kindness

Progress, and kindness

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

My daughters are awesome.

I had gone to bed early last night. Exhausted as I was, I didn’t get as much sleep as I should have. Partly because I decatted myself to roll over, only to get hit with a Charlie horse.

Yeah, I over did it with the shoveling and snow clearing to get the truck out.

Still, I woke up before sunrise – early enough that I expected to be able to do the outside cat feeding, only to find the girls had already done it.

In this.

Yeah. That’s -31C/-24F with a wind chill of -41C/-42F It stayed like that for hours longer, too.

I got to stay in bed, covered in cats. Even Big Rig came over and crawled under the covers with me. Big Rig never does that with me. She is usually buried under the covers in my husband’s hospital bed! That, or loafed on a heat vent in the hallway. 😄

Still, it did eventually start to warm up. I was just settling down with breakfast before I planned to head out again when I got a message that a couple from the rescue group were on their way from the city with a kibble donate. It would be another hour before they got here, so I had time to finish eating before heading out.

The first thing I had to do was shovel away the blocks of packed ice and snow I’d cleared from the truck tires to get it un-stuck. Once I got anything that looked like it might break little Spewie, I dragged it out, along with the extension cords, so start snow blowing away the rest of the path.

I’d barely made three passes when I heard a little honk behind me. I’d already opened the gate, and a gentleman came over to confirm they were in the right place. I’d cleared enough that they could get through with their car as far as the garage, so I just stuck Spewie on a snow bank and moved the extension cords aside so they could drive in.

Then the started unloading the back of their car…

… and the back on the passenger side…

… then the back on the driver’s side, too!!!

I opened the tailgate on the truck to load things on, out of the snow.

It turns out someone had given the rescue a massive donation, and this was just some of what they got that they could pass on to us! Not just try kibble, either! There were three big bags of kibble, six smaller bags of fancy kibble, eight cases of fancy canned cat food, and a case of cat milk they thought we might be able to use.

What a treasure trove!

Yes, a lot of them are near their “best before” dates, but they are all well sealed, so they will be fine.

After the stuff was unloaded, I invited them to check out our shelters. As we were walking around, the lady noticed the collapsing log building by the fire pit and got all excited. Barn wood!

They want to come back in the spring or summer, so she can buy some. 😄😄 I’m quite happy with that offer, since we really need to clean out and clean up the collapsed buildings. If someone can make use of the antique wood, all the better!

After they left, I let my daughter know about the cat food in the truck, and she took it inside while I finished clearing the driveway.

You can see where the truck got stuck by the piles of shoveled snow and ice on either side. 😄

It wasn’t a large area that was left to do, but it was really rough. I had to be careful not to twist an ankle or fall because of the mix of hard packed snow and much softer snow. I was able to also clear the second side of the path to the trail cam. I started off with the snow blower, but the hard packed foot path was quite narrow. In the end, I got the shovel and cleared the non-packed side to make a safer path to the trail cam. The snow there was so much lighter, I was able to clear right to the grass!

I was also able to clear space to back into when leaving the garage, and widen the path towards the small gate on the chain link fence. That also cleared a decent chunk of the driving lane leading to the large gate into the yard.

Then I stopped for the day. I did not want to push myself too far. This would be the third day in a row of shoveling, second day with snow blowing as well. I have to remind myself not to do too much, or my body is just going to give out.

So I will work on the inner yard, tomorrow. That will be mostly the snow blower, at least. I didn’t even bother putting little Spewie and the extension cords completely away. They’re just set in beside the truck for the night. Tomorrow, I’ll run the extension cords through the back door of the garage to better reach the inner yard.

After that, it’s supposed to warm right up, even to above freezing, over the next couple of weeks. Not that I’m holding much stock on those predictions. Long term forecasts had predicted a mild February, until we started getting hit with Alberta Clippers and Colorado Lows. It certainly wouldn’t be unusual for us to get a couple of blizzards between now and the end of April.

As I was putting everything away, I was entertained by finding adorableness all over the place.

The smaller cats are really liking that collapsed cat cave! It’s right near the bigger heat bulb, so even though they’ve managed to flatten it, they’d still be getting some warmth from the lamp. Blot using Colby as a bed is just adorable. I’m glad Colby’s sister, Sprig, didn’t run away when I stopped to take a picture. That’s actually progress. I’m not sure if that tabby is Flopsy, the one we recently got neutered, or if it’s the female tabby that looks just like him that we weren’t able to snag.

By the time I got in, it was well past noon, and I’d been out there for at least two hours. Thankfully, we did warm up to a relatively balmy -21C/-6F, with almost no windchill. We’re under an extreme cold warning for tonight, though, when we are expected to hit -31C/-24F again. Wind chills are expected to hit anywhere from -40C/F to -45C/-49F

I was already stiffening up and made sure to take some pain killers, but my daughter had to make a lunch for me. I’m going to have to be really pro-active on the pain killers and anti-inflammatories tonight, so that I’m still mobile tomorrow.

In other things, I still haven’t heard back from the garage about the console display on the truck no longer working. I would really like to get that fixed before I go into the city for our stock up shopping, just in case it’s not just a fuse. There are just so many weird things happening with the truck, it has made me paranoid.

