inside cats

Yikes, Tissue! What’s gotten into you?

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But first, let’s take a moment to admire this handsome boy.

This one will sometimes let us pet him, and it more tolerant of us coming close in general.

Which makes sense for a semi-feral cat.

You’d think it would be different with a house cat.

This morning, I started getting some rather frantic messages from the Cat Lady. It seems Tissue has been acting full-on feral! She’s been hissing at them and even attacking, and so stressed out, she’s been panting and drooling. So I was asked if I could pick up Tissue straight from the vet today, because they were afraid she would harm herself during the recovery period.

Of course, I said yes.

Then I got more wild messages, and things got really crazy!

In a nutshell, they got her in the carrier and were loading her into their vehicle to take her to the vet, along with the littles (who are apparently right as rain), when she ripped the door off the carrier and escaped into their garage.

Yeah.

Ripped the door off.

That carrier had a crack at one corner, but still! The whole thing came apart.

So, as of right now, Tissue is still somewhere in their garage – which is in the middle of renovations! The Cat Lady is so worried she might hurt herself on something. They’ve set up a trap to try and get her.

They took a different vehicle to take the littles to the vet, so they wouldn’t have to open the garage, and gave the renovators the day off. Their kids continued to try and find her while the littles were dropped off at the vet. The vet gave the Cat Lady until noon to bring Tissue in. After that, it’s just too late to do the spay.

I’m just amazed by Tissue’s behaviour. I know she didn’t like being in the carrier when I brought her to the cat lady – she was upset enough that by the time we got there, she’d thrown up in the carrier. Still, even that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Even after we snagged her and brought her inside, she never behaved like this. However, she’s also never been out of the house since then, and hasn’t really been around other people. When we have company, she is one of the cats that heads upstairs and waits until they are gone. This is a cat that loves to cuddle with my daughters, and sleeps with my younger daughter at night. During the day, she likes to sleep on my husband’s hospital bed, and will often demand attention from him, too. I don’t see her as much, since I have to keep my door closed, and she’s not one of the cats that has any interest in checking out the new additions.

It’s just crazy! I feel so bad for the Cat Lady. She’s so worried Tissue might hurt herself!

Well, whether she gets fixed or not, we’ll bring her home. It’s just a matter of how and when that will happen!

What a morning!

The Re-Farmer

Living in a post card

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The fog has mostly dissipated – I was still seeing touches of it while going my morning rounds.

My goodness, but it does make things beautiful, this time of year!

I couldn’t resist getting a picture from the same spot as yesterday.

The temperatures are nice and mild right now. As I write this, we’re at -8C/18F, with almost no breeze at all. We’re supposed to reach a high of -6C/21F today. A good day to finish clearing in front of the garage so I can open the doors to get my mother’s car out, and clear a few more paths.

One way we can tell how much more pleasant the weather is, is by the cats.

The usuals are back to preferring to eat on the cat house roof again. In this bunch, there’s only one that’s friendly. I can sometimes pet the black and white, but not often. Still more than I can come close to Broccoli. I don’t know how she’s been with her kittens gone. She’s been avoiding me, so perhaps she’s made an association between me and missing babies. I don’t know. I so want to socialize her more! We’ll have to wait longer before we can try to trap more females. The hard part is waiting for things to warm up, so there’s no chance of a critter freezing in the trap, but not so warm that they start going into heat and get pregnant, first.

Speaking of which, I saw Shop Towel skulking around when I put the food out. While I was switching the memory card on the trail cam (and melting the frost off the lens and solar panel), I heard a cat fight, and am guessing it involved Shop Towel.

Before going in, I tried to get some more pictures of the frost and was able to zoom in to get this little cutie.

We have not been able to keep up with the feeding this winter, because of the racoons destroying the hanging feeder, but the chickadees and blue jays have been raiding the kibble trays, instead!

While getting this shot, something strange in a tree above the storage house roof caught my eye.

Well, I guess we can see who Shop Towel went after! One of his older sons, no less. A couple of the grey and whites are much larger – more like their dad in size.

