This critter is a mystery in a couple of ways.
The first: I don’t know exactly what it is, other than “caterpillar”.
I’ve been doing searches, and the closest I can guess is that it’s some variety of tussock moth. It’s quite tiny – smaller than my fingernail. I’ve never seen anything like it around here before.
The other mystery is, where did it come from?
I was at my computer, typing away, when it dropped onto my keyboard.
From…
…somewhere.
I headed outside to start rounding the kittens up and close them in the sun room for the night.
The kittens were all over the place, including in and out of the sun room.
Something, however, seemed odd.
It was getting dark, but the shadows seemed… darker, somehow.
Plus, something had the kittens’ attention.
Then they moved.
Not one, but 2!! skunks were in the sun room, eating cat kibble.
These two are smaller than the one that would visit us last year, and they have less white on them.
When I was first trying to figure out what I was seeing in the dark (I was able to lighten the photo up, so the skunks are more visible in the photo than they were in real life), there were a couple of kittens sharing the kibble with them.
All of the cats that were around showed only a mild curiousity about our visitors, and had no problem being near them. Likewise, the skunks had no real issue with the cats. They mostly ignored the cats, and only seemed to have a problem when there were too many kitties in the doorway.
We waited a while before putting the kittens away for the night! :-D
Both of the skunks went into the old kitchen. I kept watch from the side windows and saw one as it left, but where was the other? I saw it come to the window near me, go under the couch on the other side of the sun room, wander back into the old kitchen and out again, disappearing several times in the process.
After a while, I went to the old kitchen from the inside, making sure to rattle the door knob a bit and turning the light on, before opening the door. I saw no critters, so I went in and turned the light on in the sun room and started looking under things from the doorway before coming in.
Then I heard some noises on the other side of the freezer I was standing next too.
Sure enough, the skunk had gone behind the freezer, and I could just see its tail as it came out the other end and made it’s away through things to the other side of the room.
By the time we did get everything shut down for the night, I was still only about 95% sure the skunk was no longer in the old kitchen! (yes, it turned out to be gone)
They are such adorable critters. They are likely what is digging the holes I’m finding all over the yard lately. Dozens of tiny holes in groups around the yard, so I’m thinking there’s a fair few more than just these two! With the state of the lawn, I’m not too concerned about any damage they are doing, which is minimal to begin with. I rather like that they are eating grubs, which are probably worse for the lawn than their leaving little turf balls all over the place. :-)
I would really love to pet a skunk some day. :-D
The Re-Farmer
This evening was both exciting and sad.
The family that had come to look at the kittens a few days ago called back today. They had made a decision and asked if they could come by to pick up their new fur baby.
Zesty Nacho Blast had to be awakened from a nap by his new humans!
He is now at his new home, with his new human family, where he will have new animal companions and even a new name.
Happy to see him adopted by a good family.
But we are going to miss him, too!
The Re-Farmer
The little hairy bean loves climbing to the top of the king size mattress.
Hello, little David. What lovely eyes you have!
The kittens have finally “discovered” the east side of the house today, the junk pile in the spruce grove and…
… Junk Pile kitten.
Here, we see Keith playing with his brother and visiting his mom, Guildenstern!
Junk Pile kitten wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden invasion of other kittens; he doesn’t come around the other side of the house, and the other kittens tend not to go beyond the area where the lilacs are. The girls had gone out to watch them play, and he was growling at them (the other kittens; not my daughters *L*) at first. By the time I came out, he seemed to be okay with them, crawling all over his home!
It’s really amazing to see how much bigger he is than his brothers. Especially Dave. It shows, I think, how sick Dave and Keith must have been, before we found them. Remarkable, that he didn’t get sick, too. I makes me wonder about the 4th kitten Guildenstern had, when I first found her litter.
I hope that this little guy and the other kittens will play together more often, and that we will get the chance to socialize him at least more successfully than his mom and aunt!
The Re-Farmer
On my way home from town this morning, I saw the bison were usually close to the road, so I just had to stop and get pictures!
To the left of the above photo, you can just see one of this year’s babies, lying in the grass. The larger bison lying near it would be one of last year’s babies.
One of this year’s babies is visible in the middle, to the left of the fence post, in this photo.
For such big babies, it’s hard to get pictures of them! :-D There are about 5 bison babies that we can see, this year.
These shaggy lumpens must be so hot, with the weather we’ve been having!
This morning was more relaxed for me, thanks to my family taking care of critter feeding. Before heading out to take my mother to her doctor’s appointment, I just had to switch out the memory card on the trail cam, then do some of my usual walk-about.
While walking in the outer yard, past where the grass is overgrown between trees, I noticed a large area of the grass trampled down. Some creature or creatures had surely been tumbling about in there!
As a paused to look, there was an explosion of cats and kittens from under one of the trees!
Continue readingWe have been enjoying our company lately – as much as possible in this heat! Yesterday was a scorcher. 29C with a “real feel” of 35C! We were supposed to get thunderstorms, and one did quickly pass over us, but for the most part, they all passed us by. Which meant very little rain.
Today, we were supposed to get a series of thunderstorms, but again, they passed us by. We are, however, FINALLY getting a solid rainfall right now, and it’s even cooled down a bit. We need rain so much! At least it’s not as dry as last year, but it’s still way too dry. Yesterday, my friend and I went to get the mail, stopping at a park nearby. When we lived here, years ago, we once released a snapping turtle found on the side of the highway into the pond in the park.
The pond is completely dry right now. Even with the one downpour we had earlier, the only side of it was what maybe-couldbe-kindalookslike some mud, visible between some grasses.
Today, the girls arranged to take Dave to the vet in town. He got a check up and vaccinations, as well as a deworming pill. We got some antibiotic eye drops to take home. His eyes are getting better on their own, but the drops should help his eyes clear up faster. The vet says it’s from cat herpes, and that pretty much all outdoor cats have it (and worms).
He is a bit under sized for his age, which we could see just by comparing him to the other litters. However, aside from his eyes, he seems quite healthy. He’ll be coming back in a month for another round of vaccinations, and likely another deworming pill. Since we now almost exactly when he was born (thanks to date stamps on the photos I took!), we know to come back in November to get him fixed.
He was a very tired kitty when we got him home.
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The Re-Farmer 