kittens

A little bit of progress. And kittens

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Today was a statutory holiday, and the pharmacy my daughter works at is closed for those, so my daughter had the day off. We still made a quick trip into town, as there was a festival going on. It was the market we wanted to check out, after I mentioned some of the vendors I saw. Unfortunately, half the market wasn’t set up today, so it was a bit of a wasted trip.

Except we got churros. Which makes up for that. These are a once a year thing, so it’s a really special treat. :-D

Another treat we had was when we got home and found the little furry bean, lying in a sun spot.

Is this little guy gorgeous, or what?

While things are starting to cool down, it still wasn’t until evening that I headed out into the yard to water a few things. I was pleasantly surprised to see Guildenstern coming into the yard with her baby.

After watching them for a bit, Junk Pile Kitten ran into the lilac bushes, so I settled myself on the steps at the door on that side and watched.

I was not disappointed.

What a beauty! Just look at those eyes!

He came pretty close to me, playing with a couple of the sun room kittens that came by. Including his brother, Keith. :-)

I was able to get a bit of pruning done in the yard. Some of it was getting rid of low hanging branches that were starting to hang too low. Some of it was in the lilac near where I’ve planted the haskap berry bushes. Some of the branches were hanging low enough to be all stabby at me when I try to mow around the bed, but most of what I cut away was dead branches, twisted among and around the live ones. That opened the bush up quite a bit.

The kittens immediately took advantage of that.

There was 4 of them in there, at one point! :-D

As I was hauling the branches off to the wood pile, my husband went around to get some photos of the sun going down through the trees. We could see a cat off by the pump shack. After putting the wheelbarrow away, I decided to see which cat was out there, because Beep Beep has been pretty vicious about chasing Rosencrantz off in that direction.

It was, indeed, Rosencrantz, but I had another pleasant surprise, too.

She and her baby are using the pump shack again! It looks like the little guy can squeeze himself through that hole in the bottom of the door.

The hole was not that big before.

He is such a dark grey little kitty!

The other kittens came around, and he did play with one of them that came over, a little bit, but for the most part they stayed away from each other.

I’m really glad they have stayed nice and close. I hope Pump Shack Baby will make friends with the sun room kittens and start coming to the house for food.

I may not have gotten a lot of work done outside, but seeing the two other kittens is enough to make up for that. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Kitty Cuddles, and technical difficulties

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First, the cute stuff.

My husband passed the furry little bean off to me this morning, while I was at the desktop. Dave promptly curled up in a ball and fell asleep on my chest, making the most interesting nose noises.

He then abruptly stood up, clambered up my shoulder, leapt across the chasm to my bed, and snuggled up to Fenrir.

He burrowed right into her fur and went back to sleep.

She didn’t even open her eyes.

That didn’t stop him from stretching out and luxuriating.

And twisting himself into this weird shape. That’s his bottom leg curled up in front. It’s like his head is coming out from under Fenrir, rather than attached to his body. :-D

Also on my bed was this furry black mama orb.

She typically ignores our new addition, but has been getting more accommodating; even a bit playful with him.

But cuddles?

This is a pretty huge new step in their relationship! :-D

As I was finishing up on my computer this morning, before heading into town for the afternoon, my husband came over to talk.

Our conversation was interrupted by a sudden, bizarre noise. I thought, for a moment, it was actually coming from outside.

Nope.

It was coming from my computer.

Once we established that, we could figure out that it was coming from a fan.

So I shut it down, and my wonderful, darling husband opened it up for me while I was away.

It was a mighty battle, but he was able to defeat the dust bunnies that had taken up residence in there.

Both fans were cakes on pretty solidly!

By the time I got home, my desktop was once again running on silent mode. :-D

Ah, but the technical stuff didn’t end there!

My husband gifted me with his new phone. My own phone plan is done next month, and he realized that his new tablet meets his needs quite well. So we’re transferring his new phone to me, then when my contract is done, we’re going to just switch things with the provider, and drop a phone off our bundle. This will knock a substantial chunk off our mobile phone bill (which is crazy high, considering we barely get any signal where we live).

So several hours were then spent getting those switched and set up.

I’ve been using Samsung phones for many years. The new phone is an LG. The user interface is going to take some getting used to! :-D

As I did my evening rounds, however, I had opportunity to test out the camera. It’s a dual lens camera, and supposed to be one of the better cell phone cameras out there.

