outside cats

A good, yet disappointing, day

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Today was market day, and the original plan was to be there for the usual 10-3, then stay for the 4-8 special event. In the wee hours, I got a response from the rescue mentioning that we were the only ones talking about being there for the 10-3 part, and that they were closing to tours from 2-4 to prepare for the event. So I decided we’d skip the first time slot and just be there for the event.

Which make for a more relaxed morning. I got up to feed the outside cats in my nightgown and tried to go back to bed for a couple more hours, instead.

It didn’t work.

I can’t complain, though, as I started getting messages from my SIL, and I always enjoy a chat with her. After a while I got up and headed outside to water the garden before things got too hot.

*sigh*

Yes, I found some deer damage. More of the Jet Black hollyhock leaves are gone, and then there was this…

The first image was the single self seeded Jabousek lettuce I had meant to leave to go to seed. It was starting to bolt, too. Nothing left but this stump. This type of lettuce has survived deer damage before, though, so I’m leaving it and expect it will sent up new shoots fairly quickly.

The second image is a purple cabbage that also got eaten. Just one. Apparently, the deer liked the lettuce better than the cabbage. It’s unfortunate the wire mesh cover had to be removed to make room for the seed onions. Now there’s nothing to protect it from the deer.

Thankfully, that was the only deer damage I spotted while watering. Once that was done, I had plans to finish mowing areas of the lawn that I’d finally cleared of other things, so I only needed to move some garden hose out of the way. Since we were going to be out, I was planning to do it tomorrow, but cleared what needed to be cleared in advance before going inside.

I’d been inside for awhile when I got messages and photos, letting me know…

… my brother had cleared the old tire from around the stump! It’s now ready for the tree guys to come back with the stump grinder. My brother had to move several patio blocks to get the job done, which I had expected might be necessary. Once the stump is cleared out, we’ll be able to level the area and reset the blocks that the roots had heaved out of place.

I was stunned that he’d gone it. I hadn’t heard a thing! Neither had anyone else in the household. Meanwhile, he’d been concerned he was making too much noise!

The above photo was taken much later in the day, though. After we’d come back from the market.

Set up time was from 2-3:30 if we wanted to unload our vehicles on location. After unloading, we were requested to park in another area to make room for families coming to the event. When my daughter and I loaded the tent, folding chairs and table into the box of the truck (everything else has been staying in the back of the cab all month), my SIL was out mowing the outer yard with their big zero turn mower. When I opened the gate before we drove out, she took advantage of it and mowed around the driveway on the other side of the gate, which was handy. My daughter and I left early enough to stop at the general store first, where we picked up some canned drinks in two sizes to use as part of my display, along with a couple of sub sandwiches and drinks ourselves, since we’d be having our supper while at the market.

We were the first vendors there. I found someone to let us know where to set up, since it was no longer going to be in what is otherwise a parking area.

Happily, we got to be next to the emu and chicken enclosures.

Emus make the most remarkable noises. !!!

We had started out as the end of the row (or the beginning of it, I suppose), but someone set up their display a bit closer to the emu enclosure, while others set up in the other direction. Enough vendors showed up that a couple of displays were set up across from us to start a second row.

It was hot for the first couple of hours, and the poor vendor that set up closer to the emus hadn’t been able to bring her tent. She only had a patio umbrella, and the wind kept trying to blow it away! She ended up spending quite a bit of time in the shade of our tent, and we had some wonderful conversation with her.

In the end, though, we didn’t sell a single thing, and she sold only one thing – and it was to another vendor! A couple of others we spoke to as we were packing up did have some better sales, and the hot dog guy who was set up in a concession stand near the petting zoo shelter must have done really well. The rest of us did not do well at all. The people were there for the event and the animals, not the market.

This is a major fundraising things for the rescue, so they went all out. They had mascots from popular children’s shows and movies wandering around. There was a bouncy castle, face painting, pony and horse rides and, of course, the petting zoo inside a shelter where admissions were also processed. They had three new baby donkeys in there, plus the kittens that are up for adoption.

They weren’t doing tours, so no one was going into the large animal enclosures, but they did allow people to go into the chicken enclosure and coop.

Which was fine, at first, but near the end we started becoming very concerned. Some kids were chasing the chickens around too aggressively. These chickens are also rescues. Some of them still having visible red patches where their feathers had been pecked out. The parents were in the enclosure, too, taking video of their kids trying to catch the chickens.

It kept getting worse. There was one little black chicken that two kids were chasing around. I saw the girl catch it several times, only to let it go, so she could chase it again. Then kids started chasing the chickens around the back of the coop, where there is a narrow space between the coop and the enclosure fence, with a kid at each side of the coop, trying to trap the chickens. When we started seeing a little boy running after the chickens, stomping his feet and flailing his arms – and the adults just watching and taking photos and video – it was too much. I went over to the shelter where the petting zoo was and found a couple of the volunteers who help run the rescue and manage the tours. I started to say that there were kids getting out of control in the chicken enclosure and one of them immediately turned and headed for it, before I even finished.

This is not an uncommon problem.

I explained a bit more to the other person before returning to our tent. The woman who’d left to deal with the situation was inside the enclosure and working on getting the kids together and away from the chickens.

As my daughter and I continued to chat with our neighbour, I could see the volunteer in the enclosure, looking like she was supervising the kids for a while.

The next time I looked over, everyone had been removed from the chicken enclosure and the volunteer was latching the gate (a wooden frame with wire mesh). She then left and came back with a lock and chain to wind around the latch and gate handle. She left again, then came back to staple a sign to the gate. After a while, I decided to go read the sign when I saw one of the kids from earlier – about 5 or 6 years old – that had been chasing the chickens, going to the gate with an adult I presume was the father. The kid immediately began trying to open the gate, pulling on the chain, the handle, the latch… The dad then told the kid it was closed and started leading him away.

The kid promptly began screaming and crying and having a major tantrum because he couldn’t get back in to torment the chickens.

When I got close enough to read the sign, it said the chicken coop was closed so the chickens could have a rest, adding a “thanks for understanding” at the end.

That one little black chicken that was being chased, caught, released and chased some more, was sitting on a step into the coop, not moving. All the others were moving around, pecking and drinking and clearly looking much calmer, but that one little chicken just sat there. The poor thing must have been so exhausted!

By this time, it was getting close to the end of the event, and the crowds were starting to disappear. Some of the vendors were already packing up. We waited a bit longer, since I could see that our truck was blocked by another vehicle, so there wasn’t much point in rushing things.

