Updates in several areas

Much too long since the last entry and a good bit has happened at Casa Del Gatos.


Our screen porch/Lanai was completed, thanks to our amazing handyman Tom Carpenter, and now the inside kitties get to experience a more direct contact with the outside world with nice safe aluminum screen walls keeping them in. Two exterior doors - one on each wall and a very nice pet door in the door leading into the house

The construction was intended to be more sturdy and permanent from the beginning since the plan is to eventually replace the screen with actual windows. It will then become the family room and will be air conditioned and heated along with the rest of the house. I guess by that time I will have built the enclosed cat run I have been threatening for years.

We had to replace our 7-year-old yard tractor since the mechanic said a new engine was needed ($1500!) and I decided that the money would be best put towards a new and better one. So the Craftsman DYT4000 was replaced with a brand-spanking-new Toro Timecutter SS5000. It is a 50-inch, triple blade zero-turn mower and it is a very different ride than the previous one.

This makes my job easier since what used to take about 4 hours to cut now takes less than half that. Quite a different experience driving it, but boy does it cut well - even at full speed. No bagger or mulching attachments are needed either because this thing cuts the grass so cleanly and disperses it so well.


We also acquired another vehicle - one I have been promising to Judy since we bought this place. A golf cart (Club Car with a Kawasaki gas engine) was found for a killer deal and is perfect  for getting from one end of the property to the other ... or just out to the street for the mail. Top speed is about 13.5 MPH, but I plan to remedy that shortly!

It is not street legal, but I have seen our neighbors who have them drive all over town so I have too. It even has a cargo bed so it is handy for carrying gardening tools and supplies out to the farthest reaches of the property - or carrying purchases home from the Dollar General store.

But of course, since it is Spring and that IS kitten season, the Casa Del Gatos Kitten Academy got a delivery of new cadets about 3 weeks ago. Filthy, hungry and covered with fleas, they were found abandoned at a nearby fishing hole by a local family's little boy and brought to us. The phone rang on the morning of May 5 and a woman said "Is this the place that rescues cats?" I hesitated about a half a second before handing the phone to Judy.

The woman and her husband and the little boy who found the kittens  brought them to us in a laundry basket and we put them in a temporary kennel cage on the porch for a few minutes while Judy thanked the family and blessed them and sent them on their way. Eight dirty crying kittens and no mother and Judy definitely had her work cut out for her.

Judy got her bathing supplies together in the kitchen and got ready to clean 'em up and get 'em fed while I ran to the Robertsdale Feed Store for some Kitten Milk Replacer. It has been close to a year since the last batch so we had none around. Of course, there really is no such thing as "leftover" KMR.

We've seen worse, but these little critters were looking pretty rough and a couple seemed like they might not make it at all. We had no idea how long the kittens had been alone, but it couldn't have been long or they would have been even worse off than they were when we got them.

So Judy began the feeding. Every 4 hours or so, she would mix up a batch of kitten milk and feed them. Even the ones who refused to suckle were fed with a syringe. A couple of them took a good bit of work to feed them, but Judy made it happen. She fed them before bed and got up in the middle of the night and came home from the office on the days she worked so the kittens got their regular feeding.

As soon as they had grown enough that the feedings could be spread out more, Judy started mixing solid food in with the formula and most of them really started to thrive. They are now eating from bowls and even have dry kitten chow to nibble on between feedings.

Current pictures coming soon.