neuters

Yesterday

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Wow. What a day it turned out to be!

The original plan.

Get three cats to the vet for spay/neuter. That’s an hour’s drive one way, so we were going to drop them off, then stay in the (smaller, nearer) city to do any shopping we needed until we got the call to pick up the cats. Typically, that’s been around 1 or 2, though I’ve have them call me before noon at times.

Once the cats were picked up, we’d take them home, I’d drop them and our shopping off with my daughter, then I would go to my mother’s apartment in the town south of us, check on things, clean her fridge, pick up the wheelchair the hospital requested, then go to the town north of us, to my mother’s in the hospital. They want to measure her in it and see if it’s appropriate to go with her to a personal care home, whenever that happens.

After dropping off the wheelchair, I planned to visit with my mother for a while. Due to her cognitive issues, she was not told that there was an appointment at 6pm with my brother, as PoA, the doctor and myself, as her advocate for the past 7+ years. From there, I expected to go home.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

Well. Part of it happened.

The first thing to do was get three fasting cats from the isolation shelter, into carriers. We really, really wanted to get Frank. She was perched on the shelf above the cat bed, in the middle, where it was hard for either of us to reach her from the sliding windows. She did get close enough that my daughter could get her, but I couldn’t get around to get the carrier closer before Frank escaped.

Frank does NOT want to get got!

Thankfully, my daughter did not end up bleeding. (Side note: I finally found the scratch proof gauntlets today! They were hiding in plain sight, of course….)

So we grabbed who we could. That turned out to be Sir Robin, who is extremely easy to get got, Grommet, also and easy one, and a grey tabby with no name, because it was the biggest of the remaining cats in the shelter.

Oh, and we had 7 cats and kittens in there to fast overnight, not 8. I was sure there was a second tabby kitten in there, but I was wrong.

The tabby was not happy. This is a kitten we’ve been able to pet and pick up, but nowhere near as socialized as the other two. We were 99% sure this one was male. We’ve got several similar looking, short haired, grey tabbies that move around so much, I’m never quite sure if I’m looking at the same one twice.

Our goal was to be on the road by 7:30, to get to the clinic for 8:30, though our drop off time was 8:50.

We did manage to be on the road by 7:30, but with road conditions in places, we per parking at the clinic closer to 8:45. Which is why I always like to leave early!

During the drive in, I brought up that we needed a name for the tabby. Neither of us could think of one right away, but while checking them in, my daughter came up with Flopsy, because when we pick him up, that’s how he gets. Flopsy.

Once the cats were checked in and taken to the back, my daughter and I headed over to the Walmart and had breakfast at the McRaunchies there. It was shortly after 9am by then.

After breakfast, we did our shopping. With the polar vortex expected to hit soon, we had a few things we wanted to restock on, plus we found extras. That will get its own post later, since it did turn out to be a larger shop.

I got a message from my husband that one of my packages is in, so I added picking that up on my list of things to do after dropping off the cats at home.

When packing things into the box of the truck, we were selectively packing things into insulated bags to prevent them from freezing, rather than the other way around.

Of course, since I needed to get up and get on the road early in the day, I had an almost sleepless night. I was pretty tired, so we warmed up the truck and just stayed in it, while I tried to nap a bit. We had to turn the truck on to warm up again only once in that time.

After a while, though, I needed to use the washroom, so I headed back into the Walmart, while my daughter stayed in the truck. I hadn’t realized, while I was napping, that the weather had already started to turn. A huge wind had picked up, and there was blowing snow, everywhere. Not new snow. The wind was picking up any loose snow out there, and the parking lot was in whiteout conditions!

I headed in for a few minutes then decided to go to a Dollarama that shares the same parking lot. I found a few things there before rejoining my daughter in the truck.

By this time, it was well past noon and I was expecting to get a call from the clinic soon. My daughter needed her turn to use the facilities, so we both went in and ended up finding a few more things to purchase. Once we were done there, we decided we may as well go to the clinic. We could be in their waiting room instead of the truck, and it wouldn’t be too long, right?

Right?

We got there before 2, only to find out they hadn’t even started on any of the kittens yet.

Keep in mind, these poor things had been fasting for about 17 hours by then. It turned out the clinic had a couple of large dogs needing surgery that took more time, so doing the kittens got delayed.

Now, I hadn’t bothered to tell them that I had a 6pm appointment, because… well… it was at 6pm, and we dropped off at 8:45-8:50am. They know we hang out in town because of the long drive, and they’ve always made a point to do our cats quickly because of that.

Not this time!

When I found out the cats hadn’t been started yet, I told them that I had a scheduled appointment. I was assured the cats would be read by 4. I explained, it’s not just the appointment, but that I was needing to drop the cats of at home in our little hamlet, then drive to one town to pick up a wheelchair (forget cleaning out the fridge, at this point!) and take it to the hospital in yet another town.

I was told they would try to get them done as soon as possible.

So we sat to wait.

Next to a couple of adorable kittens in a cat cage that were available for adoption. While there, a tech came to get them and return them several times, and we learned that they were about to be adopted out together! So glad they are staying together.

It was about quarter past three when a tech came out. They were about to start on Sir Robin the Brave, but he had messed himself in the carrier (they’ve been in carriers all this time?? They usually get transferred to larger cages!), and his back end was a dried up mess. She confirmed that these were outdoor cats and that they would be going outside again, so they would try to wash him off as best they could, rather than just shave the area. Easier and faster to shave, but no one wants to risk him getting frostbite on his nethers!

Which means they didn’t actually start the surgery until probably half past three.

We could hear the techs talking at one point, probably while still trying to wash off Sir Robin, and heard them giggle with delight over his full name.

Then we waited.

When 4:00 came and went, I was messaging my brother to warn him I might be late.

Finally, at about 4:20, someone came out to let us know the cats were done. Still groggy, but awake enough that we could take them. We got the instructions (we’ll keep them in the isolation shelter for at least 3 days) and the carriers were brought out. I’d already left the donation funds with the front desk when we checked them in, so we could leave immediately. My daughter and I loaded the carriers and were on our way.

Thankfully, by this time, the winds had died down a little bit, and there wasn’t as much blowing snow. I was able to do the speed limit for most, not all, of the drive.

Once we got home, my daughter got out to open the gate, but left it open for me as I drove into the yard and up to the house. I started unloading our shopping just to the front steps until my daughter caught up and helped me. Once the truck box was empty, we unloaded the carriers. Then my daughter took over while I headed back out again.

I just barely made it in time.

I had just parked at the hospital when I got a message from my brother. They had just arrived themselves, were set up in a family room for the meeting, and told me where it was.

The doctor was a few minutes later, so we had time to catch up and focus on what we were trying to find out, etc.

At one point, my SIL asked, how do we respond if they try to send my mother home again?

My answer was simple.

No.

That’s it. Just, no. They can’t send her home. Homecare is not reliable, and I can’t be driving that distance – especially in winter! – to cover for them so often.

Thankfully, that never became an issue.

The doctor came in and actually recognized us, from when my mother was in the hospital almost a year ago. There was a nurse as well, who was also the note taker for the hospital (my brother took his own notes, of course. He’s very organized that way).

We had a very good and, I would even say productive, meeting.

One thing is clear. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

They knew nothing about the panels done by home care – I was there for both of them, including the one that was done before my mother went to the hospital – even though the report would have gone up to the same department the hospital has to go through when it comes to long term care assessment. He was able to let us know what was found in my mother’s X-rays that were finally done, though it wasn’t “official” since the radiology department still had to review them. As expected, she has severe osteoarthritis. That’s the source of her pain. He did not have access to my mother’s MRI brain scan results, but he could work on getting them.

We were very confused when he started talking about my mother’s congenital heart disease as the cause of her edema, when she’s been seen by a cardiologist, and her heart checked out better than most people a quarter her age.

Oh, wow. I just went out to meet the prescription delivery driver. That wind out there is BRUTAL!!!

Where was I?

Oh, yes.

So the doctor explained that they use the term “congenital heart disease” to cover a lot of things. In my mother’s case, it’s her A-fib, which she’s had forever (I have it, too). It has never been a problem. Now, however, he basically described it as the upper chambers of her heart being in a constant quiver, while the lower chambers are pumping normally, when it used to be just a little hiccup now and then. To put it simply, her heart is getting tired and misfiring more. This is what my father got a pace maker for, but she’s not at that stage. It didn’t come up as an option, though; we all know that at her age, surgery would be a greater risk than the A-fib is right now. That her heart is otherwise strong and healthy and all her arteries are clear helps, but it won’t stop the edema.

In the end, my mother has two issues going that mean she can no longer go back to her apartment to live independently, even with home care. There’s the edema, and the OA, and right now, the OA is causing her so much pain and reducing her mobility, it’s actually the more severe issue.

Then he had to get our consent (which they already got from my mother) to do a panel for my mother to go to a personal care home.

…

YES!!!!

Good grief. We’ve begging for this from the start.

So the official hospital testing and paperwork will be done and go to the department that makes the decisions. Because 1) my mother’s level of care doesn’t need hospital status, 2) she’s bored out of her tree and 3) they need the bed for more urgent patients, my mother will probably be transferred to a temporary long term care facility – she may even be back in the same town her apartment is in! – before being transferred to the nursing home she’s been trying to get into for the past 2 years or so. Even then, she might get transferred to a different one before she get get into the one she wants. Once she’s in a long term care facility, even a temporary one, there will be more programs and activities available to her, so she won’t be stuck sitting in her room, day after day.

We did also have a chance to discuss some other issues related to our vandal and that he might try to convince my sister to help him manipulate my mother. He’d managed to do this with my late father. Right now, the one thing protecting my mother from her own self sabotage is that my brother has binding PoA, so even if she is declared mentally unfit, he can take care of her. They already understand that, at this point, cognitively she cannot make things like legal decisions on her own, but they will get her officially tested and assessed, so that there is documentation. This way, even if they do convince her to sign something, it won’t be legally binding. My mother, with my sister’s help (“I was just following her wishes”, was her explanation) has already messed herself up so badly in other areas, she has no clue what she’s done and, legally, my brother can’t fix it. They also want photos of our vandal and my sister to have with my mother’s file, so they can recognize them as people with limited access to my mother.

I’m so disappointed that my sister got manipulated into it, and is completely oblivious to the harm she has helped cause. Honestly, I have concerns about my sister’s cognitive health, too. But she’s skinny, and we all know skinny people are perfectly healthy and never have such problems, even if she is almost 70.

Yeah, I’m being sarcastic, but that is essentially what I’ve been told flat out, in different ways.

So then we got to talking about my mother’s apartment. She’s not going back, we know that, but until the panel process officially declares that, it’s recommended we don’t end that contract yet. However, it’s basically 99.99% sure the panel application will accept that she needs to be in a personal care home, so go ahead and start packing. We can basically cancel her services while we pack and empty the apartment, little by little, so that once that official word comes through (and we don’t know how long that will be), all we would need to do is cancel her rental agreement with public housing.

That all done, we parted ways, then went to visit my mother. She was very surprised to see us (we learned my sister did visit earlier, as today is her non-sabbath related day off), and happy, too. Which was a nice change.

The visit was… about as good as can be. She was in a good mood and I think her pain levels are under control, as she had only a few “moments”. We updated her on the status of things, as best we could. We explained the importance of her accepting any transfer they offer her, because it’s part of the whole process of getting her where she wants to be.

Which was when she started talking about “going home”. Meaning, her apartment.

*sigh*

We had to go over that with her again. I expect we’ll have to do it many more times. The doctor, thankfully, is quite aware of her self sabotage. Sadly, this is something they encounter quite a bit.

While talking about temporary long term care and getting her to where she wants to be, she told us about someone that was across the hall from her. He was doing very poorly, they had to wrap his legs, there was always someone having to tend to him…

He just got transferred to the nursing home my mother wants to be in.

