barn kitty update

Wanted to give a quick update on the litter of feral kittens we adopted as barn cats. They've gained a lot of weight and size in the past month and now have the run of the farm. And while they'll never be "pet" cats that enjoy interacting with humans, they've all gotten with the program nicely and show up for meal times, so keeping tabs on them is easy.

We've also renamed them according to personality or physical traits, now that we've gotten to know them a little. This one in the first photo is Tippy (she has the very tip of one ear missing). She is by far the most friendly of the kittens and comes running at meal times, meowing in your face until you put the bowl down. She's very snuggly with Bromley (the adult we adopted at the same time), they are best buds.


This is Elbee. (A derivation of "L.B." or "Little Brown".) She's super-cute, and the smallest of the four. She was actually the first of them to understand when the meals were being served and to hang out waiting for them. She's pretty much always around.










This is Cotton (it stuck from her original name "Cottontail", because she's just so fluffy). She's very pretty and very shy, but she too can be found hanging out most of the time. She's a bit more adventurous than the others, I've seen her walking along the tops of the fences, but she's always around come meal time.








And this is Spook. He's very elusive and shy, and can never be found when humans are out and about (I took this photo from my bedroom window, right before he realized I was there and took off). I think he's living with the rest of them in the garage, but he only comes out when he thinks nobody is around to see him. He's by far the largest of the group, so he's certainly getting plenty to eat. I was worried we'd lost him for a bit, because it was a good solid week since we let him out before I spotted him again for the first time, but I've since been seeing him more regularly.

And Bromley is Bromley (the adult black and white in the middle -- that's Spook to his right and Tippy in front of him). It's hard to get a good photo of Bromley because he's always right in your face demanding attention, so this is again from the bedroom window. Total attention hog and wants to be petted constantly, and he follows the kids around while they are doing chores and drives them nuts in general. I'm glad we adopted him too, because he sets a good example for the baby kitties, and I swear he's the reason why Tippy has tamed down so nicely.

So that's them!! They've all moved into our garage since we let them out of their pen, but come back to the pen for feeding times -- we'll start feeding them in the garage once The Map Man walls it in and winterizes it for them. (He'll put a cat door in the wall so they can come and go as they wish.)