Hello everyone!

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I was delighted to find you!  Most everyone I know is a dog-owner, and while they accept my cat into their midst, sometimes I wish they knew how truly wonderful cats can be when we have our pet conversations. So I look forward to getting to know more of you as time goes on, and have thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve read so far this evening -- the wonderful stories, the helpful articles, and seeing photos of your darling cats!

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Hello Santa Fe, welcome to The Cat Site.

Can you tell us something about your cat? He or she looks so sweet in your avatar photo.

Hello Norachan,

Good to hear from you.  Mindy is a lilac siamese, dainty and very smart in creating ways to be the center of attention.  My other lilac siamese, a sweet "old soul" is very patient and understanding of her -- up to a point.  (She's 10, he is 19.)  What about your handsome guy or girl? I googled images for the "foothills of Mount Fuji" and it looks beautiful where you live!

 

Mindy is really pretty. She looks like she's full of mischief, she's got that glint in her eye.

The cat in my avatar is Ginkun, he's the boss of a colony of stray cats I care for. I think he must have once been someone's pet or been cared for in another colony because he's very tame. He'll allow me to pick him up and pet him. At the moment I am trying to either coax or trap all his wives and kittens into the vet's and get them all neutered or spayed ~ I've done 14 so far.

I also have 10 cats that I think of as my "own". They all came from the colony but once I'd trapped and neutered them they didn't show any interest in being released and spend all their time in the house or garden.

Luckily it's very rural where I live and the neighbours don't mind having so many cats around, it keeps the mice out of the corn and rice fields. .

We also have fox, Asian raccoon, monkey, deer, wild boar and bear in the forest, it's the real Japanese wilderness around here.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your two Siamese.

Ginkun looks very capable when it comes to taking care of a colony of cats! And I'm guessing from your experiences with the other 10, plus the fox, raccoon, monkey, deer, wild boar and bear in the forest, you could write a fun book!

I live in kind of a similar environment -- in the hills of Santa Fe, New Mexico -- where coyotes, bears and cougars roam, and where bunnies and birds regularly visit people's backyards in spring and summer. It's really nice -- after living in northern California where everything was becoming so congested.

As for the siamese -- both are conversational, and love to talk! I find my older one is the more caring and compassionate one, while the younger is more self-centered, craves attention and is constantly "pushing the envelope." The older one is more mellow, and also seems to love music; in fact, he'll run from wherever he is in the house when he hears you playing the piano to climb into your lap to listen, or to occasionally put a paw out on the keys, trying to push one or two down in order to play along with you. It's cute!

How did Ginkun find you? Or did you find him?

That's so sweet that your cats love to hear you play piano. My husband plays guitar but none of the cats show much interest in it......maybe they just don't like blues.

I started feeding one pregnant stray cat about three years ago, just after I moved here. I ended up taking her and the kitten in (Sadly only one survived) and they're both very fat and happy now. Ginkun realised there was food to be had and just showed up one morning, yowling and rubbing against my legs. One of my neighbours also puts food out for the strays and said she's seen him around, off and on, for a couple of years before that. He let me pet him straight away and then about a month later, when he turned up all bloody and battle torn, let me pick him up and take him to the vet. He sat there quite calmly while the vet cleaned his cuts and stitched his ear back together so I'm sure he'd been to the vets before. I registered him as a lost pet in all the places I could think of but no one ever came to claim him. We're happy to have him around though, he does a great job of policing the neighbourhood.

Living in Santa Fe must be exciting, have you ever seen a cougar?

That is such a heartwarming story about Gunkin.  He's very lucky he walked into your particular yard, and found someone who would take such good care of him.  (Agree w/ you -- it sounds like he may have been someone's pet before his outdoor life began.)  Speaking of -- have you ever come across a writer named Erin Hunter?  Just recently bumped into one of her books while shopping -- here's a link that describes the series she's written about a pet cat who joins a colony of forest cats (and the series is entitled "Warrior Cats") -- http://www.warriorcats.com.  I think it may be geared for younger people -- but good writing is good writing! 

Interesting you picked out a cougar from our last email, because cougars are one of my favorite wild cats -- and yes, have seen one, once or twice.  While working in Silicon Valley (before moving here), they used to come down from the hills in search of food (because the land was being over-developed by home builders, and their natural habitat was shrinking.)  But I haven't seen one in Santa Fe; just heard others talk about occasionally seeing them in their yards -- and no one dare leaves small pets out at night, or even during the day for that matter! 

Santa Fe, itself, has a rich history going back to the 1050's --  and it also has interesting art galleries, music venues, and annual festivals. Your husband's blues music would be very, very popular around here!!! 

Hi there welcome along to TCS!!

Hello AJ.

Good to get your greeting!

I'm still learning about this site -- think it could become addictive.

Where are you in North East England?  Have nice memories of living in England for 6 months (in Croydon, many years ago), where it rained a lot.  And we seem to be having a lot of rain ourselves (U.S., Southwest) this summer!

