While at the post office this morning, we had a surprise box waiting for pick up, from a dear friend.
Since I dropped everything off at home before making my way to the city, I didn’t open it until after I got back. It was some very useful gifts for the kitties! Another self heating mat, which I was thinking of getting another one of already (the one we have now was a gift from the same awesome friend). A giant bucket of treats and…
… a 16’x16′ heavy duty tarp. Something to wrap around the catio or something, for extra insulation.
As my daughter was unloading the truck of Costco shopping, she let me know that there was a new hole in the greenhouse roof, which you can see in the next image of the slide show above. Midnight had jumped onto the roof. The plastic cover on this portable greenhouse has been slowly tearing, more and more, right from the day we put it up. The door is not completely gone, and the remaining front panels on either side are all torn up. The roof had a few taped up tears in it, but it just couldn’t handle the weight of a full grown Midnight!
Over the next few days, it’ll be too cold to try and get the tarp over it. It’s heavy duty, but I still don’t want to risk it cracking in the cold. When we have a couple of warmer days again, I’ll get a daughter to help me put it over the frame and secure it. The cats will still have a nice shelter to go into. They just won’t have that greenhouse heat.
I’m looking at ordering some 6mm poly to use in the garden. If we can figure out how to shape it, I’d like to make a new cover for this greenhouse. The frame is just fine. The plastic cover that came with it, sucked. It started tearing while we were putting it on, right at the start!
Now, excuse me while I set up the new self warming mat in the sun room, and give the cats a few treats!
The purple bags were in one smaller box, with the two bigger ones in one big box that the inside cats are currently enjoying. 😄
Feeling so very grateful and thankful for the cat food donation. The Cat Lady sent them to us using her Amazon coupons to get a good deal. Considering how overwhelmed she is right now, and that she’s dropping out of rescue completely by the end if this summer, I so appreciate that she still thinks of us. I spoke to her on the phone today and she was telling me that she’s just had to use up their spay and neuter schedule on trapped strays that keep showing up at their place. The vet is not happy with all the ferals she’s bringing in, but they need to be done!
Also, a cat got into their house and refuses to leave. A neighbour recognized it as a cat they saw getting dumped in the area a few months ago, and she hadn’t seen it since. It first showed up on their critter cams, lounging on a catio roof. Now it’s inside, and they haven’t been able to lure it out. Some of their other cats are incredibly unhappy with the new addition! They’ve got a lot going on in their lives, so I really, really appreciate she took the time to help us out in the middle of it all, too.
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.
The woman who runs the rescue that’s been helping us gets lots of coupons for cat food on Amazon. She recently got some for kitten kibble, so she ordered some for our colony.
I picked up the 5 bags of kibble at the post office today.
At the moment, the only kittens we have (that I know of) are the two babies in the sun room. Caramel looks like she’s about to explode, so I expect she’ll be having hers soon. It’ll be a while before we have kittens that can eat solid food. At that point, we’ll start including kitten kibble in with the regular kibble while feeding the outside cats.
The Cat Lady is so awesome.
Last night, while chasing racoons and skunks out of the sun room, a couple of cats got into the old kitchen without me noticing. The next time I went to chase a racoon out, I found a brown tabby sitting on the freezer, waiting! The inner door was closed, of course, and he stayed on the freezer as I opened it (most cats run away; even the socialized ones), then jumped out the screenless window.
Then Gouda slunk out from between the garbage bags, looking guilty! He tried to jump out the window from the floor, but didn’t make it, so I picked him up and let him out.
The racoon was gone by then, but not the skunk. I got it out. Both outer doors were tied off, so there’s just a narrow space for them to get in and out. The brown tabby was wanting out, but there was a cat on the other side, so he kept going for it, backing off, going for it, backing off. He was looking quite nervous, but I decided to try and pet him.
He suddenly became SO excited! He was weaving all around my feet, and even reaching up my legs, wanting more pets.
I got some rather bad pictures (it was kinda dark, and he wouldn’t stop moving) and sent them to the family, asking if they recognized him. My daughters said they have seen him around in the last few weeks or so – they get cats visiting their second floor window regularly – but that’s about it. I thought it might be the tabby that got sick as a kitten, and let us tend to him, as the face markings are very similar, but that tabby is more of a grey. This one is a lighter brown tabby. I’m pretty sure I’ve never touched this cat before.
Which means, he is probably a dumped former house cat. He’s too friendly to be from one of the neighbouring farms.
When I’ve tried to do a head count in the mornings, the highest I’ve been getting lately is 35, though some days it’s much lower.
This morning, it was 36.
Last night, I was chatting with the Cat Lady and told her about this cat I found in our old kitchen. Later in the conversation, I remembered to ask her how much she gets charged for spays and neuters. She has been working on getting us spots for 2 spays and a neuter. I was thinking that, if we could manage to snag three females instead, we might be able to pay the difference.
It turns out that the clinic she books us at charges her $145 for a spay, $120 for a neuter. These are the lowest prices I’ve seen in ages. Even when we first moved out here, a neuter was $175 and a spay was double. Spays everywhere else are always double the cost of a neuter.
When I asked about being able to bring in 3 females instead, if we can catch them, and pay the difference, she said don’t bother. They can cover three spays…
And the friendly male!
Which would be so awesome.
She’s out of town right now, arranging things by email and, so far, the clinic has not given her any dates.
I commented on the cost being so much lower than I expected (the last time we went to the clinic in town, a spay was about $350, and that was several years ago). She said this clinic gives her the best prices – it’s the treatment for ear mites, worms and infections that really add up! She told me of one case where she and the clinic had offered someone a free spay for one cat they were caring for, but with the ear mites, worms and an infected foot, the bill came out to $500!
With our cats, we just assume they all have ear mites, and we know that at least some have round worms.
I don’t know what we would do, without the Cat Lady’s help! Even with being able to get lower prices at this clinic, we couldn’t afford to cover the costs completely, ourselves.
After taxes, it will cost about $400. Parts have been getting really expensive. While I’ve found the part online for about $60, that’s been in US$, so it would be a lot more expensive in Canada, just in the dollar difference. Parts in Canada have all sorts of extra fees, tariffs, taxes, etc. – all the extras our government has been adding on for years – so they typically cost about twice as much. Then there’s the cost of labour. The entire door panel will need to be removed. We had to do that when my brother found a replacement door on our van, to move the lock from the old door onto the replacement, and we never were able to get it back together again tightly. Once those clips were popped apart, they did not want to clip back together again as well, so this is not a job I would want to do myself.
