It may be cold…

/ Re-Farmer

… but gosh, it’s pretty.

I have 2 weather apps on my phone. One of them changes every time I open it, leaping from -30C to -16C, then back again! There is a new version of that app, but I ended up unistalling it because it sucked so much. The other one cane with my phone. It reads -26C right now.

We will be rescheduling my husband’s eye appointment. Between not being able to plug in the block heater and the highway conditions, it’s not worth it. I thought we could do it just fine, looking at the earlier forecasts, but boy, where they wrong! I hate canceling on the day of an appointment, though, but when it comes to weather conditions, most places are okay with it.

On the plus side: I got some shoveling done around the house, so the sunroom doors were left wide open longer than usual. As I was coming in, I saw the thermometer, which is against an outside wall, was at “only” -15C. Which means it had been even warmer, earlier. Now that the doors are tied off, it should warm up again.

I counted 26 or so cats this morning. Twenty of them were in the sunroom. I was pleased to see all three of the smallest kittens in there, though they are all super fluffy cats. I saw Adam and Driver today, and they are so fluffy, they look like Siberian cats! They look so huge! I didn’t see Brussel this morning, but when I saw her last night, she was looking equally massive and fluffy. Their winter fur is really doing the job!

I had a chance to chat with the Cat Lady today. They are still settling into the new house, of course. I asked about the idea of officially becoming a rescue.

She did not recommend it!

The only benefit, really, is at tax time. They ended up spending more out of pocket for expenses. Dealing with fosters is hard (she had to drop several fosters), and there is the constant drive for donations. The phone is constantly ringing with people having unrealistic expectations.

Then there are the adoptions. To give an example;

One of the sick kittens they took from us never fully recovered. We had not expected it to survive at all, but she saved him. He’s doing great, but his lungs are damaged and week, do he’s prone to respiratory problems.

He has been adopted out, three times.

He is now permanently back with them.

One woman who took him promised she would care for his vet needs, fully informed of his condition.

She brought him back the next day, after he sneezed blood.

Another woman was told by her vet to euthanize him. Rather than do that, she brought him back and requested another kitten.

This particular kitten had bonded with their dog, and they adore him, so they were happy to have him back, but there’s a reason they have 27 permanent cats now.

Actually, I think it’s more than 27 now.

She just spent another $2400 they don’t have on surgery for another cat, who is currently recovering in a bathroom with an open catheter.

They have several other cats that are unadoptable, due to high medical needs. The amount they spend on special cat food and medications, out of pocket, blows me away.

So becoming an official rescue would not actually help our situation.

*sigh*

I’m glad I talked to her about it, first.

Oh, I just heard my husband talking to the eye clinic. Appointment for today is off.

Thank goodness, at least his cell phone works.

Tomorrow, the tech from the phone company will be coming by to check our lines. Hopefully, by the end of the day, the landline will be working again.

The Re-Farmer

15 thoughts on “It may be cold…”

  1. As much as we love them and wish to help as you have discovered sometimes it is simply out of our means. I struggle with the nine I have, I can’t imagine what you are dealing with on the day to day. Especially with the temps you have.

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    • I suppose it was a long shot, bit it was worth looking into.

      We need to find some way to fundraise to spay and neuter the outside cats, without risking my husband’s disability payments and insurance. I’ve heard of a mobile clinic that does pretty much nothing but spays and neuters. Maybe ear mite treatment, too. But even at their discounted rate, we would need … oh, good grief. I just calculated it. Almost $6700 if we got all 37 outside cats, at the cost I last heard of, which was $175. (Normally, doing a female is about $350, though some places charge over $400).

      If we could just do the females, it would easily be half that, using the mobile clinic, but none of the females are socialized, so trapping would be necessary.

      There is one clinic that does occasional spay days for only $75 at cat. We got 5 kittens done last time, with the rescue covering three. They will do males, but for population control, prefer to do females. There’s just no way we can know whether we could get any trapped for a scheduled spay day, and would have to borrow traps, anyhow!

      *sigh* We need to figure something out.

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      • … share some blog posts with relevant organisations, put a donation box on the blog…, raise funds from previous city life context or life writing.. like I said, I like the resilience that comes through your writing… is that something you could raise your profile with? I wish you every success!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Well, I have a complication about doing that. I need to keep my blog anonymous, for safety and security reasons. My own relatives know nothing about it, and probably would not approve.

        Of course, I could work on that outside this blog and to a certain extent I do, but when it comes to raising funds, I have the problem of our vandal, who has already tried to sue me for over $10K, and I believe has been slandering me as well. I can’t think of any other reason why companies we’ve reached out to have suddenly ghosted us. Our vandal thinks we’re rich and if we do any public fund raising, he will definitely try to either sabotage our efforts, or try to get his hands on the money. Just selling a couple of scrap vehicles for parts had him stalking that place and making wild claims about how I’m just after my mother’s money (he still seems to think she can somehow take ownership back from my brother, and hive tje property to him). Not that she has much money, but he believes she’s squirreled away several million dollars, somehow.

        So…yeah. We have a weird mess to work around.

        Thank you for your kind words!

        Liked by 1 person

      • how about this: you turn chaos into adventure, you are doing that. Now, if you need to raise funds, turn it into fiction, or rather creative nonfiction, disguised. You are in Canada, there are some Unis offering research in that direction, The world needs that spirit, turning mess into adventure…

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  3. “TNR Kelly” got so fed up with unrealistic DEMANDS from strangets that she stopped doing rescue. She now coordinates TNR but nothing more.

    You need the weather app that includes a foul-mouthed overall description. I wish I could recall the name!

    I usually watch a free art demo on Tuesdays but today’s was cancelled due to the weather and the company’s wish for employee safety.

    GOOD LUCK WITH THE LAND LINE!!!

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    • Oh, I’ve seen people post screen caps of that sort of weather app! Never saw the name.

      It amazes me, the demands people make. One thing about being a rescue is that we could charge adoption fees to help cover vet care. I commented to the Cat Lady about how so many people want their “free” cat, already fixed, vaxxed and in perfect health. She knew exactly the sort of person I was talking about! Do people not understand that rescued cats are going to need care?

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      • I was advised to require an adoption fee simply to screen serious adoptets vs people having an impulse they haven’t thought through.

        Kelly had problems with people wanting rescue help – but always on their schedule and oer their wishes. She coordinates free spay/neuter and still has problems with people not returning calls, then expecting her to drop everything for them and getting mad when she won’t. Plus, there are a lot of seriously crazy cat people out there. We originally bonded over having both cats and functioning brains!

        I found the app name: What The Forecast

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      • Oh, yes! The Cat Lady had had to deal with a lot of that! She recently told me, we are basically the last people in our situation she will help. She’s tried to work with others rural properties thar have colonies, only to have them not show up for scheduled spays, because it was too early in the day to drop off. Not even cancel. Just no-show. But she’s expected to drop everything for them!! Insane!

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    • I lost internet connection on my phone for a while! I meant to add, my husband got a voice mail on his cell phone. A technician will be here tomorrow, some time between 8am and 4pm.

      So… who knows. 😆

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