Meet the "Wild Ones".....

Remember those five kittens that Old Ghost Kitty had awhile ago?  Well, here are three of them lounging around in the Fox Farm Cow Barn.

Such a nice little herd of "bat cats".

Those ears never cease to amaze us.  Every kitten OGK has comes equipped with big, beautiful bat ears.  Its such an endearing little feature.......

What, no popcorn???

With movie camera in hand, Peyton tried to catch up on all the "cat movies" taken at Barn Cat Mansion and Fox Farm since her last visit.  Big Kitty is the star of most movies and that makes Socks pretty jealous.

He got up on Peyton's knee and tried everything he could think of to get her to stop watching the "Chronicles of Bumble Butt".

Too bad Socks!! 
She's ignoring you!! :)

Anybody want a double double??

Have you ever heard the saying "it never rains but it pours"?  Well, that's what happening in the cat world at Fox Farm and Barn Cat Mansion.

On Friday, Tim Horton's sister, Timbit showed up. Now we have two cool kittens  and we spotted one more that sort of looks like a white faced tabby.  If we catch it,

we might call it Coffee.

Nearly extinct!!

Some of our favorite summer flowers at Barn Cat Mansion are

Brown Eyed Susans.

Actually, they're wild brown eyed susans.
We used to have a lot of wild tiger lilies until two little boys picked most of them off the hillside, about 25 years ago.  A beautiful, gigantic bouquet presented to their mother/stepmother caused almost a total decimation of the flower in the area. 

Don't worry.  They have made an amazing comeback and should be back to normal in another 25 years. :)

Donuts anyone??

Now this was a surprise!!   At  Fox Farm yesterday, some flowers were looking kind of "weak" in the heat.  While turning on the outside tap to get a jug of water, a little rustle in the bushes caught our attention.
Right there amid the thistles and hollyhocks, was this little grandchild of Suckee.  Who knew Socks and a Ghost Kitty could have a kitten that looks exactly like its grandmother!!
He already has a name and its Tim Horton

........that's kind of weird.....

A new Hillside Warrior???

Some new people moved into the farm a couple miles north of Fox Farm.  They came from beautiful British Columbia, and brought this magnificent creature with them.  He was climbing a hill, with his herd of longhorn cows one morning and paused for this photo.  The ears and color show he has some Brahma blood in him, but he doesn't have enough loose skin or a big enough hump to be pure Brahma.
Might be a longhorn Brahma cross but in any case, he sure is cute!

One year old and aging fast.....

Hiding in the weeds.....

Hypnotizing all who happen to see him there.....

Plotting his next escapade.....

Believing the world revolves around him and him alone....

Never has there been a more confident cat....

Forget all we just said and say

Happy Birthday, Pinkerton!!

All's well that ends well...

Socks spent the better part of one day waiting on top of the Nissan for someone to take him to Barn Cat Mansion.  We knew he would wear out and come into the shop.  We didn't know he would fall sound asleep, using someones chair as a pillow.

The feud is officially over.  You gotta know that with the attention span of a cat, nothing lasts forever. Pinkerton moved on to bigger and better things and the little ones can stay home. 
Yay!!

We're out of here!!!

"Cute" and "Adorable" know that a feud is brewing between Fox Farm and Barn Cat Mansion.  They also know that its all because of them.

So, with sad eyes and heavy hearts, they've decided to do what any child would do in this situation.

The day after tomorrow, they will run away from home.

No kitties!!  Don't do it!!

Call the police!!!!

If Socks can find a driver, he's headed for Barn Cat Mansion.

He's sitting in his favorite spot, right on top of the Nissan.  He tried to hitch a ride on the roof once before, but was caught as the truck went down the driveway.  Okay Socks. We see you there, but you're not staying there. 

Alberta has seat belt laws, you know.

Uh-oh!!!!

"C'mon up, Socks. "

Pinkerton accepts the challenge.
Tom cat against tom cat.
Farm cat against Mansion cat.

What Socks doesn't know is that Pinkerton was once a Fox Farm cat and son of the infamous Old Ghost Kitty, ultimate scrapper and defender of farm cats everywhere.

