3 ferals at snow

[jtbo]

Our Lynx (lynx lynx, the big one) had visited again, I did read study about them and over 50% what they eat is deer, reindeer, small moose, but they eat also rabbits, foxes, dogs and cats, that is quite a hunter, but with deer successful hunts are near 90%, while with rabbits under 50%, but Lynx can run behind rabbit over 1km. Also Lynx does not go around difficult terrain, just goes straight trough it, no matter if terrain is nearly vertical wall like they found in study where they tracked the lynx, they did found that lynx had gone over a small canyon, no way of leaping over, so lynx did go to bottom and climbed up the other side wall, researchers had no any way of following lynx but had to go around the canyon and find tracks from other side!

That is some beast, feral cat's only chance is that Lynx had bit poor smelling ability and also if there is deer around, but there is not much chances for ferals against such beast, that weights over 6 times of what most feral cats weight and of course eats as much more also.


Last night there was again some unknown very light colored cat at yard, it did look much more skinny than usual, but it could be that it was just soaked wet as it was raining last night.

Today Blackbird came to sing to yard, still lot of snow, but temperatures has been spring level recently and snow has been disappearing very fast, it starts to be much easier time for ferals as mice can not hide under the snow as much now.


Tiger has shown some improvements lately, he is still hyperactive himself with constant 'talking', but he seem to understand some commands, like when I ask him to go inside from stairs he understands that very well, which can't be said from rest. Also Tiger has found that lap is good place, every morning he is few minutes of lap cat, but as he is so hyperactive he soon spots something new world's most interesting thing and runs there.
It is same when he is playing, he is batting with both front paws so fast that toy flies all over the place, he is so in the hunt that he forgets to stop batting with paws as he runs after the toy as he reaches the toy he has hard time as he wants to bat the toy but his paws are still doing the batting motion, so he makes sounds of frustration and collapses to side starting to bat toy with also rear paws and soon he is rolling on his side batting with all fours and nobody does not know where toy has flied this time.

He has so much of energy, that it is bit much for that size creature I guess. before nap time he get even those surges of energy to be burned off, hours of playing is not enough to consume all that, he just keeps going like a Duracell bunny, I think that I need to get more of those bouncy balls and soon temperatures get better so that I can keep door to stairs open bit more and make him run after the ball down the stairs, that should help him burn the excess energy a bit.

Miuku and Mouku are far larger than rest of the others, but they don't have the energy of such, they might play tiny bit but right when someone else is interested from toy and comes close, they just walk away, despite being much larger. Also those three small ones are exploring any sound immediately as they hear the sound, all of them are much more energetic than Miuku and Mouku ever have been, that is bit odd, but I guess it is different genes. But then again, as much as show Mauku a toy and she is ready to play, no matter if she was fully sleeping and she is mother of Miuku and Mouku.

Phlegmatic, that describes Miuku and Mouku best, most of the time that is, I do wonder if they have genes of ragdoll in them, they are very furry, very big and very lazy, Mouku even sometimes comes to lap, Miuku can be picked up and put to lap but he is immediately wanting to go away, except when it is his 10 minutes of love bug fever that he gets right after waking up, then he can roll to his back on lap and purr there eyes closed liking belly rubs.

So things evolve slowly, but they do evolve, even Mauku has allowed me to pet her few times while she has seen it is me and my hand, but mostly she is still afraid of touching, except with straw, that is ok and after that hand might be ok too, especially if she does not see it is a hand, but she is quite fond to me already, she comes next to bed to check that I get up, when I come inside from outdoors she runs to door in first wave, then realizes what she had done and retreats bit, also if I read a book she comes to sit so close to bed that she is touching the bed, then she stares like if she wants something, same time Mouku is using my leg as a pillow as he always is when I'm reading or sleeping.

Morning routine is bit silly, they start to make noise around time it is to get up, then I get up, half hour of mayhem ensues with lot of them running to my legs, but after that they all go to sleep, one or two might keep watch at window, but most go to sleep and they do sleep almost a day, waking up only if they hear interesting noises, so even little ones are starting to mature, but they do have lot to mature such kids they still are.