We can’t afford a $400 bill at the moment. We just had a whole bunch of work done and need to pay that down more before we can charge another $400.
Keeping the truck repaired and maintains is a much higher priority on our budget than getting cats fixed.
Though, for the amount we’re spending on cat food these days, we could probably get two or three done a month, with ear mite treatment.
*sigh*
Of course, donations of cat food like this sure helps! Every little bit of help is greatly appreciated, that’s for sure!
I prepped the cat carriers last night, including adding a couple of reflective cat collars around one of the handles for later. I have the collars linked together in a chain, so I just grabbed the two at one end. Which just happened to be a pink and a black.
While I got the truck warming up and opened the gate, my daughter brought the carriers to the sun room to see which cats we could catch. When I got to the sun room, she had the fluffy tabby in with her, and she was one we really wanted to get, so we closed up the door. It took a while – the poor thing was panicking – but I was eventually able to get her while she was on the window shelf and start scritching her neck and shoulders. She actually stopped trying to run away. She was still very nervous, but she accepted the pets until I could finally pick her up and get her into the carrier my daughter brought close.
While we were trying to get her, I spotted a collar loose on one of the cat beds. Oops.
Once she was secure we opened the door again, and several for the regular males immediately came in, expecting feeding time. One of them was a grey and white, with no collar. I was able to check his ear and confirm that this was Colin, so after the fluffy girl was in the carrier, I got the collar we found onto him.
It was not the colour of collar he had before, though! Which means there was another fixed cat missing his collar out there.
One of the other males that came in was Midnight, our one almost completely black outside cat. He has a small white blaze on his chest and that’s it. He is social enough that my daughter was able to pick him up and put him in the other carrier while I quickly shut it.
He was NOT happy about that!
From there, we loaded them into the truck, and I headed out right away, even though it was quite early. I didn’t even stop to close the gate, leaving that for my daughter to take care of, after she gave the outside cats their kibble and warm water.
I am so glad I left as early as I did!
The first part of my drive, the road wasn’t too bad, but I still drove under the speed limit. The sudden appearance of at least 5 deer on the side of the road was one reason why!
Then I found myself behind some slow driving vehicle with lots of flashing amber lights on it that kept blinding me. I wasn’t able to pass until it pulled over near the exit I needed, which is when I could finally see it was a snow plow.
The next section of the drive was one I was concerned about, as it was very slippery, and where there was a major accident, yesterday. The conditions were much better, though with oncoming traffic, I could see the reflections of black ice on the highway that I couldn’t see, otherwise.
There was a cross road I needed to take and it, as always, was pretty bad. Lots of icy patches.
By the time I reached the final section of the route, the sun was starting to rise, so I could see that there was quite a bit of fog around. The highway was wet, but not slippery, at least.
Then I got to within a couple of kilometers of the city when I drove into a wall of fog. Visibility dropped to just a few feet. Which wasn’t too much of a problem, except that I couldn’t slow down safely because someone was tailgating me! Thankfully, they did eventually back off a bit.
With all that, I got to the vet clinic only 10 minutes early. Normally, with the time that I left home, I would have been at least half an hour early.
While waiting for the clinic to open, I messaged the family to let them know I arrived safely. I’d also kept the Cat Lady up to date when I left, so I let her know I’d arrived safely, too. Then I made sure to post a road conditions report on the highways group I’m on, so others could know how things were for driving.
Several other vehicles arrived while I was waiting, too, before the Cat Lady arrived. We talked for a while and she transferred some donations she had for us. In a bag, there was a water fountain with filters, plus she had more wet cat food with poultry in it that she couldn’t use anymore, plus bags of dry cat food – including two bags of cat food for senior cats. We had several elderly ladies that this will be good for!
She was also getting phone calls and having other stuff to deal with, so when the clinic opened, I left her to it and brought the cats inside. While waiting my turn, I made sure to put the pink collar on the carrier with Midnight. A black collar on a black cat won’t help us easily identify him as a fixed, when the other mostly black cats are around.
As I was checking the cats in, they needed names, so I decided the fluffy tabby was now Fluffy. When someone came to get the carriers, I brought up the collars, explaining what we were using them for, and made sure to say the pink one was for the black cat, not the black one. That got an understanding laugh!
After a while, though, they needed the Cat Lady’s signature, so I went back to the parking lot. By then, she was with someone else that brought a cat she was covering the spay for, too. So we all went in, finished processing our two, then did the third. That done, she parted ways with the other person, then talked to me a bit more about my expected connection with the woman from the feral and stray group. It turns out this person’s habit of posting pictures without permission is one of the reasons the Cat Lady no longer uses her Facebook; she just used Messenger and that’s it. Yet, this person does help a lot of people and manages to get a lot of donations, so any help is welcome, as long as we’re careful not to give out personal information.
From there, we parted ways and I headed to the Walmart to do my shopping. Normally, I would have stayed in the area, until I noticed my tire looked low and checked it. That was when I started getting messages from the other lady, which I had to answer in between driving around, getting gas, then having to go to another gas station across the street to pump my tire, since the compressor at the first station was out of service. I still had to go back to hit the Canadian Tire for litter pellets, so we arranged to meet at a nearby Tim Hortons.
I got there early enough to have “lunch”, but they still had only their breakfast menu, which was fine by me.
In the middle of all this, I got a call from the Cat Lady. The clinic knew to call me for pick up, but to call her for anything financial.
They’d called her about Fluffy.
Now, these are yard cats, and Fluffy is the more feral one. While Midnight was more social, neither of them have really been handled much at all. We also just assume they all have ear mites.
It turned out that Fluffy has really, really bad ear mites in one ear. Bad enough that there was a risk of them getting past the ear drum and to her brain, and to cause a severe infection.
The vet that called her is new to this clinic, and the Cat Lady could tell she wasn’t used to dealing with yard cats. When asked, how did it get this bad without anyone noticing, she had to explain that this cat had probably never been handled until today (she was correct). These are yard cats, so we just assume they will have ear mites, but that’s about it. No, we wouldn’t be able to give her ear drops three times a day. This is a yard cat. Especially not drops that have to be put in at a specific angle that is hard to do with a house pet!
As for treatment, this is a yard cat. It makes no sense to go all out financially on an outdoor cat that will probably just get ear mites again.
