injured cats

Our tripod Houdini, sick baby rescue, and unintended harvests

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Oh, my goodness. What a day.

Taking my mother to my brother’s place for a visit went rather well, overall. There were a couple of predictable incidents, like when she suddenly started yelling at me in a rage because I took a slightly different route than the one she always took. That took some time to calm her down. It amazes me how, in her mind, the “short cut” that she always took (it isn’t any shorter, nor is it a faster route) is the only right route. Which, in itself, I wouldn’t mind, but the sudden and incredible anger she displays because I prefer a different route just blows me away. She’s more laid back about other route changes, but this one, and one other, just set her off like nothing else. The one other route that sets her off, my brother had driven her and took a different route, probably more than 20 years ago, and she still hasn’t forgiven him for it. Very strange.

There was also the very predictable attempt to pit my brother against me. Of course, she brought it up completely out of context, saying that I’d “reminded” her that this is no longer her house – but she paid for the roof! She neglected to mention the parts about her and my sister being in the area, and my not inviting them over for an unexpected and unplanned visit, or how she had tried to guilt me by saying “don’t forget, you’re living in my house.” Then she tried to say that she “paid for everything”. Everything? She seriously has zero understanding of just how much my brother and I are spending to keep this place up – the “perfect” house she asked us to move into that turned out to be in far worse shape than I ever thought.

Thank God my brother now owns the property!

What was also not a surprise, but still sad to hear, is that after I said no to her about coming here, they instead went to visit our vandal. This, in spite of the abusive messages he still leaves on her answering machine, and the horrible things he says to her about me. I’m quite disappointed in my sister for doing this. She says she wants to stay out of it and be neutral, but there is no neutral in this. Part of taking care of our mother is protecting her from herself, too. And there is nothing neutral about staying in contact with him, knowing the things he’s said and done to the rest of us.

Ah, well. What’s done is done. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt.

My mother was very tired, even before we left, so the visit was relatively short. Which, of course, she turned around and made it sound like my brother wanted her to leave early, when all he had done was be solicitous about her being so tired, and giving her choices. She chose to leave.

During the visit, my daughter sent messages to keep me up to date on what was going on at home.

Two Toes had escaped again.

They reinforced the cage, and were able to catch her.

After I got home, I wanted to walk around outside, only to find…

… a tripod staple cat walking past me!

It took a while – and the help of another cat! – but my daughter was eventually able to catch her again and put her in the carrier.

She is such an escape artist, and so determined to get outside, that we had to make the decision to bring her inside and add her to the “isolation ward”. Which is getting pretty full! Her babies will be okay. Other creche moms will nurse them. Who knows. Maybe she’ll even nurse these guys…

When I brought the carrier in and put it on my bed, the kittens were immediately interested in it – and her! They were pawing at the door, trying to get at her. After a while, I opened the door, and a kitten dashed right in.

Much to my surprise, there was no hissing from her at all. The girls had tried to put the two sick kittens in the cage with her, but had to take them out, because she was hissing at them so much.

She comes out every now and then, but the carrier seems to be the spot she feels most comfortable in, and she goes back into the carrier fairly quickly. As I write this, she is napping in it right now.

So far, Butterscotch seems indifferent to her, contentedly sharing bed space with her, Nosencrantz is keeping her distance, and so is Marlee.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

While I was still at my brother’s, the Cat Lady came by to pick up the sick black and white kitty. She asked if there were any other sick kitties, so my daughter brought out the white and grey one.

I took this picture of the two of them napping together, yesterday.

I had not mentioned the second kitten to the Cat Lady because, to be honest, I didn’t think it would make it. Instead, it started to get better, though it’s still very weak and looks a mess. Plus, when I found out they were doing this out of pocket, instead of through the rescue, because donation money had gone to spays and neuters, I didn’t want to add to their expenses!

As sick as the white and grey one is, the black and white one is in worse shape. Before I headed out this morning, I washed both their eyes. The black and white one’s eyes were stuck shut again, and as soon as they started to open a bit, puss started to ooze out. From both eyes. The Cat Lady, however, has already let me know she’s picked up medication for them, and they will be seeing a vet soon for testing. Because she has the rescue, she can pick up medication that I can’t, without first bringing the cats in.

