Critters

The kibble house is working – and creeper is creeping again

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It started to snow last night, and continued all night. Where we live, it was still a light now – other areas got much more – but it was enough to be a test for the kibble house!

The inside is completely free of snow. :-)

Unfortunately, three of the containers were on the ground – you can see the patch of grass on the left, where one of them ended up. It is most likely the skunks doing this.

I might add a narrow board across the front to try and prevent that. As long as the floor boards can slide under it, that should work fine.

The heated water bowl was still plugged in. :-D There was almost no water left, though, so we had some thirsty, as well as hungry, kitties!

While doing my rounds and heading to the trail cams, I noticed this.

Though a light layer of snow covered the paw prints enough that I couldn’t make out what they looked like, I can be pretty sure that this trail was left by a skunk. They are low enough to the ground that their belly fur would leave that wider trail in the snow. :-D

Once I was done my rounds outside, I settled in to check the trail cam files.

I have since called the RCMP.

Our vandal was back.

Between the still shots from one camera, and the video from the other, I have about half an hour documented. While the appliance repair guy was here, the gate was left open. Our vandal showed up in the driveway, going from side to side for a while, before moving the two sides of the gate. The video picked him up stepping in to grab one side of the gates that was open to the inside, pulling it all the way to the outside, then reefing on it. Because of where the hinges are set in the post, when opened all the way to the outside, the gate can hit the post. After repairing the damage our vandal did last time, and repainting the gates, I added pieces of pool noodle to cushion the gate. This way, even if the wind blows the gates all the way open to the outside, the foam slows the swing down, and they bounce gently, rather than slamming, metal against metal. It also reduces stress on the new hinges. So when he reefed on the gate, the foam protected it, but with his pushing it so hard, there is only so much the foam can do to reduce the stress on the hinges. (At this point, there does not appear to be any damage.)

The files then show him going back and forth a few more times, before we can see the appliance guy leaving and me locking the gate up. There is, however, a 14 minute gap, where there is nothing to show where he was or what he was doing; all I can say is, he wasn’t in front of the cameras to trigger the motion sensors.

I remember as I walked to the gate, seeing how the two sides of the gate were positioned and thinking it was the wind again. It was odd with the one side, because I’d deliberately left it open as far as it could swing, which means it was in the fence and on the old tire I’ve got as a bumper. That side is the one that the wind blows around the most, but not so much when it’s open all the way. Now I know it wasn’t the wind at all!

So I called the RCMP as soon as I was able, and started a new file. The person I spoke to went over my options with me, and gave me the name of the constable that would be calling me back about it. I then looked up and called the nearest court where I can start the process to get a restraining order (there are several types available, one of which includes damage to property), leaving a message. This is also where I would be going to start the process for a psychiatric assessment.

While I was writing this, the constable called me back. We talked about our options again, and after going over the past files, he didn’t feel that pressing charges of mischief again would be the most productive. If I did do that, they would arrest him, file charges against them, then let him go and the whole process that happened last time would happen again. That the charges were stayed after he’d finished whatever program he went through, the constable felt that this was highly likely to happen again. Obviously, it didn’t work last time. However, as long as there were charges against him, I would effectively have a restraining order, and would not have to apply for one. I could still apply for a psychiatric assessment through the courts, but if I did, a judge would throw out the charges, since basically he would be viewed as not responsible for his actions, and I would no longer have any protections.

One main difference between the restrictions he’d be placed under if I press charges, as opposed to getting a restraining order, is that with charges, he’d still be keeping his guns. With a restraining order, there is enough documented justification for his guns to be seized, and he would be required to stop drinking alcohol, which is another big part of the problem. I could apply for a psychiatric assessment, and it would not affect the restraining order the way it could with pressing charges.

So for now, I will wait until I talk to the court clerk before making a decision, but it looks like the most effective route to take is to apply for both the restraining order and a psychiatric assessment. And I’m far more interested in our vandal getting help for his mental health issues than I am in getting him arrested.

*sigh*

While we have seen him on the cameras doing things like walking to the gate and giving the finger to the cameras, or slowing down as he drives by to peer down the driveway, etc., this is the first time we’ve seen him come to the gate while it was open like this. Which means we now cannot open the gate and leave it unattended to let people like the appliance repair guy drive in and out. We now know that, if our vandal happens by and sees the gate open, he will do things.

This is so tiresome.

At times like this, I wish we lived even more remotely than we already do!

The Re-Farmer

Accepted

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The cuteness! It’s overwhelming! :-D

Cabbage let me pick her up and cuddle her for a while. When I put her down on my bed, she let me snuggle her some more.

Then Grandma came over and started grooming her. Before I knew it, she was snuggled in with Cheddar, who took over the grooming, and cuddling ensued!

Even Turmeric didn’t hiss or bat at her.

Progress, indeed!

Also, now that our washing machine is working again, I think I need to wash all the cat hair off my blanket… ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Whoops!

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When I headed out this morning to feed the outside cats and do my rounds, I had a bit of a surprise.

Along with finding two of the kibble containers had been knocked out of the kibble house, there was something wrong with the heated water bowl.

The water was frozen!

A quick glance into the entry of the cats’ house found the problem. They had managed to unplug it!

I am so glad I added that counterweight to the roof…

When I lifted the roof to plug it back in, I think I spotted why it came unplugged. I had put their favourite cat toy inside, and I found it in the entry, on top of the power cord. It’s likely that, while playing and knocking it about, they accidentally unplugged the heated water bowl. It should be harder to yank out now, but if they do unplug it again, I can add a hook to hold the cord in place.

I might just do that, anyhow, so it’s not an issue over the winter. I’d really prefer to not have to lift that roof when the snow gets deep! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Settling in

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The little calico has been settling in surprisingly well since I abducted her from outside.

She has been quicker to explore and be around the other cats than Tissue did.

Fenrir doesn’t take to the new additions well in general and, of all the cats, Turmeric has been the most aggressive towards her. For the most part, the little calico has been ignoring their hisses but, when necessary, she stands her ground rather than getting intimidated.

I took this picture last night, as she claimed the middle of my bed. When she lay down for a nap, she actually used Fenrir’s butt as a pillow! When Fenrir finally noticed, she hissed and ran off, but the little calico didn’t even flinch!

This morning, I was awakened by a tiny body pouncing on my feet. :-D

She still isn’t very comfortable with us humans. Aside from the foot pouncing, that is. ;-) Once in a while, we’ll manage to pet her, or just hold our hands out for her to sniff and gently bat at our fingers. She doesn’t seem scared or nervous at all; just stand offish.

Meanwhile, I discovered the girls had already named her.

She’s called Cabbages.

Because she has so many patches…

LOL!!

The Re-Farmer

Happy kitties, not so happy washing machine, and awesome customer service

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I’m happy to say the kibble shelter set up seems to be working just fine!

I found one of the food containers under the kibble house this morning. I was able to reach it to get it out, but even if it had got pushed back further, that’s okay, since the floor boards can be lifted to reach under. An unexpected benefit for our change in plans.

When my daughter popped outside last night, she found Sir Stinks Alot in it. She moved in his direction, making noise to shoo him away, and was unexpectedly entertained. It seems the floor is a bit high for a skunk’s short little legs! It took him a few tries before he was finally able to get down and leave. :-D

The heated water bowl is working just fine; the water in the other containers was frozen solid. I’m thinking we might want to find something to put under the heated bowl to raise it higher. The cats have been trying to drink from it from inside the kibble shelter. I think it’s similar to how they often prefer to drink from the other bowls while on the wood of the sledge under the cat house. Likely, it’s because the wood is warmer on their paws than the ground! :-)

In other things…

Our new washing machine has once again stopped working! I used it on Friday, and it worked fine. My daughter tried to use it on Saturday, and it just wouldn’t turn on. I figured it would stop working again, and actually prefer that it happened again sooner, rather than later. I called the appliance guy and left a message about it, and he called back today. He will be able to swing by tomorrow afternoon. Thankfully, he left the parts with us, when it suddenly started working after he’d opened up the back, so we don’t have to go through the warranty process again.

I headed into town today with one of my daughters who needed to do some errands. I took advantage of the situation and stopped at the garage where we have had so much work done this year. I showed him the picture of what is loose under my mother’s car. I had talked to the garage by my mother’s place, but I just don’t go to her town often, plus I needed to book our van for an oil change and to get our winter tires put on.

I now have my mother’s car booked to come in on Monday, while our van will be brought in on the Friday after. I asked about how much it might cost to get my mother’s car fixed. The loose shield should just need to be screwed back into place, but they will still need to at least jack it up to be able to reach, so I figured it would be similar to what I was told at the other garage. Basically, they’d likely have charged for half an hour.

Not here!

He said it would likely be free.

!!

If all it needs it to be screwed on, he’ll just do it and that’s it! Of course, once he’s actually under there, he might find it’s cracked or something, but it doesn’t look broken in the picture.

I am so happy my mother’s car got a flat next to this garage! :-D The owner is just awesome! As much as I liked the place by my mother’s, this place goes that little bit further. I am a very happy customer! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Progress: kibble house is done!

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We did it! We were able to finish the winter shelter for the outdoor cats’ kibble containers!

The only thing it needs now is to be painted, which will probably wait until spring.

Of course, things didn’t quite go to plan, but that’s pretty much how everything goes! :-D

One of the first things we did was raid the barn to see what we could find for a roof. There was a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood that we dragged over.

It had some mysteries on it.

On one side was a drawing of a picnic table, done with black marker.

The other side had what looks like the template for a shed roof!

My daughter was kind enough to take those boards off for me. Each of them had about 7 screws in them!

While she did that, I set up to assemble the rest of the frame, adding in the horizontal supports.

This was where things began to deviate from the plan. In putting on the bottom horizontal supports, I forgot I’d intended to put them on the inside of the vertical supports, instead of lined up with them. This made it longer than 6 ft.

Which is not a bad thing. It’s actually more stable this way, and there’s more room on the inside. However, I wasn’t able to match the top horizontal supports. Since the roof supports are at an angle, the screws that hold them in place are more staggered, so the chance of hitting one while screwing on the vertical support was pretty high. So I moved the top horizontal posts and attached them in front of the vertical ones.

Those horizontal supports, however, were supposed to be what the back wall was attached to.

Before we worked on that, though, we popped on the plywood to see how it fit, and if we needed to cut it to size.

We decided to leave it as is. I wanted at least some overhang. More just means more shelter for the kitties.

Then it was time to get creative.

We were going to use scrap wood from the junk pile for the walls and floor, but that idea quickly was discarded. Back to the barn we went, where we found a couple of pieces of 1/2 inch plywood that were almost 4 feet square.

We finally got to use the table saw I found in the shed! :-D

When cutting the frame pieces, I had cut two spare 2 ft lengths, and we made good use of them. I happened to have right angle plates I’d expected to use for something else and those were used to attach one length to support plywood roof in the middle. The other became support for the back wall. The bottom of the new vertical support could be screwed in place from underneath, but the top took a bit more creativity to get it attached!

We cut one of the squarish pieces in half to get the height of the wall, then cut one of the halves shorter to fit, and used them for the back wall. The pieced we’d cut off turned out to be the right size for a side wall, so we just traced that on the other squarish piece of plywood and cut a second one.

I dragged two buckets of nails from the basement to put the walls and roof one. One had roofing nails that were the right length for the walls, while the other had 4 inch nails that were perfect for attaching the roof.

That left the floor.

Cutting a wall piece off the second square of plywood left an L shaped piece. After taking several measurements, I cut the short part of the “L” off. The remaining longer piece got a notch cut out of it.

The smaller piece got a bit of a trim to fit the remaining space, and now we have a floor that can be removed, if needed.

And yes, I did want the floor to extend past the frame.

Time to test it out!

