cat adoption

One step forward…

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… one step back, shuffle to the left, take another step forward and do-see-do!

Ugh.

What a day yesterday was!

But first, let us appreciate this handsome boy.

Gooby followed me out to the gate while I was doing my morning rounds. This little boy LOVES attention and wants to be held.

Nothing like having a cat claw its way up your leg, while you’re trying to switch the memory card out of a trail cam!

Once in my arms, he happily burrowed into my neck and violently started licking my nose.

He has a thing about noses!

As I was heading back inside after my rounds, I was greeted by this.

Walnut’s siblings and cousins, minus one. The three smaller ones (two in front, one in the back) are siblings. The three larger are from a slightly older litter, as is the one that was elsewhere when I took this photo. The one with the orange head is called Pinky. His fur is an unusual combination of orange and grey that sometimes makes him look pink! The little one in the back has spots that are almost completely black, rather than the grey tabby markings the others have.

Walnut, meanwhile, did get spayed yesterday and, while it took a long time for her to wake up, is doing very well. Walnut and the bitties are all getting treated for ear mites, and getting medications to treat upper respiratory infections. Itty Bitty Bobby was found to have some fluid in his lungs, but Sprite has just “uncomplicated” URI.

Oh, and guess what?

They all already have homes waiting for them!

Walnut will be going to a household that has one cat – a rescue the Cat Lady placed awhile ago. The bitties will stay together, going to a home with an older couple, and first time cat owners! They’re going to be hooked on cats with those two. 😊

Tissue, on the other hand…

I’m still waiting for word on whether or not she’s been caught. They found no sign of her. The garage is being renovated, so there’s not a lot in there, but they even opened up the drywall, looking for her. Nothing. Not even a peep. There’s no possibility that she got outside, as there was no access to outdoors. They did finally open the garage doors, with the workers all standing there, to back the car out (after checking to make sure she wasn’t in the engine block) and look again. Nothing.

It’s a heated garage, and they set a trap up. Hopefully, they will find her today, but I’ve not heard anything yet. Once they have her, they will leave her in the trap, and we will meet in town. We will take her back, trap and all, and hang on to the trap until we connect again. The vet, meanwhile, as offered a free spay near the end of February, but if we want to get Tissue done, we will have to take her to and from the vet ourselves.

Honestly, at this point, I’m not worried about getting her fixed. Clearly, she is not adoptable, and I just don’t want to put her through that again. She will stay with us, indoors, permanently.

As for her escape, they are utterly amazed. We knew Tissue was a burly girl, but they were astonished by how strong she is. She was in a hard sided carrier that they’ve used to transport ferals. They’ve never had a cat break out of it before. The Cat Lady had set the carrier down to open her car door when it “jumped” and Tissue was gone. The door was torn off and the carrier broken apart.

The Cat Lady is just beside herself with worry over Tissue. They’ve all been looking for her, off and on, all day yesterday. All they could do in the end was set the trap and leave it. At least they can look into the garage from inside the house, through a window, and check regularly.

For now, it’s just a waiting game.

While that was going on, we heard from the financing company about our application for the replacement vehicle. Since my husband is the one with the income, we were doing this all in his name. He got an email from them, saying it was tentatively approved. They just needed some banking information to confirm our income on the application, an ID such as a driver’s license, health care card or passport, and a few other little details confirmed.

Well, my husband doesn’t drive anymore, and we never got his driver’s license transferred after the move. The one time he went in to try, they wouldn’t do it, because his name on his old license didn’t perfectly match his birth certificate. In my husband’s family, no one uses their first name. Tradition is, everyone has three given names, and uses their second name. This was a bit of an issue when he was in the military, but all they did was reverse his first and second names on some paperwork. Everywhere else, he just used his second name and surname. Well, that’s not okay here anymore, and after much painful waiting, he was finally told he needed to change his legal name to…. His legal name. We did eventually contact the ombudsman who confirmed my husband only needed to have at least two bills or bank statements with his full legal name on it, and he could get his license. By then, however, he was in no condition to go physically go back and go through the process. Not even to just get a photo ID.

Well, it turned out the bank the financing company works with wanted a driver’s license or passport – our health care cards don’t have photos on them. He has neither.

