cat adoption

Good news, sad news

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I’ll start with the good news!

Yesterday, as I was heading back inside through the sun room, I spotted Button and his blue, blue eyes. I’ve been trying to capture just how blue they are and, this time, the light was hitting them just right. The camera was even able to capture the colour very well, too!

Freman baby!

I was able to get a few pictures and even a short video. When I had the chance, I shared them with the Cat Lady (and others! 😁), just so she could see the colour.

Soon after, she was asking me questions about Button, and telling me she was going to share the photos around. She knew some people that had lost their elderly cats and was hoping they’d be willing to adopt a kitten.

Well, I don’t know about the ones that lost elderly cats, but she did find someone that was very interested!

Best of all, this person is a vet!

For all his tiny size and blue eyes, we know Button is likely at least five weeks old, based on things like how much he’s eating solid food, compared to how often he nurses on the creche mothers. The vet knows that he is a foundling, and that we know little else about him. We also just assume he has ear mites.

The Cat Lady will pick him up, most likely on the weekend when they are in the area again. He’ll be with her for about a week before going to the vet. The vet is even taking on the expenses that the rescue would normally take on before a cat is adopted out.

Now, we’ve had way too many of these things fall through in the past couple of years, so I’m not holding my breath on this, but as it stands now, Button’s gorgeous blue eyes seems to have found him a forever home!

Now for the sad news.

The girls had fed the cats outside quite early in the morning, so when I went out to do my rounds, I topped up the kibble a bit, then did my usual routine.

There is one black and white kitten – one of the Squashes (kittens that like to sit in the pots with my summer squash) – that we’ve been keeping our eye on. He (she?) did not seem overtly sick, but was definitely not thriving. Yesterday, I honestly thought he was dying, like the other black and white Squash kitten I’d found a few days ago. However, when I picked him up, he perked up, got active, wanted down, and started behaving normally.

I was keeping an eye out for him while I was outside and, by the time I was ready to head in, I had not seen him anywhere. This kitten was one that always stayed close to the house, with several favourite places to hang out, and he was in none of them.

*sigh*

So I started looking for him, knowing I was likely looking for a body. But where could he be? If anything, this is one kitten I would have expected to find out in the open, like some of the other kittens we’d found passed on.

Once all the obvious places where checked, I started looking for the less obvious places he might have gone into.

Which is when I saw the tail, peaking out from under the back of the kibble house.

An orange tail.

This year, we’ve had one orange fluffy kitten, and one orange and white kitten. The orange and white kitten was in the sun room, enjoying himself in the cat cage.

Which is when I realized, I hadn’t seen the orange fluffy one in a while.

I will not go into detail but, let’s just say, the orange kitten had been under there for quite some time. It took some creative effort to get him out and bury the remains under a rose bush.

I made sure to hose down under the kibble house after. There is a sheet of rigid insulation on the ground that fits perfectly under the floor of the kibble house, and a lot of the cats and kittens will hang out under there, or hide under there if they feel threatened. The back wall of the kibble house is just a few inches above ground; too low for an adult cat to squeeze under. The front is more open, with just the 2×4 supporting the floor of the kibble house for them to squeeze under. It’s hard to see anything under the kibble house without basically getting down on the ground. When I retrieved the remains of the orange kitten, I did make sure there were no other remains.

Which means I still had the black and white kitten to find.

With the condition of the one kitten, I really wanted to make sure the black and white wasn’t in the sun room for us to find by the smell or something. After looking all over, I found myself eyeballing the counter shelf. The kittens like to hide under it, and go between it and the window.

Then one of the other cats moved out from under the table saw, and I could see a little black.. something.

It turned out to be a barely visible tail tip.

*sigh*

This one got buried under the honeysuckle.

So that’s two more gone, and we don’t know why. The Cat Lady says it’s most likely lung issues. I suspect she’s seen a lot more of this than we have!

But still, this is 5 kittens I’ve buried in less than a week, and only one of them looked like it was having issues. I can’t say for sure about the orange one, since it ran from us all the time, but the other two had seemed hale and hardy, until they weren’t.

It just occurred to me; this black and white and the orange kitten were both Brussel’s babies. That’s at least two out of her litter of four she has lost. Possibly three, as the other black and white might have been hers, too.

I just went looking through my photos. There is one of her kittens that has a distinctive black splotch over its nose, and I’ve been seeing that one around the house. Looking at the others in the photo, I am now more convinced that the other three from her litter are now gone.

