In Case You Were Wondering

I thought I’d write a post about Miss Mama and Little Softie to update you on how they’re doing. Miss Mama has been spayed and she’s all healed up and back her normal self. She’s decided that lounging around on the two chairs we have outside is her new favorite pastime.

We took Miss Mama in to get her fixed the week before we went to Monticello. She was remarkably easy to catch, I simply put food in the doorway of a cat carrier. When she stuck her head in to eat it, I slowly moved the bowl towards the back and she walked in, then I closed the door. We kept her overnight in the carrier (we didn’t want to try to catch her the morning we needed to take her in, and she wasn’t supposed to eat for 8 hrs) so she’d be ready to go at 7:30 the next morning. We dropped her off a the vet and picked her up the next evening. We kept her in a larger dog kennel in the garage for a few days and she seemed happy. We were wondering if she would run away and never come back when we released her. When we opened up the kennel door to let her out, she came out, stretched, purred and went right back in and laid down. I guess she wasn’t too mad at us.

They LOVE the pet door and think that the back of the garage is now their front porch. They spend a lot of time back there playing in the grass and lounging on the bales of peat moss we have stored under the rain barrels. They seem very comfortable in the garage and I think they’ll be there for quite a while. I need to start thinking about getting them a heated water bowl for the winter, and I need to make them up a warm box or bed for the winter. Our garage is an unattached pole building and it’s very cold in winter. I think an enclosed box with some straw will keep them nice and warm.


Little Softie is growing as well, she’s getting much taller and is starting to venture a little ways away from the garage. Soon enough she’ll be out hunting as well, although after her adventure she hasn’t been as brave as she used to be. It’s been fun watching her and mama play and run around. They seem like they’re having a great time here at Chiot’s Run.

Anything fun going on in your house?

Pet Door for the Outdoor Cats

I figured it was about time for an update on Miss Mama and Little Softie, as we call the two outdoor cats. They don’t have official names, just these nicknames. Ever since Miss Mama showed up with her little ones so long ago, we started leaving the garage door slightly up so she could come and go as she pleased. We keep some food and water in the garage for her and the kitten and we also feed her on the front porch in the mornings. We’ve been wanting to put a pet door in the garage for the cats, then they can come and go as they please and we don’t have the leave the garage door partially up. We finally got around to checking this project off our list this past week.

We decided to put the pet door under the rain barrels, then it would be protected from the weather. We though that putting it a little higher off the ground might help discourage other unwanted animals from venturing into the garage. At the moment we have 2 bales of peat moss pushed up against it to create a little table for them to use, but when they’re used to it we’ll put a little platform that they can jump up to (like the one inside above). We’re lucky that the outdoor cats are small, so we bought the smallest pet door we can find, that means an adult raccoon or skunk will not be able to get through it.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to train the cats to use it, since they’re outdoor cats. But Miss Mama was lured through with food, and Little Softie discovered by herself. Being a kitten, she thinks it’s great fun to go through it. At the moment we have the door propped open until they get used to using it, then we’ll close the door and they’ll have to learn to push through it.


This looks like it’s going to be a wonderful solution for our garage cats! I always thought pet doors were interesting, but this is the first one we’ve ever had. It’s quite nice knowing the cats will be able come and go through it whenever they want to.

Have you ever had a pet door or wanted one?

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Last Saturday morning found Mr Chiots and I standing in our local veterinary hospital with a small black kitten with a nasty wound on it’s neck. We weren’t sure what news we’d hear after a series of unfortunate events that started the previous Saturday morning. We’d had “the talk” the night before, and had decided on the monetary limit for this visit. We love cats and are always willing to help any out that find their way to Chiot’s Run, but setting a limit is necessary when dealing with animals, especially outdoor ones that don’t have a long life expectancy because of the environment they live in.