In other things, I spoke to my mother last night. She’s in need of a grocery shopping trip, which is why I want to clear the doors to her car. She was fully expecting to go to the grocery store today; apparently my sister is supposed to be visiting her, though my mother didn’t seem sure, when I spoke to her. I pointed out to her that it’s New Year’s Day. The stores will be closed. She sounded so surprised when I told her that. 😕 So, if all goes well, I’ll be heading out tomorrow to help her with shopping – in her own car!

For now, I’m monitoring cats. With the littles gone, I actually got a full night’s sleep! The ladies seem relieved to have the room to themselves again – even if Marlee still hisses at Butterscotch and Nosencrantz sometimes. Leyendecker and Cheddar seem to be looking for the littles when they come in. Meanwhile, I now have grandma, who moved out here with us, in with me. My daughters just let me know she’s been behaving oddly, like there is something stuck in her mouth. We thought it might have been something stuck in her throat, but I’ve seen her eating. She seems fine, until she suddenly makes retching faces and started rubbing the sides of her face with her paw. My one attempt to gently move her head for a look had her meow in alarm and run off, so I do think something is hurting her. Hopefully, it’s something that will work itself out. So far, she’s eating and drinking normally. Right now, she’s on my bed, not far from Marlee, and settling in for a nap.

I’ll have to get one of the girls to take over monitoring her when it’s time to get outside.

The Re-Farmer

Not what I’d hoped

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I was hoping that I’d be able to post some good news about the replacement vehicle situation today, but there isn’t any news at all, yet.

Yesterday, we got a call from the financing company with questions for my husband (since our only income is his disability payments, the application is in his name). We were told we would have an answer today.

I waited as long as I felt I could for the call, but finally headed out to do a shop. How big of a shop depended on the road conditions. A system is blowing in and we’re supposed to have snow. Not a lot, but it’s supposed to continue for several days.

Then we started to get the freezing rain warnings.

So I headed out. If the roads didn’t look good, I’d go to the nearest town and do a small shop, but if they looked good, I intended to go to the smaller, nearer city and do a medium shop. A trip to the big city was not going to happen, and won’t until after the new year.

When I got to the highway, it looked good, so I headed towards the town my mother lives in, where I typically get some gas first, then continue on to either city I’m shooting for. As I got closer, though, I drove right into the freezing rain. My windshield was freezing over faster than the heat vent could clear it. I had to switch between trying to see through an ever shrinking clear spot in the ice and using the washer fluid to clear the ice, which would immediately frost over the entire windshield for a brief moment before melting clear.

Not fun.

So I did a small shop at my mother’s town. I got a couple of their largest bags of cat kibble – the last two on the shelf, of the cheaper brand – as well as a few things for ourselves. The kibble was the most needed item. The two bags should last us until after New Year’s, when we will hopefully be able to do a monthly stock up shop in the city – with a replacement vehicle! The price difference on the kibble alone is more than enough to cover the cost of gas for the trip, even at our current high prices.

That done, I headed straight home again. By then, the system had reached our place, and was more ice pellets than rain. Thankfully, I was no longer driving straight into it, so my windshield stayed clear.

So now we continue to wait on the call that will let us know if we can get that replacement vehicle.

Meanwhile…

Things continue to go well with socializing the bitties. Butterscotch and Bobby nap together regularly now, though her patience is limited. Most importantly, Sprite – who is very difficult to photograph! – has gotten better at letting us pet him, and last night, I woke to find him sleeping across my ankle! Mostly, though, he prefers my younger daughter. He is still more nervous around me, but I was able to pet him and handle him more than usual this morning – almost enough to be able to confirm he is male. I’m about 95% sure, but I could only go by feel, since it’s really hard to visually confirm on a mostly black cat, when I’ve got just a split second to do it. These are tiny kitties with tiny bits, so there isn’t much to feel, either! He and Bobby have been extremely playful this morning, which is making Marlee very stressed, unfortunately. Ah, well. It’s only for a few more days!

Still no luck with catching their mama. She will avoid the sun room entirely when I do their food and water. Crud.

Anyhow. Hopefully, I will have good news about the financing to post about soon!

The Re-Farmer

Kitty progress – so excited!

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Okay, so we’ve been having good progress with the littles overall.

Walnut and Leyendecker napping together is very good. Leyendecker will sometimes groom and play with them, but generally will just nap on my bed, and he’s good with having a little company.

