Well, I did end up going to town today with one of my daughters, with some of their own shopping to do. We got home just in time for a brief thunderstorm to pass over us. We’re still getting rain, off and on.
Meanwhile, I was chatting with the Cat Lady, as she passed things on to me once they were arranged. The woman who was looking for mousers was very excited that we had cats we could send her way soon. Three of them – Decimus, The Phantom and one of the older kittens; a black and white we’ve been able to socialize quite well.
We now have an appointment to have all three of them spayed. I will drop them off on the morning of the 30th, and the Cat Lady will take things from there.
So once we were home, I did the evening cat feeding and went looking. Still no sign of The Phantom, but the black and white kitten was lounging on one of the “beds” we have for them in the sun room.
I was going to bring her in but, just to be on the safe side, I checked.
Oh, dear.
There was too much movement, but I was pretty sure those were testicles.
I ended up getting my daughter to help. I held the kitten while she checked. Sure enough, she turned out to be a he!
There was another kitten, a grey and white tabby, we’ve been able to socialize quite a bit, so we snagged that one to double check, too. Confirmed female.
So I brought that one in.
The problem is, she’s too young to be spayed.
This is her with Tweedle Dee. There’s almost no difference in size!
She was pretty nervous about being inside, but I did the evening wet cat food feeding, and she was more than happy to have her very first taste of it! The other kittens were quick to check her out and wanted to play with her until the food came out. Once everyone was done eating, she explored a bit, and is now hiding under one of my shelves. Every now and then, a kitten will go over and try to play with her.
The adult cats don’t seem to have even noticed there’s an extra kitten in the room.
I spent some time outside, playing with the few kittens that will allow it – all confirmed males. With the other kittens, I just can’t get close. As for the adult cats, the only ones I’ve had any luck touching are Junk Pile and Caramel, both of whom look pregnant, and Beep Bop, who hasn’t weaned her nurslings yet – and her nurslings include Caramel’s three. It would be ideal to grab Adam and Brussel, who have the oldest litters. Adam is one of the creche mothers, content to nurse any kitten. Brussel won’t let anyone near her.
There is Broccoli, a calico. When she’s eating on the cat house roof, she will sometimes let me pet her, but usually not. She would be an ideal candidate. She is the mother of the calicos, Brussel and Sprout – Sprout is even shier than Brussel – and Phantom, the tortie. They all need to be spayed, but only Phantom is friendly. We’d definitely have to trap Brussel and Sprout. Possibly Broccoli, too.
*sigh*
Well, we still have some time. At the very least, I hope The Phantom comes back soon! I’ve updated the Cat Lady, but she hasn’t seen my messages yet, so we’ll see what she has to say. They may be able to take the kitten anyhow, and have it spayed later. It’s just that she made appointments for spays for 3 cats. We might bring TTT in for a spay, instead, though she will likely come back home later, even though she’s on the adoption list.
Speaking of TTT, I haven’t been able to get her into her coat, but I did get to look at her incision this morning. She’s going to have one heckuva scar in one part of the incision, I think. It’s still very red, but it’s staying closed. She has been spending most of her time in the closet cave, so it’s not being stressed at all, and air is the best thing for it right now.
Oh, my goodness! Things were very quiet behind me, so I took a look. Decimus’ kittens and Ghosty are all asleep together on my bed, Butterscotch sleeping beside them, but I can see the new kitten has settled on another makeshift cat bed on top of a bin, and looks like she’s taking a nap, too!
TTT had her trip to the vet and, generally speaking, all is going well.
Here she is, ready to come out of the carrier in the examination room.
She was quite content in there and didn’t come out on her own at all. When the tech came in, I had to take her out!
The incision site is a sort of Y shape. She took the staples out of one section without any problems, but it looked as if there were some leaking at some point, and a few were harder to get out than others. As she went on, there was a section she decided the vet should see, so she moved to the other end. There, the skin was sort of folded and tucked in. She moved things around and started to take out staples, and there was more skin than expected, as well as some gunk. There was also a floppy area that looked like it might have fluid in it. Or just be floppy skin (I actually have similar under my arms, from when I had by breast reduction but elected not to pay extra for liposuction under the arms).
The vet did end up taking the rest of the staples out. She doesn’t usually do staples. She had considered removing more skin during the surgery, but decided to leave things a bit looser, and a bit more got tucked in with the staples than usual. The gunk was just that; stuff that normally would have sloughed off naturally from the skin, but couldn’t. The incisions looked really red as a result, but they were all closed up and healing well. Everything got a good cleaning, and she got a slow release antibiotic, just in case. What the incisions really need right now is air. However, just to be on the safe side – especially since she likes to lie on that incision site – we’ll be putting her back in the coat she was wearing when we brought her home.
I did get a chance to talk to the tech about her refusal to use the litter. After asking some questions about what we use for litter, she suggested we try using a clay litter instead of pellets, as it would be more like the dirt she’s used to. Though she has no problems using the puppy pads next to the litter box! I’m willing to try it. We might just use both and transition back to pellets over time.
Overall, though, she got a clean bill of health, and the vet is quite happy with how she is doing. We’re all quite amazed by how calm and accepting she is, considering she hardly had any direct human contact at all until just a couple of weeks ago. I held her while the staples were being removed, and she was trembling like crazy, but she didn’t try to run away, didn’t meow or complain, or anything like that. At most, she squirmed around a bit and the vet brought the V shaped bed to make it easier for her.
