We had some concerns about a red spot on the incision showing up, but it seems to be almost gone now.
Beep Beep is one of the cats we’ve been allowing in to “meet” Nosencrantz and Butterscotch, even though she tends to be one of the meaner cats. Butterscotch has snarled at her just like any other cat that goes by, but Beep Beep has been pretty laid back about the whole thing.
Doing the morning rounds today was surprisingly painful. Yesterday was colder, but there was pretty much no wind and bright sunshine. I did the shoveling without even wearing gloves. This morning, though we were at a much milder -19C/2F, the wind chill was -32C/-26F. It still is the same as I write this, several hours later. That wind burns!!!! My fingers got colder in the time it took to set out kibble and water this morning, than in all the time it took me to shovel, yesterday.
We had snow all night, but not a lot of it. Mostly lots of wind. The bulk of the system passed to the south of us. We still have blizzard warnings, which is supposed to hit us tonight and through tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get 10-15cm/4-6in of snow and high winds. They’re not saying we’re supposed to get a high of -9C/16F, but with 42km/h winds (26mph), it’s going to feel a LOT colder!
Looks like we’ll be digging all the paths out again.
Potato Beetle is still in the sun room. My husband spent some time cuddling with him, because he was lonely. Potato Beetle, I mean. Not my husband. ;-) That gave me the chance to get a good look at the wound on his neck.
I got a better look at the older wound on his forehead, and that’s healing up quite nicely. He’s managed to clean himself up, so there was no longer a big dark patch of dried blood on his neck and ear. I also could not find the wound! I could feel a small lump on his neck, but not see anything but a bit of matter fur. Potato Beetle let my husband skritch his neck in the area, so it’s clearly not hurting him. This is encouraging. From the size of the blood patch, I thought he might need stitches, but it looks like he lucked out again. The last time we thought he might need stitches and took him into the vet, he had several puncture wounds on his back leg – likely from a coyote – but did not need stitches.
This boy has probably used up a few of his nine lives!
Still, we’ll see about keeping him in the shelter and safety of the sun room for a bit longer.
Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are still being kept apart in my bedroom/office (which is about twice the size of the sun room they just spent 2 weeks in), but we are allowing some of the more chill cats in and introducing them.
Nosencrantz will sometimes hiss at cats when they come too close, but not always. Lots of tentative sniffing going around. Then I put Nosencrantz next to David, and she lay down beside him, all snuggled up, for a while.
David is a favourite snuggle cat. It’s not unusual to find two or three other cats using him as a pillow, or mashed up against him.
Butterscotch, on the other hand, has discovered the laundry basket bed in the corner of my closet, and moved right in. The few times she’s come out, she’s tucked herself under a chair and snarled at any cat that comes into view. Which seems to confuse the other cats, because they typically didn’t even notice her until she made noise. However, if I am petting her as they go by, she is fine and even allows some sniffing to happen.
The forecast we had for things to slightly warm up turned out to be completely wrong. Early this morning, we hit -40C/-40F, and that was without the wind chill. So I waited until things “warmed up” to -27C/-17F before I headed outside. I hoped the cats would stay in their shelters longer if I did that, but no. They were outside, waiting for me, when I came out! They are made of sturdier stuff than I am!
Nutmeg is tired of winter, too!
I got word back from our mechanic about our van. It’s going to need a new alternator and, after taxes, we’re looking at close to $600. So that’s going to have to wait until the end of the month, and we’ll have to juggle our budget to pay for it. Until then, we will thankfully be able to use my mother’s car.
This morning, I decided to move it from the addition on the garage it gets parked in, and into the main garage area where the van is usually parked. Where her car is, the doors don’t open well, one of them is breaking, and it barely fits. We pull in closer to the inner wall, which means if I have a passenger, they have to get out before hand, because the door can’t open. The outer wall has shelving and a counter against it. I park at a bit of an angle, so that I can open the driver’s door enough to get out comfortably, without the door hitting the edge of the counter. If we have anything to unload in the back seat, it has to be unloaded before doing into the garage.
