It’s a lot hard to get pictures of Ginger, now that he’s joined the inside clan!
I was able to get this one, last night.
The other cats had been lured away, leaving Ginger and his new mouse on my very, very hairy bed.
He loves that mouse! I didn’t realize when I bought it, that it has a pull string to make it vibrate. :-D
Once again, we kept the other cats closed out overnight, to avoid any potential hassles while we were asleep.
Ginger has discovered the comfort of those things the crazy humans sleep on. :-D Several times, I woke in the night to find him cuddled up against me. He can jump up onto the bed himself, which is good. Later this morning, I found him going to explore in the basement, so stairs aren’t a problem for him, either.
I almost got to pet his brother and aunt this morning, but they were much more interested in the kibble!
His other brother photo bombed me, while I was trying to get a picture of his cousin! I am so tickled that I caught him while airborne! :-D
I’m happy to say that all the kitties seem to be doing quite well. :-)
Ginger had his trip to the vet to have the sutures removed. My daughter ended up holding him in her arms so the vet could do it, as he did NOT want to get out of the carrier!
He didn’t want to get out at home, either. :-D
It was not easy to get pictures of him!
The stitch removal went well, though the vet lamented that she’d tied them so tight, making it harder to take them out! :-D There was only one slightly raw spot that got a dab of Polysporin on it. Aside from that one spot, the redness that can be seen in the picture is from the stitch removal. He is recovering very well.
We brought him into the house, and into my bedroom/office/craft room.
It’s a big room, and has a door that closes, so we were able to move in his litter box, food and water bowls, and even his box nest, along with the warming pad.
The other cats were quite curious and milling about, so it was quite understandable that Ginger wanted to stay in the carrier! The cats were actually more curious about the other stuff brought in. Like the food bowl. You’d think they were starving and didn’t have food anywhere else in the house! They were circling the food bowl like hungry sharks, pushing each other aside to eat. Silly kitties!
After a while, we shooed them out of the room, leaving Ginger with my younger daughter to watch over him for a while. We’ve since allowed the other cats in. Ginger found the laundry basket converted to a cat bed I have in my closet, and that’s where he’s hanging out.
We’ll shut the other cats out again for the night and give him more time to get used to his new surroundings, a little at a time. We’ll keep food and water for him in here for a while. For the other cats, that’s all set up in the basement, but I think it will be a while before Ginger can navigate stairs!
So far, none have been aggressive towards him. The only hissing has been from cats that sometimes hiss at other cats, too, so it’s not a new thing.
It should be interesting to see how he adapts to his new surroundings, and his extended feline family! Cabbages is his litter mate, brought in before she could go into heat and get pregnant, while Nicco is his big sister and only survivor from Butterscotch’s litter born indoors, earlier that year.
Every now and then, we would bring one of the inside cats into the sun room to visit with Ginger.
It hasn’t been very productive.
Most of the inside cats have either never been in the sun room, or happened to dash in for a few moments before we could stop them. Which means that when we brought one of them in, they were far more interested in exploring, than checking out the new cat in the room.
Yesterday, I brought in David.
David is a slightly different case. He actually spent quite a bit of time in here, while it was set up as a “maternity ward”, with Beep Beep, Butterscotch and their kittens. However, the only reason he was in there was because we found him in the yard with his mom, with eyes so leaky and glued together, he was easy to catch. So was his brother, Keith, though Keith’s eyes were not as bad. We were never able to catch his sister, Junk Pile kitten, because her eyes were healthy and she kept running off.
Bringing him in for daily eye washes and eye drops got to be a bit much, so we simply kept him in the house. It was a while longer before his brother joined the indoor clan.
So while David’s not unfamiliar with the sun room, he was pretty much blind the entire time he was in it. So he did spend some time exploring, but was more relaxed about it, and more curious about the new addition. They didn’t do much more than sniff each other’s noses, but there was no animosity, hissing, growling or anything. They were pretty chill about the whole thing.
This morning, it was hard to get good pictures of Ginger! He got very interested in the bottom of the door, where the outside cats were milling about, waiting impatiently for their kibble. Then he went into rolling mode! :-D He did let me pick him up for a bit, but he was too energetic and playful to cuddle.
