Kathy's Journey, vol 2

[ChrissyRyan]

Cool!

[KathyLauren]

We have recently increased our family by one: we now have four cats.  The three existing members were all feral cats. 

We adopted Liesl when she was just a few months old.  She is 19 years old now, and is finally getting used to us.  I can pick her up now to give her her medicine.

We have had Clifford and Winkle for four years now.  We adopted them from a feral colony that was scheduled for forced depopulation (you don't want to know).  A couple of rescue groups trapped all the kitties and we adopted two of them.  They are the sweetest bonded pair.

The latest is Dibley.  He was a stray, and, according to neighbours, was been on his own for two years at least.  He was hanging around our house when we moved here last year, so we started feeding him.  He got sufficiently used to us that we were eventually able to push him into a crate.  A local rescue group helped us with logistics and a vet discount, and he was neutered last week.  He has now recovered from his surgery, and is quickly fitting onto our household.

Here he is chillaxing with the other two boys in the catio.  L-R: Winkle, Clifford, Dibley.

[Northern Star Girl]

@KathyLauren
Dear Kathy:
A heartwarming posting regarding your new nicely built "catio" ....
.... and your adopted cats look so very comfortable and safe in there.
Lots of room for them to raise havoc.

I love the names....  Liesl, Winkle, Clifford, Dibley
I am certain that there is a story behind how you named them.

Thank you for sharing and posting.
HUGS, Danielle

[KathyLauren]

I love the names....  Liesl, Winkle, Clifford, Dibley
I am certain that there is a story behind how you named them.

Less than you might think.  My wife keep a list of potential cat names.  She has done for years, and most of the cat names in her past come from the list.  I don't think Liesl's name had a history - just a name that she liked.  Winkle is so-named because he only has one eye.  When he was trapped, he had a badly infected eye that had to be removed.  It doesn't seem to slow him down much.  Clifford got his name because he looked and behaved like an accountant.  Dibley has had several names: the neighbours up the road called him George.  We called him Larry.  Then Eddie.  Finally, my wife decided that he was Dibley, another name from the list.

[D'Amalie]

Kathy, we continue to follow your tales.  Thank you for sharing trials, tribulations and successes.

Not to steal any of your thunder, yet I too am a cat person!  My kids said I needed a kitty intervention with the last rescue.  How can one not love moggies?

[KathyLauren]

This week, I finally got a decent picture from my observatory, with nothing breaking or getting messed up.  Well, except for clouds, but that is par for the course.  So, here is this year's picture of Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula.



In other news, our town's Pride march was held yesterday.  It was the second-annual, last year's event being a hastily-organized counter demonstration opposing an anti-trans protest.  The success of 300 exuberant, colourful queer people demonstrating in the rain across the road from five grumpy-looking humbugs last year made for a successful event this year.

Several hundred people gathered for a rally in the park (speeches were informative, but too long), followed by a five-block march through downtown streets to the town hall, where vendors of Pride merchandise were set up.  There were a few spectators along the way, although it was a march, not a parade.  All of them were smiling and waving.  There were no signs of hostility at all.

My wife and I marched along with two trans friends of ours.  One of them is a major in the RCAF.  She is non-binary (leaning towards trans-feminine) and has official permission to wear either male or female uniform as she chooses.  She is the coordinator for diversity at her base, so being trans in uniform in public is her actual job!  She was there in uniform, of course.

This is me at the vendor area: