I ended up awake for most of the night. Just couldn’t sleep for some reason.
Which turned out to be a good thing!
I spotted a message waiting for me, from the woman we passed Kohl on to, yesterday. (Kohl, I’ve just been informed, is now with her foster, and I will get more updates once they connect again, later today.)
Of course, we ended up talking cats. I was asked about any adult friendlies that were already spayed or neutered that could go into foster for adoption.
The problem is, it seems the fosters they have (and they urgently need more) are not equipped to socialize more feral cats. Yes, we have friendlies, and yes, they have access to things like litter boxes that they use, but they are still outside cats. They need to learn how to transition to the indoor life. We’ve been fortunate in having several that just came indoors and adapted immediately. However, even Tiny, who came in as a kitten before she was old enough to go into her first heat, has still not completely adapted. There are just too many cats, and she is a shy one. I hardly ever even get a chance to pet her, and it’s been about 2 – 2 1/2 years. She has, however, bonded with David. He doesn’t care all that much, but she adores him.
In the end, I suggested that it would be easier if we put some of the inside cats out for adoption (while still focusing on getting outside cats spayed and neutered), but not necessarily going to fosters. If we can make enough space indoors, that would free us up to take in an outside cat or two at a time, to socialize them to the indoor life before they get put up for adoption. Right now, we just don’t have the space for it. We’re used to working with outside cats to get them indoors. Something most fosters aren’t.
I was asked how many we had inside, which is currently 21. Of those, all but four, possibly five, should be adopted. Which would be great, though I suspect at least three of them would be considered “unadoptable”. It’s hard enough to adopt out healthy kittens. People just don’t want adult cats much, and they certainly don’t want ones that aren’t “perfect” for some reason. Tiny and David would need to go as a bonded pair. It’s not going to be easy. I’ve seen some of the cats and kittens they’ve been posting about that still haven’t been adopted out. If no one is interested in those gorgeous, healthy cats, it’s going to be much harder for some of ours.
We shall see. Hopefully, some of them have traits that appeal to people who want a “different” cat.
I did mention Sir Robin in the conversation, though, as he has not been well. He needs vet care, but we don’t have the funds for it. I was asked for pictures and possibly video of friendly outside cats, so when I did the morning feeding, I took as many as I could, with a focus on Sir Robin.
Stinky needs a new name. He doesn’t fart on people anymore. 😄 He’s one of the neutered and socialized adult cats that would make a great indoor cat.
I spent much of the morning, sending pictures of specific cats and passing on as much information as I had. That meant looking up old photos. Which always leads to mixed emotions. It’s awesome to see some of them as kittens and growing up, but then there’s all the pictures of cats and kittens that didn’t make it. There has been quite a lot. Even just this past year, quite a few adults disappeared. Brussel, Caramel, Lady Hypotenose, Ink, Syndol, Patience, Magda and a similar looking cat with no name. Only Poirot was one where we knew what happened, and it was pure chance we spotted her remains on the road at all. Then there are the kittens we lost, plus the adults we don’t see enough to be sure if they are gone, or just away for a while – or they look so similar, we just can’t tell when any are missing. The white and greys can be really hard to tell apart, along with the grey or brown tabbies.
So we are going to work on getting glamour shots of the inside cats. We’re thinking of putting together “set” in the living room, so we can bring one cat in at a time to get some photos and video. One person would play with the cat to get its attention, while the other tries to get good photos and/or video.
What we can’t do is have people come to our place to look at the cats in person. Aside from being out of the way, whenever we have people here, our vandal starts stalking again, and they’d be driving past his place to get to us. Which means we’d have to arrange to meet in town, instead. That wouldn’t happen until after potential adoptees have started the application process with the rescue.
Meanwhile, they’re going to see if they can arrange for appointments for more spays or neuters. I still have the donated funds for the three that didn’t get done, because they were too small, so we’re looking to probably start with three at once. I’d be grabbing whoever is easiest to get, which are all males, though I would really want to get Frank in. Seeing how bloody she was after she had her kittens has me thinking she might not survive another pregnancy.
I so appreciate this new rescue trying to help us, even with our rather unusual issues. They were overwhelmed with cats before they even officially opened, and things haven’t really changed.
What we need in our area is our own version of the Furball Farm Cat Sanctuary, specializing in strays and ferals. Our colony is just one of many in our region. From what I hear, it’s even worse at the town to the north of us, and that’s saying a lot!
You know, when we moved out here, the last thing I expected was to find ourselves in this situation! We’ve found ourselves as an unexpected rescue in the past, but nothing like what we’re dealing with now! That was more along the lines of “we discovered black mold in our house and need to move immediately, but can’t take our cats with us, please help!” and “I’m going overseas for a job for the next year or two, can you take my cats?” sort of thing. Not a colony situation, with bringing female cats in as population control, or others because they had to have surgery and couldn’t go back outside.
Still, I can certainly understand why my late father loved his cats! My mother didn’t like having pets indoors, but there was always barn cats, even after they retired from farming, and they made my father so happy.
They do have a way of worming their way into our hearts, that’s for sure!
Rolando, being one of the cats my late father cared for, is not up for adoption, but I wanted to share that face with the folks at the new rescue!
I shared quite a few other pictures as well. There was a fair bit of messaging throughout the day, and some things were finalized. One person is going to take in 6 cats herself, not this weekend, but next. There is another cat she is fostering right now that is going to a forever home this week, and the extra days will give her time to clean out the room she has for fosters before she can take more.
That’s something we can’t do. Have an entire room in the house dedicated to cats to be isolated for a week or two!
We have confirmed I will be delivering Smokey and her brother, the cat with the severe ear mite infection, plus three friendly kittens. None of the more feral ones, on this trip.
I had sad news to share with the rescue people, too.
Last night, around 1am, I was still up and tending to the inside cats, when I decided to give the outside cats a top up in the sun room. I figured the skunks and raccoons would have cleaned their kibble out by then, and I didn’t want them to be too hungry before the morning feeding.
As I was adding their kibble treat to various trays in the sun room, cats came running – except one, in one of the cat beds.
It was one of Frank’s remaining two kittens, passed away.
*sigh*
I was kind of expecting it, as her kittens were pretty sick, but still…
At least I can say it passed away while being in a cuddle puddle, and not cold and alone.
I let my older daughter know, as she was available at the time, and she came out with a flash light so I could bury the kitten. His brother actually came running and was so curious about what was going on, it was hard to get the job done! I finally was able to grab him and take him with me as I went to put the spade away, while my daughter found larger rocks to put over the new grave, so nothing could dig it up.
When feeding the cats this morning, Frank’s remaining little got to have his own bowl of special food in the old kitchen, supervised by my daughter, before getting an eye wash. He was pretty active and eager for attention, which was encouraging.
After the morning routine and planting of garlic, I was off to my mother’s, set to arrive after she’d had a chance to enjoy her Meals on Wheels lunch. I had quite a few things to get done, including helping her with her feet, so I brought along my micro-pedi thing and a proper set of toenail clippers, with plans to leave them with her. She has a fungal infection on a couple of her toenails and refuses to use the prescription treatment for them, because it was so expensive, so I don’t want to be bringing the stuff I use on her toes back home with me!
When I got there, though, she was lying down and her Meals on Wheels tray was on her table, untouched. My mother had forgotten that I was coming. She said she wasn’t feeling well, but since I was there, she got up to join me, and eat her lunch.
She had not made a shopping list, so we did that together. It was a really short shopping list this time. She still had much of what I’d picked up for her, last week.
When I called her last night about coming over today, I asked her to take a package of chicken out of the freezer that I could cook for her. I had been thinking of the meaty legs and thighs, but she took out the split wings, instead. After I got back from the grocery store, she even had them out and in a bowl, where she’d started to rinse them off.
Before I left for the grocery store, though, we got her laundry started. The wash would be done by the time I got back. Which is exactly how it worked out, so I got her stuff in the drier, and her third load started, before I got to work on the chicken.
I asked her how she wanted me to prepare them and she seemed surprised by the question. It turns out she just boils her chicken. (She never uses her oven for cooking; instead, she uses it to start pots and pans!) She’d even brought out a small pot and a large frying pan do use to cook them, as she doesn’t have a single pot large enough for the package. She asked me how I would have prepared them for myself and I mentioned a few things. She almost went with pan frying them, but she decided she really wanted that chicken stock.
So… boiled split wings it would be!
Then I asked her what she usually put in with them. Once again, she seemed surprised by the question. Water? was her response. Then she asked me again, how would I do it. Knowing what she had in the fridge, I said I’d be adding some carrots, celery and onion to it, some salt and pepper…
Then she remembered she was almost out of salt, but forgot to include it in her shopping list.
She had enough for the day, though, and told me to go ahead and add the vegetables to the chicken, too.
I’m glad she went with that because it turned out she was intending to have the chicken as a soup for her supper. Now, she would have chicken and vegetable soup!
That reminded her of something else she wanted us to pick up for her. “Tiny macaroni”, she said. I didn’t know what she meant and tried to get more details, but she got really frustrated that I didn’t know what she was talking about. I told her, there are a lot of different kinds of pasta out there! Did she mean orzo? Couscous?
I don’t think she’d heard of either before.
When she still couldn’t find the words to tell me what she wanted, I got my phone and and started searching for small types of pasta so I could show her pictures. I found one to show her, and it wasn’t small enough.
When she started talking about it being quick cooking, so she wouldn’t have to stand at the counter for long, I had a light bulb moment. I did some more searching and found a picture to show her.
She was talking about ramen noodles. She was very excited when I found the pictures for her!
Talking about her having food that cooks quickly, it got me to bringing up her home care again. She needs to have them come out to help her more often. Not just med assists, but help with dressing, making small meals – even if it’s just to make her some toast, or heat up a can of something for her, which is about the extent of what she’s up to on her own – even bathing.
My mom just got more and more frustrated at the idea. Her comments against it came down to “I’m not used to having servants. I’m used to doing things myself.”
So… that’s how my mother sees the home care workers. Not as people helping her with her medical needs, but as servants.
I told her, she’s causing her own problems by not accepting help she needs, because this care would get her into a nursing home faster. It’s either that, or have a fall!
I’m hoping she’ll come around.
This did give us a chance to talk about something else. I got a notification for a voice mail this morning, which meant there was no signal and the call went straight to voice mail. It took a few tries before I had enough signal to listen to the message, as the wifi calling isn’t working for some reason. It was this morning’s home care aid. She told me that she had emptied my mother’s commode and fount it very full, cloudy and smelling strongly. She’d asked my mother if she felt burning or any pain while urinating, and was told no. She brought up that she didn’t now if maybe it hadn’t been emptied for a while.
So when my mother and I talked about it, I asked her if she had any symptoms of a UTI, and she had none. Then I asked her how long it had been since the commode was emptied (it’s supposed to be done every morning).
I didn’t get a straight answer, but she started talking about one particular home care worker that is always in a hurry and leaves as soon as she gets my mother’s meds out. I told her, they are supposed to empty it every morning – there is extra time scheduled for my mother’s morning assist for stuff like this. She told me she can empty it herself, and I said no – that’s their job for a reason! I told her, just imagine trying to go to the washroom and having a fall, while carrying that bucket!
Hopefully, she will insist on it in the mornings. Otherwise, this will happen again. She shouldn’t have to, though. It’s part of their morning assist, not just the meds.
When I got home, I checked the schedule. My mother had someone yesterday with a name I didn’t recognize. The three previous mornings where this person my mother has issues with, that just comes in and leaves, without even making sure my mother takes her meds.
Which means that, potentially, that thing wasn’t empties for 4 mornings.
!!!!
Anyhow…
I stayed around until her chicken soup was cooked and her laundry was done and put away. I got some sweeping done, but I never got to do her feet. She wasn’t up to it. By the time I headed out, I had been there for almost 3 hours. I made a quick stop at the grocery store for ourselves before heading home – just some bread and eggs for now. Tomorrow, after I do the dump run, I will be going into town to pick up prescription refills, then going to the grocery store there, where prices are a bit better than in my mother’s town.
Overall, my mother was on one of her good days, though I had to redirect her to other topics a few times. There were also a few times when she was moving around, leaning on walls or furniture as she did, where she made sudden outcries of pain.
She really needs to be in some kind of supportive living, or a nursing home. It’s so frustrating that the home care office that decides this hasn’t approved her for it!
By the time I was heading home, it was late enough that I asked my daughter to feed the outside cats. When I got home, there was a message waiting for me, saying that she got it done, that she had a chance to pet all sorts of cats she’d never been able to touch before…
… and she couldn’t find Frank’s last little grubling.
*sigh*
Once I was home and settled in, I updated my siblings on how things went with my mom, including about what she remembered she wanted from the grocery store, after I’d made the trip. Then I got changed and headed outside to try and get some stuff done while there was still enough light.
That included checking the sun room for a missing kitten.
I found him in the same place I’d found that little white and grey tabby, a few days ago. Under a shelf, looking like he was all curled up for a nap.
*sigh*
I headed out to bury him beside his brother then my cell phone rang.
It was home care. They didn’t have anyone to do my mother’s morning visit tomorrow.
*sigh*
While I had the person on the phone, I mentioned finding a voice mail earlier in the day. I said that if a call goes straight to voice mail, that means I’m not getting a signal, so to call the land line instead. For some reason, while outside the house, I had enough signal to get that call, but would not have gotten it, if I were inside the house.