Ah, well.

For now, I’m going to make sure I get enough rest so that I’m good to go for finishing up tomorrow. If I haven’t heard from the garage by Monday morning, I think I’ll just go into town after picking up our packages at the post office and talking to them in person.

Little by little, it’s getting done…

The Re-Farmer

Goodbye, Bitty, and the kindness of strangers

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Well, it’s done.

Cheddar was willing to cuddle, but when Bitty started trying to get under him to nurse, it was a bit too much!

The cat lady now has the bitty baby. She plans to put him on antibiotics right away, since his eyes are leaky (I don’t include the lysine with the inside cats’ kibble). She showed me pictures of his siblings, which is when I discovered even more good news. When she told me she found someone who worked in a vet clinic willing to adopt Bitty, I figured this was someone different, but it turned out that this is the same person who is adopting the other two! This is someone who had lost her two cats after 18 years, not long ago. For her to now adopt three yard kittens from the same litter is just amazing! I had sent photos to the cat lady, so I’m guessing she at least saw pictures of him, but that’s it.

I had an extra surprise when the cat lady and I met up in town.

Another donated cat bed, more blankets, and 6 bags of kibble! Plus treats.

The cat bed will go into the cats’ house. Maybe the blankets, too. Those are knitted and donated by volunteers.

As for Bitty, he settled into the cat carrier and never made a peep until just before he got transferred over.

I gave him the hat he likes to sleep in to keep. I can make another one!

Previously, we had talked about getting the last 2 indoor females done, plus one outdoor male. The cat lady would have come to our place, driven them to another city, further away, to get done, then hung on to them for a week to recover, then bring them back here.

Clearly, something had happened, and she never got back to me on that.

It turns out that she’s been having issues with vets cancelling appointments, lack of communication, and even people she’s trying to help making it harder for her. Plus, vet costs are getting astronomical. There isn’t much we can do to help, but I can at least drive the cats to the local vet, or meet her in town like today. Apparently, this is not common. 😥 However, our sun room is now winterized, and our nearest vet has moved to a new, bigger, location, so we can take care of things like driving the cats to and from, and have a recovery room for them.

She also has funds left from a generous donation specifically to have cats spayed and neutered in the area – and where we live is considered “in the area” because we are willing and able to drive them to town. It turns out there is a sports celebrity that has a cottage in the area, and after she was the only person willing to come out to help a stray in -40C/-40F, this is his way of saying thankyou. As long as she spends the money on spays and neuters, he will be making monthly donations!

I brought up that, because we had so many kittens this year, we really need to focus on getting outside females done. Once she was assured that we had a place for them to recover, and that we could drive them in, she said she would try the nearest vet clinic again. If all goes well, we will get two females, then two males, done before Christmas – and before the real cold is expected to set in! I’m still holding out for a mild winter, but January and February are typically the most several months (and the reason we work to have at least a couple months of supplies in stock, in case we can’t get out!).

So she will work to arrange that, then get back to me, and we’ll have to work on socializing more of the females! Calicos and torties are almost always female, but they won’t let us near them. The white and greys are getting friendlier, but we’re having a hard time telling them apart, and only a couple are confirmed male. When the girls were tending the fire pit yesterday, they had cats all over them, and every now and then would pick up a white and grey kitten, only to realize it wasn’t one of the friendlies they were expecting.

A good excuse to get the fire pit going more often! 😁

The only down side is, certain mystery health issues came back with a vengeance. My breathing issues came back a few days ago and it doesn’t seem to matter if I’m sitting or standing, lying down or leaning. Even when I was helping my mother with her shopping yesterday, I had to pause a few times because I was starting to get dizzy and ill. I made sure my mother never saw it, though! Then last night, the mystery pain in my side suddenly hit me while I tried to get into bed, making it difficult to sleep even after the spasms were under control. The pain hasn’t gone away, and at times I am having trouble standing upright.

I should go to the doctor about it, but I don’t see the point. Clinics still have to demand masks, and I can’t wear a mask. I mean, who thinks making someone with breathing difficulties wear a breathing barrier makes sense? Never mind that it’s been repeatedly demonstrated to have no benefit, while causing plenty of harm. The other thing is, I was referred to a respiratory specialist over 2 years ago, and have still heard nothing. My mother hasn’t heard from the kidney specialist she was referred to, either. Unless it’s the Vid, or an emergency, people just aren’t getting health care right now, and those testing positive for the Vid are being badly damaged or killed by the treatment protocols. Frankly, I don’t think it’s even safe for someone like me – old, broken and fat – to go to a doctor right now. I could barely get taken seriously even before all this BS. Nothing like being sent to test after test, scan after scan, procedure after procedure, with all the tests coming back normal to have doctors start looking at you funny and suggesting it’s all in your head. If they can’t find it, it must not exist.

Bah. I’m just venting right now. I’m having trouble sitting up in my chair and breathing properly as I type this, and it’s distracting.

So, back to the topic at hand!

The Bitty is now away with the cat lady, and will be reunited with his siblings in a wonderful new forever home.

I’m going to miss him, but I’m so very happy for all the bitties!

The Re-Farmer