Critters

Nature is brutal

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What a crazy, mixed up day.

A warning, for those who don’t want to read about just how nasty nature can be.

Earlier, I posted about our morning surprise; a new litter of kittens in the larger cat carrier in the sun room.

We kept watch on the sun room, staying out as much as possible. No other kittens were around; I don’t know where their mothers moved them. Other cats stayed out as well. Every now and then, in the critter cam, I’d see a cat go in, sniff at the carrier, then run off. There was one short haired black and white that kept coming back, but it did not go in with the babies, and would run off again. We found the black kitten outside the cage a couple of times, and I put it back. It, and its siblings, were cold and damp and crying, but non mama came.

At one point, I ended up in the basement, clearing the pipe to the septic tank again, and was away from the critter cam for quite a while. When I checked on it next, I could see a black and white kitten on the floor in front of the carrier, and it wasn’t moving. My older daughter and I went to see what was going on.

My first surprise was noticing some blood under the kittens nose. When I picked it up to look at it, and its lower jaw was gone. Something had started to drag it out or eat it or something.

The other three were still in the carrier. While I went outside with the tiny body, my daughter closed up the front door of the carrier and opened the top, so the kittens couldn’t get out, but the mama could get in. We had also shut off the ceiling fan and tied off the door, so the room would warm up for the babies, but they were still way too cold.

We decided to bury the kitten under one of the crab apple trees in the old kitchen garden. I quickly dug a hole and laid the kitten down.

It moved.

Much to my shock, the poor thing was still alive.

Yes, I swiftly euthanized it. I was not going to let it continue to suffer, and there was no way it was going to survive.

All we could do is keep monitoring the sun room.

Before my younger daughter and I had to leave in the afternoon, I could see the kittens moving around in the cat carrier. They even seemed to be stronger and drier. Could we have missed the mama come in and tend to them? We weren’t going to risk going into the sun room and scare her away.

The forecast of no rain today turned out to be quite wrong. Before my daughter and I headed out, we were hit by two quick and dirty thunderstorms, and our area was under a severe storm watch. Our first stop was at my mother’s town to pick up a Purolator parcel. We drove through downpours a couple of times along the way. I thought the parcel was our bucket of lysine, but it turned out to be something else – something Amazon still says has been shipped, but won’t arrive until the 25th! The lysine still says an expected arrival of the 20th – today – but only that the carrier has picked it up.

After getting the package, we drove to the nearer city, with a stop at a grocery store first. While my daughter ran in with her shopping list, I stayed in the truck. I could still check the critter cam from there, so I did that a few times – and spotted a couple of racoons! I was able to use the microphone to chase them out. When I messaged my husband and other daughter about it, my daughter told me she’d already chased a racoon out, earlier.

I could, however, still see the kittens moving around in the carrier. Even zoomed in, though, I couldn’t see if there was a cat in with them.

Once my younger daughter was done her shopping, we went to pick up the birthday pizzas. We were early, so I checked the critter cam a few more times. I could no longer see any movement, so maybe they were asleep?

Once we got our order, we drove home, which took about 45 minutes. We pulled into the yard to unload. As my daughter took in the last back, I went through the sun room to get some kibble and distract the cats away from the truck while she went to park it. As I quickly went through, I looked into the carrier.

There were no kittens.

No cats or kittens in the sun room at all.

After putting kibble out, I stopped to look around more closely.

That’s when I found … evidence, shall we say.

The racoons got the kittens.

All I can tell myself is, at least it would have been quick.

Since then, we’ve seen the black and white cat – it turned out to be the one with a black nose I sometimes saw around – go in and out of the sun room. We are thinking she is most likely to have been the mother. The makeshift table we had for the transplants has been put away, and the cat cage is now in the corner. I’ve put a cat bed and blankets on it. The last I checked, I saw this cat, and a couple others, lying on top of the cat cage. The other cats seem to be returning to the sun room.

I’d been chatting with the Cat Lady throughout the day, so she knew about the kittens, and the end result. The reality is, as much as we hate that this happened, it may have been for the best. The more kittens there are, the more likely there will be illnesses and other problems. Last spring was a devastating example of that.