When she was put on the scale, she actually settled down and stayed there while the vet went out to get the injection!
As for the puffy spot, the vet tried to see if she could get fluid out of it, and got nothing, so it’s just a floppy bit.
This is her in the carrier, back in the car and ready to go home. She was completely calm and quiet for the entire drive, and didn’t complain until I took her out of the car and carried her to the house. Once inside, she stopped complaining.
I’ve started to put the word out that she’s available for adoption, once she’s healed up. I figure another 2 weeks to keep an eye on her and the surgical site. She has certainly adapted to her situation really well!
The kittens are now at adoptable ages, so I’ve taken some new photos to pass on to the Cat Lady. All be putting the word out myself, but she has a lot more resources than I do.
Snarly Marlee will be very happy once the kittens are gone! TTT, too, though they don’t interact much and keep their distance. When it comes to the kittens, though, all she has to do is see them from across the room, and she starts growling and snarling at them.
Just hearing a noise behind me. It’s Nosencrantz.
I’d really like to know why Nosencrantz has suddenly taken to using the kitten sized litter pan all the time now, instead of the adult sized litter boxes!!!!
It’s a wonderfully cool morning today. The entire time I was doing my morning rounds, it was gently misting instead of raining. And would you look at this!
We still have strawberries, blooming and ripening! Recovering from being eaten by deer has resulted in very late production. I’ll take it! 😄
I wasn’t able to get pictures, but I did have a small harvest today. I wasn’t expecting to, so I didn’t bring my colander and ended up using my shirt. I really ought to keep at least one of our harvesting colanders by the sun room! I was actually able to harvest some ripe looking Black Beauties today, as well as a few Indigo Blues. I left the Romas for later. There were some more summer squash to hand pollinate, as well as a couple large enough to harvest.
In looking over the winter squash and the melons, I just have to shake my head. The melons have been blooming like crazy, with both male and female flowers, but there are only 3 melons forming that I can find. This morning, however, there are suddenly a plethora of female flowers! Too many to even try to hand pollinate. With the size of the flowers, I’d have to use something like a cotton swab, anyhow. Hopefully, the insects will take care of it, though to be honest, it’s coming up on the end of August, so not much time for any fruit to reach maturity. Our first average frost date is Sept. 10, but with the strong El Nino this year, we might actually have a chance.
As for the winter squash, there had been two new Honeyboat Delicata forming, then one shrivelled up. The remaining one is getting noticeably bigger, every day. This morning, however, one of the other plants suddenly has a whole bunch of female flowers! Until now, it’s been all male flowers. One was open enough that I could hand pollinate it. The others should open over the next few days. Will they have a chance to mature? During a typical year, no. It would be way too late in the season. But if the frost holds off… we might just have some.
On a slightly more frustrating note, I saw Junk Pile again this morning. This photo is from last night.
That is one round belly.
I saw Caramel walking by this morning, too, and she’s looking pretty round.
More kittens at the end of August/beginning of September?
Crap.
Junk Pile has had a strange year. She had a litter of kittens extremely early and lost them. For a short while, she would follow me as I trudged through the snow to do my rounds and allow me to pick her up and carry her. She was clearly upset about losing her babies. After a few days of that, though, she went back to making strange. She will sometimes allow me to pet her when she’s on the cat house roof, eating, but that’s about it.
I’m sure she had another litter, but not being able to tell her and not-Junk Pile (now Two Toes Tony) apart, it was hard to tell. Once we saw not-Junk Pile/TTT with scratching wounds behind her ears, we could tell them apart, so I could see that it was TTT had a litter of six, though by the time we found her with the broken leg, it seems she was down to three. I would sometimes see that Junk Pile had active nips, but I never saw her with kittens. If her kittens are here at the house now, I don’t know which are hers, and the creche mothers – mostly Adam and Beep Bop – will nurse any and all kittens by the house that want to. Beep Bop is often seen nursing Caramel’s three – so I guess it’s no surprise that Caramel is pregnant again, too, even though her kittens are not old enough to be weaned.
*sigh*
Now, on to the main change of the day.
I’m not going to my mother’s.
I was indisposed when the phone started ringing, and it wasn’t even 7:30 in the morning yet. We get only two types of calls before 8am. Scammers, or my mother! 😄 I found a message from my mother, sounding very conciliatory, saying I didn’t need to come over. I could go to my appointment. She would be all right. (As if I needed her permission to go to my appointment??)
So I called her back. She told me she would take the shuttle bus for her errands. I could go to my appointment. She’d be fine. It’s only $6. She absolutely insisted I did not need to come over.
Which is fine, but between yesterday’s call and her attitude this morning, my suspicions are almost confirmed. She didn’t want me to come at all, because she had plans for my sister. She can talk my sister into taking her places that I can’t – or won’t! – take her. Considering the things she’s been saying about my brother lately, I have a very good idea of what that would have been, and there is no way I would have had the time to drive her around for that. Also, even if I did, there are things she can talk my sister into doing that she can’t talk me into. I sometimes worry about my sister’s cognitive abilities, to be honest, because she got talked into helping my mother stab my brother in the back, and she still seems to have no understanding of the harm she’s done, among other odd things.
Well, whatever. My day just went back to my original plans.
Sort of.
A nap is now part of those plans.