So we had to transfer the application to my name. The financial information didn’t change, since it’s household income and we’re working with a joint account, however they not only needed my driver’s license, but the banking information we sent needed to have my name on it. Which doesn’t show up on the paperwork unless I selected the print option, with letter head. We’ve been sending in phone scans of the required documents, which does make things easier.

It took a few tries to get something legible but, by then, it was late in the evening. On top of that, yesterday was a statutory holiday, which meant few staff and everything was slower. Which is understandable. We’ll find out today whether the application, under my name, is approved.

Oh, one of the things that they needed to know is what “company” I worked for. Which confused me until she mentioned that we said we had a custodial arrangement, leaving us with no rent or mortgage payments. She thought that meant we were the custodians of a building, like an apartment building or something, owned by a company. So I explained that, and now my brother’s name is on the paperwork as the company/owner we have an arrangement with. They don’t need to contact him. They just needed something on the paperwork. I also explained to her that I can’t have my own income, because anything I earn would be deducted from my husband’s disability payments. That cleared up some confusion on her part.

Meanwhile, a daughter and I went out and emptied the van of our belongings, then put the set of all-season tires in the back. We won’t need them anymore, and with dozens of tires scattered around the farm already, I didn’t want to add to the piles! If the approval goes through, I can just grab the van and go, and come back with the replacement vehicle.

If it doesn’t go through, well… we’ll just put the stuff we need back, and keep going as is.

I’m really trying not to get my hopes up about getting this vehicle. True, we’d do better with a truck or van but, my goodness, even a 2013 Escape will be the most luxurious vehicle we’ve ever owned if we get it! We’ve never had a vehicle newer than our 2007 Grand Caravan, and that was quite a few years old when we got it.

Well, we shall see how it goes.

Hopefully, we’ll get all sorts of good news today, both about the vehicle, and Tissue!

The Re-Farmer

So far, so good!

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Well, we had our first night with Marlee!

I made sure to have as few cats as possible in my room overnight, so I could leave the baby jail open, and Marlee could come out any time she felt comfortable. That meant Nozencrantz and Butterscotch, who simply won’t leave, Big Rig, who wants to leave, but we’re keeping her isolated for a while longer as she recovers from surgery, and Marlee.

This morning, she was not in the cage. I eventually found her, peeking at me from under my vanity – then she came out for pets! Which is really funny because she’ll be enjoying pets, but if she so much as hears another cat moving, she would hiss and growl – while still demanding pets! After a while, she seemed to be trying to get at her food bowl inside the baby jail, from outside, so I put her in and she enthusiastically ate and drank. For a cat that has known hunger for the past couple of years, I fully expect her to be taking many opportunities to eat!

What I can’t tell is if she has used a litter box. The one in the cage looked unused, but there are two others that should could have used. Or, she might have used some corner of my room that I haven’t found, yet! The cat lady uses stove pellets for litter, too, so I know she is at least used to that.

I made sure to update the cat lady about how the night went, and they are SO happy with how Marlee has been doing. Her husband was saying, cats know when they are home! I hope that’s how Marlee feels, because after all she’s been through, she deserves a soft and comfortable life indoors, with lots of love! The only issue we might have is with the other cats. Unlike Nosencrantz, however, I’m sure Marlee will handle potential conflict better, and not collapse into a ball of panic and anxiety, like Nosencrantz sometimes does.

So that’s good news!

I did get a daughter to stay in my room and supervise while I did the morning rounds, just in case. Cheddar forced his way into the room as I was leaving, but this is Cheddar. He accepts all cats. Marlee hisses at him, and he’s completely oblivious. If any cats gets through to her, I’m betting it’ll be Cheddar. Even Nosencrantz and Butterscotch like Cheddar!

The outside cats were completely out of water in both heated water bowls this morning! The heated bowl that isn’t working and has been sitting in the sun room, full of ice, has been melting, though, so they do still have access to water. Once I got their food and warm water out, I got one of the big cans of donated wet cat food and emptied into a bowl, then broke it into much. I didn’t think of it until later, but I should have mixed in some lysine while I was at it.

After that, it was a race. There were kittens in the sun room, so I gave them a few spoonfuls, dropped spoonfuls in front of the cats in the shelf shelter, then quickly started dropping spoonfuls across the roof of the cat house, where most of the big cats were still eating.