It all started a month ago, when mama moved four tiny kittens into our garage. We were happy to have them and were planning on fixing them and finding them homes if they survived. A few days after moving in, we got up one Saturday morning to discover the mama and the kittens gone. There was long orange fur all over the garage and male cat urine everywhere! Since male cats often kill kittens that aren’t their own, we figured a big orange male cat we’d seen roaming around occasionally was after these little furries. We didn’t find any dead kittens, but we weren’t sure if they’d survived. After this happened I did some research and found out that feral mama cats move their kittens around often to keep them safe, especially from male cats. (this is another good reason to neuter your male outdoor cats, they’re less aggressive)

Mama kept coming around so we knew eventually she’d bring them back if they had survived. Sure enough, a week and a half later, last Wednesday morning, we spotted her and three little furries on our back porch. She brought her babies back and proudly called them out of the garage every time we went outside to show them to us. We were happy to have them back, and sad that one of the little gray ones hadn’t made it, most likely it perished in the male cat attack a week and a half earlier. The kittens spent their days entertaining us playing around in the driveway and running in and out of the garage. We made sure to check under the cars every time we went somewhere so we didn’t accidentally find a kitty pancake upon our return.

Last Saturday morning, I was headed to the farmer’s market and went out and checked under the car as usual. We’d seen the kittens playing around outside earlier that morning, so we knew they were still around. On my way home from the market, a mile or two from home, I noticed a dead kitten in the road that looked just like one ours. At first I didn’t think anything of it, here in rural Ohio it’s common a common sight. Later that afternoon, I realized I hadn’t seen the kittens since that morning. I knew then that the one I had seen was ours. We looked and looked and sadly couldn’t find any kittens in the garage. We figured the kittens had crawled up into the car and had all perished. Of course this was on Saturday afternoon and we were headed to a Fourth of July celebration, only we were no longer in any kind of mood for celebrating. This is the very reason I had never gotten a garage cat. I knew that their life expectancy was short and the risk of coming to a sad end by car was very likely. I love cats, so I prefer to keep mine indoors where there are no cars, dogs, raccoons and other dangers.

After shedding of a few tears and a few days of sadness, I was feeling better. I was glad that mama was still around, following me around the gardens and rubbing on my legs trying to get some attention whenever she could. I made plans to take her to get her fixed since there were no longer any nursing kittens. I was glad that she had a healthy fear of things like cars and the garage door and seemed to be a very smart outdoor cat.

Late Tuesday evening, around eleven thirty, I was looking out our back door and noticed a tiny black streak running across our porch. At first it didn’t register. Then it hit me – it was one of our kittens. Amazingly it had survived the ride under the car, the fall or jump out of the car, the car itself, a three and a half day journey, and had somehow found it’s way back home. This is quite an amazing feat considering that the kitten is only about 7 weeks old, was still nursing when it disappeared, and had to travel through woods and very busy roads to get back here (and it was 4th of July weekend which is especially busy here in our lake community). We went outside to find it so we could reunite it with it’s mama. At first we couldn’t locate it, little black kittens can hide very well in the dark, but finally Lucy sniffed it out for us. We called mama cat (she is now sleeping in our garage at night) and she came. As soon as the kitten heard her meow, it started crying and came running out of the bushes to her. It rubbed back and forth on it’s mama, clearly very happy to see her. The entire next day the little black kitten did not leave mama’s side. Wherever she went, it was right behind her. By the second day it started feeling more comfortable and would spend time alone sleeping in the garage.

I noticed the kitten had a small wound on it’s neck, but I could never get close enough to see it. The kitten is still very wary of humans. On Friday I took my camera out to get a photo of the wound, I figured that would be my best option to get a good look. It wasn’t pretty, so Mr Chiots and I decided it was time to catch the the kitten to put some Neem Protect Spray on it. (we love this brand of neem spray, it works wonderfully for any pet skin problem we’ve had and helps keep fleas away naturally, I’d highly recommend this product!). Upon inspection, the wound looked pretty bad, so I ran inside to call the vet. We’d hoped to get in yet that evening, but early the next morning would have to do. We placed the kitten in a pet carrier with some food and water. This way we wouldn’t have to catch it the next morning, since it had taken us a few tries and quite a while to catch it that afternoon.

