Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for January 23, 2025

So many prints… Is Elvis about to detonate?

Thankfully in BCN land it’s all friendly life.

It looks like a United Nations of Wildlife out there. Either that, or Old MacDonald had a wildlife preserve. That just doesn’t roll of the tongue though.

It’s always amusing when the tracks change size due to the freeze/thaw cycle. “Whoa! These look like raccoon tracks, but they’re huge! I didn’t know raccoons got that big.”

I see bear, coyote/wolf, mouse, squirrel, raccoon, and I think rabbit tracks. Of course, there’s also cat tracks from Tommy.

Stay warm, woodland friends! And yard friends too.

…yes, even that one cardinal who keeps attacking my window, I guess, him too.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray….

Those big ones look like bear tracks. Probably grizzly bear tracks. A hungry grizzly bear who woke up from its winter nap and is very grouchy.

Should I mention …?

No, perhaps not.

That’s part of the fun of snow. I’d find deer tracks on campus.

We had snow recently and I watched my favorite of this year’s raccoon youngsters encounter it for the first time. She poked her head out from the storeroom, looked around hopefully, stepped gingerly out onto the white surface with each of her four paws, sank gradually through the crust… you could count to five. Then OH NO MY PAWS ARE COLD! ICK!!! and she leaped straight up into the air, rotated 180 degrees, and whisked herself back into the storeroom. She did reemerge later to lap some melting snow. But raccoons with their little bare paws really don’t like snow at all!

OT: Reminder to Swan Eaters fans—new panel today!

Beautiful job illustrating all the silence in the snow Georgia ! And as always, the last panel is a work of art <3. Thank you!

In Honor of January 23rd, Measure Your Feet Day, An Encore Story

Queen Catshepsut the Golden: As you all know, today is January 23rd. I officially declare National Measure Your Paws Day festivities to commence.

Elvis-Anum: Great! I need a new pair of dress sandals, and some new socks would not come amiss.

Maat-Tilda: We have some lovely fabric, courtesy of Adobe Style and Arachna.

Puckmosis: Will they be visiting from Afar soon?

Tillie: Just as soon as Ari finishes making Nommy Nom Spider Treats. There was a locust plague scheduled for this week.

Iggy: This is all new to me. How do I go about measuring my paws?

Puckmosis: I can show you.

Ora Z: And after that, I’m going to Barbara’s shop for a mani pedi.

Lupinium: And then we can have the celebratory Thwump!

Beatrixia: This is my favorite holiday! I’m gonna celebrate by batting these three shiny jewels I found all over the floor!

After the snow storm in nyc, I found racoon tracks, leading to my garbage shed. You could see where it stood on two legs, trying test the doors! Then, the defeated paw prints of failure, leading away….not today, Rob Racoon, not today!

We’re having a heat wave today, it’s 16 out this morning. There’s 2 inches of snow and it’s coming down hard and blowing. There’s a bunapocalypse going on in the back yard, a few deer tracks and I caught a coyote on the Ring cam overnight. No one looked happy thanks to the snow. About two hours north of us, our good friends visitor was outside their door again last night. Big old black bear. He visits often…

Are those bear tracks on the right?

we got a little snow last night. when I was filling the bird feeders I saw a lot of rabbit tracks. After the sun rises there will be squirrel and birds tracks all over.

Is that big ones in right side be bear tracks? Look too big to be doggies. Ain’t thems yankee bears suppose to be hibearnating now.

Tommy, one of your ears looks cold, buddy; tuck it in your hat.

I do love a snow-covered landscape.

OT: Go Comics newest shenanigans to torture me:

1) I can no longer view replies to comments; when I try, I am taken to the “Comics A to Z” page.

2) After I post a regular comment, I can’t see the next comic in my queue; I have to hit “My Comics”, go back to the beginning, and scroll through until I see the next comic in in queue.

Hopefully, these shenanigans will stop when I go pro next week when my pension comes in.

So make sure the feeders are filled and there’s water in the heated birdbath. It would be nice to set out a shelter and bowl of food for the stray cats too.

that looks like my front yard.

i really need to learn how to identify some tracks.

I see jackrabbits in our suburban neighbourhoods in summer, but never in winter, up until a few days ago. I would only see their tracks in the snow, never the bunnies in their snow white winter coats.

Then I finally spotted one as I left the pool on Tuesday morning, hopping down the driveway outside. Returning a book to the library in the same building, no doubt.

Look at all those tracks! Reminds me of the time I tried identifying tracks in the snow and eventually concluded there was a dragon in the neighborhood.

