After what he’s been through, I think he deserves it! :-D
I only saw four members of his outside family this morning.
Nutmeg has a habit of body slamming the kibble container as I’m filling the bowls, sending kibble flying everywhere! :-D Such a silly boy! I even got to pet him and Rosencrantz this morning.
Now if we could just get Creamsicle Baby and his cousin to let us come close. :-)
Oh, we got a call from the people who came to look at Two Face and Susan a while back. They’ll be coming over this evening to pick up Two Face and bring her home. They were originally going to pick her up on the way to an appointment for their dog, but had plans to do some visiting after and didn’t think she would like being in the vehicle for so long. So they’ll get her on the way home, and take her to a vet in a town closer to where they live.
Which means that, tonight, we’ll be back down to 16 cats in the house.
Time to update the posters to adopt some of the others. We still have another seven available for adoption.
Ginger, of course, is staying with us, and we’ve decided to keep his sister, Cabbages, and Beep Beep. Beep Beep was my dad’s cat, and I just can’t bring myself to adopt her out! :-)
Ginger was playful this morning, and I was able to get a lot of pictures.
Some of them even turned out okay. ;-)
Last night was the first night we did not close the outer cats out, and I’m happy to say there were no issues. I think he spent the night in his favorite spot in my closet. :-D
In the morning, though, he came out and demanded attention!
I was not the only source of that attention.
Turmeric decided to check out her cousin, and yes – grooming happened! Yay!
Turmeric is a couple of months older than him, yet he is so much bigger! Her sister, Saffron, is even smaller. At only about 9 or 10 months old, he’s already looking like he’s going to be a big, burly boy! Maybe not the big slab of meat Cheddar grew up to be, but certainly as big as Keith. We’ve already had times when we’ll look over to see an orange cat curled up and thinking, “Aw, Keith is so cute! … Hold on. That’s not Keith!”
His aunt came over to give him a sniff, but he was far more interested in tackling my hand and chewing on my thumb.
He’s actually quite good at “chewing” without actually biting.
He was quite enjoying the comfort of a bed for humans, rolling around all over the place while his Aunt Beep Beep watched over him. He’s already heavier than she is, but Beep Beep has always been a tiny one.
Ginger has been busy, claiming the house. He’s been going into the basement, where he has discovered the fantasy land of food bowls and litter boxes. :-D He even joined the crowd when the girls gave them their wet cat food. He’d pretty much ignored the wet cat food we gave him when we first brought him into the sun room to await his surgery, but this time, he actually ate it. So far, I think the only place he hasn’t explored yet is the second floor.
The down side of his exploring is that he decided to jump up onto the dining table this morning. My daughter and I were nearby and managed to get him off without startling him too much, only for him to jump out of my daughter’s arms, back onto the table, skittering about, knocking over and breaking a large glass mug, before jumping down to the floor.
*sigh*
Ah, well. He’s still getting used to things.
We’re pretty blown away by how active and mobile he is. He has adjusted very well to the loss of the leg, and is doing pretty well adjusting to the indoor life, and all the new cats around him, too.
It’s a lot hard to get pictures of Ginger, now that he’s joined the inside clan!
I was able to get this one, last night.
The other cats had been lured away, leaving Ginger and his new mouse on my very, very hairy bed.
He loves that mouse! I didn’t realize when I bought it, that it has a pull string to make it vibrate. :-D
Once again, we kept the other cats closed out overnight, to avoid any potential hassles while we were asleep.
Ginger has discovered the comfort of those things the crazy humans sleep on. :-D Several times, I woke in the night to find him cuddled up against me. He can jump up onto the bed himself, which is good. Later this morning, I found him going to explore in the basement, so stairs aren’t a problem for him, either.
I almost got to pet his brother and aunt this morning, but they were much more interested in the kibble!
His other brother photo bombed me, while I was trying to get a picture of his cousin! I am so tickled that I caught him while airborne! :-D
I’m happy to say that all the kitties seem to be doing quite well. :-)
Ginger has had his first day in the house, and it’s been interesting!
The first thing he did was claim the cat bed on the bottom of my closet. It’s a favorite spot for quite a few cats, but it’s now all his!
Which seems to work out, since the other cats are far more interested in his box nest than him!