She was upset that he got in before she did.

…

We had to explain (again) that people who get taken to nursing homes more suddenly, it’s because they’re not expected to live long. People who are in far worse shape than she is in.

Her complete lack of empathy threw us, even though she does it all the time.

Things got off track a few times, but that did give me a chance to bring out a gift I got for my mother.

My mother has always loved to draw and is really quite good. She doodles all over. So I got her this.

An actual sketch pad, rather than the envelopes and scrap paper she’s been using, with tear off pages, and colouring pencils that don’t need to be sharpened. She already has pen and pencil.

I know it’s harder for her, with her vision getting worse, but she might have some good days and feel up to it. Or just be bored enough to try!

I honestly expected her to be angry, as she usually is when I try to give her things, but she was actually almost nice about it. She just commented on how she can’t really draw anymore, but we encouraged her.

We talked about her apartment, and she started telling us what to do with things. We had to reassure her, she didn’t have to worry about the “stuff”, we would take care of them, and we know she doesn’t want things thrown out (unless they are damaged or broken or course).

By the time we headed out, it was coming up on 8pm. I’d left home around 7:30, had breakfast somewhere before 9:30, and the only thing I’d eaten since then was a handful of cashews and a chocolate bar we’d picked up as road munchies, on the way home from picking up the neutered cats. I had hoped to stop somewhere to eat before going home, but it was so late and I was so tired, I just got some gas and headed home.

Just as I pulled up to the last stop sign, a couple of miles from home, the check engine light on the truck turned on.

*sigh*

I wasn’t about to check on it when I got home. My daughters, sweethearts that they are, had hot food almost ready for me by the time I got in.

What a long, long day, and I didn’t get anywhere near as much done as I had hoped.

I got to bed early (for me, anyhow), and woke up to this.

Yeah, that’s -31C/-24F with a wind chill of -46C/-51F

It could be worse. Some areas of our province were warned of wind chills of -50C/-58F.

That’s what I saw before heading outside to do the cat stuff, skipping most of my morning routine. By the time I got back inside, the temperature had dropped to -32C/-26F. When I headed out to meet the pharmacy delivery guy, it was back to -31C/-24F with the wind chill at -45C/-49F

The outside cats got their kibble and warm water. Even the heated water bowl in the sun room had some ice on top, and the one in the isolation shelter had frost on the edge closest to the window!

The isolation cats were all snuggled together in the cat bed. Last night, my daughter let out the “extras” that wanted to be let out, so there are now four teenagers in there right now. While I was doing the kibble and water, my older daughter gave the isolation cats a couple of cans of wet cat food. The benefits of being locked up in there is special food treats, which won’t freeze before they finish eating it.

It was still at -32C/-26F when I headed out again in the late morning. I got the truck going – it started fine and nothing sounds out of the ordinary – to get the OBDII scanner hooked up. I got the same code as last time; air-fuel ratio imbalance. Top recommendation is to replace the oxygen sensor. The other code concerns me more, though; power mode master input circuits mismatch. The top reported fix for that is replacing the ignition switch, while the next frequently reported fix is, replaced ignition switch wiring harness.

I’ve sent screen caps of the scans to our garage. I’m not as concerned about the O2 sensor. That seems to be temperature related, as it went away on its own, last time. Both code frequencies are listed as “common” for our truck’s make and model. I’ve looked up the parts and they don’t seem to be expensive, though these wouldn’t be local prices.

*sigh*

We really don’t need this. It’s the price of having an older, high mileage vehicle, but it was what we could afford and get financing for. Still, I’m so tired of these sensor issues – which apparently GM is notorious for.

Thankfully, we won’t need to go anywhere for several days. Today is supposed to be the worst for both cold and wind. Things are supposed to be a bit warmer, but still brutal, over the next three days. After that, we’ll have more average temperatures, with highs hovering above and below -20C/-4F.

Interestingly, the long range forecast is showing a whole lot of days above freezing, in February! February is usually colder than January. At least in the first couple of weeks. If the forecasts are in any way accurate, today and the next few days will be the last deep freeze of this winter.

I sure hope they are right. I so feel for the people that have to drive and work outside in these temperatures! Not to mention the critters out there. I’m glad we can at least provide some worth and reliable food and water for the yard cats – and whatever creature cleaned out every crumb of kibble in the catio shelter!

I am so done with winter.

The Re-Farmer

Two more down, and much gratitude

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It’s done! Another spay and neuter of yard cats.

I prepped the cat carriers last night, including adding a couple of reflective cat collars around one of the handles for later. I have the collars linked together in a chain, so I just grabbed the two at one end. Which just happened to be a pink and a black.

While I got the truck warming up and opened the gate, my daughter brought the carriers to the sun room to see which cats we could catch. When I got to the sun room, she had the fluffy tabby in with her, and she was one we really wanted to get, so we closed up the door. It took a while – the poor thing was panicking – but I was eventually able to get her while she was on the window shelf and start scritching her neck and shoulders. She actually stopped trying to run away. She was still very nervous, but she accepted the pets until I could finally pick her up and get her into the carrier my daughter brought close.

While we were trying to get her, I spotted a collar loose on one of the cat beds. Oops.

Once she was secure we opened the door again, and several for the regular males immediately came in, expecting feeding time. One of them was a grey and white, with no collar. I was able to check his ear and confirm that this was Colin, so after the fluffy girl was in the carrier, I got the collar we found onto him.

It was not the colour of collar he had before, though! Which means there was another fixed cat missing his collar out there.

One of the other males that came in was Midnight, our one almost completely black outside cat. He has a small white blaze on his chest and that’s it. He is social enough that my daughter was able to pick him up and put him in the other carrier while I quickly shut it.

He was NOT happy about that!

From there, we loaded them into the truck, and I headed out right away, even though it was quite early. I didn’t even stop to close the gate, leaving that for my daughter to take care of, after she gave the outside cats their kibble and warm water.