Also, my blanket is absolutely covered in cat hair. Even after washing, there’s still cat hair stuck in the fibres!

Also, also, my carpet is horrific. The cats keep spilling the kibble bowls and kicking sawdust out of the litter box, but I can’t vacuum it right now. It would be too much of a terror for kittens we are working to socialize!

The bitty (we need a name for this guy!) has rediscovered the security of baby jail, and likes to chill in one of the upper level beds.

He is SO much more settled and getting socialized. Last night, I found myself being cuddled by both littles against my back. When I lie on my side, I have my top leg bent and my bottom leg straight. That turns out to create a perfect little nest for a bitty, and I’ve been waking up to find him there. I can tell it’s the bitty because of how tiny and light he is! He has also discovered that playing with fingers is a fun thing to do, and then he discovered this strange protuberance in the middle of my face that is quite fascinating. And tasty, apparently.

Also, he is very sharp.

What a way to be awakened during the night!

While nowhere near as greedy for cuddles as Walnut is, the bitty is really enjoying getting pets and cuddles.

Which is working out perfectly, because he’s now helping his soot sprite sibling settle in.

Yes!!!! We caught the other bitty!

I have had no opportunity to get a photo, but I’ll be sure to try to get one later.

For the past few days, we’ve kept one of the hard sided cat carriers in the sun room with the door open. When putting food out, I’d toss a handful into there. The cats had explored it, and I would often find a cat sitting on the blanket inside, just chillin’

This morning, I came into the sun room, and the little soot sprite was looking at me from the doorway of the carrier.

I very quickly just closed the door. The carrier opens from the top, so I used that to put some kibble in with it. I then quickly did the food and water for the rest of the cats – Broccoli was eating on the cat house roof, and while I could come pretty close, she would not let me touch her.

I’d really love to bring Mama in, and reunite the family! Especially since I see she is still letting even a much older kitten nurse her.

Once the food and water was done, I brought the carrier in and let a daughter take over while I finished my rounds. We’d already reached our forecasted high of the day, -15C/5F, though after having no wind yesterday, a wind chill of -24C/-11F was more of a downer. Still, I did finally switch out the memory card at the sign cam. We’re going to have to dig a path to there again. A lot of the paths around the house are now drifted over. With the more pleasant weather ahead, it’ll be good to get as much of that cleared again before the next snowfall.

Meanwhile, my daughter was able to put the bitty tabby into the carrier with his sibling, then gave all the cats some wet cat food, with the siblings sharing a bowl. They reunited quite comfortably. She had the door open a bit and the bitty tabby went out, but the bitty tuxedo didn’t go out until she opened the top. Once the carrier was available again, I took it back to the sun room. Who knows. I might catch Broccoli in there, too!

The bitty tabby immediately started playing with and chasing around his sibling. The tuxedo has been exploring, as well, but is nowhere near as nervous as the tabby was when we first brought him in. I’m sure the tuxedo remembers Walnut, too. Of course, the tuxedo still won’t let us near it, but I don’t think it will take long.

Marlee is not a happy camper. Anytime she sees a kitten, she starts growling!

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz seem more accepting of the new addition.

My daughter let Cheddar in. He when straight to the new kitten, snuffled it – then started grooming it!

Cheddar is such a good dude.

So now I sit, monitoring an exploring soot sprite, sitting in the world’s creakiest office chair, which isn’t helping things. We’ll need to take turns supervising the new addition. Not so much that we’re worried about the tuxedo, but more because Marlee is not enjoying them and we try to keep them away from her favourite corner as much as we can. The kittens pretty much ignore her growling and hissing, and sometimes want to go over and check her out in spite of it, and we just want to reduce her stress levels.

I’m just so happy we finally got the last bitty!!!!

The Re-Farmer

A Cold Christmas Eve!

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Today is Christmas Eve. In our family, we celebrate our non-traditional Christmas Wigilia feast today, after the first star shines. I have a terrible habit of starting the turkey too early, though, so I’m keeping myself busy writing this, before I go spatchcock the turkey. We had gotten to enjoy brining the turkey in the past, leaving it to sit in the brine using our largest stock pot and leaving it in the old kitchen overnight.

