Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

It occurred to me this morning that some of what I assumed to be evidence of Mystery Kitten, might be evidence of next door's cat!

Oscar is a ginger male with dark ginger stripes. Mystery Kitten is also a ginger cat with dark ginger stripes. Only I know that Oscar's been de-sexed so he's not the father. And I also know that Mystery Kitten's real because I've held and photographed it. But maybe Oscar's coming in through the pet door late at knight and eating pet food. It could have been him I saw last night - looked bigger than kitty but it was hard to tell., since I don't know how quickly it's growing. But if it is Oscar for some of this, it would explain where the food's going. It would explain the container of food being moved. Evidence of Oscar doesn't rule out evidence of Mystery Kitten however. One reason I let Mystery Kitten go before is that it could well belong elsewhere, and only visiting my place for what it can get. Or it could be living/hiding somewhere near my house. Or it could have long gone and what I've been seeing is evidence of Oscar raiding my house.

So what to do? Yesterday I had time to play around with Yawcam, and open-source webcam utility and got both the time-lapse and motion-detection functions to work. So I think I might try some surveillance again. But this time I'll keep the area next to the sofa clear of food (as well as the back rooms in general), and put some in the bowl I found being eaten at last night. It should be easier to set up a webcam to watch that spot. I can have the laptop and webcam in the studio in the dark, and pointed at the bowl, under the light. Maybe I'll only catch my own cats (though Gabby never seems to remember where that bowl is and Xena ignores it), but maybe it's not.

That will be step one. If I can eliminate Oscar, I'll go to step two.

I decided to check out using the DigiGR8 as a web cam. The screen shot below shows the result.
As you can see, I'm really pleased by the result. Not that I use instant messaging that much any more (if you don't use it constantly your contacts seem to disappear), but it's nice to know that I have the ability to do this.