Which is a distraction that can lead to forgetfulness.
After clearing the snow and opening the doors, I discovered I made a dumb.
I forgot to plug in the car.
No surprise that it wouldn’t start.
I plugged it in, then continued clearing in front of the garage. It’s just light snow, but not something I want to build up.
Because we are now getting blizzard warnings, too!!!
Today is Thursday. Apparently, it’s supposed to start snowing tonight, and keep snowing through Saturday, when it’s supposed to warm up to -12C/10F, and get as much as 10cm/4in of snow.
*sigh*
Before heading inside, I tried starting my mother’s car again. It sounded better, but still wouldn’t start, and I didn’t want to push it. It sounds like the battery is frozen. My mother’s car has a block heater, battery warmer and trickle charger, so it should just need a bit of time. I’ve left the south facing doors open, so that the sun can warm up the black car a bit, and will try again later.
I can’t believe I forgot to plug it in. :-(
This is not a minor thing.
Years ago, while living in BC, my husband and I rented a car to surprise the family with a Christmas visit. The rental car didn’t have a block heater; no rental place we called had cars with block heaters. We stopped for the night in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, when temperatures plummeted to -61F/-78F with the wind chill. Much to our surprise, it started in the morning, but broke down soon after we reached the highway. This was in the days before cell phones, so my husband got out to walk for help. Stupid dangerous, but he got picked up by a tow truck. We spent another 3 days in Swift Current, waiting for the car to thaw out in a garage, before finally taking the train the rest of the way. We eventually learned that the engine block had cracked in the cold.
Thankfully, we haven’t hit temperatures that severe, but it can still do damage. And with the van at the garage in town already, this is our only transportation.
After coming back in and talking about it with my husband, he told me something I hadn’t known. My FIL had forgotten to plug in his car, the night my MIL had a brain aneurism, shortly after New Year’s. They didn’t live far from the hospital, but the car wouldn’t start, and he had to wait for an ambulance. Given the circumstances, it would have made no difference if he’d gotten her to the hospital sooner, but for a long time after that, in the winter my FIL would regularly ask my husband if he remembered to plug in our vehicle.
This is not something to take lightly. Especially when living as relatively isolated as we do, now.
I will give it a bit more time, then try and start it again. I’m supposed to go into town to pick up some things at the grocery store today. Before the blizzard hits! We’re running low on cat food again.
*sigh*
February is always the hardest month of winter. Everyone is so tired of the cold and snow by then. This year, we had those few really warm days that teased us with hints of spring. Looking at the long range forecast, immediately after the blizzard is done, temperatures are supposed to drop again, then slowly get milder through into March.
So Nosencrantz has adapted pretty much instantly to being inside.
She just could not get enough attention from my daughter!
Butterscotch was a bit harder to get inside. She kept hiding in different places in the old kitchen. We tried luring her with food, catnip, her favourite bed from the sun room… no go. We really needed to get her out of there, though, as this room has no heat source, and who knows if it has any insulation. Back in the day, it was kept warm in winter with the constantly burning wood cookstove.
Eventually, she tucked herself into the corner of a shelf, and my younger daughter was able to reach her. Some pets and ear skritches, and Butterscotch eventually came out. We managed to quickly get her into the cat carrier and brought her in to my room.
Now, we’ve tried to bring Butterscotch in before, which she hated so much. Whether it was in the sun room, when we turned it into a maternity ward, several years ago, or when we turned the new basement into a maternity ward, with the intention of turning both her and Beep Beep into indoor cats, it was a disaster. Tearing through a screen door is one thing. Killing her own kittens was a whole new level.
As an outdoor cat, she had her moods. She did allow attention, and liked to be carried, but she was not a cuddly cat. She was not above suddenly deciding to get mean, either.
So… who is this, then?
Once in my room, she started looking around, and let me pick her up and put her on the bed.
That was several hours ago. She has yet to leave it.
Not only that, but when I sat to pet her, she snuggled her head into my hand, using it as a pillow, while I pet her, purring mightily. She even rolled onto her back, giving me the best view of her surgical scar we’ve had since we got her spayed.