Our neighbour was done packing up at about the same time we were, and my truck was no longer blocked, so she and I walked over to our vehicles together. The family that owns the place had said we could drive to the vendor area from where we were parked, but it is so rough, we both took the road and went around the other way. The section of fence we’d gone through before, though, had been boarded up again, and we had to wait for someone to come with a driver and take the boards off again. By the time she was done, there were four vehicles, including me and our neighbour, waiting to come in, and one vehicle on the other side of the fence, waiting to leave!

My daughter and I were able to pack up very quickly. While my daughter was in the box of the truck, strapping it down, I went over to help our neighbour. I figured the least I could do was bring her packed bins closer to her car, but in the end, my daughter and I were able to help her load things in, too. She did not have a particularly large car. No wonder she didn’t have room for a canopy tent!

As far as any of us know, this is the last market day at the rescue. They had brought up the possibility of extending into August, but no one had heard anything about that actually happening. It was pretty disappointing for the vendors in general, but we also understood that this was the first time they’d tried including a market, so no one knows about it and people coming in for the tours were probably not expecting to shop at a market, too. With how busy it was, I hope the rescue had a good fundraising day, at least!

While we were at the market, I got some messages from my brother and SIL. They had loaded up one of their trailers and were planning to go to the dump while it was open. I have the card needed for that, but was able to just send them a photo of it and they were able to show that to the attendant. When we first moved here and were cleaning 40+ years of my parents’ stuff out, we found a lot of paint cans. Some of which had never been opened, but where so old, the box they were in was degrading. We took all the pain cans we could find and put them in one of the stalls in the barn. Today, they took all the pain cans to the dump! The dump has an area set aside for paint cans. This will have opened up quite a bit of space in the stall we’d put them in. That’s also where we put all the batteries we’d been finding. They will be taking those to a scrap yard. Taking old batteries to a scrap yard is something the yard will pay for, like when we take in our aluminum. When a large number of batteries are brought in at once, they pay extra. There are more than a dozen old batteries to take in, so that should work out rather well. The scrap yard isn’t open on the weekends, though, and that’s when my brother and SIL can make it out, so they’ll have to figure out when they can do that.

After we got back from the market and brought some of the stuff into the house (we’ll unpack the inventory and display items tomorrow), I immediately did my evening walkabout while it was still like. Much to my surprise, I found that my SIL had not only mowed the outer yard, but the inner yard, too! I had done much of it not long ago and there were just the smaller areas I’d cleared – including where I’d finally cut up that big maple branch that had fallen – that still needed to be done, and the grass doesn’t grow quickly there, anyhow. My SIL had mowed those areas, and in the main garden area we’re slowly trying to reclaim, too! It looks amazing!

My nasturtiums, I found, also look amazing.

So many blossoms!

I took a peek under the net over the high raised bed, with the bush beans. I might actually be able to start harvesting beans tomorrow! I might wait an extra day, though. It’s looking like we’ll have quite a few beans! The yellow beans seem to be ripening the fastest, but I’m also seeing the green and purple beans starting to look ready to pick. I am so looking forwards to having our first fresh green beans!!

I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, though, so I didn’t stay out for too long. We did find the can of bug spray in the truck, though – it had rolled under the seat! I made sure that got brought to the house.

So that’s where we are at tomorrow. It was a good day, in that we enjoyed being at the market, had a great time chatting with the vendor next to us, and had some nice surprises at home. The only disappointment was the lack of sales, and not just for ourselves. It should be interesting to see if the rescue will do this again next year. I suspect not, but you never know!

The Re-Farmer

Bad pain day

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Well, so much for being productive…

One of my daughters took care of feeding the outside cats for me this morning, so I could get a bit more sleep after doing a wellness check on my husband.

My first attempt at lying down got interrupted by a phone call. It was the pharmacy. They noticed I was to get prescriptions delivered today, but my husband’s were listed as a pick up. Did I want his delivered, too? After confirming that an in person pick up was not required (which sometimes happens, due to regulations around some of his meds), I absolutely said yes! That made things more flexible for me when it came to getting the mail and going to town.

Then my daughter was a sweetheart and kept a handset with her upstairs, so she could answer the phone if it rang again.

After I got a couple more hours of attempted sleep, I eventually made it outside and started with the watering. The rain barrel was finally full again, so I used watering cans to do all the south garden beds and the old kitchen until the barrel was empty, finishing by using the hose to water the grape vines.

By then, I was really struggling and having difficulty standing up straight, so I went inside. I let the family know that the front was watered, but not the main garden area, but that I was going to take some pain killers and try lying down. Not to sleep, but because it was sitting was just as painful as standing. Granted, lying down wasn’t any less painful, but at least I didn’t have to try to keep myself upright.

I had meant to finish the watering after I felt better, but my younger daughter went out to finish the watering for me, leaving the phone with my husband. Over time, however, the pain increased rather than decreased. When my daughter came in to check on me, I was wanting to sit up so I could take another painkiller, but needed her to help me. My prescription says to take two or three at a time, but I was only taking one. I’m going to have to change that.

Getting up was not an option, though. So when the prescription delivery came, my daughter went out to meet him.

For my own meds, I got a refill on my topical painkiller, more T3s, as I was running low, and my new prescription. My older daughter just came down while I was working on this to take a look, because she’s on the same medication, but my dose is 5 times higher than hers. It turns out to be a different type of the same thing – and a lot less expensive. It is covered 100% by our provincial pharmacare system, though, so it’s not even billed to my husband’s insurance. It is also the only medication I’m on where the time between doses makes a difference. It says to take one before bed, and I never get to bed at the same time, so I’ve set a daily alarm for myself.

For today, though, I took my first dose right away, after getting a daughter to help me sit up again. Then it was back to lying down. My SIL messaged me around this time, and we talked about the bill for the bin for trash that was hauled away already, and asking about the bill for tree removal that my brother hasn’t received yet. They’ll be coming out for the weekend again and my brother plans to check the roof and the window where it’s leaking. A major concern would be mold. I know the roofers put an extra layer of underlay on that section of the roof, because it’s such a low slope, and it has held out fine until this year, and even before the new roof was put on, it had never leaked with rain. Just from the ice dam that forms during spring melt. So something has gone very wrong up there, but we can’t see it from the ground, and none of us are able bodied enough to climb onto roof to see.

I’m really hoping the new meds help, because what I was dealing with today was some of the worst pain yet. The T3s, at least, seemed to finally kick in, and was was feeling much better later. Well enough that I could feed the outside cats – and got to see Sprout bringing her little white and grey kitten to the food bowls under the shrine! That’s a first that we’ve seen.

