Cat Colony

November 26, 2023

Hello again,

Well, I guess I haven't talked about the cats in a while, so here goes.  We made the move from the little casita that we had lived in for 2 ½ years over to the boss's much-bigger, old house back in September.  Now, after a couple of months, we are much more settled in and can analyze a little bit better our cat situation.  Over the summer, while still next-door in much smaller quarters, we briefly peaked at 30 cats.  That sounds horrible, of course, and more than just a little too much, but keep in mind that most of these were kittens, mostly just 6-8 weeks old or less and not taking up too much space or too much time ambling all over the house.  Since we moved, we've dipped down to 27 cats because of two deaths and one disappearance, and are now letting them out much more often, as planned.  Before we had to worry about any workers showing up or anyone else coming to visit the boss, driving and parking near the houses, let alone the boss's dogs getting out and running loose for a while.  Now, the cats pretty much stay in the huge yard that we have and are generally content to stay behind the fence.  They do run around the big porch and make excursions to the pond(we can only imagine how one of those forays is going to end one of these days) and like to also make runs up to the barns.  So, initially, we rounded everyone up every night and made sure that they were inside at dark.  At first, this was working pretty well and everyone seemed content and seemed to have enough space that they weren't fighting and tripping over each other.  But, after a month or so, all of the males that are roughly a year and a half old seemed to awaken sexually and daily life in the house, especially overnight, became pretty tumultuous and loud.  Erin did her best to keep up with all of the spraying that the males began to do, but, although she wasn't dealing with huge puddles or anything, she quickly tired of that and for the sake of the house we finally pulled the trigger and began kicking the males outside.  Instantly things began to quiet down and all the markings began to lessen to the point of now not happening at all.  We've brought the latest batch of kittens that are only weeks old inside now, so as to make room outside for all of the young bucks in the kitty tubes and cubby holes that I've made.  Our current roster: Monkey; Cole; Ollie; Tippy; Canoe; Ojo; Piper; Zia; Franny; Kachina; Pinkerton; Chelly; DOT; Misty; TG; Ebony; Mimi; Jackie; Maddi; Buckwheat; Kiva; Otra; Rio; Bean; Mickey; Gizmo; & Daisy.  Outside: Bootsie; Baby Boots; Coco; Bear; BOC; Gollum; Charlie; Cachito; Nibbles; & 4 as-of-yet unnamed kittens.

So, in any event, I've been making extra spaces for the cats to hang out in with all of the construction material that's left over from the boss's new house.  I have to restack and reorganize all of the beams, vigas, siding & metal roofing.  Everything else, which was originally dumpster-bound, is now ours and we've been slowly getting it all down to one of our storage units.  We even have lots of insulation, both hard boards of it and the soft, fiberglass kind, so that has been nice to line some of the hutches with.  So, now, the smallest of the small are in the house and don't seem to have any interest in going outside at all.  Our three old ones that came with us from PA stay indoors, but do like to go out during the day.  The rest have been booted outdoors, only being let back in for visits and small naps during the day.  These little breaks apply mainly to the girls and they seem to enjoy the break from being constantly hunted outside as the boys roam up and down our little hillside looking for something to hump!  So far the coyotes haven't gotten any and we haven't had any revisits to a fallen-through-the-ice situation, so we're happy for that.  Still, with as many coyotes as we have around here, its only a matter of time.  But, some of Erin's friends in Las Vegas and Santa Fe have expressed interest in a cat or two and picking out a few of our cute & cuddly girls would go a long way to keeping our population down.  Erin's been busy as ever coming up with new ways to cook and store things.  She's also finally come up with a way to shop that she's happy with, starting at the natural food store in Vegas, then hitting the local grocer's two stores, before finally getting the rest at the big box behemoth on the edge of town.  Having owned our own business, we're big believers in shopping as local as possible.  And, unlike everyone else who runs to Santa Fe(much bigger, but further away) for everything, she's found a way to get pretty much everything we need locally.

Now, a batch of pictures from the ranch this week.  First up, three manipulations that I did to some otherwise less-than-stellar pictures I took: Willow & Cachita by the water dish; the boss's house all lit up as I moved while snapping; peaking into a kitty tube looking for kittens.  Then, three horse shots that I was really happy with: first, grazing by the light of the moon & Jupiter; then, two shots of the morning rays of sun touching the group.  Next, a still shot of the boss's house all lit up at night with the moon rising behind it.  Then, looking south from the pasture towards a distant knob along the Pecos River and then back west towards our local and familiar mesa.  Next, two shots looking eastwards towards Starvation Peak with different skies.  Then, a shot I took from the porch the day after a snowstorm as the contractor, Efrain, was calling from Santa Fe(1000' higher than us and that day snowbound) to check on the weather on the ranch.  Next, a shot of some cracked corn that we finally added to the feeding rotation to help feed all the Red-Winged Blackbirds and Pinyon Jays...this gave me the chance to visit the feed mill in Las Vegas, Farmway, and to reminisce about the 30 years that I spent in a feed mill!  And, finally, three shots of one of my ongoing projects: trying to make little canals for the water to run off in once it comes down the downspouts from the roof.  I haven't perfected them yet, but have five different prototypes going on five different downspouts...stay tuned!