52 Weeks of Animals

Over the weekend I decided to start up a new photography project.  Project 365 is a little much for me, so I decided to do a themed Project 52 focusing on only animals, since they are my favorite subject anyway.  Two years ago I did a general Project 52 with no theme and successfully finished it, so hopefully I'll be successful with this one as well.

I'm kicking off the project with a photo of Big Worm I snagged the other day while he was cat napping on the porch.

Settling

Finally - we're starting to settle into the new house.  We finished up work on the old house this week and the renters move in on Monday.  I'll be so glad not to see that place for a while.  The dog fence posts are being installed today and will continue on Monday and possibly Tuesday. Hopefully by end of day Tuesday we will have a completed fence for these dogs.  They need their running room and ability to free roam!  They are getting a little more than an acre all to themselves with plenty of trees and open areas.  They are going to love it!

We managed to capture Big Worm about a week after we actually moved.  He's elusive and we had to go to the house at 10:30 one night in order to get him. By that time he was pretty hungry so I was able to coax him into eating some canned food inside his carrier.  He was pretty leery but hunger won out and I was able to shove him in the cat carrier and close the door before he was able to remove one of my appendages.  He was not happy at all.  Once we got him to the new house, after much ruckus and mewling in the truck, we let him out of the carrier and he took off.  We didn't see him for three days.  Finally I found his hiding spot under the back porch.  Jason fed him some tuna laced with dewormer and we Frontlined him for fleas and since then he's been hanging with us on the porch in the evenings.  As you can see, he was not a happy camper at first, but he's coming around.

We're loving all the wildlife that we've been seeing.  We have a resident pair of humming birds that we see on a daily basis.  Lots of rabbits, frogs and dragonflies.  Unfortunately also a lot of houseflies that are driving us nuts.  We've seen a few deer and woke up one morning to 3 wild turkey strutting around the yard.  Now that things have settled down I'll be trying to get some photos of some of the creatures we see.  Here is a Waved Sphinx Moth that spent an entire night and day on our screen door.

Hopefully I'll get back to my regular postings again and I plan to start Project 52 up soon as well.  Happy Friday!  

Big Worm

Project 365: 99/365



Big Worm lives on our front porch.  He's been around for about 9 years now and first showed up as a skinny, worm infested stray.  He doesn't have very good any people skills and it's rare for me to get a decent shot of him.

Kitteh Prints (Project 365: 40/365)

Big Worm is our cat, a stray who showed up 9 years ago and decided to stay, thus he lives outside.  He has a heated, insulated cat box on our covered front porch that he stays in when it's cold.  I can put my hand in that box anytime he is in there and feel the heat so I know he stays warm enough.  Today I could tell that he recently left the box due to the kitty trail he left on the porch steps.  (I'll add a link in a couple of days on how to build the insulated kitty box).

How to build an insulated cat box - step by step instructions and photos.

Big Worm (Project 365: 12/365)

Big Worm landed himself on our doorstep about 9 years ago. He was skin and bones, full of fleas and, you guessed it, full of worms. He's all healthy and neutered and stuff now, but rarely allows photos. He's an outdoor cat and we built him a heated cat box that sits on the front porch. The box is made out of a thick Styrofoam fish cooler with the lid screwed on and a hole cut in the side just big enough for Worm to crawl through. We then cut some laminate floor padding in strips to hang over the door to keep the drafts out, threw in a heated blanket and a fleece cover. He uses it all the time in the winter.

Sam (Project 365: 10/365)

This is Sam, one of my mother-in-law's two cats.  We were visiting today and Sam and his roomie Sylvester were all cuddled up together in their heated box.  His ear folds over because had a blood vessel burst in his ear and it filled with blood, which eventually healed.  The ear flop is called a clover ear - thanks Matthew! (This can also happen when they have a bad case of ear mites.)   You can't tell his size well from the photo, but he is one, huge, fluffy kitteh!

The weekend was busy, but good.  We got to spend a lot of time with Portia.  She's headed back home now and we won't see her again until sometime next month due to the next 3 weekends being booked up by her plans and ours.  Blue is improving.  He's still on cage rest and probably will be for a while.  He goes back to the vet on Thursday.

Rats and Cats (Video)

My friend Jenn sent this YouTube video to me the other day and I just had to post it!  I have so many rat owners that read my blog that I know it will be appreciated!  I sure do miss having pet rats.  They are so much fun and so curious about everything.  They really do make great pets.  For more information on keeping rats as pets check out my RatPalace site for tons of information.  (Note: Not all cats get along with pet rodents - please take care in introducing different animal species!)

Feed the Pups!

I came across this cool site on someone's blog the other day and thought it was a really cool way to help feed needy dogs and cats. You simple go to the site, play the trivia question of the day and whether you get the answer right or wrong your participation helps to send kibble to shelter dogs and cats.

Click on the banners below and play along! It's fun and a good cause! You can even add a link banner from your own site or blog. :)

Feed the pups:





Feed the cats: