Critters

Ginger and the outside cats.

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

That title sounds like the name of a bad 80’s band. :-D

So the weather system swept in yesterday evening, and continues on today. We have had a little snow, and the temperature as I write this is still at -11C/12F, with a wind chill of -21C/-6F.

I’ve written before about the curious phenomenon of weather systems somehow missing us so often. We’ll get all sorts of forecasts for storms, etc., only for them not to hit us, or we just catch the edges of them. I’ve speculated that there is something about our geography that pushes the systems away. The systems pass to the south of us, most of the time. More rarely, they pass to the north of us.

Last night, while checking the weather radar, I could see it. There was rain passing over our region, with the colour codes denoting that it was quite heavy rain, with severe conditions in spots.

Except over us.

The rain actually formed a sort of horse shoe shape, and we were in the open space in the middle! We had had a small amount of rain, but that was it. While all around us, people were getting heavy rains, we had open skies. It was so wild to actually see that on the weather radar!

Once the rains past through, there was another system of snow that passed through during the night. We had a couple of centimeters (about an inch) by morning. What we still have now is the high winds.

Creamsicle Jr. was smart.

When I come out in the mornings and he’s in the cat’s house, he usually runs out and away. Not this morning! He stayed right were it was warm and cozy, and watched me as I refreshed the heated water bowl, just outside this window. He didn’t come out until there was kibble to be had. :-D

The other cats came running, braving the winds while I dashed into the sun room to get some kibble for them.

Junk Pile cat, who can be seen peeking around the side, had been tucked under the kibble house, on the sheet of insulation I put under there, when I first came out. I am so glad we were able to build this for the outside cats! The winds were swirling around from all directions, but at least inside the kibble house, they were sheltered while they ate!

Ginger, meanwhile, was watching them from the sun room.

He did NOT want to come to me this morning!

He looks like he’s all curled up for a nap in this photo, but in reality, he was rolling around in front of the window.

Since he wouldn’t let me pick him up for cuddles, I grabbed feed for the birds and deer to quickly take care of that.

By the time I was returning from putting the feed out, I found Creamsicle Jr. back in the cat house (you can see him licking his chops! LOL) with Junk Pile for company. Nutmeg stayed outside to run around and play in the snow. :-)

Ginger wanted to join him!!

When I came back into the sun room, he still wouldn’t let me pick him up. Eventually, my daughter was able to get him, and I gave him his morning medication, then we checked his sutures. There are still those spots that look a little raw, but they are not getting any worse.

I had to take him from my daughter in order for us to check him out, and he was content to stay in my arms, so I sat with him to cuddle for a while.

We stayed like this for a good long time before he finally had enough and went to his bed.

His warming mat was turned on, and he took full advantage of having it, and the heater bulb above!

It might be cold and blustery outside, but the sun room is warm, he’s got his own heat sources, and is doing just fine!

But he still wants to join his brothers outside sometimes! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Ginger baby update, and getting settled in

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This is how I found Ginger this morning. :-)

The warming pad has been added to his favourite spot under the heater bulb, so the Ginger baby can be warm from above and below!

When I finished putting getting food for the outside critters, he had come out, so I picked him up and sat on the swing bench with him.

He stayed like this almost the entire time, as we waited for my daughter to come in with his morning medication. He didn’t even purr, but just sat silently, only making a noise when he saw one of the outside cats go by.

He was so calm and settled that when my daughter came in with his pill, he barely even moved as she gave it to him! Then he let her cat him and cuddle him, while I went back out to finish my rounds.

His wounds are looking good overall, but there was one spot of rawness between two stitches we’ll have to keep an eye on.

Once my rounds were done, I quickly headed out to get more cat food and litter. While I was gone, the vet called to arrange removing the sutures. He’s now booked for Monday afternoon. I’m surprised they’re open on Easter Monday! I imagine they’re still doing a lot of catch up with having to refuse/delay so many treatments with the restrictions.

We’re keeping an eye on the forecasts, and it’s looking like the expected snow is going to hit us tonight, instead of tomorrow night. We’re supposed to reach 13C/55F this afternoon, then drop to -10C/14F overnight. The southern parts of the province are expected to be hit harder than we are, but we will still be getting rain, then snow, along with high winds, with blowing snow through most of tomorrow.

The gusts of high winds are already hitting us now, and some areas are under high wind alerts. We’re 8C/46F as I write this, with the wind chill supposedly putting us at 5C/41F, but it felt a lot colder while I was out in it!

Ginger, however is snug as a bug in his “isolation ward”. After his sutures are out, we should be able to introduce him to the rest of the house, and his expanded feline family!

I’m glad I was able to head out today to stock up on cat supplies. We won’t do our full city shopping trip until after Easter. Until then, we’re all settling in for what should be the gasp of winter. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Sunday Ginger

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With the days getting longer, I’ve been pushing to get my morning rounds done earlier in the day. (Not easy for this night owl!)

Ginger was a bit slow for the early start this morning!

He was all curled up in his favourite spot under the heater bulb, looking all groggy at me. :-D

I actually did get a better picture of him, but this one had a tongue blep, and I can’t resist a tongue blep picture! :-D

My husband had already topped up Ginger’s food bowl, but the outside cats had nothing left in their bowls, so they were quite happy for the earlier feeding!

When I came back to get the feed for the birds and deer, Ginger had come out of his warm spot.

He did not look at all happy about that! :-D (The wet under him is from a spill while I changed his water, and not … something else.)

He is developing a permanently angry looking expression on his face. In fact, as he gets older, he looks more and more like Rolando Moon. Big, burly and mean looking. :-D

Well, I imagine I’d be looking ticked off if I woke up one day to find part of my body missing, too! ;-)

I took advantage of the situation, picked him up and sat on the swing bench for some cuddles.

He’s not too impressed with the phone camera!

He settled right in, though, so I stayed and cuddled him until my daughter came over with his morning medication. Thankfully, I was dressed for it, this time. ;-)

Sitting at the window like this, we would sometimes see one of the outside cats go by, and that would get him all perked up. I’m not sure right now it he is wanting to go outside, or wanting the company of other cats. I did bring his sister, Cabbages, in for a visit later on. It didn’t accomplish much. Cabbages wanted to explore and, other than a few passing sniffs, ignored her brother. He wasn’t too happy, though, and hid under my husband’s walker and yelled at her if she got too close. Just a quick little meow that was almost like a barking noise! Which she ignored as she kept on going. :-D

Looking at the long range forecast, we are going to have a really nice day tomorrow, then temperatures are going to plummet as we get what will probably be our last blowout of the winter in a couple of days. Our area is supposed to get between 5-10cm of snow (about 2-4 inches). Right on the day we would normally do our big shopping trip in the city! We are still well stocked for ourselves, but will need to get more cat food and litter, so I am planning to go to the smaller city to pick those up tomorrow.

Which reminds me; PayPal has finally released the donation they’d put a hold on. Thanks to the generosity of those who helped pay for Ginger’s surgery, we don’t have to wait until after the predicted storm to stock up on cat supplies!

Ginger, meanwhile, will be safe and warm in the sun room when the weather turns. He was supposed to go back to the vet after 2 weeks to get the sutures removed, but none of us thought ahead enough to realize that fell on Easter Sunday, so we will look at bringing him in on the Tuesday after.

Your daily Ginger!

/ Re-Farmer / 10 Comments

Another Ginger update!

Oh, and the outside cats, too. :-D

He’s still doing very well. Last night, my husband spent some time in the sun room to keep him company. I think it’s the first time he’s seen my husband! He did allow for some scritches, but did not otherwise come close. Plus, he really likes his spot under the heater bulb.

This morning, he was quite active, and my daughters had to keep him away from the door when I had to head out to feed the outside critters. He wanted outside again!

We also turned the new warming mat on, with an hour on the timer. It’s been positioned so he can sit on it while eating, so even after it turns itself off, he has a nice, soft butt warmer. ;-)

Through much of the winter, there was a lot of kibble left in the bowls outside when I came out to refill them in the morning. So much so that, some days, I didn’t add any more at all.

No longer! For the past few days, I’ve been finding the containers completely empty. Not a crumb left! When I come out the door in the morning, the cats come running from all over, eager for food. Even the heated water bowl was completely dry this morning!

Judging from the smell I’ve noticed some mornings, I suspect we have some stripy “kitties” showing up at night, having a snack. Since adding that board across the front of the kibble house to keep the containers from being knocked out, they have a harder time getting at the kibble, but they still manage. I’ve stopped adding kibble to the bowl just inside the entry into the cat house, until we have a chance to open it up and tidy things. The container in there is upside down, with cat mats bunched up on top. This morning, I found one of those mats outside the entry. I think it got pulled out while critters were digging around in the entry, trying to find every last bit of kibble that was spilled onto the floor!

The outside cats are seeming more skittish than usual. Not even Butterscotch would come near me, and when I get too close to the kibble house, they’d all bolt. Only Rolando Moon would let me touch her this morning, and that was only because she thought I was bringing out food! Creamsicle Jr. (in the above photo) has become more skittish for some time. Which I’m sad about, because we had been able to at least touch and pet him, once in a rare while, over the summer.

The mostly white cat in the above photo has always been skittish, though. Nothing has changed, there!

Rosencrantz looked like she was stalking her baby! :-D

It was good to see as many of the outside cats as I did, but there are some missing faces still, and I am starting to think they won’t be coming around anymore. :-(

That’s just how it goes on the farm, and we’ve had many cats simply stop coming round in the years we’ve been here – Beep Beep, Butterscotch and Rolando Moon are the only ones left among those that were here when we moved in, and they were all among the cats my late father took care of. The males, in particular, disappear faster as they range further out. I can hope that they’ve settled in on another farm somewhere, but … well. That’s not very likely. At least the females tend to stay where they know there are safe places to have kittens and there’s a reliable source of food. They let the boys all come to the yard to see them, rather than going further afield themselves. ;-)

Another reason to turn Ginger snap into an indoor cat!

The Re-Farmer

A Ginger warmer!

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After a very frustrating morning (which I will write about later) I was cheered by the wonderful and kind gift for Ginger that arrived in the mail today, from a very awesome friend.

It was a Ginger warmer!

It’s “Great for you provides safe warming comfort zone!”

Love it!

And it’s cover is soooo soft!

Of course, we had to bring it to Ginger, right away!

He was in what seems to be his favorite spot, draped over a bar under the heater bulb.

He had zero interest in moving out of that spot! Not even for scritches. He just lolled about, luxuriating over that bar under the blanket. It’s part of the greenhouse frame we’re using to hold the ceramic heat bulb in place.

I wonder if the bar provides some sort of relief? I recall one of the things my husband was put on during physiotherapy was a long padded bar he was supposed to keep lined up with his spine while lying on it. It did help. Considering how often we find him (meaning Ginger, not my husband) draped over it like this, I suspect it does provide some sort of comfort.

The new heat pad was set to its second lowest heat setting, for 90 minutes. We’ll keep an eye through the bathroom window to see how he responds to it. The good thing is, since the cat’s house outside is not plugged in through the sun room, we have a spare plug, and can use both this and the bulb heater at the same time.

A thought occurred to me as I was looking at his wound and, in particular, at the discoloration. It might not be a discoloration at all. His fur is starting to grow back. It’s more likely a stripe of darker orange fur!

He’s such a sweet boy. I’m so thankful that he’s doing so well.

The Re-Farmer

Ginger update: morning cuddles

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The Ginger bug is learning to enjoy us humans!

After we gave him his morning medications, my daughter held him while I checked the incisions. While giving him his medications last night, one of my daughters noticed a discoloration, but he would not let her take a closer look. He was more cooperative, this morning. It looks like there may have been some fluid that leaked and got smeared on his skin. I’m only guessing, because there was no sign of swelling or leaking in the wounds at all. Just the stain on his skin.

Then my daughter sat and cuddled him, so he wouldn’t make a dash for the door while I went in and out with food for the cats, birds and deer outside.

Ginger is still not happy with getting his medications. He, of course, resists opening his mouth and tries to spit out the pills. When using the syringe to give him the liquid medication, he tries to chew on it. It’s a good thing they gave us two, because he bit a hole in the first one! Still, he’s actually really good about taking them, even if he doesn’t like it.

Ginger baby is being a good boy, and handling things very well.

The Re-Farmer

Ginger snap update: it’s cuddle time!

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Yesterday evening, I decided to try and introduce one of the inside cats to Ginger. I chose our mama cat, who moved out here with us, as she has been so incredibly maternal with all the new additions.

Well… that didn’t quite work out. She’s never been in the sun room before. At least not for more than a couple of moments, a year or two ago. So she was pretty nervous and more interested in exploring the room.

Ginger, however, was missing.

I couldn’t find him anywhere!

Eventually, I heard a little mew and he emerged from behind a storage bin.

Without his surgical shirt.

I’m not happy that he squeezed back there. We very deliberately put stuff in front of the window, because the inner pane had cracked last winter. This winter, it cracked even more, and pieces of glass have started to fall off. We can’t do anything about it until things are warm and dry enough that we can empty the sun room.

(Also, I now think that the large windows in the barn are more of what was used to build the sun room.)

I suspect he squeezed into there in his efforts to get the surgical shirt off. We still haven’t found it, so it’s likely somewhere in the corner, behind all the stuff we shoved in to keep cats out of there. :-/

As for the new cat in the room, Ginger was utterly indifferent to her.

When I picked him up, he at first tried to burrow his face into my elbow, but then realized I wasn’t going to try and give him any medication, so he settled right in and started purring. Loudly!

I sat with him in my arms like this for way too long! My husband even came by to rescue the mama cat, who wanted back into the house, and bring me my phone. It was 10C/50F in the sun room, which is fine for a bit, but gets pretty chilly after a while! When I finally had to go back in, I put him under the heat bulb, and he settled right back down again. :-)

I’m glad we had that extra heat bulb. This morning, it was -8C/18F outside, with a wind chill of -18C/0F. It was much warmer in the sun room, of course, but that heat bulb over his little nest is making a big difference.

He was quite happy to see me in the morning – though not so happy when my daughter and I gave him his medications! Once we were done, though, he settled into her arms, and she was the one stuck on the bench, being cuddled, this time! :-D

Ginger was one of the friendlier of the outside cats. He let us pet him more often than his brother, Nutmeg, who would let us pet him one in a while. (His brother, Creamsicle Jr. won’t come near us.) We could sometimes pick up Ginger, but that was pretty rare, and he wouldn’t stay up for long. So for him to actively burrow into our arms for cuddles is a HUGE difference from before his injury!

I think he will adapt to the indoor life pretty well.

Adapting to all the other cats… that might take a bit more time!

:-D

The Re-Farmer

Trail cam surprises

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Every now and then, when I’m checking the files from the trail cameras, I see some interesting things. Like this.

I actually recognize both the truck and the trap, having seen them at the dump a while ago. That’s a bear trap.

At the dump, I can understand, but I do wonder why one would be needed here! Yes, I’ve seen black bears around (not this year, yet), but it’s unusual for them to become a problem outside of places like landfills.

I like this image better.

It’s uncommon to actually catch the deer in the trail cams, where they are now. They usually jump the fences on the other side of the cameras. They don’t like to jump the gate at all. This deer went through the fence, slipping through the two bottom stands of barbed wire on the left, where it gets dark. There’s a low area there to drain run off to the ditch.

In the next few files, I could see another deer, crossing the driveway on the far side of the gate, to join this one. It was barely visible in the infrared flash, though.