Wow.

So…

What a start to the day.

At least we have the good news of Button soon to be going to his forever home with a vet!

I’ll take what I can get.

The Re-Farmer

Saying goodbye, and some surprises

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

Well, it’s done. Our Wolfman is gone off to new adventures.

His eye actually looked a lot better today – he just really hates it when I try to take his picture! – but we could now see something different about it. Where, before, there seemed to be a dent in the eye, the eye no longer looks shriveled but now has a spot sticking out, like a little pimple. You can see it in the photo.

The Cat Lady took one look, and said that it’s a hematoma, and that this is not from a scratch, but blunt force trauma. One of her own cats had the same thing. What likely happened is that, while horsing around with the other cats, Wolfman ran into something.

Which wouldn’t surprise me, considering how often we’ve tried petting a cat, only to have it poke itself in the eye with one of our fingers!

He’ll be kept somewhat isolated in a kennel (there will be other cats in the room), and then see the vet tomorrow. Depending on how things he, there’s a free special eye clinic happening on Monday that she may take him to.

As we talked, I discovered I was wrong about how many permanent cats they have. It isn’t 17.

It’s 21.

Plus another 8 that are up for adoption, so Wolfman puts them at 30 in total!

He will be an easy one to adopt, though.

We ended up talking about some of the other “problem cats” they haven’t been able to find homes for, including at least one other that was adopted out but returned, repeatedly, just like the one from us. We never named him, and weren’t even going to pass him on to the rescue, as he was so sick we didn’t think he’d survive. He wouldn’t have, either, were it not for them! They’ve named him Leo.

They were told repeatedly that he wouldn’t last long. They tried to have him fixed twice, and his heart stopped when they put him under. They resuscitated him and the final time they tried to get him fixed, they didn’t put him under at all, but used a local anesthetic. He’s had other times when he’s stopped breathing. Yet, he keeps recovering! He’s become a big muscular brick of a cat, too. That doesn’t surprise me. He would be one of Shop Towel’s progeny, like Tissue and the Printer Babies. Tissue is also solid muscle, and so are several of the white and greys outside.

The Cat Lady also had some donations for us, including some surprises.

I knew she had kibble for us, and then she said she had some litter boxes for us, but wow! There is so much!

The funny addition is that round litter box you can see in the back. That was Leo’s litter box, barely used. He would go into the box, but then couldn’t figure out how to get out of it. Instead, he would just go around in circles.

She jokes that he’s the dumbest cat they’ve ever had.

Along with what turned out to be three litter boxes, there was 8 bags of kibble, 15 cat milks, and more than a dozen bags of fancy, high end treats. She’d actually bought the treats for her own cats, but they wouldn’t eat them. In fact, Cabbages stole a bag, put it in a litter box and tried to bury it!

I already gave some to our cats, and they went bonkers for them! Totally love them!

The cat milks are going to come in handy for our elderly Freya. She needs the extra calories!

There’s also a little cat scratching tower with a couple of dangly toys, which is now an upstairs cat toy. There was even a little litter scoop hidden among the stuff!

This was an incredibly generous donation, and really helps us out a lot! Especially the extra litter boxes. The smallest one will be tucked away to be used for those times when we have to isolate a cat. In time, we hope to replace most, if not all, of our litter boxes with covered ones.

While transferring all this stuff from her vehicle to ours, the Cat Lady said that she’ll have more for us, next month! Which is totally amazing! I’m just to thankful for ever bit of it.

After we parted ways, I took advantage of being in town to do some errands, but that will be for my next post.

The Re-Farmer

Finally!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment
Why aren’t you petting me?

No, not finally petting this cat, though that did happen (I counted 30 yard cats this morning).

No, not finally the snow is almost gone, or the moat around the garage disappearing, or even large sections of the main garden area accessible again.

No, what finally happened was our tax returns finally got deposited!!!!

I’ve already called and left a message with the septic guy about replacing the pill switch in our septic tank.

Just a little bit longer, and we won’t be having to manually turn that thing on several times a day.

We’ve certainly learned to recognize the signs of when it needs to be done, before things start backing up into the basement!

We were having a problem with it yesterday, though. One of the things that was modified on our system was the addition of a pool filter. Greywater from the tank goes through the filter before it reaches the pump, which then sends the water out to the field by the barn. Hang on… I should have some photos. That will make it much easier to explain!

There they are!