After pausing to let my family and siblings know about the call from home care, I continued the sad job of burying Frank’s last kitten. I updated the rescue about that as well. Two kittens in one day! 😢
I was starting to lose light, so I started working on the box for around the front of the isolation shelter ramp door, to keep the winter weather out. Parts of the roof were cracked, as was the front panel. I started out trimming the smaller opening in the front panel first, when I got a message from my brother.
He was planning to visit my brother tomorrow, and said he could do the morning med assist!
That was so, so appreciated!
He wanted to call me to talk about it, so I quickly popped inside so I could use the land line. We went over what gets included in my mother’s morning med assist. He confirmed about the grocery items she remembered later on, so he will be picking that up for her. My SIL, meanwhile, was making a chicken dinner to pack up for my brother to bring and have an early Thanksgiving lunch with her. It’s also that time of year for him to put away her portable AC for the winter, and set in the Styrofoam insulation in the window opening for the night. The glass in the window was removed so my mother could have the AC, and is set aside to be put back after my mother finally gets to move out and into a nursing home.
That done, I headed back outside again. Once the duct tape patching was done, I got out what I was planning to use as handles on the sides, so it can be carried more easily, and without damaging the plastic parts more.
The white piece of wood on the side, with a matching one on the other side, is the new handle. It’s the same thing I used for the legs, except they are half the length.
I’d picked up 1″ wood screws to attach these, as I’d run out, only to discover I really should have picked up 1 1/4″ screws. In the end, I attached them with two screws on the outside to hold them in place, then with three more screws through the thinner plywood on the inside.
Thankfully, my drill and driver both have lights on them, because it was pretty dark by the time I was finished, and the inside of the box, of course, was even darker!
It is now ready for painting.
Since I’ll be running around so much tomorrow, even without a trip to my mother’s early on, I’ve asked my daughters to do the painting, as soon as the morning chill is gone. Which will probably be around 10am. I want the paint to have as much time to cure as possible before the chill of the night. The exposed wood on the isolation shelter needs to be painted, the entry box needs to be painted, there’s a plant stand I scrubbed clean that can be painted, and plus there’s the wire mesh “door” for the old basement that we didn’t use this summer, as it was part of the platform in the sun room before we did the deep cleaning. There was plenty of grime from messy cat feet that needed to be scrubbed off of it, so I figure a paint job would help protect the wood, even if we don’t end up using is as part of a cat platform again.
Once the painting is done, there’s some rigid foam insulation inside one of the side walls that has been thoroughly scratched up by cats, so I want to cut a new piece for that. Then I want to wrap the bottom half with vinyl for the winter again, plus add handles to make it easier to move around.
All of which can be done after the paint dries!
Getting this done has been pushed back by other things coming up, so often. I’m just glad to have gotten it all to the point that all the painting can be done at once, rather than piecemeal – and that my daughters will be able to get it done for me while I’m running around, again!
That will give me more time to focus on getting more garden beds clear of weeds and tree roots, and finishing the inside wall of the garden bed in the old kitchen garden.
Being Sunday, we were able to mostly make it a day of rest. I didn’t even do my full morning rounds, because I have a terrible habit of starting things and not coming in for a couple of hours. 😄 Mostly, I made sure the outside cats were fed, then went back to bed for a couple more hours, since it was still pretty dark out.
I did go into town this morning to refill water jugs, as we were on our last one, and picked up a few things my daughter requested and sent funds for. Then I went to the hardware store to find an epoxy to repair the crack on the garden angel my mother sent home with me, yesterday. The hard part was finding one that dried clear.
I was about to head home when my daughter messaged me – her timing was perfect. She ended up sending more funds and treated us to Dairy Queen. She had plans to roast lots of vegetables and do bread baking today, so she didn’t want to have to do more cooking or dishes before hand. 😄 Meanwhile, her sister has been in a lot of pain lately, so she’s been in recovery mode for the past two days.
I did check on the garden, as usual. The old kitchen garden needed a watering, but I’d watered the winter squash before we covered them last night, and never uncovered them this morning, so they would have been fine. Pretty steamy, actually. We ended up hitting 27C/81F today. For the past while, our daytime highs have been higher than predicted, while the lows have been colder than predicted (we dropped to about 5-6C/41-43F last night, instead of the 10C/50F we were expecting). The next few nights are supposed to be a fair bit warmer, so I might be able to uncover the winter squash tomorrow morning and leave them uncovered over night for a while. At this point, we should have at least one, maybe two, mature squash to harvest, if I can keep them alive long enough.
Speaking of squash…
The one pumpkin we have was on a dead vine, so I brought it inside. The underside of it was rather funny.
Can you tell that it was supported by a mesh sling? 😄
Later this evening, I had a chance to message with the new rescue. As the females we need to spay are mostly still nursing, I asked about being able to get help adopting out some of the indoor cats. I explained how we sort of ended up being a “rescue” ourselves, with cats needing surgery, a couple with amputations, or being sick, plus females that we managed to snag before they were old enough to go into heat. This rescue has just officially opened their doors, and I knew they were struggling to find fosters, so I made sure to tell them I’m not looking to foist cats on them. We need help with the spays and neuters with the outside cats, and with adoption, but we are already taking care of them now. I also made sure to say we want to avoid attention. They had started talking about going to the media to bring attention to just how many cat colonies there are out here int he boonies that need help. I was all, nope. Nononono. No media. That last thing we need it that sort of attention. Obviously, with our vandal, that’s an issue. I also explained I don’t want the RM or province involved, as that’s just going to lead to a whole lot of dead cats. What I didn’t mention is that, after many years of first hand experience, I simply don’t trust the media. They often either get even the most basic details wrong, or lie outright.
They ended up asking about the outside cats and kittens. How many kittens, how many adults, how many need to be fixed, how many males, how many females.
It was really hard to answer. I tried to do a head count of the littles this morning and counted 11, but I didn’t see Slick’s 6, and who knows how many others. We never see all of them at the same time. As for the females, I tried to think of how many we’re still seeing regularly. There are quite a few that have simply disappeared. Brussel, Caramel, Ink, Slick’s white and grey companion, and Magda, just to name a few – and Magda was spayed. There are a couple that are skittish to the point that we don’t know if they’re male or female.
I answered as best I could and, at their request, started sending pictures.
I think I sent them into a bit of a panic. There are so many!
…
I did eventually get a chance to say that, in our situation, we actually have a lot less this year. I’d already mentioned that we have more in the winter than, then they take off again in the spring. I told them that one winter, I was counting about 45-50 for a while. Then spring came and most of them disappeared permanently. I mentioned last year was the worst for kittens. Not just with how many there were, but how many I had to bury, including miscarriages I had to euthanize. Even this year, I had to bury a few, but nothing like last year.