For the night, we closed him up with me and kept the other cats out. Which meant being awakened several times during the night, by cats scratching at my door! Usually, I’ve got at least half a dozen on the bed with me. ;-)
Ginger has been boldly curious about the rest of the house, though definitely cautious around other cats. Being a yard cat, this translated to him being the aggressive one, growling at the other cats if they come too close. Which could be on the other side of the room, at times! Since he has only one front leg to defend himself, he’s taken to flinging himself onto the ground rolling onto his back, and using his one front leg to bat vaguely at any cat in reach. The other cats, meanwhile, are just curious and want to sniff him. So far, there hasn’t been any aggression from them, though some are certainly more laid back about him than others. I suspect it won’t be long before he joins the daily cat pile on my bed. :-D
I’m happy to see him already trying to explore the house. We’ve transitioned other yard cats that too far longer to get to that point! He was able to take the two steps between the old and new parts of the house without any problem. He has yet to discover the stairs to the second level or the basement, yet.
When he isn’t curled up in his new favorite corner, he is remarkably active and agile.
And yes, we did get him his own catnip mouse today. Which he did play with enthusiastically, until his sister, Cabbages, stole it from him! :-D
The loss of the leg is hardly slowing him down at all!
Ginger had his trip to the vet to have the sutures removed. My daughter ended up holding him in her arms so the vet could do it, as he did NOT want to get out of the carrier!
He didn’t want to get out at home, either. :-D
It was not easy to get pictures of him!
The stitch removal went well, though the vet lamented that she’d tied them so tight, making it harder to take them out! :-D There was only one slightly raw spot that got a dab of Polysporin on it. Aside from that one spot, the redness that can be seen in the picture is from the stitch removal. He is recovering very well.
We brought him into the house, and into my bedroom/office/craft room.
It’s a big room, and has a door that closes, so we were able to move in his litter box, food and water bowls, and even his box nest, along with the warming pad.
The other cats were quite curious and milling about, so it was quite understandable that Ginger wanted to stay in the carrier! The cats were actually more curious about the other stuff brought in. Like the food bowl. You’d think they were starving and didn’t have food anywhere else in the house! They were circling the food bowl like hungry sharks, pushing each other aside to eat. Silly kitties!
After a while, we shooed them out of the room, leaving Ginger with my younger daughter to watch over him for a while. We’ve since allowed the other cats in. Ginger found the laundry basket converted to a cat bed I have in my closet, and that’s where he’s hanging out.
We’ll shut the other cats out again for the night and give him more time to get used to his new surroundings, a little at a time. We’ll keep food and water for him in here for a while. For the other cats, that’s all set up in the basement, but I think it will be a while before Ginger can navigate stairs!
So far, none have been aggressive towards him. The only hissing has been from cats that sometimes hiss at other cats, too, so it’s not a new thing.
It should be interesting to see how he adapts to his new surroundings, and his extended feline family! Cabbages is his litter mate, brought in before she could go into heat and get pregnant, while Nicco is his big sister and only survivor from Butterscotch’s litter born indoors, earlier that year.
Every now and then, we would bring one of the inside cats into the sun room to visit with Ginger.
It hasn’t been very productive.
Most of the inside cats have either never been in the sun room, or happened to dash in for a few moments before we could stop them. Which means that when we brought one of them in, they were far more interested in exploring, than checking out the new cat in the room.
Yesterday, I brought in David.
David is a slightly different case. He actually spent quite a bit of time in here, while it was set up as a “maternity ward”, with Beep Beep, Butterscotch and their kittens. However, the only reason he was in there was because we found him in the yard with his mom, with eyes so leaky and glued together, he was easy to catch. So was his brother, Keith, though Keith’s eyes were not as bad. We were never able to catch his sister, Junk Pile kitten, because her eyes were healthy and she kept running off.
Bringing him in for daily eye washes and eye drops got to be a bit much, so we simply kept him in the house. It was a while longer before his brother joined the indoor clan.
So while David’s not unfamiliar with the sun room, he was pretty much blind the entire time he was in it. So he did spend some time exploring, but was more relaxed about it, and more curious about the new addition. They didn’t do much more than sniff each other’s noses, but there was no animosity, hissing, growling or anything. They were pretty chill about the whole thing.
This morning, it was hard to get good pictures of Ginger! He got very interested in the bottom of the door, where the outside cats were milling about, waiting impatiently for their kibble. Then he went into rolling mode! :-D He did let me pick him up for a bit, but he was too energetic and playful to cuddle.
He gets his stitches out this afternoon. Then he gets introduced to the great indoors. :-D
Here are his mom, brothers, aunty and cousin! The little calico wouldn’t go for the food while I was there, so I didn’t stay long. I actually got to pet Ginger’s Aunt Rosencrantz and Nutmeg this morning. It’s amazing what they’ll put up with when there’s food involved. ;-)
Usually, I leave the doors to the sun room open while I feed the critters, and the outside cats are free to go in and out for a while. They seem perplexed that they can’t do that right now. Ginger, meanwhile, wanted to play with the cat on the other side of the door! I could hear scratching from the outside, so they were trying to play, too.