These go back to 2020, in February, when things backed up into the basement, and my brother helped get things unplugged – at least until we had the roots professionally augured out of those floor drains!

This is what it looked like, before the filter was installed.

This is what it’s like now.

The filter needs to be primed for proper flow, but once that’s done and closed up, it should run fine. If, however, we turn on the pump, but the greywater side of the tank outside isn’t full enough to be drained, the filter reservoir drains out the bottom, and that’s it. So we need to open it up and fill it to above the inflow opening to prime. We can even keep an eye through the clear lid and see what’s going on, which I find very useful.

You can see the white handle of the filter basket inside. We have two of them, so that when it needs to be cleaned, we can just quickly switch in the second one, then let the dirty one soak in detergent for a while before scrubbing it out. Typically, we only need to do this a couple of times a year.

That got switched out when the septic tank was emptied and it was really bad, so I switched out the detergent water it was soaking in a few times, and it was still soaking, as of yesterday.

Yesterday, we could tell that the tank needed to be drained, but every time I tried to run the pump, the filter would drain, but no greywater from the tank would come in. I’d prime the filter, but it would happen again.

So I decided to switch the filter basket, but the other one was still soaking. The detergent got most of the gunge off, so I gloved up and started scrubbing the basket with brush that we have, just for this job.

What I found myself doing was pulling out wads and wads of cat hair! Enough that it was blocking the mesh of the filter basket from the inside.

Once I got that clear and clean, I took the other filter basket out and set it to soak. I also made a point of cleaning the inside of the reservoir, the threads and the parts and pieces of the cover. I even scrubbed the inside of the clear cover as best I could. Over time, grease and grime can build up under there and make it harder to see inside.

It was a very disgusting job, but it needs to be done!

Once everything was cleaned up, I popped the newly cleaned filter basket in, primed the filter, then turned on the pump.

It ran fine! I could see the inflow splashing through, and the water level remained high.

While that ran, I started cleaning the other filter basket…

… and started pulling out wads of cat hair!

There was enough cat hair lining the inside of the basket to prevent proper flow and mess with the vacuum seal.

I got the cat hair out, but left the basket to soak in detergent longer, since the other scunge that was already accumulating wasn’t going to come off well, otherwise.

When living on a town or city sewage system, we don’t really think about what goes down the drains. Sure, we know about flushing toilets, baths, showers and draining washing machines. How often, though, do we think about the bits of food and grease from washing our dishes? Or all the different types of cleaners, getting all mixed up together? Or how much HAIR gets in there! We already have to regularly clear the drains in the tub and bathroom sink because of the hair that gets caught – both human and cat – but I never imagined that so much cat fur was making its way into the septic system that it would clog that filter basket after only about 10 days. The Septo-Bac and the bio pipe maintenance stuff both include bacteria and enzymes to break down grease and hair. It just needs more time to do it!

It would be getting in through the washing machine, mostly. Every time we do the laundry, and I clean out the lint trap on the drier, it’s got a thick layer of cat hair on it. It gets everywhere. What we need to get are some air filters for various rooms, but even that would reduce the problem, not get rid of it. We just have too many indoor cats!

Well, by the end of today, we’ll be down by one, as I deliver the Wolfman to the rescue for vet care and adoption. I’m happy to say his eye is looking SO much better today. Hopefully, that will mean a much smaller vet bill for the rescue, though the vet was willing to give them samples of that super expensive medication.

Talking about the Wolfman with my husband today, he joked that he’ll put money on them deciding to keep him permanently. I hope not! They already have 17 permanent cats, plus the ones up for adoption that have their own space, and 4 or 5 (or is it 5 or 6?) of their permanent ones are from us!

Wolfman is such a sweet cat, though. We’re going to miss him!

What can’t we adopt out the a****e cats, instead?

Oh, right. Because they’re a****s. 😂

Anyhow.

It will work out.

Later today, I will deliver the Wolfman, then take advantage of the trip to pick up a few necessities. Hopefully, I’ll hear back from the septic guy before then, and will know how much cash to take out to pay him, and a date for when he can replace the pill switch.

Finally!!!!

The Re-Farmer

Saying goodbye, soon!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Well, the ball is rolling.

I got a call from the Cat Lady this morning.  We will be meeting tomorrow afternoon, so I can drop off this handsome dude.