My daughter had to go in earlier, so I carefully maneuvered the whole thing by myself, to where I wanted it by the cat house. The containers we use for the cats’ food were pretty much empty, so I put them in and topped up them up.

A couple of cats were crawling around in it before I even came out of the sun room with more kibble! Once they heard that distinctive sound of kibble hitting the container, there was quite the rush of kitties!

I wanted the shelter to be close to the cat’s house, to provide shelter for the entry, but also wanted to make sure they had a path in between them. They already go around the cat house in that spot often enough that they’ve worn a patch in the grass. They can also fit under the kibble house and, if they really wanted to, they could probably get in from the back, through the gap under the roof.

One more thing to do!

It was time to open up the roof on the cats’ house and plug in the heated water bowl.

I also tucked their cat toy inside. They love that thing!

The cord on the heated water bowl is long enough that the bowl can be well under the overhang of the kibble house roof.

I then spent the next while putting everything away and cleaning up, which meant I could watch the cats checking it all out. They explored all over, including jumping up on the roof, and seem quite happy with their new shelter!

Since it’s unlikely we will paint any of it this year, we will probably cover the roof with a tarp for the winter. The rest should be fine.

I’m so glad we were able to get this finished today. It was just a couple of degrees above freezing, and we’re supposed to get a couple of centimeters of snow in a couple of days. Not the sort of weather I want to be outside, building stuff, if I can avoid it!

The Re-Farmer

I am such a suck

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I had a very enthusiastic crowd when I gave the outside cats warm water and kibble. :-)

The one potential down side of the kibble house I’m building is that there will not be as much room for the cats themselves to spread out. The very shy one in the back, for example, is not just shy of humans, but some of the other cats, too. Then you get Butterscotch, who has been getting more ornery in her old age, and will randomly start hissing and batting at the other cats – including her own kittens!

No Rolando Moon this morning, but she’s another one that has been hissing at the other cats, though the other cats have been going after her, as well.

However, they do tend to tone it down when the weather gets cold. At that point, I think they’ll take the extra body heat over their usual aggressiveness.

I was able to pet Butterscotch’s kittens this morning. Creamsicle Jr. wasn’t too keen on it, but I was actually able to pick up the little calico and hold her. She stayed in my arms, looking at me like I was crazy, but purring. I didn’t want to keep her from food for too long, though, so I put her down and finished my rounds.

Before going inside, I visited the cats again.

I was able to pick up the little calico again.

She was willing to settle in my arms, purring away.

I took blatant advantage of the situation.

She’s now in the basement.

One of the girls very noisily scattered cat treats upstairs to lure the other cats away and close the door. Keith and Cheddar wouldn’t leave, though, being far more curious about the new addition. They’re pretty safe around the newbies, though, so that was okay.

Then I opened a tin of wet cat food, and Turmeric magically appeared from somewhere under my work table! :-D

I spread out blobs of wet cat food in the kibble platter to get the other cats interested, then brought the rest of the can near the calico and lured her over with the spoon.

It’s her first time eating wet cat food, and she was quite enthusiastic about it!

Turmeric, unfortunately, kept wanting to chase her around. I think it was more playful than aggressive, but it’s just too much for the little one. I was eventually able to escape the basement, bringing Turmeric out with me and managing to NOT let any other cats down. There was a whole crowd of them at the door, wanting to see what was going on!

She ignored Cheddar sniffing her while she ate, and he seemed pretty laid back while checking her out. Then he very slowly, casually, batted at her!

So today, we’ll be taking turns going to the basement, bringing the “safe” cats for introductions, and paying lots of attention to the new addition. That will mostly be on the girls, since I need to get outside to work on the kibble house. Not until late afternoon, though, when the temperature is expected to finally get above freezing.

I am such a suck. I have been so adamant about not bringing more cats into the house, and now we’re up to 16!! The problem is, bringing the females inside is the only way we can keep the yard cat population down. It costs about $260 to get a female fixed out here, and we’d have to bring them inside anyhow, since we’d have to make sure they don’t eat at least 8 hours before surgery, then give them 2 weeks to heal. Males cost half as much, so we were able to get the few males inside fixed. I have to admit, though, I would have loved to see David kittens! :-D Anyhow. No chance of more kittens if the females are inside.