When we are able to connect again, she will be lending us a trap for a few months. We won’t have a problem getting most of the males to the vet, but the females will need to be trapped.

It’s getting to the point where we seriously need to look into a cull. Especially with not being able to socialize or catch the females. With the way prices have been going up, we are now spending more on cat food, than food for ourselves. Of course, the more cats there are, the more fights there are.

Messaging with the Cat Lady, she tells me all the shelters are full, and the Humane Society is overwhelmed. People just can’t afford to feed their pets anymore, never mind actually adopting any.

They will try and help us as much as they can, but of course, donations for everything are going down, whether it’s for animal rescues, or food banks.

For folks like us, out in the boonies, we get to see a whole different side of the population issue, and sometimes that side gets rather bloody.

Nature is a b*** sometimes.

Meanwhile, I can see another thunderstorm coming through on the garage cam, with lots of lighting.

Maybe I should take that as a hint to shut down the computer and go to bed. It’s almost 11pm, anyhow.

What a crazy, messed up day.

Meanwhile, we’re trying to celebrate Father’s Day and my daughter’s birthday, combined, this week.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Morning surprise

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Well, I got one heck of a surprise this morning!

Our bathroom window faces into the sunroom, so we can often hear, even if we can’t see, the cats and kittens.

This morning, I started to hear the mewing of kittens.

Mewing that began to sound increasingly distressed!

I finished up as quick as I could and headed into the sunroom.

Of course, the first thing I checked was the cat cage.

It had one grey kitten in it.

Where was the mewing coming from? Was a kitten trapped behind a shelf of something? Hurt somewhere?

Then I heard the mewing again and realized it was coming from the bigger cat carrier. The one that opens from the top.

So I opened the top…

… and found four newborn kittens.

I had no idea we even had a pregnant cat! As far as I could tell, they all already had their kittens, weeks ago.

It seems one of the more feral cats – one of the ones we don’t even know the gender of – had her kittens in the carrier last night.

The problem is, there’s no sign of her. I’ve been keeping an eye on the critter cam as I write this, and there are no cats – or other kittens – in the sun room.

It looks like the white and grey litter has been moved out. I only saw two of the greys this morning, and the last time I went by, I only saw one.

I currently have the app for the critter cam in the sun room running. I have not seen any cat going to them. In fact, I’ve only seen one short haired black and white, just as it was leaving the sun room, and I don’t think it was the mama.

Sometimes, I have to turn the sound off on the camera, because they start mewing and it just breaks my heart to hear them, but not see a mama.

Now, out in the wild, so to speak, this would not be unusual. The mamas have to leave their babies for hours as they go hunt (or come to the house for food). They come back when they are ready to feed the babies. But with them being in the sunroom, I’m concerned they have been abandoned, or will be abandoned. We are currently going to avoid using the sun room for the next while, so the mama won’t be scared off. While working outside this morning, when I needed to go into the sunroom, I’d check the camera first to make sure it was empty before going in.

This mama found a really safe “cave” to have her babies, though. You’d think that would mean she will come back to tend to them.

Right?

The Re-Farmer

One of the mamas

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Before I get into the progress for today, here is some cuteness for you to enjoy!

Seeing three of four siblings with their mama is adorable enough. Seeing mama giving kisses to a kitten that showed up just yesterday just melts my heart!

The only down side is, the mother seemed to be leading the kittens (including the grey one!) away from the house.

The kittens, however, seem to really like the sun room and keep going back there on their own, to nap or have a bit of food.

Still, today I’ve only seen two kittens from the grey litter. I think the mama might be Junk Pile, but I’m not sure.

As I was finishing up for the day outside, I spotted Broccoli’s two, playing by the garden shed. They run away and hide when I come near, with is sad. I’d hoped handling them when they were smaller would have made them less anxious. At their size, if I do manage to pick them up, I’m taking them to the sun room, too. They are large enough and old enough that they might just leave and go back to the shed on their own. Or they might decide soft beds and easy access to food, plus other kittens to play with, is much preferable to the shed!

