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?
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. :-(
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
We can check on him, without disturbing him, through the bathroom window at any time. This morning, we forgot to unplug the heater bulb, and my husband found him basking under it! As the sun room warmed up during the day, however, he moved to follow the sun spots.
This morning, I went ahead of my daughter to visit with Ginger, so I could first give the outside cats some warm water.
There was a slight delay on that.
Since we took the extension cord that was providing power to the cat house, so it wouldn’t be in Ginger’s way, the heated water bowl is no longer heated. And it got chilly last night!
So I decided to quickly pop into the sun room to give Ginger some warm water first, and the little bugger actually managed to get outside!! Thankfully, he didn’t get too far, and I was able to get him back into the sun room. His food bowl was empty, so I topped that up to tempt him away from the door.
We can give him normal amounts of food and water now, too.
My daughter joined me with his medications and we took care of that, then she stayed with him to make sure he didn’t run outside while I fed the critters, returned the containers, and got her to pass me one of the 100ft extension cords, before she could finally close up the outside doors to the sun room and safely leave.
I then plugged the 100ft extension cord to the outlet on the side of the house, ran it across the entry, making sure it was tucked under the door, and plugged in the cat house.
We shouldn’t need to keep power into here for much longer!
That done, I quickly finished my rounds, then headed into town. We decided to go ahead and buy a surgical shirt for Ginger, rather than make one.
Which is when things got weird.
When I opened the door, I was immediately greeted by a dog in the doorway. His two humans were just finishing up and on their way out, so I held the door for them to come out.
The dog insisted on more pets, so that took a little while.
Which is when one of the staff came over. She had recognized me and was all “this is the person I was telling you about! The one with the poster…” They still have posters with the kittens we have for adoption on there. The woman held up a paper where I could see a hand drawn map, saying “we were just on our way over there!”
Now, the first thing that came to mind is, who at the clinic knew where we lived enough to draw a map?
The next thing to come to mind was, having people suddenly show up at our gate might not work out too well. So I quickly suggested they wait until I was done, then they could follow me, which they agreed to do. As soon as I was done getting the surgical shirt, I sent a quick message to the family, letting me know someone would be following me to look at cats to adopt. I didn’t have time to tell them any more than that!
So off we went, with them following me, until we reached the gravel road. It’s incredibly dusty, as well as lots of rocks showing through the gravel, so I drove slower than usual. Even so, I noticed after a while, that they didn’t seem to be following me anymore.
I stopped on the side of the road and waited for the dust to settle and, sure enough, they were well behind, and looked like they were in the process of turning around.
??
They seemed to see that I had stopped and starting heading my way. They caught up to me and we stopped alongside each other to talk.
Her first comment was, “I think I’m following the wrong person!” They thought they were going to somewhere in town, to the humane society. That’s where their hand drawn map was for.
What we eventually worked out is that, while at the clinic, the person at the counter had told them about us having cats to adopt, as well as the humane society. I mentioned we’d never been able to get through to the humane society, and she said they’d told her that at the clinic! So it looks like they thought the staff member was telling them I was with the humane society. After confirming that yes, we do have fixed female cats up for adoption, they continued to follow along.
The gentleman was older and not up to getting out of the vehicle, so I quickly went in to talk to whatever daughter was around. Susan was near the door, so I took her out while my daughter went looking for Two Face.
Susan hasn’t been outside since she’s been fixed, other than one very brief escape attempt in the winter.
She really wanted to be outside! I ended up having to put her down, hoping she would be too nervous to go far, but nope. She was ready to explore! I managed to catch her again, but had to bring her inside at that point.
My daughter had Two Face, so I grabbed her and headed for the door.
The woman saw us through the window and her immediately response was, “oh, I like her!!” One look at that beautiful face, and she was in love.
Two Face was also a lot calmer, and we were able to bring her to the car for the gentleman to see her.
The main problem was, they had their dog in the back. I have no doubt the dog would have been fine, but Two Face would probably be too nervous.
We spoke for a while, and figured things out. Two Face is due for her annual shots, and their dog has to go back to the clinic in three weeks. They’ll make an appointment for both of them, then call us to let us know when that will be. They have a cage they can put Two Face in, so they’ll come here first, with the cage, then take her to the vet for her shots. Since the clinic has Two Face on file, they can transfer her file to them at the same time, and they will take her home from there.
Unless something happens in the between now and then, Two Face will finally be adopted out!
It was really weird, but it worked out in the end!
He seemed very happy to be out of the carrier and in familiar territory. He is quite active – a little too active! and moving around better, now that he doesn’t have that leg dangling off his shoulder.
Did I mention he’s being too active?
He’s already been caught on the shelf in front of one of the windows, about 4 ft off the ground. The girls tried moving my husband’s walker, because he was using it to climb up there. Not down, though. He was jumping straight down from the shelf.
When he was caught up there again, even after the walker was moved, the girls made it safer for him to get up and down, rather than try to stop him. The walker is back and open, with it’s nice, padded seat, and the carrier in front as a “step”.
And to think I was worried about that extension cord being in his way. That cord is for the ceramic terrarium heat bulb in the cat house outside. It should be warm enough now, that it isn’t needed, so I put the cords away. I did, however, bring the frame of the mini-greenhouse back into the sun room, and it is now holding the spare heat bulb safely above the space in front of his box nest.
Right now, he is on limited food and water, as we monitor if he starts getting sick. Tomorrow, food and water goes back to normal. He is to get the medication he was on already, once every evening, and has two other medications that he is to take twice a day, starting tonight.
Tomorrow, I’m going to go back and pick up one of those surgical shirts. We were going to make him one, but realized that the materials we have would likely get snagged on the sutures.
Speaking of which…
He is to return to the vet in 2 weeks for a follow up examination and removal of the sutures.
Until then, we keep him in the sun room, monitor him, and pamper him like crazy.
These are the bills, with a grand total of $1,316.48 Today’s bill is the two page one. Interesting to see how much the neuter cost, without anesthetic charge. The list of drugs is also interesting to see. I know people on several of them! :-D
The bill on the far right is his examination, x-rays and medications from a few days ago.
Seeing how Ginger is acting right now, I think he’s going to do really well. I think, in the time it took to get him to surgery, he already got used to using only three legs, and this amputation is just making it easier on him.
The girls have been to check on him several times already, arranged things a bit as they felt he needed, and plugged in the heater bulb. It’s not particularly cold in there yet, but the surgical site and shaved areas would still get colder, faster.
This post falls into the full disclosure and transparency zone.
I just got a call from the vet clinic, this time about the bill.
They were able to give us two estimates, depending on how long the surgery took and how complicated it might get. Those estimates included the examination and x-rays we’d brought him in for, which we had to pay before bringing him home (just over $230). What neither estimate included was the cost of having him neutered at the same time, since we requested that later.
So we were hoping for things to be at the low end, plus the cost of neuter. Thanks to the generosity of those who donated through the Ko-fi page, and through direct donations, we had that covered. The transfers are still incomplete, and one of the donations is still on hold, but we could use the funds from my tax return, set aside for garden soil and chainsaw purchase/repair, as a buffer until they came through. If it was on the high end, it would have been a bit harder to come up with the total, but we would have found a way.
Well, it turned out to be on the low end of the estimate – and that was even with the neuter! Which, of course, would not have cost as much as usual, since he was already there for surgery. The total bill for the amputation and neuter will be a little over $1000.
At that amount, we’ll only need to use the chainsaw purchase/repair money as a buffer, and not touch the garden soil money, until the transfers are complete.
One of the things that was brought up during the call is that he might want to scratch at the wound. There are medical “sweaters” available for sale. We will look at some, but we could also just make him one. My daughter and I both crochet, and we could whip some something like that in very short time. If nothing else, it’ll keep the shaved area and wound warm and dry.
With this good news, I’ve made some changes to the Ko-fi page. To start, the fundraiser goal graph is removed, now that the surgery is complete.
For quite some time, I have had people suggest I include a donation button, and some have even offered to make donations, to help with the kitties. I resisted, because I have a really hard time asking people for money! I know how tight times are, but for Ginger’s injury, we had no choice, and the kindness and assistance offered has been humbling and generous. We will leave the donation buttons up and the donation page active. If anyone wishes to help with the kitties, these donations will be used to help buy cat food and litter, pay for spaying and neutering, and any other vet bills that come up. Nothing else.
I will be sure to post photos and more updates when we bring Ginger home, and during his recovery.
