kittens and tea...

We took the feral kittens to the Adoption Room at our 
No-Kill Shelter yesterday. They were 5 weeks old, but because there are 6 of them, they are very small. In fact, the mama is pretty small herself. Since we haven't been able to catch her, we would have preferred to wait another week to give them more time to nurse - but it's been our experience, that after they are 6 weeks old, catching the kittens gets difficult. We will continue to try to catch the mama as we feel that she is too small and thin to risk getting pregnant again. But we have to say that for a first litter (and having 6!) she was a very good mama - very loving and attentive.

We were also very tempted to keep the little gray one that looks like our Ghost. He is really cute. We started calling him Yoda. But in the end we decided it was best to give someone else a chance to adopt him. Our inside cats live close to 20 + years and at since we are both 70, decided that the 4 we have now could possibly outlive us, so best not to take on any others.

We also have other visitors to our yard. Here are some raccoons that come by occasionally for a snack. They seem to really like the cat food - as do the box turtles.

Interesting tidbit:  Although the cats don't go for sweets... the raccoons love pies, cakes, cookies, etc. I think they definitely have a sweet tooth.

BTW, if you look closely at the next picture, you can almost see the magic rabbit hole that goes down the back all the way to the creek. 

look carefully at the V shape in the bushes directly behind raccoons...

The yard drops off there and it slopes down about 4 feet to a lower patio and then extends maybe another 10 feet to the creek. There are stone steps far to the left and an overgrown ivy path on the far right... but the critters all prefer to use the rabbit hole.

And although the yard is fairly well shaded, they also seem to prefer to hang out on the back porch... possibly because of the ceiling fan and the availability of fresh water.

I probably should be posting this to my other blog page, "Cats, Coffee, and Chocolate" but I find it hard to separate my posts (and my readers here are interested in the critter updates too... I think?). Oh well, I'll just put a link on that site to this one and vice-versa. That should work, yes?

On another subject - the heat - it was 104 F here yesterday. Since everyone everywhere seems to be suffering, I guess 104 isn't that unusual. But it is hot!  I don't know what people who don't have A/C are doing.  Can't imagine, really. I know we didn't have A/C when we were growing up (and believe me, it was HOT and HUMID in New Orleans in the 40's and 50's!), but we survived with the old time ceiling fans as well as those small black iron oscillating fans. But then, we didn't know any different - so maybe our bodies acclimated better? (or now we're just old and spoiled?)

All I know is that DH and I don't venture out too much when it's this hot. However, we do still see people out there in the neighborhood running in the middle of the day in the sun and the heat... and we wonder what they are thinking. It can't be healthy?

And speaking of healthy, I bought some "peaches and cream" tea at Ham's Peach Orchard a few weeks back. It's what I'm drinking now as I sit here at the computer. It's Premium Ceylon Tea by the Metropolitan Tea Company - and it comes in this cute little wood box... and it's very good.

Also it's Friday! Have a wonderful safe week-end... and stay out of the heat! (if you can)