He gets his stitches out this afternoon. Then he gets introduced to the great indoors. :-D
Here are his mom, brothers, aunty and cousin! The little calico wouldn’t go for the food while I was there, so I didn’t stay long. I actually got to pet Ginger’s Aunt Rosencrantz and Nutmeg this morning. It’s amazing what they’ll put up with when there’s food involved. ;-)
But before I get into that, we had some activity in the feeding station yesterday evening!
Two pairs of deer came by – but they were NOT together! They kept fighting each other and chasing each other away from the feed. I do try to spread it out, but by the end of the day, there isn’t much left.
I managed to get some video, since I had to use my phone to take the pictures anyhow, and put them together. I’m trying to move away from YouTube, so I’ve uploaded to Rumble. Please let me know how this works for you.
If that doesn’t work for you, please try clicking here.
They were really cool to watch!
Anyhow…
I had considered going to my mother’s church this morning, to have our Easter basket blessed, but the church was needing to have people register and so on, in advance, so we decided to skip it this year. At least they had it this year. Last year, it wasn’t allowed.
So we were to assemble our basket today and just bless it ourselves. I did want to take advantage of things being open to make a run into town. I was going to do it in the afternoon, but I got a phone call from my brother. He and his wife had found a new recliner chair small enough for my mother and wanted to bring it over. I agreed to meet him and help assemble it, in the afternoon.
Which meant I headed into town earlier today, then went straight to my mother’s town to meet my brother before we headed to her place together.
The main thing I wanted to do today was get a second battery for the baby chainsaw. I also brought in the little corded chainsaw we found a while back. It should hopefully just need to have the chain sharpened. Otherwise, it should just need a new chain.
After starting a work order for the chainsaw, the lady tried to find a battery for me. After confirming they had none in stock, she went to the Stihl site to check their inventory.
They had none.
Zero.
Anywhere.
Which I suppose makes sense. Most people buying a battery operated tool will order a second battery so they can set one battery to charge and continue working with the second battery. This little thing has a matching little battery, so a lot of people buying these would not have a matching battery already and be getting a second one at the same time. Since this thing is so popular, they can’t even manufacture them fast enough to keep up with the demand, they would probably be going through more of that type of battery than the cordless pruner itself.
She did place an order for one for me, but has no idea when it could be fulfilled. They will call me when it comes in, though. Until then, I’ll just have to make do with one battery.
Since I was there anyhow, I picked up an extra bottle of oil for the bar, plus an extra chain. These fall into the category of “better to have them and not need them, then need them and not have them!”
Once the little electric chainsaw is in cutting shape again, it will be enough to meet most of our needs. We won’t be taking down any big dead trees with it, but it will go a long way in helping cut up the already fallen ones to make them easier to clear away.
That was taken care of rather quickly, and I had time to visit the beach for a little while.
The ice fishing shacks are long gone, but the ice is still thick enough for people to walk on it, and do a bit of ice fishing without a shack.
Then it was off to my mother’s town. I made a stop at the grocery store there, because I remembered seeing them carry the same type of deer feed and bird seed we usually get.
Not today, it turns out. All sold out! We at least still have some deer feed left, and the birds like that, too, so it can wait a bit. :-D
It did give me a chance to pick up a few things for my mother that I noticed she runs out of very quickly.
Then my brother and I met up, heading to my mother’s and surprised her with a new non-electric reclining chair to replace her old arm chair that she’d been complaining about. Of course, she had nothing nice to say about it, complaining that it was too big (it was the smallest they could find!), or that she didn’t need it, etc. The complaining was less than usual, however, which tells me she was actually very happy with it! :-D I am hoping she will be able to use it to sleep on, every now and then, as she still has breathing issues when she sleeps, and being slightly upright should help her with that.
So that worked out well, and we even stayed for a short visit. Then we loaded all the packing materials, and my mother’s old chair, into my brother’s truck, so my mother had nothing to worry about. Since the chair needs to be further forward, to have room to recline, than her other chair, things needed to be shifted around, and she now actually has slightly more space to walk around than with the smaller chair. :-)
On the way home, my route took me past where the recent fire was.
I am happy to say that the house tucked in the trees I was concerned about untouched by flames. There’s a drainage ditch that cuts through that quarter section, and it acted as a bit of a fire break that kept it from spreading to another house in the same quarter. The only thing that burned was open field. It was “just” a grass fire.
Driving around that quarter, however, showed that a LOT of that field was burned! When controlled burns are done, they tend to focus on specific problem areas, not entire fields. I could see where it had burned out of control, and the tire tracks from the emergency vehicles going in.