Looks like Guildenstern has moved Junk Pile cat out of the yard.

Or maybe they’re just visiting another junk pile.

Well… not really a junk pile. The kitten is hiding under a hood that is over a pallet that it’s attached to. It has a handle attached to it. I think it was built to be a sort of sled, to be dragged behind a snowmobile.

Guildenstern was watching me suspiciously!

I do wish they would just stay with the other cats and kittens. The kittens would play with each other, but Butterscotch and Beep Beep have both been going after and chasing away Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, lately.

Rosencrantz seems to have taken her baby some place well outside the inner yard. No sign of that one, since the one day we saw it by the junk pile.

Ah, well. Such is life with semi-feral cats!

As for the camera… well, so far, the digital zoom does seem to be better than my old camera phone.

:-)

The Re-Farmer

Critter of the Day: safe and satisfied

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The little hairy bean, also known as Dave, has settled into our home quite solidly.

Safely indoors, with a full belly and cleared up eyes, and humans that let him sleep pretty much anywhere he wants.

Life is good as an indoor cat!

Visiting Time

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The kittens have finally “discovered” the east side of the house today, the junk pile in the spruce grove and…

… Junk Pile kitten.

Here, we see Keith playing with his brother and visiting his mom, Guildenstern!

Junk Pile kitten wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden invasion of other kittens; he doesn’t come around the other side of the house, and the other kittens tend not to go beyond the area where the lilacs are. The girls had gone out to watch them play, and he was growling at them (the other kittens; not my daughters *L*) at first. By the time I came out, he seemed to be okay with them, crawling all over his home!

It’s really amazing to see how much bigger he is than his brothers. Especially Dave. It shows, I think, how sick Dave and Keith must have been, before we found them. Remarkable, that he didn’t get sick, too. I makes me wonder about the 4th kitten Guildenstern had, when I first found her litter.

I hope that this little guy and the other kittens will play together more often, and that we will get the chance to socialize him at least more successfully than his mom and aunt!

The Re-Farmer

Well, now

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This morning was more relaxed for me, thanks to my family taking care of critter feeding. Before heading out to take my mother to her doctor’s appointment, I just had to switch out the memory card on the trail cam, then do some of my usual walk-about.

While walking in the outer yard, past where the grass is overgrown between trees, I noticed a large area of the grass trampled down. Some creature or creatures had surely been tumbling about in there!

As a paused to look, there was an explosion of cats and kittens from under one of the trees!

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Box Baby

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We have been enjoying our company lately – as much as possible in this heat! Yesterday was a scorcher. 29C with a “real feel” of 35C! We were supposed to get thunderstorms, and one did quickly pass over us, but for the most part, they all passed us by. Which meant very little rain.

Today, we were supposed to get a series of thunderstorms, but again, they passed us by. We are, however, FINALLY getting a solid rainfall right now, and it’s even cooled down a bit. We need rain so much! At least it’s not as dry as last year, but it’s still way too dry. Yesterday, my friend and I went to get the mail, stopping at a park nearby. When we lived here, years ago, we once released a snapping turtle found on the side of the highway into the pond in the park.

The pond is completely dry right now. Even with the one downpour we had earlier, the only side of it was what maybe-couldbe-kindalookslike some mud, visible between some grasses.

Today, the girls arranged to take Dave to the vet in town. He got a check up and vaccinations, as well as a deworming pill. We got some antibiotic eye drops to take home. His eyes are getting better on their own, but the drops should help his eyes clear up faster. The vet says it’s from cat herpes, and that pretty much all outdoor cats have it (and worms).

He is a bit under sized for his age, which we could see just by comparing him to the other litters. However, aside from his eyes, he seems quite healthy. He’ll be coming back in a month for another round of vaccinations, and likely another deworming pill. Since we now almost exactly when he was born (thanks to date stamps on the photos I took!), we know to come back in November to get him fixed.

He was a very tired kitty when we got him home.

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Cat tales

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The kittens have really been enjoying their newfound freedom.

Yesterday morning, they all discovered the ornamental apple trees in the old kitchen garden. At one point, we have 4 or 5 of them in one, and 3 in the other, all at the same time!

All that running around is very tiring.

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