She is also asking if we can catch 4 older female kittens to place at that farm she was telling us about, plus she is going to arrange spays. Catching the mamas is not going to be easy, though! She was in a rush and using her vehicle to pick up kitchen cabinets they’d bought locally, so she wasn’t able to drop off a trap or anything else. She just took the kittens and that’s it.

She will also try to adopt the spayed cats out, but even if they end up coming back here, at least it will help reduce the number of kittens next year!

So that is done for now. I hope the kittens recover well for her. She’d be so heart broken if they don’t make it.

One of the things I asked the girls to do while I was gone was a bit of harvesting in the garden, mentioning what likely needed to be harvested. Which made it a surprise when I got a picture of these guys.

These are squash from the compost pile! I had intended to just leave them until the end of the season, but my daughter wanted to see how they are. She didn’t pick all of them, but I’m still a bit perplexed about it! I guess we’ll be cracking them open to see how they look.

Along with more bush beans, a few summer squash and some Spoon tomatoes, she also picked the largest, ripest Sweet Chocolate pepper. They had it with their supper. I’ll have to ask them how it tasted, since I can’t eat peppers without gagging, no matter how wonderful they look and smell.

I had my own accidental harvest.

While doing my evening rounds, I was checking the squash patch and found a couple of female flowers to hand pollinate. I’m amazed, every time I look at the candy roaster and pink banana squash. They are growing so fast, and there are so many of them! I also took a closer look at our one Honeyboat Delicata. It hasn’t been getting any bigger, but the colours were changing, showing that it was ripening. I moved it to look around and…

… the stem snapped.

It’s so tiny! Ah, well. I guess we can eat is like a summer squash, still. Plus, I spotted a couple more little Delicatas forming on another vine. Hopefully, these will reach the full size they are supposed to get!

So that was most of my day. I know I’m forgetting things, but my brain is pretty fried right now. Especially after I called my mother later on. Oh, right! After dropping her off, I had time to swing by her pharmacy to ask about when her prescriptions needed a renewal from a doctor. I’m so glad I did! It turns out the pharmacist had been trying to fax the paperwork to the doctor’s new office, not knowing that my mother is no longer his patient. He had extended her prescriptions himself, already, but he could only do it for 4 weeks, and only once. Then he gave me a copy of the forms they faxed to the doctor’s new clinic. When I take my mother to see the interim doctor, I can bring them along for her to sign, so there should be no hassle trying to look up what my mother needs renewed.

I waited until I knew my mother would be up from the nap she was going to take after I left before calling to let her know. I talked again about how this is going to be just about the prescriptions. This doctor isn’t taking new patients, so there’s no point bringing up any of the other things my mother wants to talk about. She always brings up the same things, but she’s convinced the doctors are hiding what’s “really” wrong with her and not telling her everything.

Then she started saying my brother should be taking her to the doctor. Because he’s so smart and knows English so well. Nice sideways insult thrown at me with that one. I pointed out that taking her to appointments is part of my “job” in living here. My brother not only has a much longer drive, but he would have to take time off work to do it.

Then she started complaining that my brother hardly ever calls her or visits her. I know full well he calls her, even though she treats him like crap when he does, and he is incredibly busy. I eventually got out of her that she was talking about how he used to visit almost weekly. This was before we moved onto the property. He would drive out here after work on Fridays, do more work around the property, trying to fix things, and since my mother’s place was along the route, he would stop and visit her, too. Part of our living here was to take that burden off of my brother, so he wouldn’t have to make the long drive out all the time. She didn’t care. She thinks he needed to keep right on making the drive out, just to visit her. She even said he needs to come out more often, because she’s getting older and he has to take care of her. I told her there’s three of us to take care of her, and it was wrong to put the entire burden on my brother, when he is the one least able to do it! He’s got his full time job, his own property to take care of and lives the furthest away. She pretty much told me flat out, she didn’t care.

*sigh*

This, after she betrayed him so badly not long ago. She still can’t understand that there was anything wrong with what she did and has essentially forgotten about it.