That makes him a Ghost Kitty and more dangerous than any son of Suckee could ever be.

Hey Socks!!  Bring it on!!!

Them's fightin' words!!

Socks heard about the battle waging way up in the hills at Barn Cat Mansion.  Life is good at Fox Farm with only one resident tom cat.  Being a quiet, calm hunter of mice, Socks has no time for the likes of Pinkerton and his temper tantrums. 

He squinted his eyes, clenched his fist and sent this message directly to the unruly resident at Barn Cat Mansion:

Don't make me come up there, boy!!

Hi Tipster!!

Here's the little lady who rescued a  litter of kittens from certain death, way out in the field at least 5 years ago.  We were walking out to see the horses when a little voice piped up and said.

"Look!  Kittens!
In the middle of nowhere were four tiny kittens.  One became known as Bumble Bee Lion King Orangey Butt and thus began an adventure that would lead to the creation of Barn Cat Mansion. Her name is Peyton and its her love of cats that makes Cattails a fun story to tell.

Maybe pay attention!!

Little Weaver Too not only stuck her nose in the cat picture, she tried to take a chomp out of the photographer.

Remember!  When sitting on the ground in the middle of a corral, anything can happen.

First, she grabbed the shoe laces, lifted the foot and dropped it.

Next, she tried to pick up the whole leg.

That's when I had to put my foot down!!

See no evil.....;/

Smoke was watching the goings on at the Mansion with baited breath, but finally she up and closed her eyes.

She's had enough!

Pinkerton was one of the Babies of the Mansion last year, but this year he's all grown up..............well at least he should be!

Leave the children alone and get on with your life.   Try catching a mouse in your spare time!  It  takes skill and patience..... something one Hillside Warrior seems to be lacking...:/

Is she just being nosey?

Tipster and TOT lean precariously over the side of the trough to see what Pinkerton is doing down there.  You can barely see a pink ear at the bottom of the photo.

When "cute" and "adorable" didn't show up at the last ambush, Hillside Warrior set up shop under the feed trough.  What he's planning next is anybodies guess. 

Maybe the "orangeys" above can talk some sense into the "pinky" below.

By the way, why do you suppose the horse had to go and stick her nose into this dilemma?

A cat with a plan....

Whiskers' brother watches carefully for a chance to run for the sunny side of the barn.  He knows Pinkerton is lurking somewhere in the neighborhood, but hasn't figured out where.  Whiskers hopes to divert the Hillside Warrior while this kitten tears around the back side of the Mansion and meets up with his mother, who will protect him with her life.

With any luck a mouse will run directly past Pinkerton and he'll take after it, allowing Whiskers to sneak past and get her picture taken with the family.
Good plan, kitties!

Flying above the radar...

Pinkerton heard that those little "darlings" have been taking the high road and avoiding any area that the pink cat occupies.

He's about to put and end to that!!

After cleaning every part of his body, and we mean EVERY single part, he perched on a broken gate on the corner, outside of the Mansion.  A photo shoot is planned for the sunny side.  "Cute" and "adorable" are invited.

Pinkerton will wait until he sees the whites of their eyes..... then......Little ones!  Look out!!

Photo op!!.....

Its Friday morning and something happened last night with the cat food.  Someone left the lid off the pail, and

the dogs helped the cats eat every last morsel.

So, off we drove for the 12 mile trek to town.  About 2 miles from the Mansion, we spotted this big, shiny bull moose, sauntering around in the hot summer sun. We slammed on the brakes and got a few photos before he wandered into the willows.

Cleanliness is next to Catliness!

Pinkerton left his "attack station" long enough to spruce up a few body parts.  After all, Clean Cat Inspections can happen any day, any time and any where!

If Thursday is the day, he'll be half ready.  But if its Friday, like it was last week, he still has most of today to tidy up any "loose ends"

like his tail, for instance!

(after he finishes his front leg)

He'll never find you there!

Would you take a look at that!  The kittens found a place to sit way off the ground and pretty much right above Pinkerton's ambush location.

They even put their mad faces on!

Nobody can blame them for being so "cute" and "adorable", not even the pink cat that's stalking them.  Give up, Pinkerton.  There's room in this Mansion for everyone.

