cute cat

Faces

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We have a lovely warm day today! As I write this, we have reached -3C/27F, and are expecting a high of -1C/30F. I was just outside, and was finding it too warm for my toque and jacket! We’re talking t-shirt weather for this time of year!

Not a lot happening today, but I have a couple of adorable faces to share with you. The first is what I woke up to, this morning.

Butterscotch was in the “cat bowl” right next to me!

She looks like such a kitten. Can you believe she is at least 11 years old? Probably more.

For my morning rounds, I was able to give the outside cats their version of “cat soup”, since it was going to be so warm today. By the time I was ready to go back inside, I was seeing a lot of contented cats all over the place. Including several in the isolation shelter. I opened one of the windows so I could get a picture without reflections or dirt in the way, and that really got their attention.

Especially this guy!

Oh, wait. I think this one is the female. There are two tabbies with a bit of white that look very much alike. I was just petting the male a little while ago, and he has a different pattern in the white patch over his nose, which means this one has to be the female.

Unless there’s a third similar looking tabby running around, which is possible!

Gotta work on socializing this one, so we can easily get her into a carrier to get fixed! Still waiting on word from the rescue about getting 3 cats done soon.

Little by little, they’re getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Getting chilly again

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As much as I appreciate that we are slowly warming up and getting some really nice days, the weather whiplash of spring seems almost like an insult. 😄

With things warm enough to be melting all over, today’s high of -7C/19F (which we are already at) with a wind chill of -21C/-6F feels so much colder. A few weeks ago, these temperatures felt like spring!

While doing my morning rounds today, little Magda decided to follow me around. She kept getting under my feet, so I picked her up. She doesn’t like to be carried and ended up on my shoulders – which she didn’t like, either! – but she was cold and shivering, and actually allowed me to tuck her into my jacket.

For a little while, at least.

There’s a weather system blowing from West to East, almost straight across the country, bringing snow and high winds. The snow is supposed to start hitting us withing the next half hour or so, and continue for several hours. Tonight’s low is supposed to drop to -22C/-8F, which means the winds will probably make it feel colder than -30C/-22F

This see-sawing of temperatures means our usual explosion of pot holes on the roads over the next few weeks! While we’re just getting a bit of snow today, it’s not unusual to have at least one big blizzard in March or April.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -7C/19F again, with a warmer overnight low. I’ll be helping my mother with grocery shopping tomorrow, then do some of our own errands as well. After that, we’ll be getting a few days above freezing, then dropping down again, for more weather whiplash!

Winter and spring will be battling out for a few more weeks, yet!

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day

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Well, things are looking good for our area, weather wise. The snow system seems to mostly be skirting around us. We’ve had some snow, and are expected to get more later today, but nothing like other areas are getting. As I write this, we are at -14C/7F, instead of the high of -18C/1F that had been forecast, the last time I checked the weather, yesterday. The wind chill is -23C/-9F, but it’s coming from a direction we are mostly sheltered from.

After the running around I did yesterday, though, I’m happy to have a day to stay home. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading out again for a meeting with the doctor about my mother.

I do have a bit of cuteness to share with you today!

This is Tin Whistle (named for her distinctive meowing habit). A few weeks ago, she suddenly decided to attach herself to my husband.

Often, literally.

She is all over him. He can’t do anything, without her trying to be on him in some way. I’ve tried to rescue him by taking her away, so he could at least go to the bathroom, but she is soon back in his arms. More than a few times, I’d go past his doorway and find him stuck with her in one or both arms, watching videos on his computer, because he can’t do anything else. He used to try and get her to leave, but has pretty much given up.

Instead, he started putting her into his vest, and they’ve come to a truce! She will curl up in his vest and sleep for hours, and his arms are free to use.