While giving the outside cats a light afternoon feeding, several mamas were on the cat house roof while I pet the boys. It looks like Caramel has at least three active nips. I could only see two on Adam, but she doesn’t give me much chance to see. Junk Pile also has at least two active nips. Slick (aka: Octomom) also had two that I could see.

We will probably have more kittens showing up by the house over the next few weeks!

The Re-Farmer

Good grief!

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Our forecast had changed to rain starting last night, continuing though today and tonight, no rain during the day tomorrow, but rain again at night.

Well, all of that seemed to just hit us at once, last night!

It started off gentle enough, to I left our remaining transplants out, but let my daughter know they were out there. When she heard the downpour, she ran out to bring them in.

She also found kittens in the sun room again.

All of them.

They were still there, this morning. The mama may have wanted them in the cat house, but they definitely prefer the cat cage in the sun room!

It was looking like I wouldn’t be up to working on that next bed today, last night. I had to get someone else to put the bath chair in the tub so I could take a shower. Then, as I got up from my office chair and walked across the room, I got hit with a Charlie Horse. I ended up needing one of my daughters to assist me for the next while, until I could finally crawl into bed.

In the end, it’s a moot point. There is no way we’re going to be doing much of anything in the yard or garden today.

The paths around the garden beds are all full of water, including around the beds that still need to be shifted. The melons I planted last night seem to have handled the battering just fine, as did everything else, which I am most thankful for. In fact, of the stuff that got planted earlier, just about everything is growing really well. The only exception is the struggling spinach, really, and that is a different issue completely. Spinach has been really hit or miss for us. Either it does really great, or not at all.

So we shift our goals for today.

With Father’s Day and my younger daughter’s birthday being in the same month, my older daughter is planning to treat us to a pizza night, later this week. We were also going to do an extra trip ahead of that, as she has other things she wants to get (like heat and eats for those hot days when no one is up to cooking), and I’m planning to get a cake of some kind. Probably a cheese cake, as that’s the birthday girls’ favourite. 😊

So we will be doing that trip, today. We’ll be heading to the nearer city, so I’ll be taking advantage of that to combine errands.

We are supposed to get a bit more rain this evening, then on rain for three days, then rain all day on Saturday. Hopefully, those three days will be enough for us to get more done in the garden, and get those tomatoes and Zucca melon transplanted!

Since moving our here, we’ve had drought, heat waves, flooding, and now spring so wet, we’ve now got more water in the yard than we did the spring we flooded! At least roads are being washed out.

As far as I know, anyhow!

Well, it is what it is. We’ll just have to deal with things as they come. What else can we do?

The Re-Farmer

We have four again! Also, how did that happen?

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I’m just taking a lunch break from working on that garden bed, and first wanted to share some adorable news.

We have four kittens again!

There is one white and grey with a distinctive line of darker colour beside one eye. That one is more comfortable with contact, and I was able to pick it up and cuddle it. I was seeing the other two – one that has markings that are more black than grey, and another white and grey.

I turned to do something, with the one kitten in the sun room with me, when I turned back to the cat shelters and noticed three kittens playing around! The mama brought over her last baby! I didn’t see the mama, but I had heard her calling to her kittens, distracting the one I was paying attention to at the time.

After all this time, I was sure we’d never see that fourth kitten again, yet there it is!

Working on the garden bed later one had a different distraction, and one that I quite enjoyed. I heard a utility vehicle driving around beyond the outer yard and, when it sounded closer, I went over to see. The renter was checking the fence line in preparation for rotating their cows to this quarter section. I had a nice chat with her, and even showed her around the inner yard to see what we’ve been doing – and the tree that fell on the outhouse! She told me she found some trees fallen on the fence line, but nothing she wasn’t able to just move aside, herself.

The weather we’ve been having has made things difficult for them, too. Normally, they would have planted in the field on our quarter section by now, but they’ve missed the window of opportunity because of the rains, and how muddy the field is. They might just leave it fallow this year or, possibly, plant some sort of cover crop.

