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!
As I write this, Ginger has been dropped off at the vet, and should be in the middle of surgery to amputate his busted up arm.
He was in very good spirits this morning, though I don’t think he was too happy about being on a fast!
A spice girl, checking out the spice boy! Saffron, meet Ginger! :-)
He wasn’t too happy with all the other cats circling around him in the cage, though!
After his surgery (if all goes well, he will also be neutered), he’ll be isolated in the sun room for however long the vet says he should be kept there. We’ll take the opportunity to introduce him to some of the inside cats, since they are going to be his new family.
Right now, we are waiting for a call from the vet to let us know how things went, and to come and get him. I will update as soon as I can!
Thank you, again, to everyone who was able to help out!
Well. Maybe Big Rig, in this case. I am sure David and Keith are not responsible for the latest damage.
I had issues with the small tank being used as a greenhouse for the bunching onions. With cats trying to get at the seed trays through the back, we’ve been diligent about catching them coming even close to that tank and chasing them off.
Unfortunately, with this tank having its hard lid with just a couple of openings I’ve had to block off, it’s been too moist in there. Yesterday, I spotted mold starting to grow on the egg carton trays and onto the peat; one patch on each tray, closest to the front, where there is the least air circulation.
So I took the mini fan out of the big tank and set it over the opening in the back of the small tank. The seedlings are getting big enough to need a fan on them, anyhow.
Several hours later, I came back to find the fan on the floor, the lid askew, and one of the trays half on top of the other.
*sigh*
This is what I’ve done.
I took out the box that raised the trays closer to the light. They’re now just a few inches from the bottom, on top of 18 count egg cartons. That puts them lower from the light than I would want them to be, but they are now also out of reach. I also turned the trays, so the areas with the mold were to the back instead of the front.
I had already replanted some of the plugs with more bunching onions, from the last time a cat messed them up. I still have some seeds left, so I could replant more, but some of the cells in the trays are so badly damaged, they’ll no longer hold the peat. I’ll see how it looks over the next few days, then decide if it’s worth replanting more. These poor seedlings have taken quite a beating!
Apparently, we only managed to train the cats to stay off the tank while we are not around to see them. :-/ I’m pretty sure it’s just one cat. I’m just not sure which one!
After doing as much damage control as I could, I was happy to find everything still intact by morning. One of my daughters accompanied me to the city to do the second half of our monthly shopping (though we only went to one place, so I’ll still need to get more cat litter and kibble, but I will go to the smaller city for that). When we got back, everything was still intact. Also, putting the fan on seems to be solving the mold problem. It’s barely visible now.
Oh, you might notice a single tall blade of green growing out of one of the trays. We have one growing in one of the trays in the big tank, too. They are oats! The peat bale was stored near the deer feed in the sun room, so a few seeds managed to fill into the packaging. When I used the peat, I did take out the ones I could find, but clearly missed a couple!
As an aside, the van’s check engine light is still on, but it’s behaving beautifully. While I thought the mileage was getting worse, based on watching the fuel gauge wile I was driving. Yesterday, it seemed to be dropping way faster, but during today’s drive, we burned about as much gas as I would have expected. When I checked the onboard computer, the average mileage has actually improved since before the EGR valve was replaced. Which I would expect, but it was still a bit of a surprise. If the valve were stuck, fuel efficiency would be expected to drop. So far, so good. I’ll have to talk to the garage about giving it a quick check, and manually resetting the codes.
But that will wait. We got back from the city early enough that I’ll have time to hit the post office while picking up more deer feed and bird seed.
Oh, that reminds me. Potato Beetle came over while I was doing the cat stuff this morning. When I first saw him, I was rather alarmed by how dirty the wound area was; just plastered with plant matter and …
… then I realized it wasn’t the wound area. Just near it. Potato got himself into a patch of burrs! He wouldn’t let me pull them out, but I did get to check the wound, which is looking noticeably better. And so is he!
When I did my rounds this morning, I did let him out of the sun room. I figured it would be good for him to stretch his legs and … do things. (The litter we had for him looked unused, but that plant pot was knocked over again…) He followed along as I did my rounds, but wasn’t looking to happy about things, so I carried him back and closed him up in the sun room again. The fur around his wound was looking damp, but I couldn’t tell if that was from him licking it, or if the wound was seeping.
