Cats are So Cool . . .

We've got a house full of cats right now. Totally unintentional. We've got seven. Two are outdoor cats. Four are kittens - born of one of the outdoor cats.

I'm not a cat-lady, not really. All these cats were strays, or babies of a stray. It happened like this...

1. Mischief. We found him and two siblings as kittens several years back, dumped at the end of our driveway. We gave away one sibling. The other pure-black brother passed away earlier this year. Mischief is the survivor, and will stay with us. He's a black cat, and I'm a black cat lover...

2. Squeak. I didn't name her. My partner (Bob) did. I would have given her a much prettier, more feminine name. She's in love with Mischief. She came to us last year - finding shelter under our house. Soon it was clear she was pregnant. The kittens weren't Mischief's - he's been neutered. We'll be keeping Squeak because (1) she's not a very pretty cat and might not be readily adopted, and (2) she loves Mischief and they look absolutely adorable together. She's smaller than him, with orange splotches all over her black fur.

3. Red (or is it Strawberry?) ... the biggest and friendliest of Squeak's four kittens. Orange tabby, long fur, and absolutely precious. The kittens are all going to go to a no-kill humane society shelter as soon as there's room. We've been on a waiting list for at least six weeks now.

4. Shasta... another very friendly kitten. Amazing markings. This cat is ivory colored with tan tabby markings and dark points on ears and tail. Named for Mt. Shasta... which is where the no-kill humane society cat shelter is.

5. Caspar - kitten number 3. Friendly. Runt of the litter. Almost pure white with blue eyes - but when you look closely you see a bit of the ivory/tan tabby markings on his tail.

6. Darth (or maybe Dartha) ... very furry. Red and Darth got long fur whereas Shasta and Caspar have short fur. Darth is a bit of a problem. He's gorgeous - mostly black fur with a lot of silvery grey. But the big problem is that this is a scardy cat. Whereas the others are friendly and personable, this one will run at the sight of a human being. I try to catch him and caress and sing to him. He seems to like that - but for the most part is still too timid. We still plan to take him to the shelter because we simply can't keep all these cats, but I worry about him finding a forever home with a frightened attitude like that.

7. K3 - named after the mountain, K2. Well, K3 (who I call Kitty K) is a gorgeous male Himalayan cat. He came to us about five months ago, starving and injured. We thought he might lose his eye, or die. Several times he was frightened out of our yard for a week or two each time, by something. We don't know what, but we live in the forest so it could have been a wild animal. Anyhow, Kitty K is now fat, healthy, and gorgeous in every way. We intend to take him to the no-kill animal shelter when we take the kittens. We believe he will be easily adoptable.

After the shelter allows us to bring in the five cats (four of them still kittens) we'll have only two left - Mischief and the mother of the kittens - Squeak. We'll be getting her spayed. No more kittens!

My friends talk a lot

Maybe the reason I think my friends talk a lot is because I talk a lot with them. However - they're so talkative they took it far beyond that by getting into a talk radio program deal called IF Radio - and of course we want to know - why "IF"? As it turns out they've got a reason for that - the "IF" is short for Intradimensional Facets. You can see why they settled on "IF Radio"!!!

Perhaps the show is about "what if" scenarios because they do choose extreme type issues to feature, in the genre of the paranormal, mostly. The guys, who I'll call Dennis and Bob, though they have nicknames for the show (JavaBob and Professor Pious), are long-time neighbors and friends in our small town, and I've considered them friends for many years. We meet regularly at our local writer's club.

Though I love talking to them at our weekly meetings, I'll confess I have yet to call into the talk radio show - which airs on Thursdays at 6:30 on BlogTalkRadio. My main reason for not doing so is that I forget that the show is scheduled. I have no way to remind myself and they don't phone me before the shows, so I'm usually one who listens to the shows after the fact. Fortunately there's a good archiving feature for BlogTalkRadio.