Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Cat's Meow

Midnight, the Cat

A black cat crossing your path 
signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
--Groucho Marx

Groucho and I agree when it comes to black cats. I'm not superstitious. The only bad luck I anticipate is if I trip over them as I rush out the back door. (I don't need help being clumsy.)

These are the kittens that Kinley and Grandpa retrieved from the old stone chimney last May with the "kitten catcher" (aka, a hoe).

 
Yesterday morning, after I returned home from my walk, I sat on the back steps and watched them wrestle with one another.
 
They've definitely changed since their baby kitty days. When I went back to look for photos from earlier this summer, I discovered one big difference. I've heard it said that most human babies appear to have blue eyes when they are born and then they change into their permanent eye color. It happened for this kitty.  The little blue-eyed dark calico now has hazel-colored eyes.
The yellow kitten has some of the most interesting markings we've ever seen on a County Line cat. See the circular pattern? My able assistant pretended he was showing a goat or a rabbit at the county fair and "set it up" so you could see its unusual coat.
We found a new crop of kitties in the window well not long ago. We think the mother must have had them elsewhere and then moved them closer to the house. Randy is diligently working to tame them, too.
After trying to get all three of them to look at me in the same shot, I decided that it was a trial run for photographing Kinley and her new baby sister. I hope I can do that more successfully than I got three kittens in the same frame. However, I'm fairly confident a 2 1/2 year old and her baby sister will be a challenge better left to a professional (even though Grandma did get them a couple of cute coordinating outfits).
No outfits for the cats. Randy did try to introduce cheese to our newest brood. They appear to be unimpressed. But they are going to have to step up soon and earn their keep around here. When it comes to cats, I agree with a Chinese philosopher:

Black cat or white cat:
If it can catch mice, it's a good cat.
-- Chinese proverb

The same can be said about yellow and gray cats and calicos, too!

4 comments:

  1. They are so cute! I miss having cats around the ranch. Our dog Moe is a "no cats allowed" kind of dog.

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    1. I miss our dogs. They co-existed well with the cats. My husband is more the cat person, but I do like their "guard duty" when it comes to keeping the mice population at bay.

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  2. Oh how fun, Kim!

    About a month ago I discovered we have 4 kittens in the "horse barn." I keep feed in there for my 2 bum calves and with J's folks in the Hills I take over feeding the cats. We have a black one, 2 black/gray striped ones and a mousy gray with white boots (my favorite).

    I would love to catch and tame them down (or at least the mousy colored one), but J firmly believes cats are to be wild mousers.

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    1. We have both tame and not tame, mainly because the mamas don't always bring them up to the house. If they were up here, Randy would try to tame them, I'm sure! They still seem to be decent mousers. Yours sound really cute!

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