Today was a quiet and normal day, overall. I was up to doing the outside cat feeding both morning and afternoon.
I found a friend during the afternoon feeding.
I startled it when I came in and, instead of going for the door, it went for the corner and hunkered down, looking rather scared.
I left it alone.
In the next photo of the slideshow above, you can see a couple of cats, both of whom still have their new necklaces. Not that you can see the one on Fancy Pants. Last night, I noticed a bright orange cat collar on the roof of the isolation shelter, where I’d seen Midnight sitting earlier. Yes, it was Midnight’s, and I was able to get it back on him this morning. This afternoon, I found one other cat – Mochrie – without his necklace, but there was no sign of it anywhere I could see. So he got a new one. We only have a few left. When the budget allows, I’ll order more.
Talking with the girls, we have decided not to plug the cat house in. We have yet to open the roof to clean it inside, test the ceramic heat bulb or test the smoke detector, and there’s a reason for that. This former dog house is quite old and parts of it are getting quite rotted out. The roof itself is very heavy. While it’s designed to be opened with the use of a counter weight, it requires two people to open it to keep it to keep it from twisting and cracking, which has been getting worse over the years. The cats seem to use it only rarely, too. Not sure why. I used to see The Grink in there at times, but she is among those that have disappeared over the summer.
We still need to plug in the heated water bowl, which is plugged into an outlet inside the cat house. The cord I had set up for the cat house – which was used for other things in the summer – had enough slack wrapped up that I could run it around the eaves of the cat house to the water bowl shelter and plug the water bowl in, all on its own.
So we will leave it for now. There are a couple of cat beds still in it, and the floor is covered with a high density plastic mat I found in the barn, so it will still provide shelter, if not heat. The isolation shelter has the heat bulb set up and working, so they have a place to stay warm if they want. In time, it would be good to dismantle the cat shelter and salvage what we can from it – the wall joists, for example, are just fine. Eventually, it would be good to build another cat shelter with different dimensions – and one that is easier to get into to clean!
There is only one thing of note and concern today; a shaky and distressed call from my husband’s sister. My FIL has taken a turn for the worse and, at the time she called, was being transferred to a different hospital for treatment. He has not been doing well, and while he has been paneled for a nursing home, there is the very real possibility that he will not make it to one. My husband is, outwardly at least, handling it well, but I know he is incredibly frustrated that his pain levels prevent him from going to see his own father. From what we’ve been told of late, chances are his father might not even recognize him.
My husband’s sister promised to keep us updated, and we’ve heard nothing in the hours since, which means there is nothing for her to tell at this point. So we are just waiting for word.
I will definitely be keeping phones – both my cell phone and a land line handset – closer that usual, when I go to bed tonight.
The Re-Farmer