He even has an appointment with the vet, the next day.  I keep thinking the eye is looking better, but then the light hits it, and it starts glowing a horrifying red.  I hope it won’t take much to get him healed up.  The Cat Lady and her family are already afraid they might end up keeping him.  He’s such a beauty, and so very sweet!  I told her, just post a picture of him with that tail, and they will have people lining up for him!

I learned something interesting during our conversation.  They have a cat from us that got adopted out – and returned! – three times, so they’re now keeping him permanently.  He was so very sick when they took him in, and still has returning health issues, which people had said they understood and were willing to work with, but then, didn’t. Their daughter that took such good care of Cabbages has been taking care of this one, too, and they adore each other. She’s excited to know that one of his cousins is soon to join them! When she leaves for school, he will sit at the window in the door all day, waiting for her to come back. Even the dog adores him.

It turns out, he’s a Down’s Syndrome cat.

I didn’t even know cats could have Down’s Syndrome.

He was seeing a different vet one time when the vet took a closer look and told the Cat Lady, this is a Down’s Syndrome cat. She had no idea, either, but he explained what he was seeing that identified the diagnosis. It does explain quite a few things, both with his health issues, and behavior.

The Wolfman, however, should be a much “easier” cat for them. He is already fixed – she was happy to hear that, as she was already planning ahead to get that done – and once the eye is taken care of, that should be it.

I’m so grateful that they’re willing to do this. We’re still waiting on my tax return, so who knows when we’d have been able to get him to a vet – or even if my return would be enough to cover the bill. We absolutely must get that pill switch replaced on the septic tank once the money comes in, so whatever was left after that would have been it.

So we’ve got one more day to enjoy the Wolfman’s company. He’s such an easygoing cat, he will handle things quite well, and will make some lucky family very happy!

Meanwhile, I brought up the idea of doing some sort of fundraiser for the rescue in the summer. There isn’t much we can do to help out, but we can at least help with something like this!

The Re-Farmer

Gorgeous days, and certifiably gorgeous!

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Yesterday was incredibly gorgeous, reaching 8C/46F, bright and sunny. Things were melting all over the place! I’m loving the longer days, too. My daughter was able to slog through the snow to do a perimeter check I haven’t been able to do for some time, and tells me she is seeing signs of new growth all over the place.

As I write this, we’ve reached our expected high of 6C/43F, with a “feels like” of 11C/52F The outside cats are in heaven with these temperatures!

There’s the cat with the messed up eye, which seems to be doing better. I counted 32 this morning. I did not see Sad Face anywhere.

Speaking of messed up eyes, Wolfman’s eye really does seem to be looking better to me. I got a call fairly late last night from the Cat Lady about him. She’s just gotten a call from the vet! He’d felt bad about not really answering her when she showed him the pictures of Wolfman and he kinda blew her off. So he took another look at the pictures. He thinks there is still vision in the eye, and it can be saved. There’s a non-steroidal drop I don’t know the name of that he thought would be the right treatment. The Cat Lady told me has a cat she’d used this stuff on before. She had been sure this cat would lose it’s eye, as it was all shriveled. When this stuff was prescribed to her, she had been shocked. She’s never seen such a tiny amount before. A single drop is applied, every 2 weeks, for a 6 week treatment. So, 3 drops total – at about $100 a drop! However, after just the first application, the next day the eye looked almost completely recovered, and the cat is still doing fine. The vet is aware of the situation, though, so if Wolfman in brought in, under her name, he does have samples he can give her for free. !!! Technically, he’s not supposed to give them out to the general public, but she’s a rescue, and they’ve got a good working relationship. They are a business, though, and need to do things the right way.

So next week, I’ll meet up with her with the Wolfman, she’ll take him in for the usual shots and blood tests, and he’ll get his eye properly checked out. Who knows. He might not need this stuff, after all. The main thing, though, is that the vet thinks there is still sight in the eye, and it can be saved. At least that’s what he can say based on just looking at the (rather horrifying, I thought) pictures of the eye.

After all the usual vet care and assessments, Wolfman will then be officially put up for adoption. I told her, I would expect him to be adopted out fairly quickly. He is such a gorgeous cat, with this massive, fluffy tail! Talking about him with her family, it seems they are already bracing themselves, though. So many cats from us have become permanent members of their household, they’re half expecting to fall in love with him and keeping him. 😂😂 He’ll be going into the “cat room” part of their house, for the adoptables, with other cats, but if he ends up in the regular household…

They know themselves too well!

