My friend Brittney posted a link to this … perfect for a Friday!

Have a great weekend and welcome August!

Where feral cats also need shelter during the cold, storms, snow, sleet, and other bad weather conditions, they can be helped with a simple do-it-yourself project.  Ledda Marritz at Pawesome outlines how to provide shelter in seven easy steps (with six photos to accompany them).

While we tend to focus on  DIY projects for our own pets, critters like feral cats — who mostly live outside in colonies — also need creature comforts. Any animal that spends time outside  needs access to shelter, no matter what climate they’re in, to protect them from rain, cold, wind,  scorching heat, plagues of crickets, hail, tornadoes, what have you.

Photo from Urban Cat League.

H/T Brittney.

It’s hot here in the South right now.  So hot that even the little mean Alpha dog had to be brought inside.  But because of her dominance, she has to stay in her cage.

Even from her cage, she established dominance.  Here’s my Alpha, now the Omega.

She’s thinking, “Sheesh. What crawled up her craw?”

My  brother is here to re-do our ceiling from the “wind driven rain” damage we took on during the torrential rains of early May in the South.  He has two dogs: Cassi and Vicky.  Cassi is a huge black Labrador with a sweet disposition.   Vicky is a little terror – the alpha dog.

Last time they were here she bit the beejeepers out of our sweet Libby (an omega dog), so now Vicky is not allowed to play with my pooches.  She misbehaves, so this is where she now remains for visits.

The problem isn’t establishing her role as Alpha dog.  It’s that I also have an Alpha – Coco.  And once one of the two Alphas comes out on top – and it doesn’t matter which one it is – Vicky relentlessly challenges the other dogs, even when she’s already Alpha.

I am not a dog whisperer to figure this one out.  So she stays separated from the others I’m sad to report.

Evidently this is “abandoned kitten” week here at Animal Shak.  Although I had inspected the kitten – who is now named S.S. Turdley Sybil instead of Cali (S.S. stands for Satan’s sister named this after she bit my finger) – the fleas made their appearance.

I first went online to see what Mr. Internet had to say about getting fleas off kittens.  I didn’t want to douse her with chemicals that would make her sick.  I posted on my Facebook that we needed a solution.  Finally the vet was called and they assured me that there were baby cat doses of the flea solution that wouldn’t hurt the wee ones.

My online friends also suggested washing her in Dawn dishwashing soap, but to be careful not to get any in her eyes.  Another friend suggested putting out little saucers of beer to attract the fleas and subsequently drown them.

In the end, I went with the advice of my veterinarian and got the tiny tiny dosage of the manufactured stuff.  We also dosed our older cat because it had been three weeks and the vet said it wouldn’t hurt her.

I inspected the pet carrier closely and did see little black specks, evidence of flea poo.  This convinced me that we did do the right thing by treating her, our other animals, and the living areas.  We’ll keep a careful eye on her … at least until I convince the kids to let me give her to a good home (which I have found in Alabama).

Photo shows where she bit my finger yesterday.

Call me the Cat Whisperer.  We drove back out the old, windy road yesterday late afternoon, parked the car, called “Kitty kitty!” and listened.  We heard the pitiful “Mew mew mew…”

This time I had a can of cat food with me and the wisdom of adulthood to tell my daughters, “Shhhhh…. don’t scare the kitty. Be quiet and gentle.”

I put some cat food on a stick where the starving little thing would be lured a little ways out.  She went for it.  So I put more out, a little farther from the tree and fence line.  She came out to eat it, too.  Finally, I put a dab of cat food down within arm’s length and it was too good for a hungry kitty to resist.  I gently picked her up as she voraciously ate.

We’ve brought her home and ironically, she is a calico – just like yesterday’s photo.  Meet Cali…

Now we’ll have to see if our other cat (Kitty) can get used to her.

My daughters drove a friend home last night.  The route to his house included a dark, curvy road and in the middle of that dark, curvy road was a tiny abandoned kitten.

They drove all the way home to ask if they could rescue it.  I agreed, but emphasized that we’d try to find a good home for it.  Just because I said “Yes” it didn’t mean it was for OUR house.

When they drove back to find the kitten, it was behind a fence crying, “Mew mew mew.”

It wouldn’t come to them, so they finally had to give up.

Sometimes nature decides.

Photo of abandoned Izze by Psylight via flick creative commons.

One thing I love about my animals… we’re on vacation this week.  Everyone except Grandma, that is.  She’s home all alone, except she’s not.

Both dogs are sitting in the chair under her and the cat is in her lap.

I think the companionship of pets is a true blessing in so many lives.  Whether a busy, stressed person needs someone to help relax or an elderly person needs a companion, our four-legged friends are the perfect true friends.

My thanks to Libby, Cocoa, and Kitty for being there for Grandma this week.

Photo by EdenPictures via flickr creative commons.