The Miller Place

Way to go, Tiger!

Cameron gets his Orange Belt in Tae Kwon Do

michael :: Dec.14.2008 :: Gallery :: No Comments »

Friday Felines

Jade, Clarence, Ginger, Precious, Moki, and Samantha

An offer extended and accepted.

Hanging out.

michael :: Nov.14.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: No Comments »

Yesterday, my wife called me over to see a skunk milling around our screen porch. This was about 4:00 in the afternoon, which seems early for a skunk to be out and about. Unlike the previous one (no pics), which had a glossy coat and took off the moment I said “Go on! Git!”, this one was a bit shoddy and pitiful. It acted like it wanted in, but was probably just scouring the screen for bugs (the screen is fiberglass and can hold the weight of our cats without tearing, so no worries there). This skunk was also limping with a bum rear foot and, unlike the previous one, smelled. I suspect it had been attacked, sprayed the attacker, and still had stink-oil on its own fur. Our cats were bonkers, running up and sniffing, which we tried to stop. Not that the skunk felt threatened in the least.

The first thumbnail doesn’t show it, but if you click, you’ll see Samantha (our black & white cat) running up to see the skunk.

It was not shy at all. In this photo, I’d opened a door to take a picture and it acted like I was offering it a place to stay. As it waddled towards me, I snapped an out-of-focus photo before slamming the door.

The skunk shrugged and kept milling around…

michael :: Oct.19.2008 :: Gallery :: No Comments »

Friday Felines

More pictures of the cats adopted by three of us where I work, at the Clemson University Research Foundation Information Technology Center.

ITC (Itsy) is solid grey, Lucas is a white and grey tabby.

ITC was the first to show up hungry but took the longest to catch. Both have now been caught, neutered, vaccinated, treated with Revolution for fleas and released.

Lucas is a complete attention hound. He’s always nearby, easy to pick up and handle, and not at all shy. He’s also jealous and always interferes when we try to give ITC attention. We have to tag-team, with one person keeping Lucus occupied while another works with ITC.

ITC is still shy and while you can get very close - even get him to touch his nose to a fingertip - he won’t let you pet him. Yet.

michael :: Oct.17.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: 3 Comments »

Friday Felines

Ginger, Precious, Samantha, Moki, and Clarence

michael :: Oct.10.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: No Comments »

Friday Flowers

michael :: Oct.10.2008 :: Gallery :: No Comments »

Friday Cat Blogging

Ladies of leisure

Precious, Ginger, and Samantha in their living room

michael :: Oct.03.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: 1 Comment »

Friday Cat Blogging

Cat Fu with Ginger and Clarence.

michael :: Sep.12.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: No Comments »

Osprey

michael :: Sep.07.2008 :: Gallery :: No Comments »

Friday Cat Blogging

Ginger, Clarence, and Moki.

michael :: Sep.05.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: No Comments »

Lucas: a new addition to our workplace

For several weeks now, people where I work (Information Technology Center, or ITC) have been feeding two cats. One, ITC (for him, pronounced Itsy) is mostly solid gray with some white. The other, Lucas, is a white and gray tabby. Since we’ve essentially adopted them, both need to be neutered and vaccinated.

Lucas started limping yesterday from an apparent bite wound, so it was time. A coworker captured Lucas after lunch today and I took him home to give him some quiet before his appointment with our family vet for treatment. A few pictures taken as he waited for his big trip:

He was anesthetized, tested (negative) for Feline Leukemia and Feline Aids, given a long-lasting antibiotic for the bite on his front forearm, neutered, de-loused (a few fleas only) and given Revolution. He is coming out of anesthesia now.

We will pick him up early in the morning and bring him back to ITC for immediate release. He did extremely well.

Update, next morning:

My wife picked him up from the vet yesterday morning and brought him to ITC in our regular carrier instead of the trap. It has the usual access door but I wanted to try picking him up, so I undid the fasteners and sort of reached in (he was popping out too) and was able to do just that: pick him up and hold him. He was a little squirmy but purring loudly too. I held, petted and talked to him while a coworker went looking for a food bowl. When she came back, we dumped a Little Friskies can of tuna flavor in it and I set him down in front of that. He started eating immediately and purring while I was petting, no more restraint. I decided to step back and Lucas left the bowl soon after. I think he got nervous with the people around, plus Itsy (the other cat) got a whiff of that smell and wanted some too. But soon Lucas was back to it and getting petted again. He still left food in the bowl - too much excitement going on, and Itsy did get his turn.

I saw Lucas laying on the grass later in the day looking like he owned the place. A couple of people mentioned that he and Itsy got into a tussle though. Hopefully it was the usual pecking order stuff. Next week we’re going to try to capture Itsy and give him the same treatment. Maybe with both of them neutered and well fed, they’ll get along better. If not, we’ll have to place one… somewhere, with someone.

Outdoor-only cats, especially in a setting like this, seem destined for trouble. Even our cats, when they were indoor/outdoor cats, racked up repeated vet bills for bites and were at risk from dogs and coyotes). For these building-cats though, we’re giving them something better than they had (starvation and no vet care). We’ll cross whatever bridges we come to when we get there.

michael :: Sep.04.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: No Comments »