Don Barrett (aka DBs travels)'s photos with the keyword: family

Picture posted in honor of National Feral Cat Day, October 16.

That's a hiss for interrupting his/her dinner. Picture posted in honor of National Feral Cat Day, October 16.

Though too fearful of us and did not survive, they were quite endearing in their own ways. October 16 is National Feral Cat Day, a good day to see how your local shelter handles feral cats, or to contact www.alleycat.org

Picture posted in honor of National Feral Cat Day, October 16.

Though Reevo let me get fairly close here, and would even come to the door to tell me it was dinner time, she had been feral for quite some time when we met and any attempt to touch her resulted in deep scars, thus the ongoing and untreatable eye infection she had. The kittens seemed to quickly pick up the fear of humans, and kitten claws are like very finely honed knives. Picture posted in honor of National Feral Cat Day, October 16.

Reevo and two of her kittens, all feral (taken in 2005). We were eventually able to trap Reevo and get her fixed, unfortunately the kittens did not survive. October 16 is National Feral Cat Day, a time to rethink the feral cats in our lives. Picture posted in honor of National Feral Cat Day, October 16.

Sunday (10/2/2011), he showed up at my back door early in the morning. I put food out for him and he was fairly active off and on during the day. This photo was taken in the late afternoon, through a screen door. He seems better now and comfortable hanging around near my back door during the day, but he also won't let me get near him. When I go outside to feed him, he runs back into the cactus -- but then comes back to eat once I've gone inside. Update: On Monday, 10/3, he was romping around the back yard in the morning acting like a healthy dog, even the eye infection had apparently cleared. When I went to put out some food he ran away (which is what he had done in the past), but when I went back inside he only came and sniffed the food, he didn't eat it. We didn't see him again, by noon it was clear he had somehow crawled under the back fence and left. We left food out for a couple of days, but he didn't come back. Hopefully he is okay and can find his way back if he ever again needs a safe haven for a few days.

Though he seemed to be doing very poorly, I put some food nearby and then left and the food was eaten when I returned.

On Saturday (10/1) he disappeared and I eventually discovered that he had crawled into some cactus to a location where I could not reach him. He seemed to be doing very poorly, responding only a little when I tapped him with a stick to see how he would respond. He stayed that way most of the day on Saturday

On Thursday, 9/29, we discovered a dog leaning against the gate to our back yard. When we first discovered him, he was cowering and shaking, but after just sitting with him for some time he stopped shaking. He clearly hadn't been cared for in some time, and would not let anyone get close. Eventually, though, with food we enticed him into the back yard where he would be safer.

So, how're you supposed to be productive when you've got 3 cats sleeping around you? One (Betsy,in the distance) dozing off on the number pad and adding odd digits to what you're typing, one (Oz, in the middle) limiting the range on the (left-handed) mouse, and one (Bear, the closest) debating whether to doze or keep an eye on the others....

Considering that Zach is quite big and they're no longer kittens, I was surprised to see Oz climb up into the chair with Zach.