In the end, the Cat Lady authorized a couple of injections, for both the ear mites and the infection, but that was it. It still added more than $200 to her bill! They want to have the cat brought back to follow up in two weeks. We will be keeping her and Midnight in the isolation shelter for two weeks, so that is at least possible, but we certainly couldn’t keep trapping her to bring her back regularly after that! Bringing her indoors is not an option, either.
They talked about things like quality of life, and how she might end up going deaf in one ear, and we’re both… well, then we have a cat that’s deaf in one ear. As for if she gets sick because of the infection, or if the ear mites get bad enough to cross over to the brain, then it would actually be kinder to put her down. When it comes to the yard cats, sick cats disappear and don’t come back. Whether they just die somewhere, or if the coyotes or foxes get them, we never know for sure.
The Cat Lady doesn’t think it would come to that. Fluffy hasn’t actually shown any signs of being sick. She’s been eating fine, she’s active, she hangs out in the sun room regularly. With the treatment she’s getting, she’ll probably recover and be just fine.
In the end, she agreed to talk to them about her on the phone in a week, and make a decision from there.
Then, while I was waiting to meet with the feral and stray cat group lady, I got a call from the clinic. Both cats were done and recovering, and would be ready to pick up in about an hour. Meanwhile, my husband remembered something, and I needed to go back to the Walmart.
Which is about when the cat group lady arrived!
So we ended up not sitting and talking as we originally expected to, and went to transfer stuff from her vehicle to mine. Which was easy to do, as she just happened to park next to my truck!
I couldn’t believe how much she was able to donate!
There were a number of kibble bags of various sizes. I think the largest were about 5kg. I actually lost track of how many smaller ones there were!
Then there were the cases of canned can food. All Tuna. I’m not sure how many are in each case, as they’re all cardboard boxes sealed in plastic, but there ended up being 10 cases! She said those ones were from the humane society.
After the truck was loaded, she asked to take a picture with me and the open truck box. That’ll get posted on FB, but there isn’t anything identifiable on there. Not even my face, since my FB profile picture is cats. I don’t mind that. I was so happy with the very generous donation!
She did ask questions about where we lived and how many cats we’re caring for, but “in the boonies” was a good enough answer (she does know we’re near our little hamlet), and I honestly don’t know how many cats we’re caring for outside. I’ve mostly given up trying to do a head count, as they run around so much, but it’s different every day. Sometimes by a very wide range!
That done, I made a quick run back into the Walmart, then headed to the clinic, just in time for pick up.
While going through how things went, they basically wouldn’t let me leave with the cats without making an appointment, two weeks from now. The estimate was emailed to the Cat Lady, along with the bill for the three cats she covered today, but I asked what it was. I know that Cat Lady has already extended her budget as much as she could for the extra treatment for Fluffy today. I’ll have to go through our own budget to see if we can over the amount. I think we can, but not if it ends up costing more.
I’ve actually been chatting with the Cat Lady while I’ve been writing this.
Once we had all the details done, it was time to bring the kitties home!
Fluffy was actually the calmer of the two. You can’t see it in the photo, but they did manage to get the black reflective collar on her (when the clinic called me, we talked about the breakaway collars, too). I think. It wasn’t attached to the carrier’s handle anymore, but I honestly haven’t seen it through her fur.
If you click through to the next photo, I managed to get Midnight to almost face me, so his bright pink collar is hidden, too.
For the first part of the drive, Midnight was really fighting to get out of that carrier! Fluffy was, too, but not as violently. Eventually, though, they both settled down and were quiet for the rest of the ride home.
Meanwhile, my daughter made sure the isolation shelter was ready, with the ramp door closed. When I got home, she helped me get them into the shelter through one of the upper level sliding windows.
They both immediately went to the lower level to get out, only to find the door closed.
They were not happy.
My daughter and I then unloaded the van – with a special gift for her for all her help that my husband reminded me to pick up waiting as a surprise. Her PCOS has really been giving her a hard time lately, so we know she’s been really struggling to do as much as she has been.
After unloading the truck, she parked it while I opened up one of the donated bags of kibble with pumpkin in it and gave the outside cats an early feeding to distract them.
They really, really liked it!
As we unpacked the back from the Cat Lady with the water fountain and filters in it, we kept finding more and more stuff buried underneath! Including a package of special wipes to clean cats. Those will come in quite handy for our messy butt cats! There were even some food bowls, and more bags of cat food on the bottom.
The Cat Lady is so awesome!
Once everything was put away, I grabbed one of the loose cat food cans for Midnight and Fluffy. That will be one of the benefits of being in the isolation shelter. They will regularly get wet cat food while they are in there, and the food bowls are positioned so the heat bulb will keep the wet cat food from freezing.
We got so much wet and dry cat food donated today, we could probably do without buying more for the rest of month! I probably will, anyhow, because it’s always good to have extra stocked up, but this makes it so much easier on the budget. What a huge help! I know so many people are really struggling these days, so it’s amazing that people are able to make donations at all.
I am so incredibly grateful to both the Cat Lady and the stray and feral group lady for it all. We were just blown away! So much more than I expected.
We are going to have some very happy kitties for the next while!
Well… maybe not the ones in the isolation shelter right now. 😄 They’ll get used to it, though, and I’m sure they’ll get used to the warmth, food and water, all to themselves!
The kitties that usually use the isolation shelter are going to have to get used to using the sun room and the cat house again! 😄
I swear, it was more hectic as soon as I got home than with the running around I did earlier!
The Cat Lady and I met up after I dropped the cats off at the vet, then had breakfast at McRaunchies at the Walmart. She started handing me things for the back of the truck.
The big reusable bag, the cat bed, the small bags of cat food under it, and the big bag on the other side, are all from the Cat Lady. These are all things she can no longer feed her own cats, because it all has chicken in it, and The Wolfman keeps steeling into it, even though they give him things like freshly baked salmon way too often. There are five small bags under the cat bed. They are some fancy type of cat food – she described it as a prescription cat food, though the bags say senior cat on them – that normally cost $60 each. *gasp* She got them at half price, which is still insane. She warned me that this kibble really stinks. It’s a herring and chicken blend, so it’s likely the fish smell, she says. The cat bed is one her cats have stopped using for some reason, so she passed it on to us.
I am more than happy to take her cast offs!!
The other two bags were donated by a friend of hers for us. She’d never seen the brand before, so she couldn’t tell me anything about it.
After we loaded up the truck box, parted ways. I headed to the Dollarama to get new vinyl to repair the catio covering and things I thought might help hold it in place better – and some spring cat toys.
