feral kittens

Feral kitties – secret kitties have been found!

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I was definitely wiped out yesterday. I went to bed before 8am and, other than a few cat related disturbances, slept until 6am.

Some time yesterday evening, it started to rain, and was still raining when I went out to feed the kitties. Nothing major; just a gentle, constant rainfall. It was enough to finally refill the rain barrel by the sunroom, though, and I had to add the diverter!

Sprout’s feral babies (and she seems to have all four of them now; I don’t see the other mama around as much) are getting braver. Now that we’ve got kibble again, I’m back to setting out the dry kibble first, then distributing the bowls of kitten soup. As I was going back to the shrine feeding station, I spotted the tortie, loafed in the upper level of the isolation shelter! She ran off when I got too close, but that she was there at all, and just chillin’, is progress.

They were very happy when the kitten soup bowl arrived.

Even Sprout is starting to go in there more often. You can see her in the second image above, with Colby on top of one of the box nests behind her.

I took some kitten soup to the bowl in the garage, just in case the secret kitties were still around. This side of the garage is where we store the lawn equipment, and is accessible only through the main doors. A hole was dug under the door, I believe originally by skunks, so the cats could also get in and out with the doors closed. My brother tried to cover up the hole with a sheet of metal when he stored their big mower in there, but it got dug out again beside it, before we knew there were kittens in there!

After I was able to pick up and hold one of the babies, the mama moved them, and I feared she took them to the barn or one of the sheds in the outer yard. I was still leaving food in where they were before, just in case.

This morning, after putting the food bowl in, I spotted the mama coming up through the garage. The middle is where we park our vehicle, and where my brother’s vehicle he loaned us is currently parked. It has a doorway to the other lean-to side of the garage, and the back door is beside that, so it’s not unusual to see cats cutting through the garage from the yard through there.

She went to eat while I continued on to switching out the gate cam memory card. When I came back, I saw the mom going around into the middle of the garage, making calling noises, while doing to a back corner of the garage. Currently, there is a wrapped and stacked pile of summer tires from the van we no longer have, sort of blocking the space into the corner, between a built in counter shelf on one wall, and a storage shelf on the other.

On a hunch, I moved the food bowl into that part of the garage, and left it in front of the shelf near that corner.

Walking by a few minutes later, I spotted the mama sharing food with her white and grey kitten, which you can see in the last photo above. I didn’t see the smokey one, but it would be in there, somewhere.

The mama had simply moved her kittens to the other side of a wall.

I am so glad she didn’t take them far!

Now, we just have to convince them to come to the shelters in the inner yard.

The Re-Farmer

The good and the not good!

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First, the good.

I was able yo use my brother’s vehicle and pick up kibble first both the inside and outside cats.  Forty pounds of kibble for the outside cats should last us a couple of weeks.

When carrying the bags to the house, I spotted two of the feral kittens crossing the lawn to the cat shelters, looking for food.  The tortie ran off, but the orange one dashed to the tray under the water bowl shelter.  I fed them as soon as I got the first bag in.  They were very happy, and I soon saw Brave little Colby was back at the tray.

What a sweet little thing!

Now, for the bad.

I was forwarded that this vehicle ran rough.  It’s older than out truck and is really old school.  Manual door locks and windows, no AC, no cruise control.   None of which was a big deal.  As long as it got me from A to B.

I didn’t realize the rough ride was from the brakes!  Yikes!  When just driving slowly to the gate and stopping to open it, my initial thought way, why is the ABS doing that, when I’m driving so slow?

When braking from higher speeds, the shudder was worse.  To the point that the entire vehicle was shaking.

When I got to the feed store, I messaged my brother about it.  I then had to go to the next town to pick up prescription refills for my daughter and I, with a quick stop at the grocery store before going home.

It was so bad, I avoided using the brakes as much as possible, slowing down well in advance.  When I got to town, I parked at the grocery store so I could walk to the pharmacy, rather than hit all those stop signs along the way.

Which us when I saw the message from my brother.

The brakes didn’t have a shudder.

????

I just assumed this was one of the things they were having issues with on this vehicle. 

Well, now.

I got the prescription refills, then got some things at the grocery store, including a normal large bag of kibble for the induce cats.

Before leaving, I messaged home, asking gor the gate to be opened, and maybe help unloading, because I was going to park straight into the garage.  We leave that door open most of the summer.

For the drive home, I was able to barely use the brakes at all, and not impede traffic by slowing down so far in advance.  There was no traffic to impede!

Once the vehicle was parked, my younger daughter was there to take the grocery bags in, while I took care of the kibble bags.  Once everything was taken care of, I sat at my desktop to give a detailed description of what the brakes were doing, to my brother.

We will not be using it again, unless it’s to take it to the garage and leave it there for them to check out.

It dies leave us with a problem.

The truck is supposed to be done tomorrow.

We have no way to get to it to bring it home.

Can anything else go wrong?

Don’t answer that.

😆

The Re-Farmer

First sighting!

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Just a quick post before I head out.

I have noticed the feral kittens are starting to go into the catio more often, and even going into the isolation shelter. Last night, I saw the little calico in the bottom of the isolation shelter, but it got really spooked by me and kept trying to run through the mesh walls, even though I stayed well away. The calico and torie are much shier.

The orange one, however, is getting really brave! So is the white and grey.

They were under the shrine, eating kibble, as I came closer with the kitten soup bowls. There was a third kitten – the calico, I think – that ran off and hid behind the tree. As I came over with the bowl, the Colby (the orange one) started coming right back! The white and grey followed, almost immediately, even as Sprout sat there, hissing at me. I might even have been able to reach out and touch Colby, except Hypotenose came over to eat the kitten soup, even though I’d already left other bowls all over the place, closer to the house. I tried to shoo him away, but that was too disturbing for the kittens, so I just left them be and put the last bowl in the isolation shelter. Eyelet was napping in there again. 💕

Coming back to the house, I heard some very distinctive crunching.

A stinky kitty was already there! This is one of two very little skunks I’ve been seeing. There’s a big one somewhere, too, but it doesn’t come out as often.

The big mama racoon and her two babies were in the sun room again last night. I used the critter cam to chase them out and saw there was a skunk, too. By the time I got to the door, the raccoons were out, but the little skunk squeezed itself under the counter shelf.

I went to see how far the raccoons when, and could hear growling and snarling. I found that one was peeking through the opening that the critters use to get under the storage house. There was another hidden in the lilac bush in the corner – and they were growling at each other! I used a garden hose to chase them off. I didn’t see the little ones, so I’m guessing they were already under the storage house.

As I continued my rounds, I made a point of checking the lean to on the garage, where we store our mowers, etc.

I heard a noise and finally spotted it. For the first time, I saw the kitten my brother said he’d seen, about a week ago.

It was difficult to get a picture, and these are the best I could do. I don’t understand why the mama hasn’t brought this kitten to the house, yet. She comes over to eat regularly, before coming back to hang out in the garage. There is no food or water around this area, so the kitten is getting only what the mama can bring it – and at this size, it’s probably not enough!

My brother gave us several traps, including two small ones. Perfect to catch a kitten! I’d like to set up a camera that’s got a live feed on it, then set up a trap.

Not right away, though.

Time to get ready to head out. It’s going to be a long day at my mother’s, today, I suspect.

Ah, well.

At least today is going to be cooler. We might even get a bit of rain. The smoke is really bad, though. There are so many fires up North this year. We could really use a LOT more rain!

The Re-Farmer