To the great outback. Open enough for cats to go in and out. Outside. So, what does Rusty do? He comes in, walks under my feet, walks around and then leaves. I smell *that* smell. He just sprayed the wall. I chase him out of the house and get the enzyme cleaner. He didn't just hit the wall, he also got the electrical outlet and I heard a sizzling noise. I had to unplug the computer and everything else there and now we have to replace it. I told hubby to pick up a couple of extra outlets while he was there. I'm sure they won't go to waste. I just don't understand why they go in the house, when the door is wide open. Grrrrr. I HATE THAT SMELL!!!

I was planning on scanning some pictures today on my new scanner. I haven't been able to because I didn't want to bother Pepper. She was sleeping on the scanner and the cover. She was so peaceful, I didn't want to bother her. She is such a sweet kitty.

We went for a ride this morning, Brian figures I need to get out of the house and away from the computer. Then we went shopping and I reminded him that we will be needing more animal food this week. He said I should get a job to help pay for all of these animals. I told him to work harder. We left it at that.

Friday night, when we got the cats in I did the head count. Three black and whites. Three blacks. Three greys. Four torties. And I have to keep reminding myself, four reds because Lonee goes outside now. Well, the head count on reds was three. So, Lonee was still outside. We looked all over for her and couldn't find her. We must have looked everywhere at least twice. Inside the house first, then outside. I heard the cat door (we have one that is adjustable, a four way, and it was positioned so that cats could get in the house, but not out). I came inside, still no sign of Lonee Gail. Back outside. Then Brian calls from inside the house. "Here she is!" "Where? I ask." "On top of the pillow on the entertainment center," he replies. And he's very correct. She is laying there like, what are you doing, I was here all along. A brat I tell you.

March 5, 1997 Well, today began badly. Brian through out the toaster. One of the cats peed in it. (It wasn't working right anyway).

One of the cats that I feed behind us is pregnant. The one I have been calling "baby". I can't tell if the other one is. She stays under the tree where she is fairly hidden.

The cats like the office since it has been straightened up. Last night there were six cats sleeping in here. Benny's favorite place, if not above the keyboard, is in the emptied trashcan. He curls up nicely in the bottom. I took his picture. I hope it turns out.

Bobby continues his nocturnal rambling. Yesterday morning, I found where he had wet the floor in the hallway. Easy to clean up now that its vinyl. I wonder if he is just disoriented when he wakes up and its dark and we aren't around. Then he gets scared and looks for us. He has been going outside for short periods in the day. He likes it outside. But he does not like the dogs at all. And I think he might have a cyber girlfriend. Kitty GreyCat has been sending mash notes to him. I had better watch this, make sure it doesn't get out of hand.

March 6, 1997 Bobby woke us up at 3:30 this morning. I found him and took him with me and laid him next to me on the couch. I pulled the blanket over both of us. He stayed there until I got up this morning. He was very happy.

We have to get more catfood today. I emptied the bucket totally, distributing what was left into the various cat feeders. Benny crawled into the bucket and was sniffing the food dust that was in there.

When I went into the garage to feed the cats last night, I climbed the ladder to see how Red was doing. HE WAS GONE!! I couldn't see him in any of the regular spots. Then I found him on top of the old fake Christmas tree box. What a scare he gave me. Silly puddin'.

There are a pair of hawks in the tree behind our house. I think they are "married". Noisy, they are, but such beautiful birds. Big, too. One day they were flying very low and I was surprised at how large they are. Oh, boy, more screeching birds!! I wonder how many babies they have. I wouldn't suspect very many at a time.

March 9, 1997 Well, let's hope today gets better. Bobby started his early morning stroll about 3:30am. I got out of bed and took him with me and held him on the couch. He finally had enough and jumped down onto the floor. I went back to bed. At 6 am the cats were wide awake and wanted out. They also wanted to be fed as the feeders were all empty. I got up and put food in a bowl for the strays out back (of which two are pregnant, I am very sure) and Rusty ran out with me. Now, when Rusty does his business he is a very relieved happy cat. So, when he came bounding back up to the house with me, I thought he had already emptied his bladder. I came into the house and proceeded to fill the cat feeders. In the bathroom, Rusty backed up to the tub. I chased him into the garage. Then I will be darned if the little cat skunk didn't come back into the house and spray the front door. I chased him through the entire house, told him I was very angry with him and that when I caught him, I was going to throw him as far as I could. He always thinks this is a big game. Well, I finally grabbed him, and opened the sliding door and placed him outside of it. (No, no cat tossing today). Then out came the enzyme cleaner bottle and I sprayed down the front door.