Then it was off to the Walmart to get some stuff my husband asked for. I also got myself a pair of slipper shoes. I’ve been trying to replace my inside shoes for ages, and can’t find any that are as comfortable as the old ones. So I tried the men’s slippers. I wasn’t able to try them on, but I got some size 9’s – the size I usually get – that were indoor/outdoor with memory foam insoles. I figured, if they didn’t fit, my daughter/s would have some new inside shoes.
I would have looked around for other things, but so many people were blocking the aisles, I gave up, paid for my stuff and left.
I still had time, so I drove across the street to the Canadian Tire to hang out there. Usually, I would have just stayed in the truck and napped, but it was too cold.
I did remember to pick up a carabiner for the isolation shelter latch, and a windshield fluid funnel for the truck. I was able to pay for it with change. I’m glad I had some, because I wouldn’t have wanted to make such a small purchase on my debit card! 😄
I did almost buy myself a new winter “going out” coat. I found a display of nice parkas on clearance that were very affordable. Alas, it was not to be. Being built like a tank has its disadvantages. I found an XXL to try on, and it mostly fit, until I tried to move my arms. My shoulders were too broad for it, and they didn’t have any bigger sizes.
Ah, well.
I still had time and it was coming up on noon, so I headed over to a nearby Timmies for lunch. For my readers outside of Canada, Tim Horton’s, aka: Timmies, is an iconic Canadian coffee and donut shop, though I don’t think they are Canadian owned anymore. Tim Horton was a hockey player. Today, they now do all sorts of sandwiches, soups and so on, as well as coffee and donuts.
Until yesterday, when my daughter and I went to one for breakfast, I hadn’t been to one in ages.
My daughter worked at the local one for awhile. She ended up quitting because of the health and safety violations from one employee. When she made a complaint to the manager, she was the one who got in trouble. After seeing more health violations by this employee that got ignored, she quit. She later got a job at the pharmacy across the street. During her interview, she told them why she’d quit her last job. The manager that was interviewing her just nodded and told her, that manager was gone.
The problem employee, however, wasn’t, yet.
We don’t go to that location at all anymore.
Then the illegal lockdowns and mandates happened and the entire franchise went full gestapo, right down to the physical assault of patrons.
I would rather have gone somewhere else, but it was either Timmie’s or back to McRaunchies. I do like their chili. A nice, thick, robust chili that is low on spice heat, so it’s something I can actually eat, served with a generously sized baguette style bun. I figured I would have chili for lunch.
It was quite the disappointment. It wasn’t chili. It was soup. I ended up literally drinking it out of the cup, because I could barely get anything with the wooden spoon they now provide. The bun was half the size, too. Meanwhile, the price was higher than it used to be, too.
Ah, well. At least the Boston Creme I also got was still tasty! A donut used to be part of the meal deal, but I had to order it separately.
I should have gone back to McRaunchies.
At this point, I still hadn’t heard from the vet clinic, but I figured I would be hearing from them soon, so I decided to go back and stay in their waiting room until the cats were ready to go home.
When I got there and told the receptionist which cats I was waiting for, she went to check their status for me.
They were ready!
It turned out, they had tried to phone me and left messages, but I never got a call. I had given my cell phone number before I left earlier, and asked what number they had.
One digit was wrong.
Someone out there must be getting some very confusing messages on their voice mail! This happened last time, too. I will need to take extra care in enunciation when I gave them my cell phone number in the future.
I’m told the kittens both did really well. They got their spay and neuter, basic vaccinations, tattoos and treatment for ear mites.
Since the rescue was covering the cost of this, they had to call the Cat Lady before they could release the cats, and then I was on my way.
Once they were loaded up, it was straight home. I’d already arranged for my daughter to take care of getting the isolation shelter ready, making sure the food and water was topped up, the litter box was good, moving the entry box and closing the ramp door so that there would not be other cats in it. She had to use the bricks that were under the entry box to keep the ramp door closed, though, until I could get the carabiner on the latch.
When I got home, I backed the truck up to the house, then dashed inside for a quick bathroom break while my daughter headed to the truck to get the carriers out.
When I got back to help her, I discovered she had slipped and falling, landing hard on one knee, on the concrete.
She is now walking with a cane again, because of it!
😢😢
As for getting the cats in, we used one of the sliding doors on the second level. I tossed in a couple of the spring toys for them, first.
Kohl was easy to do; she let me pick her up and cuddle her a moment before I put her on the shelf board with the sheet of insulation on it. She promptly loafed on the insulation and stayed there.
The fluffball – we still haven’t named him – wouldn’t let me take him out of the carrier, though, so my daughter just brought it up to the open window in the second level and opened the carrier door. He dashed right in, then down to the lower level and tried to get out!
My daughter took the carriers in while I unloaded the truck. Kohl stayed calm, but the poor male was having panic attacks, in between stopping to eat a bit. He really wanted out.
With the stuff brought inside, I fed the rest of the outside cats early to occupy them, so that I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage. When I came back, I grabbed a can of wet cat food and added it to the food bowl in the isolation shelter. While they are in isolation, they will get to enjoy wet cat food, since we know it won’t freeze in there. Hopefully, that will help socialize the male.
In between things, I took the new cat bed and set it on my bed next to our elderly Freya, who was asleep on one of my pillows. I came back a few minutes later and found this.
There are three cases of 24 cans from the Cat Lady – plus the 6 I used to make cat soup. There were also two big containers of treats. Made with Real Chicken! There’s another case of 12 same size cans from her friend, plus I think 9 of the big cans. There are also 3 boxes. They are labelled duck paté, but also as “sensitive” and as grain free. The boxes look like they should have liquid in them, though, not paté. I’m curious to find out what these are!
There were also three more bags of kibble hidden under the cans, the same size as the five small bags of kibble from the Cat Lady.
I’ve looked up the brand for most of these, and it looks like they are the house brand of a specific pet store franchise, which would explain why neither the Cat Lady nor I were familiar with it.
After I got all the cat stuff done, I finally settled down to try on the new slipper shoes I bought.
My daughter now has new indoor shoes.
I couldn’t even get my feet into them! I do usually get size 9 men’s shoes – in triple wide. These were NOT triple wide. *sigh*
Then I remembered that, since I had cats in the truck, I hadn’t stopped to close the driveway gate behind me, so I bundled up and took care of that. On the way back, I got a couple of pictures.
The entry box is just off to the side, and as you can see, it’s also being used as a shelter, even though it’s completely open at the back!