By then, I had the attention of the kittens that hide under the cat house, so I quickly dropped some food for them before adding to the trays in the kibble house and under the water shelter. By then, all the cats were pretty excited about this whole wet cat food nothing – it’s the first time most of them have ever had any – so I was able to dump the bowl onto the tray inside the cat house entry, for the bitties.

Then, as I was starting to leave, I saw a little face poking out from under the cat house, near the counterweight. I hadn’t left any wet food there! So I started scraping the bowl and managed to leave a bit for that one, too.

I had considered using more than one can; they’re big cans, but that’s a lot of cats. In the end, I decided I’ll just do it again when I feed them in the late afternoon. The main thing is to get it to the bitties. What I’m spreading out for the older cats is a distraction. A treat, not a feeding.

That done, I finished off my morning rounds, and as I came back into the sun room, I found this adorable trio.

That’s Pointy Baby on the left, Pinky in the middle and Gooby on the right.

It’s funny how they like to sit on the board the heat bulb’s fixture is attached to! I’ve got it on the top shelf, so cats can sit under it on the bottom shelf for warmth, without any chance of them touching the bulb. It might be a bit too high for the warmth, but I do see kittens under there every now and then.

Today, I finally have a day where I don’t have to go anywhere. Now that the morning rounds are done, I am seriously considering pain killering up and going back to bed! I can finally have a day of rest – until I have to go out again, tomorrow, and get my mother’s car to the garage for a much needed oil change. Thankfully, it’s supposed to be just below freezing tomorrow, so I will be able to walk around town while I wait and do a few errands.

I think a day spent at home and loving on a traumatized cat, is a good plan!

The Re-Farmer

Our new addition, and some sad news

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First of all, allow me to introduce to you our new addition.

Hello, Marlee!

The poor cat lady was in tears as she passed Marlee on to us. We’ve since been chatting about her history, and my heart just breaks for her. She wasn’t physically abused, quite traumatized. Abandoned by her owners, she watched as her stuff – her cat tower, her litter boxes, everything – was thrown away after her owners kicked her outside. The new owners were “not cat people”, and would chase her away from the drier vent she was trying to keep warm under with a broom. A 90 yr old neighbour with cancer fed her every day for 2 years, before she finally called for help, fearing that no one else would take over if she died. The cat lady trapped her, but was turned away by rescues and vets repeatedly, until her own vet was finally willing to look at her. She was deemed “semi-feral” and would never be a “good” cat. They recommended euthanizing her.

The cat lady kept her, but it was 2 months before she would allow any pets, and she never settled in. She was clearly miserable. When passing Marlee on to us, she said she feared the cat would think she was being abandoned again, but at least she would be safer, outdoors with us on the farm.

Well, we’ll see about that.

When I got home, my brother was here, so after unloading the van, the girls took over while I stayed outside to help him.

Yeah. That’s Marlee, accepting scritches. My daughter had poked her fingers through the baby jail walls. Marlee came right over and head bumped her. So my daughter worked her way to reaching in and petting her, and Marlee was just loving it! She loves head scritches (which make her drool like crazy!), and accepts belly and side pets, but doesn’t like her tail or back touched. She was eating well, too. We’ve got Big Rig in my office/bedroom, too, where she will likely stay while recovering from surgery, and Big Rig is being less friendly than Marlee!

When I told the cat lady about it, she was amazed, and then shared the rest of Marlee’s background story. As she described the people moving out, and the neighbours feeding the abandoned cat, I was picturing some typical urban neighbourhood.

Nope.

That house sold for over a million dollars. And her owners got a house in Toronto, which has some of the most expensive housing in the Canada.

Clearly, lack of funds had nothing to do with the cat being abandoned!

One thing is for sure. We’re going to do everything we can to help this lady settle in to a safe and comfortable forever home. Yes, we still have lots of cats, inside and out, that need to be adopted out, but this one is going to stay.

Which reminds me…

Plushy and Princess (who now have new names) were supposed to go to one family, but two neighbouring households. Well, the two of them get along so well, the family decided not to separate them. They will be in one household, and Grandma will just have to walk over to visit her cat! 😄

On a related note…

When I came out to do my morning rounds, the first thing I saw when I stepped outside was a tiny little tuxedo running around! He quickly dashed under the cat house.

He was a hungry little one! (I’m just using the generic “he” – we have no idea if it’s male or female).