The birds are once again building a nest outside the front door in the light fixture. The cats sit at the screen and watch for hours as the birds fly into the entry way and build their home. At least these birds know how to leave the entryway. We have a skylight over the opening and hummingbirds get trapped. I have to drag the ladder outside and catch the hummers, (some people are actually afraid of these little things!!) take them outside of the front gate and release them. It averages one a month. The cats usually let me know when there is any kind of bird in that area. Once a hummingbird flew into the house through the open door to the backyard. That was fun. Brian, I and the cats all in hot pursuit of the tiny bird. I won, caught the little guy, took him out front and away he flew.

At "kitties in" time last night, I came up one cat short on the head count. I couldn't find Georgie. I asked Brian if he had seen him and he said "no, not lately". He went outside to look for him. I checked out the house. The last time I had seen Georgie, he was running after Brian into the shop. I asked Brian if he had checked the shop and he said yes. Well, knowing Brian, I checked the shop again. "Georgie, Georgie", I called. I heard a tiny "mew". "Georgie, where are you?" I asked. He was in the Bronco, Brian's sandcar that he has been trying to sell. Georgie was so happy to see me. It looks as if he followed Brian into the shop, but not out. He had been in there most of the day. I, of course, have to make Brian feel as guilty as humanly possible, for neglecting Georgie. "Honey, I thought you said you couldn't find him in there." "Well, I couldn't. I called at he didn't say anything." "But, honey, don't you realize that he had been in there sooooo long, and he had probably cried and cried for someone to come save him and he was soooo tired from trying to open the door and crying that he had to sleep? You HATE Georgie!!" By the way, Georgie's doing fine. But, I bet Brian does a more thorough check next time.

We are going to set up a bird feeder in front of the window in the garage. Hopefully, Red will come down to watch the birds. That's probably what he ate in the old days. He used to love to climb the trees out front.

March 12, 1997 Its barely Wednesday. A quarter after midnight. What a week this has been so far. Benny peed in the kitchen sink Sunday night and it was pink. I thought we were all done with this, but I guess not. Monday morning I called the vet and they were booked for the day. But they wanted to see him so I put him in the carrier a little before noon and took him down. Monday was very warm so I also asked if they could give him a haircut. They said yes, no problem. I picked him up at about 4:30. He didn't even look like my Benny. I have taken pictures which I will post later. He has long fur around his face, from his *knees* on down and his tail wasn't shaved at all. He is so cute. Brian wasn't very happy. He thought that Ben would have more fur around his neck, like a lion's mane and just a little tuft of fur on the tail. I think Ben likes it. He was actually laying on my work chair today. Not wanting to bother him, I used a folding chair. He looked so sweet curled up and sleeping. As for the urine, the vet said he wasn't that bad. My concern is that he doesn't get worse.

Red let me rub his tummy last night. I climbed the ladder and he came over to me. I petted him for a while, very gently. He gradually rolled over on his side and let me give him a gentle belly rub. He looked so content. His paws were slowly kneading the air and his eyes were half closed. I sure wish he would come down. I wonder if he would be a lap kitty.

Lonee followed me around the house last night. I would turn and she would stop and look at me. I would ask her what she wanted and she meowed at me. I think she wanted me to sit down and pet her. Later in the evening she started climbing the walls. (The stairs we have attached.) She has never done this before. She was actually playing in the TV room with us both watching. I think she is losing her *street coolness*. Not so bad being a caught cat.

DeeJay had worms crawling yesterday. Out came the Droncit. Those pills are so big. It is very difficult to shove them down the mouth of an unwilling cat. And the half pill is even worse. But I got 'em down him. Poor guy.

Bobby didn't do his nocturnal romp last night. That was kind of him. Its so late now, I bet he does it right after I have been sleeping a couple of hours. Rude cat. He has a cyber girlfriend. Kitty GreyCat. She is missing teeth and doesn't mind at all that he is crippled. That's nice for him.

The girls all got an invitation to Henry's for a dance on the 20th. A couple of the boys might go. I think Benny is definately invited. Probably because he can be such a clown and he does have a stylish new do.