Once we were done petting her, she just curled up and stayed on the red blanket on my bed that is a favourite spot for most of the cats. Not even napping, really. Just lying there, content and purring.
Who is this cat?
Since she’s been inside, we have allowed Fenrir into the room. Fenrir was curious about Nosencrantz, they sniffed each other, and Fenrir growled at her. Which is typical Fenrir.
Butterscotch watched from her spot on the bed, and that was it. I suppose it’s possible they might remember each other, since Fenrir showed up as a kitten and got adopted by Beep Beep and Butterscotch, letting her nurse with their own kittens, but it was more Beep Beep that took care of her than Butterscotch. It’s been a few years since they’ve seen each other.
As I sit and write this, I can hear Nosencrantz checking out the door. She wants to go out and explore.
Butterscotch is now asleep on the red blanket.
It should be interesting to see how they do, during their first night inside. I suspect Nosencrantz will try and get into all sorts of things.
The way things are going, I might wake up to Butterscotch cuddles!
So, before we discovered issues where happening with the sump pump, our morning was pretty routine! :-D
The piebald deer was back again. Later on, I saw our usual pair coming by, and I think a singleton that’s starting to come by more often.
While puttering around the kitchen and heating up water for the outside cats, I spotted this camouflaged at, watching me through the window!
Inside cats, watching outside cat! :-D
I count fourteen in this photo.
I’m seeing Potato Beetle regularly again, and that wound on his head is looking like it really doesn’t like the cold! He won’t let me look to closely, though. :-(
With Butterscotch and Nosencrantz transitioning indoors, I’ll be able to leave the sun room doors open behind me while doing the morning rounds, again. Agnoos and Tuxedo Mask miss going into there! :-D
This is the usual pair of deer that come by every day, sometimes several times a day. Yesterday, they were coming close, even as they could see me shoveling snow. This morning, the little one was comfortable enough to actually lie down!
Unfortunately, I ran out of feed. Hopefully, my mom’s car handled the cold snap all right, and I can use it to run some errands today.
Hopefully, we’ll also get word on the status of our van!
I just had to try and get a picture of Beep Beep, who jammed herself in between her babies, Layendecker and Big Rig. She moved while I was talking the picture, so it’s not as clear, but Layendecker is at least double her size!! He’s more than double her weight. Hard to believe she grew this boy. :-D
The outside cats were out in full force this morning!
I count 15 in the picture. There was one more that ran out of camera view. With the two in the sun room, that’s 18. Rozencrantz and Ghost Baby are not in sight, which means all are accounted for. Even The Distinguished Guest, whom I was able to pet, while putting the food out. :-)
Tomorrow is supposed to get even warmer than today’s high, but we’re also supposed to get another 5-10cm of snow, so if we’re going to get any errands done, today is the day!
We have not had an update on Cabbages recently, which means she has been doing well. The last news we had was posted here.
If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.
The cold temperatures are hanging in there, but the outside cats seem to be doing quite well.
I often see them running around on the security camera live feed. I do wonder, though, about the times when I see half a dozen of them, all running back and forth on the driveway at the same time! :-D
Nosencrantz and Butterscotch remain in the sun room. Technically, we can let them out now, but with these temperatures and their shaved bellies, that wouldn’t happen, even if we weren’t considering bringing them indoors permanently. With Nosencrantz up for adoption, it would be just easier that way. Butterscotch… we’ll give it a try again. She came out when I set fresh food out for them, but didn’t really want attention, and kept moving away when I came near. Unlike Nosencrantz, who will happily accept being picked up and cuddled!
We’ve talked about bringing them in and have decided to wait until after the spice girls, Saffron and Turmeric, go. They are booked for their surgeries on Feb. 23. We drop them off in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the afternoon, where they will be delivered to the fosters that are ready and waiting for them, to recover then be adopted out. With Cabbages unexpectedly leaving when she did, we now have 15 cats in the house. It’s probably not a good idea to make it 17, when two more are leaving in such a short time. I’m sure Nosencrantz will handle the transition just fine. Not so sure about Butterscotch.