So… that phone call wrung me out even more than the drive with her today!

My poor brother. He’s such a good man.

For all the stuff going on, it was good to at least see him and his amazing wife today!

The Re-Farmer

We got her!

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Just taking a moment to share the good news!

TTT showed up when I did the morning feed. Her IV bandage was gone, but she still had her coat. Which is good, because I was able to use it to catch her and carry her, without any chance of injuring the incision site.

I got her into the cage and the girls took over while I got ready to head out. They mixed her meds with a small amount of wet cat food. She ate it all. That should make her sleepy, and reduce her attempts to escape.

The sun room doors will be left propped open enough for the kittens to come in and out. Hopefully, her babies find her soon, and find the opening into the cage we made for them.

I’m so happy she made it through the night okay!

The Re-Farmer

This is not good

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

*sigh*

What a day!

Things went as good as they could, for the most part. Everything from the car’s oil change being under budget, and not needing any other work, to news that the cat’s amputation went well, to being able to getting the shopping we needed to do (especially stocking up on kibble!), and finally picking up prescription refills on the way home, things went well. Once things were put away, the girls and I separated the baby jail cage in my room into two pieces so we could get it out the door. We even managed to do it without the kittens getting out!

My younger daughter and I put the cage together again in a corner I prepped in the sun room. Since we wanted her kittens to be able to get to mama, we made sure the 2″ square wire sections were at floor level. We also made sure the “door” was facing the half with the cubes, so we could more easily access the bottom cubes for the new litter pan and food/water bowl that I picked up today.

We had it assembled, but I had to leave before it was done, to pick up the cat. One of the things my daughter did was cut one wire out in a section under the “door”, so there could be no chance of a kitten getting stuck. We’re rather paranoid about that, after what happened to Pointy Baby. She added towels, blankets and a mat for bedding, as well as the prepared litter pan and added food and water to the new bowl.

Meanwhile, I headed off to the vet. My daughter had already made a $400 down payment towards the surgery; they won’t do surgery without one. The total bill was $1140. I had to go into our vehicle down payment fund to cover it. Thankfully, my older daughter will be able to cover it. It will just take a few days for the transfer to go through. At least she’s getting steady commissions.

After paying the bill, someone came over to explain the medications and which ones we could be giving tonight, etc. Knowing she was a yard cat, they also gave her a slow release antibiotic. I asked about the meds and nursing. That should be find, but they had a coat on her that completely covers her belly, so we’d have to take that off. Without it, we’d have be keep a close eye on whether she scratches or licks at the incision.

That done, she took the carrier and loaded Two Toes up. She was complaining a bit, but was generally quiet for the trip home.

I got her into the cage, and she was not at all happy. She kept going around and even jumped up into the second level cubes, then back down again. She did find the food and water and ate hungrily – her eating is something else we need to keep an eye on, in case she starts throwing up. I did get to pet her a bit, but she was really wanting out of the cage.

Then, much to my shock, she managed to shove her head through the 2″ openings!

The last thing we want is for her head to get stuck, so I popped into the old kitchen to grab a carboard box to line the walls with.

Which was when I heard a suspicious noise.

I came into the sun room and found the cage door closed, but the cage was empty.

Then I saw her outside the sun room doors!

For a post opp cat that’s down a leg, she’s fast!

She also would NOT go back towards the sun room, no matter how much I tried to circle around to get her go that way.

She was twisting around to bight at the ties on the coat, and later she was trying to get the IV bandage off. Then she went through the window to under the storage house.

There’s just no way to get her there.

So I went back to the sun room and lined the lower half of the cage, with the larger openings, with cardboard on the inside. I did cut away the opening intended for the kittens to get in and out. One low enough to the floor that I would hope mama couldn’t get through.

Once that was secure (I hope!) I put fresh kibble out for the yard cats, making sure to make lots of noise as I dropped the food onto the metal kibble trays. Some of the yard cats came around – I even saw Junk Pile at the food bowl by the grape vines – but no Two Toes.