Shortly before we headed out, I got him into the carrier and brought him into the house.
Which had the other cats VERY interested! He didn’t make a sound, though, and just sat there.
Cabbages and Beep Beep would have been familiar smelling cats. He might not remember Susan, Two-Face, Cheddar, David or Keith, though. Or Fenrir; when she showed up here, he was one of the kittens among the two litters that absorbed her into the family.
He wasn’t too happy with the car ride to the vet. The vibrations from gravel road in particular seems to spook him. My daughter took him in while I waited in the car (I have no idea if the vet honours mask exemptions, and I really didn’t want to deal with it if they didn’t). He was given a thorough examination, the wound was shaved and cleaned, he got a rabies shot, just in case Nicky the Nose (the only cat that we’ve seen that would do this to him) is infected, plus the slow release anti-biotic. Overall, he checked out well. Since he is willing to stay in the sun room, we will be keeping him indoors for a little while. If possible, we are to keep the wound clean with a damp cloth, but that’s it.
He is now back in the sun room and seems content.
Even with the wound shaved, it’s hard to see in the photo! When the light hits it, though, you can see that it is bright, bright red.
We’re expected to get some colder overnight temperatures coming up, and while he’s got a cozy set up in the sun room, we decided to dig out the light attached to a board that my brother used under the kitchen sink, to help keep the pipes from freezing when the house was empty over the winter (the kitchen has no heat running to it, so it was the one vulnerable spot). We later used it to keep the water bowl from freezing when we had the sun room set up as winter shelter for the cats. I switched out the light bulb for the spare ceramic terrarium heat bulb. It’s now set up facing the food and water bowls, and the nearby box nest we made for him. It’ll be just enough to keep the edge off in a small area, but that’s all he’ll need. We could probably do nothing at all; while we are at -8C/18F outside, the sun room is above 10C/50F. His little box nest would be even warmer. But we have the means to safely give him some warmth, so why not?
I’m glad that he checked out okay. Plus, it cost much less than we expected, which is bonus. We’re so used to the high cost of getting a cat fixed, it seems weird that other services they provide cost so much less! The main thing is that he’s healing up nicely, and is doing well. That’s a relief! :-)
In other things, I updated yesterday’s post about the pressure canner my sister in law found for us. Click on the link for more details, but the short version is, even though it was in the canning section and being sold as a canner, when she checked the instructions, there was nothing about how to use it for canning! We’re going to keep it, anyhow. It will be used! Meanwhile, we’ll still keep our eyes out for a pressure canner that is affordable. It’s not a big deal if we don’t get it this year, but we will eventually need one.
Getting a chainsaw is higher on the priority list right now. ;-)
Don’t they look so sweet and innocent, snuggled together?
Don’t believe them. They lie!
They are devious, destructive beasts! :-D
Okay, okay. I don’t think Cabbages and her “grandma” are the guilty parties responsible for this.
The tank’s lid has an opening at the back for the filter, cords, etc. I’d blocked it off, but some cats – and I think at least two are guilty! – still managed to get a leg through a gap to reach the trays below. Juuuuust enough to scratch up the cardboard edge and dig up some of the peat. I finally put a piece of the rigid insulation under the lid, cut wide enough to cover the opening in the back, but narrow enough to not reach the light fixture attached to the underside of the lid.
Can you guess what the clever little monsters did next?
They figured out how to open the little flip-top door in the front of the lid, that was used to drop fish food in!
I’m pretty sure we’ve lost some sprouting onions from this.
If you look closely in the photo, you can see white specks in the peat. Those are little curled sprouts, pushing their way through the peat!
I ended up putting a weight on top of the little door, but with the back blocked off, and the little door once again closed, there’s no air circulation in the tank. The glass started to fog up! So I’ve created a small gap in the back slot that I hope the cats will not try to get through.
It takes a lot of determination for a cat to be able to reach these trays! They really, really want to dig in that “dirt”.