Tin Whistle is one of Decimus’ babies from a couple years ago. We discovered her newborn litter, just hours, at most, from birth, in the shelf shelter. We’d never been able to socialize Decimus, but when we put her kittens into a carrier, she went in with them, and we brought them inside. There, we were finally able to de-matt her (her entire back was one big matt of fur) and socialize her. Along with her four kittens – Tin Whistle, Clarence, Shadow in the Dark and Mitsy – she was willing to become a wetnurse for Ghosty and The Wolfman.

The Cat Lady was able to adopt Decimus out when the babies were weaned, along with one of the outside cats, to be mousers on a farm. They were so friendly, however, they both ended up as indoor cats permanently!

Sadly, we were never able to adopt out the kittens.

With how Tin Whistle has bonded to my husband, I’m not sure we even could adopt her out anymore!

The Re-Farmer

A little bit of Gouda

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Hello, Gouda!

I spotted him lying in the sun spot, enjoying the warmth, and hoped to get a picture of him in his happy place. Then he saw me coming up with the camera and got up to say hello!

He had no interest in leaving his sun spot, though. 😁

The Re-Farmer

Thunk

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While going in and out of the sun room today, I spotted this, out the window.

Someone found a nice spot to nap!

I call this one Potato Baby, because he looks so much like Potato Beetle. 🤍

The cats seem perplexed that they aren’t allowed in the sun room anymore, and I’m seeing the ones that used to be in there regularly, hovering nearby. The swing bench is outside and available for naps, but it looks like the garden bed was more comfortable!

Which is going to be a problem when we finally have stuff planted in there!

The Re-Farmer

Thank you for breakfast!

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It was delicious!

What a pretty poser!

We are definitely seeing fewer cats at feeding time, as the weather improves. Sometimes, I’ll see a few of the more feral ones sneaking across the yards, waiting until I’m gone, before they come for food.

Then there are the ones like this little guy. They come as much for the pets as for the foods!

Last night, I was chasing that big racoon and a pair of skunks out of the sun room again. Overnight temperatures in the long range forecast look to be staying above freezing, so I think it’s going to be time to start closing the doors for the night. They’ll just have to put up with the beds in their cat shelter instead of the swing bench to sleep on. 😉

As I haven’t been able to do a burn during the day because of wind, the girls were kind enough to get it going last night, when things were calmer. They got hoses hooked up and I turned the water on from the basement for them, but there were issues! One hose just would not properly attach to the tap. Now that it’s daylight, I’ll take a look to see if there was any damage, because even when we hooked up a different hose, it wouldn’t attach to the end of that one, either. Thankfully, there was a third hose that worked well. Not that I would mind doing a controlled burn out there. Just not in the middle of the night! Now that the burn is finally done, I can clean out the ashes.

We’ve got some lovely weather predicted over the next while. Time to get outside and get to work! Woo Hoo!!

The Re-Farmer

My spot

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I finally had a chance to do a burn yesterday. While setting up, I brought out a camp chair to use in between tending the flames.

I didn’t get to use it much.

Pointy Baby was quick to claim it as his own – when he wasn’t jumping up on me, demanding attention!

In the end, I wasn’t able to stay out too long. It to way too windy, so I covered the burn ring as soon as I could, then left it to smolder.

The cats are happy to have the camp chair back in the sun room, for their naps!

The Re-Farmer

Don’t let the cuteness fool you!

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Check out Nosencrantz, all tucked up on her window shelf.

She had her face tucked into her front paws, but my trying to take a picture disturbed her.

This is her, in abject terror and anxiety. She freezes like this, and hardly moves.

I was vacuuming, and all the other hiding places were filled with other cats, so she just stayed on her shelf, frozen into an adorable loaf of anxiety.

She got lots of love and comfort after the vacuuming was done!

The Re-Farmer

So much cute!

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I just had to share this adorable photo I took of Nosencrantz being snuggled by my daughter.

She’s just too adorable for words!!

Definitely enjoying the indoor life… even if she’s not enjoying most of the other indoor cats! :-D

The Re-Farmer