.....good luck with that!!!!

Back in the Mansion, Pinkerton found an ideal spot to wait for the "cute" and "adorable" little  "pains" to pass by.

They will be in for a rude awakening. 

NOBODY takes the spotlight away from a suave and debonair, cool cat like the Hillside Warrior.

If he tackles the first one and swats the second, they should be under control before their mother. H"C"S even knows whats going down...... :/

The wheels are turning....

Time out is the most boring thing ever!

Now Pinkerton must seek revenge.  After all, he is the Hillside Warrior! Who really cares about clean ears when there are way more important things to think about.

Take for instance, those two little cats that are "so cute" and "so adorable" that have taken over the Mansion.

Pinkerton will find a way to get attention away from those little ones and back where it belongs - on him!

Awwwww,,,,,,,,

While we're waiting for Pinkerton to get out of time out, have a look at Whiskers!

A
D
O
R
A
B
L
E

Don't you wish they could stay little forever?

Tough love.....

Some kids are sent to the corner.  Others are sent to their room.  Even others are sent to bed.

Pinkerton was sent to the Time Out Board.

He can just sit there until he realizes cats are responsible for cleaning "every" part of their own body....even their ears!!  When you figure this out, Pinkerton, OT is waiting for you.

Listen up, Pinkerton!!

Embarrassed to no end is how Pinkerton is feeling at this moment.  This never happens on Friday!!

But it happened on this Friday!!

Random inspections for cleanliness, conducted by OT can happen at any time.   Like Old Ghost Kitty at Fox Farm, Orangey Tail expects all Barn Cat Mansion cats to be clean.....from top to bottom (so to speak) every day of the week.

Today, she found a seriously large patch of dirt in one of Pinkerton's ears. 

Pinkerton knows he's in trouble now.  When OT gets mad, she stays mad!

It won't help to close your eyes, or your ears, for that matter, Pinkerton.  The damage is already done!!

Clean and sparkly!!

Here's the oddball kitten in the litter of five Ghost Kitties.  It really is cute in a homely kind of way.

That Old Ghost Kitty sure keeps her babies clean and shiny anyway.  Look at the pure white face on the little darling.  And his ears are pretty clean too!

Here's hoping those blue eyes turn green.  It would be so nice to have more green eyed cats because we're so tired of golden eyed cats.

You're thinking "picky. picky, PICKY!!!"

You're right.  We're just lucky to have so many healthy little ones.  Some families only ever get to have one or two kittens in their lives.

Tom cat for sale....

Can you believe this?!!  Its a face only a mother could love......and this is the cutest one, not counting the orange white face!

We have to formulate a plan to get the Fox Farm cats to have less pointy and more flat faced kittens next time around.  Perhaps we could sell Socks, and replace him with 
Tipster.  Yes!  Problem solved!!

After all, Black Jack Meanioni and Stripe didn't show up at all this spring. :(

Outsmarted her this time!

Aha!  Yesterday, we fooled OGK and found her stash!  There are actually five of these little pointy faced gremlins, but only four huddled for the photo.  Look closely at the one on the right.  If that piece of straw wasn't there, you would see that little thing is hissing at us.

There's never anything happy about Ghost Kitties!

Stay tuned......

GONE!!  They seem to be gone!!

Old Ghost Kitty guarded her kittens until we left and then she moved them.  At least that's what we think happened.

This is the perfect spot for barn kittens.  Straw bales stacked haphazardly, leaving gaps and holes where a litter of kittens can easily go undetected for weeks.

Today, we'll quietly sneak up to a barn window and see if the babies are out playing at any point in time, somewhere else in the barn.  

Where's a leprechan when you need one?!!

Today was our lucky day, to begin with.  This afternoon we found Old Ghost Kitty's kittens in the barn at Fox Farm.  You can just imagine our delight!!  Of course no one had a camera.

So, back we went to get the camera.  Wouldn't you know it!  Our luck had run out.   Somehow, OGK realized her stash was found.  Now Old Ghost Kitty is far from friendly and the only picture we got was of her standing guard.

Don't even try to see those kittens if she's around.

Maybe tomorrow our luck will change and she'll be hunting when we return with the camera.