Feline? Abundance

Anybody who has cats worries about cats and parked cars.

Knowing the danger and looking for cats on and under my car hasn't always helped. Last Fall, after backing out and stopping to give cats, if any, time to disembark in the driveway, a young cat flew out from under my car when I turned the corner a block and a half away.

Not long after, one of the very pregnant simple minded mama kitties had been hanging out around my parking place. I saw her safely sitting on the porch when I got in my car. Imagine how I felt when I backed out and saw this nest of 6 kittens!

entomological protest

The annual cycle of oppression presses on!

First in the dry cat food on the floor; we placed the dishes in moats and change them daily or suffer the WORST SMELL IN THE WORLD - wet rotting pet food.

Next came forays to the kitchen sink, for water, even though they have hefty trails into the hoses out side AND a shallow fountain that oozes year 'round.

Now they insist that our bread counter must be scrubbed - repeatedly. They don't care.

They keep on coming.

On the plus side, these ARE sugar ants. We haven't seen a fire ant inside since we had the house walls drilled and treated for termites. Fire ants bite you when you scoop them up with a sponge.

Uninvited Guest, Again!

The second time the raccoons came to dinner when I was feeding the cats late at night, I turned around and they backed off with a "you don't see me" and "I'm not really here" attitude.

A week later I turned around, saw one coming into the yard and clapped my hands to scare her away, as I don't want her to become habituated to humans and get shot for unusual behavior by someone who is afraid she is rabid. After all, our county was declared a rabies danger zone last month. This time she stopped and gave me a "What did I do?" look.

I went inside and got my camera. The flash didn't seem to slow her down at all and she didn't leave a bite for the patient cats to eat. That lazy 'coon has ripe figs on the other side of the fence.

This is my convenient cat food station. I scrub both bowls daily with blue soap and the broom, then top up the blue bowl/ anti-ant moat before renewing the kibbles; more in the morning, less (for the raccoons) at night.

Ants out of the blue

Summertime is definitely here in South GA. The lightning bugs are few and far between. The June/Fig bugs have come and gone. The trees are humming all day and night with cicadas. And this afternoon, in the Albany Home Depot parking lot, I picked up my leftover lunch drink, took a big swig of icy cold water to quench my thirst after an hour in air conditioning, and realized that my hand was suddenly covered in ants...Ptooey!

They weren't inside the left over hamburger and fries in the bag on the floor, just all over my drink. And who could blame them? It must've been over a hundred in the car.

I shook them off the cup onto the pavement and then onto the nearby grass (and added the cup to the burger bag in the car. I'm no litterbug).

I'll never know if the ones left in the car were headed home to Parrott, or off on a journey to a galaxy far far away.