I am so glad I left as early as I did!

The first part of my drive, the road wasn’t too bad, but I still drove under the speed limit. The sudden appearance of at least 5 deer on the side of the road was one reason why!

Then I found myself behind some slow driving vehicle with lots of flashing amber lights on it that kept blinding me. I wasn’t able to pass until it pulled over near the exit I needed, which is when I could finally see it was a snow plow.

The next section of the drive was one I was concerned about, as it was very slippery, and where there was a major accident, yesterday. The conditions were much better, though with oncoming traffic, I could see the reflections of black ice on the highway that I couldn’t see, otherwise.

There was a cross road I needed to take and it, as always, was pretty bad. Lots of icy patches.

By the time I reached the final section of the route, the sun was starting to rise, so I could see that there was quite a bit of fog around. The highway was wet, but not slippery, at least.

Then I got to within a couple of kilometers of the city when I drove into a wall of fog. Visibility dropped to just a few feet. Which wasn’t too much of a problem, except that I couldn’t slow down safely because someone was tailgating me! Thankfully, they did eventually back off a bit.

With all that, I got to the vet clinic only 10 minutes early. Normally, with the time that I left home, I would have been at least half an hour early.

While waiting for the clinic to open, I messaged the family to let them know I arrived safely. I’d also kept the Cat Lady up to date when I left, so I let her know I’d arrived safely, too. Then I made sure to post a road conditions report on the highways group I’m on, so others could know how things were for driving.

Several other vehicles arrived while I was waiting, too, before the Cat Lady arrived. We talked for a while and she transferred some donations she had for us. In a bag, there was a water fountain with filters, plus she had more wet cat food with poultry in it that she couldn’t use anymore, plus bags of dry cat food – including two bags of cat food for senior cats. We had several elderly ladies that this will be good for!

She was also getting phone calls and having other stuff to deal with, so when the clinic opened, I left her to it and brought the cats inside. While waiting my turn, I made sure to put the pink collar on the carrier with Midnight. A black collar on a black cat won’t help us easily identify him as a fixed, when the other mostly black cats are around.

As I was checking the cats in, they needed names, so I decided the fluffy tabby was now Fluffy. When someone came to get the carriers, I brought up the collars, explaining what we were using them for, and made sure to say the pink one was for the black cat, not the black one. That got an understanding laugh!

After a while, though, they needed the Cat Lady’s signature, so I went back to the parking lot. By then, she was with someone else that brought a cat she was covering the spay for, too. So we all went in, finished processing our two, then did the third. That done, she parted ways with the other person, then talked to me a bit more about my expected connection with the woman from the feral and stray group. It turns out this person’s habit of posting pictures without permission is one of the reasons the Cat Lady no longer uses her Facebook; she just used Messenger and that’s it. Yet, this person does help a lot of people and manages to get a lot of donations, so any help is welcome, as long as we’re careful not to give out personal information.

From there, we parted ways and I headed to the Walmart to do my shopping. Normally, I would have stayed in the area, until I noticed my tire looked low and checked it. That was when I started getting messages from the other lady, which I had to answer in between driving around, getting gas, then having to go to another gas station across the street to pump my tire, since the compressor at the first station was out of service. I still had to go back to hit the Canadian Tire for litter pellets, so we arranged to meet at a nearby Tim Hortons.

I got there early enough to have “lunch”, but they still had only their breakfast menu, which was fine by me.

In the middle of all this, I got a call from the Cat Lady. The clinic knew to call me for pick up, but to call her for anything financial.

They’d called her about Fluffy.

Now, these are yard cats, and Fluffy is the more feral one. While Midnight was more social, neither of them have really been handled much at all. We also just assume they all have ear mites.

It turned out that Fluffy has really, really bad ear mites in one ear. Bad enough that there was a risk of them getting past the ear drum and to her brain, and to cause a severe infection.

The vet that called her is new to this clinic, and the Cat Lady could tell she wasn’t used to dealing with yard cats. When asked, how did it get this bad without anyone noticing, she had to explain that this cat had probably never been handled until today (she was correct). These are yard cats, so we just assume they will have ear mites, but that’s about it. No, we wouldn’t be able to give her ear drops three times a day. This is a yard cat. Especially not drops that have to be put in at a specific angle that is hard to do with a house pet!

As for treatment, this is a yard cat. It makes no sense to go all out financially on an outdoor cat that will probably just get ear mites again.

In the end, the Cat Lady authorized a couple of injections, for both the ear mites and the infection, but that was it. It still added more than $200 to her bill! They want to have the cat brought back to follow up in two weeks. We will be keeping her and Midnight in the isolation shelter for two weeks, so that is at least possible, but we certainly couldn’t keep trapping her to bring her back regularly after that! Bringing her indoors is not an option, either.

They talked about things like quality of life, and how she might end up going deaf in one ear, and we’re both… well, then we have a cat that’s deaf in one ear. As for if she gets sick because of the infection, or if the ear mites get bad enough to cross over to the brain, then it would actually be kinder to put her down. When it comes to the yard cats, sick cats disappear and don’t come back. Whether they just die somewhere, or if the coyotes or foxes get them, we never know for sure.

The Cat Lady doesn’t think it would come to that. Fluffy hasn’t actually shown any signs of being sick. She’s been eating fine, she’s active, she hangs out in the sun room regularly. With the treatment she’s getting, she’ll probably recover and be just fine.

In the end, she agreed to talk to them about her on the phone in a week, and make a decision from there.

Then, while I was waiting to meet with the feral and stray cat group lady, I got a call from the clinic. Both cats were done and recovering, and would be ready to pick up in about an hour. Meanwhile, my husband remembered something, and I needed to go back to the Walmart.

Which is about when the cat group lady arrived!

So we ended up not sitting and talking as we originally expected to, and went to transfer stuff from her vehicle to mine. Which was easy to do, as she just happened to park next to my truck!

I couldn’t believe how much she was able to donate!