I didn’t get much sleep last night. With TTT not using the litter, and peeing on my pillows, I think I found something suitable to block her preferred area. My husband got a wedge for his knees, years ago, but with his hospital bed, he no longer needs it. I brought it down from it’s storage spot and have it on my bed. I considered she might just decide to pee next to it or something, but she really seemed to be wanting to use my pillows, so I hoped it would work.
After being awakened many times by either the kittens running wild, or Snarly Marlee growling and snarling at them – even when they were nowhere near her! – I am pretty sleepy right now! I was, however, awakened yet again, shortly before my alarm was supposed to go off . A distinctive rustling sound.
Sure enough, TTT was under my desk. She’d dug around the puppy pads and took a dump, right next to the litter box.
At least it was on a puppy pad.
There was no puddle, however. I couldn’t find a puddle anywhere, which had me concered that she’d found some hidden corner to use that we can’t get at.
Then I sat in it.
I keep a towel on the seat of my desk chair. It’s fake leather and the surface has been peeling off, with more than a little assistance from cats. I have the towel so that I don’t have little pieces of fake leather stuck to my butt when I get up.
TTT had jumped onto my chair and peed on the towel.
With a litter box RIGHT THERE and easier to get to.
*sigh*
I’ll be sure to talk to someone at the clinic today about it, but to be honest, I suspect we won’t solve that problem until the kittens get adopted out. Too many kittens using all of the litter boxes.
I’d really like to adopt out TTT, too. She’s new to this indoor life thing, but I’m sure she would be better in a household with far fewer cats in it!
That white and grey kitten Beep Bop is nursing is not one of hers!
It took a while for me to even see the grey tabby beside her!
The second picture is of a pair of kittens I found in Baby Jail. I’m glad they’re comfortable going in there, because if we ever need to hang onto some kittens until the cat lady can pick them up, it will make things much easier!
Though I suppose we’ll need to buy another litter pan. 😄
The black and white one has been socialized enough that I can usually walk up to it and pet it, and even pick it up for a cuddle.
The white and grey one is among those I’ve never been able to get close to before. Today, however, I was able to reach in, and it stayed. I got hissed at, then my fingers got sniffed. After that, I was able to do ear skritches, and they were accepted! Yay!!! I couldn’t reach very far through the “door”, but it was far enough. 😊
One of the things I got done was to finally clean the eavestroughs on the garage. I was planning to do it after we pick up the small scaffolding we’re looking to buy second hand after next pay period. Far more stable and safe than the ladders we’ve been using. However, I could see all sorts of green leaves growing out of them, and on one side of the garage, it was starting to fall away from the eaves.
So, I got out the step ladder and managed to get it done. On the far side, where the trough was starting to fall away, I actually found worms in there! As for all those green leaves I was seeing, no surprise that it was almost all Chinese elm seeds that had germinated. There was a veritable forest starting in there!
We haven’t cleaned those eavestroughs since we moved here, which is almost 6 years now. I didn’t realized until today, just how long it’s been since they’ve been cleaned. As I was scraping the bottoms of the troughs, I realized the granular material on the bottom was from the original roof shingles. When I was a kid, the garage and the house had the same colour shingles. I used to play up on the house roof, so I remember the mix of grey, with a bit of blue and green, granules quite well. I even found the remains of a package of spare shingles, some of which we could even use on the kibble house roof.
The garage has a metal roof now. I don’t know when it was installed, but I know it was well before the youngest of my brothers passed away, so I’d say it has been around 20 years. Maybe 25.
I’m having a really hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that no one cleaned those eavestroughs out since before the metal roof was put on! My three brothers were all doing what they could to help my parents maintain the place. Surely at least one of them thought to clean the eavestroughs on the garage at least once since the metal roof was done! But there was no mistaking what I was seeing, or how much of it was there.
As for the sagging part of the trough, in one area the wood it’s attached to is so rotten, it can’t hold anything, but that’s not where it was sagging the most. I was able to just hammer things back in again. It was the sheer weight of all the composted material in there that was dragging them down. It should be just fine, now.
Now we just have to make sure we don’t let them sit for another… 20? 25??? … years before cleaning them again!
I got to see a whole bunch of irregulars this morning, and even catch and cuddle one!
Octomom brought her babies over for breakfast, though I only saw four of them. Three are at the tray under the water bowl shelter, with the tuxedo. There’s one that ran out of sight around the corner of the cat house.
I was able to catch and pick up the two black ones at the same time, but one got loose. I was able to hold and cuddle the other one long enough that it started to relax in my arms. When I put it down in the food tray again, it did not run away.
Unfortunately, so many kittens were trying to hide out in the same space under the entry to the cat house that they started to growl, hiss and scare each other. The other black one ended up running off to the spirea in full “I’m gonna make myself big” mode. Which made it’s gait rather … bouncy!
As I headed to the gate to switch out the trail cam memory card, I spotted this “stranger”. It’s very shy, so I had to zoom in quite a bit to get its photo.
This is one of Brussel’s kittens. I’ve seen two of them a couple of times, around the shed with the collapsed roof. Lately, I’ve seen only this one, skulking around the garage. Brussel has never tried to bring her babies to the kibble by the house, and they are among the oldest of the kittens. That they haven’t even come out on their own is pretty unusual, too. I’m hoping they are at least eating the kibble I’m still leaving inside the garage. That was originally for Octomom, but I kept doing it when I realized Brussel’s kittens were in the area.