I went inside for a while, then headed back out, and there she was, on the cat house. When she saw me, she jumped down, then went inside the cat house. I’ve left her there for now, since it is a far better place for her to hide than under the storage house.

At this point, I’m not sure what to do. I’m hoping we can catch her tonight and give her her meds. If not, the girls will have to keep trying, tomorrow, while I’m taking my mother to visit my brother. At the very least, we need to get that bandage and coat off. The bandage, because it’s quite tight. At least it’s one of those types that stick to themselves, so she had a chance of getting it off herself. The coat, because she needs to nurse. While other mothers might be willing to nurse her babies, if she doesn’t nurse herself, she might get mastitis.

I never in my wildest dreams though she could get out of that cage.

Oh, and on top of all this, it’s been raining steadily all day. The cats are all sheltering from the rain, which will make it even harder to get a hold of her. It seems to have finally stopped, now, so when I’m done this, I’ll pop outside and see if I can catch her.

Meanwhile, the Cat Lady is coming by tomorrow to pick up the sick outside kitty. I won’t be there, but the girls will take care of things. Hopefully, she’ll remember to drop off the trap, too. She’s had a really terrible day today, in several areas, so the fact that she’s going to be able to come out here at all is something I appreciate so much.

On top of all this, I forgot to call my mother’s pharmacy. I’ll have to do that tomorrow morning.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be a better day!

The Re-Farmer

A new tripod

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I’m currently waiting for my daughter in a Walmart parking lot, so I figured I may as well post an update!

We were able to catch Not Junk Pile, now named Two Toed Tony (my daughter panicked a bit, coming up with a new name) this morning. We got her to the vet, but I had to leave before she was sedated and taken to x-ray and bring the car to the garage. I got there early and, thankfully, they were able to take it in immediately.

My daughter messaged me updates. TTT had a badly broken femur. The less expensive surgery was amputation. As I write this, she is out of surgery, she did well, and will be ready for pickup at 3.

Thankfully, my older daughter will be able to cover it, but it will be a few days before funds are transferred. Until then, between my younger daughter and I, we can just cover the bill.

TTT has 6 babies that are not weaned. We will need to set up the cat cage in my room in the sun room. Her kittens will be able to get in and out through the wall sections with wider openings, while she can recovery inside. There are other mothers that will nurse them, but I don’t want to risk mastitis.

Meanwhile, we need to catch a couple of females for placement, then a couple more in about 2 weeks.

What a day.

The Re-Farmer

Small harvest, doctor update, and this is the last thing we need!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Let’s start from the beginning of the day, which started off well!

I picked a tiny harvest this morning.

I decided to pick the one cob of purple corn that was the first to develop. I knew it wouldn’t be ready yet, but I wanted to see how it was. In particular the pollination. There was a fair chunk of it that had not been pollinated at all, so the kernels did not develop, but overall, it was pretty well filled.

One of my daughter’s doesn’t like corn, so my other daughter boiled the cob and we split it between us for a taste test. Of course, not being fully ripe, it would not have reached peak sweetness, but this is not a sweet corn to begin with. It was almost meaty in taste and texture. It actually reminded me of the corn I grew up with, that my mother saved seed from, year after year. I didn’t even know sweet corn was a thing until I was in my early teens, and my mother came back from a trip to visit family in the US, with corn seeds they’ve given her. She planted them in the spring, and I remember being astonished by the flavour of sweet corn. I still liked our old corn, though, and this was very much like that. We both enjoyed our taste test.

Later on, my husband and I left early for our medical appointment. Very early. My daughter sent us some cash to treat us to lunch. My husband hasn’t gone out since his last in-person medical appointment, and that was at least 2 years ago. We stopped in the town my mother lives in to pick up gas, then went to a restaurant for lunch.

Which is when I got a message from the cat lady, asking if she could call me. Talk about perfect timing! If we had left when I originally planned, I would have been driving when she messaged me and would not have seen it for some time later.