As they are completely full, the woman that started the rescue has said she would contact some of the other rescues. There are some that will come out and trap. Which would be great, if we could get those mamas! Not while they’re still nursing, though.
If there was someone who could take Frank and her three, plus the fourth she’s been nursing as well, that would be fantastic. They are the youngest, tiniest ones, and winter is coming.
If that works out, and we end up with the outside cats trapped and taken in for adoption, that would be a huge help for us. Outside cats need more food than inside ones do. Especially in winter. The cost of cat food is built into our grocery budget, and there have been times where we’ve spent more on cat food than on food for ourselves.
I had just been hoping to get help with spays, in particular, and mostly adopt out some inside cats (I’ve been asked to provide photos and information on them). It would be amazing if we could finally get our numbers down. I’m not counting on it too much; it’s been really hard for all the shelters and rescues to get adoptions. Still, every little bit will help!
Anyhow. That’s my excitement for the day! 😄 I think now I might do something really radical, and go to bed before midnight. 😂
Today started off wet and rainy. A rain that was not in the forecast, nor even on the weather radar, which showed clear skies when I checked. We’re looking at more rain starting tomorrow evening, through to Saturday, but given their track record, I’m not going to assume anything. 😄
Things were quiet overall, today. There was not much I could do outside while it was wet, and I didn’t want to start some projects when we had to go to town in the afternoon.
My husband and I had joint dental appointments. Mine was a quick one. The dentist tried to track down why I sometimes get the pain I do when chewing in one area, but could find nothing. I did get a tiny cavity filled, and was done quickly. The same dentist then worked on my husband, who had a cracked tooth. Thankfully repairable. That too a while longer, but what a relief for him! Thank God for his insurance, though. It covers 90%, and our 10$ for the two visits cost just over $120. This clinic is really great about the insurance thing, too. Our last visit was still messed up somehow and they had to resubmit. In the end, they got us to sign the papers again so they could submit all over again, at the same time as today’s work. Today’s work got processed just fine, other than the insurance company suddenly saying my birth date didn’t match what they had on file (???), so the receptionist ended up calling them directly. With the bill from last time, she saw that we were covered 90%, so she just charged us for the 10% even though it would take some time before the insurance company’s side got processed. We’ve had similar issues in the past and we’ve been told to just go without paying, and they mailed us the bill when the problem was cleared up. Much appreciated, that’s for sure!
Thankfully, we don’t need to come back for any more work.
After I dropped my husband off at home, I left immediately to get to a feed store before they closed to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble. We were almost out again. It’s getting cooler, so the cats are eating more. I counted “only” 12 adult cats this afternoon, including one that had disappeared for a while. We had three white with grey kittens last year that looked very much alike. Magda was socialized enough to get fixed. Frank, with the distinctive blue eyes, was standoffish enough that we didn’t know she was a she until she got pregnant. The third one, we never named. Well, Magda is among those that have disappeared over the summer, and so did the unnamed one. It’s the unnamed one that is back. He’s looking much more burly now, and looks like he’s got some sort of relatively fresh wound by his ear, but we can’t get close enough to check him out. Perhaps we’ll see Magda again, too, before winter arrives.
Once I was back and settled in, I reached out to a rescue that just recently opened officially and is working in our area. With the Cat Lady stepping away from rescue, we have to find help somewhere!
I’ve been spending much of the evening, messaging with first one person, then group messaging with the woman who started the rescue. I very briefly explained our situation, making sure to say we weren’t looking to have cats go into foster, since I knew they were still looking for more people to do it. We need help with spays, neuters and adoptions. I mentioned we have a colony, plus that we’ve got cats inside that were brought in usually due to injury, like getting a leg amputated. With the outside cats, I made a point of mentioning Eyelet, because he’s deaf and his chances of survival are much lower.
Well, long story short, they’re going to take Eyelet.
Saturday evening, I’ll be delivering him to one of the neighbouring towns. The woman who started the new rescue is taking him herself, and he will go through all the usual vetting before being adopted out.
With those eyes, I would expect him to be adopted quickly!
We’ll be in more contact over time. Their website is still under construction, but they have places to post pictures of cats ready for adoption. I’ll have some paperwork for the adoptables, and I’ve also mentioned that we’re going to have to start trapping to get more spayed.
I’ve been talking to the Cat Lady about it at the same time. She’s glad that they’re willing to help, but she made sure to say not to mention her name. She knows one of them from when she was working with the big rescue that tried to adopt two of our kittens into the home of what turned out to be a hoarder, several provinces away. That was the final straw for the Cat Lady, she went independent and found more suitable homes for them within our own province. They weren’t part of that, but unfortunately, it seems the rescue community has a lot of issues. As happy as she is that this rescue started, and that the people are gung ho about it, she says she’ll be surprised if they are still around in five years. Things are just that tough these days. She hopes she’s wrong, of course!
The main thing for us is, Eyelet will soon be off to get adopted, and we will be getting help with spays and neuters and vaccinations. Honestly, though, I’m less concerned about vaccinations then to get them fixed and treated for ear mites. I just assume they all have ear mites.
What I hope to do, though, is start getting some of the inside cats adopted out. Having so many cats in the house is not good for anyone.
So that is the good news for today! Hopefully, there will be more to come.
I had a pretty sleepless night, with concerns about our foundling kittens. I kept checking the critter cam and had to chase out the raccoon family and a couple of skunks. The foundlings were set up in the carrier that has a lid in the roof, in hopes the mother, or one of the creche mothers, would go in to them, but none did. One of my daughters and I fed them kitten soup with a syringe again. They were very hungry, but it was a very messy way to feed the kittens! A couple of them preferred to either lick the food off my hands, or “nurse” on my hand while my daughter carefully squirted the food next to their mouths. Before returning a kitten to the sun room, I made sure to wipe down their bellies and tried to stimulate their neither regions, like a mother grooming them, with a cloth to get them able to eliminate.
The first picture is the kittens, after we found them yesterday, and the second is where we found them. Not the clearly visible mower on the right. We had to move that one out completely to reach the second one, barely visible on the left. That’s the one they were under!
With a couple of kittens preferring to lick at the food, we also place a small shallow plate in the carrier with them, in case they wanted to eat again during the night. It was empty by morning, but that could have been some other cat jumping in with them and eating it. When we fed them this morning, we left the plate with some food in it with them, again.
Meanwhile, I reached out to a stray cat group chat I normally just lurk on. After talking to the Cat Lady, I am a bit leery of being active on there.
I explained about the kittens, and that we had come to the conclusion that the mother is no more. I was hoping someone knew of anyone able to foster the kittens, as there’s no way we could keep up with the care they needed. Even just feeding them every 2 hours was not something we could manage, and we aren’t even in a position to bring them into the house. I estimated them to be about 3 weeks old but, after looking at some photos, came to the conclusion that they are less than 3 weeks old. Not by much, but definitely not more than 3 weeks.
