Birds, Lilies and a Sugar Plum Too

I am still wrapped up in the birds and lilies.

 Besides thinking about birds and lilies though, I have been doing my 'cat work'. What is 'cat work' you might be asking. We have ourselves a real job cut out for us. Two doors down lives Bella. To say Bella is 'wild' is to say the sun is kind of hot. The problem is Bella keeps having kittens. Bella is beautiful but look, we cannot keep having these kittens. So my neighbor who really lives two doors down and allows Bella to mostly hang out in her back yard are doing our dead level best to capture her. I am known around these parts as the 'cat whisperer'. I can chat up a cat and get it to come to me. I can even chat up Bella, get her to lay down by me and I can touch her...well, at least I could once until I tried to put her in a trap. It was almost a success too but she nailed me good with her left back claws and almost took my arm off. I had to let go of her before my helpmate could get the trap door closed. The claws do not scare me eventhough they hurt like heck but the teeth give me real pause for concern because they can inflict a nasty infection. These days, I must say Bella is somewhat leary of me. She gives me a very wide berth because she no longer trusts me. But all I want to do is help her. I keep telling her that and believe it or not, she let me touch her again tonight. Now, on the flip side of the coin, we have been capturing the males pretty easily and releasing them back out into the neighborhood. This is how it is supposed to be done. They are marked by having the left ear clipped on the tip. I know we will eventually get Bella. Oh, did I mention that her third litter is due any day? Only recently did we get the second litter all neutered and spayed. There are two males that we know of that are still 'potent'. One is my Nigel's father and one is my Ollie's father. These are old, wise, street savy males. They know exactly how far 'arms length' is and they stay just a fraction further back than that. We have set the traps for them but they are not going to fall for 'no stinkin' traps'. Nigel's father is mean. He scares me. Normally, I am not scared of a cat AT ALL. Have you ever seen those 'Alien' and 'Aliens' movies? Remember how the juvenile aliens would attach to someone's face? Somehow I get the feeling Nigel's dad would attach to your face like that by sinking his claws into your head and not ever letting go. My name for him is Battle Cat. Believe it or not, I took his picture earlier this evening. He is beat up, worn out and so very pitiful. Mean yet pitiful. My pix of late have been of somewhat poor quality. That is because I use my phone and very rarely get the camera out anymore. Just lazy, I guess. Here is Battle Cat a.k.a. Nigel's Father. You cannot really tell it here but he has some serious bites in his neck from fighting the other old male. Sugar Plum is SCARED of this cat like I am scared of a snake. As soon as Shoog gets a whif that this guy is heading our way, Shoog scrams!

Speaking of Shoog, look at the pretty boy. I got this before Battle Cat came up. Notice Patches in the background. He is from Bella's first litter. Patches is fixed now and not a problem.

I can't go without showing a pic of my Nige and Claude. I took this back when the electricity was off for 5 days back in February due to the heavy snow falling on the power lines. Those boys know how to stay warm. I noticed when I was putting this pic on here someone's head is poking up in the lower right. It is either my Ollie or Henry.