There were a number of kibble bags of various sizes. I think the largest were about 5kg. I actually lost track of how many smaller ones there were!

Then there were the cases of canned can food. All Tuna. I’m not sure how many are in each case, as they’re all cardboard boxes sealed in plastic, but there ended up being 10 cases! She said those ones were from the humane society.

After the truck was loaded, she asked to take a picture with me and the open truck box. That’ll get posted on FB, but there isn’t anything identifiable on there. Not even my face, since my FB profile picture is cats. I don’t mind that. I was so happy with the very generous donation!

She did ask questions about where we lived and how many cats we’re caring for, but “in the boonies” was a good enough answer (she does know we’re near our little hamlet), and I honestly don’t know how many cats we’re caring for outside. I’ve mostly given up trying to do a head count, as they run around so much, but it’s different every day. Sometimes by a very wide range!

That done, I made a quick run back into the Walmart, then headed to the clinic, just in time for pick up.

While going through how things went, they basically wouldn’t let me leave with the cats without making an appointment, two weeks from now. The estimate was emailed to the Cat Lady, along with the bill for the three cats she covered today, but I asked what it was. I know that Cat Lady has already extended her budget as much as she could for the extra treatment for Fluffy today. I’ll have to go through our own budget to see if we can over the amount. I think we can, but not if it ends up costing more.

I’ve actually been chatting with the Cat Lady while I’ve been writing this.

Once we had all the details done, it was time to bring the kitties home!

They were not happy.

Fluffy was actually the calmer of the two. You can’t see it in the photo, but they did manage to get the black reflective collar on her (when the clinic called me, we talked about the breakaway collars, too). I think. It wasn’t attached to the carrier’s handle anymore, but I honestly haven’t seen it through her fur.

If you click through to the next photo, I managed to get Midnight to almost face me, so his bright pink collar is hidden, too.

For the first part of the drive, Midnight was really fighting to get out of that carrier! Fluffy was, too, but not as violently. Eventually, though, they both settled down and were quiet for the rest of the ride home.

Meanwhile, my daughter made sure the isolation shelter was ready, with the ramp door closed. When I got home, she helped me get them into the shelter through one of the upper level sliding windows.

They both immediately went to the lower level to get out, only to find the door closed.

They were not happy.

My daughter and I then unloaded the van – with a special gift for her for all her help that my husband reminded me to pick up waiting as a surprise. Her PCOS has really been giving her a hard time lately, so we know she’s been really struggling to do as much as she has been.

After unloading the truck, she parked it while I opened up one of the donated bags of kibble with pumpkin in it and gave the outside cats an early feeding to distract them.

They really, really liked it!

As we unpacked the back from the Cat Lady with the water fountain and filters in it, we kept finding more and more stuff buried underneath! Including a package of special wipes to clean cats. Those will come in quite handy for our messy butt cats! There were even some food bowls, and more bags of cat food on the bottom.

The Cat Lady is so awesome!

Once everything was put away, I grabbed one of the loose cat food cans for Midnight and Fluffy. That will be one of the benefits of being in the isolation shelter. They will regularly get wet cat food while they are in there, and the food bowls are positioned so the heat bulb will keep the wet cat food from freezing.

We got so much wet and dry cat food donated today, we could probably do without buying more for the rest of month! I probably will, anyhow, because it’s always good to have extra stocked up, but this makes it so much easier on the budget. What a huge help! I know so many people are really struggling these days, so it’s amazing that people are able to make donations at all.

I am so incredibly grateful to both the Cat Lady and the stray and feral group lady for it all. We were just blown away! So much more than I expected.

We are going to have some very happy kitties for the next while!

Well… maybe not the ones in the isolation shelter right now. 😄 They’ll get used to it, though, and I’m sure they’ll get used to the warmth, food and water, all to themselves!

The kitties that usually use the isolation shelter are going to have to get used to using the sun room and the cat house again! 😄

They’ll manage. 😉

All in all, it’s been a very good day!

The Re-Farmer

Taking advantage of a nice day!

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Today didn’t go above freezing, like yesterday, but it did reach a high of -3C/27F, which is absolutely gorgeous for this time of year . We need to take advantage of it while we can, though. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have the same high of the day, and then it’s supposed to drop to a high of -23C/-9F the next day! We’re supposed to keep getting colder for a couple more days before things start warming up to above -20C/-4F again.

With that on the horizon, when my mother called yesterday about getting help with her shopping, I was already planning to call her to arrange doing it today. My mother, after telling me her fridge is sooo empty, tried to have it on Friday, because there is a social event in her building on Thursdays. I reminded her, I’m doing her shopping for her. She isn’t coming along, so she can still go visit with her neighbours! I just didn’t want her to be with an empty fridge any longer than necessary.

So that was worked out.

Before I headed out this morning, I had a little extra to do during my morning rounds.

It was time to put some pretty collars on some cats!

Here, from left to right, Colin, Judgement and Stinky are sporting their handsome new necklaces. These are not only brightly colours, but have rows of reflective strands in them. I was also able to get one on Gouda, and Nosey showed up towards the end and got one.

This is Gouda’s old collar, that showed up in the sun room after he lost it, as other cats were dragging it around and playing with it.

This colour also has the rows of reflective strands in, though with the collar being scratched until it frayed like this, I doubt they could be seen! The breakaway collar is still there, but the loop of collar on one end had come undone. This has happened before. These are the collars I’ve been able to find at the local dollar store. I still have one like it left that got buried. I just need to remove the bell and adjust the length before I add it to the others.

These are all the prepared collars. Since the yard cats earn their keep by hunting rodents for us, all the bells get removed, first. The ones on the bottom are the ones I found at the local dollar store. The bells on those ones need a pair of pliers to removed them, as the bells are on a ring that goes around the fabric of the collar. The new reflective ones have D rings for the bells. Plus, the rings the bells were on were the kind with overlapping ends, so they could be slid off like a key ring.

I’m keeping all the bells. Eventually, I plan to crochet a bunch of cat toys and will include the bells inside them.