That got us to talking about some updates she got from other cats they found homes for, for us. She sent me a picture of one bonded pair that were adopted out together. One had been so very ill, but is now fully recovered. They are currently hanging out at their winter home, in North Carolina, where they had been flown out first class (!!) and are living in the lap of luxury.

Can she find people like that to adopt me, please?

Then there was another pair they adopted out for us. One of them we’d named Plushy, because she looked like a gorgeous, fluffy stuffed toy. She has another name now. Shortly after adoption, she had a sudden emergency surgery that everyone was surprised by, and ended up having a portion of her small intestine removed. There had been zero sign of any problems, then boom, this happened. She recovered very well, though, and the couple that adopted her and her buddy just dote on them.

They also entered her into a cat show. The show was for Norwegian Forrest cats and Maine Coons, but of course there is no lineage for Plushy, so she was entered in the “long haired house cat” category.

She won third place!

So she is certified gorgeous!

I’m absolutely delighted that these former yard cats are now in such loving homes, and living their best lives.

The Wolfman is not even a year old yet, but he’s already a stunner, and I think we’ve got another David happening – we think he’s going to be a big, fluffy boy! So different from his siblings. Soot Sprite is getting bigger, but he’s still a very slight cat. Tiny, The Beast, on the other hand, looks like she’s going to stay pretty tiny! She’s another stunner, too. They are both short haired cats, and absolutely sleek.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Cat Lady has been talking to the vet at the clinic that still does cheap spay days. While they will also do males on these days, they’re looking to do a males only day in the near future. That’s good news for us, because among the outside cats, the most socialized ones that we could easily get into carriers, are all male. If we could manage to get Sad Face in there, that would be amazing, but getting him into a carrier would definitely take some doing! He’s such a big boy, too, there’s only one carrier we have he would even fit in. We can easily find 5 outside cats for our 5 hard sided carriers, if the Cat Lady can things out. We’ve also got the 2 soft sided carriers, so we could potentially bring in 7 cats, but with outside cats, they might actually tear their way out of one of those. They may be more socialized, but stuffing them into a carrier is something else entirely!

We shall see how that goes. We’re still waiting on our tax returns. I hear these are delayed because Canada Revenue had to fire several hundred people who inappropriately got CERB money during the illegal lockdowns. Not very encouraging to know so many tax department employees had no problem committing fraud, but not very surprising, either. Hopefully, the refunds will be processed soon. Aside from potentially paying for cheap neuters, it’ll be nice to finally get the pill switch replaced on our septic tank, so we’re not having to turn the pump on manually several times a day!

Ah, well. It is what it is. It’ll work out.

Meanwhile, I’m still giggling over the updates on our adopted out yard babies. I knew we had some really gorgeous cats, but now it’s official; some of our yard cats are show quality gorgeous!

😁😁😁

The Re-Farmer

Donate at ko-fi.com

He roooollllsss!

/ Re-Farmer / 14 Comments

Judgement decided to join me while I did my morning rounds today.

While I was penguin walking over the icy driveway, he kept running ahead, then flinging himself to the ground in front of my feet! Except sometimes, he would fail because the driveway is so slippery, he paws would start skittering, instead. So he’d just run ahead and try again! 😄 I finally got to a patch of exposed gravel, where I could stop and pet him for awhile. At which point, he started running around my feet, then rolling like crazy, making it hard to pet him – or get a decent picture!😄

I counted 24 yard cats this morning, then spotted a couple more in the outer yard as I went to the gate, so my headcount was 26 today.

I contacted the Cat Lady this morning, but she has heard nothing back from the woman who was a potential adopter for Ginger. She did adopt out a cat to someone else today, and another 3 legged cat is coming in. She was talking about having them together in the separate cat room they have (along with the cat with no eyes, I believe), but they are going to the US for a while soon. I told her, no worries. The less disruption for him, the better, so it can wait. He’s stressed out enough as it is.

Plus, I don’t mind his sweet company for a bit longer. I know it’ll be better for him, but gosh, we’re going to miss him!

The Re-Farmer

Possible?

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

It’s been a very quiet and uneventful day today. I quite like those! But I did get some potential good news from the Cat Lady.

She had a potential adoptee for either Ginger or Toni. She didn’t have a very good picture of Toni, though, so I managed to get a few for her, including this one.