Now that Tissue is socialized, we have 9 cats available for adoption, but so far, no takers!

Well, what can we do but keep taking care of them as best we can?

The Re-Farmer

A little Tissue

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It’s been a while since I updated on the status of Little Braveheart, aka Tissue, now that she has been brought indoors.

For the first while, she hid out in the basement. She began to emerge more often when the cats were given their evening treat of wet cat food. My daughters would, whenever possible, spend time down there, coaxing her out and getting her used to company.

As she started going upstairs more often, the other cats were true to their own personalities! Some took to her, some didn’t. For some reason, the spice girls in particular would start hissing and chasing her.

Cheddar and David were the most relaxed with her, but it has been our old mama cat, that moved out here with us, that has been both a help – and a problem!

She has always been good with the kittens, and when Beep Beep resoundingly weaned them, they discovered that “grandma” would let them suckle. It’s been a battle to get them to stop.

Then Tissue discovered this.

Several times now, we’ve caught her and one of the spice girls, trying to nurse on “grandma” – and being very much encouraged to do it!

On the one hand, this is not good. I don’t think cats can be stimulated to lactate without having kittens, but the attempt to nurse on her has left her looking like her nips are about to bleed.

On the other hand, since they’ve become nursing sisters, Tissue and the spice girls have become affectionate with each other!

I’ve made a belly band for grandma that I put on her when we can’t stop them from trying to nurse. It’s loose and she can get out of it easily, but it’s usually enough for them to stop trying.

Tissue had been aggressively trying to nurse, so I put the band on. Grandma then lay down to cuddle with Cheddar. Tissue clambered on, trying to find a nip. Much to my surprise, Cheddar reached out and arm to block her!

So Tissue just curled up in a ball on top of both of them!

I think she is now socialized enough to put up for adoption! :-D

Not that anyone seems to be interested in adopting cats at all right now. We haven’t had a single person interested in any of the kittens this time. Not a single contact! :-(

The Re-Farmer

Progress: sun room door and cat kibble shelter

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There was quite a crowd of kitties this morning!

There are 12 cats in this picture. Happily, Rolando Moon is still hanging around, busily hissing at any cat that comes near. We haven’t seen Creamsicle in a while, though. I hope he is all right.

The cat butt sticking out of the entry is a hoot. That is Rosencrantz’s baby, and she seems to be the shiest of the bunch.

As you can see by the frozen blocks of ice, artistically embedded with leaves, it’s been getting a bit cold out at night! It did warm up a few degrees above freezing. Not good for paint, but it had to be done.

I can now officially say that replacing the door on the sun room is DONE!! I just came in from outside a little while ago, and the paint was dry enough I could close the door. What’s supposed to be blue is now blue, what’s supposed to be white is now white, and nary the twain shall have contact with each other!

Yaaah!!

No, I didn’t take pictures. I’m am tired of taking pictures of that door! :-D

The next project is the shelter for the cat food. It will be placed about where the kibble containers currently are. I want to position it so that it will also provide extra shelter for the entrance to the cat house. The heated water bowl can be plugged in, inside, but the bowl has to be outside, since there’s no way I’m going to be lifting that roof every morning to refill their water. ;-) The shelter for the food containers will help keep the snow off the water bowl, too.

It took a couple of hours, but I got the end pieces of the frame done.

Working with this wood we salvaged from the barn has been a challenge. Nothing is even, so about the only thing I can measure is length. After that, I basically just made sure all the pieces matched and lined up. Not being able to just take measurements meant I had to get creative in lining up the pilot holes. Just making the pilot holes was an issue! My drill bits that were the right diameter for the pilot holes are just barely long enough to drill through the wood. I went hunting in the basement and the garage and, while I did find longer drill bits, they were all too large.

Thankfully, the bits I did have were long enough that, after drilling the pilot holes in one piece, I could position them on the other piece, “drill” though the pilot holes again, and make a mark on the other piece.

