Yesterday, I made sure to give the outside cats an extra feeding in the evening. With the cold temperatures, they need more calories. There was even a bit of kibble left in the trays when I came out this morning.
Very few cats came out when I gave them more food.
Smart kitties!
This one wouldn’t even move away from their window! Just gave me this “are you kidding me?” look through the frost and nose prints. :-D
It was viciously cold out there.
I took this screencap well after I’d come back in. -30C/-22F is bad enough, but that -41C/-42F wind chill was the killer! The wind is from the south right now, so we were feeling every bit of it. It’s not even a particularly brisk wind, but it doesn’t take much, at these temperatures!
With the driveway clear, we were thinking to go into town today but, after doing my rounds, I decided we could wait another day. Mainly, I do not want to risk our van in these temperatures. It does not do well with cold. Also…
That’s right. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to warm up to -6C/21F !!
That would be a good day for the girls to climb through their window and shovel snow off the low angled parts of the roof, too.
Ugh. Another down side to these temperatures. The sounds the pumps make in the basement change, and they worry me incessantly. If both the well pump and septic pump happen to be running at the same time, it drives my anxiety levels through the roof!! I was about to say this will be a good day to catch up on laundry, but there are times when I fear using our water.
The weather app tells me it’s -25C/-13F, with a wind chill of -36C/-33F right now, but it’s bright and sunny, and actually felt a lot warmer while we were out this morning.
While doing my rounds this morning, it was time to assess just how much the storm affected us. We got most of the snow during the day, then mostly high winds overnight.
The cats that shelter under the storage house were having issues! This path was cleared yesterday morning. One spot was mostly drifted over – you can see it further back – with a bit of space the cats could get through. The other was a steep, narrow drift they had problems jumping over!
So one of the first things I did after putting food out was shovel around the kibble house, digging out the metal water bowls in the process, and opening up their paths.
Then I went around the house with feed for the birds and deer, and startled a deer that was right next to the house, almost at the dining room window! I’ve never seen them go on the house side of where the lilacs and cherry trees are. Not even tracks.
Once the food and water was done, I made my way to the gate to unlock it.
Opening it took a fair bit of effort! Most of the driveway wasn’t bad. We could have left it and driven through the snow, just fine.
We would not have made it through the end of the driveway, though.
Once I got it open (and shovelled out the path to the gate cam), it was time to break out Spewie and start blowing some snow.
I cleared in front of the garage, first, which was a more difficult area. The wind swirls around there, so the snow was deeper, and the top more hard packed. I did eventually make it to the end of the driveway, though!
I didn’t try to go too close to the ground, though, as I didn’t want to be hitting gravel and rocks, so the snow is actually deeper than the furrow made by the snow blower by about 2 or 3 inches. More than that at the end, where the remains of a plow ridge is.
The plows had not gone by yet, but it looks like some farmer cleared a lane with their tractor. At first I thought it might have been done by a truck with a plow attachment I’ve been seeing in the trail cam files lately, but those treads are not from any pick up!
I had managed to do about 4 passes with little Spewie, all the way to the road, when it stop running. I’d tripped the power bar, where it’s plugged in, in the garage. While I was trudging to hit the switch, I could hear the reverse warning sound of heavy equipment, nearby.
It was the plow.
*sigh*
You can see how much I’d done on the left, where the snow is a bit lower. There was no way little Spewie could make it through that! So I had to shovel a lot of it away. Thankfully, being almost immediately after the plow went by, it was still loose and light. Once I got a fair bit of it shoveled, then I could redo the end with little Spewie.
It was still a bit much for that little machine, and one of my daughters widened the end of the driveway with a shovel while I continued working on the rest of the driveway. I didn’t stop to take any more photos, but I was able to clear enough that we will be able to back the van up to the little gate in the chain link fence to unload. The girls, meanwhile, finished shoveling out all the paths in the inner yard. The path to the compost pile was almost completely filled in!