After some discussion, my morning plans changed. I needed to go into town to pick up some refills for one of my husband’s injections. It was suggested I try the local branch of the humane society, so I looked up their hours. They had some very strange hours, but they were open today, for two hours starting at 8am, then again for two hours starting at 5pm. I left in time to get there just a few minutes past 8am…
… only to find a hand written sign saying they were closed for the “rest of” the day. “Rest of?” They hadn’t even opened at all!
So much for that.
My next stop was at the vet clinic to see if they had any kitten formula. They did, so I picked up a tin. Talking to the staff as I bought it, I got the names of two other rescues to try.
That done, I had half an hour before the pharmacy opened, so I made a stop at the grocery store to pick up a breakfast I could eat in the truck while waiting for the pharmacy to open their doors. My husband’s refill was already prepared, so that didn’t take long at all, and I was soon on my way home.
Throughout all this, I was updating various people, including the Cat Lady, keeping them up to day. One of the people on the stray rescue group started messaging me privately. She was in the city and ran a small cat rescue, and she told me that, if I couldn’t get through to any of the other places recommended to me, to let her know, as she would take them. As we were talking, I explained why we were in no position to give the kittens the level of care they needed. In the end, she told me to please bring them to her! All she asked was for me to include the formula for them, which I was more than happy to do.
I had not been home for long when that decision was made. I mixed up a small amount of formula and was going to feed them, before we worked out when I’d be heading out. The kittens were sleeping peacefully, though, so we skipped it for the time being. The kittens, however, were a real mess! They looked like they had taken a bath in the now empty plate of kitten soup!
When the time came to leave, I quickly grabbed a puppy pad to put between the kittens and the now messy cat bed that I’d put on the bottom of the carrier for them, then headed out.
I had my phone set up on the dash board holder with Google Maps giving me directions to where I needed to go in the city. I was almost at my mother’s town when my cell phone started to ring. I recognized the name as the woman from the group that had given us huge amounts of donated cat food last year. I should have been able to answer the call hands free, but it just wouldn’t work. I finally had to pull over and tried to talk more directly into the phone, but it still wouldn’t work. I could sometimes hear here talking, but couldn’t even turn on the speaker phone to hear her properly. All I could tell is that she was starting to get angry because I was … using up her minutes? Her battery? Something like that.
It was the Google Maps app that was messing up the call. I finally figured out how to stop it from trying to give me directions, even after I’d closed the app, and could finally talk to her on the phone.
She had called to tell me, don’t give the kittens to this women.
???
I asked why, of course.
She is overwhelmed. She takes on too many cats. She keeps asking for food donations. She was asking for ear mite medication. She had some cats with really bad ear mites… Her heart is in the right place, but…
Funny. When I was going to meet up with her about the donated cat food, I’d gotten a warning about her, too, saying “her heart is in the right place, but…”. In her case, though, her actions have gotten the province involved and resulted in colony cats being killed rather than rescued. To have her now “warn” me about this other woman with a rescue that said she would take the kittens was… intersting.
She again basically ordered me to not give the cats to this woman. I finally told her, I’m pulled over on the highway, on the way to the city, right now. Do you have somewhere else I can take them, or what? Because we are not in any position to care for such small kittens.
Oh, you’re doing a good job already…
She was making assumptions based on what I had been telling the group about what we were doing with the kittens. I did not, of course, tell them about other stuff, like the various disabilities and other health issues we are dealing with in this household.
When it became clear that I was going to this woman’s place anyhow, she seemed to get pretty angry at me again. She then told me to scope her very small house myself when I got there, and to only believe a quarter of anything she told me.
I thanked her for the warning, and continued on my way.
Thankfully, getting to her place was pretty straightforward. After parking as close to the house as I could, I messaged to let her know I was there, and what I was driving.
Which is when I saw the messages in the group chat, where the woman that called me was telling the woman I was about to meet that she should not take the kittens because she already had too many cats and had an ear mite issue. Both claims that she responded by saying it was already dealt with.
Before I could even get out of the truck, she was coming over with a box to transfer the kittens into.
She told me that she had already been to a dollar store and back to get puppy pads and other such supplies in preparation for the kittens – and she mentioned the woman that had told me not to bring the kittens! I told her that I had just read the conversation about it, and that I’d gotten a phone call, too. It turned out that the ear mite situation had already been addressed, and she was just looking for more meds to have on hang, in case she got more cats with ear mites again. The other issues had already been dealt with.
From all I could see, everything was looking fine. I had zero issues over turning the kittens over to her.
That done, I was soon back on the road and headed home.
By the time I parked the truck, I had received messages and photos. The kittens have been bathed, toileted, fed and set on a warming pad.
Here are the before and after pictures; the second one was sent by the women who took them in.
I took the first picture through the door of the carrier, after they were loaded into the truck. What a mess! that cat bed turned out to be just covered in spilled kitten soup.
The second picture is after they got bathed and fed, and there is a warming pad under the blanket they are on. She got all that taken care of so quickly!
Meanwhile, I’d kept the Cat Lady up to date. Once home, I let her know about the kerfuffle on the group chat and being ordered not to give the kittens to this person. The Cat Lady knew both of them and was honest in saying she didn’t trust either of them! It seems the cat rescue community if filled with all sorts of such antagonism.
No wonder she’s getting out of rescue.
The kittens, however, are now rescued and will be well cared for!
I am now more convinced that their mother was Brussel, though I’ve gone from about 10% certainty to maybe 25% certainty.
Note I say “was”. Once again, Brussel did not show up at feeding time today. By now, I don’t expect to see her again.
I was talking to my brother this evening and mentioned to him that, if I didn’t go outside, looking for a data signal during the power outage yesterday, I would not have heard the kitten crying. With no mother around, they probably would not have lasted long at all, and we would never had known there were even kittens in that old shed.
Serendipity, to be sure!
Speaking of my brother…
Not long after I got home, I got a message from my SIL, letting me know they were on their way out! I was not expecting to see them this weekend, but I guess their grandson was already returned home, and now they’re here.
My brother had a bunch of things he wanted to check out, including their riding mower that I told him I feared I’d broken, because it wouldn’t move anymore, though everything seemed to be fine about it.
Before I even realized they were here, my brother had already taken it out and checked it.
Then he wanted to check on my mother’s car, but it’s been sitting so long, the battery was almost completely dead, so he had to charge it, first. We parked it after I tried using it, and it started making a very alarming banging noise when I tried to drive it. I turned around and came right home, and it hasn’t moved since.
It also had a flat. I’d found it with two flat tires during at the end of the first winter it was parked. I used the compressor to pump them up and the rear tire has been fine, since, but the front tire was flat by morning, every time I pumped it up. So I eventually stopped.
