El Alto

April 16, 2023

Hello again,

I don't know how two weeks have slipped by again, but they have.  Last thing that I knew it was Easter and we ended up having to help our boss get a cat out of the wall up at the new house.  Everyone advised against taking the cats up there to hang out, as the house isn't completely ready yet, and, sure enough, one of the cats went right into a hole in the wall and couldn't get back out.  Long story short, the old 'leave a can of tuna out' didn't seem to be doing the trick and we ended up having to cut a hole through the brand-new plaster wall at 9pm with all the breakers off in the house in case we nicked something and using only a flashlight to light the way.  Nobody showed up the following day other than Valentin and I, so once the three other guys showed up by late morning on Tuesday, I slipped out and took the rest of the day off.  Erin and I ran down to the post office and the campground, and then stopped at the little, local bar, El Alto, to grab a couple of six-packs.  The owner, Alex, was there and I finally was able to introduce Erin to him and we had a nice, long chat for nearly an hour.  Alto is 'stop' in Spanish, hence it's The Stop, but when we first moved here seeing that huge sign painted onto the front of the store(see photos) in what appeared to be an old gas station or something, we weren't really quite sure what it was.  Finally, in time, and after tiring of running a half-hour into Las Vegas to get beer, I stopped one day a year or more ago and have been going there since.  It's an actual bar with beer on tap and other drinks, plus they sell everything from snacks to dog food, eggs & chicken feed.  We love going in there!  So, not to be outdone, the week got busier as we kept trying to find some time to sit down and do our taxes and it kept getting pushed back further and further.  Finally, after mowing all around the garden Monday night we realized on Tuesday, Tax Day, that Bootsie had had kittens again and had most likely abandoned the nest!

Bootsie keeps getting pregnant over and over again.  Literally, as soon as she seems to have kittens grown up a bit and hanging around outside of the shelters that we've built, we notice her getting pudgier and then she starts to chase away all the older ones.  Next, she disappears and we have kittens again.  We hadn't noticed that she had actually had them yet and, of course, spent a few hours mowing right around the garden shed that she always uses on Monday night.  By Tuesday, we noticed cries coming from there and they didn't stop all day long.  Erin finally went in and found a tiny kitten down at the bottom of an open mulch bag and she pulled it out and placed it back in the straw-filled milk crates that we have in there for the cats.  We then left it alone in the hopes that Bootsie would come back and start nursing it again.  Bootsie is very fickle and abandons her kittens quite easily anymore.  Two years ago roofers were working on the tool depot just a few feet away and that chased her off; last year a rattlesnake slithered into the shed and attacked the nest(gone).  Now, we unwittingly did the same by mowing.  So, after listening for the crying of the kitten overnight, the following day I found that it had crawled out of the shed and was inch-worming its way down the hillside towards our casita!  At this point, we gave up trying to maintain our delicate touch in the hopes of not chasing Bootsie off and we just grabbed the kitten and brought it inside.  That brings the total of cats in our house up to 17 and Chelly is pregnant again!  Good thing we're moving next-door in a matter of weeks and will be able to finally switch our houseful of cats to being fully indoor/outdoor.  So, for five days or so now, Erin has been nursemaid for this little kitten and has been bottle feeding it every 2-3 hours.  Unlike all of our past attempts, which have never led to a kitten surviving, this time we only have one to focus on and it seems to be making a huge difference.  After some feeble attempts and a little coaching on my part to get the kitten to start sucking on my finger, we finally got it to latch on and start feeding and it is very greedily gobbling down a full bottle(actually a nipple attached to a syringe) every time.  We don't want to set ourselves us for a big heartache, but we're starting to feel that this little one might just make it.  We've even named it: Digger.  Digger Dave or Digger Daisy, depending, but it dug itself to freedom...and away from the old tomcat that kept creeping around the garden shed looking an awful lot like he had been munching on tiny, newborn kittens all week.  What a thought!  What a little survivor!

Now, I have another batch of pictures for everybody.  Nothing with Digger yet, we'll have some pictures of that little bugger in the next edition.  First up, one of my shots of the bar El Alto that I played around with a little bit.  Then, a 'magic wand' that I made for one of Erin's girlfriends for her housewarming.  Next, a whole series of six shots with all of our kittens: first, Kachina, or Al Kachino...take your pick; then, Franny working the bar to see if Mama has anything for her; next, another shot of Franny on her tiptoes, mugging for the camera; then, Misty Gish, DOT & Mimi out on the loose; next, Old Bucky, 20 years old and still going strong!; and, finally, TG Swiper, our cowardly lion, looking tough under the table outside.  Then, a largish spider that I saw outside while working on landscaping around the new house.  Next, Willow making friends with the horses, playing kissy-face.  Then, Misty Gish, our zaniest kitten, trying to get Ela to give her a piggyback ride.  Next, four landscape photos showing a series of three cholla shots, zoomed in to different levels, and one of the other new growth that's pushing out of the ground.  And, finally, and unaltered shot of El Alto, the best little bar in San Jose, New Mexico, USA!

See you soon.