Oddly, I’ve not been seeing a lot of cats outside lately. At least not all at the same time. When I came out with the food this morning, I counted a dozen, and only 3 of them were adults. More showed up later, but it just seems like there are a lot fewer cats than I would expect. Usually, when I first come out, they are swarming. Especially if I come out later, which I’ve been doing lately. I’ve been waiting until after we’ve given TTT her medications at 9am. Not only were there no cats swarming around, but there was still kibble in the food trays! Not much, but enough that I thought someone else had done the morning feeding, but no one had. Usually, if the cats don’t finish the kibble, the skunks and racoons clean out the trays by morning.
Not that I’m complaining. I would rather not be feeding skunks and racoons!
Oh, and while I was working outside this afternoon, I saw Caramel go by. She looks pregnant. Her kittens aren’t even weaned yet!!!
As for the inside kitties, I’m getting beyond frustrated.
Before going outside, I tried to find a way to discourage TTT from peeing on my bed. I found a huge spot on my bed last night. With the help of a daughter, I soaked up as much as I could with the puppy pads (I’m going through those fast, but they do a great job of soaking up the pee) before covering it with a fresh one, absorbent side down. Then we put fresh sheets on and rotated the mattress, so I wouldn’t be sleeping right on top of the absorbent pad. Then I started the laundry, which my daughters set in the dryer for me during the night.
She always pees in the same area, so this morning I ended up taking a larger skull Halloween decoration I had on a shelf and putting it there. I couldn’t find anything else that looked like it would work.
I came in from working outside just a little while ago, to take a break, upload photos and start writing blog posts. TTT was laying on my bed with a kitten, on their favourite folded up blanket and I pet her for a bit. I found the skull was knocked over because the kittens were playing in it (one kitten can fit in it, with room to spare!), but it was still in the same spot.. I looked around and everything was dry, so I straightened it out and went to my desk. I’d put a puppy pad over the new litter box under my desk, in hopes she would use that, since she crapped on a puppy pad right next to the litter box, instead of in the litter box.. I could see it had been peed on, but that could have been the kittens. I changed it out for a fresh pad. As I started settling down and uploading pictures, I could hear some noise and looked over to see the kittens rolling around in the skull.
TTT was hopping across my bed.
Yup.
There was a new pee spot.
Right next to where the skull was.
At least this time she didn’t get my pillow, but she did get my pajamas.
I didn’t even get my sheets from the drier from last night, yet!
My husband got those for me while I started taking off the sheets and soaking up the pee spot. I do have a mattress cover and, while it is pretty water proof, it’s not 100% waterproof, so I took that off for washing, too. There were already two other spots on the cover with puppy pads on them, and even the older one was still damp. I ended up finishing off a box of “Pet Fresh” carpet powder that I have for under my desk, directly on the mattress. I’m glad I ended up getting two of those, during my last shopping trip! The spots on the mattress aren’t soaking wet, thanks to the cover, but they are slightly damp and stained. I now have my fan going on full power to help get it dry.
It’s getting to the point I’m seriously considering going into the storage shed and finding that bag of mattress pads that belonged to my late father that I remember packing away. If I can lay some of those under my sheets, that would help save my mattress. The problem is, there are a LOT of bags, plus boxes blocking the way, to dig through.
I suppose I can understand why she didn’t go for her usual spot under the desk, since I was sitting at it at the time, but I’m flummoxed as to why she won’t use any of the other litter boxes. They even all had fresh litter in them! She won’t even go near them.
I ended up picking Roma tomatoes yesterday evening (more on that later), so there weren’t that many to pick this morning. Here is today’s morning harvest.
With the beans winding down, I might start picking them every three days, instead of every other day. It’s nice to be able to pick at least a couple of the Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes almost every day now.
Our volunteer sunflower has started to bloom, so went to take a picture. Just as I did, a bumble bee landed on it. It ended up under a petal, so I waited until it worked its way out before taking some photos.
It was not until I uploaded the photos that I spotted the tiny little spider!
Yesterday evening, when things cooled down, I got out the riding mower my brother spent so much time and effort to fix for us. For all the rain we’ve been having, most of the grass doesn’t actually need cutting. The south yards needed to be done. One half never got done last time, because of the weather, and the main garden area was also missed. Even then, things weren’t anywhere near as overgrown as it got in the spring.
I got the south yards done but skipped the west and north yards completely. Even the grass between the crab apple trees and the spruce grove didn’t need to be done, though around the trees themselves the growth is taller. I’ll probably do that with the weed trimmer, as well as the really rough section west of the squash patch.
When doing the old main garden area, I was taking it very slow and careful. There are a couple of more level areas where I can put the speed at the second slowest, but for the most part, I was going as slow as the mower can go. I’d done a fair bit of it when I reached a point where I stopped to shift from 2 to 1.
Nothing happened.
The mower simply stopped moving.
Previously, this happened when the drive chain would fall off, but the chain has been replaced. Also, there was no change in the sound that might have suggested there was a problem. It was running fine.
Then it wasn’t.
I’ll have to go back and see if I can get a better look under there. Maybe with my phone camera. My brother had sent me pictures of everything while he was working on it, but apparently I did not save them to my computer. I’ve been going through our old messages to find them and see what things are supposed to look like again, and it turns out we message each other a LOT. The farther back I go, the longer it takes for things to load.