She wanted to talk to me about possible placements for 4 female outside cats! She was contacted by someone on a farm near my mother’s town. Their yard cats of 14 and 15 years had all passed away, and they needed mousers. They have an ideal set up, including an insulated and heated barn. Basically, they would be inside cats that are allowed outside. They gave their cats quality food, regular vet visits, and – as amply demonstrated by having cats that lived more than a decade – have been able to protect them from predators. There was even a vet lined up to check on the new cats.

There are rescues out there that would happily have given them 4 or 6 female cats right now, but they wanted to go through the Cat Lady, instead. They figure to start with maybe 2 cats and keep them in the barn for a couple of weeks before allowing them outside, then getting a couple more and repeating the process.

When I mentioned that our female cats are all nursing babies right now, including the ones with older babies (they just nurse any kittens that wants to nurse!), and it turned out the vet had brought up that concern as well.

In the end, she asked me to talk to the family about it. If we go with it, she will bring a trap for us on Saturday, when she comes to pick up the sick kitty.

I’ll get back to that later…

From there, we continued to the clinic. We got there early, and were shown into an examination room right away, but the doctor was in emergency at the time (this clinic is in a hospital building), so we were among several patients waiting. By the time she finally was able to see us, it was about 20 minutes past our actual appointment. Not too bad, except my husband was really struggling with pain levels.

She ended up spending a lot of time going over his medications list. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring his meds along, but he does keep a current list in his phone. There was some confusion about doses, because what he was actually getting didn’t match what the official descriptions said were available. I think in his case, because he’s on such high doses of some things, there are exceptions being made.

One problem that was unexpected is that she could not prescribe opioids. Apparently, the College is telling doctors not to prescribe them anymore.

Opioids are the only thing that have even remotely been able to bring his pain levels down.

He didn’t need those renewed yet, though, so we should have time for him to get a new doctor, when they arrive at this clinic in the fall. This doctor added that she couldn’t take him as a new patient, but we already knew that. This is just interim. Going over his medications list, she commented that he was going to have a hard time finding a new doctor.

*sigh*

Funny how it’s easy to find a doctor, if you don’t really need one, but if you do need one, and especially with a complex file like my husband’s, it’s harder to find a doctor.

She also focused a lot on his diabetes. One of his meds actually causes weight gain. It’s an anti-depressant and he’s been on is since before we moved out here. What I remember is that it prevented weight loss, but she says is actually causes weight gain. She said it’s also for sleep. As someone who has Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea, he certainly wasn’t taking it to make him sleep! He’s off that now, and he’s happier for it. As we were leaving, he vented his frustrations. He has so many problems, but doctors keep focusing on the diabetes. The way he put it, he’s got a heart condition that has a life expectancy of 4-6 years, from time of diagnosis. Which means 2-4 years from right now. He is in constant pain, and when I brought that up, she dismissed it. He had been told, early on, that until he gets his pain under control, he won’t be able to get his blood sugars under control. Apparently, that’s not a thing anymore. She did put in a referral to a diabetic nurse. Then she brought up “it’s the diet. It’s all the diet.” And the weight, of course. He won’t get his sugars under control unless he loses weight. I’d already mentioned, he barely eats, because of his pain levels. With all the other stuff, his blood sugars are far from a priority for him right now. She also brought up that he’s on cholesterol medication, but he’s never had high cholesterol. He was put on that by the first doctor we had when we moved out here, because that doctor puts all his diabetic patients over a certain age and girth on statins. Never mind that the actual research shows statins do nothing, and actually cause more harm than good. The doctors don’t seem to be on top of the most recent data.

<<< pause for interruptions >>>

Okay, more has happened, but I’ll get back to that later!

After my husband was done, including getting a requisition for blood work, it was my turn. I only needed one prescription renewal. Should have been fast and easy. She still had to “see” me as a patient, though, so she took my blood pressure. Which, of course, was high. It isn’t high when I test it at home. She was ready to prescribe me blood pressure medication, but I said I wanted to wait on that, because it doesn’t match at home. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve tested myself, since my husband has the machine in his room now. So she asked me to test my BP morning and evening, three times a week, for three months, then follow up with our new doctor. It’s also been ages since I had my blood work done, so I left with a requisition for that, too.