Ever have a flock of Turkeys in your yard over night? What you see in the morning looks like a Dinosaur track way.

\\//_

Very observant of you Tommy!

Stay warm Tommy!

How do you know if a train just went by?

It leaves it’s tracks….

Tommy is just SO right for the remotes. The only other top pick, IMO, for a remote is our little Beatrix with her built-in snowshoes. Well, and Snow, but he’s found elsewhere.

Jeepers, so many tracks! Maybe one of them leads to a chest full of kibble!

So far I have seen tracks from birds, squirrels, bunnies, raccoons and deer. That reminds me, I have to go put peanuts and bread crumbs out on the back porch rail.

Hey…. That’s our yard this morning… ( Well…every morning in the winter snow….fun to watch the outside kitties trek through the exact same foot prints they used before to get from one part of the yard to the other…. and… Yes, all five of our outside kitties have their own personal heated ‘kitty home’ in a sheltered portion of our home under a walls to keep out the storm and gas heaters to keep them warm… They each get two ‘wet’ food meals a day and lots of dry and treats… They were part of the 34 moms one male we trapped around our home…. We did place 29 of them in forever homes…five inside with us…..They were too feral to be placed in homes when we caught them… but all have been fixed, got their basic live a happy life as we can provide…. We lost three of our inside kitties in 2024… broke my heart … My good little sleeping buddy, Bear, fought a good battle with cancer… His great Aunt Ester and Gladdie both were over 20 when they crossed the Rainbow Bridge… So our home is a lot quitter and quite a bit sadder… But we were so Blessed to have them in our lives…..

We had bobcat kittens playing in our backyard and they left all kinds of cute pawprints in the dirt. No snow though, which is probably why we had the bobcats.

OT

I’m new to this strip. This is lovely!

All the snow is white (all the snow is white)

And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)

I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk)

On a winter’s day (on a winter’s day)

I’d be safe and warm (I’d be safe and warm)

If I was in the house (if I was in house.)

Living room dreamin’ (Living room dreamin’)

On such a winter’s day

Stopped by the trashcan

I passed along the way

Well, I got down on my knees (got down on my knees)

And I looked for kibble (I looked for kibble)

You know the raccoon like the cold (raccoon like the cold)

He knows I’m gonna stay (knows I’m gonna stay)

Living room dreamin’ (Living room dreamin’)

On such a winter’s day

All the snow is white (all the snow is white)

And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)

I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk)

On a winter’s day (on a winter’s day)

If I cry at the front door (if I cry at the front door)

I could go in today (I could in today)

Living room dreamin’ (Living room dreamin’)

On such a winter’s day (Living room dreamin’)

On such a winter’s day (Living room dreamin’)

On such a winter’s day

I’d never paid attention to Tommy’s tail before. Excellent caudal appendage.

OT

I saw paw prints in my yard after it snowed. I do have a neighbor with a Tuxedo but I haven’t seen it outside. I did hear, “Mow! Mow! Mow!” after dark.

OT: Car trouble again

I love walking out to the ground water tub and looking at all the different footprints around it. Every critter & bird visits the water tub!

As an introduction, I have a ten year old tabby named Bilbo. During the COVID lockdown, we had a litter born to one of the semi-wilds in our neighborhood. Most of them we had neutered and sent to an adoption center, but I took the little gray tabby. She was very nervous of the giant clumping down to the basement to check her for fleas, but she stood her ground and gave a battle cry, so I named her Eowyn (Warrior Kitten). She likes crawling on to my shoulder (never had a shoulder cat before!) Right after we had finished dealing with the other kittens, (five in the litter), a single black kitten popped up out of nowhere. No mother to be seen, no litter mates. He was so darling that I couldn’t bear the thought of him having his ear cropped, so I took him in. He was very skittish at first, and still is wary of me when I’m standing up (sitting and lying down is fine.) I call him Frodo, and he is a true Hobbit-cat; he will eat anything he can get his hot little paws on.

Not many bird prints!

Here we’ve got bird prints all over the place, but then, I do feed the birds.

Which reminds me, a stray cat that nobody in the neighborhood will admit to knowing anything about came into my yard and killed a mourning dove the other day, so there’s clearly nothing for it but to rehome her. She’s very friendly! Anybody in the NYC area want a very friendly gray tabby? Probably a good mouser as well!

(Or if that doesn’t appeal, we’ve also got a large, semi-feral boy who thinks he lives here in our house. He’s not very friendly, but he’s also not aggressive with humans.)

OT: THANK YOU

Aww finding animal tracks in the snow is so fun!