I even felt well enough to finally rake up some grass clippings that were thick enough to start killing the lawn under them, and even do a walkabout. As I was doing that, spotting the kitten and then the skunks coming in, too, I realized something. I haven’t seen Domino for a while. We let her out of the isolation shelter just before Sweetie came back, and Sweetie broke out during the storm her first night here. I think Domino disappeared soon after that. I haven’t seen Adam for about a week now, and today I realized that I haven’t seen Havarti for several days. That’s three cats disappearing in a relatively short time, for long enough that I wouldn’t expect them to come back at all. Domino is the missing one that bothers me most. She was at the rescue for a couple of months, could not adapt to the indoor life, so we took her back. She seemed so happy to be back and let me pet her far more often than she ever did, before she’d gone to the rescue. Now, she’s just gone.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

In the end, it was a pretty rough day. Even my family later commented on how much better I was looking this evening, and how terrible I’d looked earlier!

Tomorrow will be my first test on how the new meds are working, but the real big test will be on Saturday, when I plan to have my table at the market open from 10am to 8pm. Those last four hours should be the busiest, as the large animal rescue has a big event planned.

Personally, I’ll be happy if I can just stay upright all day tomorrow, and not end up back in bed, curled up in pain, for hours again.

The Re-Farmer

Good stuff and not so good stuff

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First, the good stuff.

My husband’s condition has stabilized, and he is feeling so much better. He’s looking a lot better, too – though some of that is partly because, with the heat we’ve been having, he finally shaved his head and most of his beard off, a few days ago. Today, however, was a much cooler day; more like our typical summer heat.

We had predictions of rain and possible thunderstorms for the afternoon, so I did not water the garden this morning. I did end up adding more rods to the hoops over the bush beans on the high raised bed. The onions planted with them were starting to poke through the netting. It’s now as high as the netting can go and still be secured around the edges. No sign of beans, though. Lots of flowers, but I’m not seeing a lot of pollinators. I’ve pretty much only seen bees on the poppy flowers. Nothing in the flower beds. With our spring lurching from hot during the day to almost freezing at night, that would have affected a lot of our emerging pollinators.

Our corn started to show tassels a few days ago. Today, I saw my first corn silk. Those, at least, get pollinated by the wind. In the next image of the slide show above, you can see the sudden burst of poppy flowers that opened this morning. In the last photo, we have two yellow zucchini flowers open – both female. No sign of male flowers.

While doing my rounds this morning, I also finally had a kitten sighting, enough to take pictures! I hadn’t seen the kitten in so long, I feared a coyote got it, but then I spotted it in the junk pile. The pile that has since had stuff removed from to the bin (which got taken away today), and other stuff sorted for other types of disposal. That area is going to be disturbed quite a bit before it’s all finally cleared away by winter but, for now, it’s still the place they can hide in! I am happy that Sprout is bringing her baby to the food bowls. We now have a chance to socialize it.

These are not the best pictures, since I had to zoom in so much. I didn’t want to scare them away before the kitten had a chance to get to the food bowls!

Later in the morning, I headed out to town, with a stop to visit my mother before I ran errands.

*sigh*

Before visiting her, I stopped at the nursing station to ask about the swelling in her legs. It’s not at a stage they are concerned about, so I asked if there was anything else. She told me my mother was being mean to people more often. It turns out she’s been going into the hallway, sitting there and mocking the guy in the room across the hall from her. They’ve had to have talks with her about her behaviour.

*sigh*

Then there was the visit itself.

I barely made 40 minutes before I had to leave.

When I asked how she was doing, she was feeling terrible, then started talking about how the staff is neglecting her because they want her to die. They want the old people to die, because there’s so many of them and they want to open up the rooms.

Then my mother brought up our vandal’s funeral, asking me what I thought of it. She has asked me this before, but I don’t think she remembered. Before I could say much, she started telling me how proud she was of him, how he had done so well for himself, etc. All I could do was stare at her as she spoke. I had no clue what she was talking about. Then she mentioned how SO many people were at the funeral. That’s when I clued in that she was rewriting her mind to make him out to be some sort of saint, instead of the person who stole from her, verbally abused her, squeezed many thousands of dollars from her over the years, demanded she pay for things he wanted for himself, vandalized things after we moved here, stalked and harassed us, left the most awful messages on her answering machine, continued to verbally abuse her and, the last time she saw him, he got up out of his wheelchair and walked out after she refused to pay for his funeral, which he’d already told her weeks before he’d taken care of. She saw lots of people at the funeral, and people said nice things under his obituary that my sister printed out and put into a binder for her, so now all the stuff he did no longer matters. She mentioned one comment in particular that I looked up, that included a story about horses. I told her that, when we moved here, he had two horses, but one disappeared. I later found out what had happened to it, and it was basically injured due to neglect and had to be put down. Mentioned that to her, and reminded her of how abusive he was towards dogs.

She changed the subject.

There was no way that I could tell her about the stuff going on around here. Especially the health related stuff, which meant I didn’t have much to talk about with her. So I tried showing her garden pictures, and photos of some of the maintenance stuff I was doing. During the conversation, it also came up that her lunch would soon be delivered, and I mentioned I wouldn’t stay to watch her eat (she wanted me to stay and watch her eat), and I’d be going to the grocery store then going home to have my own lunch, before the storm hit.

*sigh*

Every time I said anything, or tried to describe things I was doing to maintain the property, she somehow twisted it around. She was upset because I used the word “kill” when telling her I got rid of the vines that were killing trees and bushes. She accused me of talking only about “bad things” and complaining, when I was trying to describe how I was fixing things and making them better. She got upset because I was doing things she didn’t understand (she thought I had pulled up the grape vines for some reason), using words she didn’t like, and thinking about other things besides her.

Literally.

She got upset when I told her I was going to the grocery store, because I should only be thinking about her and visiting with her.

It got to the point where I finally said, that’s it. It’s time for me to go. She said no, she wanted my company. I pointed out that no, she did not want my company. She doesn’t enjoy my company. She doesn’t like me, she doesn’t like what I say, she doesn’t like what I do. It was time for me to go. As I walked out the door, I heard her staring her “remember your mama!” line that she uses so often, when she tries to guilt us about how when she’s gone, we will “remember your mama”, so we should go whatever she wants now.

