Cat Lady Spring Break

The first week of March was Spring Break at the university where I both study and teach. It's a bit early for Spring Break, in my opinion, although perhaps The Powers That Be felt that we Floridians should be given our Spring Break before the college-aged masses from across the country descend on our state later in the month. Who knows. It had been t-shirt weather here in Orlando for the last two weeks of February, so when I started packing for my trip to southeast Georgia, I initially only threw t-shirts into my suitcase. I added a couple of sweaters as an afterthought, and it's a good thing I did as it was pretty cold the entire time I was there - and rainy most of the time I was there. As such, I spent a lot of my Spring Break huddling under the covers with my animals, keeping warm and dry. I didn't really do a damn thing blog-worthy, although I did take a good number of animal photos, especially on the dry days. Let's start with the dogs:

Wolfie is a little obsessed with his food bowl. He continually prances around with the damn thing, all the while looking incredibly proud of himself. Below is a video of Wolfie showing off his bowl-carrying skills.


I was going to take a cute photo of Viktor... then he did this.
Nadya now must be kept on a running tether at all times, because otherwise she gets loose and runs around the neighborhood. As she's one of the three cat-killers, we really cannot have her getting loose. She doesn't seem to mind the tether, though. It's pretty long, and she's still in the yard with Viktor and Kali.
Kali: Fat, lazy, adorable, shy, sweet, and occasionally kills cats. Sigh.
I swear Brin gets greyer every time I see him.
This is not our dog. She has apparently been running free through mom's neighborhood for the past couple of weeks - although she's not thin at all (and turned up her nose at a bowl of food), so she must have a home somewhere. Unfortunately, mom's dogs go nuts when she shows up. Brin even attacked her on Friday... perhaps after that she'll stay closer to her home.
Mochi being his adorable self, with Bagira in the background
My mom really didn't want me to post this, but is is seriously one of the most adorable photos ever, in my opinion. And it works well for a transition from dogs to cats.
This is Stranger. He showed up out at mom's land back in January. And by "showed up" I suspect I actually mean "was dumped" - he's a full grown male, but young. Super friendly.
He loves to roll over.
Watch Stranger in action:

This is Buddy. He was trapped as an adult feral cat in 2009. He didn't start allowing humans to pet him until January of this year.... and he has discovered that he loves it! Although if you watch the video below, you'll see his feralness rear its head (or its claws!) a few times. You can also clearly hear him purring :-)


Charlie, being all ladylike.

Bagira, who is always ladylike.

Echo, our oldest cat. We found her as a kitten in 2002.
And now for some rainy photos to show you what most of my Spring Break was like:
Merlin

In the distance you can see one of the kitties (Solly, I think)
Honey, Merlin, and Solly

Leading horses to water, and other exercises in futility

My latest suicidal turtle - an adorable little softshell with an incredibly expressive face.
Seconds after taking this picture, he was off, swimming merrily away.
Elvis, Donnie, Velvet, and Solly - at the vet for their last round of shots. They were definitely NOT afraid. Want to adopt them? They're incredibly sweet and friendly!
Solly and Elvis
Donnie
Velvet
Now that Mama and her babies have had all their shots, they're all free-range out at the land with everybody else.
Donnie and Solly, lounging in the grass
Egret - this fellow was just hanging out near our land
FINALLY!!! We have a well!! The man who installed it (the asshole who threatens to shoot kittens) is a total dick and not at all someone I would recommend. He is a professional well-driller, who has been in business for years; I've no idea how he has stayed in business if he treats most of his customers like he treated us. But at least it's finally installed and running.
Look! Running water! Time to get the wall around the tub tiled.

We moved the horses' water trough away from the hand-pump well over to the fence by the electric well so that we could fill it with the hose... Mom's attempt to lead the horses to their new source of water was not entirely successful...

All animals, all the time.