We have one spay and one neuter booked through the rescue at the end of the month. I plan to bring a couple of collars along for the clinic to put on them while they are still under. Much easier than trying to get a collar on a mostly feral cat.

I really, really, really want to snag this one.

Meaning Brussel, the gorgeous fluffy calico with four boys hanging around.

Yes, she has gone into heat.

In the middle of January.

If we can’t catch her, she would be having kittens at the end of February. Way too early. The chances of survival would be almost nil.

But, how do we catch her? I don’t want to use a trap, yet, as it’s too still too cold, and who knows which cat would actually get caught in the trap. I might be able to get her closed up in the catio – she actually went into there this morning, and I could have closed her in, but she would need a heated water bowl, and there is no power available out there. The catio itself is a mini greenhouse, plus it has two box nests, one insulated, one with insulation between it and the ground, and a food bowl. Once things are warm enough that water won’t freeze, the catio could also be used as an isolation shelter, but not yet!

Brussel is one of the more feral cats but at least she does come closer and sometimes goes into the sun room. Her sister, Sprout, sometimes comes closer to house, but runs away as soon as she sees us. Sprout it one of the most feral in the colony.

Gotta work on that lady! She would be a priority over the other females right now, if we could snag her.

Aside from bedecking cats with snazzy new necklaces (the two littles that got fixed won’t be getting theirs quite yet), the other additional task of the morning was to pour more calcium chloride into the ejector. My brother asked me to pour it into the venturi pipe first, see if that can be filled, before pouring it into the stand pipe around it.

The two jugs were on the old oil drum my brother dragged over to use as a work surface. I started with the one that had only about a quarter jug left. Once that was done, I cracked open the second one.

As my brother expected, showing that the venturi valve is, indeed, no longer frozen, the level of liquid inside the venturi pipe did not seem to increase. The level in the stand pipe did increase, slowly. What would be happening is liquid at the bottom might be draining slowly into the main pipe.

It wasn’t until I was pouring the last of the calcium chloride into the pipe that I realized I was hearing an odd sound from inside the jug.

It was slush.

The liquid ice melter, had started to freeze!

Part of this is because they were sitting on metal, which would have made the bottoms a lot colder. The other part is that, while they were sitting there, the contents separated in the cold, with the water freezing at the bottom.

After closing up the ejector and wrapping it up again, the tarp, I nestled both jugs into the black plastic, on the east side of the set up, so that they would get the most sun and warmth to thaw out.

I hope we get one extra warm day on the weekend, as I expect my brother will want to come out on Saturday to switch the pipes back on the septic pump. I would then trudge out to the ejector for when he’s ready to test it, so I can message him and let him know if it’s working or not.

If it does work, we’ll have to make a point of using lots of water so the septic pump will turn on a few times and wash out the calcium chloride. The fitting at the bottom of the ejector is brass, which might corrode if it’s exposed to it for too long.

Once all that was done, it wasn’t long before I headed out to the truck to set up the OBDII scanner and make sure it is still just the sensor triggering the check engine light. I probably don’t need to do that, but I’m paranoid about having just one vehicle available.

My husband was expecting a prescription delivery today, so I left the gate open when I headed out, and the girls made sure to keep a phone handy and be available to get the delivery.

I timed my departure for when I could pick up our favourite fried chicken and wedges for lunch at the gas station – and top up the gas tank.

One thing my mother needs to get done that I cannot do for her is get cash from the bank, and she is no longer physically up to going to the bank in person. She doesn’t have a bank card (she did get one and my brother has it for safe keeping), as she wouldn’t know how to use it, nor would she trust it, so it’s cash only. My brother, as her Power of Attorney, is the only person who can do it for her. I brought it up with my brother, at her request, to see if there was some way to include me in the PoA (I do NOT want to be PoA at all!). He will have to take a day off work and make an appointment with our mother at the bank to work things out, and has no idea when he’ll be able to do that. Hopefully, some workaround be found.

We’ll figure it out.

After my mother and I had our lunch together, we went over her list and then I went to the pharmacy and the grocery store for her. I got back just in time for the social worker from the senior’s centre to arrive and start setting up their weekly event. I was able to get everything unloaded and put away, before starting time, so that worked out quite well.

My daughters, meanwhile, were also taking advantage of the warm day and have set up the laundry. No one has had a chance to climb onto the roof and check the vent yet (they climb through a window upstairs, rather than use a ladder, as it’s safer that way), so we’ve got the hose running out the door again. Since it’s going to be set up, anyhow, I’ll also take advantage of it and find things to wash. It may be warmer right now, but we still need to make sure to bring the hose in as soon as possible, before any remaining water starts to freeze, or the plastic starts to get brittle and crack.

One of these days, we’ll be able to do laundry like normal people again. 😄😄

Getting all this stuff done during the few warm days we have right now is a lot like “making hay while the sun shines” in the summer! We’re going to be hit with the bitter cold again, soon enough.

I can’t complain, though. For all that we are getting these cold spells, it’s really been a fairly mild winter. Not as mild as last year’s El Nińo winter, but still much nicer than the first few winters we had after moving here!

What the heck???

I just checked my computer’s weather app.

We are now under a blizzard warning.

We were expecting a couple of hours with snow this evening, then more in the wee hours of the morning, but this is the first blizzard warning I’m seeing! With winds up to 70km/h (43mph), they’re now saying. Looking at the weather radar, it seems that most of the system will pass to the north of us.

Mind you, the same weather app is saying the snow has already started where we are, and I see no snow falling at all, outside my window. So maybe our weird climate bubble is doing its thing again.

As I write this, our temperature is still a balmy -4C/25F, though the windchill is at -15C/5C. Still not too bad right now. We shall see!

At least the yard babies have plenty of food, water and shelter.

The Re-Farmer

Finally home and settled!

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I swear, it was more hectic as soon as I got home than with the running around I did earlier!