*sigh*

From there, I did get my grocery trip done, focusing on stuff my husband requested. While I was driving home, I heard a notification from my phone and somehow knew exactly what the message was. When I got to the highway we cross before the gravel roads, I was not at all surprised to see a big truck coming up. Sure enough, it was the truck hauling away the bin of garbage – and the notification was my husband letting me know it was picked up! 😄 Talk about timing!

After I was home for a while, however, things started getting painful again, so I had to take some painkillers and lie down for a couple of hours. It did get interrupted by a phone call from my daughter, from her doctor’s office about her upcoming surgery. Then I got a call from the tree company.

Twice.

The first was to let me know they should be able to come by later this week, which is great news. The second was to let me know they’ll be able to come out tomorrow afternoon!

That tree in front of the kitchen will finally get taken down. No more big heavy branches over the roof! They’ll also take down a dead spruce that is tall enough that, if it fell, it could also hit the roof.

I still had my phone appointment with my doctor at 4:15, though I knew it might be a while before he got to me. She’s just back from vacation and would have a lot of other phone appointments to catch up on, too. It was closer to 6:30 when the call finally came in.

The first thing she wanted me to do was tell her exactly what was going on with me, and so she could connect it to the ultrasound results and figure out the next steps. Two of the ultrasounds came back normal, but one was not what it should be for a woman my age. I’m going to get a referral to a specialist and will get a biopsy, and then she gave me a prescription. I found all this quite hilarious, because so much of it is matching my daughter – we’re even on the same prescription now. The causes are different, but the symptoms and current treatment are the same. Even my daughter, on finding out the details, thought it would be hilarious if we ended getting “bulk surgeries”.

Yes, we joke about stuff like this.

Oh, I did ask and the doctor told me there was no sign of any cysts. I’m actually a bit surprised by that, since I am prone to them, but it was good news.

Meanwhile, this afternoon, we did get a very brief, very heavy deluge and thunderstorm pass through. After today, things should be both cooler – meaning average temperatures for this time of year – and no rain. I should finally be able to catch up on things outside. I should finally be able to get the electric chainsaw out and take care of that last big piece of tree that’s still lying in the middle of the west yard and cut that up for fire wood for the fire pit. Maple will make for great cooking fires. I also need to get the push mower into the maple grove. The Creeping Bellflower is taking over and starting to bloom, and that’s the last thing we need! That stuff is just as bad as Creeping Charlie.

I am so looking forward to when the tree guys get here. It will be such a relief to have those to trees down! Every time we have high winds, we half expect pieces of tree to fall on the roof.

The yard cats are not going to like it. They won’t be able to get onto the roof and peek through the upstairs windows anymore! 😄

So this has turned out to be a much more hectic day than expected, but at least most of it was good news. Yes, I consider the doctor’s call good news, too.

I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Almost forgot!

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Wow, did I ever lose track today. I almost forgot to do my daily post!

First, the cuteness.

Batman and Sprig like to hang out together. I draped that scrap yarn blanket over the “porch” of the cat house so it could drain and dry after a rain, and the cats enjoy it so much, I’ve left it there.

Another sort of cuteness. Teeny tiny zucchinis!

The first female flowers on the summer squash showed up.

Unfortunately, there are no male flowers at all. So these will die off pretty quickly.

The summer squash has been growing so much, I was able to tie off stems to their vertical supports a bit higher on most of them.

We had rain off and on all night and most of the morning. It cleared up for a while, though, which was perfect timing. I got a message from my SIL. The big trash bin they are renting for 10 days was going to be delivered today instead of tomorrow. So I headed out to open the cat, and that gave me a chance to go beyond the outer yard to check on things I haven’t been able to for quite a while.

Like the basket willow.

My hopes were not high, when I could see that one of the posts was flat on the ground, and others were knocked askew. After looking around, I did find all five basket willows and straightened everything that needed to be straightened. The ground is incredibly muddy and wet – something few other trees could handle. Still, at least two of the five are doing good. The others…

… one of them might not make it, but we shall see.

Getting to the where the willow is planted, I had to go past where the septic expeller is.

I couldn’t see it at all.

What a jungle in there!!! It’s going to take some doing to clean it up. That will need to be done before winter, at least, but if I can do it at least once before then, that’ll make things easier.

After the bin, then a prescription refill delivered, it started to rain again. That kept me from continuing the weed trimming I want to get done before breaking out the push mower. I was going to switch to some bigger jobs inside, only to get sidelined by pain again. Bad enough I had to take pain killers and lie down, and get my daughters to take over the evening outside cat feeding. It got better after a few hours, but I honestly couldn’t tell if it just faded away on its own, or if the pain killers did the job. I did have to take them again. It is so very frustrating.

Still, it is what is it. As my late father used to say, “can’t complain – it wouldn’t do any good anyhow!”

Meanwhile, we are getting different weather warnings today – air quality warnings. Ontario is on fire, and the smoke is reaching us. For all the rain we’ve been having, the boreal forest is on fire again. It takes a LOT of dead underbrush for that to happen.

Oddly, on my desktop app’s fire information map, it shows zero fires in Canada. It only shows fires in the US. Meanwhile, on a live fire map I found, it says we have almost 900 fires burning across the country right now. Yet I’m hearing nothing about them unless I actively go searching online for information. What’s with that???

Statistically and historically, we have fewer fires now during fire season than in the past, but more area is being burned. Our federal government is responsible for these areas. They have seriously failed when it comes to forest management, and have cut back on funding for fire fighting resources, for more than a decade. The current fire situation is barely even being talked about, and people are demanding to know why Ontario hasn’t declared a state of emergency, and their Premier hasn’t addressed the issue.

Where we are, however, we are safe. Thank God for that!

The Re-Farmer

Market day in the heat!

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The older I get, the less I’m able to tolerate heat. In my youth, it was the other way around.

I was outside early to water the garden before it got too hot – and it was already feeling hot! I very promptly spotted a friend.

What an adorable toad! We rarely see toads. Most commonly, we see wood frogs. Seeing toads is pretty rare. I don’t know that the toads themselves are rare; we just don’t see them much.

After the watering was done, we had a bit it time before my daughter and I loaded up the box of the truck for the market, and what few things we needed to bring along from the house, and left early. I wanted to stop at the general store to pick up some canned drinks to use as display items for the new can cozies I’d made. Plus, I picked up a sandwich for breakfast. My daughter didn’t pick anything, and even drank only water (we brought ice packs and small insulated bags), because eating makes her sick, and there’s only a porta potty available at the market.

We drove past the rescue on the way to the general store, and there was already a tent set up! We later heard that someone had set up by 8:30am. The rescue doesn’t open to tours until 9am, and the market officially opens at 10am.

