{"id":6664,"date":"2026-04-29T15:03:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/?p=6664"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:21:27","slug":"cat-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/?p=6664","title":{"rendered":"Cat Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

About this time in 2010, there was a hidden litter of kittens born under our house. We noticed a grey female occasionally wandering the property, but unaware of any newborns. Then on a Sunday morning in May, the mother was struck by a car. She crawled to our driveway where I discovered her broken body and a tiny kitten suckling. Dare County Animal Control arrived quickly to put her down. It was heartbreaking and now we were stuck with her five unweaned offspring. It took some time to nurture and gain their confidence.<\/p>\n

After a few months, we took them to a TNR clinic sponsored by Hatteras Island Friends of Felines.<\/strong><\/em> They got fixed and had their shots. Now what! We fell for them and continued caregiving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At 11 months old they posed for a fine family portrait. In front left to right is Hairy, Bigfoot, <\/strong><\/em>and Shy One. Greyguy <\/strong><\/em>and Darkguy<\/strong><\/em> are in back. Hairy<\/em><\/strong>, like his mother was hit by a passing car. He was only about 18 months old. At 3 years old, Shy One<\/strong><\/em> was trapped by a neighbor and taken a few miles away and never recovered.<\/p>\n

Years later as indoor cats, Greyguy<\/strong><\/em> and Darkguy<\/em><\/strong> succumbed to cancer. In 2019, Bigfoot<\/em><\/strong> was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 9. We administered insulin twice a day for nearly 7 years and he survived quite well. Recently though he developed untreatable health issues and had to be put down the day after Easter. He was 16 years old and very special, outlasting his siblings.<\/p>\n

Each had a different personality and we named them descriptively. They were beautiful \u00a0polydactyl males that over the years, took us on an unforgettable bitter-sweet journey. They taught me about unconditional love, unpredictable life experiences and inevitable loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About this time in 2010, there was a hidden litter of kittens born under our house. We noticed a grey female occasionally wandering the property, but unaware of any newborns. Then on a Sunday morning in May, the mother was struck by a car. She crawled to our driveway where I discovered her broken body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6664"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6674,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions\/6674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}