The Cat Lady and I met up after I dropped the cats off at the vet, then had breakfast at McRaunchies at the Walmart. She started handing me things for the back of the truck.

Then more things.

Then more things!!

This is so amazing!

The big reusable bag, the cat bed, the small bags of cat food under it, and the big bag on the other side, are all from the Cat Lady. These are all things she can no longer feed her own cats, because it all has chicken in it, and The Wolfman keeps steeling into it, even though they give him things like freshly baked salmon way too often. There are five small bags under the cat bed. They are some fancy type of cat food – she described it as a prescription cat food, though the bags say senior cat on them – that normally cost $60 each. *gasp* She got them at half price, which is still insane. She warned me that this kibble really stinks. It’s a herring and chicken blend, so it’s likely the fish smell, she says. The cat bed is one her cats have stopped using for some reason, so she passed it on to us.

I am more than happy to take her cast offs!!

The other two bags were donated by a friend of hers for us. She’d never seen the brand before, so she couldn’t tell me anything about it.

After we loaded up the truck box, parted ways. I headed to the Dollarama to get new vinyl to repair the catio covering and things I thought might help hold it in place better – and some spring cat toys.

Then it was off to the Walmart to get some stuff my husband asked for. I also got myself a pair of slipper shoes. I’ve been trying to replace my inside shoes for ages, and can’t find any that are as comfortable as the old ones. So I tried the men’s slippers. I wasn’t able to try them on, but I got some size 9’s – the size I usually get – that were indoor/outdoor with memory foam insoles. I figured, if they didn’t fit, my daughter/s would have some new inside shoes.

I would have looked around for other things, but so many people were blocking the aisles, I gave up, paid for my stuff and left.

I still had time, so I drove across the street to the Canadian Tire to hang out there. Usually, I would have just stayed in the truck and napped, but it was too cold.

I did remember to pick up a carabiner for the isolation shelter latch, and a windshield fluid funnel for the truck. I was able to pay for it with change. I’m glad I had some, because I wouldn’t have wanted to make such a small purchase on my debit card! 😄

I did almost buy myself a new winter “going out” coat. I found a display of nice parkas on clearance that were very affordable. Alas, it was not to be. Being built like a tank has its disadvantages. I found an XXL to try on, and it mostly fit, until I tried to move my arms. My shoulders were too broad for it, and they didn’t have any bigger sizes.

Ah, well.

I still had time and it was coming up on noon, so I headed over to a nearby Timmies for lunch. For my readers outside of Canada, Tim Horton’s, aka: Timmies, is an iconic Canadian coffee and donut shop, though I don’t think they are Canadian owned anymore. Tim Horton was a hockey player. Today, they now do all sorts of sandwiches, soups and so on, as well as coffee and donuts.

Until yesterday, when my daughter and I went to one for breakfast, I hadn’t been to one in ages.

My daughter worked at the local one for awhile. She ended up quitting because of the health and safety violations from one employee. When she made a complaint to the manager, she was the one who got in trouble. After seeing more health violations by this employee that got ignored, she quit. She later got a job at the pharmacy across the street. During her interview, she told them why she’d quit her last job. The manager that was interviewing her just nodded and told her, that manager was gone.

The problem employee, however, wasn’t, yet.

We don’t go to that location at all anymore.

Then the illegal lockdowns and mandates happened and the entire franchise went full gestapo, right down to the physical assault of patrons.

I would rather have gone somewhere else, but it was either Timmie’s or back to McRaunchies. I do like their chili. A nice, thick, robust chili that is low on spice heat, so it’s something I can actually eat, served with a generously sized baguette style bun. I figured I would have chili for lunch.

It was quite the disappointment. It wasn’t chili. It was soup. I ended up literally drinking it out of the cup, because I could barely get anything with the wooden spoon they now provide. The bun was half the size, too. Meanwhile, the price was higher than it used to be, too.

Ah, well. At least the Boston Creme I also got was still tasty! A donut used to be part of the meal deal, but I had to order it separately.

I should have gone back to McRaunchies.

At this point, I still hadn’t heard from the vet clinic, but I figured I would be hearing from them soon, so I decided to go back and stay in their waiting room until the cats were ready to go home.

When I got there and told the receptionist which cats I was waiting for, she went to check their status for me.

They were ready!

It turned out, they had tried to phone me and left messages, but I never got a call. I had given my cell phone number before I left earlier, and asked what number they had.

One digit was wrong.

Someone out there must be getting some very confusing messages on their voice mail! This happened last time, too. I will need to take extra care in enunciation when I gave them my cell phone number in the future.

I’m told the kittens both did really well. They got their spay and neuter, basic vaccinations, tattoos and treatment for ear mites.

Since the rescue was covering the cost of this, they had to call the Cat Lady before they could release the cats, and then I was on my way.

They are both so incredibly adorable!!!

Once they were loaded up, it was straight home. I’d already arranged for my daughter to take care of getting the isolation shelter ready, making sure the food and water was topped up, the litter box was good, moving the entry box and closing the ramp door so that there would not be other cats in it. She had to use the bricks that were under the entry box to keep the ramp door closed, though, until I could get the carabiner on the latch.

When I got home, I backed the truck up to the house, then dashed inside for a quick bathroom break while my daughter headed to the truck to get the carriers out.

When I got back to help her, I discovered she had slipped and falling, landing hard on one knee, on the concrete.

She is now walking with a cane again, because of it!

😢😢

As for getting the cats in, we used one of the sliding doors on the second level. I tossed in a couple of the spring toys for them, first.

Kohl was easy to do; she let me pick her up and cuddle her a moment before I put her on the shelf board with the sheet of insulation on it. She promptly loafed on the insulation and stayed there.

The fluffball – we still haven’t named him – wouldn’t let me take him out of the carrier, though, so my daughter just brought it up to the open window in the second level and opened the carrier door. He dashed right in, then down to the lower level and tried to get out!

My daughter took the carriers in while I unloaded the truck. Kohl stayed calm, but the poor male was having panic attacks, in between stopping to eat a bit. He really wanted out.