We got what we needed, then drove back to set up for the market, quickly unloading everything so I could park the truck as soon as possible. Otherwise, we block access.

We had the same neighbour as last week. Before, they had really struggled with having only a sun umbrella. This time, they had a tent with mesh walls. A much better set up – until the wind gust started hitting. Their tent started blowing around and they were going to at weight to one corner when I realize they didn’t even have any tent pegs. I’d bought extra at the dollar store, then found the ones that came with our canopy tent, so they were still in the packages. I was able to give them a package of 4, and it made a huge difference! Once pegged down, their tent actually handled the wind gusts better than ours side. It’s supports were more flexible and would bend with the wind. Our felt like it was about to become a kite at times!

Things were a bit busier than last time, and we made a few sales. It was only the second day of a first time market, so I really didn’t expect much. Add in the heat, and I’m surprised they had as many people visiting for tours as they did!

The highlight of the day was their cat. Last time, it was their Great Pyrenees, who did show up later. This time, it was their long haired ginger cat with the Maine Coon face, but not the Maine Coon size. This cat just hung out at various tents, sometimes visibly splayed out in the shade, other times emerging from under a table, and absolutely loving attention. Towards the end of the day, it came out from under a table at the tent next to us, walked over to my daughter for pets, climbed up into her arms and went for a nap on her shoulder.

It was the most precious thing, ever!!!

While we were there, my phone kept pinging with security cam notifications. My brother and SIL had come out yesterday evening and will be here for the weekend. My SIL brought out their big zero turn mower and was out there for hours. Not only did she mow the outer yard, around their equipment, caravan, to the barn, etc., but she did much of the inner yard, too! There’s one section that can’t be done because there’s still part of that fallen maple in the way. The grass doesn’t get very tall, anyhow. I’m just blown away. Yes, it’s on a riding mower, but it was still around 33C/91F, with the humidex making it feel closer to 40C/104F

After the market was done and the truck packed up, my daughter and I stopped at home just long enough to take the things in the box of the truck out, then grab a couple of water jugs for refilling before heading to town. I was in the truck, waiting for my daughter to come back from the house when my brother came by. I commented on the lawn mowing, and he told me that was all my SIL! He has been working on his tractor. He got it fixed and started again and…

Something else broke on it.

*sigh*

He also got stung by hornets, three times – with one of them somehow getting into the sleeve of his coveralls!!!

Once my daughter got back to the truck, we headed to town. My daughter finally felt it was safe to eat, so she bought us “lunch” first, then we went to the grocery store. They have two stations for refilling water jugs and one was being used, so we started using the second one, only to find it had no pressure. Both stations have signs on them saying that, if there is no pressure, use the other station while it recharges, with apologies.

The women using the other station were clearly also having issues. Both machines had low pressure. We tried to do some of our shopping, then come back, but it still wasn’t long enough. In the end, I was eventually able to refill one jug, and didn’t bother with the second one.

We each had a few small things to pick up as well before heading home again.

One thing I noticed during the drive is that the battery gauge was fluctuating a lot again. At one point, the needle kept dropping as I watched, while we were stopped. Still within the normal range, but it really shouldn’t be doing that. This has happened before when we were above 30C/86F, and I had it checked, so I now know it’s because of the heat. After today, we’re going to avoid going anywhere for the next couple of days. Especially tomorrow, when we’re expecting a high of 35C/95F or, depending on what app we look at, potentially 37C/99F – and that’s not counting the humidex. Other areas of the province are expecting higher temperature.

A good day to stay home!

Two more days of this, and then the highs are supposed to stay below 30C/86F for the rest of the 10 day forecast. I’ll still want to be watering the garden twice a day.

Anyhow…

Once at home, I backed up to the house to unload. Once everything was put away, I wanted to feed the outside cats so I could safely drive the truck to the garage. They still had lots of dry kibble, but were swirling.

They wanted their cat soup!

I am thrilled to say that when I headed out of the sun room with the morning cat feeding, I found Sweetie among the cats just outside the door. She was there again, when I did the evening feeding.

Since they had plenty of kibble, I decided to use the large bowl and scoop I use for the dry kibble to make a larger batch of cat soup, with just a couple of scoops of dry kibble added to the freeze dried cat food mix.

The cats were in heaven. Including Sweetie. She still acts nervous when she looks at me and startles easily, but she still went for the food bowls and was not shy about getting her share!

It also gave me a chance to park the truck in the shade of the garage. It stays remarkably cool in there, considering we don’t close the main door at all. In the summer, I park with enough room in front of the truck to access the counter against the wall. That leaves the back end sticking out a few feet. Somehow, it just doesn’t get hot in there.

I still have to get outside to do the evening watering, but it’s past 7:30pm and still 30C/86F out there, with the humidex still at 35C/95F. The mosquitoes are out like crazy, too. We’re not expected to cool down to a decent temperature until 3am.

*sigh*

The garden must be just baking, though.

Well, time to stop procrastinating, cover myself in bug spray and get watering. I’ll have to be careful not to shock the overheated plants with freezing well water!

Just a couple more days of this…

The Re-Farmer

Melting cats…

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So… it’s getting pretty hot out there… We’re currently under a weather advisory, due to the heat.

Sunday, we’re looking at a potential high of 35C/95F. The weather warnings are saying the humidex could reach 45C/113C

Ugh.

Today, we “only” hit about 28C/82F, with a humidex of about 30C/86F

The cats are coping pretty well out there…

… taking advantage of any shade out there!

I had a pleasant surprise this morning. I’d done out outside cats’ kibble and was coming out with the cat soup when I startled a cat splattered on the sidewalk in front of the sun room door.

It was Sweetie!

Though startled, she didn’t run far. As I moved away from the sun room door, she ran into the sun room and straight to a tray with cat soup in it!!

This is HUGE progress. She is readjusting to familiar places after being away for a couple of months.

I tried doing a head count this morning and got “only” 18. I didn’t see Adam, though you can see her in the melted cats picture. She’s the one in the middle. I’m seeing Slick a fair bit. She’s had her kittens, but I can’t tell if they’ve survived or not. She seems to be here an awful lot. I’ve not seen that one kitten I spotted a few days ago again.

I also realized, I haven’t seen Domino in a while. I see Bug and Batman, the two other little mostly black cats, but no Domino.