If you're one of my facebook friends, you can see that my current jobs are listed as volunteer positions here and here. All I do for the latter is update their websites periodically. For the former... well... I have no idea how my mom does it - and work full time - when I'm not here, because I pretty much spend all day, every day taking care of the critters. I don't mind this at all, but it's a lot of work. (BTW, if you're a facebook user, click here and like us!)

I wake up in the mornings and take care of the critters at my house. In addition to Mochi and Charlie, there is now Viktor - the rather useless, if quite friendly, girnormous pit bull living in my back yard - and a stray orange and white cat who likes to eat on my front porch and flirt with Charlie through the windows.

Charlie on my bed
He doesn't sit, he doesn't walk well on a leash (he pulls, and he is 60lbs of muscle!), he chews, he digs, he would chase cats if he had the chance... but he is very friendly. Anyone in the Southeastern US want a pit bull? I will drive him to you.
Remember when Mochi was too scared to go outside? He loves going outdoors now!
This stray cat has apparently been in my neighborhood for a few years.

When my mom's at work, I get to check on the critters at her house. She's got Brin, the prodigal pit mix, who has to be confined to a bedroom (now with boarded up windows to keep him from escaping), as well as 7 other dogs and about 14 or so cats there. There are pictures of all mom's cats on the facebook page if you're interested. Here are two pictures I liked:

This is Abs. He was found as a kitten on the side of the road in 2010 before I moved to Korea. His right eye was so badly injured that at first I actually thought he only had one eye. However, it has since healed up quite nicely, although his inner eyelid never fully retracts.
This is Reddy, who loves to show off for the camera. After I took this shot, he accidentally rolled down the hood of the car. Then, true to kitty form, he pretended he'd done it on purpose, then nonchalantly licked his ass.

I should also mention that my only internet access is at my mom's house... and compared to the crazy wonderful fast internet service of Korea, it is sooooooo painfully slow. After mom's - for animal care and interneting - it's out to the land, the rest of the cats, and the horses.

  Teardrop, resting inside the A-frame
Sava is completely feral (well, except that we feed her).
Mochi has a great time playing with his new feline friends out at the land.
Bagira, atop one of the feeding stations (a giant spool left behind when the electric company finished running the wiring out to the land).
I've only been riding once since I've been home. The area around mom's land is nothing but planted pines and rather iffy access roads - an excellent place for riding! This is horse-cam from atop Merlin.
My friend C went riding with me - here she is on Honey.
Unfortunately, we're breeding crazy big mutant mosquitoes out at the land. They are vicious, and not intimidated in the least by Deep Woods OFF. This is a small one.

American Interlude Part 3: The Horses

My mom has two horses (which seems like such a small number, compared to thirty-two cats and nine dogs), and they, of course, live out at her land. Her land as yet does not have electricity, owing to the fact that the power company will charge her roughly $10,000 to run electricity out there. The horses - and the cats that live out at the land - need water. No electricity means no running water... so my mom had a hand pump installed. I have a picture of her pumping water, although I did most of the pumping while I was home. My 'pumping muscles' had definitely atrophied during my thirteen-month absence, and boy did my arms hurt!

My mom, pumping water.
But you, no doubt, are more interested in the horses than in their water supply. So here they are:

They're not usually this energetic; something had scared them.
(I'll write about that 'something' in my next post!)

This is Honey. No, she's not pregnant, she's just fat.

This is Merlin. He's an old boy, in his twenties.
(And no offense to Honey, but he is far more photogenic.)
I was only in the US for twelve days, and I was ridiculously busy. I was, however, able to make time for one ride with my mom.

This was our route. According to Google Earth it was exactly two miles.
Not our farthest ride, but given how hot and humid it was, it was far enough for us - and the horses, who were soaked in sweat by the time we got home.

Heading out! These were all shot with my pocket Nikon. Honey's an incredibly well-behaved horse, but I'm not risking my DSLR on horseback.

Honey is also not a leader.
She's only content with her nose up Merlin's rear.