Anyhow, I messaged my daughters for assistance, and got help pushing the mower to the garage. Pushing it isn’t a problem. Pushing it and trying to steer at the same time is rather awkward!
Then I got out the push mower and finished mowing the old garden area. I was also able to mow some areas the riding mower can’t fit into, including around the garden beds a bit. The rest will have to wait for the weed trimmer.
After I finished mowing, I checked on the garden beds and noticed some Romas were starting to fall off the vines, so I ended up picking quite a few of them, after checking on the rest of the beds.
Alas, I found that we have lost one of our two Boston Marrows.
We only had two surviving seed starts to transplant, and only one squash on each of them. I have no idea why the one died like that. The other seems okay, but I ended up putting a piece of broken pottery under it to get it off the mulch, making sure the curve of the pot would drain any water away from the squash.
As for the rest of the garden beds, both the Irish Cobbler and Red Thumb potato plants have completely died back. Time to dig them up and set them out to cure for a few days. We’re supposed to get rain tomorrow, so it’ll have to be under the old market tent. We just have to set them up so that the cats will stay off of them! 😄
As I was finishing up and putting things away around the house, I suddenly saw Adam go running towards the corner where the old basement window is, on high alert. At first I thought she was responding to Cheddar, meowing in my husband’s bedroom window, but then I saw she was laser focused at the stucco wall beside it.
All I could see was what looked like a leaf or something, splattered against the wall, so I went to take a closer look.
What an adorable little frog! I’m curious about how it got there. It was easily over 6′ above the ground when I saw it, and it looks like it was on its way down.
I love frogs. I’m so happy we have so many of them this year. They are good garden friends!
Last off all, I just have to share this adorable photo I got of a couple of the kittens last night.
At first, I thought it was Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but I don’t see an all pink nose, which is the main difference between them. Which means one of them – the bottom one, I think – is Shadow in the Dark.
Gosh, they are so cute!
They are also very cuddly, and love to sleep on me when I’m in bed. They’re so tiny, sometimes I can’t even tell they’re there, until either they or I move! I love it. :-)
I’ll still be happy when they are adopted out, though! So will Decimus. She spends as little time with them as possible now! I hope to adopt her out, too.
In other things, TTT is still doing very well in her recovery. There is only one major problem with her.
She refuses to use a litter box.
Any of them.
Last night, as I was getting into bed, I found my elbow in a puddle. She’d peed on my pillow again! Thankfully, I have a mattress cover – and those puppy pads do a great job of soaking up the puddle. I still had to leave one over it, absorbent side down, and rotate my mattress, so I wouldn’t be sleeping on it.
Then, at about 5 am, I was awakened by the rustling of puppy pads under my desk. I caught her before she made a mess and put her in a litter box, but she wouldn’t use it. I tried her in a different litter box, in case she didn’t like the covered one, and she still wouldn’t use it. I didn’t dare go back to bed, knowing she would go under my desk as soon as I was asleep, so I shoved the cat carrier under the desk, then went to bed.
This morning, I found she’d left a “gift” under the chair I keep my laundry basket on.
*sigh*
I’ve never had to teach an adult cat to use the litter box before. I mean, Nosencrantz had been bad about making messes elsewhere, but she knew how to use a litter box. She just preferred to go elsewhere, until I eventually blocked off all the spots she would go in. Even the kittens have been trained to use them now. Every cat we brought indoors was able to figure the litter boxes out right away. But not TTT. She just doesn’t seem to know that that’s what they’re there for!
Hmm… We still have that new litter box in the cat cage in the sun room. Cats are going in and out of it at will, but none have used the litter box. I wonder if she’ll use it, if I put it under my desk?
I’ll just have to watch my feet! Which I’m already having to do, with the carrier under there now, so I may as well try it!
I was absolutely sure yesterday was Saturday. Right up until I told the girls I would finish something, then go get the car to load it for a dump run, and my daughter asked, are they even open today?
Well, they’re open on Saturdays.
Not Fridays!
I still had to go to town yesterday and refill a couple of water jugs, then run a couple extra errands since I was out, anyways.
I did the dump run this morning. 😄
I was so absolutely sure yesterday was Saturday, I still feel disoriented!
I got an adorable picture of Decimus last night that I just have to share.
Would you look at that pile of kittens! 😄 They are quite enthusiastic about nursing when she comes in, but she doesn’t let them stay for long. She’s there for food for herself. She knows we feed the cats in my room at different times than the girls do the cats in the rest of the house. She’s the only one allowed to have “extra” by coming in here. 😁
We feed all the cats with wet cat food at the same time we do Two Toes’ medications. We still have to watch closely as TTT gobbles down her little dish of medicated food, because there’s usually at least Nosencrantz and two of the kittens just fighting to get at that little dish while my daughter is measuring out doses.
I also find it funny how Decimus’ one eye just disappears in the black fur!
What’s not funny is getting this picture – after many attempts to get a closer look – this morning. Warning for those who might not want to see a messed up eye. You might want to just scroll right past.
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This is NOT the tuxedo with the gummed up eye we’d been trying to catch but never succeeded. That kitten is older, and everything cleared up on its own. I was sure that one’s eye was lost, but it looks just fine now.