By the time I was done, I was completely soaked from all the snow blown back onto me. My down filled coat is not as waterproof as it used to be, and my shoulders were soaked right through the layers I was wearing under it! I was wearing both a hat and cowl, which was bulky enough to hold my hood in place, so I didn’t have to close it up in front, obstructing my breathing. They were wet, all the way through, too. My glasses weren’t just frosted over. They were iced over! I was very happy to come inside and make a nice, big pot of tea to warm up with!
While all this was going on, I got some texts from the woman who will be helping us with the cats. She told me that she will be in town on Saturday, and can pass on some cat food for us. This will be much appreciated, as the store shelves have been quite empty, so we’re not as stocked up as we should be. She also expects to be able to start taking some of our cats in the next week or two, once they have finished adopting out their current batch!
She also asked about cabbages. I told her she seems to be getting a bit better, drinking water on her own again, but still not eating (at least not while I’m there to see it), so we are feeding her with a syringe. She said she should probably take Cabbages back with her when we meet on Saturday, so that they can get her to a vet right away. This is greatly appreciated, since we won’t be able to do that until the end of the month. She said she can’t make any promises, since we don’t know why she’s sick, which makes sense, of course.
So it looks like we’ll be saying goodbye to Cabbages this weekend, and she will get the vet care she needs.
I do hope this works out for her, and I am very grateful that she offered to do this.
Which makes getting ourselves dug out just that much more important!
After a brief and sunny respite, it looks like the storm has finally hit us for real. Temperatures have dropped to -21C/-6F, with a wind chill of -35C/-31F – and this time, we don’t look at all sheltered from it, from what I’m seeing on the live feed of the garage cam! It’s supposed to end overnight, and then tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach a high of -24C/-13F with a wind chill of -36C/-33F. It’s supposed to be about the same for one more day, before warming up to -8C/18F!
Which means we’re going to be digging ourselves out for a couple of very cold days.
Meanwhile, we are warm and safe indoors, and I thought it was a good time for a Cabbages update.
Beep Beep keeps coming over to groom her, then Turmeric comes over and tries to force her way in between them! Jealous of the attention her adopted sister is getting, it seems. :-D
Cabbages is slowly getting better. I see her drinking water on her own more often, so we’re not as concerned about using the syringe to get her hydrated. She has little interest in eating, though. It looks like she can’t smell food right now! Her breathing is fine, so she’s not stuffed up. She’s also more active, and fights us off more when we try to feed her. She stomach seems stable enough that we’re using the syringe to feed her a little more often, and we’ll keep increasing the feedings as much as we are able.
I get to do the feeding part while my daughters have been taking turns, holding her. Both of them have bloody scratches to show for it! She may be almost skin and bones right now, but she’s still remarkably strong.
She still spends most of the day sitting like a little bony loaf in different spots in my office/bedroom all day. As I write this, she is back on the warming mat. :-) The main thing, though, is that she is improving!
So the snow that was originally supposed to start this evening and continue on through tomorrow, arrived last night.
The snow was pretty much stopped when I went out to feed the critters. I had to dig out the non-heated water bowls.
Then I had to shovel the path to the feeding station so I could put seeds out for the birds and deer.
Then I kept shoveling.
I am so glad I cleared the paths of the hard packed snow, yesterday. The snow we’ve been having is all light and fluffy, so it made clearing the paths again very easy work!
By the time I reached the garage, the snow was coming down in big, fluffy flakes. We are at a lovely -13C/9F right now. The wind chill is -24C/-11F, but it’s coming from the north, so most of the inner yard is well sheltered. It only got a bit blustery when I reached the bird feeder.
I did most of the paths, but not all of them. Later on, we might break out little Spewie and see what we can do about the driveway. Mostly, we’ll need to clear the end of the driveway, and that will likely need shovels. I don’t think Spewie can handle that! Not only will we have a plow ridge to deal with, but there’s no shelter from the winds there, so it’ll be drifted over and harder packed.