Later on, I spotted the tabby.

Usually, I just see his mostly white face. This is the first time I’ve had a decent look at the markings on the rest of him.

Well. Part of the rest of him.

After I came back from getting Big Rig and Marlee, I spotted the tuxedo again, running around, going in and out of the sun room, and exploring.

Here was have one of the littles, next to one of the oldest kittens!

With all the commotion while the roofers were working, I hardly saw the bitties at all, but I still wasn’t seeing the orange one. This concerned me, so I spent some time trying to see into the cat house, until I spotted what looked like orange fur. One of my daughters was able to come out to give me a hand with opening the cat house to check.

Sadly, the little orange bitty was dead. It’s eyes were crusted shut, and its nose covered with dried mucus. From the looks of it, other cats had been snuggled up to him. It’s possible he had been smothered, or it was a combination of respiratory illness and smothering. It definitely wasn’t the cold. This one did seem smaller and weaker compared to its siblings, so I can’t say I’m surprised, but it was very saddening. We even had someone wanting to adopt him.

As for the other two, we’ve had no luck socializing. I was actually able to catch the tuxedo, but he was NOT happy with that, and I ended up bleeding quite a bit for my efforts! Which, unfortunately, has probably set back our efforts to socialize them.

The cat lady passed on some food donations, including large cans of wet cat food. Tomorrow morning, I think I’ll dump a can into a bowl, break it apart, then spread spoon fulls out all over, making sure the bigger cats are busy with eating before making sure the bitties get their share.

Along with the food donations, she also passed on a couple of cat caves and a bunch of treats, too! She has been able to help us out with the cats so much, we’re more than happy doing what we can to help her back, by taking in Marlee (who I can hear growling at other cats behind me right now, from the safety of her cage). We just did the evening wet cat food feeding in my office, and she was quite happy while she was eating, at least! The grey lady needs some more TLC, I think. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Just too much cute!

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Before I headed out to help my mother with errands, one of my daughters came over to do bitty baby supervisor duty while I was gone.

Bitty was curled up on my bed, napping at the time. My daughter had had a sleepless night, so she took advantage of the situation.

Bitty responded by being even cuter, and took advantage of having a warm human to cuddle up against!

Later on, I got a message from my daughter saying that he was twitching and making nursing motions in his sleep!

We reached a high of 0C/32F today, though as I write this, we’ve started to cool down a bit. It’s still sunny and feels warm out there, and things are melting in various places. A perfect day to help my mother with errands. I’m happy to say she is well stocked up on quite a few things now. Especially the heavier things, like laundry detergent, or bags of potatoes, that she can get while I’m there with her car to help.

It’s also a perfect day to do a burn. Just before I headed home, one of my daughters got the fire pit going. There is a branch pile near the fire pit that we we’ve been adding to faster than we’ve been able to use it up – it’s separate from the logs we use when doing a cookout, and just getting too big. So the girls are planning to get as much of that cleaned up as they can. Now that I’m home and on supervisor duty (Butterscotch really, really does not like Bitty, but Bitty really, really wants to cuddle her!), they are both outside and tending the fire pit.

This is what I found when I came back into the room.

I mean, can he get any cuter? 😄😄😄

He really, really likes that hat! Gosh, he’s so tiny. And most of that is fluff. He’s actually smaller than he looks.

I’m going to miss him when the cat lady picks him up!

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, however, will be very happy to see him gone! 😂

The Re-Farmer

A double whammy of good news!

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The cat lady contacted me last night. After finding homes for the two bitty babies we found in the field, she now has someone who wants to adopt the last surviving bitty!!

Which meant, of course, that we had to bring him inside as quickly as we could. I wasn’t able to do that last night, as it was too dark to see, so we left it until this morning.

When I first topped up the kibble and water bowls, I couldn’t see him anywhere, but I’ve often seen him out after I’ve finished my rounds, so did those. Making my way back around to the kibble house, I was greeted by an orange tabby.

It wasn’t Rolando Moon.

Nutmeg is back!!

At least I assume it’s Nutmeg. I suppose it could be Toesencrantz, but I was able to pet him, and Toezencrantz was never socialized.

The kibble was already mostly gone in most of the trays, so I topped a couple of them to make sure Nutmeg got a good meal. He wasn’t too friendly with the other cats, but food was a higher priority for him! He looks really healthy, though. Usually, when the wayward males come back for the winter, they look like pretty starved.