I had also made an appointment with this doctor for my mother, but I really don’t think my mother would like her. She’s female, black and has a strong accent. When I called my mother about it, we talked it over. The only reason for her to see a doctor right now is for the same reason as my husband and I; for an interim doctor to renew prescriptions. Not the dozen other things my mother thinks a doctor should be able to fix for her. My mother has no idea about the status of her prescriptions, and once I realized she didn’t understand what she needed to ask the pharmacy well enough, I told her I would call them tomorrow, while I’m in town. If her prescription renewals are good for a couple more months, I’ll cancel the appointment. If she needs a prescription renewal within the next month or two, we’ll keep the appointment.

So that’s done.

As soon as I could, after we got home, I headed outside to do my rounds early, walk around and get some fresh air. It was starting to rain, but that was okay. I also fed the yard cats a bit earlier than usual.

Which is when I saw Not Junk Pile on the cat house roof.

With a dangling foot.

It looks like her foot is broken at the “wrist”.

Crap.

I’m bringing my mother’s car in for an oil change tomorrow. I’ve also asked to get that check engine light looked at, plus a check on the wheel alignment. I’m feeling a shudder in the front driver’s side tire that concerns me. We’ve got a budget for this.

We don’t have a vet budget right now. That’s going to have to come out of money meant for a vehicle down payment.

*sigh*

I called the emergency vet, anyhow. She said that, if we could bring her in tonight, they’d treat her. So my daugher and I got the cat carrier and went looking for her.

By then, it was raining harder, and there was no sign of her.

We went looking again later, but still nothing.

We did see her kittens, though, and figured out where their new “nest” is. It’s no longer in the tarp covered board pile (formerly known as the junk pile). They’ve found a way to get into the space under the concrete stairs outside the dining room door. A perfect spot for a mama and her kittens. Impossible for us to get at.

I’ve also been in contact with the Cat Lady. This is one of the mamas we were thinking would go to the farm she was telling us about. She’s going to work on arranging more spays for us, and will be dropping a trap off for us, too. Between adopting out 4 female yard cats, plus getting spays done, we should be able to reduce the number of kittens next year.

Of course, that will also depend on how many of this year’s kittens are female, too! Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some of them done, early next year, before they go into their first heat. This year, they started having babies before the snow was gone. 😥

While I was working on this, we’d gone out to try and catch Not Junk Pile. When it became clear we were not going to get her tonight, I sent an email to the vet clinic, letting them know the situation an dthat we’d be trying to bring her in in the morning. I then called the emergency vet back and updated her as well. That means we’ll have to be out and feeding the cats quite early, and try to get her into the carrier. My daughter and I will work to get her to the vet when they open at 8am, then drop the car off for 9am. My daughter can stay at the clinic while I take care of the car stuff. I’m also going to have to swing by the pharmacy to pick up prescription refills. My husband has been without insulin for several days now.

Why is this happening all at the same time???

The Re-Farmer

Not what we planted, and self injury?

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I’ve been watching the self seeded poppies in the old kitchen garden, where one plant in particular has been growing faster than the others, with flower buds looking ready to open.

Today, it bloomed.

I did not plant this poppy.

I had figured the poppies that were showing up were from the Giant Rattle bread seed poppy we planted in the area previously. Which are supposed to look a lot like these Hungarian Blue poppies…

The tiny raised bed we have shallots in do have poppies coming up in it, too, and those are likely the Giant Rattle poppies we planted there 2 years ago, then again using our own seed last year. This is what they looked like.

Looking back at my photos, I found we did get one of these red poppies last year.

This, however, showed up after we cleared away some of the undergrowth along the spruce grove, on the other side of the house.

From what I can find, these are Double Scarlet Papasver somniferum – an opium poppy! These predate us living here, but they are not the poppies I remember my mother growing here, when I was a child.

Meanwhile, the bed where we did deliberately plant bread seed poppies that seemed to be overtaken by weeds, does have poppies growing in it. The flower pods that are starting to develop on some are more elongated than I’ve seen before. These are the Hungarian Blue that we are trying this year. At least I hope that’s what they are! The Baker Creek website has photos of the pods and flowers, but not the plants or flower buds.

