Western Mass. No Kids!

CallieMo · Site Admin

Hi, I'm CallieMo. I'm one of the admins on this site.

I'm 36 and married for almost 13 years. No kids, of course. Seven...yes I said seven cats. No, I didn't set out to be the crazy cat lady, it sort of happened.

If you have any questions about how things work, let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

SirGeek · Site Admin

67.241.168.231 · Guest

Hi I'm the WMNK! Coordinator, just testing the site!

snog · Newbie

calliemo and sir geek:how kind of you both to take in all those cats.were some ferals?there is a feral colony in my neighborhood. a kindly neighbor feeds them:she whistles for them morning and late afternoon-that is their signal that their food is availaible.these cats all look good,too.alas,the females get pregnant a lot and there is an ever growing population of these poor animals.i worry about them.
we feed one of the ferals-a lovely abyssinian we named'yo diggety'.he's real operator-gets'fancy feast'at our place and dry kibble at the neighbors,lol

CallieMo · Site Admin

Hi snog! Nice to see a new face here.

I guess technically all of them were feral cats to some extent. The first two, Callie (yes, her name is part of my online nick...long story) and Tuxie had a semi-feral mom in Westfield. Since we got them when they were just both just tiny kittens, they learned to trust us at a young age.

The next addition,Truffle was a stray that showed up on our doorstep at about a year old. We think that she might have been an indoor cat at some point because she understood the concept of kitchen cabinets and whatnot. The poor dear had just finished weaning kittens (we looked around the neighborhood but didn't see them) and weighed only 4 pounds. She made up for it by eating like a pig for a couple of months and getting up to her current 7 pound status.

Then, in July 2002, I was coming back from the gym one afternoon and there was a black cat sitting on our neighbors' woodpile which is near our back door. I went over to talk to her and see that she was all right. Then I heard a rustling down in the plants near the woodpile and then one, two, uh oh...three little kitten faces looked up at me. We ended up capturing the mother and two of the kittens with a Hav-A-Heart trap, but then it took two months until the last kitten (whom both we and the neighbor had been feeding) was cold and sad one morning and huddled against the neighbors' back door such that such was able to reach out and grab him.

The mother cat, Midnight was definitely feral, but she's come a long way in learning to trust. She's turned into a friendly cat who likes to curl up on the bed with us. Her boys, Inky , Emeril, and Flash are sweet natured momma's boys.

CallieMo · Site Admin

BTW: All seven of our gang are strictly indoor cats now. It's much safer (too many cars) and healthier (all those kitty diseases our there) and they're content with watching birds out the many windows.

There are several stray/feral cats in the area. I'd love to feed them and perhaps capture/spay or neuter/release them, but we have one cranky neighbor next to us that complains that since the cats were eating in our yard, they were pooping in his yard and he kept stepping in it.

Mind you, this is the same person who complains about "squirrel poop", so you see what I'd be up against. So we play "good neighbor" and don't feed the cats (well, sometimes in the dead of winter if one of the ferals comes up to us when we're outside, we sneak them a scoopful of crunchies, but that's unusual.)

snog · Newbie

hello,calliemo.thankyou very much for telling all about your 7 cat crew,and for providing pix of them.they all look so healthy with shiney fur and lively,clear eyes.indeed,it is wise to keep them inside...i keep my sadie indoors,too.[btw,i was given sadie mabey 12 years ago by an employee of ch 22-sadie lived in their old station in feeding hills.the new manager at the time said sadie must go and so i adopted her.i was told the people who worked there missed sadie greatly when she had to leave.]
my goodness,what a fussy neighbor!gee,if they lived in my inner city neighrborhood,they'd be worrying about much more than cat poop and squirrel poop,lol.
i well remember a woodpile kitty myself.the folks across the street have a wood pile and a mother cat had her kittens there.the neighbors took her and the kittens in .then eventually brought them down to the animal shelter.now,there are many ferals who play back there...and have kittens,too.

CallieMo · Site Admin

Awww. Sadie's a very pretty lady!

Once Geek figures out what the heck is keeping us from being able to upload photos to the photo gallery module, I'll have to set up an album where everyone can upload photos of their pets. From talking to people at the monthly gatherings, I've found that most of us have pets of one species or another.

I'm sure the people from Channel 22 are glad that she found such a good home even though they missed her. I often say that if offices had some sort of pet for a mascot, people would be less tense. Of course, unfortunately, there are often people with allergies, so it's not a practical thing in the long run.

