The conservation of felines

[digitaldiscipline]

Offsetting the two meeping month-olds and During's impending next litter any time now, one of the September littermates, Equinox, died of unknown but not apparently traumatic causes last night (I found her under the bushes this morning when she didn't respond to the sound of breakfast being poured). She will join Tuxedo and Drake by the WWII headstone in the corner of my yard.



While I would be astonished if all the cats that have passed through my yard were still around, there's been a fairly low known mortality rate - two car strikes and four from natural causes (illness or presumed predation) in nearly nine years, a period in which there have been more than thirty individuals.

Bear and Panda remain active and mouthy and extremely keen for my attention; I hope this continues, though, goddamn, are they loud in the confines of my garage.

Comments

[chiller.livejournal.com]

"Next litter"?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

There is a very pregnant member of the colony feral colony due, at a guess, within the week.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

(The mother of Bear & Panda is Rufus; During is the mother of the "explorers" and "autumn" litters)

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Ack, she is just going to pop out litter after litter. She needs to be fixed. :(

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I have been looking into getting a catch and spay thing going on, but it's proved challenging. As the longtime companion of a zookeeper, I'm aware of the animal husbandy aspects of maintaining the feral colony.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about the loss. Bear and Panda are adorable!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

They're certainly exuberant and sassy, yes. :-)

[inyou.livejournal.com]

I have a couple places I have buried old pets, usually parks by where I used to live.

[ivy]

RIP, Equinox. But Panda climbing over the dumbbell is *so incredibly cute*.