Now I’m very curious about what the poppies in the shallot bed will be!

In other things, I saw Non-Junkpile today, and she has a new injury, on the other side of her head!

It’s very much like the first one, that is healed.

We are now thinking this is a self injury. She probably has a very bad infestation of ear mites, and is injuring herself by scratching.

The problem is, this is not one of the friendlies. I’ve been able to get fairly close, while there is food, but even as I tried to get a picture of the injury, she kept moving away. There is no chance of getting her to a vet. Especially since she has a litter of kittens somewhere.

There is the type of ear mite medication that can be applied to the skin between the shoulders. If we could get some of that, there is a better possibility that we could snag her long enough to apply it, than to get drops into her ears. But the clinic can’t usually give out prescriptions for cats they’ve never seen. I’ll have to see what we can figure out about that

Oh! Well, would you look at that. I’m getting messages from the Cat Lady. Maybe she has some suggestions!

The Re-Farmer

Healing

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

While feeding the outside cats yesterday evening, I spotted Not-Junkpile and was able to get a fairly good look at the side of her neck.

She may end up with a permanent scar, but it does look like she’s healing well. No signs of infection that I can see.

That’s a relief!

The Re-Farmer

Sadface

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

My daughters call him Shop Towel (father of Tissue, Drier Sheet and all the other white and greys…), but I still call him Sadface.

This is why.

You know it’s hot and muggy out when this guy just watches me suspiciously as I take his picture, instead of running away. I was about 10 feet or so away from him when I took this photo, and that’s the closest I’ve ever been to him. He stayed there, even as I went passed him several times while I was working.

Gosh, he looks rough. That wound on his forehead looks pretty fresh. The problem is, he’s usually the one starting the fights! I really wish he weren’t so … well.. feral, and aggressive about claiming his territory (and his harem!). Of all the toms that had been visiting us in our early years here, he’s the only one left.

I want to hug him, and chase him away, at the same time. Our baby boys from last year are reaching full maturity, which means competition, and he’s probably going to start going after them, too.

*sigh*

A garden preview, and kitty video

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Much of today has been a total waste. I got almost no sleep last night, and it was basically all because of the cats! First, there was the constant stream of cats wanting in and out. I swear, even the cats that are outside the door have a sense of when I’m finally lying down and comfortable in bed, because that’s when they start scratching at the door again! As the ladies have been able to tolerate more of the other cats, that means more scratching at the door to be let in or out.

All that, because we’ve got two cats that always go after Nosencrantz, forcing me to keep the door closed to keep them out!

The other cause of interruption was Nosencrantz.

I have one small window I can open – a window with a deep sill the cats like to sit on. The screens on all the new windows are high quality, but the cats have still managed to damage all of them. With mine, I tried to have most of it blocked off with a window fan, a salvaged metal mesh window screen and a hunk of Styrofoam insulation, to protect the screen, but even when the fan was put away for the winter and the window kept closed, the screen would get clawed at. I finally removed it completely – then had to hide it behind the metal mesh screen – because Nozencratnz still wanted claw at it!

We ended up getting what is supposed to be cat proof window screen, and have replaced the screens on several windows, mine included.

Yes. It’s supposed to be cat proof. However, I don’t think even cat proof window screen can withstand a cat sitting up on its hind end and going at it with both front paws! Even if the screen managed to survive the attack without getting holes, chances are it would get yanked right out of the frame, eventually.

That’s what I was trying to stop all night. Nosencrantz is fixated on clawing on that screen! I even jammed the salvaged screen in front of it. It’s narrower than the window, and Nosencrantz would just reach around the metal mesh screen, to claw at the window’s screen! There aren’t even any bugs or blown in fluff that she’s after. She’s just after the screen!

So that was another thing that had me getting up repeatedly. Oh, and also the sound of cats using the carpet as a scratching post, instead of the scratching post… 😕

I’ve now stolen my husband’s box fan, which fills the window almost completely. I just had to stick some cardboard between the wall and a shelf to cover a gap on one side. Hopefully, at least that problem is solved.