*sigh*

One thing I’ve noticed, now that I regularly give out cat soup. I don’t put out a lot, considering the number of cats out there, but they really like it. They like it so much that when I come out to do the kibble, they do start eating a bit, but then they run around while I do the various bowls further out, waiting for the cat soup! When I come back out again for the afternoon feeding, there’s lots of kibble left, but every bit of cat soup and kibble that had cat soup poured over it, is gone.

Which works fine for now, but it’s not something we can do in the winter. It would freeze before they could finish eating it.

Which is really hard to think about, with the heat we’re having right now!

The Re-Farmer

Sweetie sighting, and bee bombed

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Thanks to the generous donations from the rescue, one of the things I’ve been able to do for the outside cats is to use the freeze dried cat food powder to make a thin cat soup. Not a lot, but enough to spread around several bowls, in hopes to lure the more feral cats closer to the house.

Sweetie has finally discovered this. For the past while, by the time she showed up to eat, the other cats would have eaten all the cat soup. They absolutely love the stuff. (Interestingly, the inside cats keep trying to get into the boxes, but once it’s mixed up, they have no interest.) I mixed up a bowl of cat soup then leave it to rehydrate while I put out the dry cat food. I actually spotted Sweetie this morning, already at one of the food bowls under the shrine, looking for food. She ran off a bit when I came out and put food into the bowls in the area.

Not only did she come back for the soup but, when other cats bullied their way in, she went into the isolation shelter and found the cat soup in there!

Not only that, but when she saw me stop to take a picture (using zoom; I was not going to go too close!), she went back to eating.

This is progress!

After doing the cat stuff, I did the rest of my rounds, including checking on the garden.

That’s when I spotted our first Gigantheum poppy was blooming!

Of course, I stopped to take a picture and immediately got photobombed.

By a bumble bee.

You can just barely see it in the first image. If you click through, there are two short videos, too.

I didn’t do the morning watering today. Partly because I was heading into town for a meeting at the nursing home, and partly because we were supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon.

I got a message from my brother and SIL, letting me know they were on the way. My brother had to take a day off work for this. I ended up getting there about half an hour early, and met with my brother in the chapel to wait, as the meeting room was being used for another meeting. Their grandsons are still with them, so my SIL took them out around town and to the nearby beach.

The meeting is something that will be happening every year, though when they found out my brother took a day off work, they said future ones could be done over the phone.

Being the first one of these meetings, there was a fair bit to cover, as we gave them some background information that would explain some of my mother’s behavioural issues, etc. There was some discussion about my mother’s cognitive decline – something my mother notices in herself, even if she doesn’t have the vocabulary to explain it. One of the people looked through the binder of my mother’s files and found the past several cognitive test results. One she had done 2 years ago had a score of 14. One she had done this year had a score of 29.

Out of 30.

That is a huge fluctuation. It does match what we all have observed. In many ways, and on her good days, my mother is extremely sharp. On her bad days, she can’t understand some of the most basic stuff. What we have no way of knowing is, when she’ll be having a good day or a bad day!

The meeting went on for about half an hour. My plan had been to visit my mother, then do some grocery shopping. My brother had brought another radio for my mother (she was unusually cruel about the “junk”, high end radio he’d provided for her before, not understanding that it’s simply difficult for any radio to catch a frequency where she is) because she complained he’d taken her radio away.

…

He hadn’t planned to actually visit her, though, but when he called my SIL to let her know we were done, she said their grandsons wanted to visit their great grandmother, and they were already on their way.

So we all went to visit my mother, very briefly. She turned out to be in bed, asleep, when we got there and was very tired.

For a short visit, she managed to make digs and each of us. Not the boys, thankfully, but… yeah. She actually complained a bit that we were there, asking what the “celebration” was. My SIL explained that she was driving the boys back home tomorrow, so this was their last chance to see her for a while. I told her I was going the the grocery store and was visiting her first. We didn’t bother telling her about the meeting, as she would not have been able to grasp it. As it was, she never got up at all. Which was fine. Lunch was going to be brought over, soon, so we didn’t want to linger. As we were leaving, she twisted something in conversation into an accusation against my brother, then told him that she wanted him to come visit for longer… by himself… because she wanted to “talk” to him.

My poor brother. He practically ran from the room after saying his goodbyes.

From there, they invited me to join them for lunch so we could fill each other in and catch up on things. It also gave me a chance to see the boys for a bit longer before they left for home tomorrow.

After we parted ways, I did a small grocery shopping trip. Most of what I got was on sale, but it still came out to almost $130. I did finally get a decent amount of butter, though; it was on sale for under $5 a pound. At least the house brand butter was. With other brands, the half pound sizes cost more than that.

Oddly, by the time I was packing things up at the truck, I was hit with a wave of sleepiness that did not stop. I felt weary to the bone, and could barely stay upright.

What I got fit into three hard sided bags (I even remembered to grab some, since the back of the truck cab is filled with my market supplies) so I messaged home, asking if someone could meet me at the garage to grab one, so I wouldn’t have to pull up to the house or make two trips. Then I started driving, so I never saw what the response was.

I had also picked up an energy drink for the drive home.

It didn’t make any difference, that I could tell.

Much to my surprise, when I drove up to the garage, my husband was waiting for me! He’d gone over with just a cane, not his walker. When I asked him about it, he told my that our younger daughter had been up all night and had finally been able to fall asleep, and her sister has had a relapse and couldn’t walk to the garage.

!!!

We got everything in and I put it all away, and then went to bed. I pretty much passed out for a couple of hours, with the exception of when several cats decided they absolutely needed to use me as a bed.

I didn’t realize how hard I’d fallen asleep until the phone rang. When I answered, the person on the other end asked for my older daughter. From the tone of her voice, I knew immediately is was about her relapse. There was a distinct sense of urgency, almost alarm, in her tone. Talking to my daughter yesterday, she told me she intended to take the “use as needed” medication she has, and that they intended to phone the doctor at the women’s hospital today (her sister being the one to make sure she didn’t put it off again!).

In the end, she was told to go ahead and take the “as needed” medication again. The nurse that called was going to consult with the doctor about any changes in her prescriptions, and will hopefully call back tomorrow. My daughter has her pre-op appointment on the 17 and she was instructed to not worry about that at all and, if things get worse, get to an ER right away. For now, my daughter says it is manageable. When she filled me in on this later, I made sure to tell her that I will drive her to the ER, even if it’s 2am, if necessary.

After my much needed nap, I headed outside to take care of the cats, then stayed out to try and get as much of the lawn mowed as possible.

For all that I waited for things to dry out after the last rains, the grass in the more overgrown section of lawn I focused on was so wet, it actually clogged the riding mower ejector opening, several times!