At some point, we’ll be able to set up the snow fencing that we’ve got, rolled up behind the old garden shed. I don’t know where it was used before we moved here, but it would be good to set some up on both sides of the driveway, for both the north and the south winds.
When I came inside and hung my coat on a chair to dry, I discovered this…
I somehow got snow in my hood! :-D I didn’t use it because the only way to keep it on is to close up the flaps in front. They go in front of my mouth and I can’t breath, so I keep having to jam it under my chin, which pulls the hood over my eyes. So I wore a cowl, instead. I guess that left my hood to be catch snow! :-D
I put it in a water bowl we keep near the kitchen for the cats, that happened to be empty. Within minutes, there were three cats checking it out, and a fourth watching because he couldn’t squeeze in. All of them orange. It was funny, except for having to step over them to get into the kitchen! LOL Within minutes, the snow was all gone!
The view from the garage cam, not long after I came in. Looking at the live feed as I write this, the visibility has dropped even more, and those cat paths in the snow are almost completely gone.
I know people in the south of the province probably wouldn’t agree with me, but I am really happy will all this snow. It will be so good for the fields in the spring, and for the water table. Our municipality was among those that declared an agricultural disaster because of the drought, which allowed for farmers to get some financial assistance. So many lost entire crops – again! – and many were struggling with the the decision to cull their animals, because there was no feed to be had. Not that things are any better now. Thanks to the unnecessary, draconian government restrictions, animals aren’t getting to market. Tens of thousands of chickens are being culled. If the various government bodies don’t let up on their medical tyranny, we’re going to have major food shortages, even as farmers are having to throw away food because there’s no way to get it processed and to the stores. They’ll be blaming it on the Wu Flu, but this is the direct consequence of going against the emergency plans all levels of government already had in place.
We’ve long had the dream of being as self sufficient as possible. After moving here, I kinda hoped we would have more time to get there, though!
At least we’ve got our seeds in, and other orders processed for spring shipping. We’re going to be relying on our garden a lot more this year, if things don’t change!
Another reason to be glad for this snow. We are really going to need this moisture.
Though today has gotten a bit colder than yesterday, at -15C/5F, it’s a lot calmer out there, and bright and sunny. We are actually reading a wind chill of -21C/-6F, but the wind is from the north, and we are well sheltered in that direction.
Which means I got more done outside!
Of course, feeding the critters was top of the list.
I counted 18 this morning. I did not see Ghost Baby, and I think Junk Pile is the other “missing” cat. I was quite happy to see both Butterscotch and Nosencrantz this morning.
Nosencrantz doesn’t look too happy to see me, though! :-D She’s all “stop petting me, and taking my picture. I’m trying to eat!”
I was able to do a burn this morning, scrape the sidewalk clear, and dig out some of the blown over paths.
Though we didn’t get much snow, the blowing winds made a big difference. I was lifting out solid chunks of snow. I actually took advantage of that while shoveling around the burn barrel, to make a higher “wall” around it. This is snow fort building snow! :-D
The path to the compost was so solid, I ended up having to bring the ice scraper to break it up before I could use the shovel. Because of the wind direction, the path from the compost ring to the back door of the garage was almost clear, and the shelter of the garage kept the path to the outhouse from getting drifted over.
We’re supposed to get snow starting tomorrow evening. I’m now seeing snowfall warnings of 20-35cm (8-14 inches), however they are mostly for the south and eastern parts of the province. We shouldn’t get anywhere near as much, where we are. Local forecast is currently for 5-10cm (2-4 inches).
So if there’s anything we need to get in town, just in case, now is the time to do it!
Well. Maybe after we’ve shoveled the end of the driveway again.
With Cabbages losing the weight that she has, she’s been feeling colder to the touch (she’s not shivering or anything like that), so I set out the heated mat for her.