We just got a call from the surgeon at the vet clinic.
The surgery went very well. His heart rate was steady the whole time, and there was minimal bleeding. When she called, he was starting to try and lift his head.
And yes, he got snipped too, so when he is all healed up, he will also be safe around the ladies.
We will get more instructions when we pick him up, which should be about 4 hours from the time I am writing this. I mentioned that we will be keeping him isolated in the sun room and asked for how long we should do that, before bringing him in with the other cats. She said to wait until the wound is fully healed, which should be about 2 weeks. That will give him time to get used to the leg not being there anymore, and puts him at less risk if there are any altercations with other cats. I mentioned we were thinking of slowly introducing other cats to him, in the sun room, and she thought that was a good idea.
He will be coming home with more the pain killers we have already been giving him, plus another that had me laughing. My husband is on the same medication! She said it might make him groggy, and I just had to add, “it does that to humans, too.”
We will be getting another call with what the final bill will be (it wasn’t finished at the time she was calling me), so we know what to expect when we come to get him at the end of the clinic’s day. It sounds like they have just started to open on Sundays, because the doctor had to actually look up what the “end of the day” meant. :-D
The main thing is that all is well with the Ginger bug!
As I write this, Ginger has been dropped off at the vet, and should be in the middle of surgery to amputate his busted up arm.
He was in very good spirits this morning, though I don’t think he was too happy about being on a fast!
A spice girl, checking out the spice boy! Saffron, meet Ginger! :-)
He wasn’t too happy with all the other cats circling around him in the cage, though!
After his surgery (if all goes well, he will also be neutered), he’ll be isolated in the sun room for however long the vet says he should be kept there. We’ll take the opportunity to introduce him to some of the inside cats, since they are going to be his new family.
Right now, we are waiting for a call from the vet to let us know how things went, and to come and get him. I will update as soon as I can!
Thank you, again, to everyone who was able to help out!
He was very happy to see me this morning. So happy, he flung himself onto the ground at my feet, rolling around so I could pet his belly!
Right. On. His. Injury.
*shudder*
He was moving around so much, it was hard to get pictures!
To refresh his water, I decided to quickly open the doors to outside and toss out the old water, he actually made a run for the door! This boy wants to go outside!
I’m sure his misses his brothers, Nutmeg and Creamsicle baby! But he will have his sister, Cabbages, and a whole lot of other cats to play with, when this is over.
This morning, I called the vet clinic to ask about having him fixed while he is with them tomorrow. The last thing we’re going to do is get him all patched up, then send him back outside where the coyotes and other predators can get him. She talked to one of the doctors who said that yes, they can, but first they will see how the amputation surgery goes since, obviously, that’s the priority. If that goes well, he’ll get a quick snip while he is still under.
We also talked about the financing.
Full disclosure and transparency, here.
Thanks to the generosity of so many, both through the Ko-fi fundraising, and direct donations, we have enough to cover the lower end of the estimate. Ko-fi works through PayPal, and I set up new accounts for both at the same time. The PayPal account is linked to completely separate bank account from our personal stuff. The down side is, PayPal takes several business days to transfer funds. Plus, they went and put the first donation we received on hold. Apparently, that’s a normal thing for them to do with new accounts, but it may be another 7 business days before the hold is removed. Only then can it be transferred, which can take several more days.
So we will also be looking into the third party financing option. We may not need it if the total is on the low end of the estimate, but if it’s on the high end, we will.
With that in mind, if you do wish to support Ginger Snap’s surgery, you can do so by buying him a coffee (donations can be as low as $1 Canadian), sharing or reblogging this post, or the Ko-fi fundraising page.
Many thanks!
The Re-Farmer
Update: Well, I tried to go through the pre-approval process with the third party financing. It didn’t work! I got stuck right at the beginning, with our address. It seems we don’t exist. Their system couldn’t even accept our little hamlet, never mind our box number or our physical address. I wasn’t even getting any error messages. It just kept looping back to the address input area.
I called the clinic to let them know it wasn’t going to happen. It turns out, we’re not the only clients they’ve had, who have had this problem.
This was just in case things did not go well and the bill ended up on the high end of the estimate. They are aware of the situation, and have been really awesome about it. In fact, they’ve been pretty awesome, all around!
