First Visit With Nikki And Mary Jane

On August 24, I went to Town Cats of Morgan Hill to visit. Town Cats is a private non-profit organization with the mission of maintaining a no-kill shelter for the cats awaiting for adoption. The facility is located in an industrial park occupying two units of the industrial space. There were close to 100 cats lounging and walking around with several volunteers working on caring for and cleaning after them. http://www.towncats.org/

I saw two cats that look exactly the same, assuming that they were littermates, I tentatively asked to be considered to be their mom. Lo and behold, Nikki and Mary Jane have no relationship to each other; Nikki is about 4-5 years old, born a stray in an apartment/trailer park in Morgan Hill while Mary Jane is 1-2 years old taken from a shelter in San Jose when her time there was "up".

Nikki, a very shy 4-5 year old, was trapped in an apartment/trailer park; stayed at Town Cats for 3 years, was adopted but returned. Another 1-1/2 years passed before I adopted her. This is her file photo on the website of Town Cats.

Mary Jane is a happy girl who loves to eat. I took this picture when I visited Town Cats on August 24. She does not have a "file photo", neither was she on the website of Town Cats.

Nikki And Mary Jane Join Our Family

Town Cats prefer to place their cats in indoor homes. My purpose of having cats is to balance the population of squirrels and rodents in our yard/barn. Having indoor-only cats would defeat my purpose. Rosi, the head of Town Cats, and I reached a compromise: she would provide a cat condo for me to cage Nikki and Mary Jane for a period of time to have them imprint on me and our yard.

On August 31, Bobby of Town Cats came to my home with the condo and Town Cats volunteer Mary transported Nikki and Mary Jane in her car. Bobby set up the cat condo in my barn and put Nikki and Mary Jane into the condo; he and Mary also examined our yard.

My rabbit barn, also home to Nikki and Mary Jane.

Mary Jane at the top and Nikki at the bottom. Litterbox has yet to be filled and only water is available when the condo is first set up.

Nikki and Mary Jane can observe the "weird" animals that are called English Angora rabbits living their lives in the barn.

Life In A Cat Condo

Nikki (back) and Mary Jane (front) look like two peas in a pod.

Cage is not meant for cats; in order to adjust to a new home, Nikki at the bottom and Mary Jane at the top are accepting their living arrangement.

It's a little boring for Nikki and Mary Jane, but they make do with what they have.

Mary Jane is more adventurous, she is happy to have her head sticking out for a scratch.

First Time Out for Nikki and Mary Jane

Nikki (R) and Mary Jane (L) are let out for the first time.

Nikki (L) and Mary Jane (R) find a shady spot to spend their free time.

Patrol Duty

Let's go check out the yard.

Ah, some down tree limbs...

Any hidden squirrels???

Mary Jane to Nikki, "Hurry up, we got a lot of work to do."