This is not Cabbages. This is a very pushy Turmeric, taking up the entire mat!!
Sometimes we’ll find Cabbages, Turmeric and Beep Beep, all smooshed together on the mat.
Cabbages still isn’t eating or drinking much on her own, so we’re continuing to use the syringe to keep her hydrated. We’re being more cautious about the quantity of solid food we’re making her eat, as we don’t want her to throw it up or something. Though she isn’t looking any better (too soon for that), she has definitely perked up. She struggles to get out of my daughter’s arms a bit as we use the syringe – Cabbages has never enjoyed being held much, so this is actually a good sign. This morning, when I opened the door to let various cats in and out, she actually left the room! She has shown no interest in leaving the room since we brought her in.
Turmeric is still snarling at the tuxedos, though when Layendecker and “grandma” came in, she left them alone. She’s been growling at Fenrir, though. We still have no idea why she turned into a snarling beast, and she does seem to have calmed down – as long as she’s in my office/bedroom. I’m hoping to try letting her out again today, but only if there are several of us around, just in case she switches to beast mode again.
Cabbages, meanwhile, settled herself in that Styrofoam “bowl” that was from the inside of the new washing machine. We kept it because the cats love it so much. We decided to bring her back into my office. We didn’t want to take a chance of her going under the couch or somewhere like that, and not being able to find her later. Keith did that when we were giving him his antibiotics every day, and we ended up having to have 2 of us lift the couch while a third snagged him and dragged him out!
Keith is doing very well, by the way. Completely back to full health. He gave us quite a scare!
First up, I’m happy to say that Cabbages is seeming better this morning. She got more hydration last night, and we even got some solid food into her – also through the syringe. She didn’t like it, but she ate it!
We are still keeping Turmeric closed up with me. I’ve been letting other cats in and out, and while she did growl at the tuxedos, once they were inside, she seemed okay with them. As soon as she’s out of my office/bedroom, however, she still turns into a snarling beast for some reason.
Beep Beep has pretty much moved in and taken Cabbages under her wing, so I had the three of them with me last night. I was awakened by the sound of a cat scratching under the door to get out, and it was Cabbages! That’s the first time she’s made the effort since we brought her into the room.
It turned out their food and water bowls were empty. When I refilled them, Cabbages parked herself at the water bowl and stayed there. I did see her drinking, but mostly, she was just a loaf. I was in and out a few times, and she stayed like that for at least an hour. Right now, she’s back on my bed, next to Beep Beep.
We will keep up with the hydration and the semi-liquid food, even though she is a bit more active.
The other cats still seem very confused by my closed door. I usually have the majority of them splattered all over my bed, finding myself trapped by several when I wake up in the morning. They’ve had to find other places to sleep. A couple of them already preferred my husband’s hospital bed, but now he’s finding his bed covered with 4 or 5 at times. That bed is pretty narrow, so they basically take up the whole thing when that happens! Mostly, though, they have been converging on my daughters, upstairs.
They have not been getting much sleep, lately!
I do wish I knew what was going on with Turmeric, and why she still hasn’t settled down, yet!
Anyhow.
When I head into the sun room to get kibble for the outside cats, it’s not unusual for me to see a cat on the hand rail outside. It’s usually Nosencrantz or Potato Beetle. Sometimes it’s Agnoos or Tuxedo Mask. Not this morning!
The Distinguished Guest had her butt parked there this time! I managed to get a picture before opening the doors, at which point she took off. Not far, though. She knows it’s breakfast time!
She is really looking to be a permanent “guest”.
I counted only 13 this morning, though I did see Ghost Baby show up soon after. We were short two orange tabbies. I didn’t see Butterscotch or Nosencrantz this morning, either. It’s not unusual for Butterscotch to be missing, but I usually see Nosencrantz.
Chadiccus came over for pets, and I was happy to see he’s all cleaned up. No sign of the blood that was all over his front, yesterday. Since no cats look injured, I’m hoping it was just from some rodent he caught and ate.