After our bit of a visit, it was back to sifting soil. I got about half way done when I stopped for lunch.

Before I’d gone outside, I’d restarted my June Garden Tour video upload. I figured it would be done by the time I got back inside.

It was at only 53%.

???

What the heck?

I left it running as I had my lunch and checked again.

56%

My husband came by around then and I expressed my frustration. It’s only a 26-27 minute long video. I’ve uploaded videos, with the same quality settings, before and had no issue. I even did a speed test, and saw no reason why my upload would be taking so long.

He asked about the file size, which I didn’t know exactly. I figured it would be about what my other videos were. I did some looking and comparing.

It was 20 gigs.

The last garden tour video I uploaded wasn’t as long, and it was just over 1 gig.

I exported the draft again. According to the software, the exported file size could range from 740 mb to 2.7 gigs, based on the default settings I use.

It saved at 20 gigs again.

So I’m trying again. This time, I went into the advanced settings and lowered the quality. The software now tells me the exported file should be between 530 mb and 1.89 gigs.

I’m trying to think of reasons for this. About the only thing I can think of is that I used my current phone to make the recordings that went into the video. When doing videos where I set up the tripod, I use an older phone of my that is currently being used just for recording on a tripod. The newer phone allows for higher quality images and video, hence larger file sizes. Which would make sense, except that I use this phone to record hand held video. Plus, the software goes by the file sizes in the draft video, as well as the quality settings, when it gives an estimate for the finished video being exported. The size range it gives is pretty wide, but the final file size shouldn’t be almost 10 times the high end of the estimate!

I also deleted, rather than overwrote, the previous file this time. It’s now taking longer to export than when I tried it earlier. The export is taking longer this time, so maybe that will also make a difference.

Well, we’ll see what we get this time.

I hate having to reduce the quality of a video like that, though.

If this worked out, I’ll set it to upload again, and hopefully will actually be able to share a video with you, soon!

The Re-Farmer

(oh! It just finished exporting. The new file size is just over 3 gigs now. Time to actually watch it and see how much quality was lost!)

Wet, wet, wet – but the babies are okay!

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We had short, fast downpours throughout the night. It never really cooled down, though. I was hoping to get out early again but, at 5am, it was already 18C/64F, and still blowing like crazy. Things have calmed down a bit – still very windy, but the sun is out. All the areas that had finally become just wet, rather than filled with standing water, are once again filled with standing water. I’m glad we got as much mowing as we did. It’s going to be a while before we can try again.

When I came out this morning, there were plenty of cats eager for food, at least. The poor long haired cats are just soaking wet. I didn’t see any kittens at the time, though. When I finished my rounds and was coming around the laundry platform, when a single, wet little kitten climbed out from under the platform and onto a step. I’d left a bit of kibble there, and it seemed to be sniffing for it.

This is the kitten that has been the most willing to be cuddled, so I picked him up and did just that, so warm it up. He was a bit nervous about being carried around until I set up a small bowl of kibble in the cat cage and put him beside it, at which point he started chowing down!

Over the next while, I kept looking for the other kittens. Yesterday, it seems the litter was down or 3, so I was concerned it was now down to one. He was okay with running around and playing in the sun room, at least, and I kept an eye open for any others.

With the soil being far too wet to continue working on the garden bed, I decided to make recordings for a garden tour video, in spite of things looking a mess and being half done. After I finished that, I paused to pull some burdock coming up from under the cat house – and startled a baby! The two other kittens were inside the cat house! That makes me so happy. The cats haven’t been using it much, lately – it probably gets pretty hot and muggy in there at times like right now. The kittens were happily playing in the entrance, though, so I brought the other one over and they immediately started all horsing around together.

As I write this, we’re now at 21C/70F, with an expected high of 22C/72F. The winds are supposed to die down this afternoon. We should get a break from the rain for today and tomorrow, though we’re supposed to get more the next evening. Hopefully, that will give use the time we need to finish those beds and get the last transplants in.

Either that, or I’ll have time to put the garden tour video together, at least.

