Another chore "we" did "together"

[dixie_belle]

On Sunday one of our beloved cats passed away. In his prime, he was about 26 pounds. As he aged, this last year or so, he got thinner, just like a little old man, and got frail. He passed on our front porch, laying in the shade. After he was gone, hubby decided "we" should maybe take this time to clean out the cat house. We have enclosed a portion of our front porch and have a kitty door in there. They can go in there or outside, as they wish. It's big....oh, maybe 12 x 12? And there are shelves for them to climb on and look out, a huge dog house, litter box (although they much prefer my planters, my shrub beds or the veggie garden), food bowl, all sorts of things. So "we" pull everything out of there. Then "we" mix up a bucket of water, bleach and Mr. Clean, "we" sweep all the cat hair and leaves out and then "we" get down on our hands and knees and scrub the walls, the floors, everything.

Here is the definition of "we": "I" do the work while the "he" part of "we" sits on a rocking chair and supervises. Ahem.

But, all is clean and sparkling. Although I must admit that even after a major shower, I smelled of bleach all day yesterday.

Our cat population is aging, just like we are. They are all almost the same age.....somewhere between 10 and 14, and are starting to go. The ones who were dropped off here (country people ALWAYS want another set of kittens....not), seem to find greener pastures and simply disappear. But the ones we moved from Texas stay. At one point we had six on the porch in the cat house and one feral one in the barn. We are down to two now. I doubt if I will go out searching for more kittens but if they turn up on our porch, we'll feed and vet them (pretty much anything that shows up on our porch gets fed and vetted, sigh).

So, another "joint" project under my belt. Today I am set to mow. (and mow and mow) Another "we" project if I've ever heard one. "I" mow and "he" works on the computer in the house. Got "our" names all over it. LOL

 

[candycar]

So sorry to hear about your kitty. (HUGGS) Mine are also ageing and we loose one every couple of years. It hurts. My problem is I can't seem to get the numbers down! Every time we loose one, another pops up!

Our oldest is 16, youngest is 2. When we moved to KY 12 years ago we brought 5 with us, have lost 4, now have 8. That doesn't include the farm/barn cats over the years.

Your kitty house sounds great. Can you lock them in if needed?

We have a secure kitty pen/yard that they can come and go to from the house. 6 of the kitties live in the house/yard and 2 live loose and in the garage.

If you "need" another housecat, I have a 3 legged, spayed, 10 yr old that needs a home. She's a former outside kitty and doesn't get along with 3 of the indoor cats and has to be kept separate. The logistics of swapping them out so everyone gets "yard time" is mind boggling! We do what we have to for our furkids!

 

[dixie_belle]

Originally, they were all inside cats. All four of them. The cat house had a kitty door going from the dining room to the porch. The food and cat litter are out there and there is a walk thru screen door for us to access it. But, cats have this habit of doing things that I absolutely late: hair balls, vomiting, laying on my kitchen counters and diningroom table and the hair balls, we won't even talk about that. So a couple of years ago there was a stretch where someone threw up every day, and on something important and I had an absolute fit. They all went scrambling out to the cat house to escape mom's wrath and I simply locked the kitty door so now they couldn't get out. After two days when I didn't relent and let them back in the house, hubby simply installed another door from the kitty house to outside. These cats had been inside cats for 7 years. One of them took off right away to explore the great out-of-doors. Two of them hung out on the front porch but seemed reluctant to leave there. And one wouldn't come out of the cat house for days. Eventually they all would go exploring and hunting but none of our original house cats ever really left the property. During the winter we would insulate the dog house that is in the cat house and they were happy in there or in the sun on the porch. The cat house is wooden on the bottom, screen on the top with lattice up there, as well (as they tend to shred screen). I've seen them hit that kitty door going twenty miles an hour, seems like. LOL We are down to two cats now, unless someone drops off another litter, of course. And, while I would never wish any ill on any animal, I can honestly say that I won't miss them when these last two go. I was feeling sorta sorry for them yesterday as their "leader" had passed and was walking around petting one when I spied a HUGE glop of cat vomit on my patio chair. Sigh. Then I remembered why they are all outside cats and it all came rushing back. LOL

 

[Debby - LB]

your definition of "we" is the same as mine! lol

I wanted to say I'm so sorry about your cat. It sounds like you gave him a wonderful life.