Happy Valentine's Day!

[lavendertook]

Happy Valentine's Day, my dear flisties! A little late, but what's new?


Here are passion flowers for you from a couple of summers ago by Greenbelt Lake.



And here's Super Sonic Saki and Tuxie being loving from last summer.





"OMG, she's sleeping next to me!" says a surprised Saki about a peaceful Ms. Moo.



I am so owned.



The Three in relaxed proximity. Maybe one day they will all 3 cuddle together, but I'm not holding my breath. Moo scares the shit out of Tuxie--he respects his mom. They make me feel like an Oankali third (a reference for the Octavia Butler Xenogenesis readers out there) when they range themselves around me in bed--I am the Cuddle Resource.



This was Brigit with her pretty little sister Ostra in November 2011 when we first brought them to Warwick. I lost Ostra this month last year--Brigit may have lost her the December before as they went their separate ways navigating their new environment. I will make a memorial post for my lost little calico soon. But there is some very good news, and some sweet to this bitter. T reports that Brigit has a new kitty love in her life. Second chances rule. (-: I'll tell you all about that very soon.

<3 & *hugs* to you all.

Comments

[jan-u-wine.livejournal.com]

and a somewhat belated day o' love to you, as well! Love your kitteh pics, always, and the flower is beyootiful. So nice to hear that Brigit is gettng along so well.

And.....may I say: we don't know what happened to Ostra (do we?) Although it seems folly to think anything but the worst, you do never know. Why not a tribute post for a loved one who has gone Adventuring?

yours for hope, always,

jan

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you, bb. Yeah, I had my reservations, but there aren't a lot of people out there, if any others, who know how to get feral cats bonded and I'm overjoyed to know Brigit has a kitty to snuggle with again--it's more than I dared hope for her, but it's a complicated situation--a regular kitty soap opera in the making, and how this develops is going to be a story worth following, but I'm expecting my girl will do well for herself. (-;

It's not a matter of expecting the worst. It's a matter of what I saw, the season, and cat behavior. No, I never found her body, and there's a small chance she could have wandered off, and if it were spring or fall, or even summer in which she went missing, I'd give it a definite possibility, but not the middle of winter, the time of frost and death in this part of the world. Not even a Took makes a start of an Adventure in the Wild at this point in the season. Perhaps if I had lost her the end of February, but not at the start of this month. Any other time of year, a predator might wander off to hunt, away from her known source of sustenance, but not this point in the season. We know this in our bones here.

And I hunted the area pretty thoroughly for 10 weeks. During those 10 weeks, I met many of the townsfolk, and if there were the kind of soul who would put out so much food for feral cats that a small calico, who did not want to fight other cats for her food, would find enough food for herself, so much that she would forgo the wet cat food and Starkist salmon she knew my call promised, it's pretty likely I'd have heard about it in this very small township. Ostra was in no uncertain way tame enough to have moved in with any human. If she were, and she were living, she would have, without doubt, come again when I called, as she did the previous 4 times I drove out to her those 2 weeks we were reunited. And I've been hanging about in that town and keeping an eye out for her the last 10 months as I visited with Brigit. I am sure if Ostra were alive and in contact with her sister, I would have seen her. The last time I saw her she seemed not well. And when you're not well in the Wild here, at this time of year, and you're traveling alone, there's only one journey you are making.

I plan on going up to Warwick 3 more times. Twice more to fill the feeders, because there were other feral cats who were eating from them and it would be cruel to cut them off in the middle of winter, and the third time at the beginning of April, when frogs and baby rodents and birds abound, I will take down the feeders, unless I am able to find someone to take them over. I've got some numbers of cat rescue organizations I'll be calling to try to find someone. But if no one turns up, I don't want to leave a mess in the country for others to clean up. And yes, my peripheral vision will be alert, searching for a little calico, as I drive each time, but I do not expect she is anywhere to be seen So yeah, I could call it a tribute post that is 9 parts a memorial. I'm satisfied that Brigit is living for 2 kitties now, and if she only lives another month, she is at least now living the best life a feral cat can have.

[jan-u-wine.livejournal.com]

yes.....i admit that there is not much hope that she took anything but the Long Journey. In that case, you must celebrate her innocent life, and be glad that any suffering that she did know is done.

will look forward to seeing your celebration/tribute/memorial to her when you are ready!

take care, my friend.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

One of my flist friends near here just lost a dear little feral girl this month, and it hit home with me what this time of year bodes for lone travels. I thank you for your hope, hon, and you were witness last year to all the false hope I was given by unreliable sources. It is possible she lives, and I'd love it to be true, but it is so unlikely. And selfishly, I think it hurts more to hope at this point, because that makes me need to keep searching, and I'd rather throw my love and resources behind the one I know is living, and the ferals on my block, who I've already started trying to look out for. I am thankful I was given what I now think were the last couple of weeks of her life to reconnect with her, and got to at least give her the comfort of 4 good meals before she probably died or was killed. It was such a chance thing that we ran into each other that icy night in January. Such a character she was.

[jan-u-wine.livejournal.com]

when we lose those we love, the hardest thing of all, i think, is to not cling to hope and go on and on down such a path. No matter where she is now, she is beyond your help. That's not a comfort, not in the slightest, but sometimes the truth hurts more than anything.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

*nods*