I can see that the cats checked out our winter sowing experiment! The jugs themselves were undisturbed, though, so that’s good.
Once I was done my rounds and back inside, the two deer that come by regularly were soon at the feeding station. Then I spotted one of them in the south yard!
There is a short path along the chimney block planters that has been shoveled, and that’s where she is standing.
Then she made her way around the white lilacs, to the shrine! From the tracks in the snow, they have been checking out the kibble tray fairly regularly. Which is interesting, since there is nothing there they can eat. There are birds that like to steal the kibble, though, and of course the cats are often there, just like at the feeding station, so maybe the deer is associating the presence of birds and cats with food!
Or she’s just curious. :-D
I like how the cat is so chill about the deer coming at it.
Doing my rounds this morning was a bit of a bother. Those high winds from yesterday drifted over many of our paths with hard packed snow. A couple of days from now, we’re supposed to get hit by a storm, with 10-15 cm of snow (4-6 inches).
*sigh* I suppose we should clear out the end of the driveway again, before the plows have to go through.
I figured it was a good idea to write a separate post on how Cabbages is doing.
We have been giving her water with a syringe, as dehydration is the biggest danger for her. By the second time we were doing it, she seemed to get what we were doing, and was quite cooperative. We were careful to give her just a little at a time, and she actually seemed to perk up.
She wouldn’t eat the wet cat food. The girls are planning to boil some salmon for her, which will be made into a paste so we can use the syringe to feed her, but for now, getting water into her is the priority.
She seemed a bit stuffed up, so we got her into a steamy bathroom for a while. She got a couple more hydration sessions while in there, too. That done, she was returned to the comfort and warmth of my bed.
I came in to find Beep Beep and Turmeric, grooming her. A little too enthusiastically! I had to move them off of her, every now and then.
Turmeric seemed to decide she needed to be the center of her mom’s attention, though, and kept trying to insert herself between Beep Beep and Cabbages. Meanwhile, Cabbages just lay there, taking it all. Turmeric finally got to be too much for her, though, so she got up and moved to the other end of the bed.
I just took a bit of a break from writing this. My daughter came in, and we hydrated Cabbages again. We got two syringe fulls into her. She is definitely more responsive, and even opened her mouth more for the water.
We don’t want to over do it, of course. The last thing we want is for her to start throwing up again. So far, though, her stomach seems stable.
The poor thing looks so miserable. She hasn’t lost a lot of weight, but she didn’t have a lot of weight to lose in the first place, so she feels all bony now.
I got some more texts from the woman that will be fixing our cats. She let me know that all the photos I sent have been passed on to “all the girls”. I had let her know about Cabbages, and they have been made aware of that, too.
Then I got a text telling me that they have all sorts of wet and dry cat food that’s just sitting there. It needs to be used, so she will pass it on to us. !!! We should be able to meet up, the next time she is in town.
That is so awesome! I knew the organization provided free cat food to their fosters, but I didn’t expect them to have so much extra, they would need to get rid of it, and could offer it to us. I have no idea how much it will be, but every little bit will make things easier on our budget! The cats will be very happy. :-)
Today had warmed up quite a bit. It’s past 9pm and we’re still at only -9C/16F, but it’s been blowing snow all evening. Not a lot of snow is actually falling, but enough is being blown around that I’m glad we didn’t need to go anywhere. I’ve heard the roads are got pretty bad. According to the hourly forecast, we’re supposed to warm up to -2C/28F by 3 am, and stay that warm until 6am! If the driveway isn’t drifted over too badly, I might make a trip into town and get some kitten milk for Cabbages for both nutrition and hydration. We’ll see how Cabbages is doing by tomorrow, though. Poor little thing. She really does seem to have perked up. I am encouraged.
Before I had a chance to head out to feed the outside critters, I got a series of texts from the woman who will be fixing our cats. She was able to book the surgery for January 31st – for both Butterscotch and Nosencrantz!