It’s just too darn cold in there, and since I’ve discovered spatchocking is much easier than I thought it would be, we are quite enjoying doing it that way!

But first, the cute things update!

Walnut has settled right in. I now have three cats to fight over for my office chair!

Things were a lot calmer last night, and I actually got some sleep. It wasn’t until about 5am that the noises started. The bitty tabby (we need to come up with a name for that one!) was wandering around, squeaking. I was eventually able to gently catch it and hold it close. It does NOT want human attention, but even though it clearly wanted down, it did start purring as a cuddled it and pet it.

I got a message from the Cat Lady last night. She had gotten home from a long drive, delivering Plushy and Princess to their forever home. They settled right in! I can’t post the picture she sent me, but they were both curled up on the crossed legs of their new human, lounging and stretched out, like it was nothing new or strange at all.

Heading out this morning was definitely something I had to work myself up to.

This is the temperature after I was done; -26C/-15F with a wind chill of -42C/-44F I don’t even try to switch the memory card on the sign cam right now. The batteries would be frozen, anyhow. I did do the gate cam, though. We definitely need to get more of this solar powered type. The batteries on that still read 100%. It’s being powered entirely by solar – though it does need clearing of frost or snow, frequently! If this were one of they kinds where the solar panel charges rechargeable batteries (which many trail cams specifically say not to use) instead, it’d be dead right now.

I’ve been making a point of putting out most of the kibble in the sun room instead of outside these days, with various impromptu containers scattered around, so as many cats can eat at the same time as possible in there. I’ve also been topping up their food in there more often, and adding hot water to the frozen water bowl, to melt the ice and they can drink without having to go outside.

When I went outside, I found there was still kibble on the roof of the cat house – no surprise they don’t want to eat there right now! – but there was also a surprising amount in the kibble house trays. The trays under the water bowl shelter, however, were empty. They seem to prefer eating under there, which I am surprised by. There’s little to cut the wind under there, but it is a less open space, I suppose. I find myself wondering if we should modify the kibble house to make a “second floor” across the middle. That would enclose the kibble trays more and give them more of a sense of security, and we could maybe even add more kibble trays to the top, so more cats can fit in there and not be fighting over space around the food.

Something to think about, for the summer.

Meanwhile…

While the large water bowl had its usual crown of frost around the edges, the small one was completely frozen across the top.

The bowl is still working; there was plenty of liquid water underneath, but the cats couldn’t get at it!

So I took this bowl and set it up in the sun room, where I could plug it in. There’s no outlet in the sun room, so we have extension cords going through the window from the old kitchen. Usually, I use the two outdoor power cords, one of which powers the cat house, and the other powers the ceramic heat bulb in the sun room, but there’s also a household extension cord that was here when we moved in. It was run up and around the door frame, and I’ve been using it to charge my baby chainsaw (battery powered pruner). That puts the water bowl well away from food bowls, but that’s okay. Plus, I still topped up the broken heated water bowl, which just had ice in it.

I did see flashes of the little soot sprite. I’m afraid my last attempt to catch the tuxedo bitty has made him even more nervous to come out when I’m in the room. Normally, I’d try to lure it with treats or wet cat food, but with so many other cats around, that can’t really work. I’d be fighting off too many other cats!

Well, it’s supposed to start warming up tomorrow. We’re supposed to have a high of -17C/1F. After that, things are expected to keep warming up, though not as much as earlier forecasts were predicting before. It’ll still be almost balmy, compared to today. The yard cats will likely be running around outside a lot more, so I hope that will give more opportunity to catch the bitty tuxedo – and maybe Broccoli! Yes, they’re old enough to wean, but it would be so great to reunite them with their mama!

Well, it’s time to start getting things set up for tonight. It’s going to be a very quiet Christmas, with just the four of us, and I’m quite happy with that.

I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and may 2023 be a year of peace and joy for you all!

The Re-Farmer

Cat status – a rough night!

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So… I didn’t get much sleep last night.

The fact that we can’t keep the littles inside baby jail, because they can climb up to where the openings are larger and squeeze their way out, is making it more difficult.

First, the good news.

Walnut has adapted very quickly.

One of the few times I drifted off, I woke to feel something small against my leg. I was able to grab my phone and use the selfie setting, with flash, to get this picture and see who it was. It took a few tries, but the flash did not wake her up!

