Ghost Kitties...

In the last couple months we've come home to find several abandoned animals at our place.

Living way up in the mountains, one would think people would not be so cruel as to drive into the middle of the wilderness to abandon their animals-and just as winter arrives.

But, they do.

A few years ago someone abandoned a litter of puppies. I caught them out of the corner of my eye as the four of them scampered by my window each of them struggling for footing in the snow. By the time I found my boots and made it outside, the coyotes had also found them and all that remained was a bloody patch in the snow at the edge of the clearing. It happened within seconds.

The cats that we've seen lately seem to go where dogs and other predators cannot. So far they seem safe from the Coyotes and Mountain Lions. They've claimed the couch on the front porch. They've decimated the mice population.

Meanwhile we can only catch one of them. The others are skittish and will only approach if there is a window separating us from them.

Considering how their prior owners treated them, this seems quite understandable.