We will have to isolate them in the sun room the day before, and take out all food and water by 9pm. After surgery, we’ll have to keep them in there during recovery. If they end up needing cones, it’s an extra cost, but I think we still have cones from previous cat treatments that will fit. Though I doubt Butterscotch in particular could handle wearing one!
Meanwhile, she has passed on the information I was able to send her yesterday, and the process of getting cats adopted out has started.
While feeding the outside cats this morning, I only counted 16, but I saw Rosencrantz this time (right in front of the kibble house) and I even saw Ghost Baby, both of whom I haven’t seen in a while. They are doing very well out there.
Inside… well, it’s a different story. We have some weird stuff going on.
From the top down is Beep Beep, Turmeric, Tissue and “grandma”. This was a massive grooming and cuddle session, and both Tissue and Turmeric were acting like they were trying to nurse on “grandma”. Which is funny, because Beep Beep is Turmeric’s mom, and when she was ready to wean her kittens, she was quite abrupt about it.
This picture of feline domestic bliss ended abruptly that evening.
The cats sometimes get testy with each other. That’s to be expected. What happened this time was a full blown fight, with rolling balls of fighting cats, flinging across the dining room floor, into the entry way, and into the basement, before breaking off and cats flew in all directions. By the time we got there, we couldn’t tell who started what.
We got things calmed down, but every now and then, there would be another tussle. As soon as there’s any growling, all the other cats come running to see what’s going on, and the ones that were in fighting mode would just tackle whichever cat happened to be nearby.
Beep Beep is a bad one for that, but she’s been fighting for survival since longer than we’ve been here, so that’s to be expected.
No cats were injured, by the way. Just to reassure!
What wasn’t expected was Turmeric’s response.
She turned into a snarling, screaming, growling beast.
Even when there were no other cats around! One time I heard her start screaming and snarling, I came running, only to find her under the dining table – alone. I did eventually spot another cat in the room, but she was behind a shelf, out of sight, and not bothering Turmeric at all.
We ended up having to isolate her in my office until she calmed down, but when we let her out, she was soon in another fight, then hid under a basement step, needing much persuasion to get her out.
So for the past few days, we’ve had her in my office. Every now and then, we’d let her out, and she’d start snarling. Usually at the tuxedos, for some reason. We would bring other cats in, and mostly she would be fine. This morning, I even let Layendecker in, whom she had been growling at before, and there was no problem. But as soon as we let her out of the room, she’s snarling again.
Who knew such a big noise could come out of such a small cat!
I don’t know what’s going on with her.
But I’m less worried about her than I am about Cabbages.
Cabbages is one of the cats that Turmeric is getting along with just fine, so we brought her in for company. That and she was really missing my bed.
Something is wrong with her.
She’s completely quiet. She’s hardly eating or drinking. For a while, she was throwing up several times a day – a couple of days ago, I had to wash my bedding three times because of that, but she hasn’t thrown up since. She moves from soft spot to soft spot, and that’s it. We’ve kept the hard sided carrier in here, with a soft towel inside, and I’ll often find her in there. Other times, I’ll find her sitting at the water bowl, just… sitting. I’ve seen her using the litter, at least. She has shown no interest in even leaving the room, unlike the other cats, who have been wanting to come in and out. As I write this, she has just come over to the food and water bowls, but is just… sitting. Not eating or drinking.
I mentioned it this morning to the lady that will be fixing our cats, and the first thing she asked if if Cabbages was sneezing or had diarrhea. It was a no on both. She recommended giving her some cooked fish for the nutrition boost, but without getting blood work done, there’s no way to know what’s going on. And the earliest we can afford to bring her in to be checked is at the end of the month. I’m concerned about dehydration and, being a small cat to begin with, the weight loss is an issue, too.
We are quite concerned.
I am considering engaging the help of a daughter or two, and trying to give her water through a syringe.