She filled me in on the potential adopter. They had a cat for 17 years, before losing it to age, and are interested in adopting another. They already have a three legged dog, so a three legged cat was definitely of interest! The dog is only 6 pounds – Ginger is heavier than that! He’s also the calmer one, as far as general temperament goes. Toni is younger and much more energetic. This is an older person, so I think Ginger would be better fit. They still have to go through the application process, but if this does go through, whichever cat they decide on would basically to the vet for shots and an exam, then straight to their new home, instead of the usual week or two at the Cat Lady’s first.

As we were talking, the Cat Lady told me about a struggle the shelters are having. They recently did a TNR for a stray that I believe turned out to be female. Once the cat was with them, though, she was incredibly friendly. They didn’t want to release her to fend for herself again, as she would have transitioned to the indoor life instantly. They had no room, none of the other shelters have room, and after sharing her photo and bio everywhere, they could find no one to take her in or adopt her. Even the Cat Lady had to say no. Tomorrow, the cat goes back to the streets.

It was all I could do to not say “we’ll take her!” We have too many indoors already, and I wouldn’t want another situation like what happened with Marlee escaping, never to be seen again. I still feel so bad about that.

It illustrates, however, just how difficult it is for animals in our province right now. Cats in particular. It’s just so hard to get them adopted out!

The Re-Farmer

A day of rest, and possible adoption news

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

I try to keep Sundays as my day of rest, but that doesn’t always work out. Today, I finally did, though not from much choice! 😄

I was awakened early by hungry cats, so I went ahead and did my morning rounds early, too.

The outside cats get rather confused when I come out that early! The sun was barely up. I got a head count of 28 or 29, though.

Also, I can tell when the racoons have gotten in. Now only is the garbage can typically knocked over, but they leave the water bowl absolutely filthy! Ew.

As I was heading back in, these four posed beautifully for me. When I moved to pet them, after taking this picture, the tuxedo with his back to me took off. Syndol, of course, wanted aaaaalllll the pets and pushed the orange and white away to get them. 😄 I tried to pet the tuxedo with more white on its chest. He wouldn’t let me, but he didn’t run away, either. As I pet Syndol, he sniffed my hand – then started giving me kisses!! It was so sweet!

Once back inside, I uploaded and went through the trail cam files. No computer troubles! Yay! I did have a surprise, though. The gate cam is set to take one still image, then a 10 second video. I was going through the stills when I saw a great big racoon near the gate, but the next image… what the heck was that? Something looked to be jumping through the bottom bars of the gate, but I could not tell what it was.

Then I checked the video.

It was a fox!

We know we have foxes around, but very rarely see them. I think we saw a fox crossing the outer yard once, our first summer here? I only vaguely remember.

So… now I’m wondering if we’re feeding foxes in the kibble house, too!

One of these days, I’d love to set up a critter cam facing into the cat shelter area, just to see what visitors we get! Any camera there would have its motion sensor constantly triggered, so I’d be looking for something NOT on batteries.

Maybe some day.

Anyhow.

After going through the files, I tried to get other stuff done on the computer, but was falling asleep at my keyboard, so I finally gave up and tried for a nap. After fighting the cats for space on my bed, they converged on me as soon as I was lying down. Potato Beetle was really cuddly! He kept shoving his face into my hands, and ended up sleeping curled up around the top of my head, with his face snuggled up against my forehead. It was so sweet!

I’m happy to say that, at some point, PBC joined the pile and napped with me, too! She’s getting quite socialized. She still gets a bit standoffish, but likes pets, purrs lots, and cuddles with the other cats.

Speaking of cats.

I heard from the Cat Lady last night. She has someone that’s looking to adopt. It’s an older person who is healthy and living on her own, but is lonely. So she’s looking for a calm and affectionate cat. Given her age, her family has already said that they will take care of the cat when she passes, but that’s unlikely to happen soon. The Cat Lady told her about Ginger, but asked if we had others that might fit the bill. So we sent her pictures and told her about several others, including Cheddar and Potato Beetle. Ginger would still be top of the list. She asked about PBC, but while she’d be great to adopt out, I don’t think she’d be appropriate for someone that’s elderly.

So that information has been passed on. It would be good for Ginger to be away from so many cats, and to have his very own human. Things like his needing help to clean his ears, since he can’t do the ear on the side of his missing leg – something Toni manages to not have a problem with! – have been mentioned. If he gets picked, he will first stay with the Cat Lady as he gets vet checked and shots, etc. first. With our history with cats, that makes me nervous. The vets always seem to find some hidden but major health problem! Okay, so it hasn’t been all of them, but enough to be rather alarming. Not that Ginger has shown any signs of health problems, but then, neither did some others that got adopted out.