A lot of cats were trying to get into the shelter. Some of them had gotten used to being able to stay in there. Unfortunately, we can’t be letting other cats in and out when we have one that needs to recover. The fluffball male could probably be let out, but then Kohl would be in there by herself, and that would not be good. The male does seem to be calming down and only panics a bit and tries to get out when the house door opens and startles him. If you click through to the next picture, you can see that Kohl is still quite content to just loaf on the insulated shelf!
So the isolation shelter is getting its first test run. So far, it seems to be holding well, though it already looks like cats have tried to claw their way in from the outside! The vinyl on one corner at the back is tattered a bit. Not that they can get through the wire, but they may be trying to reach the window. They know it opens.
As I write this, we are at -16C/3F. The wind chill is -33C/-27F, but with the plastic around the bottom, that should have little effect inside the isolation shelter. The vinyl wrapped around the lower level should keep the wind out. They have the heat lamp, two cat beds to curl up in, one on each level, plus the insulated box “nest” under the shelf. Even the heated water bowl would add some warmth to the upper level. Some wind might get through the spaces between the boards of the ramp door, but this will make sure they get some fresh air coming in. With colder air coming in from the bottom, and warm air escaping through the gaps around the sliding windows and the space in the insulation ceiling the extension cord runs through, there should be decent air circulation in there, while still being warm.
Our temperatures are supposed to go up overnight, and keep going up for our daytime highs. Our forecast for Saturday is now a high of 4C/39F. It’s expected to slowly drop after that until we get a sharp drop on Wednesday, which is supposed to have a high of -20C/-4F, though the overnight low is supposed to be just a few degrees colder.
The long term forecast has changed and, while we are still supposed to reach highs above freezing in the week before Christmas, the overnight lows around Christmas and Boxing Day are expected to dip below -30C/-22F. 🥶 The cats will no longer need to be isolated well before then, so they will be able to join cuddle puddles in various heated areas by then.
Of course, the forecast is different pretty much every time I check it, so we’ll see how things actually go. I just want things to stay mild during their isolation period!
Meanwhile, tomorrow I will finally be able to do my Costco shopping. December is a weird month for my husband’s disability payments, though, and it comes in before Christmas instead of at the end of the month. Usually, that has meant us doing our Christmas/New Year’s shopping and January stock up shopping at the same time. This trip is so much later in the month than usual, I might be able to do most of that tomorrow, but we’ll see.
The less time spent shopping, this time of year, the better. I’d hibernate all winter, if I could! I don’t like shopping and I don’t like crowds at the best of times, never mind with holiday crowds and winter driving! Even just today, by the time I got home, I found the donated canned cat food I used to make the cat soup had started to freeze!
Ah, well. It is what it is. No point complaining about it! 😁
As for me, I didn’t get much sleep last night and had to get up extra early, so I am more than ready to go to bed early tonight!
Who am I kidding. I’ll probably be lucky to get to bed before midnight, anyhow! 😄😄
This was taken in the late afternoon. This morning, they did get the food I used the slow cooker to make for them overnight. They dug right in!
Unlike the inside cats. They turned their noses up and their cooked food! Even when the girls gave them some of the canned cat food we still had, putting it right on top of the food cooked for them, they ate around the cooked food, but left the canned cat food that was on top of their cooked meal.
So I gave the rest of it to the outside cats, after feeding them with kibble, and they dove right into that, too!
Our inside cats have gotten fussy!
Yes, I was able to get cat food today – and we even have a vehicle now!
More on that later.
But I am getting way ahead of myself!
Last night, I got a call from my mother. She started talking about her appointment on Thursday – tomorrow.
I had completely forgotten about it! I was supposed to drive her to the city for to get her wet macular degeneration treatment.
We no longer had transportation.
My sister is next closest, but they are out of province right now and won’t be back until Friday.
Which leaves my brother, but he would be working.
Meanwhile, my mother started to say, oh, I don’t know if I should go… with my health like it is…
Yes. She was seriously considering stopping treatment that will save the vision in her eye and possibly improve it.
She even mentioned, she noticed a slight improvement. Which is amazing, after only one treatment!
I told her, we’ll find a way to get her there. Even as we were talking, I was sending a message to my brother and SIL, but while I could see that neither of them were seeing it yet.
So I told her I would call her back as soon as I knew anything. I had no idea when that would be.
With everything going on, though, I was burning out, so I tried to go to bed early.
Of course, that didn’t work.
Which was for the better, I guess, because after a few hours, I got responses.
Long story short…
They are lending us a car!
My SIL would drive out in time to get here for when the tow truck was scheduled to arrive. I would drive her back to their place, then take the car home.
That’s a LOT of driving, but there really wasn’t any other way to do it.
Have I mentioned my brother and his wife are amazing?
After that assurance, I could finally fall asleep!
This morning, my routine of softening kibble for the outside cats with hot water got switched up to transferring their food out of the slow cooker and giving it time to cool down before heading out. It was still a bit on the hot side, but they seemed to be just fine with that!
After feeding the outside cats this morning and doing my rounds, I made sure to open the gate – we were now expecting the tow truck, the prescription delivery, and my SIL to arrive – my younger daughter and I unloaded the aluminum off the back of the truck, then covered the sorted bags with the tarp.
It’s already blowing off, even though we tied it down!
After the back was clear, I took the time to put all the straps and bungee cords – the ones we used, and the extras in the truck – into the back-of-the-seat organizers we got. That set up is going to work out quite well!
Then, while I was at it, I moved our roadside emergency kit out to put in the car later, did some general clean up and even remembered to take out the disabled parking placard and the card we need to show the attendant when we go to the dump.
Not that we’ll be making a dump run in a loaned car! Not if I can help it. But we won’t have the truck for probably a week, so I figured it would be good to have, just in case.
The truck was booked to be picked up at 11am, so my SIL was shooting to arrive at our place at about that time.
It was past 11 when I got a call from the CAA Dispatcher, asking about our location, since our physical address don’t exist on any maps.
After giving country directions for the driver’s notes, we knew it might still be a while, but the truck was ready and there was no need for any of us to be around when the tow truck arrived.
My SIL hadn’t arrived yet, either, so I sent them a quick message, then popped into the sun room to tie off the outside door and keep the wind out – when I noticed there was a car parked near the truck! My sister had already arrived!
I quickly finished, grabbed what I needed and headed out – just in time to hear my phone ding, with her response to my earlier message! 😄
We were soon on the road back to their place when I realized, I hadn’t called my mother yet. My SIL offered to stop at my mother’s so I could tell her in person, which I gratefully accepted.
