The poor thing is so skinny. In the photo, you can even see the hollows near her hips. She has always been a big, beefy cat. This is the thinnest we have ever seen her.
When my daughters saw her, there was no food left in the kibble house, so they refilled the trays a bit. Unfortunately, that brought Potato Beetle over, and he immediately started a fight with Rolando. Rolando has always been rather mean to the other cats, but now they all seem to have it in for her. I’ve seen Butterscotch and Rosencrantz go after her, too.
So my younger daughter took one of the food containers over by the sun room and stayed with her as she ate like she was starving, keeping Potato Beetle away and giving her some love. Rolando would go from ignoring the pets while eating, or stopping to hiss – then lean in for more pets! She was always the sort that would let you pet her, then turn around an bite at you.
Later on, Potato came around and went after her, and just wouldn’t stop. She ran up a tree and he ran right after. Even when we got out the hose to spray him, he kept trying to fight her, ignoring the water. They were so high up, one of my daughters ended up climbing up a step ladder to be able to spray him more directly, and finally got him down, eventually shooing him out of the inner yard completely.
Last I saw, Rolando Moon was still in the tree, but she had gone down lower and was settled into a comfortable crook.
I do hope she stays around, and that we can keep the other cats from going after her. She is one of the cats that I have photos of from when my younger daughter and I had made a road trip out, staying here at the farm with my dad, back in 2015, along with Beep Beep and Butterscotch.
As glad as I am that Potato Beetle is back, he has not been good for the other cats. At least he doesn’t go after the kittens; just the adults. Rolando Moon is not a cat that we could ever bring indoors, but this old girl deserves some peace and love!
I just realized I had an achievement this morning.
For the first time, I got photos of all ten kittens this morning! Usually, they are running around or hiding so much, I miss a couple.
There are no adult cats in this photo. We’ve got seven kittens from three litters, including Junk Pile’s kitten that looks just like her.
Under the shrine, we’ve got two adults and three kittens. The kittens that are at the food tray are from two different litters, Toesencrantz and Bradicous, but I can’t tell if the one on the ground is Chadicous, or Junk Pile’s tabby that looks so much like Bradicous and Chadicous.
Sadly, I did not get to touch any kitties, nor spend time trying, as I had to hurry to finish my rounds and make a trip into town.
Outside, I had an avalanche of kitties come out when the kibble trays were filled.
Too funny, how Nosencrantz is fully in the pan. :-D She stayed with her cousins this morning, rather than dining with her mom and sibling in their usual spot under the shrine.
Potato Beetle is also in the photo, on the left. Ginger’s outside siblings, Nutmeg and Creamsicle Baby, seem to have been driven away by him, completely. They disappeared soon after Potato Beetle returned. I do hope they’ve found another home on a nearby farm.
Nicky the Nose is another one was haven’t seen in ages. He’s not one of ours; he was here for the food and the ladies quite often, but I haven’t seen him in a couple of months. Which I don’t mind too much, since he was not only going for the ladies, but fighting with the boys. Rolando Moon is another one we haven’t seen in a long time, but she typically disappears for weeks at a time. She was always pretty mean to the other cats, and more recently, they’d been increasingly aggressive towards her, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to stay wherever else she’s been staying when not here.
The outside cat population is always pretty transient!
The very first thing I do when I head outside for my morning rounds is to feed the yard cats, then the birds.
The yard kittens have all now come to expect it.
They are getting increasingly brave about NOT running away when I go back and forth from the sun room. The tuxedo almost went into the kibble house while I was pouring out food inside. (I believe the one on the cat house roof is Junk Pile’s little tabby that looks like Bradicous and Chadicous.)
The problem is, when one of them gets startled and dashes off, it startles the rest of them, and there is an explosion of kittens, running in all directions! :-D
When I took this photo, one bunch had returned and were eating at the kibble tray on the ground outside the kibble house, while this bunch patiently waited for me to move on!
Nosencrantz and Toesencrantz, meanwhile, where with their mom at their own private dining area under the shrine. :-D
While topping up the yard cat’s kibble trays last night, I actually got to pet a kittie!
The fact that Rosencrantz let me pet her, for a change, probably helped, but Nosencrantz still looks pretty unsure of the situation! :-D
The lure of kibble was enough for her to ignore me petting her while she ate.
Unfortunately, she is still the only one of the yard kittens that doesn’t run away every time we come out, though a couple of them are starting to come back faster, or watch from nearby. I hope that, as winter sets in and they start using the cat shelter more, they will at least calm down in our presence.
Not my usual feline cuddle partner, so I was really enjoying the snuggles.
Hard to believe this was a yard kitten that wouldn’t let us anywhere near her for the longest time! She still has some of her more feral habits, though, as you can tell by the scratches on her nose! This is a girl that stands her ground. :-D
I was just heading back into the house after a quick version of my morning rounds, when I realized I was being watched.
The Potato Beetle was all tucked in!