At least I get to sleep at night as it is still too dark for even the cats to be jumping around then.

I also got Miuku pissed one day, as I got up and he was at bed, he wanted to go with me again, but I had things to do and could not take him with me, so I decided to play with him instead, Mouku has learned to be under the blanket recently and I thought that Miuku might find that nice too as he is always fond of 'caves', however he wanted out from the bed and as I did put blanket over him and he could not leave the bed he got bit pissed, he yelled at me and offered teeth treatment too, run around and made loud noises, took a while for him to settle down from the bad mood of his, then everything was fine again. I was surprised that he actually even can get pissed as he is so indifferent about most of the things, also I can do fur care and whatever is needed to him, he is not much of trouble, but simply being under the blanket and not able to leave bed immediately got him pissed.
I wonder if it has something to do with his treatments when he was sick as he was needed to be kept warm and that did mean of keeping him inside of towels and blankets for quite long time. Maybe, but then again if I make a cave from the blanket he loves to explore such and if it is snuff fit, even the better, he likes to hide, but he is not too good at it as his rear and tail are usually clearly visible outside, or maybe that is the purpose, his way of playing is not always quite clear, instead of pawing the string he might just bite it from the middle, then settle to rest on top of the string, that is his version of chasing the string.

 

[jtbo]

Mauku did today incredible thing, she actually came to explore odd sounds coming from my laptop while I was on bed under the blanket, she did jump fully on bed and spend almost a minute looking images on screen, sniffing them and trying to find what is making those sounds.

It took her long time to find enough courage to jump to bed, she was really really jumpy and scared but curiosity was even stronger this time, so she learned that nothing will happen even if she comes so close to me. She is really fine cat, that loves to play and explore, but she is also very much of shy.

She also often sits staring at me quite close, but she still has not bumped on me and she still finds petting to be scary, well most of the time, sometimes I can pet her, mostly when she is sleeping soundly, also at times she is almost sleeping and allows to be pet, even she has eyes open, however I don't think that she is awake then, she just looks like it, or maybe she think she is having a dream, anyway we are working with those things.

Mouku is sleeping now against my chest as I'm on my side on bed, he has improved a lot, he is not getting spooked at all as long as I don't stand up. Also he loves to be under the blanket, also I can lift him upside down and wrap into blanket and he just keeps purring and comes then to bump on my nose with his head.

Tiger is becoming more and more of lapcat, even Panther and iita are asking more petting now, but Miuku is pretty much same as before. He is actually moving to wrong direction in regards of downstairs as he is very spooked always when in there, I can't pet him, I barely can pick him up but he is evading me a lot, it used to be better.

Well, at least he is fine at upstairs.

 

[vball91]

That is great to hear about Mauku. All of your ferals have come so far. I can't believe Mouku now likes to be under the blanket with you. My cat took 6 years before she felt safe enough to be under the covers with us. Now she sometimes sleeps between us under the covers, and I can't believe she's not afraid of being crushed!

 

[jtbo]

That is great to hear about Mauku. All of your ferals have come so far. I can't believe Mouku now likes to be under the blanket with you. My cat took 6 years before she felt safe enough to be under the covers with us. Now she sometimes sleeps between us under the covers, and I can't believe she's not afraid of being crushed!

They all have indeed improved really well, but Mouku is still bit odd, he may get spooked when I get up from chair or even walk around. Also if I take something to hand he disappears, so Mouku has many sides. He considers my leg to be his bed or pillow, none of the others is such, he is only one that really sleeps in bed, Panther comes sometimes and sometimes sleeps for a moment, but none of other ones. However Mauku does stare how Mouku is always sleeping in bed, I don't know what is moving in her head, but cats do learn by watching so maybe she comes to conclusion that she likes to test that too some day.

But she is one that is most difficult, her fear of touch is so deep and she really is only tolerating me (instead of accepting, even she does have some connection to feeding hand), so it is long road ahead still, weeks or months between tiny steps with her, so it can look that there is no improvement at all, then it is good to look back and see where things started, cat that climbed walls and disappeared to bushes if saw human at other side of the yard.