Gosh, I feel teary just thinking about giving up Ginger! He’s so sweet. It’s better for him, though.

I just have to keep telling myself that.

So we’ll see how that goes. For all I know, the Cat Lady might have other cats that would be a better fit with this potential adoptee. Whatever happens, happens!

The Re-Farmer

What else could we do?

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First, my apologies for the terrible picture, but it was the best of the lot.

Meet our new baby.

This is the kitten, sibling to Soot Sprite, Tiny and Pom Pom, that I’ve had to bring inside every now and then, to wash its eyes. It’s the only kitten right now with such messed up eyes.

When I got back from town, I unloaded the truck by the door, then my daughter started taking things inside while I parked in the garage.

It’s rather difficult to haul things through a pair of doors while one cat inside – Big Rig – is trying to get out, and another cat outside – Rolando Moon – is trying to get in. So she got her father to do door duty while she went back for the 5 gallon water jugs. This time it was the one orange tabby kitten of the year that was trying to get in.

As she came out again, this little black puff ball came over. Purring.

It tried to get in, too.

So my daughter ended up picking it up, and it was so very happy. This was the first time she had handled it!

As I came around, she asked me what I thought about bringing it in. It’s eyes were getting messy again, and it’s basically skin and bone. I’ve been debating keeping it inside, every time I brought it in to wash its eyes, and after finding 2 dead kittens we didn’t even know were particularly sick… well…

What else are we supposed to do?

So my daughter took it to the isolation ward – my bedroom – while I did the evening cat feeding. While I was doing that, the girls did the evening cat feeding in my room, too – both were being done hours early – including wet cat food.

The kitten was purring non-stop already, but once there was wet cat food to be had, it was in heaven!

Also, they were able to take a peek, and it seems we have a little girl on our hands! Which is awesome, because we’ve had such bad luck when it comes to socializing the females, so we can get them fixed and help with population control.

As I write this, the feeding frenzy is over, and she’s on my bed, loafed next to the tiny cat bed that has Soot Sprite and Pom Pom in it. So she’s getting reacquainted with her long-lost siblings!

My daughter was able to wipe her eyes while they were setting up for feeding, but we’ll give her a bit more time to settle before we try to wash her eyes again. My husband and I did her eyes this morning.

Aside from a couple of surprised moments that brought out quiet growls, there was been zero issue between her and the other kittens. Even the adult cats in the room were barely even curious.

It looks like the only thing we’ll have to deal with is making sure she figures out the litter boxes.

I’ve already sent this picture to the cat lady and told her why we brought her in. I don’t expect a response for a while, since they’ve got so much going on right now. Nothing is going to happen until after their house is sold and they are settled in their new house, so some time in December, at the earliest.

Which will give us plenty of time for us to get her healthy, and get some meat on those bones!

She is tiny, long haired, black with some white on her chest, and tiny patches of white in other areas. I think she will find a forever home very quickly, once she’s ready for adoption!

The Re-Farmer

Saying goodbye

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Oh, my goodness.

This was an unexcepted thing. I was connected with someone last night, we got together this morning, and it’s done.

Nosencrantz no longer has to be constantly stressed out being around so many other cats. She has a new forever home, and she’s already settling in nicely. When feeding the cats this morning, she came out of her hiding places as usual, and I was able to get her into the carrier. She got treated to some wet cat food while I finished my morning rounds, then off we went to meet her new family.

I am feeling really good about the family she went to. You know how, when you sometimes meet someone and there is this automatic connection? That’s how it was when I was introduced to someone who was looking for a new cats. Nosencrantz checked all her boxes, and she checked all of ours!

This is a hard one for me. Of all the cats, Nosencrantz is the one I connected with the most. She, however, was so stressed out. There’s a reason we also called her Anxiety Bear! Too many other cats. Both inside and out, she had specific cats that targeted her, too.

Now, she has a safe, warm “suite” to stay in for a couple of weeks as she gets used to her new home, before they let her out to explore. She’ll have one other sweet and friendly cat to get used to, and cat loving children to dote on her. They also have other cats that are completely indoors, including a rescued tripod. I have been promised lots of pictures, and look forward to getting to know the family more!

It feels like this family was put in our path at just the right time, too. I am going to miss Nosencrantz, but this was the right thing to do for her.

The Re-Farmer