It does mean we will be visiting them in the sun room as often as we can, and providing them with more toys to keep them happy.
Beep Beep looks like such a kitten in this photo!! Hard to believe she’s a minimum of 7 years old. It’s also hard to believe that such a tiny cat made such big babies. Cheddar and Layendecker, who are a couple of years apart in age, didn’t start big, but both grew into such hefty boys. They totally dwarf her. Even Big Rig is bigger than she is, though they are so much alike, I often get them mixed up. Only Saffron remains smaller, while Turmeric is almost caught up in size.
Beep Beep and Fenrir have recovered so well from surgery, I forget they even had it, until Beep Beep starts rolling and I see her belly.
Fenrir doesn’t roll like that. Ever. Checking her belly is a two person job.
I wonder how well Beep Beep and Butterscotch will remember each other, when we try bringing Butterscotch indoors? For all we know, Butterscotch is her mother. They’ve shared the parenting of litters every year we’ve been here, with Butterscotch more than happy to leave her babies with Beep Beep as much as she could. I’m sure they’ll remember each other at least a little bit, even if they haven’t seen each other in almost 2 years. Whether that means they’ll be friendly with each other or not, is anyone’s guess! :-D
And is living the high life! She’s getting a salmon fillet every day, as well as boiled chicken and high protein dry cat food. It takes her about 2 hours to eat everything, and she’s getting lots of weigh-ins. She gets tired very quickly, which the vet thinks is a side effect of the neurological infection. She also has her very own tiny human and to dote on her, and massaging her legs, every day. She also has a new name, but we will keep calling her Cabbages, here. :-)
She will be with them a while longer, until after she recovers from getting spayed, which will be later this month, I think. Then she will be moving on to her forever home.
They have done so well by her!
If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.
I’m happy to say that Beep Beep and Fenrir are now at home, recovering nicely. They did very well at the vet today.
Once I lifted Fenrir onto the bed to remove the bandage on her “wrist”, she settled right in, and is still sitting there as I write this.
Beep Beep, on the other hand, has been constantly in motion! I was told she had a bit of a panic when the IV was removed, and she was pretty vocal for the ride home. They are now isolated in the room with me, and she’s only just now settled down on the bed, though she is sitting and staring at the door with great intensity!
It took a while to get that bandage off of her!
We’ve got different instructions than with the outside cats. Water only for now, then a bit of food to see if they can handle solids yet, this evening. Starting tomorrow morning, we have a pain killer to give them. The dose is based on weight, which they highlighted on the package in different colours. Beep Beep is over 3kg, or about 7 pounds, while Fenrir is just barely over 2kg, or about 5 pounds. I did ask about her small size, and if it should be a concern, and was told no. She is just a small cat. As for the pain killer, we have a syringe to administer it – a much smaller one than was we used to feed Cabbages!
If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.
We can put the medication on their food, but only if we’re sure they won’t eat each other’s food, which… ha! Not going to happen. So we will dose them directly into their mouths.
Beep Beep is not going to like that!
It should be interesting to see if she has a “catonality” change, like Butterscotch did, after this surgery.
Once I got the call telling me when to pick them up, I left early to run some errands first. One of them was to pick up the soft sided carrier used to transport Cabbages to the cat lady for medical car. This time, it did make it to the donation bin at the shelter – and I was happy to see actual donations in there, too. Last time, it was empty.
I was also able to connect with our mechanic and talk to him about our brakes on the van. I told him about what the garage in the city told me, and then the warning light turning on the next day. He thought there might be some water in the fluid, and asked me to drop it off so he can check it with his tester. Once he does that, he’ll be able to tell me more, and give me an estimate. The estimate will determine if we can get it fixed right away, or if it has to wait until the end of the month. February, at least, is a short month! :-)
I’ll also be able to give him the printout and we can talk about the other things they listed as needing to be checked out, and make any future appointments needed, as the budget allows.
