140102 - Toe

Yesterday, I took a break at the top of the steps in the backyard, and Toe sat down beside me.

I was surprised she let me take her photograph, since she usually runs in terror the second I hold up the camera.

Tic died May 11, 2010

Tic died May 11, 2010.

The night before, he wouldn't eat dinner when I brought it out to him and his sisters. He didn't look like he was feeling well, so I brought him inside and slept downstairs with him.

In the middle of the night, he started having labored breathing.

Before we could take him to the vet, he came into the garage, panted into my face, lay down between me and Toe sleeping on a cushion, and died.

Phil and I looked online, and it appears he had some sort of lung or heart problem.

I'd noticed a week before he died that he was losing weight, but he didn't mind when I poked and pawed at his body, so I didn't think he'd eaten poison - I once saw a rat running around our backyard, screaming, before it dropped dead. According to the literature online, Tic didn't seem to have a hairball problem, either, as he wasn't dry heaving.

We're going to miss him. He was only about fourteen months old.

These photographs are of him at happier times. One is of him when he was still a feral kitten, doing his best impersonation of Bigfoot caught on camera striding through the woods. Another is of him and Toe during one of the first times they came to me to eat. Another is of him trying to take a nap when Tac lay practically on top of him and decided it was time to take a bath. Another is of him rolling around one winter day when his winter coat was very full. And the last is of him a few weeks before he died. I thought he was posing for the camera. A moment later, he leapt at a hummingbird flitting around the lemon tree.

I took the below video only a few days after I'd discovered him and his sisters living with their mom, Bert, in a neighbor's yard. He is the kitten who collapses while playing with his feet, runs away, then struts back into frame like he's the king of the world.

091231 - Tac

I took lots of photographs today to chronicle the gardens at the end of 2009. Of course, the cats wanted to help. At one point, Tac decided I was done photographing flowers and needed to pay attention to her, instead.

09 November - Tic

The cats always follow me around the gardens, interested in everything I do. One afternoon, while I was trying to photograph flowers, Tic decided it was time I pet him.

091010 - Tic, Tac and Toe

I was asleep in the chair next to this one when Phil came home Saturday afternoon. Tic, Tac and Toe did their best "to stay up with me" while I gardened earlier that day in the backyard, but they apparently had had a busy night and were ready for a nap at the same time as me.

09 Summer - Tic, Tac and Toe

In February or March, 2009, Bert had three kittens. When they were about four weeks old, she brought them to our neighbor's yard, where they lived most of the time. When they were big enough to climb down the fence separating our yards, she regularly brought them to our house to eat.

One of the first times I saw them in the neighbor's yard, I watched the boy, whom we named "Tic," eating dirt, and I knew I had to make sure they were fed.

Long story short, they soon ate daily in our backyard, but Bert always reminded them that Phil and I were dangerous - hissing and fleeing from us the moment we walked into the backyard - so the kittens were very wary of us. When they were between eight and twelve weeks old, we trapped them and their mother and took them to the SPCA in San Francisco to have them fixed. The SPCA also gave them all their shots. A few days later, when they had recovered, we released them.

Bert promptly abandoned her kittens and has since rarely stopped by. The kittens, though, have taken up permanent residence in our gardens. In fact, we recently purchased a "feral villa" (as the website calls it) - or a cat house - for them to stay in during the rainy season.

Three or so months after their mother left them, they are finally trusting me, often letting me pet them, purring, and actually following me around the gardens...at a safe distance. I suppose they are now partially socialized, though they only tolerate me on their terms - usually when they are being fed or in the early evening when they are the most playful - and they seldom let Phil pet them.

We've named them "Tic," "Tac" and "Toe," darkest to lightest, the boy the darkest and wanting attention the most, Tac the fluffiest and often knocking my hand around with her head like a dog to show me where she wants to be petted, and Toe generally lying near me, but not too close for too long.

09 Winter - Bert

After more than a year, I finally broke down this last winter and started feeding the feral cat living in the trees over our hot tub.

Phil named her Bert, short for Roberta, since that sounds like the name of a street-smart, tough girl.

I suspect she's eliminated the pocket gopher population in our backyard, as the few remaining gladioli have flourished this year, while in past springs, they steadily vanished one by one from below ground.

This photograph shows Bert hard at work the first afternoon I fed her. I told Phil the caption should read: "Garden patrol makes me sleepy," while he more aptly suggested, "Smooshed iris are cute."