Must of been bit of shock to her when she found out that thing that horrible human dropped was edible and tasty too

 

[jtbo]

It is again that fur season.

Trick to brush Mauku is to wait until she is sleeping, then I can brush her as much as I like and she is not realizing that at all, she might lift her head, look for a while and then continue sleeping.

But if she is not at sleep she will bolt and run even from reaching towards her with a brush.

 

[jtbo]

Sometimes one cat get spooked of invisible thing and causes chain reaction of all six of them get spooked and everyone runs to cat room bouncing from every obstacle on their way, trying to squeeze from single cat door at the same time, which results several of them running against the door.

This time Mouku found a bug that did fly indoors from window, bug smelled scary so he was pawing it while getting more scared of that already dead bug, then Mauku happened to walk behind him so all of sudden Mouku got really spooked jumped up, only issue with that was that he was under a small table so he did hit himself to table, which made him even more spooked, other ones got spooked from that and there was all of sudden really lot of running and much more running against chairs and stuff like walls, after the mayhem ended I found Mouku from cat tree hair fully erect, Mauku was next to me on bed looking more scared of Mouku than me, which is surprising as Mauku is most shy of them all and very afraid of touching, unless she is sleeping when touching is fine.

Surprising was also that Mauku had no rush to go away, she did evaluate a bit of her surroundings first, until she calmly walked to check what on earth that Mouku was about this time.

Rest of them managed to squeeze trough cat door to other side of upstairs that is their room, where they however are not very often.


Lot of fish for them to consume, got 5 fish today in few minutes, two were quite large ones too, so that should suffice for them easily for today's dinner.

Tiger eats tail fins from all the fish first, well they won't be escaping that way of course

 

[jtbo]

Mouku and Panther decided to get to sleep on my leg, sadly I can't get to sleep while they are there but I don't feel like waking them up, as they are so cute mix of white and black paws in single furball ;D

It is bit rare to have Panther too there, but when it happens I try to ensure he has nice experience so he also learns to be more like normal housecat, most of them seem to like to keep their distance.

 

[vball91]

Very lovely updates. I found the Mouku and dead bug story quite funny.

It is so sweet of you to let Mouku and Panther sleep on your legs even though you can't fall asleep that way. It reminds me of when Aria first starting sleeping on my lap, and I didn't move until my bladder forced me to. The things we do for our kitties!

 

[jtbo]

I did learn today why Mauku has been very uninterested of playing recently.

She is very fond of Tiger, but Tiger has been downstairs hunting a mouse few days, only visiting upstairs briefly for food.

Mauku has always come down from her bed to bump Tiger's head, she is not very social with any of the other cats, today Mauku started making weird noises when Tiger left, she was clearly not a happy about it at all, but it was bit of job to get Tiger to settle upstairs again as of course mouse hunting is lot more fun.

Mauku transformed to playful herself and she even is looking out from window again. I guess that those two are then such that can't be separated.

As Tiger was not sleeping upstairs last night it made Mauku very evasive and she did not tolerate me near her at all, she was even avoiding eating, had to put bowl next to her, but even food was something she seemed to be bit afraid of.

It is bit odd as they really don't spend much time together, also Mauku is a cat that prefers to be alone, except once or twice a day headbump with Tiger, must be something else that makes that bond.

 

[jtbo]

Boys seem to have some sort of show off season, especially Miuku and Mouku are attempting to grab Mauku (their mother, oldest cat) from neck. and they are playing quite rough with other boys, everyone are still friends, but Mauku is bit scared, she likes to headbutt Tiger, but when Miuku attempts such she moves away, she is not too much friend of anyone else, except tiger.

Things are nice and calm as long as Miuku and Tiger or Panther is downstairs, even more so when all three are downstairs, but there is lot of running, making noises and playing, wrestling etc. when Miuku and both boys are here. I think that Tiger and Miuku are greatest source of action. When I put Tiger and Miuku to downstairs things get very quiet and everyone is mostly sleeping and looking out from window, not much playing. Also if Tiger is not here, Mauku disappears.