Ginger had to settle for me playing with him, instead. :-)
One more day, then he gets his stitches out and, unless the vet says otherwise, he’ll be joining the inside cats. :-)
That discolored patch turned out to not be a smear, nor a stripe of darker orange fur. It’s starting to peel away! It may actually be some damaged skin that’s coming off as his fur grows in. Weird.
The little irritated bits between some sutures no longer look irritated.
I think he will be very happy to have those stitches out!
Oh! I just have to share this photo of something I spotted while feeding the critters.
In a small patch of open soil, I found a hoof print.
That’s a deer print. The concrete block is part of the sidewalk in front of the main entry steps.
Ginger does love to roll around! He doesn’t seem to mind a bit of spilled water in the way, either. :-D He was quite happy to let me pet him, as I went in and out to feed his brothers.
Nutmeg actually let me touch him this morning, and even skritch his head a bit – but not until there was food in the bowl!
Gosh, Creamsicle Jr. looks ornery! :-D
Even their calico cousin came by for eats.
Would you call that a calico? I don’t know. I am fascinated by the fact that the patches of both grey and orange fur have tabby stripes in them.
With the high winds we had in previous days, I actually shifted the kibble house to have the back facing south, instead of being at an angle to the cat’s house. We had so much wind from the south east, it was actually blowing around the smaller kibble bowls. I had it an an angle because I wanted the space in front of the entry to the cat’s house more open, but the whole point of it is for the cats to be sheltered while they ate, and that wasn’t happening!
Ginger actually let me pick him up and cuddle with him after I fed his brothers and cousin. I even tucked him into my coat, though it wasn’t anywhere near chilly enough for it. He was a bit restless in my arms shifting about until he was curled up on my chest, with his head hanging down. It made it easier to give him head skritches, which he really, really liked.
Then he started licking my hands! He went into full grooming mode. Apparently, my fingers and wrists in particular, are very tasty. :-D
What a sweetie!
I think I spent about half an hour, cuddling with him before I had to head out again, and he was quite happy with the attention. He was also up to jumping down himself when I stood up, rather than waiting for me to put him down.
Day after tomorrow, and he’s at the vet to get the sutures removed. :-)
He’s still doing very well. Last night, my husband spent some time in the sun room to keep him company. I think it’s the first time he’s seen my husband! He did allow for some scritches, but did not otherwise come close. Plus, he really likes his spot under the heater bulb.
This morning, he was quite active, and my daughters had to keep him away from the door when I had to head out to feed the outside critters. He wanted outside again!
We also turned the new warming mat on, with an hour on the timer. It’s been positioned so he can sit on it while eating, so even after it turns itself off, he has a nice, soft butt warmer. ;-)
Through much of the winter, there was a lot of kibble left in the bowls outside when I came out to refill them in the morning. So much so that, some days, I didn’t add any more at all.
No longer! For the past few days, I’ve been finding the containers completely empty. Not a crumb left! When I come out the door in the morning, the cats come running from all over, eager for food. Even the heated water bowl was completely dry this morning!
Judging from the smell I’ve noticed some mornings, I suspect we have some stripy “kitties” showing up at night, having a snack. Since adding that board across the front of the kibble house to keep the containers from being knocked out, they have a harder time getting at the kibble, but they still manage. I’ve stopped adding kibble to the bowl just inside the entry into the cat house, until we have a chance to open it up and tidy things. The container in there is upside down, with cat mats bunched up on top. This morning, I found one of those mats outside the entry. I think it got pulled out while critters were digging around in the entry, trying to find every last bit of kibble that was spilled onto the floor!
The outside cats are seeming more skittish than usual. Not even Butterscotch would come near me, and when I get too close to the kibble house, they’d all bolt. Only Rolando Moon would let me touch her this morning, and that was only because she thought I was bringing out food! Creamsicle Jr. (in the above photo) has become more skittish for some time. Which I’m sad about, because we had been able to at least touch and pet him, once in a rare while, over the summer.
The mostly white cat in the above photo has always been skittish, though. Nothing has changed, there!
Rosencrantz looked like she was stalking her baby! :-D
It was good to see as many of the outside cats as I did, but there are some missing faces still, and I am starting to think they won’t be coming around anymore. :-(
That’s just how it goes on the farm, and we’ve had many cats simply stop coming round in the years we’ve been here – Beep Beep, Butterscotch and Rolando Moon are the only ones left among those that were here when we moved in, and they were all among the cats my late father took care of. The males, in particular, disappear faster as they range further out. I can hope that they’ve settled in on another farm somewhere, but … well. That’s not very likely. At least the females tend to stay where they know there are safe places to have kittens and there’s a reliable source of food. They let the boys all come to the yard to see them, rather than going further afield themselves. ;-)
Another reason to turn Ginger snap into an indoor cat!