It was after I’d turned onto our road that I saw just how far it went. Plus, oddly, there was a burned out car in the middle of the field. ?!? Yes, farms tend to collect old cars, but they don’t leave them in the middle of fields they grow crops in!
As I got closer to the quarter we are on, I saw where the fire had actually jumped the road to our neighbour’s field. It didn’t go much beyond the ditch, thankfully. Another thing to be thankful for; the renter plowed the field he’d grown corn on. It would have acted as a fire break, since there wasn’t enough fuel available.
What I also saw was that the fire had actually burned past the fence, into the quarter section belonging to the younger of my brothers. Not far, thankfully. His quarter is mostly hay, so there was plenty of fuel available for a grass fire!
Which means the fire reached less than half a mile from our place, and my brother’s.
So thankful that no homes were lost!
Meanwhile, while I was away, the girls took care of assembling our Easter basket. Well. Except for the stuff that needs to be kept refrigerated. :-)
Looking forward to celebrating Easter tomorrow!
I hope you are, too. May your Easter be a blessed say of peace and great joy.
Ginger wasn’t sure if he was happy to see me this morning.
Until I refilled his food and water bowls. ;-)
Then he was just rolling around, luxuriously. While giving me death glares! :-D
At least it gave me a chance to look at his surgical site. There’s still a touch of pink in the areas that had looked irritated before, but they are improving. The few times we’ve seen him start to scratch himself, he stops right away. As if he started to scratch a normal itch, but stopped when he scratched the tender areas instead. That has been a relief.
After topping up his food and water, I took care of the outside critter feeding. I’d mostly closed the inner door into the sun room while going out to the kibble house, but got a surprise when I opened the outer door to return to the sun room. The little bugger had squeezed his way in between the doors and almost escaped! It took some quick foot work to block him from running outside. He wants to join his brothers! After his attempt was foiled, he settled for sitting at the window and watching until I was done and could stay with him for a bit. He was hesitant to let me pick him up, since that usually means we’d soon be trying to shove a pill into his mouth, but he did let me, and we sat for a while with him in half in my coat for cuddles. There are no more morning medications for him now, so it was just uninterrupted cuddle time! :-)
Four more days until it’s back to the vet and the sutures are removed!
After a very frustrating morning (which I will write about later) I was cheered by the wonderful and kind gift for Ginger that arrived in the mail today, from a very awesome friend.
It was a Ginger warmer!
It’s “Great for you provides safe warming comfort zone!”
Love it!
And it’s cover is soooo soft!
Of course, we had to bring it to Ginger, right away!
He was in what seems to be his favorite spot, draped over a bar under the heater bulb.
He had zero interest in moving out of that spot! Not even for scritches. He just lolled about, luxuriating over that bar under the blanket. It’s part of the greenhouse frame we’re using to hold the ceramic heat bulb in place.
I wonder if the bar provides some sort of relief? I recall one of the things my husband was put on during physiotherapy was a long padded bar he was supposed to keep lined up with his spine while lying on it. It did help. Considering how often we find him (meaning Ginger, not my husband) draped over it like this, I suspect it does provide some sort of comfort.
The new heat pad was set to its second lowest heat setting, for 90 minutes. We’ll keep an eye through the bathroom window to see how he responds to it. The good thing is, since the cat’s house outside is not plugged in through the sun room, we have a spare plug, and can use both this and the bulb heater at the same time.
A thought occurred to me as I was looking at his wound and, in particular, at the discoloration. It might not be a discoloration at all. His fur is starting to grow back. It’s more likely a stripe of darker orange fur!
He’s such a sweet boy. I’m so thankful that he’s doing so well.
After we gave him his morning medications, my daughter held him while I checked the incisions. While giving him his medications last night, one of my daughters noticed a discoloration, but he would not let her take a closer look. He was more cooperative, this morning. It looks like there may have been some fluid that leaked and got smeared on his skin. I’m only guessing, because there was no sign of swelling or leaking in the wounds at all. Just the stain on his skin.
Then my daughter sat and cuddled him, so he wouldn’t make a dash for the door while I went in and out with food for the cats, birds and deer outside.
Ginger is still not happy with getting his medications. He, of course, resists opening his mouth and tries to spit out the pills. When using the syringe to give him the liquid medication, he tries to chew on it. It’s a good thing they gave us two, because he bit a hole in the first one! Still, he’s actually really good about taking them, even if he doesn’t like it.
Ginger baby is being a good boy, and handling things very well.
Yesterday evening, I decided to try and introduce one of the inside cats to Ginger. I chose our mama cat, who moved out here with us, as she has been so incredibly maternal with all the new additions.
Well… that didn’t quite work out. She’s never been in the sun room before. At least not for more than a couple of moments, a year or two ago. So she was pretty nervous and more interested in exploring the room.
Ginger, however, was missing.
I couldn’t find him anywhere!
Eventually, I heard a little mew and he emerged from behind a storage bin.
Without his surgical shirt.
I’m not happy that he squeezed back there. We very deliberately put stuff in front of the window, because the inner pane had cracked last winter. This winter, it cracked even more, and pieces of glass have started to fall off. We can’t do anything about it until things are warm and dry enough that we can empty the sun room.
(Also, I now think that the large windows in the barn are more of what was used to build the sun room.)
I suspect he squeezed into there in his efforts to get the surgical shirt off. We still haven’t found it, so it’s likely somewhere in the corner, behind all the stuff we shoved in to keep cats out of there. :-/
As for the new cat in the room, Ginger was utterly indifferent to her.
When I picked him up, he at first tried to burrow his face into my elbow, but then realized I wasn’t going to try and give him any medication, so he settled right in and started purring. Loudly!
I sat with him in my arms like this for way too long! My husband even came by to rescue the mama cat, who wanted back into the house, and bring me my phone. It was 10C/50F in the sun room, which is fine for a bit, but gets pretty chilly after a while! When I finally had to go back in, I put him under the heat bulb, and he settled right back down again. :-)
I’m glad we had that extra heat bulb. This morning, it was -8C/18F outside, with a wind chill of -18C/0F. It was much warmer in the sun room, of course, but that heat bulb over his little nest is making a big difference.
He was quite happy to see me in the morning – though not so happy when my daughter and I gave him his medications! Once we were done, though, he settled into her arms, and she was the one stuck on the bench, being cuddled, this time! :-D
Ginger was one of the friendlier of the outside cats. He let us pet him more often than his brother, Nutmeg, who would let us pet him one in a while. (His brother, Creamsicle Jr. won’t come near us.) We could sometimes pick up Ginger, but that was pretty rare, and he wouldn’t stay up for long. So for him to actively burrow into our arms for cuddles is a HUGE difference from before his injury!
I think he will adapt to the indoor life pretty well.
Adapting to all the other cats… that might take a bit more time!
I visited Ginger this morning, while starting my morning rounds and before my daughter came over with his medications and the new surgical shirt.
He enjoyed the visiting part, at least! I even managed to get several usable pictures.
Doesn’t he look completely malevolent? :-D He’s actually really enjoying the scritches.
Then he started rolling around, and managed to give me a good view of both surgical sites.
I really wasn’t that interested in the one at his nethers, to be honest, but hey; it needs to be checked, too!
Is it time to groom, or time to eat? He tried to do both at the same time. :-D
When my daughter came in with the meds, I picked him up to hold him. He knew exactly what was coming, and tried hiding his face in my arm! He’s actually really good about taking them, even if he fights us off and sometimes projectile spits a pill halfway across the room. We managed to get him medicated. He seemed very offended by the whole process when we put him down.
He was even more offended when we got the surgical shirt on him.
After we finished tying it off, he scuttled over to this spot and flumped down like a sausage. Then stayed there. He was not at all happy with us!!
My daughter stayed with him while I finished my rounds, and when she left, he’d found a different spot to flump down like a sausage.
The shirt came with what looks like a feminine hygiene product to stick to the inside over the surgical site. We used it, though about half of the incision is actually higher than the neck line on the shirt. That’s not the part we’re concerned about, since it’s the lower part that gets the brunt of it when he starts rolling. The very end of the incision has a bit of a space after the sutures end, and it looked like there was the tiniest bit of blood near the wound. It was dry, but I’m more comfortable with having it covered now. Even if he isn’t!
He would probably be just fine without it, but I hope we can leave it on him for at least a few days.
Poor baby is torn between excited to see us and craving attention, and ticked off at us for making him take medications and wear clothing! :-D
We can check on him, without disturbing him, through the bathroom window at any time. This morning, we forgot to unplug the heater bulb, and my husband found him basking under it! As the sun room warmed up during the day, however, he moved to follow the sun spots.
The Re-Farmer 