Tiger and Panther should be close to maturity by now, their teenage years are soon over, this bunch can be quite lively at times, but maybe things start to settle down slowly. At least they are no longer making too much of noise during the night

Miuku is enjoying a lot from freedom he gets at downstairs, but he also likes a lot when he sees me, very vocal and comes running towards me tail up, Mouku, Mauku and little iita are ones I'm not letting downstairs, they are not enough socialized yet and I'm afraid of they growing foreign if I let them be lot alone, also they are not as easy to pick up and move if I need to move them upstairs for some reason. Rest I can pick up any time I want and they come when I call, also follow to upstairs when asked, or more of lead the way and attempt to tangle into my legs, but they understand the words, not always they are willing to obey of course, but most of the time. Food is still upstairs and will remain there, so they need to be called and moved to upstairs, that training goes well.


Little iita has still invisible monster chasing her at times, but she is getting better and it is already only few time a day, there are still few of those horrible mats, not much more than size of thumb's nail, but those are so close to skin those that and she get nervous feeling scissors touching her skin, even it is outer dull side of them. Managed to cut again few pieces out, then brushing her and again brush was full very quick. Not sure if invisible monsters are just her fur issues bother her or something else, but I can tell even she is afraid of scissors and is not used to brushing when it is over, she likes her new feeling, she gets on her side and grooms herself, carefully, then remains on her side and might even roll on her back stretching paws on air. It is one big step for her to accept brushing and other procedures. She actually brushes her cheeks by herself, I just need to keep brush at one place, same way as Miuku does, but I can brush lot more of iita than Miuku, as Miuku accept only cheek and neck area, anything else results a battle.

 

[jtbo]

Weather has been quite warm by our standards here, most of cats are cooling off at warehouse section, where it is always bit cooler than rest of the house, but Mauku is mostly with me at upstairs, or when I'm outside, she is upstairs still, she hardly leaves her 'area' which is upstairs, but she has been bit curious about what is beyond her 'room' recently.

She has not yet ventured to carboard castle near ceiling in this room she lives, but she has few time ventured to end of accessway that leads there, however she has not taken that step yet to actually visit that place.

Also she has now once come to downstairs, even looked to warehouse from the door, but she quickly found her way back to her safe room, scary things those new locations.

She sometimes likes to be petted but usually runs away,. there is really not knowing what will happen, before attempting to pet her, but when she is not running away, she is purring and enjoying from it, even she sees I'm petting her, she allows it, but only at very rare cases.

Little iita has also progressed, she is allowing me to pick up her usually, sometimes she runs away, makes lot of kind of purring noises, she does not meow, more like creaks, and swings tail from side to side, then comes to bump head against my leg, when I pet her she then rolls on her back and purrs a lot, she just is bit afraid of being picked up. I have put her on my lap usually and give treats if she stays there enough long that I open the treats bag and she has been learning to wait that, kind of as she rubs her cheeks against bag quite fast and strong way, which is not helping at all when attempting to open the bag, but that is how she is, very energetic and very very fast, despite being so small.

When they spot a mouse, iita is usually first in there, warehouse section is not insulated and has lot of gaps where mice can come in, once I found them all stalking 80's microwave oven (those huge bulky things), I lifted oven up and there was mouse which suddenly found out being surrounded by 5 cats and his shelter being magically disappeared, iita and Mouku were first to attempt to do something with the squealing thing.

Miuku especially has been very happy to be allowed to travel to warehouse section, he has tail pointing straight up always when I come near and he comes to rub his head against my leg and waits petting, also he is a lot more active and playful, rarely walks, runs around jumping on shelves then gets hot and lies on his side awaiting someone to come enough near so he can play with poor cat or human, his playing includes grabbing with claws and kicking with rear legs or grooming or biting gently :lol3:

Tiger is not much of a jumper, he is finding himself bit of a underdog at the warehouse, but likes to play with other still, whenever I visit there all of them comes near and ask for petting by running to my legs, Tiger is always first one though.