This kitten showed up later, and I never saw it with gummed up eyes. Just really red around one eye. It’s one of those kittens that sees us and runs away immediately, so a glimpse of a red rimmed eye was about all we could get. Today, it happened to be hiding out near the food trays and I was finally able to zoom in to get a shot. This photo is the best look of that eye we’ve been able to get.
We have to somehow catch it and get it to the vet to have the eye removed, but we’ve already had several expensive vet bills in the last few months. It’s going to be a while before we can scrape the funds together for another surgery. Considering how hard it is to get near the kitten, I think we’ll get the time for it.
On a more pleasant note…
These two were watching closely as I was doing my morning rounds!
We still can’t get near that white and grey one, but I’ve been able to sometimes pick up the orange tabby and pet it. Yesterday, it was because the wind was making so much noise while it was eating outside, I was able to walk up behind it and it never heard me coming! He (not confirmed, but statistically more likely, with an orange cat) did hiss a bit and half-heartedly tried to jump out of my hands, but didn’t fight too much, and enjoyed the cuddles at least a little bit! His orange and white sibling – confirmed male – is comfortable enough that I can just walk up to him and pet him now, and he doesn’t run away. They have a fluffy white and grey sibling that I can also sometimes catch and pick up. More often than the all orange one, but not by much!
In other things, I’m happy to say that the new bread machine has been working well, and the girls have been setting it up regularly. It only does one loaf at a time, so they’re trying to build up a supply! 😁
We were all amused by the French labeling on the box. Where English says bread machine, the French says bread robot! The girls, however, have come up with their own name for the machine.
Doughregard.
Ahahahaha!! I love it!
We need to go over recipes and see what ingredients we need to make something other than basic white bread. My daughter has been using a favourite French bread recipe when she bakes, whereas I like to use a basic bread recipe and modify it to include things like oatmeal, flax seed, chia seeds, or whatever else we might have on hand. The machine came with a variety of recipes, but their oatmeal bread, for example, is in their sweet bread section, and includes oat bran, which we don’t normally buy.
Today, we’re looking at a high of 25C/77F. It’s already 23C/73F. The humidity is at 58%, though, so even while doing my rounds earlier, I was just dripping. I was able to finally cut away a branch that broke some time ago, getting stuck on another branch, that has been blocking part of our security camera’s view of the driveway. It took the telescoping pruner at maximum length to reach the broken branch and reach and get almost half of it cut off. The other half will just have to stay there! It had been sitting on the lower branch for so long, that one was growing at a downward bend, so I took about half of that one off, too. I can now see the gate clearly again on my live feed! 😊 Anyhow, even that little bit of work had me sweating in the humidity. When I got back from the dump, I dragged the branches away, and by then it was even worse.
Even last night, it never really cooled down much. I have a box fan in my window, but it makes little difference. The way things are oriented, the fan blows air straight over my bed. The window is high enough, and the bed frame low enough, that I’m not being blasted directly, but even with the fan on its highest setting, I can barely feel the air moving. Once it gets hotter, I flip the fan to blow hot air outside, but my desk is in a corner that feels like it gets no air movement at all. Once the fan it blowing hot air out, that corner with my computer gets much hotter, almost immediately. Enough that I finally went and got the tiny fan we use on our seed starts when they’re in the various greenhouse set ups. It’s a very gentle fan, but it makes a difference.
So I’m not sure what I’ll be able to get done outside today. It might be a good day to get out with the riding mower. I’m loath to terrify all the kitties, but the grass is overdue for a cut. I’ll just have to keep an eye out for fallen branches! The bigger ones are easy enough to spot, but lots of little pieces are coming down, too, and disappearing in the tall grass.
In other things, I got an unfortunate call from my mother. I had taken her to the interim doctor to renew my mother’s prescriptions, only to have her assure my mother that she will take her on as a patient. My mother didn’t say anything, but she’s not happy with having a black doctor. And a woman, no less! She did ask about another doctor whose name is still on the list (along with other doctors that have been gone for years) that saw her once, before we even moved out here, that she likes. He’s white and male, so she would have preferred him, but it turns out he only comes out 3 times a week, and has his primary practise elsewhere. Anyhow, when my mother brought up that she wanted to talk about her knees, the doctored examined her briefly, then wrote her up for x-rays. We’ll come back another time to go over those. Until then, she added T3s to my mother’s prescriptions, to try instead of the usual Tylenol she’s taking now. If those don’t help, the next possibility is steroid injections. At my mother’s age, surgery is not an option.
After taking my mother home, I brought all the paperwork to the pharmacy, and arranged to have the new prescription filled and delivered the next day.
Which was yesterday.
The person who delivered it explained some things to her, then said if she had questions, she talk to the pharmacist. My mom said she would read the papers that came with it.
Which she did.
Which is the problem.
Of course, the law requires that all possible side effects get listed. Now, my mother is terrified and refuses to take it.
Her problems with it, aside from all those possible side effects that she interprets as “will happen” rather than “might happen”, include…
The doctor and I had talked about Tylenol, but the person who delivered it never used the word Tylenol, so it’s not Tylenol. (I explained, that’s what the T in T3stands for)
The person used the word narcotic. It’s a narcotic, which my mom understands only as deadly illegal drugs. I explained that narcotic is just a descriptive word, and that lots of medications are narcotics. My husband is on opioids. Those are much, much stronger than the T3s. I tried to explain that a lot of illegal drugs that are killing people, like fentanyl, are medicines that are being used wrong. But she won’t use them wrong. She will follow the directions.