Walnut is all over the room. In fact, she’s been making it hard to work on this post, because she keeps climbing me, or trying to walk across my keyboard. I have a brief respite, as she leapt from the back of my office chair onto the top of the baby jail. It has a couple of strips of cardboard and towels over 3/4 of the top. The towels were to help calm down any cats inside, but the other cats like to use it as a bed now, and their feet keep pushing the towel through the cage, so I added the carboard.

The bitty tabby, however, is having more difficult. It’s shy around me, plays with Walnut, and keeps going after the other cats. These kittens are used to having a lot of other cats around them, without much issue. Walnut in particular would be used to being part of a cuddle pile. The bitty tabby was just getting used to that when we brought her in. Plus, of course, she is looking for a mama to comfort nurse.

Marlee has been in a state, ever since the littles arrived. Most of the nice, she was growling and snarling, even if they weren’t near her. She’s been batting at them if they come too close – and even snarling and growling at me when I try to calm her down! She’s spent most of her time in her new favourite spot on the rolled up blanket near my bed, but she also liked to spend time loafing in baby jail, or under my vanity – both spots the littles have taken over.

Cheddar has been good, overall. He’d come in and immediately sniff at whichever kitten was nearby – usually Walnut – and even give them kisses. Walnut responded to Cheddar by immediately nuzzling him and rubbing her shoulders against him. That was too much for him, though, and he was soon asking me to open the door to let him out!

Leyendecker has also been all right, for the most part. At one point, I’d turned the light on to see what Marlee was snarling at, and found him on my office chair, as usual – but with Walnut curled up with him! He couldn’t tolerate that for long, though, and soon left the chair to her and went to sleep on my bed.

Butterscotch… is Butterscotch. She is done with kittens. Wants nothing to do with kittens. She’ll ignore them, but if the come too close, she’ll start hissing. The problem for her is, once she goes down to the floor to get some food or something, the bitty tabby comes running, and that gets her really upset!

Nosencrantz spends most of her time on her favourite spot by the ceiling, but when she did come down, she ended up under my foot stool. It’s a favourite spot, normally, because it’s kept right next to the heat vent, which the bitty tabby has discovered. It also is a good hiding spot. The bitty tabby tends to run under there when I move around, but Nosencrantz started snarling and batting at her every bit as much as Marlee.

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz both ended up at the top of the shelf to get away from the littles. Which was fine, until…

… Leyendecker jumped up to get away from the littles, too.

Butterscotch was NOT happy!

One of my daughters took over supervisor duty while I did the morning rounds, and she ended up having to kick Leyendecker out.

Meanwhile…

… still no luck in snagging the other bitty.

What an adorable little soot sprite!

If we could get Broccoli, too, that would be fantastic. She could stay with her babies longer, and even Walnut would enjoy her mothering. Broccoli has been letting some of the white and greys nurse, too, even though they are so much older and not her kittens.

I now have Walnut on my chest, attacking my face and the end of my braid.

She’s sharp!

Anyhow… Where was I?

I’ve been making a point of…

…

Oh, dear.

Walnut just tried to run away with my braid. It didn’t work and she fell onto the floor. Now she’s back, trying to attack my braid, and face, again!

What a little beast!

As I was saying… I’ve been making a point of leaving extra food in the sun room, so the cats don’t have to go outside to eat. The adults and the cattens don’t have too much issue with going out to eat. Especially the long haired ones. The littles would rather stay in the sun room, which I want to encourage. At least until this cold snap passes. Hopefully, that will also make it easier to catch the last bitty – and maybe even Broccoli.

I don’t think Marlee would be happy with the additions, but at least it would only be until the end of the year, when the Cat Lady will come for them.

The Re-Farmer

Good company

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If you’re going to have someone invade your space while you’re in the bathroom, you can’t do better than David.

He loves that sink.

He fills that sink!

What a chill, laid back, precious boy!

Then there’s these guys.

By the time I’m done my morning rounds, the outside cats have finished eating and are settling into their favourite spots to hang out. The littles just love sitting on top of the board the heat bulb’s fixture is attached to! They don’t hang out under the bulb, which you’d think would be warmer. They like to be above it!