March 14, 1997 Lisaviolet got a birthday card this week. This is her response: "tank oo so much. no one ever sended me a purrfday card befur. my humommie haz been furry buzy trying to get peepoo's to write letterz about dose kittez what got killed at de no kill place in ioway by sum bad guys dat broke in. she even put up a form on my website (it myte hep de powece find dose bad guys dat killed dose poor kittez if lotz of peepoo's wryte). she is sending de letterz out too meny pwaces. she wuz happee dat somebodee membered my purrfday. we like udder kittez. humommie took my widdle brudder benjiman to the vetz on tuh udder day and she kame home widoud him. den she leeved agin a bwout home dis udder kiddy. i fowwow him awound and twy to smell him wen he duzn't tink i am dere. I even gwowled at him and humommie yelled at me. she sid dat wuz benny wid hiz fur all gone. she sid he getz too hot and she had duh vetz office give him a furcut. i don tink datz benny. benny wuz lotz bigger. dis is a skinny cat. he lookz mor like de skwirl den benny. he smelz funee too but humommie sid datz cuz he got some medicine put up into he bwadder cause he has pink peepee. she sez he gotz bwood in it. i don kere. i don beweeve datz benny. tank all of you guys for de card. do you know henry? fwom de bfcc? hez havin a party on de 20 of dis mont i tink and we are goin. maggiexuxa is in luv wid henry and wanz to be hiz winkwink but he alweady has a fwiend. maggie singz in de barbeeshop kratet i tink she sid. well, my humommie wanz her machin bak. i haf to go now, rawr rawr MERAW you guyz"

I think Red comes down more often. A couple of times I have walked into the garage and he went scurrying back up into the rafters. Which means he had been down. Brian is going to make a stairway with fairly large steps. We will have to anchor it somehow so that it doesn't tip over. The steps will be large enough for me to put Red's food on. And I need to buy a birdfeeder for outside of his window.

Benny is so cute with his little haircut. I realize now how hot his fur must be. Since the haircut he is laying on the bed, couch, clothing, all of which he had nothing to do with. And Brian pointed out that he hasn't been laying on his back. No need to cool the belly off.

March 20, 1997 Boy, did I have a scare this morning. Our dogs were jumping up on the fence and going crazy. I went out to see what the deal was. I heard the neighbor and asked what had happened. He said that a small red feral had gotten into his yard and their dog had it trapped against their wall. I don't think that the dog hurt the cat, but they used a hose to break it up. He said the cat went over the wall into our yard. Well, I guess that's when our dogs went crazy. When they saw the cat at the top of the fence. Anyway, I started to think about it. Had I seen Lonee? Did we get her in last night? (Of course we did, but being rational is not a part of being panicked). I couldn't remember. I started calling for her. I looked in all of her places and she was nowhere to be found. "Oh, God, please let her be here," I prayed. "Let that have been a different cat." Finally, she came out from behind the couch. Thank you, God.

We had record heat yesterday. I do believe we timed Ben's haircut well. He is a lot happier. And he isn't getting sniffed so much.

I am going to nag Brian to get the stairway made for Red this weekend. Being so warm yesterday is just a taste of the summer to come. I don't want Red cooking this year. Got a couple of months to seriously work on getting him down.

March 23, 1997 What a difference a day makes. The temperature dropped considerably from last week. Easier to clean the house when it isn't so hot.

Brian made the stairway for Red. It is one board wide, each step is about 18 inches long and 12 inches deep. It has two layers of steps that lead to the bottom. Now, if we can just get him to use it. I will keep lowering the food level.

Benny is like a whole new kitty. He isn't laying on his back, no more belly rubs. But, he is sleeping in the bed and on the couch with me at night. He is a lot more affectionate. Guess wearing a heavy fur coat all of the time can make you grouchy. He is also peeing more, but I don't think the fur has anything to do with that. I would think that the DMSO treatments are helping tremendously.

Last night I went into the living room and laid on the couch. I called to Lonee to come over. She came over and I coaxed her onto the couch. She jumped up and started purring and rubbing and let me sniff her butt (what a privilege). She would reposition herself and get her face into mine and rub heads with me. After fifteen or twenty minutes, she jumped down. She was done.