So she said, if this is Tylenol, there’s stronger Tylenol than what she usually uses at the drugstore. She could take that, instead. I told her, those are narcotic, too, and the whole point is that those are not strong enough for her pain. This is just to try and see if they help with the pain. Then she got angry again, saying she wants something that will heal her, not take the pain away. She doesn’t understand that this is not something that can just be fixed.
Then she wanted to know how I know all this stuff. I told her, I I’ve dealt with it before, before we moved out here. Not for myself, but I know lots of people who have been on them. This stuff is bottom level for prescription pain medication. Not even close to what my husband is on.
My mother didn’t like that I was giving her this information, instead of being all upset like she was, so she started to get angry with me. She wanted me to validate her fears. Then she said maybe she should talk to the pharmacist. I said that was a good idea.
There were a few odd things she tried throwing out at me. For example, she talked about her one knee is “just” sideways. I said, there is no “just” sideways. Knees aren’t’ supposed to do that! So why do both knees hurt the same? I explained that one knee had to work harder to make up for the injured one. Then I reminded her (again) that she was in a car accident, where she hurt her knee. She dismissed that (she doesn’t like to be reminded of an accident was was totally her fault). Instead, she tried to suggest that it was because, when she was a child in Poland, she didn’t have proper shoes, and her feet got so cold! I said, we’re talking about her knees, not her feet. Well, her feet hurt, too!
She has massive bunions and bunionettes on her feet, not to mention arthritis. But no. It’s because she didn’t have good shoes as a child, in pre-WWII Poland.
Then, out of the blue, she started saying, I wonder why [my brother] doesn’t phone me or visit anymore?
I just took her out to visit them on Sunday.
I asked, where did this come from, since we were talking about something else entirely.
She said, she gave my brother $40 to cover the long distance charges.
What she did was hand my brother some cash and say “for long distance”. We though she meant for his previous calls. Nope. Turns out she was paying him to call her. I told her, we had no idea that’s what she gave him the money for.
She’s the one that doesn’t like to call him, because it’s long distance. She also doesn’t understand that he’s incredibly busy. Especially right now, because they’ve got a trip of a lifetime planned for their upcoming 40th anniversary. She wants him tending to her now, before they leave. It’s a massive control thing. She’s mostly giving up trying to control me and what we do at the farm. She’s shifted her attention to my brother, instead, because she “gave” him the farm. Meanwhile, every time she’s talked to him on the phone lately, and she asks him why he doesn’t call more often, he tells her point blank; it’s because he’s tired of her abuse. She usually launches into something within 30 seconds of a call.
I managed to get the conversation back to her new prescription and encouraged her to tall the pharmacist, but for now, she’s refusing to take the painkillers.
*sigh*
As someone who doesn’t like or trust many prescription medications very much myself, it was strange to be defending them to my mother.
When it comes to my mother’s knees, she has had several braces given to her over the years that she has refused to wear. If she had worn those, it would have saved her other knee and kept the bent one from bending so much! Now, she’s even refusing to take painkillers for them. At that point, I was even saying that if she won’t do anything herself for her own knees, she’d better stop talking to the doctor about it, because there’s no point. I didn’t get to finish saying it, through, because she started talking right over me, as if I wasn’t saying anything at all. Also very typical.
Ah, well. We’ll deal with whatever comes of it.
It does get very frustrating, though. She causes so many of her own problems.
We’re getting high winds again today. Last night, I saw there was an expected high of 29C/84F by this evening, but now they’re saying a high of 26C/79F. At the moment, it’s a much more pleasant 18C/64F
Which made doing the morning rounds quite pleasant. Especially since the smoke is gone.
Here is what I picked this morning.
There are green and yellow beans on the bottom. Those seem to be winding down. There’s also an accidental onion that got pulled up while I was weeding!
The Romas are steadily ripening, and I got a few Indigo Blues this morning, too. I did pick some Black Beauties, too. The small one with the green was found on the ground. The others, I picked because they were starting to split.
I ended up picking a couple of Montana Morado corn, but the rest did not seem ready. From how the cobs feel when I check them, we had some pollination issues. We need some serious soil improvements before we can grow good corn in the main garden area again. I should probably pick a Tom Thumb popcorn cob, just to see how they look. They are being left to get completely dry on the stalks, but I’m still curious.
As for yesterday’s harvest that I picked for my mother, the reaction I got was pretty much exactly what I expected. The only thing she seemed happy to see was the garlic. Also, tomatoes should be red. Only red. When I reminded her she had actually asked for some of the others, she told me, “just to see!” Never mind that she told me to give some to her when they were ripe, while she was getting a tour of the garden and looking right at them. Of course, she waxed poetic about all the wonderful produce my sister gives her. When she saw the zucchini, she told me she thought she would be giving me zucchini, because someone had left some in the common area for people to take. While putting things away, I saw the zucchini she was talking about. They were huge, and looked like the hybrid zucchini we were gifted with last year. As for the brown pepper, she just laughed derisively. At least she didn’t have anything bad to say about the potatoes.
Ah, well. I tried.
I guess we’ll just have to keep our harvests to ourselves. 😉
Anyhow.
Where was I? Ah, yes. Morning rounds!
Kittens are, of course, running around all over the place. I got a picture of this teeny tiny unit.
