Our old visiting raccoon, Happy, who is partially blind and mostly deaf, is looking much, much better than she did a couple of weeks ago and we think that’s due to having access to good kibble. Sure, the food is out there for the daytime visiting strays and ferals, but we’re okay with her chowing down if she’s hungry.
Happy at lunchtime – © Colehauscats.com
A couple of weeks ago, we were certain Happy wasn’t going to be around much longer. She was sneezing horribly and looked so ragged and thin. And she walked so slowly, it was painful to watch. Now, she’s no longer sneezing and she may even have gained a pound or two! She still walks slowly, but not as slowly as she did weeks ago. Maybe she has arthritis and if so, the cold, wet weather can’t be doing her much good.
Happy at Dinnertime – © Colehauscats.com
After months of whining about how our area is breaking all kinds of rainfall records (yet another record smashed for the month of April just this week), last week we had one and a half sunny, warmish days, in a row, and half of the flowers in the garden seemingly opened all at once.
Our east side backyard – © Colehauscats.com
In our backyard, on the east side everything tends to bloom at once. About three weeks later, things bloom along the back. Lastly, about three weeks after that, things bloom over on the west side. It’s all about sun exposure, someone once mentioned. Okay… we’re just happy everything doesn’t bloom all at once, even though it might seem like it is.
Bright Tulips – © Colehaus.com
Azalea Crater Lake – © Colehaus.com
White Trillium – © Colehauscats.com
Pink Rhododendron – © Colehaus.com
Soft lavender creeping phlox – © Colehaus.com
Creamy Pink Rhododendron – © Colehaus.com
Though possible, we don’t get too many rainbows during the winter months – not enough sun. But during spring, our weather goes from sunny one minute to a downpour the next and a brilliant rainbow after that. Sometimes, two or even three rainbows are seen.
Double rainbow from a back window – © Colehaus.com
Our squirrel feeder hangs on the fence and if, from inside, you lean over the corner kitchen sink and look though the west side window, you can see whether the feeder is occupied or empty. If a squirrel is just sitting there looking at you through the window, you can bet the feeder is empty. Okay rodent, we’ll get some nuts out there soon.
A curious squirrel – © Colehauscats.com
Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a CAT BLOG. Okay, we’ve had three new visitors this month.
1 – A solid gray tank of a cat, we suspect a true feral by the looks of him(?) and how terrified of people he is. We’ve yet to see his face but could identify him in a lineup by his backside alone.
2 – A gray and black tabby with white socks cutie who we think is less than a year old. It walks our fence occasionally and we’ve yet to get out there in time to call to it.
3 – This black and white fluffy one who sadly, we have only seen once and couldn’t get within twenty feet of.
Someone new – © Colehauscats.com
Someone new close up – © Colehauscats.com
Sweet Teese still visits twice a day, once in the early dawn hour and once later in the afternoon. The thing with Sweet Teese is… she’s a drooler. BIG TIME drooler. Just say her name twice and she gets all lovey-dovey and slobbers all over the place. Could this be why she’s an outside cat and not an inside cat? Could be. If she were our inside cat, we’d have to mop the floors hourly… but we’d take her to the vet first to make sure some condition wasn’t making her drool so much.
Petting Sweet Teese – © Colehauscats.com
Lastly, if you remember, we took down our bird feeder in late January because there are just too many outside cats in our neighborhood now. Cats plus birds at feeders equals bird feasts. Most of our regulars have flown the coup permanently and other than the occasional blue jay fly-by, there’s not many birds out there now. But that’s not to say we don’t notice an odd one every now and then. Like this…. this… thing that we think might have been a turkey vulture. Eeks!
What is that thing? – © Colehauscats.com
What is it? – © Colehauscats.com
It was sitting for over an hour on a skylight at a neighbor’s house and we took these photos from our kitchen window (which was as close as we could get). The good thing is we saw Happy and all the new visitors after we saw this bird-thing so we weren’t worried too much about what or who it might have been eating. Even so, people, keep your pets INSIDE. Turkey vultures are about!
That’s about it. Have a great weekend. See you again in May!
Wow we loved your double rainbow!! How lovely that Sweet Teese comes to visit you often and he gets enough to eat with you.
Happy is a very cute raccoon. How wonderful she is getting better!
Your backyard looks like a dreamland. Blooming flowers are so colorful and beautiful!
