So, it's been two weeks that I've had Waldo now. One reason I haven't blogged much lately is because I didn't want to disturb him, as his space for now is in my office.

I would like to say we've made progress. Small progress, but for a feral cat, you learn to take things slowly. For one, he's eating now. Still just one meal daily, and only after dark. That's after five days of not eating at all when I first got him. I was on the phone daily with the shelter volunteers. I was afraid he would die in my office. It was pretty frightening; since he didn't trust me, there wasn't much I could do.

Now that he is eating, I can at least get a half a dose of the meds the vet gave me for his abscessed tooth. (He's supposed to get it twice daily.)

One other small sign of progress: he doesn't seem to have that wide-eyed, terrified look he had whenever he saw me that first week or so. He is still hiding and I haven't touched him, but I leave the radio on for him when I'm at work and I try to spend as much time as I can with him at night and on weekends, just talking to him, playing with Luther and so on.

Luther does whatever he can to get Waldo to interact/play with him, but Waldo for the most part is quite stoic and doesn't move unless he must. Luther will mock-charge him, paw at him, roll around in front of him and stretch his paws out. I think they will get along fine, once Waldo settles in.

I'm moving forward with plans to convert my screened porch into a sun room. I'm working with a builder who came highly recommended, and in fact his price is quite reasonable, or let's just say, it wasn't sky-high.

The plan is to install six energy-efficient, double-hung windows, which will qualify me for the 30% federal tax credit, plus my state will waive sales tax, though I can't be sure the builder will pass that sales tax savings on to me. It's all just part of his total cost.

I'm also getting a single French door. The porch door I have now is smaller than normal, so we're going with a standard-sized opening, 36" wide, which means he'll have some cutting to do. All windows and doors will have tilt clean function and have the grills inside the glass so they're easy to clean. There'll be an 18" high wall below the windows; on the outside, will be stone facade; on the inside, I'm having him construct a built-in bench along both walls under all the windows. The side of the bench will be covered in either beadboard or 4" wide paneling, which should look nice. I'll get cushions to fit the benches, and the cats will be able to jump up and look out the windows. I think it'll be a nice touch.

When the porch is done, I'll go ahead and get a ceiling fan as it gets quite hot in there.

I'm pretty excited about the projects. The windows are on order now; it'll be a few weeks before he starts.



These are alliums (onion family) in bloom. Aren't they beautiful? Best of all, deer won't touch 'em.


This is a doublefile viburnum. It's one of my favorites, partly because i planted it when it was little more than a 12" high twig. It's one of my best success stories. Birds nest in there.


I have a lot of ground phlox. It grows and transplants so easily.


Lily of the valley makes a nice ground cover. It's growing in my lawn and i'd like to move it all to a better location, though this patch here is under a rhododendron.


I've also found that ferns, which grow wild on my property, also transplant easily.