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I am so freakin' proud of my photography skillz lately, let me tell ya!
Porch kitty has been coming around for the past two months, but until now, I'd never been able to get a picture of him. I have found his weakness. Canned cat food. Normally, if he's eating and he sees me, even from far away, through the door and back in the living room, he skeedaddles. But evidently canned cat food is his Achilles heel and he is willing to sit still long enough to try and scarf it down, even with the imminent danger of Big Scary Human just around the corner. I *was* very quiet and very discreet while taking these, but I know he saw me a couple of times and he didn't run until he was through eating. He also brought me a gift while I was at the grocery store. A nice dead rat in my driveway. Yay?
So, here he is in all his flop-eared glory.

(Is it funny that Porch Kitty, who has probably never seen the inside of a house, used a litterbox or been petted by a human, is eating his food out of a Pfaltzgraff bowl?)
AND I also got this shot from the window of the cat room, right by their big kitty condo. Unbelievably, this was not using a zoom lens. The bird feeder is almost against the window, and I was right up on the other side of it, so the bird was RIGHT THERE. The cats have a real... birds-eye view. Ba dum ching.

Is that just the coolest thing? You can actually see the seed in its mouth. I'm learning a lot about birds and identifying them by sight and song, and according to the internets, this is a tufted titmouse. I have a lot of them, and they are quite fascinating. They'll take a seed, then fly off to the woods, come back, take another seed, fly off to the woods. I wish I could tell them "you'd get a lot more bang for your buck if you just sat here and ate..?" But they probably wouldn't listen. Evidently that is a trait of the tufted titmouse. They are nervous little birdies. And very territorial! I'd posted on Facebook recently about how birds were fighting over one feeder, when there were seven others with virtually the same seeds in them. It was these guys. Upon reading about them, it seems that they are mostly territorial during breeding season. So maybe I'm getting ready to have some babies.
So yeah, that's a bit more of my backyard zoo. It's Wild Kingdom around here.
Porch kitty has been coming around for the past two months, but until now, I'd never been able to get a picture of him. I have found his weakness. Canned cat food. Normally, if he's eating and he sees me, even from far away, through the door and back in the living room, he skeedaddles. But evidently canned cat food is his Achilles heel and he is willing to sit still long enough to try and scarf it down, even with the imminent danger of Big Scary Human just around the corner. I *was* very quiet and very discreet while taking these, but I know he saw me a couple of times and he didn't run until he was through eating. He also brought me a gift while I was at the grocery store. A nice dead rat in my driveway. Yay?
So, here he is in all his flop-eared glory.

(Is it funny that Porch Kitty, who has probably never seen the inside of a house, used a litterbox or been petted by a human, is eating his food out of a Pfaltzgraff bowl?)
AND I also got this shot from the window of the cat room, right by their big kitty condo. Unbelievably, this was not using a zoom lens. The bird feeder is almost against the window, and I was right up on the other side of it, so the bird was RIGHT THERE. The cats have a real... birds-eye view. Ba dum ching.

Is that just the coolest thing? You can actually see the seed in its mouth. I'm learning a lot about birds and identifying them by sight and song, and according to the internets, this is a tufted titmouse. I have a lot of them, and they are quite fascinating. They'll take a seed, then fly off to the woods, come back, take another seed, fly off to the woods. I wish I could tell them "you'd get a lot more bang for your buck if you just sat here and ate..?" But they probably wouldn't listen. Evidently that is a trait of the tufted titmouse. They are nervous little birdies. And very territorial! I'd posted on Facebook recently about how birds were fighting over one feeder, when there were seven others with virtually the same seeds in them. It was these guys. Upon reading about them, it seems that they are mostly territorial during breeding season. So maybe I'm getting ready to have some babies.
So yeah, that's a bit more of my backyard zoo. It's Wild Kingdom around here.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 01:28 pm (UTC)As for the birds, the chickadees we have up here do the same thing; I called it, "doing laps"; they'd fly from tree to feeder, grab a seed and fly back to the tree. For hours. But hey, free food! :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 01:50 pm (UTC)Cats! Bah.
I need to learn to ID chickadees, because I'm sure we have those, too. I now have ten bird feeders, so needless to say, my backyard is busy!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 02:05 pm (UTC)Black-capped chickadees are small (slightly smaller than titmice) birds with a black top of the head. Their distinctive call is how they got their name; it sounds like, "Chick-a-dee-dee-dee." I'm sure Google Images has a zillion pictures of them.
I miss having the feeders in the back yard but I don't miss the work of refilling them in the winter!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 04:07 pm (UTC)I meant to tell you, a stray dog adopted us when I was a kid, probably 12 or so, I guess. She was a little white terrier mix with black and orange spots, sort of like a calico version of a dog. Within short order, she gave birth to five puppies. So, we started calling her Momma Puppy. I tried to actually give names to the kids, but my mother actually called one of them "Momma Puppy's Puppy." Wow. Original!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 01:15 pm (UTC)I see that same look every time a new stray shows up. I think I've only ever had one who didn't learn he could trust me.
Balboa came around pretty quickly. He's at the point now where he jumps up into my lap and purrs while making bread. He's got extra toes, so it's extra OW! Quit it!
Of course, this guy used to have a home, he was dumped and incredibly stressed and disoriented when he found me.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 01:53 pm (UTC)I have no idea whether he was ever a pet. He looks incredibly scruffy, so if he was, he's been out a while. His right ear is either broken or mostly gone, and the left one has a chunk out of it. His tail looks like it's broken as well (which is a total shame, because he has that huge Maine Coon feather tail.) Maybe one of these days I can actually brush him. Wouldn't that be awesome!!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 03:05 am (UTC)I hope they love me for the bird feeders! There's the one right against the window, then there are two others about ten feet away that are always hopping. They spend some time on their big new condo, but more often than not, they just nap on the couch, completely oblivious that there are 300 birds outside the window. They're old. They just don't much care anymore! :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 03:16 pm (UTC)You really have some great wildlife at your new place. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 09:28 pm (UTC)I noticed the tip of the ears is clipped. That's a good thing! It's common practice to clip the ear on feral cats when the are spayed so if captured they aren't 'spayed again.'
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Date: 2011-07-18 09:31 pm (UTC)THank you!!
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Date: 2011-07-18 09:52 pm (UTC)Some areas clip males and females. We only clip the females because if its a male thats recaptured it's 'obvious' he's been neutered.
I would guess this one has already been altered. That looks to 'neat' to be from a fight.
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Date: 2011-07-18 09:59 pm (UTC)Judging from the battle scars, I was just assuming male, but who knows. Wow, thank you so much. I feel a lot better now, at least knowing it won't be getting pregnant (or impregnating any other kitties.)
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Date: 2011-07-19 04:55 am (UTC)LOL @ Wild Kingdom, i used to watch it as a kid.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-21 03:21 pm (UTC)