When we got there, I dashed in – only to find her walker was not by her door. I still knocked, even as I was looking around to see if she was in the hall. Then I went around the building, in case she was sitting outside.
Nothing.
So we went driving to the various places she might have walked to. Even the pharmacy, which is the furthest away. No sign of her, and none of the staff that know her had seen her.
We finally went back to my mother’s place, in case she came back while we were gone.
Still not walker outside her door.
I do have a spare key, though, so I figured I could let myself in and leave a note. I get my keys out and am ready to unlock it but, out of habit, I knocked first…
… and hear my mother’s voice responding from inside!
Her door was unlocked, so I let myself in.
She was at her dining table, her finished Meals on Wheels meal in front of her…
… and her walker sitting beside her.
!!
It was such a relief to find her!
I quickly told her about getting loaned a car (and messages my SIL that my mother had been home this whole time!), and that I’d be driving her to her appointment tomorrow. I even told her, my SIL was in the car waiting for me, so I couldn’t stay long. We worked out what time I could be coming over tomorrow and what time we needed to be on the road. Then she started asking me, why was I in a hurry?
I reminded her, my SIL was waiting for me in the car.
Well, why doesn’t she come in to say hi?
Because we can’t stay long. We have to drive to their place, then I have to drive the car home…
I wasn’t going to even bother saying more than that. The reality is, after decades of verbal abuse from my mother, my SIL finally said, no more. My mother has outside said that, just because she is married to my brother, she isn’t family. My SIL has never been anything but kind to my mother – probably more than any of us, to be honest – and even now, still says many positive things about my mother, but she will no longer allow herself to be abused. If my mother says she is not part of the family, then she will stay away.
My mother has zero understanding that her behaviour hurts people so much, and drives them away from her. The kinder people are to her, the more abusive she is towards them.
Except that’s changing with me. I have been putting my food down, hard, on her behaviour without reciprocating and – amazingly – she has stopped a lot of what she had been doing since we moved out here. At her request.
Tomorrow’s timing arranged, my SIL and I were back on the road.
At this point, I may as well say it. This blog is anonymous in real life, too; my family and neighbours know nothing about it.
My brother has been moving things over to here in preparation for retirement. Part of that was looking at selling their acreage. They hadn’t put it up for sale, but serendipity stepped in, and they found a buyer. The possession date is Nov. 1, so they have to get everything they’re not selling or otherwise getting rid of, here to the farm. Meanwhile, they are moving into a townhouse near the city, and today, I got to see it for the first time!
I think they are going to be really happy there – and happy not having the property to be concerned with. Especially since they are stuck with this farm that they can’t sell. Something else my mother doesn’t understand. This property has been a burden they took from her, but in her mind, she “gave” my brother “everything”. So now they will no longer have two acreages to pay takes, insurance and upkeep for!
After a tour of their new home and a brief visit, I got to drive their car home.
I have never in my life, driven anything so luxurious! What a dream it is to drive! It’s not even a new car (just newer than our truck) or high end. It’s just a basic vehicle, but – oh, my goodness, it is gorgeous!
They are also slightly closer now, and the Walmart I was planning to go to was on my way home.
I was able to get four bags of kibble and a 32 pack of canned cat food. The Cat Lady also ordered us a donation of kibble on Amazon, which is supposed to arrive on the 29th, and we will actually be able to pick it up now.
Of course, I also got a bit of groceries for us – almost all of this, courtesy of my older daughter. She says she will help pay for repairs on the truck, too, though it will take some time to transfer from PayPal, which is how her clients pay for their commissions from her.
I hope we never again get to a point where we run out of kibble like we did today! We will especially need to stock up over the winter. With no back up vehicle anymore, if things go wrong again, or we get snowed in again, etc., we are hooped.
Which would be a good time to bring up… if anyone is in a position to help, we do have a donation button! 100% of donations go towards care of the cats, whether it’s food, spays and neuters or other vet car. Today, we spent more on food for the cats than for ourselves again, and we’ll have to watch to make sure it lasts until CPP Disability comes in – we will hopefully be picking up our repaired truck by then.
Oh! I just got a message from my daughter. She has caulked up the tub surround. Twelve hours before it can be exposed to water. Twenty-four before it can be touched.
Yeah, we still can’t use our tub and shower. Aside from assisting now and then, I have left this job entirely to my daughters!
But I digress, once again…
After doing the shopping, I headed to the town nearest us to get gas. My SIL had stared off with a full tank, but with all the driving, it was down to half already. When I got to the station, I asked the attendant to put in $30, hoping that would make a dent in it, and went inside.
After I was done and heading home, I realized that $30 had filled the tank!
I’m so used to the truck. At current prices – $1.299 right now – that would have been barely a quarter tank. I forget how much bigger the truck’s tank is than a car’s!
It felt really good to be driving with a full tank!
Once at home, I drove up to the house to unload, then made sure to feed the outside cats so I could safely move the car.
Oh, the happy, happy kitties! They were quite hungry!
After parking the car in the garage, I just had to giggle over how much room there is! With the truck, I have to squeeze as close as I can to the counter at the far wall, just to be able to close the door.
That done, I headed inside and started getting ready to feed the inside cats. That included taking their trays of the food they got this morning that they wouldn’t eat – it even still had remains of canned cat food on it! – and giving it to the outside cats.
The outside cats had already polished off all the food I’d given them earlier, and eagerly dove into the food the inside cats turned their nosed up at!
The inside cats, meanwhile, were happy to get their kibble.
The snobs. 😄
So things are looking up again, thanks to my awesome, awesome brother and his wife. With them being in the middle of moving, being down a vehicle will be an inconvenience for them, so I appreciate this beyond words. They are just the best!!
Tomorrow is going to be another long day of driving – and another day of not being able to get anything done in the garden. The goal had been to have several beds cleaned up and prepared for winter sowing by now. We’ve got just one warm day between now and November – and the long range forecast now shows snow within the first 10 days of the month! Granted, when these seeds are planted, we do NOT want them to germinate, but we don’t want them to freeze, either.
Well, what happens, happens. We’ll work with what we get.
The last time I did a head count, the highest number I got was 40, which is insane enough.
I know at least two, maybe three, are winter returns, but at least one of them, probably two, was part of the headcount of 40. Judgement is the most recent return.
Which means we’ve got perhaps another 9 extra cats from… somewhere.