Too bad that I can't keep all that space open during the winter time, but at least during summer they can have some running exercise, which should keep them at better shape than just laying motionless, which is most they do during the winter.

 

[jtbo]

Miuku seems to be bit unhappy, he is always wanting to warehouse, so I decided to give him more freedom, so that he has access to outdoors and can visit indoors too, however I had to separate him from other ones, so only he has access to outdoors.

He has been very happy about that, he has always been bit distant compared to mouku, even Mouku has been more shy, but now it seems to be that Miuku likes from being outdoors and access to indoors best.

Also as I need someone to catch mice coming from fields after the harvest, this is good solution. He likes to just sit at cat door in warehouse and look what I am doing, but sometimes ventures bit outdoors, however he has not had enough courage to venture even to other side of the yard to sauna, it takes lot of learning for him now, but I think he will do fine and will learn that he has also outdoors as his territory now.

I doubt that he will venture very far as he is so shy, so he is staying close to his safe place, also soon weather starts to be cold so he is probably not venturing too far because of cold then.

 

[jtbo]

Little breaktrough again

Little-iita all of sudden jumped to my lap and ever since has jumped on my lap every time when I sit down and she begs petting a lot, she reaches with her tiny paw to my finger and tabs cautiously but very fastly until she gets her petting from me and she purrs and bakes, also naps on my lap, seems to be quite happy little one now

But day after she jumped on my lap, Mouku become very envy and he also jumps on my lap, no matter if Little-iita is already there and if I pet iita, he wedges in and demands petting, he is not wanting me being petting iita at all, I should pet only him it seems.

Also Panther is quite envious as he gets very anxious from all this and rolls on floor on his back swinging paws in air like attempting to reach invisible toy at air, makes lot of noises and runs back and forth, also tries to grab from other one's scuff of neck, so it is he is doing everything that I would pick him up.

Only Miuku is indifferent about all this, even Mauku gets affected, she becomes very close and stretches a lot like greeting and makes slow blinks, sometimes napping less than feet away from my leg which is very brave from her.

Somehow it affects a lot of that balance of power when smallest one decides to make deeper connection with human servant.

Oh yes, Tiger is also one that is not affected a lot, but he has become very trusting of late, might be something to do with our daily ritual of getting outdoors with Miuku and having their daily hunting, then getting picked up and carried back to upstairs. He is not walking indoors, he waits until he is picked up and carried and is then happy to get indoors, runs to second door, leans against it, reaches to handle with one paw and then looks to me and makes noises that this needs to be opened so he can get to warm section of indoors, he ignores open door to outdoors.
Bit odd, but it is daily ritual which is clearly important to him.

I have managed to pet Mauku few times here and then and couple of times she has even purred, but she is not accepting petting if she sees me petting, also she usually moves further away if I move. It is really long time until she really accepts that I'm ok, also it can be that such never happens as she is already about 8 years old, but she likes how things are now and enjoys from easy living she has, so it is not horrible for her even she is rather shy of me. Also it is not very lot of hours that she has to tolerate me as my allergy is such that I can only spend some hours with them in a day, but we make best from time, lot of playing and Mauku is one of the most interested from playing.

Cardboard butterfly and string are something she likes.

Currently we have quite big storm and cats seemed bit scared of it, all the noises around, even two hunters wanted to quickly come indoors after storm did start, cats seem to generally dislike from wind and gusts of storm are something I would imagine is not nice for their big ears and whiskers, they are kind of half blind in storm as their hearing and radar for surrounding air currents is out and they can only trust to their eyes and only part to their nose, which certainly must be scary thing for them.

However rain is something they happily ignore, even temperatures are near freezing, they just happily stand in mud while it is raining, instead going to their warehouse and shelter there that would be dry and warm. For some reason getting wet seem not to bother them and also temperature seems to cause any effect to their desire to getting indoors either. Also they don't eat outdoors, so I guess they must get enough mice and such.