It took almost 5 hours, but I’m done. I’ve sent photos and info to get cats fixed and adopted out.
I had to pause part way through and get a daughter to help me take pictures of Nico and Susan.
It took some doing to send these. She wanted it all texted to her phone.
Which means texting from my phone.
From a cell phone dead zone.
Yes, I have my phone set up for WiFi direct, but it doesn’t seem to work.
My first message was to confirm it was going to the right number, and that took almost 10 minutes to send. I even paired my phone to my desktop, so I could access the photos and type on a keyboard, but it still sent using data on my phone. I was able to leave my phone in the living room, though, where it got a better signal, while still doing everything from my desktop, which ended up working rather well.
It would be good to get the outside cats adopted into indoor homes. No more keeping their butts warm at the melted spot over the heat bulb! :-D
As we worked out on the phone, I started with pictures of Butterscotch and Nosencrantz first, with Nosencrantz being up for adoption, but not Butterscotch.
Then I found (or have to take) pictures of Saffron, Turmeric, Tissue, Nico, Cabbages and Big Rig, for getting fixed and adopted. Beep Beep was included to be fixed, but not adopted. Susan and Layendecker were also included for adoption, though they are already fixed.
Then I sent pictures of Agnoos, Tuxedo Mask, Chadicous, Potato Beetle and Chadicous to add to the list of outside cats that can be caught. So 6 more cats to get fixed and adopted out.
Once those are done, the next focus is the cats that are not at all socialized, or not socialized enough. I mean, we might be able to catch Rosencrantz, but that’s it. Rolando Moon is already fixed and not adoptable, anyhow. For the others, they will lend us traps to catch them, so we wouldn’t even consider it until summer, anyhow.
Of the ones we can catch, there are a total of 9 females, at $75 each, plus 5 males. I don’t know what the rate is for males, as we didn’t talk about it. Usually, it’s half the cost of getting a female done.
Can you imagine trying to get all the females done at $350 each?? Then another 5 males at $175? Plus the cost of vaccinations, on top of that? And then there would be the cost of the cats we’d need to trap.
As I was working on sending the info, I got a call from the shelter.
Talk about a completely different attitude! Not at all like that first call. She started by asking if I’d heard from the person she’d sent my contact info do, and assured her that yes, she had called me, and we had an excellent conversation and worked out a plan that will span months. I made sure to thank her again for getting us in contact with each other. She was happy to hear that.
Then she got to the real reason she called! :-D
She remembered I had mentioned a new cat showing up fairly recently, and she asked if I lived around a certain area several miles to the north of us. That is where a long haired cat, white with black spots, has gone missing. Our Distinguished Guest is a long haired black cat with a white blaze on her chest and white socks. So we traded descriptions. We’re a bit far from the white cat’s location, but it is possible it might find its way here. She asked about the Distinguished Guest and her condition, and she does appear to be healthy. She wasn’t starving or anything, when she first showed up. I did tell her I think we’re dealing with a cat dump, not a lost cat, but you never know. Someone might actually be looking for this cat, so it’s good to have the word out. It’s not like we can check the cat for tattoos at this point.
All of this is going to be done slowly over the next few months. If all goes well, we’ll have half of our indoor cats adopted out, and most of the outdoor cats, before next winter, and any remaining outdoor cats will be fixed. Which should basically be just Butterscotch and Rolando Moon.
Oh, we had something else nice happen in the middle of all this. While at my computer, I spotted some movement on the garage cam live feed. It was my daughter heading for the gate. She had received notification that UPS had delivered a package for her. I hadn’t seen the truck, but sure enough, UPS had found us, and tied the package to our gate.
The last time we tried to get something delivered by UPS, it was delayed something like a week, because UPS couldn’t find us. It looks like our new sign has already made a difference! Our physical address still doesn’t show up on any maps, but the package still got here, without any issues.
So all in all, it has turned out to be a really good day!
The Re-Farmer 