Then there was the compressor itself, which had started to trip the breaker every time we used it. When that happened, I would have to get a daughter to come over with a small step latter to climb onto the counter against the back wall of the garage, to reach the breaker panel and switch it back on.
Today was a scorcher and I’d intended to water the garden this morning, but with all the kitten stuff, that never got done. I went out to water it last this afternoon, while my brother was checking and fixing things, and my SIL was already mowing the rest of the outer yard with their zero turn mower (which I won’t touch!).
When to got to where I was taking the hose to water the East garden beds, I suddenly realized my mother’s car was in the yard, as my brother hosed off the accumulated gravel dust it was covered with. I went over to talk to him and learned:
… the riding mower that wouldn’t go? Worked fine for him. He got it up on a ramp and checked under it and he found zero damage.
… the compressor was working fine. He’d even used it last weekend, with no issues.
… the banging noise I heard from my mother’s car? He found zero damage. There was nothing to make the noise. After charging the battery enough to start the engine, and pumping up the tire, the car was running fine. He was driving it around the inner and outer yard, leaving the engine running to keep charging the battery. No banging noises. Not troubles at all. We just have to make sure it’s plugged in, for the trickle charger.
… I told him why I’d stopped pumping the front tire and said it would be flat in the morning. He said that yes, it will be!
So there’s all these things that went wrong for us, but as soon as my brother checked on them, it was all working fine.
I told him afterwards, I feel like an idiot now.
He told me, that’s just how it is with him. Even at his work, it’s the same thing, People have troubles with something, he comes over to try and fix it, and there’s nothing to fix. Things just start working again for him, all the time!
So it’s not just me… 😄
I still feel like an idiot. All this time, and we could have had access to my mother’s car.
Well.
Not really.
Now that we have the truck payments, we don’t have a budget to pay for the insurance on two vehicles anymore, not to mention the extra gas. The insurance for my mother’s car, however, is just suspended, not cancelled. If we need to, we could get it active again, even if for just a short time.
Not until that tire is replaced, though.
Which means that we will still be needing the courtesy vehicle while our truck’s box frame is being repaired and the new cover installed, at the end of September.
So we almost have a back up vehicle…
Meanwhile, not only did today turn out to be another 30C/86F day, but tomorrow is expected to be even hotter. Tomorrow, I will do what I intended to do today; water the garden early in the morning, then again in the evening. Today, I used the rain barrel to water the old kitchen garden. The poor eggplants were seriously drooping in the heat! That garden got ambient temperature water, and I drained the barrel as much as I could, watering, watering and watering again! I got the other garden areas done with the hose. I even did the fruit trees and berry bushes. Everything was just so, so dry.
We’ve got just a few more hot days, and then it’s supposed to drop right down, and I’ll likely have to cover the more sensitive plants in the garden at night, in less than a week!
As for right now, I am so very tired. Hopefully, I will get a good night’s sleep tonight, now that I’m not concerned about the foundling kittens!
For some time now, I’ve been wondering when the more feral mamas that have been showing up at feeding time, would bring their babies. I thought it would start weeks ago, to be honest, but I think at least a couple of them had litters very early, lost them, then got pregnant again. Slick being one of them for sure.
Speaking of slick…
Last night, I checked the critter cam and was amazed to see a couple of very small kittens, one of them almost completely black with what seemed to be splashed of white on its chest, making its way up to the platform above the cat cage – along with another that looked like another white and grey. Then I saw Slick (formerly Octomom) with them. I’m not sure if she was the mother, but I got that impression.
I did not see them when I did the morning cat feeding.
I did see some of the new littles. They seem to have picked under the counter shelf as their place to hang out.
As I was heading towards the garage to put food in the tray there (still no sign of that kitten that popped its head out momentarily, before disappearing again) when I spotted two very scared looking kittens under the table I have up against the house, where the isolation shelter was for the winter.
We’ve got another white and grey, and a fluffy tuxedo!
The tuxedo started to run off and went around the house, but I was able to catch it and carry it to the sun room. It was NOT happy about that, and started to cry out very loudly. I put it down near a tray of food and it immediately ran off further into the sun room.
I then went back to the other one, which was much easier to catch. It did start to fight back, hiss and finally cry out loudly as well, as I was carrying it, before I set it down by the food tray, too.
Since then, I’ve seen the white and grey, tucked into a corner next to a shelf, just like in the picture, looking very forlorn. One of Lady Hypotenose’s littles was curiously trying to come closer, but it was having none of that. Last I saw, it was on its own, still curled up in the corner. I’m hoping it came out to eat, later on. I also hope the mama comes around.
With all the new littles hiding under that shelf, there’s no way to know how many there are. If I had to guess, I’d say nine new ones, including the two I’ve only seen on the critter cam. Ten if I count the one I saw in the garage, but haven’t seen since. While I was expecting the mamas to start bringing them over, I wasn’t expecting them to start doing it all at once!
I also wasn’t expecting mamas to bring such small kittens, and then disappear. There was no sign of a mama when I found the two this morning, and still no sign of a mama for the one that I found in the garage (I don’t know what to think about the second kitten not showing up anywhere) that Lady Hypotenose immediately adopted.
Which makes it really important for the new littles to be in the sun room, where they have the most protection, as well as access to food and water. I’ve got the live stream on the critter cam on my phone up as I write this and, while I’ve seen the odd kitten come put and play, mostly I’m seeing nothing but some older cats sleeping on the platform over the cat cage.
It looks like, for the next while, part of my rounds is going to include watching out for kittens being left in the yard, and if I find any, getting them to the sun room. Which is where I think the mamas are trying to get them to, anyhow.
Well, I can say this much, at least.
There are a lot fewer kittens than last year, and I’m happy that they are looking so healthy. There was a while last year where, every day, sometimes more than once a day, I was coming out to find dead kittens or dying miscarriages that I had to euthanize. It was really rough. I’ll happily take the fewer, healthier looking kittens over that. I just wish we should get their feral mamas spayed!
All in good time.
Meanwhile, we will work on socializing these littles and try to get them adopted out!
Oh, that reminds me. While I was at the Walmart yesterday, I was waiting my turn to get to the wet cat food. The woman that was there with her cart was loading it up with cans and kibble, so I asked her, how many did she have?
It turned out she not only had her own cats, but was fostering both kittens and a dog. So we chatted for a while. She is working with the big rescue that the Cat Lady was volunteering with before she left to start her own rescue. I told her a bit about what happened, and she was nodding her head. She told me that there have been some changes in the organization in the last while, but I’m still loath to turn to them for help. I mentioned that the rescue that’s been helping us is shutting down this year, as are other small rescues. She was not surprised. It’s too heart breaking. No one is adopting or, if they are, they don’t want to adopt until someone else has spent hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars to spay/neuter and vet the cats first. They want a “rescue”, but they also want a perfect cat – and then they balk at the adoption fees. As the woman I spoke to put it, the problem is the people.
