Happy Halloween from Cats of Wildcat Woods

Tabitha is dressed as a Princess today.  We wanted to join in with you guys since we are not posting on our blog even tho we LOVE Halloween.  We lost our Minnie on Thursday and Mom wants the post to stay up as the main post for a few days.

So ...wishing y'all wonderful and spooky Halloween from all of us at Wildcat Woods!

Happy Heart Day from Tabitha!

What a great party!  Wishing y'all a wonderful Heart Day.  My pal Woody is a tabby too but he is such a scaredy cat - he runs when Mom tries to put a prop or two next to him for holiday shots.  Wuss!  So it is just me today.

Tabitha Tells What is Special About Fairview

Tabitha here today from Cats of Wildcat Woods to tell you what is so special about our hometown in western North Carolina.  Fairview is a very rural agricultural town outside of south east of Asheville that is home to many artists.

The town sits in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains. (We live on the other side of this ridge.)

The valleys in between the ridges are very fertile river bottom and we have organic farms like this one called Flying Cloud, as well as farms with cattle, pigs and chickens - all humanely raised and allowed to graze naturally on good food.

 

The Continental Divide also crosses the ridges - we have to drive over it to get to our house from town.

We also have a long horn cattle ranch in town - pretty cool to see the cows.  Both male and female of this breed have horns.

So this means we have both rolling hills of pasture as well as steep mountains going up to 4000 feet above sea level.

We don't have a downtown per se - just a cluster of shops along the main road - a post office, grocery store, pizza place and a few others.  This is our healthy quick stop - they carry local produce, meats, eggs, cheese, herbs, handmade local soaps, and lots of food and essential items.  Kind of like a health food store.

We have so many artists living here that we have a studio tour twice a year for the public to visit them all.  This sculpture sits int eh intersection of our main road in front of the eye doctor.

We love living here - lots of wildlife, progressive folks, great farms and eclectic artists!

Tabitha's Gotcha Story

Me now.

You just heard from my brother from another litter Woody from Cats of Wildcat Woods.   Now it is my turn.

My mom Lily had me outdoors in her second litter during the fall of 2006. My bean Mom had tried to catch Lily before she got pregnant again with another litter but it didn't happen. She caught all the cats in the litter before me and brought them inside before we were all born. She was afraid the first litter would disperse throughout the neighborhood and she wouldn't be able to catch them to spay and neuter them.

Me with Twospot and Only

We (Only, Two Spot, Smidge and me) were born under the house in the crawlspace. I was very feisty. Mom bean picked me up when we came up to eat on the deck and I just hissed and spit at her even tho I was just a tiny ball of fur at 6-8 weeks old! She wasn't sure we were all done nursing and didn't want Lily to go into heat again so she left us outside with her for a little longer hoping to catch us all together.

We spent the next few months lounging on the back deck, playing with toys Mom bean left out and living a very nice life. Mom bean was going to be moving to another town and wanted to take us all with her. Mom bean had TNR'd the other feral cats and let them live out their lives in the yard but this time was different. She asked everybody but none of the neighbors would take on the responsibility of feeding and caring for us if she left us behind to live outdoors. She couldn't do that.

We had gotten very used to her by now but still wouldn't let her pet us. She would prop open the porch door and stand inside and we would come in to explore. Only and Two Spot either were dumber or smarter than us (not sure which) but she caught them first by closing the door while they were busy exploring and they were caught on the porch. We got all upset at first but then went back to life as usual.

One day Mom bean put Only in a carrier in the porch and opened the door for us to see. Even Lily went inside to see what was going on. Smidge and I followed Mom Lily and Mom bean closed the porch door! We were inside but not very happy. It took Pop and Mom beans hours to catch us all and put us safely in one small room so we could get used to them and being inside.

We all got moved to the new place and all my litter mates and Lily live with me in a cool shelter the beans made for us. Their house is smaller here than the old one so they converted the workshop and carport into a indoor playroom and screen porch for us to live in. We have all sorts of shelves and chairs to sit on and they spend lots of time out here with us. Pop bean uses the workshop - we gave him a small corner of it to putter around in.

Me with Only and Twospot all growed up.

Woody's Gotcha Story

Me out on the deck

 
Hey!  I am Woody from Cats of Wildcat Woods.  My cat mom is Lily and she was one wild smart feral.  No one could catch her so she had three litters before they got her spayed.  I am kinda glad cuz I would not be here if they had!

Me and one of my brothers.

Lily had already had her third litter and those kittens were real small, living under the deck on our human's house.  My human Mom was scared Norm, Snowball and Sam  would all wander off before she could get us fixed.  She had already taken in my sister Georgie.

So long story short,  she put a dog kennel cage on the deck with lots of food and treats in it.  What we did not know was that she also had tied a string to the cage door and was holding the other end!  All three of us went inside the cage to nom on the yummy food.  BAM! The cage door shut and were went nuts!  Mom managed to lock the door before any of us got out.

Me now seven years later.

We all got fixed (I didn't think I was broken!) and now all live together with our mom cat Lily in a safe forever home.

What's in a Name - Here's Woody....

My mom Lily was feral and my bean Mom was trying hard to catch her but Lily had us kits before she could.  There was four of us - three white kittens and me a tabby.  Mom bean could not tell the white cats apart so she was seriously considering calling them all George - after George Foreman  who called his sons all George.  But what could they call me then?

So, long story short, Mom called us three guys Norm, Sam and Woody after...wait for it...Cheers, the TV show.  In case you are too young to remember this - Norm is the mail carrier, Sam is the owner played by Ted Danson and Woody is the not so bright (thanks Mom)  bartender played by Woody Harrelson.  Since the fourth white kitten was a girl, Mom went with the George idea anyway for her and called her Georgie.  Don't know hwy she didn't go with Carla or Diane from the show??? Who knows?

So that is my naming story from Cats of Wildcat Woods and I am sticking to it!

Happy St Cat's Day!

Hope ya'll have a lovely St Cat's Day!!!  From all of us tabbies at Wildcat Woods.

Joey's Valentine Wish

 

Sending showers of Valentine wishes 

to all our friends and their families on this special day!

Happy Valentine's Day

from all the Cats of Wildcat Woods

Joe's Toes

The Yawns of Yawns!

Yoko gives us her biggest yawn!

But Tabitha does her one better!