It's funny, we live sort of on the border of Chicopee and Springfield, so it's pretty busy here trafficwise. Still in the almost 11 years we've had this house, we've seen squirrels, rabbits, opposums, skunks and raccoons in our yard. Granted there is a large park within walking distance where these animals probably live, but it's funny to see so much wildlife around.

When we were using the Hav-A-Hart traps to catch Midnight and her boys, there were several times that we caught one of the local raccoons in it! Geek would just put on some heavy leather gloves, open the trap up and dump the raccoon out. They'd walk off in a huff as if to say "How rude, I'll never come back to this restaurant again!" (We'd baited the traps with cat food and canned fishes.)

snog · Newbie

Callie:
lol,that was pretty amusing your telling about your husband dumping out the raccoons and their having been in high dugeon and stalking off.ah,brave sir geek....
i think a lot of workplaces would benefit from a resident cat.for the allergy prone,perhaps a 'naked'cat would be good.plus,many cats are good mousers.there are some old shops around downtown here which have live in cats.
i love my sadie very much--she is 17 ;i sure hope she will live many more.indoor cats often live long lives.
lol,i can that you have wierd sleep habits,as you are online right now.i often go to bed early,only to get up later for a couple hours.my sleep habits are more catnaps than'normal'sleep.
it's nice that you live near a park.which one is it?do you live at all near westover?i have a good idea-perhaps the group could go to the airshow together this year.my friends and i go..we love airshows hugely.

CallieMo · Site Admin

Yes, a Sphynx or a Devon Rex type cat might suffice for an environment with allergy prone people. Of course though purebred cats (even "pet quality" ) are rather expensive so it might be prohibitive.

My first cat, Bandit, whom I got when I was four years old lived to age 17. She had thyroid problems which probably shortened her lifespan as I have been reading that indoor only kitties often live into their 20s and 30s.

*g* I'm sort of stuck on California time myself. For several years, Geek and I did website consulting work for a site based in California. Inevitably, when problems happened, it would be around 11 or 12 p.m. California time. Little by little we got used to staying up later (I just sleep late, Geek has to get up for work but is one of those people who functions well on 4-6 hours of sleep). Plus we made several online friends on the West Coast and got into the habit of chatting with them while we worked on the issues. So, even though we no longer do work for them (the website eventually got bought up by Tribune Media, as in Chicago Tribune and all ), I'm still on that time schedule.

Now that I think of it there are actually three parks within 5 minutes of walking distance, but the one I was referring to was Szot Park since it's very large and wooded. The C-5's from Westover fly directly over my house on their landing pattern. I don't even really notice them unless I'm outside and they momentarily blot out the sun. During the airshows I get pictures like this:

while standing in my backyard .

The airshow might be a fun outing, but I think with an event that huge, it'd be difficult to have people find each other. There are so many parking areas and the grounds themselves are enormous. I haven't gone to one for several years, but I remember a whole lot of walking across huge expanses of grass and tarmac. I never understood why they choose to hold it in the hottest months, July or August. Having huge crowds of people standing out in the blazing sun and humidity... it doesn't seem sensible. Why not a cooler month like May or September? Oh well.

snog · Newbie

callie:that does explain why you are up so late,lol.it must have been fun to make friends with people on that site you maintained.
indeed,there is much walking on the base.whew!i fully agree with you on the heat and humdity-not my favorite weather.i,too,wished the airshows would ne held in late septemeber or early october.one year,the show was held in september.but there is a lot of breeze on that huge base,so this does help keep one comfortable.as i am not a sun worshipper at all,i will try to put my lawnchair under the shadow of the stationary plane displays.if i do sit in the sun,i apply tons of sunscreen.one year i brought an umbrella!
ah!the c5a galaxies fly over your house.i love those slow moving ,lumbering craft.they seem to hang in the air at times.they are so loud...quite exciting to me.i dont find the noise at all annoying.
how wonderful you can 'attend'the airshow in your own backyard-perhaps some'no kidding'members could join you for a bbq.
thanx for the pic!very clear..you must have an excellent digital camera.with mine,those planes would be just dots...
i do hope sadie lives well into her 20's.or beyond.i had read newspaper coverage of an indoor springfield cat who is still alive at 35 or so.his owner would take him for walks in a box placed inside a 2 wheel cart.the cat looked very robust,btw.he didnt look thin like many older cats do.

CallieMo · Site Admin

snog · Newbie

very nice picture taken with the 35 mm camera.i am impressed.
sorry i havent replied or been here much.
for one thing,my old pc died and i bought a new one shortly afterward.this caused some of the lag time returning here.
i hope to attend westover's airshow in august-looking forward to it!

CallieMo · Site Admin