Stairway Clean-up and Young Kitty Photos

I was looking at photos of how the yard looked when we first moved here and came across kitty photos from when they were young. For the last week it has rained a little in the afternoons which sends me inside or out into the world to resolve things that Puerto Rican government never seems to resolve (CRIM, Seguro, Hacienda). Here is a photo of Mars, Stripes and Blanco when they first appeared and were eating avocados under the tree at night. It was around this time last year and I remember wondering where they went when it rained? What did they eat besides geckos and avocados? How can they survive? At least they had each other.


Puff we think had a different mother. The trio above were stuck in the death log (Mars and Blanco anyway) and belong to Bepo. Puff we think was Bepo's sister's offspring but Feo (the sister) disappeared and never did have anything to do with any of her young anyway. We think Feo and Bepo were the two baby "factories" - we spayed Bepo and Feo was set to go in the week she disappeared. Puff is drinking from the lid of one of those yogurts that have granola on the top little cups. She was all alone and crying a lot. We put her on milk replacement but could never pick her up. That has changed a little but she doesn't like to be held.

Blanco and Mars were so tiny. They were on replacement too. At one point I took 5 or 6 cat litter buckets and lined them up outside so all the kitties had a dry place to sit when it rained. It took a long time for us to build trust with them.

Stripes still has the same perplexing little mouth but is happily sleeping on the bed (the people bed) right now. When you pick him up he plays dead and goes totally limp.

Chicken came to us with the real chickens and still remains a kind of solo cat. He is no older than 2 but doesn't have the bright eyes any more. He is still adorable.

The stair area (to the left) is redone now - I got tired of tall grass everywhere and of the solar lights getting buried. I got new pots (plastic is a bad choice - next time clay) and flowers better for that spot (Trinitaria/Bougainvillea was there). You can see little Tuca on the stairs.

This is the stair area before - lawn all the way to the stairs. In this photo it looks neat and clean but in real life it was messy all the time. My goal is to do things once - think through permanent solutions for problem areas and make them maintenance free (or at least require less maintenance)!

Rain rain rain. Today is just plain grey - was bright sun until about noon. Jeff used the trimmer this weekend since the grass was 4 feet tall. Hopefully with today's rain the little trees will shoot up a foot and be easier to see! It is easy to forget how small they all were. We have been here almost 2 years, but many trees have gone from seed to 12 feet! Most of the special fruit trees haven't grown as fast but still have gone from being 6 inches or so to being 3-5 feet. Now that we are getting rain I expect an explosion of flowers and new leaves!