March 26, 1997 Yesterday I talked to my friend that feeds the cats. She said she doesn't think they are around anymore. Very little of the food is gone in the morning. We told each other that somebody had probably taken them in. I don't see the long haired black one behind us anymore, nor do I see the old grey tomcat that was so beat up. The two little black females behind us just had kittens, although the younger of the two is waiting to be fed each morning. The older isn't. Anyway, this morning I got up about a half hour earlier than usual and walked down the hallway to let the cats out. I looked out into the entry way and who should I see, but Angus and O.C. I guess they are alright, obviously eating elsewhere. Angus is a big boy. It was a nice surprise so early in the morning.

Red was down one level on the stairway last night. YAY!!! Guess he had to get used to the smell of fresh cut cedar lumber.

I couldn't make the bed yet. Benny is sleeping on my pillow. Rusty and Boney are also in bed, but I don't think twice about moving them.

March 31, 1997 Last day of March. This month flew by. Luckily we didn't have many health problems with the animules.

We had company yesterday and I wanted the house to smell as urine free as I could. So, among other things, I washed the couch covers and the ottoman cover. I was busy doing other things and didn't get the washed covers on right away. They are king size comforters actually and I can only wash one at a time. ARRRGGHHHH. One of the cats peed on the ottoman cover. While it was sitting ON the ottoman waiting to be put back on. Back to the laundry. And then yesterday morning I got up at 5:30 and tried to get the rest of the cleaning done. I had rewashed the ottoman cover and had another cover to put on the couch. Since Rusty was sleeping on it, I was in no rush to put it back on. He finally got up and I proceeded to put it back onto the couch. *whine* It was peed on, too. So, the chair went without a cover and all was fine.

We went to a birthday party for a neighbor Friday night. He is very silly, going on about how 40 is so old. Hey, I'm 43. Don't even try to tell me how old old is. It sure isn't the forties. Anyway, as a joke I went to a local thrift store and bought him a really nice walker for twenty bucks. Now, to wrap it. I didn't have enough wrapping paper, so I used the Sunday funnies. We recycle newspapers and we had a large stack, thank goodness. I started at the bottom of the walker, taping the comics together as I went along. After I had the bottom and part of the top done, I realized I would need more paper. So, I left in search of more funnies. When I was walking down the hallway, I heard a ripping sound. Kitties. Playing. On my partially wrapped walker. Georgie was on the outside. Benny was sitting in the middle. "Hi, mom!!". Oh, Benny. I lifed the walker up and shooed them away. Had to get out more tape. Retape what they had ripped. Silly cats.

Here is a news flash. Lisaviolet loves Sammy the Lackey. You can meet him at Dorissimo's Domain but don't tell Queen Bitsy. She doesn't think he should have a girlfriend. She keeps him too busy. The mean old Queen.

I sat outside by the pool yesterday morning with a hot cup of coffee. It was about 6:30 and the washer was going and I had washed the sliding glass door (on the inside) to get all of the spray marks off of it. I was taking a break, just watching the cats play. Lonee was outside and she was being very playful. She seems to like Georgie the best. She is a very fast runner, maybe because she is so small. She would try to get Georgie's attention and then run along the wall down to the back and the she would turn around and run up the hill, under the dog run fence, and up the tree as far as she could before the barrier stopped her. She hung on for a minute, jumped down, then ran back under the fence. She went over to the streambed and ducked down so that Georgie couldn't see her. She twitched her little behind, the way cats do before the pounce. Only problem was, Kirby was right behind her. It was really fun to watch. I have read that ferals aren't really playful, because they have spent most of their lives surviving. Lonee sure hasn't heard that.

I don't think Red realizes that he should be coming down. I lowered the food again. Tomorrow will be his eight month anniversary of his stay in our rafters.

I heard this joke Friday night and I really liked it.
An old woman was in the hospital, very ill. She prayed to God.
She asked him if he would just let her know how much longer she had to live, that she would never ask for anything again. She asked this same thing over and over in her prayers.
Finally, God answered her. He told her that she would live for another twenty years.
This made her happy and she started to feel better. She sat up in her bed and quickly got well.
Once out of the hospital, she figured that since she would live so much longer, that she should do something for herself. She got her face lifted. She got her butt lifted. She got a boob job. She looked like a new woman.
When all of this was finally done, she walked out into the street.
Crossing the street, a large truck hit her and she died.
Up in heaven, she saw God and she said to him "you told me I would live another twenty years!!"
He looked at her and said, "Oh, I didn't recognize you!!"

lisaviolet is fifty something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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