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April 12, 2006
Nature
So at the moment we have five cats. Four are indoors cats, and then there's Geraldine, a feral-in-residence. (Which may or may not be more alluring than an artist-in-residence. We probably wouldn't be allowed to touch one of those, either.) We've been feeding Geraldine for more than a year, but over the past couple of months she's decided that she lives here, and she's allowed us to get quite close to her—if we have food in hand.
Geraldine is apparently sterile. We've observed that she goes into season, but she doesn't have kittens.
But now that she's our feral-in-residence, when she goes into season, the Seventh Fleet lands in our back yard. My desk overlooks the back yard. So for the past three days I've been treated to one scene after another in which Geraldine entertains the Seventh Fleet, especially Boss, Tiny, Romeo, Chesty, and Boston Blackie. She seems perfectly amenable to all this, but the cat must be exhausted. As a person who's always neutered her pets, I have very little experience with females in heat. So I don't know how long this will last, but I'm hoping it's drawing to a close. Because indoors, two spayed females, Ruth and Luigi, are making life hell for our neutered male, Fred. I guess spayed females are kind of the Andrea Dworkins of the feline world, and they are punishing the nearest available male for the sins that his gender is inflicting on theirs.
Posted by senioritis at April 12, 2006 09:49 AM
Comments
I have this vision of a feral artist-in-residence roaming around the back porch, waiting for you to put out a cup of espresso...
Posted by: susansinclair at April 12, 2006 10:31 AM
Very close, but it's a cup of Alpo rather than espresso. . . .
Posted by: senioritis at April 12, 2006 10:43 AM
I just don't think Alpo would keep an artist-in-residence happy...that watercolorist/nature writer needs some sun tea, at least...
Posted by: susansinclair at April 12, 2006 01:10 PM
::crosses fingers Geraldine *is* sterile::
Posted by: madeline at April 13, 2006 12:58 PM