Whatever cats these are, there is nothing unique about them to set them apart from our regular adults, and I’m pretty sure none of the “extras” are kittens. I did spot a tabby yesterday that I thought looked unfamiliar, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at it before it disappeared behind a cat shelter. We have quite a few grey and brown tabbies. Then there are the “printer babies”. The white ones with grey or black patches on them. Adults and kittens. Very few of them are friendly enough to be individually identifiable. There are some tuxedos, including one that showed up I’m not sure about. One of the returns is the mostly black cat that had an infected eye. If I can see his face, I can identify him by his one eye that’s half discoloured.
We have got to reduce this population!
I messaged the rescue about it, just out of shock. There’s nothing they can do at this point. None of the shelters are accepting intakes right now. They’re too full, and not enough people are willing to adopt a rescue. That doesn’t even take into account the people that either back out at the last minute, or return cats they decided they’re not up to caring for.
The Cat Lady said, ideally, we’d want to get down to a maximum of 15, which would be great, but if cats are just showing up from elsewhere, there’s not much we can do about it.
At this point, we need to seriously look at getting a cull done. It’s not sustainable. Not to mention expensive. I just bought 160 pounds of kibble, just for the outside cats from the feed store, today. That was well over $200 – and with this many cats, unless we find ways to supplement with other food, which I’m looking into, will not last the month. Maybe 3 weeks.
I keep forgetting I have a donation button. If anyone is able to help out – and I certainly understand that most of us are really hurting with the cost of living increases right now – you can click on the button at the top of the page, or below.
Feel free to share the donation link, too. 100% of donations go toward the care and feeding of the yard cats, and anything at all is greatly appreciated.
Okay, so after confirming that we didn’t have any flat tires this morning, then getting diverted with a trip to town before doing to the city, the trip to Costco has been dropped entirely for today.
When the Cat Lady and her husband caught up with me, I could see why they had to much trouble with the catio! With her husband’s short box truck, it was leaning against the tail gate. It is really quite light. No wonder it got blown off! They did get a strap for it, though, and ended up giving me the strap after it was transferred to our truck. She also gave me four bags of kitten food that fussy little Button won’t eat!
They’ve had to put a bell on him. He’s so tiny, he kept going missing!
I still used one of my new straps, along with the tarp and some bungee cords to secure it. The catio just barely fit into the box of our truck, between the fenders on the sides, and the rolled up cover by the cab and the tail gate. I did have to slightly bend the remaining roof panel to squeeze it forward, so we could close the tailgate.
The second photo shows it unloaded behind our garage.
The Cat Lady hoped we could at least use the parts and pieces. They’ve had this catio for a while. As we unloaded it, I did see that one corner on the bottom will need to be reinforced. The wind tore off part of one of the fabric cat beds, but my younger daughter is pretty sure she has some heavy duty fabric she can replace it with.
The mesh has a hole in the back that had been the entry through their basement window in their old house. That will need to be patched. It’s the same half inch hardware cloth that I just picked up for the isolation shelter I’m building, and we’ll have enough to patch that up.
I’m surprised that the wire is just held in place with staples! Definitely something heavier duty than what we’ve got. Any time I’ve tried to staple something like this down, the staples tend to pop out again, easily. I was a bit surprised to see that those shelves are just “floating”. They are attached to the wire only, not the frame!
You can see that there is some rust on the wire, too. Once we reinforce the corners and do any other fixes or modifications, we’ll give the whole thing a paint job. If the wire needs to be painted, though, I think I’ll go for black, so it’ll be easier to see through the wire.
We might add a second latch on the door, near the bottom, as it’s bowing out in that corner – reinforcing the frame should fix that. Racoons can figure out how to open those latches, though, so we’ll probably look for something different.
By this time, it was past noon, so instead of going to Costco, I went to my mother’s town and the feed store to pick up 40 pound bags of cat food for the outside cats. While there, I asked about lysine. The guy I spoke to before was there, and he said he found some in 1 pound buckets, so he got two of them for me. They will arrive on Tuesday (after the long weekend).
I was going to get 4 bags of cat food, but they had only 3 in stock. I paid for those, but when the guy went to get the bags to load into the truck, there were only two left on the shelf. More will be coming on Tuesday. I was going to come back for the lysine and another bag of cat food, anyhow, so I’ll get the bag that’s already paid for at the same time. The two bags I got are equivalent to four of the Kirkland brand I get at Costco, so we’ll be good for a while.
That done, I decided to swing by the hardware store. They also carry roofing supplies and materials, so I asked about clear roof panels. They don’t carry them in stock, but they do special order them. After looking at my options, I went ahead and ordered two 3’x8′ panels. They will be cut in half cross wise, and will be enough for both cat shelters, so I won’t be using the salvaged metal roof pieces that I was expecting to use. They couldn’t say exactly when the panels will come in, but will call me. At best, they might even be in by Tuesday, too.
Once home, unloaded and settled, I phoned the septic company that charges by the hour, to arrange to get the septic expeller area fixed. They won’t be able to come out for a couple of weeks, unfortunately, but the owner is going to be in the area on Monday. He will be swinging by to look at the area on Monday evening.
The good thing is, the renter’s cows are no longer here, so we can move the electric fence and chain away from the vehicle opening in the fence by the barn. It’s wide enough for heavy equipment. I should probably head out there in advance, with the extended pole pruning saw, and cut away the willow branches overhanging the expeller.
I was going to do it with the loppers, but I’m not tall enough.
So today turned out to be not at all as I expected it to be, but I don’t mind. We now have the ratchet straps and tie downs we meant to get for the truck kit anyhow. The tarp did get damaged by wind during the drive home, but it’s repairable.
More importantly, we have a cat shelter that can be used until the isolation shelter I’m building is finished. I plan to use some of the wood lath I have to reinforce the wire mesh, because I don’t trust staples, along with any other repairs it needs. Then we can move it closer to the house. Probably on the patio blocks under the kitchen window, so we can see it, though we’ll need to find somewhere else for a wood bench and the swing bench, if we put it there.. The clear plastic roof panels can be added, and any painting can be done, after it’s been moved. Once it’s in place, we can leave the door open and allow the cats and kittens to enjoy it. That way, when we have a cat that’s been spayed and needs to stay in there for two weeks, it will already be used to the shelter.
I might even be able to get some stuff out there done, while there’s still light out, since I’m not exhausted by a Costco shop.
I should probably eat something first, though! I keep forgetting to do that.
Well, it took a couple of hours, but I’m finally settled in and able to take a break.
Which, for me, means doing other things. Like blogging. 😁
And fixing the typos in my last post, which are always pretty bad when I write using my phone!
My time waiting for the vet clinic to call me took a very pleasant turn. I got a message from my SIL and, as we chatted, I mentioned were I was. Which is about half way to their place. She was free, so she drove out to meet me, and we had a great time together.
My SIL is so awesome. I just love her to pieces.
I also got a few calls while we were together.
The first was from the vet clinic. They actually tried to call me earlier, but I never got the call. They contacted the Cat Lady and she messaged me, so I went back to the clinic. It turned out they weren’t sure who three of the cats were, so I cleared that up. Then, after not getting anything to say I had a missed call or a voice mail message, I checked the number they had. It turned out there was one digit wrong. So they had called someone else completely! Oops.
When they did get through to me, it was about Collin. They’d done Syndol first, and I’d mentioned he had a limp, but we couldn’t see what was wrong with his foot. They found nothing wrong, but Collin had a wound on one leg. I hadn’t realized, when we snagged him, that he was the one with the injured leg. We didn’t see it at the time, and with so many white and grey cats, we lose track. I’ve just made the executive decision that he is now Collin (because of the receding hairline marking on his head).
It turned out the wound was quite infected. They wanted to know if they could give him a slow release antibiotic (they know these are all yard cats and semi feral) and a couple of stitches. The rescue was paying for this visit, but when they told me how much it could be, I gave the go-ahead. We would make it work, and it wasn’t all that much. More than the neuter, mind you (the rescue got a really good deal!), but we could manage it.
Then I got another call from them. The cats all had really bad ear mites. When the Cat Lady and I were signing them in, they asked about ear mite treatment, if any were found (I told them I just assume they have ear mites, since they are outdoor cats). This would have been a gel treatment we’d have to do at home, and there was no way we’d be able to do that, so it was declined. Their ears were really bad, though, to the point of ear canals in danger of rupturing. They wanted to know if they could give the cats Ivermectin.
I didn’t have room in the a budget for that, after giving the okay on the stitches and antibiotics.
I explained that, and said that the rescue was paying the bill for stuff, but I had no idea what the rescue’s budget was. I also mentioned the Cat Lady had come home to their dog having had a medical event, and she was at a vet clinic with it at the time. Which is bad enough on its own, but to have to ask her about this, too? They did call her, though, and she did agree to the treatment.
She is so amazing.
I’m surrounded by so many awesome people.
After my SIL had our visit, it was past 3pm, so I decided to head to the clinic and see about paying for our part of the bill. I got there just as they were working on the invoice and billing the rescue. Which is also when the Cat Lady called!
They had talked to her about the ear mites and the obvious problem that, as outside cats, they will just get infected again.
She paid for 15 doses, including the four in the clinic.
Which means we now have a vail of Ivermectin and a syringe applicator. We need to put a single drop into each ear.
Which I suppose is going to be easier than doing the gel thing, but not by much! If nothing else, the syringe gives us better control and reach.
So we’re going to have to work on catching and dosing the ears of as many cats as possible – and keep track of which ones we do, so as not to double treat any!
Once the bills were paid – ours ended up being only $109, which was less than the estimate I was given (I think the Cat Lady covered part of it!) – I loaded up four very unhappy cats, sent a message to the family to let them know the status of things, and headed home. They had the gate waiting open for me, so I could drive straight to the yard, but I saw our vandal walking his dog down the road, so I made sure to stop and lock it, first. Thankfully, the stop did not startle the cats too much.
They did NOT like being unloaded, though!
We set them up in the sun room and left them in the carriers at first. My daughter brought over some wet cat food that she divided up into 4 bowls while I fed the rest of the cats to distract them away, and gave Collin his first doze of painkillers mixed in. We have three more dosed for them, to be given every 24 hours, but I really doubt we’ll be able to give him those. I was able to slip the bowls into the carriers for Collin and two others, but Stinky slipped out and disappeared.
So other cats got to eat his wet cat food.
I gave them time to eat their food as we unloaded the rest of the stuff from the truck. Then I parked the truck in the garage. I then had the unhappy job of disposing of the body of that poor baby raccoon I found this morning.
So you can probably imagine that, when I started to hear distressed crying, I had to go looking.
I found the source at the junk pile. A little, blue eyed, cream coloured ball of fluff, alone and clearly afraid.
I was able to pick it up before it had a chance to run away. I got a bit of hissing and spitting, but not all that much. I took it straight to the sun room. I figured the mama would find it there, and if she didn’t, the creche mothers would, plus there was food and water already there.
When I put it down next to a food bowl, it didn’t bother being scared anymore and immediately started sniffing at the bowl.
It reminds me so much of Ghosty when we first saw her, except this one has fewer markings visible. Pretty much just the darker patches on its head. There are some very faint markings on the body, but barely visible.
I’ve since checked on it, and the last I saw, it was loafed in the middle of the sun room, sleeping.
I feel much better having been able to help out at least one baby, today, even if it was just to carry it across the yard and to food and water. Particularly since we were hearing so much thunder at the time. In the end, the storm we were hearing went past us, and we got no rain, so that worked out, too.
Meanwhile…
Once inside, we set up the new cat trees, and can finally throw away the remains of the old ones. One is shaped like a cactus and it top heavy, so the cats keep knocking it down. The girls are considering duct taping it to the linoleum floor. 😄 The cats clearly love it!
There was a super soft, super fluffy cat cave with some hand knit blankets inside – and when I pulled those out, I found packages of cat treats and cat nip hidden in the blankets!
Then, before I finally settled in, I made some cat soup for the inside cats, using a new feeding tray I found at the dollar store today, to replace the one in my bedroom/office. It looks like it will work out better than the last one I found, so the next time I have the chance, I’ll pick up another one.
My daughters are now making supper and cleaning up in the kitchen, etc, while I finally get a chance to sit down. I’ve got the critter cam live feed on. The new kitten was nowhere to be seen at first, but I just saw it come into the sun room from outside, and it’s now watching one of the adult cats eating.
Oh!!! I think that might be Collin. I hope so. I had to let him out of his carrier before he at all his medicated food, because I was afraid he would hurt himself trying to get out. If he’s comfortable enough to come back into the sun room and eat from bowls right next to the cat carriers, that’s a good sign. I still can’t be 100% sure it’s him, though.
Ah, supper has just arrived. My daughter just brought me a plated supper, and some boozy hot chocolate.
I could really use that boozy hot chocolate, after a day like today.
The Re-Farmer 