Such a lovely morning!  Doing the morning check around the yard does have its benefits. :-D

With the chillier conditions, I’ll be taking on the feeding of the cats again.  The temperature change between indoors and out is not good on my husband’s back.  So I get to add putting out food and warm water to the morning routine.

I’m just not going to be doing it at first light.  The cats are going to have to put up with that! :-D

The nice thing is that, while I’m putting the food out, I’m actually able to pet almost all of them.  Even Rosencrantz or Guildenstern (but not both) will let me touch, for a brief moment, before moving away.  I don’t want to keep the shy ones from food, though, so I leave them alone and move on to the water.  Which now includes knocking the ice out, first!  It was while I was doing that, when all the cats suddenly exploded in all directions!

We got another visitor this morning.

My brother’s dog came by.

Poor thing.  He so wants to be with the cats!  He just loves them – they have their own collection of outside cats at his home, too.  Our poor cats aren’t used to him, and panic.

Maybe if he starts coming by more regularly, they’ll get used to him.  Like they’ve gotten used to the skunk!

He’s shy of people, though.  I was able to get him to let me pet him, though.  I had to stand with my back to him and just dangle my hands out.  No looking at him!  He came up from behind and sniffed my fingers, and I was able to pet him.  Then, as I was gently petting him, I slowly moved backwards, a half step at a time, until I was beside him instead of in front of him, still avoiding eye contact.  He actually stayed and let me pet him more enthusiastically, and even stayed when eye contact was briefly made.

Then he saw a kitten poke its head out of one of the old dog houses, and he went to investigate. :-D

While I was letting him get to know me, I could see a couple of wood peckers going nuts on one of the dead spruce trees.

Can you see it?  By the time I got to the tree to take a photo, the second one had moved on to another tree, but for a while, they were both working their way up the trunk, one on each side, almost in sync! :-D I could hear others as well, though I couldn’t see them. (This is one of several large, dead spruces I’d really like to cut down before they fall down!)

Butterscotch was my escort around the spruce grove this morning.  We were nearing the end of our circuit when I picked her up.  Moments later, however, she jumped down and ran up a tree.

We had company again.

He just wants to play! :-D

After, I sat on the bench I dragged out of the maple grove and put by the main entry (to replace the one my late brother made for my parents, that got taken) and waited.  My brother’s dog actually walked right up to me – making sideways eye contact – and let me pet him.

He is such a good dog.

Something got his attention, though, and he started for the cat food bowls.  I thought the kittens were back, but then I saw a flash of black and white.  It was one of the dad cats!  The one I think might be deaf.  Later, as I sat at my desk, I could see the dog out by the pump shack, very interested in one of the trees.  Sure enough, I could just see the black and white dad cat, up in a branch!

None of the cats want to play with him! :-D

Getting a dog of our own is on the list, but until then, I will happily enjoy his visits. :-)

The Re-Farmer