She’s totally right.
The Cat Lady has so many cats right now that they’ve kept permanently because people adopted them, claiming they understood that, say, this kitten had heart problems, or that one had respiratory problems, and yes, they fully understood and expected that they will need medical care – only to bring them back a few days later, because it was just “too much” for them.
Then you get people like that one that told the Cat Lady she wanted a calico, but when shown pictures of one we had, she said she wanted one with more white.
Or, more accurately, the sound of ice crackling under their weight as they walked across it!
They were very curious about it, too.
While giving the yard cats their morning feeding, I kept and eye out for Caramel – and saw her. Quite a bit, in fact. She was dashing from kibble tray to kibble tray, both in the sun room and out. I looked all over, including with Brussel, through the cat house windows, and even the two old dog houses by the outhouse, with straw bedding inside. No sign of her kitten, yet there was mom, hanging around the house!
Still looking pregnant, too.
I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
I headed out early enough to do the Walmart part of my shopping before I was supposed to meet with the Cat Lady. I got a couple of big bags of cat food, which were the most expensive items of the day. I also picked up a couple of 2kg (about 4 1/2 pounds) bags of Yukon Gold seed potatoes. Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but I didn’t want to wait too long with those. We’re already almost half way through April! I got a few other little things, but didn’t want to stay in the store for long. Once the truck was loaded, I moved it to where the Cat Lady and I were to meet, next to the Dollarama, and waited.
Along with some wet cat food and treat donations, she had three lovely cat beds to pass on. These were their own cat beds that none of their cats use anymore. !!! I was more than happy to accept their rejects. 😄
While going through a big bag of canned cat food to sort out the stuff for us, we got to talking about The Wolfman and his allergy to poultry. She scored canned cat food without any chicken in it, which is remarkably hard to find. She was telling me how, before they knew he was allergic to chicken, he was basically going bald. Which is so strange, because he showed no signs of an allergy until after he’d lived with them for some time. He even lost the fur on his magnificent flag of a tail. It’s all grown back now, but they have to be super careful about keeping him away from chicken. He’s a thief and would eat an entire roasted chicken before it had time to cool off!
As we were chatting about him, she told me about some vet visits they’d had with him, trying to figure out what was going on, and that at one point, she’d requested X-rays. The only reason we were able to catch The Wolfman and bring him indoors was because one of his front legs was wildly dislocated, flipped over backwards. She remembered when it happened, as we had asked her for advice. It was a long weekend and all the vet clinics were closed. She told us of two that she knew of that were open, in our entire province, and they were all hours away.
Then his leg popped back into place on its own. It happened some time during the night, so we have no idea how that happened.
Well, it turns out there is some permanent damage to that shoulder, including arthritis. The Cat Lady said they do see him sometimes favouring that shoulder. The vet, on looking at the X-rays, was apparently shocked, saying that leg had to have been flipped right around (it was), and couldn’t believe that it was able to pop back into place on its own. It never did completely return into its proper position, though. The vet, however, said that when a dislocation is this bad, the usual result is amputation! There’s a blood vessel that gets pinched, cutting off the blood supply to the leg completely and basically killing it. How that didn’t happen, they couldn’t figure out. As The Wolfman gets older, the shoulder will probably bother him more but, right now, his recovery from that injury a mystery to them.
They have a few cats from us that are like that. Button surviving is a mystery. The kitten we never named that turned out to be Down’s is another mystery survivor. Then there’s Cabbages, of course. The very first sick kitty they took from us and ended up keeping permanently!
Once we were done transferring stuff between vehicles, we headed into the Dollarama. I was specifically looking for a new dial-type thermometer to put into the portable greenhouse. The only one I could find was more of a decor item and not a dial type. I was also going to pick some some cat deterrent strips that are meant for garden beds. I was planning to use them in areas in the house that cats keep insisting in getting into, no matter how we try to stop them. There are none of those to be had at all.
I did pick up a few other small items, then headed back to the Walmart. It took some searching, but I did find the type of thermometer I was looking for. Next to the extension cords, of all things!
From there, it was time to head home. By the time everything was unloaded, it was pretty much time to feed the yard cats again; hopefully, it was early enough for the cats to finish eating before the skunks and racoons showed up!
I saw Caramel again, and even Brussel was outside, though she was quick to dash back into the cat cave with her babies. When Caramel jumped into it with them, it got knocked onto its side, and Brussel hasn’t been out of it long enough for me to fix it. She is still quite aggressive towards me, even as I give her her wet cat food, or her morning squeeze treat.
With Caramel hanging around, it seemed to me she wasn’t quite so … round, anymore. More saggy and floppy than round. She also kept going in and out of the cat house.
That first picture is the best I could get through the glare and dirt of the window, but there are two kittens in that cat bed! This is the cat bed that’s closer to the smaller window, not the one we found the dead kitten in, yesterday. There’s the dark kitten we saw before, now with an orange tabby, and they were very squirmy!
When I looked in again later, Caramel was there, and she was not happy to see me! She even hissed at me through the window.
The floor in the cat house currently has some high density foam mats on it that I found in the barn; with the heat bulb in there, I didn’t want to use straw. There were just a couple of cat beds at the windows, and a blanket, though the blanket was all bunched up by the wall opposite the windows.
I decided that two of the donated cat beds would go into the cat house. Later on, while Caramel out of the cat house, one of my daughters helped me lift the roof just long enough to lay down the two beds and close it again. Hopefully, some of the other mamas might decide to have their babies in there, too, which will make it easier to socialize, or at least trap them, later.
Speaking of which…
The Cat Lady confirmed our getting three females done on Tuesday. The vet specifically asked us to bring in any pregnant ones. She then suggesting doing a group of males next month, then younger females. I told her we could do that – the males are the friendly ones, so getting several males will be easy – but said I was afraid that if we waited too long with the younger females, they’ll end up either pregnant, or they’re already pregnant and would have babies by then. In the end, the vet will do whatever we can catch and bring in.
Getting the cats spayed is one thing. This clinic is giving her amazing prices for that. The problem is, these being yard cats, they tend to have other problems. Ear mites are pretty much expected, but if the ear mites are really bad, the ears get infected. Then there’s infections for injuries, etc. The last batch of cats she helped get done, from the town my mother is in, had infections so bad, the clinic said they ethically couldn’t release one cat without treatment. These were yard cats, though, not pets. The person who has been feeding them said she wasn’t going to pay for extra treatment, since this was basically a trap, spay/neuter, release. They’re going to get ear mites again, get infections again, and are just as likely to simply disappear. So the Cat Lady was in a pickle and had to pay for the antibiotics – which, it turns out, costs more than a spay! – just to be able to get the cat released from the vet!