Hi Santa Fe, been reading your thread while looking through some of the Newbie posts. Your cat looks gorgeous in your avatar, I hope you will be posting some more photos so we can see both your cats soon, and looking forward to hearing stories about what they're up to.  I hope your 19 year old keeps well. I have a 2 1/2 year old Russian Blue boy just now but previously had 2 tabby females who moved on at the ages of 17 and 21. They were absolutely adorable in their pensioner years.  I would never have thought they could have been more cute than they were as kittens but there was something precious about sharing their lives for so long.

Laughed when you said you'd lived in Croydon: I used to have a few friends and colleagues who lived there.  Don't remember it raining a lot but it probably depends on where else you're used to! 

 I lived just down the road in Sutton and various other South West London suburbs over a period of nearly 6 years - also many years ago.  Moved North when it all go too busy for me. 

Hi MServant!

Good to hear from you, and it sounds like we have some things in common -- love of 'pensioners' and that was the same reason I moved to Santa Fe (CA was getting too busy)!

Mouse is a handsome young man!!  Such a sweet expression.

Btw:  did you ever come across someone named Lynn Tillbury in connection with your Croydon friends?  Lost touch with her over the years, but it would be nice to know how she's doing if you ever did, so thought I'd take a chance at "serendipity" -- just in case.

Must dash right now (to get cat food as a matter of fact), but will write more later.

Talk to you soon . . .

Thanks, I think Mouse is pretty handsome but he might look a bit scary to some.    I like to change my avatar: the new one is a very recent and quite serious looking picture of him. He hates me taking photos of him.

Don't know your friend's name but I've learned over the years that it is a small world so always worth looking in to these things! On that basis I tend to use Private Message system if there's any more detailed information I'm talking about on here.  I used to frequent Croydon back in the mid 80's!

You are so right!!!!   Spur of the moment, was in a hurry, but PM would have been a much better place for that question!

Mouse is the kind of cat -- Russian Blue -- a family member always wanted after seeing one sitting on a grape arbor, looking down on him.  However, it wasn't meant to be.  I understand they have WONDERFUL personalities.  True?  Meanwhile, Siamese have dominated my life -- childhood onward.  And since they all lived long lives, very happy memories of just 5 cats over the years.  Three males, two females.  Five distinct "fur people."   (Mid-80's was when I was in Croydon, too!)  :-)!

I’m a fan of “googling” when something comes up, so googled what the Russian Blue fur is like, and it sounds like Mouse’s thick, silky-soft coat is heavenly.  (It also said there’s a legend that fur-hunters would hunt them along with seal fur.  The thought makes you ill, on both accounts.)  Anyway, between Mouse’s sweet personality and luxurious fur, I can see why you have a gem! 

I think the reason I like Siamese vocalizations is because w/o children in the house, there’s still a lot of “interesting” conversational noise going on.  And, of course, they have an opinion on everything!  I’ve found that male Siamese are also very protective, remembering how my older one was a bit of a clown, but when I got the young one as a kitten, he dropped that for being her “uncle.”  And courageous?  Years ago another male Siamese (indoor/outdoor, who was recovering from a cat-fight) ran -- despite his injury, bandages, etc. -- to put himself between a kitten and a German Shepherd that was sprinting up the lawn. 

Now, one last comment – thank you for mentioning what we wore in the mid-80s.  Couldn’t really remember, so looked that up too, and while doing a series of small paintings (women and their cats theme), have been wanting to do something ‘unusual’  for the women’s clothing . . . breakthrough!  Great ideas! Thank you!

Kai (who challenged the Shepherd) was fine from that, but he never recovered from the cat-fight injury.  Vet said his inner-ear had been severely punctured, and he had a balance problem the rest of his life. Perhaps it sounds overly-protective, but after that experience, my cats go outside only if I'm with them, and they're on a leash.  Ditto short car trips, which they love. 

Re: art -- somewhere in between a hobby and doing it for a living,. But haven't taken the leap yet.  How about you?  Do you think you'll ever get back to drawing cats?  If you kept some of those pictures, would love to see them.  (And being a "newbie" -- think that should be the start of a new thread or would those be better as a PM, too?)

That's a real shame about Kai's ear.  I'm not in a place to say anything about over protection - my cats have all been indoor cats as I hate the idea of them running under a car in to a busy street or being shot with an air gun by some horrible person.

I'd love to be able to make a living through art and crafts but never been that good, and way too many periods lacking in inspiration! Over the years I've kind of dabbled in various crafts but never got very good at any of them, I enjoy playing about with stuff though.  I have great admiration for people who have ideas and creative energy most of the time, it can be so exhausting.  It would make a lovely thread, I think I'd keep my old drawings private but maybe it would inspire me to do some new ones!   It would be great if people posted their kids' / cats' cat-art work too!     I suspect there are a lot of creative and artistic people on this site, not least because of the standard of a lot of the photos, and of course we are all inspired by cats.    Do you want to start a new thread and see what comes up?

I think that's a great idea . . . let's talk about it, because it sounds like we're both interested in doing creative things, or at least starting up again after a few years' hiatus -- so that might be just the ticket for others who'd like to, too.  On this side of the pond, we call them "emerging artists!"  : -) 

Love the idea! 

It's dinner time here right now . . . and a couple of hungry mouths are letting me know!  

Talk soon . . .

Im in Jarrow now, was from South Shields though It mostly rains here to lol!