Serena had some things to tell me this week, Gentle Readers. She told me she was going on safari.
I knew why: Pastel's kittens are at the age where nature intended them to start eating solid food. Nature prompts this behavior by reducing, rather than increasing, the milk supply available to the growing kittens. But we've all been exposed to toxic chemicals, so nobody's digestive system has been functioning optimally, so the kittens have not been delighted by their ability to eat solid food--as they ought by rights to be--and are ignoring the Kitten Chow set before them and trying to get extra milk from their relatives. Silver may have kittens of her own any day; Serena wants to have kittens of her own this summer; neither of them wants to induce lactation. So they've been avoiding the babies. Serena wanted to avoid them for about 48 hours, before realizing that, once the kittens were indoors for the night anyway, depriving herself of food would not be good for any kittens she was trying to have.
So she came home when she was good and hungry, last night. I wanted to ask her, in a realistic nonverbal way, some questions about her behavior. "No time for questions," Serena nonverbally said, diving into her food.
The post about what I've learned from Serena's avoidance of kittens she obviously cares about--very much--will have to wait another week.
Now for the cats who may have things to tell you--the Petfinder cats. It's time for our weekly adoptable pet photo contest. This week's category is what novelist Anna Dale has called Amber-Eyed Silver Tips, a special category of black cats that happens to include my official cyberspace image: cats with black fur (may have small white spots on the underside or feet), mostly white skin, and yellow eyes. Dale described this type as "the creme de la creme of witches' cats." Probably that was just whimsy. Then again, once you've lived with a cat of this type...some of them are pretty special.
How special? Well, the Cat Sanctuary is a memorial to one.
These photos and links are for sharing, Gentle Readers. Especially they are for sharing with people who live within driving distance of the shelters where these cats are waiting to be adopted.
Photo picks are subjective and arbitrary. These are the snapshots that looked most appealing to me. All cats can be tricky to photograph. Black cats are the hardest to photograph of all; you aim the camera at a particularly appealing view of your pet and get a photo of a black shadow, because black absorbs light, meaning that photographs don't always make it clear that the focal point of the photograph was a cat. This means that cats who are appealing in real life may never win this web site's photo contest, or any other...but if you go to a shelter and meet them, in real life, they may be your picks.
So. Here are this week's photo contest winners:
Zipcode 10101: Mayflower from New York City
Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/mayflower-69952205/ny/new-york/anjellicle-cats-rescue-ny488/
She's not the cuddly kind. As an alley cat she had no noticeable family ties with anybody, and as a shelter foster cat she doesn't quarrel with other animals but hasn't formed any bonds, and it took her more than a year to bring herself to endure being touched when food was not involved. She will hang out beside humans, not touching. She seems to belong to Serena's school of thought: It's good to have someone to play with, but snuggling is soppy. If you would like to have a companion who enjoys a game now and then, hangs out with you now and then, but is an adult and needs no "mothering," Mayflower may be the cat for you.
Zipcode 20202: Reed from D.C.
His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/reed-70392279/dc/washington/lucky-dog-animal-rescue-dc20/
Well, he's less than a year old, so he's going through a reed-thin phase. It will be up to you to provide enough exercise to keep this name from becoming bitterly ironic. Another young cat in the family would help. The adoption fee is steep and there's a discount for adopting two young cats together, hint, hint. Reed is described as a cuddler once he gets to know people but, at his age, full of energy and usually up for a game.
Zipcode 30303: Selma from Marietta
Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/selma-70340807/ga/marietta/good-mews-animal-foundation-ga173/
Selma is one of those cats who get dumped out on shelters because somebody was too trifling to arrange a simple operation and is too mean to appreciate the resulting kittens. The so-called pet overpopulation problem is strictly a local phenomenon, if and when it's real. It exists primarily in the minds of horrible people who think any outdoor cats are too many. We need to oppose these people by, among other things, refusing to consider buying or renting a house in a neighborhood that is "so unfriendly we didn't even see any cats on any front porches--a rat problem waiting to happen"...but creating a real shelter cat overpopulation problem is not helping anything. If you don't want the kittens or know people who do, don't let the cat have kittens. Anyway that problem has been taken care of for Selma. Her kittens have found homes, there'll be no more kittens, and now she's all alone in this world. It may take her a while to choose the last living creature she will have to care about. Be patient. Selma is described as friendly, but slow to bond. How not?
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