This morning, I went ahead of my daughter to visit with Ginger, so I could first give the outside cats some warm water.
There was a slight delay on that.
Since we took the extension cord that was providing power to the cat house, so it wouldn’t be in Ginger’s way, the heated water bowl is no longer heated. And it got chilly last night!
So I decided to quickly pop into the sun room to give Ginger some warm water first, and the little bugger actually managed to get outside!! Thankfully, he didn’t get too far, and I was able to get him back into the sun room. His food bowl was empty, so I topped that up to tempt him away from the door.
We can give him normal amounts of food and water now, too.
My daughter joined me with his medications and we took care of that, then she stayed with him to make sure he didn’t run outside while I fed the critters, returned the containers, and got her to pass me one of the 100ft extension cords, before she could finally close up the outside doors to the sun room and safely leave.
I then plugged the 100ft extension cord to the outlet on the side of the house, ran it across the entry, making sure it was tucked under the door, and plugged in the cat house.
We shouldn’t need to keep power into here for much longer!
That done, I quickly finished my rounds, then headed into town. We decided to go ahead and buy a surgical shirt for Ginger, rather than make one.
Which is when things got weird.
When I opened the door, I was immediately greeted by a dog in the doorway. His two humans were just finishing up and on their way out, so I held the door for them to come out.
The dog insisted on more pets, so that took a little while.
Which is when one of the staff came over. She had recognized me and was all “this is the person I was telling you about! The one with the poster…” They still have posters with the kittens we have for adoption on there. The woman held up a paper where I could see a hand drawn map, saying “we were just on our way over there!”
Now, the first thing that came to mind is, who at the clinic knew where we lived enough to draw a map?
The next thing to come to mind was, having people suddenly show up at our gate might not work out too well. So I quickly suggested they wait until I was done, then they could follow me, which they agreed to do. As soon as I was done getting the surgical shirt, I sent a quick message to the family, letting me know someone would be following me to look at cats to adopt. I didn’t have time to tell them any more than that!
So off we went, with them following me, until we reached the gravel road. It’s incredibly dusty, as well as lots of rocks showing through the gravel, so I drove slower than usual. Even so, I noticed after a while, that they didn’t seem to be following me anymore.
I stopped on the side of the road and waited for the dust to settle and, sure enough, they were well behind, and looked like they were in the process of turning around.
??
They seemed to see that I had stopped and starting heading my way. They caught up to me and we stopped alongside each other to talk.
Her first comment was, “I think I’m following the wrong person!” They thought they were going to somewhere in town, to the humane society. That’s where their hand drawn map was for.
What we eventually worked out is that, while at the clinic, the person at the counter had told them about us having cats to adopt, as well as the humane society. I mentioned we’d never been able to get through to the humane society, and she said they’d told her that at the clinic! So it looks like they thought the staff member was telling them I was with the humane society. After confirming that yes, we do have fixed female cats up for adoption, they continued to follow along.
The gentleman was older and not up to getting out of the vehicle, so I quickly went in to talk to whatever daughter was around. Susan was near the door, so I took her out while my daughter went looking for Two Face.
Susan hasn’t been outside since she’s been fixed, other than one very brief escape attempt in the winter.
She really wanted to be outside! I ended up having to put her down, hoping she would be too nervous to go far, but nope. She was ready to explore! I managed to catch her again, but had to bring her inside at that point.
My daughter had Two Face, so I grabbed her and headed for the door.
The woman saw us through the window and her immediately response was, “oh, I like her!!” One look at that beautiful face, and she was in love.
Two Face was also a lot calmer, and we were able to bring her to the car for the gentleman to see her.
The main problem was, they had their dog in the back. I have no doubt the dog would have been fine, but Two Face would probably be too nervous.
We spoke for a while, and figured things out. Two Face is due for her annual shots, and their dog has to go back to the clinic in three weeks. They’ll make an appointment for both of them, then call us to let us know when that will be. They have a cage they can put Two Face in, so they’ll come here first, with the cage, then take her to the vet for her shots. Since the clinic has Two Face on file, they can transfer her file to them at the same time, and they will take her home from there.
Unless something happens in the between now and then, Two Face will finally be adopted out!
It was really weird, but it worked out in the end!
The Re-Farmer 