For perspective, that’s a piece of paracord on the ground, next to it. This is one of the two kittens that were in the junk pile. It’s sibling is black with a tiny white patch on its chest.
It’s sibling is also easily twice the size.
This one does not appear to be sick in any way. Not even a little bit of leaky eyes. It’s just really, really tiny.
I’ve been trying to get close to it to touch it, but it won’t let me. All in good time. We’ll be keeping an eye on it.
For now, it’s time to bring the car over to the house and load it up for a trip to the dump. After that, we’ll be grabbing our empty water bottles for refilling.
Oh! I almost forgot! We had our first successful loaf of bread in the new bread machine yesterday. This morning, the girls got it going again. There should be fresh bread, ready to eat, by the time we’ve done our running around. It seems I guessed right; that first time, a cat much have climbed on it and accidentally shut it off. The machine is working just fine. 😊
I didn’t head outside to do my morning rounds until after TTT got her morning medications. Somehow, I managed to not look out a window until then, so it was quite a surprise to see how hazy everything was. There’s smoke everywhere. I’ve just checked the live fire maps, and all the fires are well to the north of us. Air quality warnings say the smoke is coming from the territories and northern areas of the prairie provinces. Looking at the live feed on the security camera as I write this, I can see the smoke in the trees of the old hay yard, and my younger brother’s field across the road just sort of disappears.
I didn’t do much of of harvest this morning. I didn’t have a container, so I didn’t try to pick beans. I might come back this afternoon, but will likely leave it to tomorrow.
While pruning the Roma tomatoes, I knocked three off their vines, and found a fourth one already on the ground. I’d put them in my pocket as I found them and kept working and, unfortunately, squished one while bending over! So that went into the old compost pile. There was only one zucchini ready to harvest, and I grabbed the last two of the Sweet Chocolate peppers that had matured the earliest. My daughters had picked the third one a couple of days ago. I can certainly see why they are called “chocolate” peppers!
It feels strange to be half way through August and be harvesting so little. The peas are still having their second production, but there’s only enough that I pick a few pods and eat them while doing my morning rounds. We have yet to have a good year for peas. I think it’s time to harvest the potatoes in the old kitchen garden. They’ve almost completely died back. The purple potatoes in the grow bags are still lush and green, though.
The Roma tomatoes are ripening steadily. I could have picked more, but I want to leave them to ripen on the vines longer. The Indigo Blue and Black Beauties are still rock hard. I suppose I could be harvesting carrots and turnips, but I want to leave most of them to harvest for the winter, not for casual summer eating. With our garden turning out to be so much smaller than planned, there just isn’t much to harvest on a regular basis.
Wow. In the time it took me to write that, I can see on the security camera that the smoke has gotten even denser!
In other things, TTT is doing incredibly well after her surgery. The vet clinic called yesterday to follow up on her, and we made an appointment for her to get her staples removed. This will be just with a tech, not a vet, unless we see some sort of problem that needs to be checked.
We did have a surprise last night.
She actually nursed Tin Whistle for a while! Until now, she’s shown no interest in nursing, nor have the kittens shown an interest in her. Considering that one time, when we let Cheddar in, the kittens tried to find nip on him, I am slightly surprised. They are very close to weaning, though. In fact, Decimus has taken to batting them away when she’s done with them. She comes in just long enough to nurse for a minute or two, and that’s it. She wants out again, and spends almost no time with them at all now!
TTT, on the other hand, it quite okay with them. I’ve seen them grooming each other and now, she actually got nurse. I don’t know that she’s producing milk anymore. While she was rolling around, we could see only two active nips – possibly three. I know I saw her nursing 6 kittens one time. Did she have losses that we never saw? I know her kittens are hanging around the house now, but we’ve got other little ones from other litters, and all the moms nurse all the kittens, so we just can’t tell which kittens belong to which mother!
As for TTT and the inside kittens, so far, there have been no other attempts to nurse, but we’ll see.
There is one major downside with TTT being in my bedroom/office isolation ward.
She hasn’t figured out the litter boxes yet.
With the kittens, I had to put puppy pads under my desk, but it does seem we’ve been able to train them to stop going there. I’m not finding little puddles or tiny turds anymore.
No. Now I’m finding big, adult sized puddles and turds.
At least the puppy pads make it easier to clean up. It’s obviously TTT. Last night, I even caught her peeing on my pillow, and we had to strip the bed and do laundry. I had grabbed her and dropped her into a litter box, but she was so startled, she just ran off. With so many litter boxes to choose from, you’d think she’d figure it out, but nope. She wants the puppy pads! She waits until I’m out of the room, since it means I’m no longer at my desk, so I come back to find the results, and she’s back to napping somewhere. Frustrating!
Another, different sort of frustrating, is in sympathy with my younger daughter. She got sick yesterday evening, and is still stick now. So far, she doesn’t feel bad enough to go to a hospital. She’s trying to think what she might have eaten that could have done it to her, but she didn’t eat anything different than the rest of us, and no one else is sick. During the night, she tried to eat a piece of bread, and that didn’t stay down. She’s so hungry, but doesn’t dare eat. At least she’s feeling a bit better, but that’s not saying much right now.
Hopefully, whatever it is, will pass quickly and completely!
As for me, I’m going to see if I can escape my room, without any kittens escaping, and try and get something useful done today!
The Re-Farmer 