Looking out the window right now, we definitely aren’t getting the break from the wind, yet! I’m honestly amazed I found only a couple of fallen branches. The box frame over the eggplant and hot peppers is tied down and holding, but even the plastic around it is still there, though the bottoms keep getting pulled loose and need to be weighted down again. I’ve given up tacking down the mosquito netting at the chain link fence. They are well secured at the top, to the fence itself, but the ground staples keep getting yanked out, and most have disappeared. Bricks used to weigh the bottoms down just get flipped off. This netting lets water through, but the weave is still fine enough that they are more like sails than nets. They still do the job of keeping the elm seeds off. Those, at least, are almost done their season.

On the plus side, our water table may finally be recovered from all those years of drought that started before we moved out here! I’m not sure where to find that out. Plus, this is normally fire season. I’m quite liking not having to deal with smoke for weeks at a time!

There’s always a trade off of one kind or another, both good and bad. We just hope to have more good than bad!

The Re-Farmer

The babies are (mostly) back!

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When I headed outside to see how much I could get done in the heat, I had quite the surprise, hissing and spitting at me!

The sun room babies are back!

Except, one is missing.

They are hanging out on and under the laundry platform right now, which is next to the rain barrel. They weren’t too happy with my going back and forth to refill watering cans, but they didn’t leave the laundry platform.

I replaced the coupling on one of the broken hoses and was able to do some watering further away. I’m not sure if it was necessary, as I was hearing thunder by the time I was heading inside. From the looks of the weather radar, we should get a bit of rain, but nothing substantial. Enough that I should probably bring the transplants inside, I suppose. I don’t want the pots to get all blown around and knocked over.

I didn’t make it back to the garden bed, unfortunately.

Okay, that was one heck of an interruption.

I decided to look up old posts to see how far along we were at this time, last year. As I was doing that, the trees outside my window suddenly started swaying like crazy. So I ran to the sun room to bring the transplants in.

We were in a downpour!

There are only 6 trays left to bring in, so it didn’t take me long, but I got completely soaked!

Now that I’m dried off and changed, I look out my window, and the trees are barely moving. The rain has already moved on!

Because I used the rain barrel earlier, I left the diverter off so it could refill. It was about half full. I’ll have to check it and see if it needs to be put back. There was a LOT of water pouring into the barrel as I brought in the trays!

Wow.

Now… where was I?

Ah, yes…

Looking at posts made in June last year, we didn’t get the last of our transplants – the melons – in until June 24th. On the one hand, that’s a bit encouraging. On the other hand, around the same time, we already had tomatoes and Sweet Chocolate peppers formed. We were already harvesting spinach by now, and about to pull them to be replaced with the last of our onion transplants, but this year, the spinach just isn’t doing well at all, and most are still just tiny little things. A couple of them are bigger, but nothing that can be harvested from.

So we’re not “behind” when it comes to getting everything into the garden, compared to last year, but we were further along in the things that did get into the ground by now. Even our shelling peas, last year, were blooming and starting to develop pods. This year, I just got the shelling peas planted a few days ago!

However, our focus was very different this year. We didn’t do as many tomatoes – we will have lots in the freezer from last year – but instead went with a lot of winter squash and melons. We aren’t doing a lot of peppers, but do have at least as many varieties. Much of our attention has been directed towards getting the existing low raised beds shifted to their permanent positions before planting in them. That’s been slow going, but not shifting them would not have been any faster, since they got so thoroughly invaded with weeds, despite our best efforts.

Well, we’ll see how things work out.

As much as all the rain we’ve been having this spring has slowed things down, What we do have planted is certainly the better for it!

Though, after this downpour, I’m going to have to check the squash and melons, in particular, to see if they were damaged.

Well, we do what we can, when we can.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

First sighting and, good grief, it’s hot out there!