I’ll be dropping the van off the day after tomorrow. He did suggest tomorrow, but the girls have their own shopping list for a city trip, so I’ll be driving in with one of them, using my mother’s car. It’s due for a highway run, anyhow.
Tomorrow, we still have a forecast of 1C/34F. Today, we warmed up to at least -8C/17C. The thermometer in the sun room reached 8C/46F, so that was quite nice for the kitties in there! And now, even my other weather apps are showing a high of 3C/37F, a few days from now. If we do get that warm, it’s going to feel downright tropical out there! :-D
This morning, a daughter and I took Beep Beep and Fenrir to the vet, which meant doing the morning rounds a bit earlier.
At least it’s light out, now.
The heated water bowl was empty again.
Because Beep Beep and Fenrir needed to fast, I had them closed up with me, overnight. Which meant I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I had cats trying to claw the door open from both sides! When I made the mistake of going to the bathroom before going to bed, I had Beep Beep escape, dashing down to the basement. I caught her before she ate anything, though. Then I tried to get her back into the bedroom, only to have Fenrir escape. I caught her, only to have Beep Beep escape again, and she was NOT going to let me catch her! I finally had to snag a daughter to catch her, then hang on to her while I dashed into the bedroom, grabbed Fenrir and held on while my daughter quickly tossed Beep Beep onto the bed before any other cats got in.
I had only one carrier in the room with me, but that was enough for me to be able to get out of the room long enough to grab the second one, this morning. I had both carriers on the bed, with Beep Beep in the hard sided one (where she was trying to claw her way out!) before doing the inside cat morning routine and warming water up for the outside cats. Before heading outside, I went to move the carriers closer to the old kitchen door for later.
When I walked into my room, I found Beep Beep and the carrier gone from the bed.
!!!
I found it on the side of the bed, sitting as if it had been placed there. :-D She had managed to roll the carrier completely off the bed, and it landed right side up!
The plan was to do the critter part of my morning rounds first, then get my mother’s car started and warming up, so I made sure to hang my purse inside the sun room, so I could just grab and go.
It’s a good thing I did.
The old kitchen door into the house hadn’t latched properly behind me. Looking in from the sun room, I found it crawling with exploring cats!
Thankfully, my daughter was able to take care of that, while I went to my mother’s car – after scraping away more ice and snow, just to be able to open one of the doors wide enough – and getting everything ready so we just needed to grab the cats and go.
The drop off went well, with my daughter taking the time to warn them about some of their quirks. We just happen to be bringing two of our “meanest” cats this time. :-D
I still haven’t been able to connect with our mechanic, so we swung by the garage to see if I could talk to him about our van. Unfortunately, though it was supposed to be open, he wasn’t there. He’s on his own, so if he has to get anything, there’s no one to do it for him and he has to lock up. :-/ Hopefully, we’ll get another chance, later.
Once we got home, I was able to spend more time with our recovering kitties.
Nosencrantz doesn’t like to leave her favourite spot under the light bulb. It burnt out last night, but I found one last full spectrum bulb in our stash of incandescent bulbs – this light is meant for seedlings, not cats! :-D – but it’s brighter than the old one, so I wasn’t sure if she’s still like it. She clearly has no issues!
Butterscotch, meanwhile, has switched favourite beds! Usually, we find her in an enclosed box bed on the bottom shelf, but now she’s gone up a left and has been hanging out in the open bed. We’ve also been finding her loafed under the ceramic heat bulb more often, too.
She accepted pets, but had no interest in leaving her bed! :-D
Meanwhile, we have already heard back from the vet. They were checking details about our arrangement with the organization that’s helping us with all this, in regards to the shots and deworming and the like, as was arranged when we brought in Butterscotch and Nosencrantz.
Beep Beep had already been done and they were about to start on Fenrir. Since I had her on the phone, I brought up what they had found with Butterscotch, and how far gone her uterus was, and if there was anything similar with Beep Beep. It was quite a bit larger, and looking a bit worn out, just from having to many litters, but it was not so badly damaged as Butterscotch’s was. We don’t know how old either of them are, but I think we can now safely assume that Beep Beep is the younger one. For all we know, Butterscotch is her mother.
