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My name is Scarlett O'Faris. By the grace of God and the
larger-than-life heart of my benefactor, Frank, I am alive and living the good life. Frank named me Scarlett because
of the famous line in "Gone With The Wind" where Scarlett O'Hara says, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry
again.
When I found Frank that day, I was starving to death. I had been
living in the woods for I don't know how long. Not only that, I had just had some babies and was a nursing mother.
Frank took one look at me and knew that if he didn't feed me, I would die and so would my babies. He gave me CHICKEN,
glorious chicken. It was sooooo good. He also gave me water. After that, I came back every day to partake
of his generosity.
| Private Entrance - Cats Only! |
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And then, one day, I led my five little babies out of the woods where
they had been born and onto the porch of Frank's shop. They were only about four weeks old, just barely walking, and
soooo tiny. I was pretty sure that Frank would take care of them, and he did. It was still warm outside, so he
put food on the porch, and let them stay hidden in the wood piles and stuff on his porch. He finally enticed them to
start coming into the shop after a while. He even made a special window for us to use to come and go as we please.
First thing every morning - usually very early - Frank treats us to a
dish of our favorite canned food. We all love the Salmon flavor, but we will eat just about anything. Here the
six of us are. There I am, of course, with my two yellow tabby boys, Peaches and Pumpkin, the two black girls with
gold and white markings that Frank has named Halloween 1 and Halloween 2, and the beautiful little sleek black boy with
a white mustache and white chest and white feet that Frank calls Mustache.
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Of course, with six cats, you must have especially large feeding and
pooping areas!
| Kitty Homeplace Buffet Restaurant |
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Here's the buffet table. Frank provides us with at least four different
kinds of dry cat food and all the clean water we can drink. The silver coffee cans at the left of the picture are filled
with cat food. The six of us aren't real picky though. But we do have a lot to choose from!
| In One End, Then Out The Other |
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Six cats who have all the food they can eat generate a lot of cat poop!
Sooooo, you need an industrial-sized litter box! Frank constructed this one just for us, and he uses his industrial-sized
rake to clean it twice a day! I just wonder what the trash man thinks?
| Ladybug Watches Halloween 1 |
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One of our most favorite pasttimes is tormenting the Pekingese who live
in the house! We get to run and play in the woods whenever and wherever we want. But, Ladybug, Frosti and Snowy
have to stay in the house and can only go in the fenced backyard. We cats really take advantage of that and enjoy every
minute of it. Here, Halloween 1 is slinking off to hunt in the woods while Ladybug is helpless to stop her.
Linda just happened to get a lucky picture here. All my kittens
are still just a little leary of anyone but Frank, but Mustache did cooperate with a little pose here just long enough to
snap his picture! Maybe over time, Linda will be able to get some good pictures of the other four.
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I am very glad to report to you that Frank and Linda have made a huge
commitment to the six of us. Not only are we well fed and sheltered from weather and dangerous animals, but I have been
spayed and each one of my babies has been spayed or neutered. This is Frank's and Linda's contribution to controlling
the cat population in our area.
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"Time is the fire in which we are all consumed....."
And, so, time has taken its toll on our beloved cat family. Since
our "kittens" were born in the woods and really had to be considered "feral", and even though we tried to take care of them
as best we could by providing them food and shelter and spaying and neutering them, those things were just not enough to keep
them out of harm's way. As of this date, we have lost Halloween II, LeMustache, and Pumpkin, and we miss them dearly.
But, we still have Mama Scarlett, Halloween I, and Peaches. They stick close to Frank's shop and don't wander too far
out into the woods. It's dangerous out there. The remaining kittens are becoming more and more tame as time goes
on. They will even let me pet them now, and I thought they never would.
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