Dealing with stuff like this is why she was having a hard time booking our yard cats in, but with mamas starting to give birth, she talked to the vet and they were willing to fit some in.
Needless to say, we’re going to try extra hard to get the cats we’ve been asked to get, but when it comes to the females, we don’t have much control of the situation. As for the two mamas, they will be booked in 10 weeks, when their babies are weaned and their milk has dried up.
The first image is little Magda. She’s one of the ones that is so small, she hasn’t gone into heat yet, probably because she’s not healthy enough. But if she does get pregnant, I doubt she would survive. She is, however, very socialized and would be easy to get to a vet.
The next image is Rolando Moon, enjoying a nap. This Grand Old Lady was fixed by one of my brothers, as we were in the process of moving here. We were told she was the last of the females that needed to be fixed. Which turned out to be wrong, and here we are…
In the next photo is an incredibly scraggly cat that’s been showing up. I’m not sure if she’s one of ours (she’s not at all socialized, so I’m assuming it’s a she. 😄). I don’t know what’s going on with her neck fur, but it looks like it’s been worn right off!
Next is a very pregnant Slick, aka: Octomom. She had a litter of 8 kittens, two summers ago. She has been allowing me to pet her while eating on the cat house roof, which is a HUGE improvement – normally, we couldn’t get close to her, never mind pet her – so I’m really hoping we can catch her for the vet on Tuesday – and that she doesn’t have her kittens before then!! She is so very round.
The last photo is of a big boy that’s been hanging around off and on. I’m not sure if he’s one of ours returned, or if he’s from a neighbouring farm. I’m assuming it’s a male based on his size, more than anything else. We haven’t been able to get close enough to see.
I am so thankful for the Cat Lady and her rescue. They have been helping us with the cats, too much! It’s not easy for them at all, with so few people willing to adopt these days, full shelters everywhere, and donations trying up. We are certainly not the only ones trying to care for colonies this large, or even larger. Cats being dumped being a huge part of the problem, too.
Well, we did reach our high of -17C/1F today – at about 6-7am. By the time I headed outside to do my morning rounds, it was down to -19C/-2F, which isn’t too bad, except the wind chill was -32C/-26F It was coming from the north- northeast today, so the house acted as a wind break for the most part. I made a point of checking the ejector this morning, where I found myself getting hit by the wind, full blast.
Not fun.
Ejector is fine, though. I checked the heat tape and could feel warmth.
As I write this, it’s just past 5pm, and we’ve cooled down to -20C/-4F, but the wind chill is still -32C/-26F
This afternoon, I made sure to check on the truck, get it running for a while, then hooking up the OBDII to do a scan. The same sensor code is coming up; nothing else, so that’s good.
While letting the engine run and warm up, I took advantage of the sunshine and relative shelter from the wind and shoveled out the paths. We didn’t get a lot of snow, but the winds blew drifts into all the paths, with some not even visible anymore. Just flat snow. The kitties will be much happier, now that they can get around the yard more easily!
The first one is the fluffy girl that we can sometimes pet while she is eating. She lost her first litter last year. Unfortunately, she is now in heat. Brussel is being left alone, so I have to assume she’s pregnant, but the boys are all over this one.
This is a really bad time of year for a cat to go into heat. They’d both be having kittens at the end of February or so. Chances of survival are pretty much nil.
I’m really hoping we can catch her, or Brussel, for the spay next week. We’re booked for one male and one female, and I don’t expect to have any problems catching the males. They are far less feral than the ladies.
If you click through to the next photo, you can see another of our fluffy beauties; one of last year’s kittens. Totally feral. No idea if it’s male or female. We have at least one, maybe two, more fluffy ones like that that are completely unsocialized, and won’t go near us. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get that picture!
I had a chance to talk to the Cat Lady today. Yesterday, I’d connected with someone in a feral and stray cat group on FB. I normally am not active on there, after being burned by similar groups in the past. Someone was offering donated cat food, though, so I contacted her. I told her outright that we’ve been having difficult getting help, and only one rescue has been willing to help us. We messaged each other privately, and ended up arranging to connect when I’m in the smaller city, waiting for the spay and neuter to be done. I will be meeting the Cat Lady that day, too.
After, I let the Cat Lady now that I’d connected with someone about possible food donations. Today, she phoned me and asked if it was a particular person by name.
It was the same person.
She then warned me to watch out for her. She says, her heart may be in the right place, but she has… issues. Issues that have resulted in her calling the provincial vet on people she had been “helping”, which then resulted in a whole lot of cats being euthanized instead of TS/NR’d. More alarming is that she has been sending cats out of province with “brokers”. The cats get picked up by people in unmarked white vans, and are never heard from again. She apparently is full convinced that these “brokers” are adopting the cats out to good homes in the other province – a province that is just as overwhelmed with cats as rescues are out here (we’ve lived in that province a couple of times, over the years). The Cat Lady suspects the cats are actually going to a lab, based on her own observations before leaving the big rescue she had been connected with when I first met her.
Basically, she said that if we can get help with cat food, getting cats fixed or getting them adopted, that could be fine, but not to give any personal information, not to say where we live, and especially not to send pictures, as those will get shared all over online without our permission. It’s people like this woman, and the rescues she’s connected with, that have resulted in the Cat Lady backing away from her own rescue, and basically working with just a couple of people like us, and that’s it.
As she was telling me this, I remembered some of her past stories she’d told me, about how and why she left the big rescue. No names were mentioned, so I hadn’t known this person was one of the people she’d had issues with.
Well, we just have to be careful, which I try to be, anyhow.
One of the things that came up was how many cats we’re feeding right now. With how cold it’s been, I haven’t done head counts in a long time. The last time I did, I think I counted about 36, or in that range.
Today was nice enough that I tried to do a head count after doing their evening food and water. I counted “only” 23! That’s a huge drop. I had been seeing as many as 15 crowded into the top of the isolation shelter. Today, I counted 5. Looking into the sun room from the bathroom, I’ve counted as many as 20 that I could see, most bunched together under the heat lamp. Today, I counted 8 in the sun room. The rest that I counted were running around outside.
Twenty three cats is still too many, and I know that there is likely cats that just hadn’t come to the house for food yet, but that’s still a big change.
Well, we’ll see how much they change again, as the weather warms up.
Tomorrow, we’re looking at a high of -15C/5F, which is supposed to happen at about the time my daughter and I will be at her doctor’s appointment. We will take advantage of the trip to pick up a few groceries and some more kibble. Our first stock up shopping trip is a week away, so we won’t be getting much.
Man, I really hope the long range forecast into February is somewhat accurate. I’m now seeing forecasts for highs of 8C/46F!
The Re-Farmer 