Happy Gotcha Day to our Ivy!

Ivy's official Gotcha Day is Sept. 4 but with the holiday weekend coming up we thought we would post it early and celebrate all weekend so ya'll can come by!

It has only been 5 years since we caught Ivy to bring her inside - seems like forever! We have been caring for her since 1999 when she was about 6 months old living our yard and just had a litter of kittens. She was skinny and pitiful looking so Mom put out food for her not knowing there was a feral colony living in the woods behind our farm house. Pretty soon all of them came out for the food!

Ivy was the first to get trapped, spayed and released of this group - she was very independent and wild.  Mom could never pet her even when she put food down next to her.  She was a great hunter and caught voles, mice and birds, bringing them back to the head male Big Guy - the black and white cow cat in the photo above.

She loved to look inside the house and would sit on the back porch railing, peering in at us as we worked in the kitchen or sat on the porch.  When the last of the feral group Big Guy had died and Nicky was brought in to treat his cancer, Mom caught Ivy, not wanting her to spend the winter outside alone.

Once inside she adapted well to our life surprisingly and now is a love bucket wanting to sit on our lap all the time!  Who'd of though? She likes to watch TV with Pop, especially golf. She likes snug napping places and Joey is her fav nap pal.  Lots of times her little pink tongue is sticking out and she doesn't even seem to notice.  All of her teeth have fallen out but her appetite is great.  She is turning rusty color with age and has some skin issues during flea season.

We love her very much and are so happy to have her safe inside with us now. Since she loves catnip soooo much her Gotcha Day Party's theme is NIP!  So come on an enjoy some nip treat with us. For the kitties we have loose dried nip, treats and toys to play with and the beans can enjoy our special nip martini!   

We hope you all have a great time and will join in our celebration for a very special formerly feral cat!

 We are joinng Camera Critters today for be sure to visit our hosts.