Then it started raining.

*sigh*

At least I got the tallest grass done. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more done tomorrow, because the day after is market day, and I don’t expect to have the energy to do it when we are done there. I’m doing the riding mower parts, though, so we’ll see.

Also, there are SO many frogs! Many times, I had to reduce my speed or stop outright to avoid running them over. This makes me very happy. More frogs means less slugs and other nasty bugs! They don’t do much about the mosquitoes, unfortunately, but we’ve had a lot of frogs for two summers now, and I haven’t seen a single slug in the garden! 😁

Meanwhile, I think it’s time to pain killer up and head back to bed. That wave of sleepiness is coming over me again. The only thing keeping it from getting as bad as earlier is my increasing pain levels.

*sigh*

Less than 2 weeks to my telephone appointment with my doctor.

Being broken really sucks.

Being broken and not knowing what’s going on makes it that much more frustrating!!

The Re-Farmer

Sweetie is back!!!

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Most of today went to plan.

This morning, my younger daughter and I headed into town. Our first stop was to visit my mother which… went as well as can be with her, I suppose. She did try to launch into how my brother basically needs to be her slave because she “gave” him “two farms” (the remaining two quarter sections of the family farm) but now he does nothing for her. Which is so completely opposite of reality it’s mind blowing. Then she tried to say that she “gave” us a “roof over our heads”, as if we owed her something, and I had to remind her that we had an arrangement (and she definitely got the better end of the deal, we learned after we moved out here). She actually asked me, what arrangement? *sigh*

After the visit, we made several stops along the way. I picked up a few things for tomorrow’s market and a float, while my daughter picked up prescription refills for herself and her sister. Then she got us some food. It was past 1pm by then, but it was breakfast for her, and lunch for me. We made one more quick stop at the grocery store, which she also paid for, then a bit of gas before heading home. Just in time for the rain to hit.

By the time we were done in the grocery store, my pain was back and I was having difficulty standing. As soon as I could, I made use of the topical pain killer, though it took quite a long time to kick in. I remembered to call the pharmacy about getting the prescription for that extended. I don’t have any refills on this. I’m not out, by my doctor is going to be away for 2 weeks, making today the last day that the pharmacy can fax in for the extension before she’s gone. If this keeps up, I might run out before she gets back, so I wanted to make sure I could get a refill, if needed.

I was having difficulty staying upright, whether sitting or standing, so I asked my daughters to take care of the outside cat feeding again. After a while, though, I did have to get outside. My younger daughter helped me get the outside folding table I’ll be using at the market cleaned up and in the box of the truck. It’s longer than the box of the truck, so we had to roll up the cover so we could lean it on the tail gate, and my daughter crawled in to strap it down securely. Everything else can go into the cab.

Once that was done, I brought out my inventory to check on it and get things ready in the cat free zone, to load into the truck in the morning. I won’t be using grid wall to hang things, so I’ll be finding other ways to display the wearables.

It was still a while longer before the pain went away, and I wanted to go outside for a walk to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise, since I did no yard work or gardening today. As I did, I noticed that all the kibble trays were empty. My daughter had fed the cats, which means the skunks and raccoons had already cleaned up the remains. It seemed that some of the cats hadn’t had any and were hungry, so I got out some more kibble.

Which is when I spotted her.

Sweetie came back!

I first spotted her behind the isolation shelter. I zoomed as I took pictures, then looked back at older photos to confirm that it was her. She has a distinct dark patch on her nose.

While she was back there, I skirted around her to put kibble in the trays in the catio and under the shrine before going the isolation shelter, just so I wouldn’t startle her. she didn’t run away – but then Bobert came along. I was heading back to the house when I started hearing scrambling and growling. Bobert had gone after her and chased her up a tree!

I got him to scoot away, but I couldn’t see her. I decided that I would make up some cat soup to try and lure her back. I made more than usual with the freeze dried mix and made sure to pour some into trays in the sun room, first, to lure the other cats in. Otherwise, the super friendly cats like Havarti and Curtis push their way into the isolation shelter for pets, while others like The Grink go in to eat up the cat soup. I wanted Sweetie to have a chance!

While I was coming over with the cat soup bowl, I heard scrabbling noises and saw Sweetie coming down the tree. I put some cat soup in the two food bowls under the shrine, and that was what she went for.

She still looks nervous, but not anywhere near as terrified as she looked when she first came back. I made sure to give her space, but I also didn’t stay too far away, and she still came down. She was clearly hungry and willing to go for the food even though I was still relatively close.

I’d had messages from the rescue chat earlier in the day and I was honest in saying that I was starting to lose hope. I made sure to send photos to the chat right away. Everyone is so relieved and happy she is back!!!

Now we have our work cut out for us, to slowly get her to trust us and know that it is safe for her to come closer to the house for food and shelter, rather than hiding wherever she was hiding in the outer yard.

It is so good to see her coming back and eating!!!

Now, we just have to make sure cats like Bobert will leave her alone!

The Re-Farmer

Storm damage and an escape

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Last night, the storm hit.

Not as bad as in other areas. Especially to the north and south of us. It was also quite brief but, for the time in where here, it hit hard.

The first sign of things was losing our internet. Thankfully, we did not lose power, though I later learned my brother did, briefly. Then I started hearing a lot of footsteps rushing around upstairs. A leak started at the window. This leak has been a problem in the winter, where an ice dam would form. It has never leaked during a rain storm. The roof is still under warranty, though, so we’ll be able to contact the company and see what they can find. That portion of the roof cannot be seen from the ground, and none of us are able bodied enough to climb up there to look.

Even I started having a leak in my bedroom window. The one that did not get replaced by a new window before we moved out there because my mother suddenly decided she was not going to pay for that one last window. This is an original window from my childhood, but I don’t know if it’s original from when this portion of the house was built in the 30’s. I know the molding around it is more modern, but when it installed.

When it started to develop problems, as did pretty much all the other windows, instead of fixing or replacing them, my parents installed panels of what is probably Lexan, not Plexiglass. This window is two parts, side by side. One side has a screen and a handle that could be turned to open the window, while the other side is just a plain double paned window, and each side has its own panel. Once the panels were installed inside, the screen side of the window could no longer be opened. In the last couple of years, I discovered that when the rain was driven from the north, a drip would start from the frame between the panel and the glass window, on the side without the screen. Last fall, I used spray seal around the entire window frame. It hadn’t leaked again until last night – and the leak was on the inside of the room, not between the window and the panel! It wasn’t much, but it was also a first.