While doing my rounds, I did a bit of shoveling, but the snow is deep enough, we’re going to have to clear the driveway. Not because it’s too deep to get out, but because I don’t want it to accumulate too much the next time it snows.

We’re supposed to get more snow today – 97% chance of precipitation – and a high of -11C/12F this afternoon. The next two days are supposed to have highs of -16C/3F, which still isn’t too bad. It’s the wind that’s going to make it miserable. After that, we’re supposed to start going below -20C/-4F, or close to it, probably for the rest of the year – depending one which app I look at. Another tells me we’ll be around -10C/14F during the week around Christmas, which is about half what my desktop app tells me. Well within the 30 year average, either way, so not a major concern. It’s January and February that are typically the harshest. The AccuWeather website has long range forecasts all the way to March 16 and, according to them, January and February are going to be downright tropical, compared to the last few years! If they’re right, we’ll be warmer than -10C/14F for most of those two months!

I’m not counting on that. 😄

It’d be nice, though.

I was happy to see the road seems to be well plowed. I say “seems to be”, only because everything is so glaringly white, it’s blinding. We’ll have no problems getting out anywhere, if we need to.

With the Christmas and New Year’s holidays coming up, it changes when my husband’s disability payments come in. CPP Disability, which typically comes in just a couple business days before his private insurance payment, will be coming in on the 21st. Which means (weather willing) that’s when I’ll be making a trip to the city for what will not only be our last Christmas dinner shop, for the fresh things we won’t buy in advance (we don’t really buy gifts anymore), but it will be our first large shop for January.

I’m not looking forward to shopping so close to Christmas, but it does mean we will probably not need to do any sort of major trip again until next year.

We can go back to turtling into our shells again!

The Re-Farmer

When I look up…

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… while sitting at my computer, this is what I often see.

She loves that spot!

The problem is, other cats like that spot. Especially Leyendecker. Every now and then, he’ll go up there and, even if he’s just lying on the lower spot beside her, she starts stressing out and backing off – and has fallen right off the shelf, several times!

Silly Anxiety Bear.

Ginger has gotten very difficult to get pictures of! If his head is anywhere near my hands, he will grab my hand and pull it to his head, so I can scratch his ears for him, and he doesn’t care if there’s a phone in my hand, as I try to get his picture! 😄

The snow has continued, off and on, all night. There’s about 6 inches/15cm in most places. Very light and fluffy snow, but deep enough that it’ll be worth breaking out little Spewie to clear the paths and driveway. By tomorrow morning, we’re supposed to get another 5-10 cm/2-4 inches of snow.

We’re at -7C/19F right now, and are expected to get only a degree warmer, with one more relatively mild day before the temperatures start to drop. We’re at the edge of a large system that’s slowly spinning counter-clockwise, and most of the severe weather is at the south end of our province, and in the US.

At times like this, I really appreciate that our “job” is to take care of this place, and we don’t have to commute anywhere.

The Re-Farmer

Roof all done, a Muffin update and…

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… my brother is insane.

He sent me the photos he took of the house and roof today. This is one of them.

That’s the step ladder he set up, to fix the broken guy wire on the antennae. I added the arrows; the top one is where he had to thread the replacement wire through, and the bottom one shows the broken wire on the roof. With the wire broken (the roofers were so focused on their job, they never really noticed the wire for what it was), the pipe post was being bent into a curve.

After looking at the pictures, I realized that I noticed the post was bent some time ago, but didn’t see that one of the guy wires was broken. I remember wondering why it was bent, then promptly forgot about it.

I’m not typically afraid of heights. My biggest problem with heights is that, any time I look down from high up, I feel like my glasses are going to fall off. But looking at that ladder, and seeing where he had to climb to thread the replacement wire through gives me the willies!

The roof is now done. The crew stayed until it was completely dark, cleaning up around the house and playing Tetris, trying to fit everything into the back of the truck. The truck has an extended cab and a short box, which made fitting the ladders a challenge! Only one of the guys had come in to eat, so I went out to make sure they came in for food before they left. Knowing they’d want to head home as soon as possible, I dug out some take out containers, if they wanted. I had just finished doing that when one of the guys came in and asked about the possibility of having take out containers! So that worked out perfectly.