Then, I spotted the bitty baby! He had finally emerged from the cat house, so I snagged him.

He’s now in my office/bedroom with me, and has had his first meal of wet cat food. As I write this, he is exploring the room, climbing things – especially the little cat tree we have in here – and checking things out.

Cheddar and Leyendecker were immediately curious about him and followed him around, sniffing. Bitty sniffed right back and there was lots of purring.

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are not too sure of things. Butterscotch is perched in the window sill, and I’ve heard her growling at him. Nosencrantz is on her top shelf by the ceiling, watching him from above, looking shocked, but has not tried to come down.

And I just had to pause typing the above because he climbed up onto my desk. Now he’s climbing the shelf to Nosencrantz, but he’s too small to get very far.

I think I’m going to be very busy supervising a baby today!

The Re-Farmer

Cat, and Cat Lady update

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I’ve had no end of internet troubles this morning, so it has taken me quite a while to finally settle down and write. The troubles were only with my desktop and, oddly, my phone. Sometimes, I’d still be able to connect to the local wi-fi, but couldn’t access the internet. No one else in the household had issues. It took a few restarts and troubleshoots, but I finally have internet again.

I was in contact with the Cat Lady today. She sent me another precious photo of Cabbages.

Now that she’s all healthy again, Cabbages still has no time for anyone in their household other than their daughter. She’d gone for a sleepover, and Cabbages cried at her bedroom door all night!

We confirmed the surgery date for Turmeric this Wednesday, and she will come back to us for recovery. She has some rescues that will soon be going to their forever homes, including a pair of rescues that will be going to some newlyweds! 🙂 Which means they’ll soon be able to take another of ours, soon. The next one will be going to her place, and will be spayed with her personal vet, who is able to give them a steep discount.

Which is a good time to put up a reminder that we still have the fundraiser going to help cover her out-of-pocket costs towards saving Cabbages’ life. While her new cat rescue is getting donations, much of it is still being funded by her husband, so every little bit will help. Click here if you would like to contribute to the fundraiser.

She will also be helping us adopt Nosencrantz out.

As Nosencrantz is now spayed and indoors, she is not as high on the priority list for adoption just now. I think, after Turmeric is done, Tissue will be next.

Eventually, we’ll get to the outside cats, including this lady.

This is Ghost Baby!!! She must have been incredibly hungry, because this is the closest she’s come to anyone before. Usually, she just disappears as soon as she sees us, or if we move even vaguely in her direction.

We’re just going to go on the assumption that she’s pregnant right now. Which might explain why she is hungry enough to chance coming within a couple of feet of me, to eat!

It would be pretty awesome if we could socialize her at least a little bit.

The Re-Farmer

Cat adoption update

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I got a phone call from the Cat Lady this morning.

Cabbages finally made it in to the special vet to be spayed this morning, and she is recovering nicely. So that is good news.

The other good news is that we have an appointment for Turmeric to be spayed, early next month.

Turmeric will be coming back to us for recovery, while also being added to the adoption list with the Cat Lady’s new rescue organization.

That’s the good news.

The not so good news is that the organization she left, with them wanting to send Saffron and Nicco to BC being the last straw for her, isn’t too happy with her. As a large organization, they have access to lots of resources – and they are making it difficult for her to access those resources!

Which is making things more difficult for her in general. As you can imagine, things are incredibly stressful for her right now!

You’d think they would be more interested in rescuing cats and be glad to work with other organizations with the same goals, but apparently not.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One of the things they did was stop accepting intakes through our local vet. The vet was taking in “too many” really sick cats, and the bills were really high, so they basically cut off that clinic temporarily.

Well, guess who is the vet that agreed to work with the Cat Lady?

Yup! Turmeric is going to the same local vet we’ve been using all this time!

They have become incredibly busy, though, so it’s hard to get an appointment in. I noticed a while ago that they have extended hours, and are even open on Sundays, which had been their one day off, a few months ago. Clearly, people are happy with this clinic!

The other news is with Saffron and Nicco. Using what resources she still has access to, she has worked something out with another rescue in the city. They have adoption facilities in a non-franchise pet store that is very busy. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s still better than being sent half way across the country! She’s known the woman who runs it for 20 years, so she knows they are a good place. The fur-girls will be going there, now that they are recovered from being spayed. With how successful and busy this place is, she’s expecting them to be homed within a week.