Saturday morning found us up early and off to the vet, wondering what news we’d hear about this little kitten and what kind of a decision we’d have to make. Luckily, the wound wasn’t life-threatening (although it had a huge fly larvae in it, gross, but nature’s way of cleaning up wounds). We came home with antibiotics, a kitten in a crate and of smiles on our faces. The kitten will be spending the next couple days in the crate, we want to keep it contained to make it easy to administer it’s twice daily antibiotic treatment. I think this will work in our favor as it’s taming the kitten quite nicely. She even purred and rubbed on my finger later on Saturday. She’s getting more active and her appetite is coming back, she’s really enjoying the raw whole milk mixed with egg yolks and fermented cod liver oil.

I may still take mama in this week to get her fixed, and we talked to the vet already about when we could get this little kitten fixed as well. We’ll also be trying to trap the orange male, we don’t see him very often so that may prove difficult. If all continues to go well for this little softie, it looks like after all these unfortunate events, we’ll still have two garage cats here at Chiot’s Run. I think this little black kitten has already used up a few of her nine lives.

Have you ever had to deal with the harsh realities of outdoor animals?

Lucy is Loved

Lucy, the namesake of the gardens, is quite a loved chiots. Her cousins (our nieces & nephew) think she’s the greatest dog in the world. They love it when we take her to grandma & grandpa’s (my parents) for a family get together.

The kids have always had Lucy around, Hannah, our oldest niece was just a baby when we got Lucy. They’re almost the same age.



When Lucy got injured, she wasn’t able to visit the kids very much and she still doesn’t go with us every time we visit like she used to. They miss her and she misses them. Every time I talk to one of the kids they ask about Lucy and how she’s doing. Last week when we were at my parents our niece Heidi gave me this note to give to Lucy. How sweet is this? We hung it on the fridge at Lucy’s level so she could see it.


Lucy is a great dog around kids, gentle and fun. She lets them dress her up and she has a great time playing with them. How fun it must be to grow up with a dog like Lucy!

I have fond memories of all of our pets growing up, and I’m sure the kids will always have fond memories of Lucy.

Do you have any fond memories of specific family pets?

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur

Yesterday morning Mr Chiots and I went kitten hunting in our garage. We wanted to figure out how many we were dealing with and to make sure we had anything off the ground they might get caught up in or injured on. We made up a box as a house for them, although we’re thinking it needs to be smaller and more nest like, so another will be made this week. We managed to catch 4 kittens, 2 gray ones and 2 blackish ones. They’re skittish around people since they’re feral. Two of them were a little calmer, so I held them for a few minutes. We’ll be trying to socialize them with people as often as we can.

The mom is coming around as well. I’ve been trying to stick around when I feed her and she’s now letting me pet her a bit. Yesterday she even rubbed on my legs once. This means she’s feeling much more comfortable around us and hopefully she’ll teach her kittens that we’re OK. This should make her much easier to catch her when it’s time to take her in for spaying.

I called the vet yesterday and they recommended not bringing in mom until the kittens are weaned, which we think will be in 2-3 weeks. We’re guessing the kittens are 5-6 weeks old because of their size and they still have their baby blue eyes (which usually change around 7 wks). By then the kittens will be ready for their first round of shots as well. I’ll talk to the vet since some offices will spay/neuter at 8 weeks and others wait until 4-6 months.

For a while we’re going to have a few more furry friends at Chiot’s Run and we’ll be doing our part by spaying & neutering all of these cats and hopefully finding good homes for a few of them. If these cats hadn’t moves into our garage they would continue to breed at an alarming rate. A female cat can have up to 3 litters of kittens each year giving birth to 2-9 kittens each time. Any female kittens can start having litters as early as 6 months. You can imagine that it doesn’t take long for things to get out of hand. Please take this as a reminder to spay and neuter your pet.

Have you ever had to spay/neuter a stray animal?