With the stuff brought inside, I fed the rest of the outside cats early to occupy them, so that I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage. When I came back, I grabbed a can of wet cat food and added it to the food bowl in the isolation shelter. While they are in isolation, they will get to enjoy wet cat food, since we know it won’t freeze in there. Hopefully, that will help socialize the male.

In between things, I took the new cat bed and set it on my bed next to our elderly Freya, who was asleep on one of my pillows. I came back a few minutes later and found this.

It absolutely envelops her!

The Grand Old Lady deserves to be pampered!

I then used a half dozen of the donated cat food to make cat soup for the inside cats before going through the bags and organizing things.

There are three cases of 24 cans from the Cat Lady – plus the 6 I used to make cat soup. There were also two big containers of treats. Made with Real Chicken! There’s another case of 12 same size cans from her friend, plus I think 9 of the big cans. There are also 3 boxes. They are labelled duck paté, but also as “sensitive” and as grain free. The boxes look like they should have liquid in them, though, not paté. I’m curious to find out what these are!

There were also three more bags of kibble hidden under the cans, the same size as the five small bags of kibble from the Cat Lady.

I’ve looked up the brand for most of these, and it looks like they are the house brand of a specific pet store franchise, which would explain why neither the Cat Lady nor I were familiar with it.

After I got all the cat stuff done, I finally settled down to try on the new slipper shoes I bought.

My daughter now has new indoor shoes.

I couldn’t even get my feet into them! I do usually get size 9 men’s shoes – in triple wide. These were NOT triple wide. *sigh*

Then I remembered that, since I had cats in the truck, I hadn’t stopped to close the driveway gate behind me, so I bundled up and took care of that. On the way back, I got a couple of pictures.

The entry box is just off to the side, and as you can see, it’s also being used as a shelter, even though it’s completely open at the back!

A lot of cats were trying to get into the shelter. Some of them had gotten used to being able to stay in there. Unfortunately, we can’t be letting other cats in and out when we have one that needs to recover. The fluffball male could probably be let out, but then Kohl would be in there by herself, and that would not be good. The male does seem to be calming down and only panics a bit and tries to get out when the house door opens and startles him. If you click through to the next picture, you can see that Kohl is still quite content to just loaf on the insulated shelf!

So the isolation shelter is getting its first test run. So far, it seems to be holding well, though it already looks like cats have tried to claw their way in from the outside! The vinyl on one corner at the back is tattered a bit. Not that they can get through the wire, but they may be trying to reach the window. They know it opens.

As I write this, we are at -16C/3F. The wind chill is -33C/-27F, but with the plastic around the bottom, that should have little effect inside the isolation shelter. The vinyl wrapped around the lower level should keep the wind out. They have the heat lamp, two cat beds to curl up in, one on each level, plus the insulated box “nest” under the shelf. Even the heated water bowl would add some warmth to the upper level. Some wind might get through the spaces between the boards of the ramp door, but this will make sure they get some fresh air coming in. With colder air coming in from the bottom, and warm air escaping through the gaps around the sliding windows and the space in the insulation ceiling the extension cord runs through, there should be decent air circulation in there, while still being warm.

Our temperatures are supposed to go up overnight, and keep going up for our daytime highs. Our forecast for Saturday is now a high of 4C/39F. It’s expected to slowly drop after that until we get a sharp drop on Wednesday, which is supposed to have a high of -20C/-4F, though the overnight low is supposed to be just a few degrees colder.

The long term forecast has changed and, while we are still supposed to reach highs above freezing in the week before Christmas, the overnight lows around Christmas and Boxing Day are expected to dip below -30C/-22F. 🥶 The cats will no longer need to be isolated well before then, so they will be able to join cuddle puddles in various heated areas by then.

Of course, the forecast is different pretty much every time I check it, so we’ll see how things actually go. I just want things to stay mild during their isolation period!

Meanwhile, tomorrow I will finally be able to do my Costco shopping. December is a weird month for my husband’s disability payments, though, and it comes in before Christmas instead of at the end of the month. Usually, that has meant us doing our Christmas/New Year’s shopping and January stock up shopping at the same time. This trip is so much later in the month than usual, I might be able to do most of that tomorrow, but we’ll see.

The less time spent shopping, this time of year, the better. I’d hibernate all winter, if I could! I don’t like shopping and I don’t like crowds at the best of times, never mind with holiday crowds and winter driving! Even just today, by the time I got home, I found the donated canned cat food I used to make the cat soup had started to freeze!

Ah, well. It is what it is. No point complaining about it! 😁

As for me, I didn’t get much sleep last night and had to get up extra early, so I am more than ready to go to bed early tonight!

Who am I kidding. I’ll probably be lucky to get to bed before midnight, anyhow! 😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Waiting

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I’m currently sitting the the truck in a parking lot, waiting to meet up with the Cat Lady.

This morning, my daughter and I snagged two kittens for the vet.  Kohl was easy to catch, once she joined us in the sun room, but none of the adult females were to be seen.

Then a kitten walked into the carrier.

Decision made!

I’m writing this on my phone, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to see the above image slideshow.

The grey and white tabby turned out to be male.  We’ve never been able to handle this one, though I have been able to sneak a pet while he was eating.  He was too fluffy to easily spot gender.

They were both very quiet during the drive in.  I hope they enjoy their recovery in the isolation shelter.  The male doesn’t need 2 weeks in there, but I don’t want Kohl to be in there alone. Plus, we might be able to socialize him while he is in there.

After connecting with the Cat Lady, I will take advantage of being in the area and do some errands and possible shopping.  Tomorrow is Costco day, though, so there isn’t much I need to get today.  I do want to get more vinyl table protectors, and some sort of fasteners.  Yesterday’s wind tore off a section at the catio door.  It will be warmer on the weekend, so thar will need a good time to fix it.

Oh!  Just got word from the Cat Lady.  She will be here soon.  I look forward to seeing her.  She is awesome!

The Re-Farmer