So we will get a call back later, to let us know when they can be picked up.
Meanwhile, the cat lady messaged me last night, with a reminder to have Beep Beep and Fenrir start their fast. While I had her, I asked about Cabbages.
Yesterday was her last day on antibiotics. Yay!! She’s eating quite a lot now, and today, she be moved out of the cage, to their “cat room.” In a few days, she will have a buddy joining her. That would be the more recent frozen cat they picked up, that lost its ears.
I’m just amazed by how quickly she’s bouncing back from being at death’s door the way she was!
If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.
So now we are just waiting for the call from the vet, for when we can bring Beep Beep and Fenrir home. Since they are both inside cats, we won’t have to do any isolating, but we’ll be keeping a litter box, food and water in my office/bedroom for a while, so they don’t have to go far.
The next trip to the vet, in a couple of weeks, we’ll be taking cats in, and they won’t be coming back. The cat lady will be taking them to fosters for recovery, and then they will be adopted into forever homes. As she’s able to book dates with the vet, we’ll keep doing that for the rest of the adoptable cats (the males are already fixed, as is one female) through March and April. By then, we should be able to start snagging outside cats, starting with the ones we can catch easily (which all happen to be male). Then, once it’s warm enough to do so safely, she will lend us traps for the outside cats that we haven’t been able to socialize at all.
It’s going to be weird, to not have so many cats around!
We got some wonderful updates on how Cabbages is doing today, and I am beyond thrilled.
She has regained 2 pounds!
At her lowest, she weighed in at 1.65kg/3.63lb, and today she weighed in at 2.55kg/5.62lbs
I don’t think she ever weighed as much as 3kg/6.6lbs to being with.
She is still on medication and is not allowed out of the cat cage she’s kept in, unless she’s being held. She should soon be allowed out to wander around, though.
Next month, she will be getting spayed by a special vet, due to her neurological history. She will then spend 2 weeks with the cat lady and her family, before moving on to her forever home. She will be living with someone who has been in the animal care industry for 44 years!
Which means Cabbages will be with the cat lady and her family for at least another month. I’m just blown away that they took her – and her unexpected expenses! – on without hesitation, and fought so hard to keep her alive. The costs must be well over the $1200 she last mentioned to me, and not a penny of it is from the organization she is associated with. They would have contributed to the euthanasia cost, though. :-( Cabbages was such a very sick kitty, it’s amazing she was able to pull through!
The cat lady has never asked for anything in return, but she and her family have been so amazing. Even her 5 yr old spends time with Cabbages, every day, making sure she eats and massaging her legs.
*melt*
I do want to do something for her and her family, though. That is why we started the fundraiser, which is to be a surprise to reimburse her for most of the costs. I’m sure the final total she’ll be spending on Cabbages will be more than the $1500 goal we have set. We’ll be contributing as much as we can ourselves, too, of course.
If you would like to contribute to the fundraiser for the awesome cat lady that saved Cabbages, you can go to our Ko-fi donation page.
(There is supposed to be a donation panel under this paragraph. I see it in preview, but not when I publish. Please let me know in the comments below, if you see a donation panel. Thanks!
Update: trying a button this time. Do you see it?)
This fundraiser is intended to be a thank you surprise, so she knows nothing about it or this blog. Since it’s a surprise, I’ve carefully cropped these photos she shared with me today, to remove any identifying features.
Just look at her! She’s looking almost like she did, before she got sick!
The poor little thing has been through so much, in such a short time. It just amazes me, how quickly she is bouncing back. Care is still being taken, of course, and I do wonder what sort of permanent damage she may have sustained. Particularly since it was her brain that was affected.
She may have some company with her, soon. The cat lady mentioned she’d picked up another frozen cat today. It has lost its ears, but will be fine. Once the results of the blood work is in, and they get the all clear, it will be joining Cabbages. She will have a recovery buddy. :-)