I found out something else when she contacted me about the appointment for Turmeric.

While her new rescue organization has lots of support and is getting donations, most of this is being bankrolled by her husband right now. Thankfully, he owns a business that didn’t get destroyed by government restrictions over the past two years, and can afford it for now. So all the out-of-pocket stuff they’ve been doing has really been out of his pocket! So when we bring Turmeric in to be spayed, and will not be getting any bill for it, it’s because HE is paying for it!

What an amazing man. Her whole family has really been all in with her cat rescue operations!

All the more reason I want to help out with the fundraiser I’ve got through Ko-fi.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

The only problem is, as with the rescues, not a lot of people are donating. I’ll keep the fundraiser going for a while longer, but if people aren’t interested, I’ll just shut it down and refund the (much appreciated!) donations currently made. Everyone is going through hard times right now, and I understand that they have priorities that are higher on the list than cats! We shall see how it works out.

As for myself, I’m just in awe of the Cat Lady, and all she is going through right now, trying to do right for the kitties.

She’s awesome!

The Re-Farmer

Just look at that face!

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How cute is this?

Nosencrantz is adapting rather well to being an indoor cat!

We’re still keeping her mostly in my office/bedroom, while letting some of the other cats in. Not any of the inside cats that are up for adoption, though. My daughters have been carrying her around the house every now and then, so she’s at least seen them around.

Butterscotch, meanwhile, has been quite content to stay in her nest in my closet, coming out every now and then for attention. She has zero interest in leaving the room, so far! Maybe she’s catching up on some much needed rest, after all those years outdoors.

I’m not sure when Nosencrantz is going to be taken by the cat lady for adopting out. She and Butterscotch were supposed to be outdoors by now. The outdoor cats weren’t going to be adopted out until after the indoor cats were all taken in to be spayed, then taken home by the cat lady to recover before going to the fosters and getting adopted out. Which means Nosencrantz may be staying with us indoors until about May, since the other indoor cats should be all tended to by the end of April, if all goes as planned.

I haven’t heard from the cat lady about Cabbages recently, which means all is well. I expect to hear from her on Monday, when we work out getting her cat carriers to use, instead of our own, when we drop Saffron and Turmeric off at the vet on Wednesday.

If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

We’re going to miss Rosencrantz. She’s a sweet, gentle cat!

The Re-Farmer

As set up as can be, and fundraiser update

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Well, we’ve been doing as much as we can in the sun room for now. It’s as ready as we’ll be able to get it, for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz’s recovery period.

We were able to tape up the wire on the old heated water bowl, so it can now be safely used again. The wire itself is not damaged; just the outside was cracked, right at the bowl. Thankfully, we’ve got a tape that can handle that tight of an area. If it hadn’t worked, we have a silicon sealant we would have used.

The main concern we have is with Butterscotch. We’ve used the sun room as a maternity ward before, for Butterscotch and Beep Beep to give birth in. Beep Beep handled it well, but Butterscotch tore her way through the old door’s screen to escape, no matter how many times we patched it up. She was more than content to leave Beep Beep to take care of both litters and probably wouldn’t have come back, if she hadn’t needed to nurse. She is not going to be happy in here. I do hope that, at least for the first day or two after surgery, she will be too drugged up to go too wild. It’s certainly going to make it interesting to go through here to get kibble and seed. Most likely, we’ll put a carrier in with her, and close her up until I’m done going in and out.

As we expect Butterscotch to basically tear the place apart while in there, my daughter and I bagged up the sunflowers heads, and they are now stored in the old kitchen. We’ve packed the top shelves against the window with as much gardening supplies as we could jam in, then made beds on the two bottom shelves. Then we tried to make the rest of the shelves and surfaces as impervious to destruction as we could.

I picked up a new litter pan for the sun room, since we’re using it for yard cat recovery so often. It’s set up under the swing bench. The heat bulb is ready to go, with scrap pieces of rigid insulation as walls, because there will be a cold draft from those windows, and more on the floor so they can eat and drink with their little toe beans kept off the cold concrete.