For those who are new to this blog (welcome!), one of the things we did to help the yard cats over the winter, was create shelters in the bottom two shelves of a shelf we’d removed from upstairs while cleaning out my parents’ stuff. This remarkably heavy shelf was left outside the sun room until we could figure out where to haul it for storage, since the shed we’ve been using to hold all my parents’ stuff is now full. It ended up being so handy where it was, we left it.
The cats liked it, too.
Last winter, I used rigid insulation to create little cat caves in the bottom two shelves, and even left a cardboard box in one for an extra cozy little space. The cats love it, and one of their favourite things to do is just sit in the opening, watching the world go by. :-)
Speaking of shelter, when I came out this morning, I saw at least two kittens were inside the cat’s house. They are starting to come together into one big litter, rather than three little ones! :-) With the cooler nights, I’m glad they have discovered the cat shelter as a warm place to sleep.
I also found another sign of our changing seasons.
It looks like a squirrel has been building up a cache of pine cones for the winter! Usually, they do that in log piles or whatever, not at the bottom of a tree like this, but I think their usual places are now occupied by other critters! ;-)
On a less pleasant note, today was our teleconference court date for the civil suit our vandal filed against me, in retaliation for my applying for a restraining order against him. It was nothing but a call to set a trial date.
At the end of January, 2022.
*sigh*
Apparently, he is now going to have four witnesses, and asked about how to submit things like pictures. Which is pretty pointless, since he’s suing me over stuff I don’t claim ownership of. It’s vexatious litigation, plain and simple.
After the call was done, I tried the court office again about the status of our restraining order, and finally got through. Last month, my application was put on hold as our vandal agreed to undergo a psychiatric assessment, so this month’s court date was just to follow up on that, and the judge said I didn’t need to be there. That was a week ago. When I explained this to the clerk, she was surprised I was told I didn’t need to be there, and I had to explain several times that it was the judge that told me that.
She was able to look up the file and let me know that it was remitted to next month. (These court dates are always on the first Friday of the month, I notice.) There was no information on file to explain why it was remitted. My guess? He wasn’t able to see a psychiatrist within the time frame. Either way, I plan to be there for the next court date, so I can at least hear for myself, what’s going on.
I first filed for a restraining order in October of last year, and our vandal filed his civil suit against me a few weeks later. Thanks to all the restrictions and shut downs, nothing has been resolved in almost a year. About the only good thing is that he has a criminal lawyer defending him about the restraining order, and I think the lawyer is keeping him on a short leash. I haven’t seen him on the trail cams for a while, other than occasionally driving by in one of his many vehicles, or on his quad. As for the civil suit, he was representing himself on the call. While the trial date was being set, he said he would have four witnesses – previously, he’d said he would have three. To what, I have no idea. He also asked about how to submit things like photos. Again, I don’t see what he’s trying to gain, here. I don’t claim ownership of any of this stuff (most of which is junk, anyhow). Plus, in my response, I included an email I’d sent where I told him he could take the stuff he could provide proof of ownership of, like a bill of sale or a receipt. He had his chance, and he didn’t take it. This is all just a waste of the courts’ time.
Part of the frustration is things like today. It seems these court dates do nothing but book new court dates. It just keeps getting pushed forward, and nothing gets resolved.
No wonder our court system is so backlogged, even without courtrooms being shut down due to government restrictions. :-/
A little while ago, I posted a photo of a mystery critter hole we found by the outhouse.
The small size and lack of a mound of soil had me wondering what critter made this. My husband suggested that it was a back door for the groundhog den. I didn’t think so, since it was so far away from the nearest den, and the grogs are bigger than the hole.
Today, while walking to the garage, I spotted a grog by the outhouse. Curious, I walked towards it and, sure enough, the big bugger actually managed to squeeze into that hole and disappeared! It really is a back door!
Thanks to my brother McGyvering a fix on the push mower, I was able to get all the mowing done in the inner and outer yards.
All of it.
I even managed to mow a lane to the back gate.
When my daughters got back from running some errands for me, one of them was a sweetheart and remembered to grab the can of orange spray paint and marked the yard hazards for me.
I kept forgetting! There’s several rocks, plus some roots and the remains of a tree stump that seem to be lifting higher every year. The rocks, I except, but I’m surprised by the roots and stump.
She even marked the grog hole! :-D
To give an idea of how far away from the den opening this is, I was standing roughly parallel to the grog back door when I took the previous photo of the yard. The main entry to the groundhog den is way in the background, on the right, where the orange tarp is covering the pile of wood they made their den under. I’d estimate the distance is about 80-90 feet between them.
Which means they’ve dug tunnels right under our garden beds.
There are actually six kittens in this photo. There’s the four in the kibble house, Junk Pile Jr at the other kibble tray outside the kibble out, and there’s a grey tabby behind her. You can just barely see the top of it’s back.
Nosencrantz actually stayed in the kibble house with her cousins, while Toesencrantz and her mother used their own private dining area under the shrine. Potato Beetle as hanging out as well, though he walked out of frame as I was taking this picture. :-D I also saw flashes of the other three kittens, wanting to come and eat, but still too nervous with me around. The little tuxedo actually stayed close, and didn’t even leave the kibble house when I went around the other side to fill the kibble tray on the ground. :-)
The Re-Farmer 