Nature

 I have been meaning to comment on the whole 'cats are lactose intolerant'. I wonder about that. I have three younger kittens, six - eight months, I am guessing. I buy cans of evaporated milk from the discount grocery (30 cents a can) and heat up water in the kettle, dilute about 1/3 of a can until it looks like milk should look. Then I add a can of catfood in to make a sort of a gravy. They start the day with bellies of warm food.

 I figure that I will just stop when they stop eating it, but they still lap it up. The thing is, so do their mothers. They all crowd in and lap up that  ixture until it is gone. So I guess I have questions about that. I think animal instinct would kick in if the milk was making them sick. It is not as if they don't have other options. There is a large dish of kibble. They each get a packet of cat food. The moms get two. But they still do love their gravy. All of them.

I remember my friend's dairy barn. The cats always came in at milking time. When the udders were cleaned, prior to milking, the next step was to milk them by hand into a bucket to make sure that there was no dirt or bacteria to contaminate the milk once you put the milking machine on them. The milk from the 'stripping' was always given to the barn cats and they knew it. They followed us around mewing excitedly, and there was always a too excited cat getting milk poured on his head, so anxious was he to get the first taste.

So I do have questions about the whole lactose intolerant thing.

Anyways, I headed to the garage tonight with the pitcher of milk gravy, and a carton of cat food. It was getting dark, and Tim had closed up the garage doors already. 

Now the thing is, I wasn't being quiet. I was talking to cats like I always do. I did notice that zero cats came to meet me. I walked into the garage and noticed a black and white cat at the kibble dish, and groaned to myself. I am two cats away from having them all neutered and the last thing I need is more cats showing up. 

I stepped closer and realized what I was looking about the same time he looked up and realized what he was looking at. 

The skunk swiftly turned tail. I recoiled in horror. 

The answer is no. He swiftly waddled off through the hole he had dug out at the back of the garage. 

Tim thought this was a real knee slapper. He said I came close to sleeping in the camper for a few days, but did offer to turn on the heat and water so I would be comfortable.