Checking the sun room critter cam at one point during the night, I saw both a skunk and a raccoon at the kibble trays. They were both so completely soaked, I didn’t have the heart to chase them off! There were quite a few cats in their shelf at the window, sheltering from the storm, and none of them were the least bit bothered by each other.

When the storm passed by, we still had high winds all through the night, and through all of today.

When I came out to do the cat feeding this morning, I was very saddened to find this.

That is one of the sliding panels that forms both a window and a door on one side of the isolation shelter.

Sweetie is gone.

My guess is that, during the storm, the thunder and lightening scared her enough that she blaster herself into the window. The panel is flexible, and it would have bents and popped off the tracks completely.

Poor Sweetie!

There was no sign of her, anywhere, but there are many places she could hide, too. I put the panel back on, then opened the ramp door and the other sliding window a few inches while adding some kibble to the bowl. Then I made sure to mix up some cat soup and leave some in there. I’m hoping Sweetie will find things familiar, and remember that the house is where there is safety, comfort and delicious food she doesn’t have to hunt for.

Once the cats were fed, I did extended rounds, looking for storm damage – the first of which was really, really obvoius.

The first two images are of the West yard. The dead portion of a huge maple finally broke.

I was not surprised. If anything, I was surprised there wasn’t more. This tree is part of a row of three. The one in the middle is already dead and, when it broke in the winter, the piece fell on my market tent we had set up by the fire pit. Part of it embedded itself into the ground, and I wasn’t able to clear it until spring, when the ground thawed enough. The third three in this group is at least half dead, and I am fully expecting the dead parts to fall in high winds, too.

I had actually checked everything else, including around my brother’s stuff, when I came back into the inner yard through the gate by the fire pit. That’s when I noticed Colby sitting in a maple and paused to take a picture.

Which is when I realized, the tree he was on was freshly broken.

When I cam closer, I found it had come down in two large pieces. One of them landed mostly on the branch pile we have as fuel for the fire pit, and both where mostly hidden by the tall grass and weeds in that area. I simply couldn’t see them, earlier!

I checked the garden beds, of course. A branch and partially fallen on the tomato bed in the east yard. That bed has the box frame on it, which protected the bed and the branch fell mostly into the path, instead.

Everything else held.

While checking on the beds, I spotted these.

The Spring Blush peas have quite a few pods on them. They are underdeveloped, still, but they already have the pink blush on them.

Everything else in the garden held out fine.

I made sure to update my brother about the damage. He has all the paperwork for the roof.

By late morning, I started to head out to the city, making sure to stop at the post office, first. My husband’s forms to renew his Disability Tax Credit was ready to mail. I also picked up our mail and found my replacement debit card was in – the one they mailed a month before my old one was supposed to expire still hasn’t arrived. The card could be activated by a purchase, so I bought a 40 pound bag of kibble that I wanted to pick up, anyhow.

From there, I went into the city and did our shopping, which will be covered in another post. While I was gone, I was kept updated by the family on the continued severe wind conditions.

After I got back, the truck unloaded and parked, I stayed out a bit longer. The girls had already fed the outside cats, but I used some of the freeze dried cat food mix to make a cat soup. I put most of it in the isolation shelter, in hopes of luring Sweetie, and poured the rest into the sun room trays. The cats were very excited for the treat!

I did see a skittish tabby in the white lilacs when I came back from parking the truck, but I wasn’t sure if it was Sweetie or another tabby. Possibly Flopsy.

I so hope she is doing okay, and learned to come back to the house for food and water!

In the time since I did the damage check this morning, quite a few smaller branches came down – especially the willow – but there was no other large drops like that section of the giant maple that came down last night.

One thing I can see I am very happy about it the chicken coop. One of our concerns was that it would blow over. It did not. It was well sheltered from the wind by botht he house and the surrounding trees.

The last thing I checked was the old kitchen garden, where I found sprig.

This morning she was among the cats eating on the cat house roof. I was able to put my hand on her back and even rub her shoulders a bit! Then she ran off. Not far, though. Just to the next pile of kibbled on the roof.

Progress!

This evening, she was in what seems to be her favourite place, now that the netting here has been redone.

She really, really loves to be on or near the garden netting!

While I was gone, my older daughter got some good news. A call from a doctor. She now has a pre-op consultation with a referred doctor.

In a clinic in the city, of course. Not a close one, either. No matter! Surgeries can take years to happen here in Canada, so if this is being expedited, we are thankful!

The consultation is in the second half of July, so we have time.

After this consultation, it’s a guessing game to know when she will actually get her surgery. I don’t know what kind of waiting list this procedure has. It could be weeks, it could be months, it could be years. Canada is a place where people die on waiting lists. Thankfully, her condition is not life threatening anymore, now that she knows what is happening and can take medication for it. The surgery is the alternative to being on medication for the rest of her life!

Now, we just need for the truck to hold out.

The Re-Farmer

Terrified baby is back

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Poor Sweetie!

A couple of the volunteers from the rescue dropped Sweetie off today. The isolation shelter was ready for her. She will be there for a few more days – she’s 10 days post spay, but mostly to get used to being back in a familiar place and get special food while she’s there. She was with the foster for a couple of months and was terrified the entire time. Even bit the foster again! The same foster has Frank and Sir Robin. Frank had a really hard time, too, but is now completely socialized and ready for adoption. They’re even giving discounted adoption fees for anyone taking them both. Sweetie, unfortunately, never settled at all.

So she is back.

When I checked on her later, she had moved to the bottom of the shelter. The next image in the slide show above was when I came out to do the evening feeding.

The rescue also brough over nine cases – NINE!! – of donated cat milk. With so much, we can give both the inside and outside cats some as a supplemental treat. When I mixed up some of the freeze dried cat food for Sweetie, plus extra for the rest of the cats, I used a cat milk as well as hot water to rehydrate the food.

It went over very well.

With the evening feeding, I did allow other cats into the shelter. Cats Sweetie would have been familiar with. I did let them out again later, as she didn’t seem ready for more just yet. We’ll have to keep checking on her, but will also keep allowing these other cats that she used to cuddle with in to visit every now and then. After a few days, I hope to be able to open up the shelter so she can come and go as she pleases. It’s been a couple of months, but she should still remember this place.

Poor thing. I so hoped she would be able to get adopted and get to enjoy the indoor life. That’s two, now, that have had to come back. I’ve heard that Blot is also having trouble adapting, too, though not to the point of attacking people.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer