With Cabbages losing the weight that she has, she’s been feeling colder to the touch (she’s not shivering or anything like that), so I set out the heated mat for her.
This is not Cabbages. This is a very pushy Turmeric, taking up the entire mat!!
Sometimes we’ll find Cabbages, Turmeric and Beep Beep, all smooshed together on the mat.
Cabbages still isn’t eating or drinking much on her own, so we’re continuing to use the syringe to keep her hydrated. We’re being more cautious about the quantity of solid food we’re making her eat, as we don’t want her to throw it up or something. Though she isn’t looking any better (too soon for that), she has definitely perked up. She struggles to get out of my daughter’s arms a bit as we use the syringe – Cabbages has never enjoyed being held much, so this is actually a good sign. This morning, when I opened the door to let various cats in and out, she actually left the room! She has shown no interest in leaving the room since we brought her in.
Turmeric is still snarling at the tuxedos, though when Layendecker and “grandma” came in, she left them alone. She’s been growling at Fenrir, though. We still have no idea why she turned into a snarling beast, and she does seem to have calmed down – as long as she’s in my office/bedroom. I’m hoping to try letting her out again today, but only if there are several of us around, just in case she switches to beast mode again.
Cabbages, meanwhile, settled herself in that Styrofoam “bowl” that was from the inside of the new washing machine. We kept it because the cats love it so much. We decided to bring her back into my office. We didn’t want to take a chance of her going under the couch or somewhere like that, and not being able to find her later. Keith did that when we were giving him his antibiotics every day, and we ended up having to have 2 of us lift the couch while a third snagged him and dragged him out!
Keith is doing very well, by the way. Completely back to full health. He gave us quite a scare!
First up, I’m happy to say that Cabbages is seeming better this morning. She got more hydration last night, and we even got some solid food into her – also through the syringe. She didn’t like it, but she ate it!
We are still keeping Turmeric closed up with me. I’ve been letting other cats in and out, and while she did growl at the tuxedos, once they were inside, she seemed okay with them. As soon as she’s out of my office/bedroom, however, she still turns into a snarling beast for some reason.
Beep Beep has pretty much moved in and taken Cabbages under her wing, so I had the three of them with me last night. I was awakened by the sound of a cat scratching under the door to get out, and it was Cabbages! That’s the first time she’s made the effort since we brought her into the room.
It turned out their food and water bowls were empty. When I refilled them, Cabbages parked herself at the water bowl and stayed there. I did see her drinking, but mostly, she was just a loaf. I was in and out a few times, and she stayed like that for at least an hour. Right now, she’s back on my bed, next to Beep Beep.
We will keep up with the hydration and the semi-liquid food, even though she is a bit more active.
The other cats still seem very confused by my closed door. I usually have the majority of them splattered all over my bed, finding myself trapped by several when I wake up in the morning. They’ve had to find other places to sleep. A couple of them already preferred my husband’s hospital bed, but now he’s finding his bed covered with 4 or 5 at times. That bed is pretty narrow, so they basically take up the whole thing when that happens! Mostly, though, they have been converging on my daughters, upstairs.
They have not been getting much sleep, lately!
I do wish I knew what was going on with Turmeric, and why she still hasn’t settled down, yet!
Anyhow.
When I head into the sun room to get kibble for the outside cats, it’s not unusual for me to see a cat on the hand rail outside. It’s usually Nosencrantz or Potato Beetle. Sometimes it’s Agnoos or Tuxedo Mask. Not this morning!
The Distinguished Guest had her butt parked there this time! I managed to get a picture before opening the doors, at which point she took off. Not far, though. She knows it’s breakfast time!
She is really looking to be a permanent “guest”.
I counted only 13 this morning, though I did see Ghost Baby show up soon after. We were short two orange tabbies. I didn’t see Butterscotch or Nosencrantz this morning, either. It’s not unusual for Butterscotch to be missing, but I usually see Nosencrantz.
Chadiccus came over for pets, and I was happy to see he’s all cleaned up. No sign of the blood that was all over his front, yesterday. Since no cats look injured, I’m hoping it was just from some rodent he caught and ate.
I can see that the cats checked out our winter sowing experiment! The jugs themselves were undisturbed, though, so that’s good.
Once I was done my rounds and back inside, the two deer that come by regularly were soon at the feeding station. Then I spotted one of them in the south yard!
There is a short path along the chimney block planters that has been shoveled, and that’s where she is standing.
Then she made her way around the white lilacs, to the shrine! From the tracks in the snow, they have been checking out the kibble tray fairly regularly. Which is interesting, since there is nothing there they can eat. There are birds that like to steal the kibble, though, and of course the cats are often there, just like at the feeding station, so maybe the deer is associating the presence of birds and cats with food!
Or she’s just curious. :-D
I like how the cat is so chill about the deer coming at it.
Doing my rounds this morning was a bit of a bother. Those high winds from yesterday drifted over many of our paths with hard packed snow. A couple of days from now, we’re supposed to get hit by a storm, with 10-15 cm of snow (4-6 inches).
*sigh* I suppose we should clear out the end of the driveway again, before the plows have to go through.
I figured it was a good idea to write a separate post on how Cabbages is doing.
We have been giving her water with a syringe, as dehydration is the biggest danger for her. By the second time we were doing it, she seemed to get what we were doing, and was quite cooperative. We were careful to give her just a little at a time, and she actually seemed to perk up.
She wouldn’t eat the wet cat food. The girls are planning to boil some salmon for her, which will be made into a paste so we can use the syringe to feed her, but for now, getting water into her is the priority.
She seemed a bit stuffed up, so we got her into a steamy bathroom for a while. She got a couple more hydration sessions while in there, too. That done, she was returned to the comfort and warmth of my bed.
I came in to find Beep Beep and Turmeric, grooming her. A little too enthusiastically! I had to move them off of her, every now and then.
Turmeric seemed to decide she needed to be the center of her mom’s attention, though, and kept trying to insert herself between Beep Beep and Cabbages. Meanwhile, Cabbages just lay there, taking it all. Turmeric finally got to be too much for her, though, so she got up and moved to the other end of the bed.
I just took a bit of a break from writing this. My daughter came in, and we hydrated Cabbages again. We got two syringe fulls into her. She is definitely more responsive, and even opened her mouth more for the water.
We don’t want to over do it, of course. The last thing we want is for her to start throwing up again. So far, though, her stomach seems stable.
The poor thing looks so miserable. She hasn’t lost a lot of weight, but she didn’t have a lot of weight to lose in the first place, so she feels all bony now.
I got some more texts from the woman that will be fixing our cats. She let me know that all the photos I sent have been passed on to “all the girls”. I had let her know about Cabbages, and they have been made aware of that, too.
Then I got a text telling me that they have all sorts of wet and dry cat food that’s just sitting there. It needs to be used, so she will pass it on to us. !!! We should be able to meet up, the next time she is in town.
That is so awesome! I knew the organization provided free cat food to their fosters, but I didn’t expect them to have so much extra, they would need to get rid of it, and could offer it to us. I have no idea how much it will be, but every little bit will make things easier on our budget! The cats will be very happy. :-)
Today had warmed up quite a bit. It’s past 9pm and we’re still at only -9C/16F, but it’s been blowing snow all evening. Not a lot of snow is actually falling, but enough is being blown around that I’m glad we didn’t need to go anywhere. I’ve heard the roads are got pretty bad. According to the hourly forecast, we’re supposed to warm up to -2C/28F by 3 am, and stay that warm until 6am! If the driveway isn’t drifted over too badly, I might make a trip into town and get some kitten milk for Cabbages for both nutrition and hydration. We’ll see how Cabbages is doing by tomorrow, though. Poor little thing. She really does seem to have perked up. I am encouraged.
Before I had a chance to head out to feed the outside critters, I got a series of texts from the woman who will be fixing our cats. She was able to book the surgery for January 31st – for both Butterscotch and Nosencrantz!
We will have to isolate them in the sun room the day before, and take out all food and water by 9pm. After surgery, we’ll have to keep them in there during recovery. If they end up needing cones, it’s an extra cost, but I think we still have cones from previous cat treatments that will fit. Though I doubt Butterscotch in particular could handle wearing one!
Meanwhile, she has passed on the information I was able to send her yesterday, and the process of getting cats adopted out has started.
While feeding the outside cats this morning, I only counted 16, but I saw Rosencrantz this time (right in front of the kibble house) and I even saw Ghost Baby, both of whom I haven’t seen in a while. They are doing very well out there.
Inside… well, it’s a different story. We have some weird stuff going on.
From the top down is Beep Beep, Turmeric, Tissue and “grandma”. This was a massive grooming and cuddle session, and both Tissue and Turmeric were acting like they were trying to nurse on “grandma”. Which is funny, because Beep Beep is Turmeric’s mom, and when she was ready to wean her kittens, she was quite abrupt about it.
This picture of feline domestic bliss ended abruptly that evening.
The cats sometimes get testy with each other. That’s to be expected. What happened this time was a full blown fight, with rolling balls of fighting cats, flinging across the dining room floor, into the entry way, and into the basement, before breaking off and cats flew in all directions. By the time we got there, we couldn’t tell who started what.
We got things calmed down, but every now and then, there would be another tussle. As soon as there’s any growling, all the other cats come running to see what’s going on, and the ones that were in fighting mode would just tackle whichever cat happened to be nearby.
Beep Beep is a bad one for that, but she’s been fighting for survival since longer than we’ve been here, so that’s to be expected.
No cats were injured, by the way. Just to reassure!
What wasn’t expected was Turmeric’s response.
She turned into a snarling, screaming, growling beast.
Even when there were no other cats around! One time I heard her start screaming and snarling, I came running, only to find her under the dining table – alone. I did eventually spot another cat in the room, but she was behind a shelf, out of sight, and not bothering Turmeric at all.
We ended up having to isolate her in my office until she calmed down, but when we let her out, she was soon in another fight, then hid under a basement step, needing much persuasion to get her out.
So for the past few days, we’ve had her in my office. Every now and then, we’d let her out, and she’d start snarling. Usually at the tuxedos, for some reason. We would bring other cats in, and mostly she would be fine. This morning, I even let Layendecker in, whom she had been growling at before, and there was no problem. But as soon as we let her out of the room, she’s snarling again.
Who knew such a big noise could come out of such a small cat!
I don’t know what’s going on with her.
But I’m less worried about her than I am about Cabbages.
Cabbages is one of the cats that Turmeric is getting along with just fine, so we brought her in for company. That and she was really missing my bed.
Something is wrong with her.
She’s completely quiet. She’s hardly eating or drinking. For a while, she was throwing up several times a day – a couple of days ago, I had to wash my bedding three times because of that, but she hasn’t thrown up since. She moves from soft spot to soft spot, and that’s it. We’ve kept the hard sided carrier in here, with a soft towel inside, and I’ll often find her in there. Other times, I’ll find her sitting at the water bowl, just… sitting. I’ve seen her using the litter, at least. She has shown no interest in even leaving the room, unlike the other cats, who have been wanting to come in and out. As I write this, she has just come over to the food and water bowls, but is just… sitting. Not eating or drinking.
I mentioned it this morning to the lady that will be fixing our cats, and the first thing she asked if if Cabbages was sneezing or had diarrhea. It was a no on both. She recommended giving her some cooked fish for the nutrition boost, but without getting blood work done, there’s no way to know what’s going on. And the earliest we can afford to bring her in to be checked is at the end of the month. I’m concerned about dehydration and, being a small cat to begin with, the weight loss is an issue, too.
We are quite concerned.
I am considering engaging the help of a daughter or two, and trying to give her water through a syringe.
It took almost 5 hours, but I’m done. I’ve sent photos and info to get cats fixed and adopted out.
I had to pause part way through and get a daughter to help me take pictures of Nico and Susan.
It took some doing to send these. She wanted it all texted to her phone.
Which means texting from my phone.
From a cell phone dead zone.
Yes, I have my phone set up for WiFi direct, but it doesn’t seem to work.
My first message was to confirm it was going to the right number, and that took almost 10 minutes to send. I even paired my phone to my desktop, so I could access the photos and type on a keyboard, but it still sent using data on my phone. I was able to leave my phone in the living room, though, where it got a better signal, while still doing everything from my desktop, which ended up working rather well.
It would be good to get the outside cats adopted into indoor homes. No more keeping their butts warm at the melted spot over the heat bulb! :-D
As we worked out on the phone, I started with pictures of Butterscotch and Nosencrantz first, with Nosencrantz being up for adoption, but not Butterscotch.
Then I found (or have to take) pictures of Saffron, Turmeric, Tissue, Nico, Cabbages and Big Rig, for getting fixed and adopted. Beep Beep was included to be fixed, but not adopted. Susan and Layendecker were also included for adoption, though they are already fixed.
Then I sent pictures of Agnoos, Tuxedo Mask, Chadicous, Potato Beetle and Chadicous to add to the list of outside cats that can be caught. So 6 more cats to get fixed and adopted out.
Once those are done, the next focus is the cats that are not at all socialized, or not socialized enough. I mean, we might be able to catch Rosencrantz, but that’s it. Rolando Moon is already fixed and not adoptable, anyhow. For the others, they will lend us traps to catch them, so we wouldn’t even consider it until summer, anyhow.
Of the ones we can catch, there are a total of 9 females, at $75 each, plus 5 males. I don’t know what the rate is for males, as we didn’t talk about it. Usually, it’s half the cost of getting a female done.
Can you imagine trying to get all the females done at $350 each?? Then another 5 males at $175? Plus the cost of vaccinations, on top of that? And then there would be the cost of the cats we’d need to trap.
As I was working on sending the info, I got a call from the shelter.
Talk about a completely different attitude! Not at all like that first call. She started by asking if I’d heard from the person she’d sent my contact info do, and assured her that yes, she had called me, and we had an excellent conversation and worked out a plan that will span months. I made sure to thank her again for getting us in contact with each other. She was happy to hear that.
Then she got to the real reason she called! :-D
She remembered I had mentioned a new cat showing up fairly recently, and she asked if I lived around a certain area several miles to the north of us. That is where a long haired cat, white with black spots, has gone missing. Our Distinguished Guest is a long haired black cat with a white blaze on her chest and white socks. So we traded descriptions. We’re a bit far from the white cat’s location, but it is possible it might find its way here. She asked about the Distinguished Guest and her condition, and she does appear to be healthy. She wasn’t starving or anything, when she first showed up. I did tell her I think we’re dealing with a cat dump, not a lost cat, but you never know. Someone might actually be looking for this cat, so it’s good to have the word out. It’s not like we can check the cat for tattoos at this point.
All of this is going to be done slowly over the next few months. If all goes well, we’ll have half of our indoor cats adopted out, and most of the outdoor cats, before next winter, and any remaining outdoor cats will be fixed. Which should basically be just Butterscotch and Rolando Moon.
Oh, we had something else nice happen in the middle of all this. While at my computer, I spotted some movement on the garage cam live feed. It was my daughter heading for the gate. She had received notification that UPS had delivered a package for her. I hadn’t seen the truck, but sure enough, UPS had found us, and tied the package to our gate.
The last time we tried to get something delivered by UPS, it was delayed something like a week, because UPS couldn’t find us. It looks like our new sign has already made a difference! Our physical address still doesn’t show up on any maps, but the package still got here, without any issues.
So all in all, it has turned out to be a really good day!
Okay, so after yesterday’s rant, I am very, very happy to share some good news that came out of that call with the shelter.
Depending on how things go, many of these cats will have forever homes! How many… we’ll see. I counted a total of 18 this morning.
I did have an unpleasant surprise this morning, though.
Chadicous has blood all over his chest and front legs!
It looks fresh, but I didn’t hear any fighting. I also could not find an injury, nor did he seem to be favouring any part of his body. It could be he has a small puncture wound somewhere that just happened to bleed a lot, but isn’t bleeding now. Or it’s from another cat, but none of the cats appeared to be injured.
There was nothing different in his behaviour, as he did his usual flinging himself bodily to the ground in front of my feet, asking for pets.
We will be monitoring.
I was just finishing off my rounds when I spotted Agnoos in the bird bath-turned feeder.
Many he’s hoping a bird will just fly into his mouth? :-D
Now, the good news.
I got a call from the woman I was told about during the shelter call. She is connected with the larger organization that the vet had told us about. They have a donor program that allows them to get females fixed for only $75. !!!!! That includes shots, too. Plus, through this larger organization and their foster volunteers, they can adopt cats out. She told me of the number of cats she did last year (I am remembering 150, but I’m not confident that it’s right), all have been adopted out.
Best of all, we don’t have to pay right away. As long as we make payments and pay them off by the end of 2022, they’re good.
At only $75 per female, that will not be a problem.
After talking for a while, we worked out that Butterscotch will be done first. Plus Nosencrantz, if she can get access to the surgery for both of them.
Oh, that’s the other thing. She does the surgeries at the vet clinic we are already using! She’s got a deal with them to use their operating theatre when they aren’t using it themselves. Tomorrow, she will call me back with, hopefully, a date for Butterscotch, possibly as early as next week!!!
Once those two are done, we will shift focus to getting the inside cats done. Then, the outside cats that we can easily catch, and finally, focus on trapping the cats we can’t touch.
If they are up for adoption (on learning more about Butterscotch, she immediately recognized that she was not an adoptable cat. I really appreciated that she caught that), they may not even need to wait for the local surgery. We might be able to take them to the organization’s facility in the city, where they will get the necessary treatments, and get adopted out from there, instead of having another trip back here.
Once I’m done with this post, I will start sending her the information she needs about me, including an emergency contact number if they can’t reach me for some reason, and information about the cats, starting with Butterscotch and Nosencrantz.
My plans for the day have just changed dramatically.
I was inspired by WolfSong to try something new – and help with that urge to be planting something already! Winter sowing.
Today, I finally got some seeds started.
We’ve been keeping a variety of plastic bottles and jugs for potential garden use. We’ve got mostly the blue water bottles. The distilled water we get for my husband’s CPAP used to come in the same type of jug as milk does, but suddenly all the brands seemed to switch to those blue bottles, all at once. Which was a problem, at first, because many of them no longer had handles of any kind. It made it very awkward for my husband to fill his CPAP humidifier, as the sides would collapse inwards as he poured. He ended up transferring the water to an empty jug with a handle, to keep from splashing water all over his CPAP!
People must have complained, because the next time I had to buy distilled water, the bottles had handles attached to their tops.
We have 4 different types of jugs, including two styles of juice bottles. I decided to try one of each.
I’ve been cutting plastic containers to use in the garden for some time, and it’s a real pain, so today, I took the easy route.
My wood burning kit includes a knife tip. The heated tip makes it SO much easier!
I started by cutting drainage holes in the bottoms, and air circulation holes at the tops, by inserting the knife through the plastic, then giving it a bit of a twist to widen the hole.
Then the jugs were cut most of the way around. With each jug having a different design, they each were cut at different spots.
How much was left uncut to create a hinge depended on how much of a flat area there was. Which, in the case of the blue jug, meant none at all, but that plastic was soft enough that it could still work. The juice jugs are a heavy plastic, making them the most difficult to cut, while the water jug that is the same as milk jugs is such a soft plastic, the melted plastic of the cut edges actually stuck together again in places, and they had to be recut!
I’m hoping the blue bottles work the best, because we’re going to have so many of them.
Just to be on the safe side, the hinges were reinforced with strips of duct tape. For the jugs with distinct handles, the hinge was placed just under them, while the one with indentations to create a handle had the hinge placed above, so the container wouldn’t squish into itself if grabbed by the handle.
The handle of the blue jug is at the cap, so it didn’t matter on that one. I just followed one of the lines, just above the middle.
That done, it was time to put some soil in them.
They all fit in one of the baking trays we got last year, to make it easier to carry seedlings around. Especially the ones in the red Solo cups. Those have come in very handy. I plan to get more They are very inexpensive at Costco.
I had the seedling mix potting soil recently picked up to use for this. Once the soil was in, it all got thoroughly watered.
The water almost immediately all drained into the tray.
I watered them more, drained the water out of the tray and used it to water the soil again. After doing that a few times, I used a spray bottle on the soil surface, while leaving the bottoms to sit in water.
Even then, only the surface became moist. The soil mix was still bone try below.
I spent a bit of time, working on moistening the soil before leaving it to sit while preparing the seeds.
I had already decided to try starting kohl rabi indoors, as our attempts to direct sow them outdoors last spring failed completely. It was the same with the kale. All I can think is that something ate the sprouts as soon as they emerged. It was the second year I’d tried kohl rabi, and the first year’s attempt also failed, with only a few plants surviving, only to be decimated by cabbage moths and flea beetles.
So this time, we’ll go with transplants and, if it works, we’ll be making sure to protect them from both critters and creepy crawlies!
Bahahahahahaha!!!!
Okay, I do remember, while going through our seed inventory, looking into the packet for Early White Vienna kohl rabi, seeing a few seeds, and deciding to keep them. Until today, I didn’t realize where was only five seeds left!
Once the seeds and their labels (strips of masking tape) were ready, I used a chopstick to make evenly spaced holes in the soil for the seeds.
Then I used the spray bottle to water into the holes, because it was still so dry under the top layer!
Because of the different shapes, they each fit a different number of holes in the soil for seeds. The jug with the indented sides for a handle meant it had space for only five holes, so that’s where I planted those five, lonely White Vienna Kohl rabi seeds. Being 2 years old, we may well have none at all germinate, but who knows? The white jug had room for the most seed holes, so that’s where the Russian Red kale went. The last two got the Early Purple kohl rabi seeds.
Once the seeds were in, covered, watered with a spray bottle, labels affixed, it was time to close the containers.
I used packing tape to close up the jubs. The tape is enough to hold them together while the jugs are being carried, but to also be easy to remove, later on.
At least I hope they’ll be easy to remove!
The tray was drained again, then it was time to take them outside.
There we have it. Four different jugs, sown with kale and kohl rabi.
I’m leaving the caps on, since they have air circulation holes, but if the holes turn out to be too small, I might still take them off. We shall see.
I had originally planned to leave the jugs somewhere else, but decided that first spot was not visible enough. I had to consider things like cat and deer traffic, as well as where we shovel the snow from the paths. Hopefully, this spot will be easy to monitor, and they won’t get knocked about by critters. They will also get lots of sunlight, too.
Not that you can tell in the above photos. It wasn’t even 6pm yet, but it was full dark when I set these out!
I still have kale and purple kohl rabi seeds left. I might try starting some indoors, when we start other seeds, then direct sowing the last of seeds. That would give us a chance to compare all three methods.
For those new to visiting this blog (Welcome! Thanks for visiting!), I’ll give a bit of a background.
When we moved here, there were a number of yard cats. My late father loved the yard cats and took care of them, and we are continuing to do so. Outdoor cats do play an important part in keeping the rodent population under control, so they are quite welcome.
Of the cats that were here when we moved in, there are three left that are “originals”. In fact, I have pictures of them from when a daughter and I were able to visit in 2015. Being in the country, the life span for cats is pretty short, so we’ve been encouraging the cats to stay close to the house as much as possible. The females do tend to stay, but the males usually disappear. Once in a rare while, they come back.
The first summer we tried to adopt out yard kittens, we did manage to get a few adopted out, though a couple ended up indoors, either because they were injured and required more care, or they would otherwise not survive outdoors. We’ve also been snagging the females to bring them in before they could get pregnant. We were able to bring in two pregnant females, both “originals”, to have their litters indoors. One was a successful transition, while the other hated being indoors so much, we discovered she was killing her own kittens. We had to let her back outside, where she promptly got pregnant again, and those kittens got well taken care of.
The end result is that we currently have sixteen cats indoors, two of whom moved out here with us. The males are fixed, but most of the females are not. We had been able to socialize some of the female yard kittens enough that we could snag them indoors before reaching their first heat, then had to work on socializing them all over again, as they got used to new cats around them, and learned how to use a litter box, etc.
The thing is, in the last couple of years, we have been able to adopt only one cat – and that was at about the time time we had to bring in another, so the number indoors stayed the same. We’re in the country. Everyone already has more cats than they know what to do with. We are where people dump their unwanted cats. If we want to adopt cats out, we have to reach out further.
A few years ago, before the world went insane, we reached out to a “local” humane society, but got no response. No one answered the phone, they didn’t respond to emails or Messenger. Talking to other people who tried to go to their location, they found the doors locked and no one around.
I follow them on Facebook, however, and recently there has been a lot of activity. So I thought I’d try again and, in the wee hours of the morning, sent a note on Messenger. This morning, there was a response, asking for a phone number. I got a call soon after.
Here begins my rant.
When I sent my message, I briefly stated we had some socialized yard cats to adopt out and asked if I could put the word out through their page. I didn’t want to have to turn them in to be able to adopt them out.
I would have been happy with a simple yes or no.
The first thing I was asked was if they were fixed and up to date on vaccinations. Which, yeah, I understand they would need to know that, but did it have to be the place to start? The person clearly had already made some assumptions, so I had little chance to explain our situation, and she was far more interested in our outside cats than the inside ones.
Because we’re expected to be able to have all of them fixed and vaccinated, too, even though we can’t even touch most of them.
At one point, she did mention in passing that they were completely full.
Yeah. That’s why I was asking if I could put the word out through their page, not bring them in.
They also weren’t going to offer any sort of assistance, unless the cats were fixed and fully vaccinated.
And since the male indoor cats were fixed and there was no chance of the indoor females getting pregnant, we needed to focus on the outdoor cats. We need a plan of action. Do we have a plan of action?
…
We went from my asking “hey, is there a chance I offer socialized yard cats up for adoption through your page?” to “spay/neuter/vaccinate the outside cats.” Especially the females.
Because they’ll get pregnant, you know. Population control and all that.
Yes. I know.
And they probably have FIV, because there are intact males, and they are likely fighting.
…
I eventually got a chance to say that we had about 20 outdoor cats, give or take, and the cost would be extremely prohibitive (not to mention unrealistic). She started telling me that those 20 cats would quickly become 80 cats.
Yes. I know. Cats can get pregnant.
As to the 80 cats comment, I told her no, not really. They’re yard cats. They tend to have a short life span. Of the cats that were here when we moved here, there are only 3 or 4 left.
There was a bit of a silence, followed by an “oh.”
Newsflash. We live in an area where things eat cats like popcorn.
Anyhow, she started to get really pushy about the “plan of action” and were we willing to do that, because they’re not willing to help people if they’re not willing to do that.
What “that” is, I never quite fully understood, but apparently, I was supposed to have it.
Eventually, she mentioned there was someone local who could spay and neuter cats at a lower price, and apparently would even come here to trap the cats and transport them. But she’d help only if people were willing to have a “plan of action.” I agreed to having my contact information passed on. Oh, and somewhere in there, she did answer my question, saying that no, they couldn’t post anything about our cats, because if they let just anyone “advertise” their cats, they’ve have nothing else on their page.
She could have told me that from the start, and in a less insulting way. It was actually the answer I expected, but thought it was worth a try. I now regret asking.
I was bighting my tongue a lot in this conversation. It really felt like I was being attacked for something I wasn’t even contacting them about. She just took over the conversation to push doing things to the outside cats, based on assumptions she had no interest in clarifying.
This is why I hate contacting humane societies. Only once have we had a positive experience. All others treated us with disdain, condescension or even open hostility. And we’re talking about experiences in three different provinces. It’s like they get special training on how to assume the worst about people, and treat them like crap. I realize they probably deal with a lot of shitty people, but that doesn’t excuse the attitude being aimed at everyone. It actually makes me kinda understand why people would dump animals at their doors. Or dump them in the country. It should not be done, and there’s no excusing it, but in my experience, shelter staff are doing a good job of driving people into it.
She must have caught on to my extended silences meaning I had a problem with what she was saying. At one point, she did switch gears and start telling me how great it was that we’re taking care of these cats, and thanking me for doing it, because there are people out there who don’t do that, and people who will just dump their cats.
I said yeah, that’s likely how we got some of the ones we have. That gave me an opening to bring up The Distinguished Guest as a possible lost cat. They did have a lost cat on their files for our area, but the description did not match.
As for her attempt to switch gears and thank me for taking care of the cats, she somehow managed to still be condescending about it, but that could be just me already being ticked off. Still, going from insinuating I was irresponsible for not having a “plan of action” (without defining what was actually meant by that) to thanking me for being responsible for the cats… let’s just say it was too late to make up for the damage done.
I was really glad to end that conversation.
With all our efforts to adopt these cats out, there is one thing that keeps irritating me. The woman I spoke to reminded me of it. She said that if the cats aren’t already fixed and vaccinated, no one wants them.
Therein is the heart of my rant.
If you’re paying to adopt a cat, yes, it makes sense to expect that they’ve received a particular level of care and treatment, first.
The thing is, any time we’ve had a nibble on someone interested in adopting, the first question is whether the cats have been fixed. Not about the cats themselves, their history, if they’re socialized, litter trained, get along with other cats, etc. No. Just, “are they fixed”.
Here’s the thing.
We’re not a pet store.
We’re not a shelter.
We are just trying to keep the cats from starving, or ending up in the belly of a coyote.
When we’re trying to adopt a cat out for free, to a good home, and the first question we’re asked is “are they fixed”, it tells me two things.
The first is, this person is basically asking us to pay THEM to take in a “free” cat. For a female, in our area, it’s typically $350 to get fixed. Yes, it’s possible to get it done at lower cost, but there are usually limits to that; either the people who do it are booked solid, or it would require putting the cats through the stress of a very long drive, or we don’t qualify for the programs because we don’t live in the right area, or are not destitute enough. This doesn’t include the cost of keeping up on vaccinations. What it all boils down to is, they want us to pay about $350 for them to take a cat, at no cost to them.
The other things is, if the person wanting to adopt a “free” cat isn’t willing to spend the money to take care of it themselves, then they are not the “good home” we’re looking for. The cats would probably be better off taking their chances with the coyotes.
What really chokes me after people find out the cats aren’t fixed, they act as if we are such terrible, cruel people for not doing it. Suddenly, we are the “bad guys” and irresponsible and the reason why there is such a huge problem with exploding cat populations.
Agnoos is not impressed.
Nope. We take care of our cats.
And other people’s cats.
And strays.
For the amount of money we’re spending since moving here, just on cat food, we could have replaced our roof two years ago, but we do it anyway. We’re not going to let animals go hungry, but expecting us to also pay to have them all fixed and vaccinated before someone is willing to adopt a “free” cat is not reasonable. If they’re not willing to pay to take care of a free cat, we’re sure as heck not going to do it for them, and they’re not the “good home” they’re trying to convince us they are. And I am not going to be made to feel guilty for it. We’re also not going to shoot them all because people won’t adopt a “free” intact cat, as has been recommended to us (not that we can do it, but we have plenty of neighbours with guns who could, and would, if we asked them to).
So yeah. I’m frustrated. Being treated with condescension and being told I wouldn’t get help I wasn’t even asking for, unless we spend hundreds more dollars we don’t have, isn’t helping. We’re giving up a lot to keep the cats fed, warm and as safe from predators as we can.
Apparently, that’s not good enough.
Maybe we should start charging for the cats. $400 up front for a female, a month in advance, and we’ll take their chosen cat in to be fixed and vaccinated, and care for it during recovery.
I was returning to the house at the end of my morning rounds, when I found we had a visitor!
My brother’s dog had come by, and he really wanted to play with the kitties!
Nosencrantz set him straight with a half-hearted swap to the nose, while all the other cats stayed away. :-D
My brother’s dog wasn’t the only visitor. When I first came out with the kibble, I startled a deer that was in the south yard. It bounded through the snow a bit, then stopped to watch me for a while. Later, there were two of them that ran off as I went to empty the kitchen compost onto the heap.
They are so pretty!
As for out cats, we have still been trying to adopt out as many as I can, with no success. This morning… well, let’s just say I’m quite frustrated, but I’ll save that rant for my next post!
Doing the morning rounds is much more pleasant! We’re at a mild (relatively speaking) -15C/5F right now, though the wind chill of -21C/-6F made it a bit nippy. The wind was coming from the south, so it’s basically funnelling between outbuildings.
Not that it stopped the cats, any!
I counted a total of 17 this morning.
I’m happy to confirm – now that there so no longer frost on the windows – that the cats are using their house. Yesterday, I’d seen about five faces watching me from the main window. This morning, however, I saw something different in front of the window.
Something shiny.
It was the disposable aluminum pan that we had mounted above the fixture holding the heat bulb. The cats had somehow knocked it down!
I had been wondering for a while now, if the heat bulb was still working.
It is.
You can see that cats have been sitting on the warm spot above it!
That spot is there, even with the heat shield in place. At least it is, if it isn’t so cold out, the bulb can’t make a difference to the outside.
I am not too concerned about the shield being down; it was more an extra layer of protection, and to reflect heat back downwards to the cats. Like the smoke detector we also installed in there, it’s more just that one extra “just in case” bit. The bulb itself has a limited heat range, and the fixture has a steel “cage” to protect the bulb itself. The girls and I will still go out and fix it. In the summer, I could do it myself, thanks to the counterweight making it easier to lift the roof, and keeping it from dropping down again. This time of year, it’s a 3 person job; two to carefully lift the roof and hold it open, since the snow prevents it from being opened completely, and one to climb in and put the shield back.
Until then, it remains unshielded.
In the summer, we’re going to have to give this a thorough check and repair. It’s getting old, and when we lift the heavy roof, I can feel it twisting and cracking. The down side of the heat bulb is, it’s very dry in there, and I found the wood of the frame, at one of the roof hinges, has already split. It’s been screwed together again, but that was just a stop gap measure until we can work on it later. Once we do as many repairs as we can, I want to at least give it a new paint job on the outside. Hopefully, we’ll also be able to replace the shingles. They’re getting a bit beat up and worn out.
I’m so thankful to my brother for giving us their old dog house. He really went all out, with all the windows, as “porch”, the power outlets inside, the light fixture, and so on. The cats just love it, and it may well have saved a few lives. Farm cats tend to have short life spans, but at least we can keep the cold from getting them!
The Re-Farmer 