The whole thing left me feeling awful by morning. A sleep repeatedly interrupted is far worse than simply being up all night. It’s not even feeling physically sleepy that’s the problem, though I was so physically tired, I felt ill. It’s the affect on mental acuity that really knocks me out.

The girls took care of feeding the outside cats and taking the transplants out so I could sleep in, but I still found myself constantly awakened and having to open and close my door. I finally gave up and tried to leave it open, cat fight or no, only to have the breeze from my open window slam it shut, over and over!

Yeah. I was pretty miserable this morning, and finally gave up.

The afternoon, at least, was better after indulging in my last energy drink. 🙄 I finally went outside to see how much work I could manage to get done.

Which turned out to be far more than I expected.

I took a significant risk today.

I did some transplanting of squash and gourds!

Normally, these would not go in until about the middle of June, but some of them were getting quite large. I didn’t want to keep potting them up, and they were getting so big that taking them in and out of the sun room to harden off was damaging them.

I took photos of the progress and will put together a small video later, but here is a preview.

Four of the transplants were climbers, so I cleaned up the blocks and transplanted them here. Because they all can potentially get quite large, I put them in every other block. In the foreground is the Zucca melon. I put it there so it has room to expand away from the others.

I thought the next one was also a Zucca melon, but when I took out the label, it said African Drum gourd. We have extra, much smaller, seedlings of both. The next two are the Caveman’s Club gourds.

All of them are long enough that I was able to get their tendrils wrapped around the chain link fence and start training them up it or, with the Zucca melon, away down the side. These all are supposed to have fairly large fruit, though with the Caveman’s Club, they are more about length than girth. If any of these reach the point of developing fruit, we’ll figure out how best to support them.

The next thing that had to go in were the Crespo squash.

Then went into the bed we had a hulless pumpkin variety in last year, near the old squash/bean tunnel. This will likely be the last year we use this spot for gardening, and hopefully we’ll be able to plant something for our food forest here, next year. We shall see.

The Crespo squash plants can get really huge, which is part of the reason they went in this far away bed. The old rain barrel I filled yesterday is nearby – but it was only about a quarter full when I got to it today! I couldn’t see if it developed a new crack, or if the seal on one of the old ones gave out.

We really need more rain barrles.

I’m quite glad I found that one last hose in the old garden shed, so I could give this area a thorough watering. I’ll have to keep that up for at least a few days to make sure it’s damp through the new mulch, all the way down through the layers we put here, least year.

I’m reeeeaaallllyyy hoping I didn’t jump the gun by transplanting these so early. There is no sign of frost in the long range forecasts. In fact, June is looking like it’s going to be quite hot, and rainy. If, however, we do find ourselves with a frost warning, I think we’d be able to add covers to protect things fairly well.

After I was done and putting things away, I fed the outside cats for the evening (and chased away a couple of skunks eating their kibble!). Judgement is still limping, and the foot seems to be bothering him more. He still won’t let me look at it, so I tried seeing if I could sneak a look through my phone’s camera.

It didn’t really work, but I did get this video!

I did not get a response to my email to the vet, asking about being able to bring him in as we are able to catch him, without an appointment. I’ll have to remember to phone them, tomorrow.

So I did get at least something useful done today. If the weather holds, this early planting will make a big positive difference for things like the drum gourds and Zucca melon.

I’m not sure what I will plant in the empty blocks. Ideally, it would be some other climber, but since I expect the fence to eventually get completely engulfed by what just got planted, perhaps it would be better to choose a shade loving plant, instead. We’ll see.

I’m just happy to have gotten at least a bit of productivity in today!

The Re-Farmer

Judgement!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

He’s back!

After none of us seeing him at all, yesterday, I was quite concerned about how Judgement was doing, so I was VERY happy to see him this morning! It looks like he spent our rainy night tucked warm and cozy in the shelf shelter.

His front paws look fine. I see no sign of injury. Not that I’m getting more than a glimpse, but he also followed me around while I did my rounds, as is his custom. No limping. No favouring of the paw. It’s as if there was never anything wrong! Whatever was causing him pain a couple of days ago seems to have worked itself out.

What a relief!

The Re-Farmer