It worked most of the time. With the uneven wood, there were a couple of spots where the bit just wasn’t long enough to leave a mark.

Once I’d marked the pieces, I could drill more pilot holes, then screw them together.

When we used this wood to make the goat catcher, I had 3 inch screws, and only used two per corner. This was meant to be temporary, but I still didn’t expect it to be so wonky, it would end up bending and breaking the screws! So this time, I got 3 1/3 inch screws, and there’s 4 in each corner.

That thing is solid!

I started by attaching the 2 ft cross piece on the bottoms. The first corner was screwed together manually. Even with the pilot holes, it was not easy – and with arthritis in my wrists and fingers, rather painful. Our new drill isn’t a quick release type, and I didn’t want to be switching from drill bit to screwdriver tip, over and over, so I decided to use an old drill that we “inherited” to put in the screws.

That worked much faster!

Once the cross pieces were in, I got out a tape measure and figured out how much of an overhang I wanted on the roof supports. I decided to make the roof supports 3 1/2 feet long.

Lining those up at an angle was a pain in the butt! Once again, it was more about making sure the pieces matched, because there was no way I was going to be able to take usable measurements. I managed to get them lined up and the pilot holes done. By the time I was putting in the last set of screws, though, the drill was starting to complain, so I set them as far as I could before the drill started having a hard time, planning to screw them the rest of the way by hand.

When I took the screw driver tip off the drill, I realized I was seeing smoke coming out of the drill!! I remember that happening when we used it before. This old thing overheats very quickly!

By then, it was getting too cold to keep working outside, so I will continue the rest tomorrow. Once I have the 6 foot horizontal supports in place, we can take some measurements for the floor and wall boards.

The good thing is, we’ll be using the scrap wood in the junk pile. They are a lot thinner. That means I can finally use the table saw, and do all the cutting at once. :-) Those will be nailed into place; in cleaning up the basement, we found an old ice cream bucket full of nails that are just the right size for this job.

We can also go hunting in the barn or sheds for something to use as a roof. The roof supports are 3 1/2 feet long, but I hope to be able to have a sheet that’s 4 ft. The roof will be the last thing put in place.

After that, it’ll be done for this year. It’ll need to be painted, but we’ll be using it right away, so that will wait until spring. The one exception might be the roof, depending on what we find to use for that.

I hope to get a lot more done tomorrow, but that will really depend on the weather! At least they’re no longer predicting snow flurries, but who knows what the day will actually bring!

That reminds me. We need to bring the sheets of rigid insulation stored in the garage, back to the house. We’ll have to find a better way to get the sheets for the sun room windows to stay in place, though. At least this winter, we won’t be keeping the doors to outside propped open for the cats to go in and out, now that they have their own heated house! :-)

Lots to do before winter sets in, that’s for sure! :-)

The Re-Farmer

I got Mooned!

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I had to make an unplanned trip today. With feeding both indoor and outdoor cats, we go through the kibble (and litter!) pretty fast, and for the amounts we buy, it’s actually worth making the trip to a Walmart of Costco.

I didn’t want to go to the city, though, so I made the trip to…

A different city. :-D

It’s barely populous enough to be called a city, but it’s a bit closer, has a Walmart, and I wouldn’t have to drive through city traffic to get to it. In fact, I didn’t even have to go into the city at all, since the Walmart is on the outskirts.

When I got home and was closing the gate, I could hear some rather excited meowing.

It’s always cheering when the outside cats are so happy to see us, they come running.

There was, however, a different meow today. A different, but familiar meow.

We’ve been Mooned!

Rolando Moon is back! I haven’t seen her in ages! Like Butterscotch and Beep Beep, she is one of the cats my dad used to take care of, but she doesn’t hang around like the other yard cats do.

She was definitely a hungry girl, and was constantly growling at any cat that came near her, but she just couldn’t get enough pets!

It’s been so long, I thought she was gone for good. So I was very happy to get Mooned today!

The Re-Farmer