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Well, I got the shopping done, with extras. Along with the cat food (three 9kg kibble bags and one 32 count case of canned food: $132.92), my daughter sent funds for a few things. I went to the Canadian Tire for litter pellets and found a box fan for the girls to use upstairs, along with 20″x20″ furnace filters. They attach the filter to the back of the fan to keep the dust and cat hair down – or smoke, if there are fires in the area. I also found the trellis netting I need for when the peas and beans are bigger. I needed netting with wide enough openings to reach through to harvest. I even remembered to pick up couplings to repair a couple of hoses. My daughter transferred extra to cover some groceries while I was at the Walmart, too, which was nice.

One thing our truck has that our van didn’t is a temperature display. After I loaded up and was ready to come home, it was reading 26C/79F. Here at home, we’ve reached or expected high of 25C/77F, with the humidex at 26C/79F, but I would not be surprised if we get higher. We now also have a 54% chance of showers tonight.

I’m still going to water the old kitchen garden out of the rain barrel. Between the house and the ornamental crab apple trees, it doesn’t get the rain as much as other areas, so it’s pretty dried out.

(update: it’s just after 3pm, and we’re now at 27C/81F with the humidex at 28C/82F )

After I got home and my younger daughter and I unloaded, she and I moved the mini greenhouse out of the living room, and moved one of the shelves over, so we can hook up the AC. I had to fuss with it for a bit, as the duct from the AC is larger than the vent pipe to outside. As I was McGyvering a secure fit, I was literally dripping with sweat. The thermometer in the living room was at about 22C/72F. The living room almost never gets hot, so this is really unusual!

Now that the AC is running, I’ve also got a fan on the piano, blowing the cooler air into the dining room. This should help quite a bit!

When the truck was unloaded, I gave the outside cats a feeding to make sure none were under the truck, and I could move it to the garage. As I was leaving kibble under the shrine, I saw a little fluff ball!

We knew there was a litter in the junk pile, only because we could hear meowing while working nearby – but that was a while ago! I was wondering if the mama had moved them or something. Now, we know there’s at least one surviving kitten in there.

It’s getting to be that time. However many litters and kittens there are out there, we’re going to start seeing them, and the mamas will start bringing them to the food and water by the house as they get older.

Meanwhile, I’m going to see how much more I can do outside, before the heat and humidity force me indoors again. I suspect I’m not going to be able to finish that bed today. We’ll see.

Maybe I’ll get to see more kittens, though!

The Re-Farmer

Four!!!

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Okay, I was definitely wrong about that kitten I found in the sun room last night.

This morning, I heard the beginnings of a cat fight in the sun room, so decided to quickly feed the outside cats right away, instead of waiting until I headed out to to my morning rounds. By spreading kibble all over, it would get the cats out of the sun room, and away from that baby. I messaged a daughter to join me, to check on kittens, and went on ahead with the kibble.

The first thing I saw was two kittens on a cat bed INSIDE the cat cage! Then I spotted two others outside the cage. It was like they were still trying to be close to each other.

I left some food for the mama – whoever that is! – in front of the cat cage, then went outside to feed the rest of the cats. Meanwhile, my daughter tried to figure out how to get at the two outside the cat cage, and put them with their siblings.

I saw Broccoli at the kibble on the cat house roof, so I went around to the old garden shed to leave some food for her there. No sign of her two, but unless they pop out to look at me from their hiding place in the back, I have no way of knowing for sure.

Now that I see the kittens in the sun room, I realize they are younger and smaller than Broccoli’s would be by now.

When I got back to the sun room, my daughter had just managed to reach one of the kittens, and was able to pass it to me. I gave it a cuddle, then put it with the two inside the cage.

It was more difficult to get the other one! It ended up going behind the cage, where there is a window sill the cats like to sit on.

I took the plants outside, then we had to mess around with the plant table to make space. The “table” is an old folding closet door over sawhorses, above the cat cage. An extra board was added for the cats to sit on, instead of the plant trays. That got removed, which gave a bit of wiggle room, but the kitten made its way to the other side of the cage. My daughter had to get down on her hands and knees and squirm under the sawhorse, but she managed to reach it and pass it to me. I got a quick cuddle and put it with the others.

Yes, the kittens hissed and spit at me while being cuddled, as expected.