Our plans include putting a little person gate where the wheel is, and replacing the barbed wire with boards or poles. I’ve unplugged the lights, because so many of the bulbs are out, and entire strings are dead. When we have the barbed wire replaced, I want to mount new strings of lights underneath, where they will be better protected from the elements, and last longer. Yes, they are outdoor lights, but I can see rust on them, next to burnt out bulbs. :-/

If the deer won’t jump the gate and prefer to slip through the barbed wire, I wonder how they will handle it when we get around to replacing the barbed wire?

The Re-Farmer

A bit of snow, and a bit of a disaster (averted)

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It started to snow lightly last night, and is still snowing now!

Nutmeg, Creamsicle Jr. and their mom, Butterscotch

From what I can see on the weather radar, the heavier snow passed just south of us, and we will continue to have snow for at least a few more hours.

Which makes me extra happy to have gotten the clean up in the trees done, yesterday. It looked so good, as I walked by while doing my morning rounds! It’s going to look so much better, when it’s finally done. :-)

A nice, light snowfall and a slow melt is just what we need right now. The temperatures are hovering around freezing, and we’ll be getting just a touch warmer. That moisture should stay in the ground, where we need it.

In other things, we had a cat disaster this morning.

A crashing noise in my husband’s room had us running. (Well… hobbling. None of us can run anymore. LOL) He has an extra comforter on the top of his wardrobe, near a window, that the cats love to hang out on. Somehow, that had gotten knocked off.

That was not the disaster.

The disaster was it hitting my husband’s incense bowl on the way down, knocking it over his computer, filling it with fine sand and ashes. And everything else in the area, of course, but the computer was the only thing at risk.

My husband spent the last couple of hours, carefully dismantling the computer, blowing out all the sand and dust, then putting it back together again.

Just moments ago, he let me know that it is working again.

*phew*

Disaster averted, I guess!

He’s not too happy with the cats right now. It’s not the first time they knocked the bowl down. At least last time, it was just a mess to clean up, though the handle on the lid did break. It’s a small, hand thrown pottery bowl I got from a very skilled and talented potter in the city we moved away from, so it’s not something that can be easily replaced. :-(

Ah, well. We’ll deal!

The Re-Farmer

Ginger bug update: not a happy camper! :-D

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I visited Ginger this morning, while starting my morning rounds and before my daughter came over with his medications and the new surgical shirt.

He enjoyed the visiting part, at least! I even managed to get several usable pictures.

Doesn’t he look completely malevolent? :-D He’s actually really enjoying the scritches.

Then he started rolling around, and managed to give me a good view of both surgical sites.

I really wasn’t that interested in the one at his nethers, to be honest, but hey; it needs to be checked, too!

Is it time to groom, or time to eat? He tried to do both at the same time. :-D

When my daughter came in with the meds, I picked him up to hold him. He knew exactly what was coming, and tried hiding his face in my arm! He’s actually really good about taking them, even if he fights us off and sometimes projectile spits a pill halfway across the room. We managed to get him medicated. He seemed very offended by the whole process when we put him down.

He was even more offended when we got the surgical shirt on him.

After we finished tying it off, he scuttled over to this spot and flumped down like a sausage. Then stayed there. He was not at all happy with us!!

My daughter stayed with him while I finished my rounds, and when she left, he’d found a different spot to flump down like a sausage.

The shirt came with what looks like a feminine hygiene product to stick to the inside over the surgical site. We used it, though about half of the incision is actually higher than the neck line on the shirt. That’s not the part we’re concerned about, since it’s the lower part that gets the brunt of it when he starts rolling. The very end of the incision has a bit of a space after the sutures end, and it looked like there was the tiniest bit of blood near the wound. It was dry, but I’m more comfortable with having it covered now. Even if he isn’t!

He would probably be just fine without it, but I hope we can leave it on him for at least a few days.

Poor baby is torn between excited to see us and craving attention, and ticked off at us for making him take medications and wear clothing! :-D

The Re-Farmer