Last night I did heard a mice on yard so I carried Tiger to scene, however I don't know if he managed to find some traces and get into hunt, he is so happy to get into outdoors that first minutes he acts bit crazy, just runs around and bumps to me, expressing his happiness.

 

[vball91]

That is great that iita is becoming a lap cat! Thanks for the wonderful update on your cats. No pictures this time?

 

[mikala]

Hi there! Just joined this site to learn about cats.......not sure where to start a post to ask question

 

[jtbo]

That is great that iita is becoming a lap cat! Thanks for the wonderful update on your cats. No pictures this time?

Not much pics taken lately, but I have two pics from Miuku at outdoors, here he has just came from the door and is having surge of joy, being let outdoors again:


This one is taken with cheap camera so it is not very good pic, but there is grey smudge which is some kind of mouse that did run across a yard and from some odd reason right front of Miuku, I guess mouse was suicidal, well has been so wet, dark and muddy, so no wonder really


Someday snow, someday mud, it seems not to matter much for cats they are always eager to get their paws wet or dirty

 

[jtbo]

Few poor quality pocket cam pics:

 

[ldg]

Oh it's been too long since I read updates and WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am LOVING THIS! And look how happy!!!!! Oh this was a wonderful thing for me to read tonight, Christmas Eve!

I am so happy to see how happy all of you are!

Chumley was "3 or 4" years old when we brought him inside. It's been three years and he has ALMOST completely relaxed about hands petting him. He may still react if he sees them coming, but if he doesn't see them, he's OK. He has enjoyed petting the whole time, just with our heads on his cheek or top of his head. I'm so glad Mauku is happy in her own way now! :rub: :heart2:

 

[jtbo]

Oh it's been too long since I read updates and WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am LOVING THIS! And look how happy!!!!! Oh this was a wonderful thing for me to read tonight, Christmas Eve!

I am so happy to see how happy all of you are!

Chumley was "3 or 4" years old when we brought him inside. It's been three years and he has ALMOST completely relaxed about hands petting him. He may still react if he sees them coming, but if he doesn't see them, he's OK. He has enjoyed petting the whole time, just with our heads on his cheek or top of his head. I'm so glad Mauku is happy in her own way now! :rub: :heart2:

Mauku is bit silly sometimes tough, she might run away when I as much as touch one hair of her back, but then she might turn, sit and give me slow blinking treatment.


We have rarely small amount of snow, so selected few are enjoying lot of outdoors, here Tiger is doing hopping sideways as he sees Panther:


Tiger has a lot of energy to burn off, so when I let him out, he is mostly flying above ground, only briefly touching the ground here and then:


This one I took earlier, but I guess that I forgot to post, he looks bit silly there, like airplane attempting to take off and that expression is quite priceless:


This came after Panther nibbled Tiger, they always have little bit of brotherly playing going on:


I'm afraid not many photos from Miuku, he don't like from camera and likes to disappear after few photos, even I'm usually using telezoom from bit of distance:


Is he attempting to tell that tree is leaning badly?



This is their playing, putting ears back, arching back and tail high up to air, sometimes swinging wildly, chasing each other and play fighting, there is no any real issues between them, but they do get surge of energy that needs to be burned off some way. If Miuku would be really angry, tail would be low without hook, base of tail would be bit lifted up and tail would swinging side to side like a broom and he would make very loud noises:


I got also few pics from Panther, but he is difficult to take photos as there is not enough light, but there is 1 or 2 hours during the day that it is possible to take photos from him:


This is perhaps best photo from Panther that I have taken, even it was one of the difficult ones too to take, as he was between me and sun's position, even it was cloudy that made lot of shadow next to trees, I did manage to take shot with lot slower shutter speed that is recommended without support or tripod, 1/125s and 185mm from my memory and ISO3200 which shows on his fur as noise, but not too much, I think considering that my better camera is only D3100 Nikon with old and one of the cheapest tele lenses around that time:

 

[catapault]

They are magnificent! I love their "airs above the ground" pictures. Such beautiful fur friends you have.

All best wishes to you and to them in the new year

from Catapault and the furry three- Mist, Mr. Poe, and Domino