The plan is for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz to be brought in tomorrow, after we do the morning rounds. They have even been staying together when I put the kibble out, so they will be easy to catch at that time. They will have their own food and water until evening, at which point they will be put on a fast until after their surgery.

While organizing the space as best we could, one of the concerns is that, in her displeasure of being trapped in the sun room, Butterscotch might start attacking Nosencrantz. Since Butterscotch is not ever going to be an indoor cat and is not up for adoption, she has to stay in the sun room during recovery.

There is no such requirement for Nosencrantz. She will be adopted out. After they are fixed, vaccinated and de-wormed, and the non-adoptable indoor cats are done, we will start getting the adoptable indoor cats done near the end of February. We will bring them in to the vet in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the evening and take them to the fosters for recovery before going to their forever homes. Then we will start working on getting the outside cats caught and done. They, too, will be taken to the vet in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the evening.

It just doesn’t make sense to send Nosencrantz back outdoors after recovery, if we’re going to have to catch her again for the cat lady to take. Plus, if we bring her inside right after the surgery, there is no chance of Butterscotch going after her. This will also give us a chance to socialise her more, before the cat lady is ready to pick her up.

The next few months are going to be pretty cat crazy!

Speaking of the cat lady, I am incredibly thankful that there are already some fundraiser donations!! You can read about the fundraiser here or, if you wish, go directly to the donation page here. It just blows me away that she has been so willing to take on the expenses for Cabbages vet care, and going above and beyond in treating her. She even sent pictures (which I won’t ask permission to share right now; this fundraiser is a surprise, and I don’t want her to know about this blog, yet. 😀 ), and Cabbages was eating out of a bowl and looking so much more alert.

I have not heard any news today, yet, which tells me that the recovery continues. It’s still “no news is good news” right now. Cabbages is being lavished with care and attention, and I have full confidence and trust in the cat lady, to do what’s right by her, however things go.

I am so thankful that we were connected with her when we did. The timing was downright providential!

The Re-Farmer

We have news! (Cabbages update)

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I just got off the phone with the lady that took Cabbages. The early news is good!

The initial bloodwork has been done, and she does NOT have feline aids or leukemia.

Honestly, we didn’t think she did, but it’s good to confirm.

The vet checked for a few other things, such as symptoms of FIP; Feline Infectious Peritonitis. I’d never heard of it before, but she said it was a coronavirus, which is something I did know is a large and common class of viruses. The vet wanted to know if she had been outside recently (she hasn’t been outdoors since we brought her in as a kitten), or if she had symptoms like diarrhea (no), blood in stools (no) and vomiting (no) – even if we had a dog in the household (no).

She is so very tiny, but the vet did think she was just a small cat, so we talked a bit out how she didn’t have a lot of weight to lose in the first place, so once she got sick and started losing weight, she quickly became skin and bones.

So far, they hydrated her and have her a 14 day slow release antibiotic. They even put some high fructose stuff on her gums, just to put some calories in her. Then she went home with the woman we are working with, where she will stay for the next while. They will be feeding her a high calorie version of food goo, and trying to get her to eat some salmon. Cabbages is not a happy kitty right now, though, not just from getting so many injections, but with having so many people handling her. She has never been that keen on humans. The poor thing must be pretty stressed out right now!

On Tuesday, she will be back at the vet for a follow up, and will continue to stay with this family until she is healthy. There is already a foster set up to take her; an older woman who fosters cats for longer periods, to work on socializing them. I told her that Cabbages doesn’t like to be held or cuddled, though she does get along fine with other cats! I think that, without so many other cats around, she will start taking to people at least a bit more. Then, she will move on to her forever home.

I can’t say I’m happy about her having to go through two other homes before finally being adopted out. She’s not going to be a happy kitty for a while. However, at the same time, I’m happy that she’ll be getting the vet care this organization provides.

Well. It’s done.

As for the other adoptable cats, she is hoping to have them picked up, little by little, and placed with fosters by the end of April. Which means that we will not be getting the indoor adoptable cats fixed, ourselves. The adoptable cats will be going to fosters, and all their care and feeding is provided by this organization. Which means, for the indoor cats, we only have to get Beep Beep done, because the males are already done.

As for the outdoor cats, aside from Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, then the boys we can catch, that will wait until things are warmer, and it’s safe to trap them.

For now, I’m just thankful to have an update on how Cabbages is doing. 🙂

The Re-Farmer