In the morning, I will walk around and get what pictures I can from the ground. I look forward to seeing how it looks, though it’s snowing right now, so I might not actually see the shingles very well. 😄

Meanwhile, I was able to keep in touch with the cat lady and worked out when we would meet tomorrow, to bring back Big Rid and Muffin.

Then I got a message asking if we’d intended to keep Muffin.

I told her, no; she’s available for adoption, but since she needs treatment, she would likely end up an indoor cat with us, and not go back outside. Once they come inside, they don’t go back out. The problem is, the other cats aren’t liking the new additions and are causing problems. Muffin, on the other hand, gives no F’s about the other cats and settled right in during her one day indoors.

Well, long story short, Muffin isn’t coming back.

We’ll be getting a different cat, instead!

The cat lady has completely fallen in love with Muffin. She’s incredibly sweet, and the cat lady is wanting to keep treating her, herself. She doesn’t like calicos and doesn’t like female cats (ha!), but Muffin is apparently very much like Cabbages, and has already wormed her way into the cat lady’s heart.

They do, however, have a problem cat.

This other cat had been left behind when the owners moved away, and was an outdoor cat for the last 2 years (the vet thinks she’s about 2 1/2 years old). The cat has not adapted well to being indoors, at all, and has spent the last several months hiding under her husband’s desk, almost never coming out other than to eat and use the litter. She likes other cats okay, but is constantly scared. They don’t want to let her outside, of course, because they live in the city and they are afraid she might get hit by a car, but she is absolutely miserable, inside.

The cat lady knows the set up we have, and as much as she hates to do it, she hoped that we’d be able to take her in with our yard cats.

Of course, I said yes. After all the help she’s given us, it’s the least we can do! I did tell her, though, that there’s no guarantee that she won’t simply take off once she’s outdoors. We can use the sun room as a transition space to get her used to the idea of this being a safe place, with warm shelters, food and water. Aside from a couple of cats, the yard cats have been very accepting every time a new batch of kittens showed up, as well as any strange adults. Even The Distinguished Guest is accepted, though he’s one of the cats that tends to be aggressive towards others. But once outside, we really have no control over what she does. All we can do is make the idea of staying close to the house as positive a thing as possible.

Mind you, we might be able to get her to be okay indoors, here. We shall see.

So when I meet with her tomorrow, we will be bring back Big Rig and a stranger!

I also got more information about Plushy and Princess. They are going to the same family, but not the same household. There’s the family with kids and right next door is Grandma. They’ll probably be able to visit each other! 😄

Meanwhile, after we collect two cats tomorrow, she’ll be picking up a bunch of polydactyl kittens that the RM was wanting to shoot, so she’s going to have a houseful! I’ve found that polydactyls tend to get adopted out rather quickly, though, so I would not be surprised if she finds homes for them soon. They’re going to be getting quite a bit of vet care, first, though.

Which means tomorrow will be another run-around day for me. I plan to leave early enough that I can pick up a few things, like litter pellets, before meeting the cat lady, so that I can go straight home once the cats are loaded up, while also taking advantage of city shopping.

At least, for now, I’ll have one day at home before I have to take my mother’s car to the garage! After that, I hope I won’t need to go out again until we have to do the last bit of shopping for Christmas dinner and New Year’s.

I really look forward to turtling at home again.

The Re-Farmer

It’s been that kind of day

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There were so many things I was supposed to get done today, including a trip into town.

Instead, we’ve all been like this.

Yup. Even the cats are feeling it. One of my daughters is still pretty sick, and I have yet to see her today at all. The other is working on commissions, but is also finding herself dragging through the day. My husband normally struggles to stay up during the day, between his pain levels and the medications, and he finally gave up the fight and has gone to bed. It’s all I can do not to curl up with the cats on my bed and snoozing.

Like these guys.

The outside cats are even feeling it! I hate having to close them out of the sun room for the night, after luring them out with their second feeding of the day. Some of them ended up overturning a garbage can and were making a mess. At least I know they can’t get into the bin with the kibble, but if racoons get in, they can literally tear the bin apart, as they’ve already done with the old bin we had to replace because of them.

I really look forward to when we’re past winter solstice, and the days start getting longer again.

The Re-Farmer