My daughter was able to pet them a bit through the doorway of the cage, which is at the second level, before going back in to wash up.

Now, we set this cage up for Toni, in hopes that we could keep her in there to recover from her leg amputation. She had kittens somewhere, and we cut a small opening in the cage side, under the “door” for her kittens to fit through.

We didn’t expect Toni to be able to squeeze through the openings of the cage, though! So she ended up inside and, as far as we know, her kittens got adopted by the creche mothers. We never got the straight of which ones were hers, so we can’t be sure.

We’ve left the cage in the sun room and several cats quite enjoy going in there for naps.

After the kittens were all in the cat cage, I finished putting the last plant tray out, came back and…

There was a kitten, outside the cat cage, looking at me. It had found the opening!

I was able to grab it and pick it up – and it didn’t really resist this time! After I put it back in, I set other things back in place, including putting that board back over the sawhorses, but I also grabbed a cat blanket to put over the opening. I stuffed part of it in the opening, from the inside of the cage, and already had to move away the kitten that was going for it again!

After the opening was blocked and the kitten dug around in the blanket a bit, looking for the opening, it just sat there, looking at me.

So I reached in and pet it.

It let me!

I went inside and got a few cat toys, and put them in the cage with the kittens. It didn’t take them long to start investigating!

Over time, we’ll take the spare little litter box that was donated to us, and set it up in the cat cage. It’s small enough for the kittens to crawl into.

I’m going to have to check the critter cam more often, and hopefully spot which of the cats is the mama. I just checked now and the only cat I can see in the sun room right now is Stinky – a male – napping on the board above the cage.

The interesting thing is, the mama would have put the kittens inside the cat cage herself! The kittens can get out but, once out, they can’t seem to figure out how to get back in. Aside from the opening under the door, the bottom of the cage is lined with cardboard on the inside, since we were trying to stop Toni from squeezing through the 2″ square wall pieces (the are 1″ square).

I would love to get Broccoli’s kittens in here, too!

Well, time to get my butt in gear and get outside. We didn’t get actual thunderstorms in our area last night, but I need to see what wind or rain damage there might be. Especially on those melons that were transplanted yesterday. They are the most fragile transplants compared to all the others we’ve got. Then it’s back to work to prep more beds, so the last of the transplants can go out!

After I take more painkillers.

The Re-Farmer

A sunroom surprise!

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

When I set out kibble for the outside cats this morning, I saw Broccoli come over to eat. I made sure to go to the old garden shed to check on her kittens and leave some food for her.

I did not see or hear any kittens.

Later, as my daughter was mowing the lawn, she saw the kittens outside, running around and playing with their mom. That was encouraging!

This evening, after my trip into town, my daughter and I unloaded the truck in the yard. After parking the truck, I saw a lot of cats prowling around, so I checked their kibble bowls, even though I’d fed them earlier.

There was nothing left at all, and the cats were circling like sharks!

So I gave them a top up, and even ended up scattering a bit of kibble in the sun room, along with all the other little places I leave food, to ensure less confrontations between cats.

As we were already getting some rain, after I tied off the outer door to the sun room, so the cats can still come in, I partially closed the inner door.

I found a fluff ball hiding behind it!

It was the black and white kitten from the garden shed!

So I picked it up and cuddled it for a while. He did not like that very much, and kept spitting at me ! I put him into the cat carrier, making sure the door was propped open so it couldn’t get stuck in there, and let it be.

No sign of the calico, though.

Except…

I just went looking at pictures I took of the black and white and the calico together, and suddenly, I’m not sure it’s the same kitten. This may be an entirely new kitten! They look very similar, but … well… you tell me…

The garden shed kitten seems to have more white fur around the eyes, and the dark parts of his fur seems not as dark as the kitten in the sun room.

I may have picked up a completely strange kitten!

I’ve looked through the bathroom window a few times, and it’s still there, exploring and playing in the sun room, or just sitting at a window, watching the other cats going through the old kitchen garden.

Well, this IS a surprise!

The Re-Farmer