Finally got a good pic of Carys' mom, Scooter

[Siwsan]

She moves from bowl to bowl which makes it hard to get a pic of her standing still. This morning she decided to cooperate so I'd leave her to her breakfast.

[jpak]

1. Does that kitty have a real home?

Looks awfully cold

[Siwsan]

4. She has a real 'den' shelter with other ferals, beneath the neighbor's den.

I've been feeding her for about 4 years, now. Her mom is Skittish. Skittish was the first feral that constantly showed up. Eventually she brought her kittens, Mittens the Kitten, Scooter, Spooky Jr and Tuxie. Only Scooter remains.

My niece made a fully insulated shelter that she is going to bring by. Hopefully I can lure more of the ferals to shelter on my property because the neighbor isn't a fan of animals.

[thatcrowwoman]

2. She's a beauty.

That thick luxurious coat and those beautiful green eyes. Carys was bound to be the little beauty she already is. They are as lucky to have you as you are to have them. Siwsan and the KitCats. What a great story unfolds here. Many thanks for caring and sharing!🥰
🕊thatcrowwoman

[Siwsan]

5. She is a sweet heart

Most mornings she lets me give her some scritches and pets.

I loved watching her with her kittens. She was such a good mom who brought her kittens over every single day, and never reactive negatively when I'd pick one up or bring out a cat teaser and play with them. Who knows - maybe she brought them to me knowing that I'd take care of them.

[SheltieLover]

3. Beautiful kitty!

[Siwsan]

6. She is a total fluff ball of sweetness

She, Lush and Spooky are the only fluffy ferals. Cinder and Smoke, Madoc's siblings, are fluffy as are two of Arthur's siblings.

[SheltieLover]

7. And the way she is looking at you with your camera...

[Siwsan]

8. I know!

Hopefully I can get one where she looks as sweet as she is.

[SheltieLover]

12. "Can't a diva eat in peace?"

Good luck getting a better pix of her. She just doesn't like the camera.

Maybe you could put up a security camera. With software, you should be able to get still pix.

[niyad]

9. Such a beautiful little girl.

[judesedit]

10. She is very pretty. I'm sorry that she was left or born outside

It's soooo cold. Thank goodness for that winter coat and thank goodness for you, Siwsan. I hope one day you can pet her.

[Siwsan]

11. The ferals seem to have a good sheltering place at the neighbors

And I do get to give her an occasional pet. I think she trusts me about as much as a totally feral cat can trust a human.

[1WorldHope]

13. Such brave animals.

Here in Lincoln they have a program that will help you do trap neuter release. Do you have a program like that there so they don't keep making more babies. Here they clip one ear so animal control knows to leave them alone. It keeps the colony together and they live happily ever after.

[Siwsan]

15. I wish they did

There is an animal rescue place, not too far from me, that will spay/neuter. They charge $40 for cats but if I take the TNR class the price goes down to $25 per cat. So, yes, I plan on taking the class! And ear tipping is mandatory for feral TNR, which is fine.

The problem is, they only do feral intakes on Wednesday and Friday.

[1WorldHope]

17. It is all consuming when you do it. It almost takes a team of people.

Trapping, transporting in the early morning. Need a team of college kids to agree to do the hard work. Then you do the rest. Feeding petting and keeping warm, which you already do. I love your pictures of you babies. I always look at them when you post.

[frogmarch]

14. Your kitties...

I love how you love them.

[Siwsan]

16. They are all so special to me.

During warmer weather I love to sit outside with a book and a glass of wine, and watch the ferals.

My inside fur babies rarely let me sit down without one or more of them on or next to me.

[wnylib]

18. Scooter is Carys' mother?

Didn't Carys' two siblings have cream coats with dark points on the ears and paws, like a Siamese or Himalayan?

It's almost as if Carys and her siblings had different fathers. Two ended up with color points and Carys ended up with tabby stripes. Scooter doesn't have points and if she has stripes, I can't see them in her pic.

[Siwsan]

19. Yes - Moon Dust and Space Boy are her Siamese looking siblings

It seems there's always one VERY different kitten in every litter. Madoc's siblings are solid color and very fluffy. Arthur is the only striped tabby in his litter. Two of his siblings are very fluffy and Freya is mostly black.

[wnylib]

20. According to my "big book" on cats,

all cats carry the tabby gene, even solid colored ones, so a solid cat can pass on tabby stripes to its offspring, depending on the genes of the cat that it breeds with. That's even true of Siamese, whose light coat and some alleles suppress the expression of the tabby gene. Cat coloring and coat patterns are complex, depending on a variety of genes that either enhance colors and patterns or suppress them, and also on mutations.

It's possible for a genetic line of cats to pass on a recessive gene for many generations without it being visible until the right mating with a cat who also has the recessive gene and the right combination of other genes for the trait to be "expressed" or visible.

But the colorpoint markings of Siamese are due to a mutation that is not commonly shared by most cats like the tabby gene is. So if kittens have colorpoint markings like Carys' siblings, it's likely that there is a Siamese in their recent ancestry, or some breed that derives from Siamese, like a Himalayan (which is fluffy).

If there is - or was - a Siamese, Himalayan, Burmese, etc. among the ferals, its genes and traits could be mixed into the feral colony in more than one cat in the colony. So some of those traits could appear where least expected, like Arthur's big ears, which look Siamese to me. Several of those ferals that you feed, plus others in the colony who don't come to your place, could be related over the generations, swapping ancestral genes back and forth.

The colorpoint markings were so noticeable in the siblings of Carys that they could have had a Siamese father and (Scooter?) might carry some unexpressed Siamese genes that matched up with the father to produce Carys' colorpoint siblings. Carys might have a different father than her litter mates.

[Siwsan]

21. I'm almost positive Bruiser is their father

They look just like him.

[wnylib]

22. I only remember seeing Bruiser's picture once.

Did he have some markings similar to Siamese or to cats whose breed derives from a Siamese mix?

[Siwsan]

23. I don't have any really good pics of him, but here's one

It's funny - Madoc has no typical tabby stripes or "M" on his forehead but in the right light I can see stripes on Gryff.

[wnylib]

26. Oh, yeah. Bruiser has colorpoint markings.

Could have some Siamese, Tonkinese, or Balinese ancestry. The white paws would be considered a "fault" by breeders.

Madocs stripes are suppressed by a piebald gene that gives him his black and white coloring.

Gryff has "ghost stripes" which sometimes show through in solid color cats, especially ones that are black or red. The M on the forehead often does not show up in solid color cats with ghost stripes.

[Siwsan]

27. Piebald is the word I've been searching for to describe Madoc's coat

I love Arthur and Carys' stripes.

[wnylib]

28. Those striped kitties are quite good looking.

Ember has a reddish M on her forehead, a single reddish stripe out of each eye, a black striped "double necklace," black stripes on her front legs and tail. She has the swirl pattern on her sides, like "classic tabby" stripes except that they look like a Salvatore Dali or Jackson Pollock abstraction because the swirl is composed of a mishmash of red, black, and gray, with some white ticking on the black. She has random streaks of red on her back, sides, and tail. Her face has a light reddish flush. There is a very small patch of white under her chin. And her eyes are outlined with white. Her coat markings are tortoiseshell tabby (aka torbie). Her mother had a strikingly beautiful calico coat. Ember has her mother's colors, but rearranged into a unique pattern of her own.

[Rhiannon12866]

24. What a beautiful cat, looks so much like my Felix...

[Rhiannon12866]

25. What a beautiful cat, looks so much like my Felix...

Who I also found outside and rescued...