You have the most beautiful yard. Not to mention, very welcoming!
Your yard is lovely.
Aquelas flores são deslumbrantes!
Vocês tem visitantes muito bonitos, espero que Feliz se recupere de
suas dores.
Bom final de semana!
Holy cat! That’s a HUGE bird! Your tulips are gorgeous – tulips are my favorite and I really like the red/yellow ones. Sounds like your backyard is the happenin’ place these days … these precious babies are lucky you’re there to feed, pet, and watch over them 🙂
Whoooooooooooooooooooa look at all those gorgeous posies!!
For sure you are having visitor diversity too
Hugs madi your bfff
Rain and storms change a lot of bird patterns. Glad you saw Happy, and everything is lovely! Truly worth all the work and the wait. I’m surprised, but maybe not, that in two such different climates we have many of the same plants, even the same color rhododendrons, and my favorite trillium.
Oh what a lovely blog every day but today is especislly do. The garden is beautiful! That baby at the fence has a feminine face that looks so pleading. Now, I haven’t had a turkey vulture visit. Yet.
I love this post! All of your visitors are just too cute, and they sure are lucky to have somewhere so nice to dine. I am a huge fan of raccoons, and I’m so glad Happy is looking better. I have a couple of new kitty visitors at my feeding station as well. One of them is a brown tabby who I’m thinking was abandoned. He is very skittish, but also very territorial. I believe he’s the reason why the years long resident feral is making fewer and fewer visits, which does worry me. Oh, and your garden is gorgeous!
OMB yep that is a turkey Vulture!Your garden looks beautiful and we are glad that old raccoon is doing better with a little help from you guys even if its meant for the kitties,xx Speedy
Really, you can post about anything…you make the rules! Funny, our raccoons haven’t shown up recently and I wonder where they are. They wash their hands in The ‘O’ Cats water bowl at night, but the water has been crystal clean. I spied a new cat across the street yesterday, and the cat ran up to me! She hissed loudly at Patty, but I saw her clipped ear, meaning someone got her spayed and is feeding her. Yay!
your flowers are simply glorious! What a gorgeous garden! That kitty that drools looks like Arty Mouse did……..I heard that it is mating season for wild turkeys is that what that was?
We don’t have any wild turkeys in our area at all, but at this point, we’d believe it was that, a turkey vulture, a weird duck, a weirder and fat chicken. Anything!
I’m so glad to hear that Happy is doing better! You have a lot of kitty visitors! But then… so do we!
Such wonderful photos! Thanks for making sure that Happy is as happy as can be.
I am glad the raccoon is feeling better. You sure have a lot of cats around, I wish they all had good homes.
Wow, it’s looking great around the Colehaus! You sure have a lot of kitty visitors. We wouldn’t be very happy with those guys hanging around our house.
I love your visitors! Happy is so sweet…how wonderful that he’s able to find good meals at your house. People need to learn to be kinder to backyard wildlife.
Definitely a turkey vulture. They are carrion feeders – not going to swoop down and carry off a small animal.
My outdoor cats share their food with 2 raccoons, a possum, the neighbor’s intact tom, and at least one feral. One of my own is prone to UTIs so I have to secrete his UR formula while everyone else chows down on Chow.
wow!! what great visitors you have!! Nice to hear Happy is doing better–and don’t worry about the turkey vulture (who you did ID correctly!) they will eat solely already dead food so your pets are safe! You were lucky to get so close — i just love those ugly birds!!
We are glad the old raccoon is doing better. you have pretty flowers and cute visitors!
Your garden is gorgeous! It’s so nice that you are able to have so much of nature come visit you right in your own back yard.
Your flowers are beautiful 🙂 Glad Happy is doing better. That is a turkey vulture and like hairballsandhissyfits said they are clean up crew so don’t worry 🙂
Happy is a lucky raccoon to have found you. What a beautiful garden, your flowers are all so pretty ! Purrs
That turkey vulture looks scary, but hopefully it won’t bother anybody there. We love that Happy’s doing well. And why wouldn’t all those visitors come to your garden? It’s beautiful, with all your lovely plantings.
Oh, Happy must feel really happy now having furriends like you around. Thank Cat he is feeling better. We love your garden. The flowers are so beautiful <3 I think you there are a lot of angels surrounding you, kitties, with so many rainbows. Pawkisses for a wonderful rainfree day 🙂 <3