My Suburban Wildlife Adventure; Kittens, Opossums, and Owl... Oh My *Pics*

[MagickMuffin]

These are the photos I took of all the wildlife that I got to experience this past summer. The kitties were abandoned by their mother after they were born. They were very wild until I took the time to tame them. They love to give me lovin' such as they nibble my nose when I sit down to feed them.



Kagome was a very sick kitty and thought that she might actually die, but I continued to nurse her to health and now she is fairly healthy. Her mother took her away (after I had been feeding them) for about 2 1/2 weeks. When they finally showed back up Kagome was in real bad shape. She had ear problems which I helped to get them back to normal. They had started to look crusty and then lost all the fur, as well as her tail. A vet told me to use antibiotic ointment and that did the trick. She is one of a kind (although she does look like her mama).



Sango was the hardest one to tame. It took me a long time to get her to let me touch her. I persevered till she started to get close enough for me to grab her. I would then place her on my lap and proceed to feed her. Now she likes to climb on my legs and give me head hugs if I'm not petting her and giving to much attention to the other two babies.



The opossums were living under our deck. I didn't even know they were there until one night I was in my studio which leads to outside when I heard this very loud crunching of cat food. When I went to get door there were about 3 opossums eating the food. At one point there were about 5 of them. Then we were down to two living under the deck. Unfortunately for them we had to restrict their access to our deck, in other words we evicted them. We also found a dead opossum in our back yard. Don't know what happened to him/her, but we bagged it up and animal control came and took it away. These pics were taken at night.





Lastly there is the owl who came to hang out in our backyard for a few weeks. This pic was taken looking out my back window. He/She was sitting in our Crete Myrtle which is probably about 4 ft from our house.



We also had hummingbirds return this year. However, I never was able to take their pics.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear MagickMuffin!

Wow, these are wonderful pictures!

I have no idea how you did all the clever photoshopping, being computer illiterate myself, but it's gorgeous!

And the kitties are so damn lucky...

And the possums are such opportunists aren't they?

I love the owl too...Such a beautiful wild thing, and so close to your home!

Thank you for posting these...

:hug:

[MagickMuffin]

3. Why Thank You Ms. Peggy for your kind words

It was quite the summer adventure around here. When Animal Control came to pick up the dead opossum, we asked him where they were coming from and he said they had probably wandered over here from a nearby creek. He also told us that the street over there has been reports of raccoons. However, we haven't seen any signs of the critters.

And yes the opossums are opportunist. I never thought they would like cat food, and they are extremely loud when they eat. I really felt sorry for one of them. Apparently he had something wrong with one of his hind legs. I couldn't tell if he was born that way or if something else caused it, but I gave him the nickname Gimpy.

It was fun watching them sleep under the deck. But life can be cruel and we just couldn't allow them to live there anymore.

[hippywife]

2. Really cute kitties and possums!

That's a great shot of the owl if you can lighten it up and add a little contrast to that pic. Seems just as curious about what you were doing as you were about it.

[MagickMuffin]

Thank you hippywife

Well I did try to lighten the owl up a bit, however, when I adjusted the levels I started losing some of the other details.
He did stay around for a few pics but then flew away. I don't think it liked the flash, which I try not to use a lot, but had to in this case. Otherwise he wouldn't have even showed up at all.

I've lived at the same house for over 25 years and this is the first time we experienced so much wildlife. It was fun to say the least.

[MagickMuffin]

4. Thank you hippywife

Well I did try to lighten the owl up a bit, however, when I adjusted the levels I started losing some of the other details.
He did stay around for a few pics but then flew away. I don't think it liked the flash, which I try not to use a lot, but had to in this case. Otherwise he wouldn't have even showed up at all.

I've lived at the same house for over 25 years and this is the first time we experienced so much wildlife. It was fun to say the least.

[stuntcat]

5. *gasp*

These are FABUlous, I love the owl and the possums but I especially like how the cats look like super-heroes!

Those are baby possums, do you think? We see them on our back porch sometimes but we'd never be able to get close and take their pictures.

[MagickMuffin]

6. Thank you stuntcat

My kitties ARE super-heros. I really can't believe how loving they are. They really REALLY LOVE ME.

Yes, I do believe the opossums were babies. I think I saw their mama at one point. She was huge, bigger than a large cat. Luckily my back door was close enough for me to get some good pics. On a few occasions when I was sitting on the deck right before sunset they would venture out. However, I usually didn't have my camera handy.

I did some research on opossums and found out that they can't get rabies, because they are a cold blooded therefore they are susceptible to rabies. Who knew! I was glad to find that out.

[stuntcat]

7. the possums

It's silly how people act like we should fear them, I was told they were dangerous when I was young. But now I've got good feelings about the ones in my neighborhood, they come to the back porch at nights to finish what the squirrels and birds left. I'm glad to help them.

Cat-love is the BEST :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[MagickMuffin]

8. I know what you mean about the fear factor

but they're more afraid of us then we should be of them. They are interesting to watch.

And ahhh yes Cat-Love this is BEST:loveya:

My little ones love to nibble my nose and give me kisses. Who could not like that?

I'm just soooo excited about how much they love their cosmic mama. I had a litter from one of my past beloved cats Astra, unfortunately I didn't get to raise them, as soon as they were ready to leave the nest off they went. I did however, get to be a midwife. Astra didn't know what was happening to her (poor thing) and the first baby out of the shoot was a breach baby (no sack) and it kinda clawed her on the way out. The other two came out the normal way, but Astra didn't know what to do with them. I had to tear the sacks off of them so they wouldn't suffocate. She never carried them around in her mouth either. It was funny to separate them in the floor, Astra would walk around them and meow until I placed them back in their box. I didn't do it very often, but when I did it was extremely funny.

Have fun watching your critters:hi: