We had another storm sweep through the area, but that climate bubble sitting over us resulted in our having a bit of snow and wind, but nothing that could possibly be called a storm.
The outside cats are quite good with that!
Especially since it’s also warming up a bit.
I even got to pet the Distinguished Guest this morning.
Their heated water bowl was almost completely empty this morning. That actually made it easier to clean. I could scrub the bottom with snow, then just scoop out the dirty snow.
The metal water bowls were, of course, filled with ice. These are all old stainless steel frying pans with their handles broken off. I’ve found they make the best water bowls, as they can handle a lot of abuse. Like being kicked and stomped until the break loose from the ice and snow.
I wasn’t able to get a photo, but after getting one of them loose, there was something strange and mirror-like under it.
The pan had split!
This pan had one of those multi-layer bases for even heat distribution. Between getting filled with warm water, then frozen to the ground, then kicked loose, repeatedly, the base layer finally just popped right off! I look forward to getting a better look at it, once the ground thaws. I’m not going to bother trying to dig it out, now. :-D
Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are doing very well in the sun room. After moving the sheets of rigid insulation I had to reduce drafts from the window, Butterscotch now likes to sit there, under the ceramic heater bulb. Nosnecrantz, meanwhile, prefers sitting on the fixture! We’ve got the full spectrum light bulb hanging from the top of the mini-greenhouse frame we’re using to hold all this, with the board the ceramic heater bulb supported by the top shelf. I had some concerns about leaving the light on constantly, since I thought the cats might actually want full darkness at time, but Nosencrantz loves it. Though there are several soft beds in boxes she can choose from, she’s preferring to sleep on a board, under the light! I’m guessing the board itself is a bit warm, just from rising heat from the ceramic bulb.
Speaking of warm, check this out.
Not only are we still expected to reach 1C/34F in a couple of days, but now we’re supposed to reach 3C/37F a couple of days later!
With more snow.
Whatever. I’m loving this milder February we’re having this year!
Before heading outside to do my morning rounds, I could see we had a deer at the feeding station outside our living room window, digging around in the snow, looking for seeds. I could also see another deer through our kitchen window, just outside the chain link fence into the inner yard, nuzzling around the snow, looking for something.
I’m not sure what. It was standing were we unload the van, now that we can’t drive into the yard, but we didn’t drop anything there.
I expected to spook it away when I came out to feed the critters. Which I did – but not as much as usual!
The deer ran into the yard through the vehicle gate, then followed the shovelled path the back of the garage, then up to the compost pile.
It was a very casual sort of run.
I did find it amusing, how dedicated it was in following the shoveled paths, instead of running straight through the yard!
The shoveled path turns towards the house from the compost pile, but the deer just stopped and stayed there.
Watching me, as I took care of the cats’ food and water. Even when I walked across to the kibble tray under the shrine, it stayed, watching me!
It wasn’t until I came towards it, carrying the container of feed, that it and the other deer ran into the bushes.
Well. More like a fast walk than a run.
Then they watched from from the trees for a while, as I went around the house. They did take off before I reached the feeding station and scattered the feed, but I didn’t see them actually leave the yard. Usually, they take off running, jump the fence, then cross to my younger brother’s property, across the road.
These two are definitely getting used to my moving around the yard a lot more!
The cats were happy for a kibble top up. :-)
Butterscotch and Nozencrantz continue their recovery in the sun room. They got treated with a can of wet cat food for breakfast. They definitely like shredded better than pate! :-D
Both are more active, and Beep Beep even made like she was interested in going back outside which, of course, I discouraged! They seem to still be okay with staying in the sun room by themselves as they recover.
When I heard from the cat lady today, one of the things she mentioned was dropping off our cat carrier, that was used for Cabbages, at the shelter in town. When my husband also let me know that a package he was expecting was in, we took advantage of the situation and made the Chinese food order we meant to do a few days ago! You know. Since I was going to be in town, anyway… ;-)
As I started heading out with the van, just turning onto the road from our driveway, a warning light turned on that I’d never seen before. Then the onboard computer started showing a message to check our brakes system.
!!!
When I took the van to get the oil changes yesterday, they checked some other stuff and gave me a list of things to get looked at. One of them was the brake fluid. Apparently, it’s dirty.
Now, suddenly, I’m getting warning lights?
Hmm.
Thankfully, we have my mother’s car as a back up! I parked the van and used my mothers car to go into town.
We’ll be using my mother’s car until we can get the van looked at. Brakes is one thing I don’t want to mess with!
I was very happy not to have to cancel the food order we’d just made! It’s been probably a year since we’ve ordered take out, and my goodness we were craving food we haven’t cooked ourselves!
When I finally got there, the owner even commented, “long time no see!” :-D We have never ordered often, but when we do, it’s a large order. Enough to feed us for a few days, and almost all meat items. We can do rice, noodles or vegetables ourselves, but we can’t recreate their protein dishes at home! It’s enough for them to remember me, even after such a long time!
The nice thing about having to use my mother’s car is, it has butt warmers in the front seats. I was able to use it to help keep the food warm while I went hunting for the animal shelter. It’s in an industrial park, next to a small airport, that I haven’t driven around in for more than 20 years and, even then, I hadn’t gone to that particular area since I was an Air Cadet while in high school! I drove past it three times before I finally saw it. Mostly because the snow around the building was undisturbed. Clearly, no activity is happening around it. Around the back was a cleared parking area, next to the back door and a donation box, which is where the carrier was supposed to be left. The building itself was closed; a sign on the door said it was open by appointment only.
!!
The carrier wasn’t there, though, and there was no signs in the snow showing that anyone else had been there. It turned out the cat lady hadn’t made it yet, having had to make an unplanned trip to another town to pick up another frozen cat.
No complaints from me, that’s for sure!
It’ll be waiting for us at the vet clinic, when we bring Beep Beep and Fenrir in to get spayed.
So we didn’t get the carrier, but we did get Chinese food!
I’m happy with that. :-)
Thankfully, we don’t need to go anywhere else again, until we bring the cats in to the vet. It’s supposed to start snowing tonight, and keep snowing all through tomorrow, for a total of 6-10cm/2-4in. Then we’re supposed to warm right up, with a high of -4C/25F on Monday, when we bring the cats to the vet, then +1C/34F the day after!
Butterscotch finally let me take her picture this evening.
I’m still blown away by how calm she is. I don’t now how much of that I can attribute to her recovering from surgery, or how much to having something removed that was likely causing her discomfort. It could well be both.
They need to stay indoors for at least 10-14 days. We’ll see how she does over time. We were thinking of bringing Nosencrantz into the house, after she’s been isolated a few days to make sure there are no ear mite or flea issues. The problem with that is, it would leave Butterscotch without feline company, and she got along with Nosencrantz more than a lot of the other cats.
We shall see how they progress, before we make any decisions.
So the blizzard has passed, and has been replaced with extreme cold warnings. As I write this, we have warmed up to -26C/-15F with a wind chill of -34C/-29F
In our own little front yard microclimate, however, it felt a lot warmer, and the outside cats were out in full force!
A few were holding out for the warm water before coming out, though! :-D
The sun spot at that window must be very pleasant in there. :-)
As for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, they would not let me take photos! Nosencrantz wouldn’t stop wiggling around, and Butterscotch just moves away. They are eating and drinking just fine, though unfortunately, from the smell I walked into, they are finding somewhere other than the litter box to do their business. *sigh* I’m sure we’ll find all sorts of “surprises” when the sun room gets its spring clean up. The litter box is being used … by one of them, at least.
Once the critters were fed, I headed out to dig us out. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought it might be, though. We didn’t have a lot of new snow, which helped. The high winds were mostly moving around existing snow which, with our garage, meant blowing the snow off the roof and dumping it into a drift in front. The van might have been able to go through the drift, if we really had to, but we could not open the doors to the addition my mother’s car is parked in. It has swing doors that need to be replaced. One of them drags on the ground, so that area needs to be cleared a lot more thoroughly, just to open it wide enough for the car to drive through.
The other side of the garage, where the snow blower, lawn mowers and wood chipper is stored, also has swing doors.
We can’t get into there right now.
When our neighbour cleared our driveway, he pushed aside a snow ridge that was creeping in front of the middle section of the garage, where the van needs to get through. Unfortunately, he pushed it too close to the double doors to that side of the garage. There is enough space that we could clear one of the doors, which would allow us to at least get in, but not with our usual snow shovels. They are a strong plastic, but not that strong. We’ll have to tackle the pile with the ice chipper and a steel shovel before the snow can be moved and really, we don’t need to get into there that badly!
Once the front of the garage was clear, I checked out the driveway and was pleasantly surprised. The road itself remained clear enough that it won’t even need to be plowed. The main road would have drifted over, but I’m sure that’s been cleared by now.
The drifting over the end of the driveway wasn’t all that bad. In fact, I could see the tracks of a vehicle using our driveway to turn around. With the walls of snow left by the plows, our driveway is the only one nearby that’s open enough to do that. All the other driveways for about a mile in either direction are into fields, or empty properties, so no one’s keeping them clear.
I did have to dig out the gate. I’d opened it before the blizzard hit, just in case. They weren’t drifted in place too deeply, but the snow was packed so hard, I had to use the ice chipper to break it up, first.
The bottom of the gate is normally about 6-8 inches above the ground, when open.
I was mostly concerned with this side. While swinging it open and closed, we noticed it started to shudder and vibrate. When our vandal busted up the hinge pins, my brother replaced them with pairs of J pins, so that no one could simply use a jack to take the gate off anymore. My concern was that a pin had snapped in the cold. I was able to check the top ones before, but couldn’t see the bottom ones. So this morning, I used the ice chipper and shovel to clear it away to check, and they were fine.
The shudder was also gone when I swung the gate back and forth, so it looks like it was the build up of ice and snow that was causing it.
On this side, I had to dig things out a bit more, just so we could swing it open further – and dig out the little path to the mini solar panel powering some decorative lights we have on the fence. We used to have several strings of white LED Christmas lights all along that fence, but they got very weathered and I finally just took them off. At some point, we want to have lights along the fence line again, but until then, the mini string of solar powered LED lights will go. The solar panel just needs to be kept clear of snow, and it’s resting on the hub of that wagon wheel in the fence.
Interestingly, the hardest area to dig out was the path to the trail cam. Talk about hard packed! I had to use the ice chipper on almost the entire path. But I got to it, and was able to switch out the memory card – and got to see the vehicle that used our driveway to turn around it! :-D I don’t know who it is, but it’s a truck I see regularly, and I am jealous of the plow attachment. ;-)
On my “when we win the lottery” shopping list is either a RAM 1500 or an F150 (the top two highest rated trucks for winter driving, last I looked) with a plow attachment.
I should probably buy a ticket… ;-)
So we are now cleared out enough to get the van out of the garage and drive. We’re expecting a delivery from the pharmacy today, so the gates are being left open. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of our vandal in the trail cam files, so it looks like he’s actually avoiding using the roads past us entirely. Which is not something I intended as a condition, as that’s just not realistic in our area, but who knows what the judge or his lawyer managed to drum into him! Anyhow, between the court order, and the weather conditions, I think we’re okay to leave the gate open for a while, though I’d rather never have to close it at all.
The paths around the yard are pretty filled in. I’m leaving that job for my daughters to do, later!
For now, I’m going to call our mechanic back and book that oil change again!
After doing my morning rounds, I contacted the garage to let him know I wasn’t going to make my appointment with the van today. We are under blizzard conditions right now, which are expected to continue until this evening.
There actually isn’t a lot of snow, but the winds are insane. There is a drift in front of the garage door we will have to dig out before we can go anywhere though, at the moment, the driveway is still mostly clear.
There is supposed to be a path around the back of the kibble house, and a kibble tray at the end. Under the drift. The cat path to under the storage house was also filling in.
Temperature wise, we are at only -17C/1F, but with 50km/31m per hour winds, the wind chill is at -31C/-24F. The winds are coming from the northwest, which we are normally protected from, but at these speeds, it’s just swirling around the house and all the outbuildings.
The path to the compost pile is, once again, mostly gone.
Even right up against the house, the path to the feeding station is mostly filled in.
I opened the gate to check the road, then left it open so that it would not be drifted over in the closed position. Right now, the only thing keeping the end of our driveway from drifting over completely, are the walls of snow made by the front end loader when it was being cleared. They’re acting a bit like a snow fence, for the moment. The road past our place is actually looking quite clear, but it runs from north to south, and the winds are just blowing the snow along. The main gravel road, and the highway I would be taking to get that oil change done, would be drifted over, and the winds would be hitting our van broadsided. I checked the Facebook group for local highway conditions, and some people were reporting that they were in the ditch – and the roads they were on were mostly clear! It was the winds that did them in.
Smart kitties. They came out when I put food and warm water out, ate and drank quickly, then disappeared into their various hidey holes. One is visible in the window, but I think there’s about 5 or 6 in there.
I saw Rolando Moon emerge from the junk pile. She’s a tough one, and has seen many cold winters. She knows how to handle it. She stayed out to eat longer than the other cats, then went into the insulated shelf shelter to get out of the wind. Which, as you can see, is even managing to blow snow into the opening!
We need to build more little shelters like this. Especially when we finally get that junk pile hauled away. They use it for shelter, a lot.
Before heading outside, I treated Butterscotch and Nosencrantz with some wet cat food. Nosencrantz has been staying on the top shelf of the frame the heat bulb is in, which means sitting on top of the board the fixture is attached to. That puts her under the light we’ve got, hanging under the peak. It’s got a full spectrum bulb that we were using for seed starts. It’s incandescent, so it’s also warm, so we’ve been leaving it on. She was there when I came in, and I helped her down so she wouldn’t have to jump and jar her body.
Butterscotch has been using one of the box beds we have set up, and very languidly emerged when I brought the food out. I can see some things knocked about a bit, so I know at least one of them is trying to jump onto shelves and explore a bit, but it’s not too bad.
When I was done my rounds, I paused to spend time with them before going into the house. Nosencrantz quite enjoyed being held and snuggled.
When I put her on the swing bench, she was comfortable enough to roll around and let me see her roly poly belly!
She is such a big sausage!
I was able to pick up Butterscotch and cuddle her a bit, too. She even purred at me!
After hearing from the vet, what the condition of her uterus was when they removed it, I have a suspicion that Butterscotch is going to undergo a catonality change. She’s always had a bit of a mean streak at times. I now wonder if it was due to physical discomfort. Right now, she’s moving around more slowly (or course!), but while I was holding Nosencrantz, she still came over and wound around my feet. When I picked her up, she was a lot calmer than I normally expect her to be. Even as I was going in and out of the sun room, she made no attempt to escape, though that might have more to do with having just had surgery, yesterday. Perhaps, once she’s healed up more from the surgery, she’ll go back to her more ornery self. However, I have a suspicion she’s going to be a happier and more pleasant cat to be around.
It should be interesting to see how it goes for Beep Beep, next week. We don’t know if she is older or younger than Butterscotch.
So today is a day to stay indoors. We shall see if we can make the trip to the city tomorrow or not. The winds are supposed to die down, but the temperature is supposed to drop quite a bit.
Times like this are exactly why we’ve been working so hard to stay stocked up!!
Having said that, one of the things I was hoping to do while in town getting the oil change, was to come home with some Chinese take-out. Now that it’s no longer an option, I am craving Chinese food like crazy! :-D
We just got back from picking Nosencrantz and Butterscotch up from the vet, a couple of hours earlier than anticipated.
She looks so betrayed!
Nosencrantz looks absolutely miserable! Especially since whatever they used in her ears has a red tinge to it, making the inside of her ears look bloody as well as oily. :-D
I got a call from the cat lady about them, first. She still keeps calling my cell phone instead of our land line, which worked out this time, because the vet called while we were talking! I couldn’t answer a second phone, so I let it go to machine, and we both got to listen to the message being left. :-D
The cats were just waking up from surgery, and were doing well, so they were good to be picked up between 2:30 and 3 instead of between 4 and 5. The cat lady informed us that they also had fleas, which was a surprise. We’ve never seen fleas on the outside cats, but of course, that doesn’t mean much, since most of them don’t let us look too close. She asked us to keep an eye out on the other outside cats for things like bald patches, and to let her know; she would come to our place and treat them for fleas herself.
I don’t see that happening.
Before we got off the phone, I asked how Cabbages was doing. I was so happy to hear that she is starting to jump around in the kennel they are keeping her in, and that she has gained almost a pound. This morning, the dry bowl was empty, which means she’s been eating on her own – and she really loves roasted drumsticks best!
I am so thankful for the cat lady and her vet. Cabbages would not be alive right now, if not for them.
If you would like to read more about Cabbages and our fundraiser to surprise-reimburse her for vet expenses, click here. Or, you can go straight to the fundraiser page here.
When it was time to pick up Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, my daughter went in to get them and got more information.
Those fleas the cats had?
It was one flea.
On Nosencrantz.
That’s all they saw.
The tech was a bit concerned, saying she’d heard something about the cats going back outside. She was GREATLY relieved when my daughter explained we had a room set up for them to recover in. She was equally relieved to know that they did not go inside the house, either. Otherwise, we’d be having to treat the remaining 15 cats for fleas and ear mites – and treat the entire house for fleas, too!
I am so glad to have that sun room to use as a buffer zone!
Because of the ear mites and the flea, Nosencrantz needs to stay in the sun room for at least three days before we can consider bringing her indoors. That will give her time to get used to using a litter box, too. We are to keep a close eye on her for fleas and ear mites. The de-worming pill she got should also take care of those, but if it still seems to be an issue, we can come back and get another pill.
Butterscotch had a surprise for the vet during surgery. As they removed her uterus, they found it was “tattery and falling apart.” Yes, that’s an exact quote!!!
No wonder she was such an unhappy brood mother!
Apparently this is a reflection of age. We don’t know how old Butterscotch is. Just that she is more than 7 years old.
Everything else seemed to be fine, but we have been asked to keep an eye on her. In particular, on her gums. If they start looking white and anemic, we are to bring her back.
Not that she’s going to make that easy for us. As soon as we let her out of the carrier at home, she disappeared behind the swing bench. We can’t get at her without moving a lot of stuff. We’ll be coming in regularly to check on them, of course.
Butterscotch will be in the sun room for at least 7 days. Preferably 10, before going back outside.
If she stays on pattern, once she’s outside, she’s going to be avoiding us for at least a couple of months, so the longer we can keep her indoors to monitor her, the better.
It will be a while before her belly fur grows back, so if it gets cold again after she’s outside, we’re supposed to try and bring her back in again. Ha! I doubt she’d let us!
We still haven’t seen the surgical sites on either of them. Butterscotch disappeared as soon as the carrier was opened. Nosencrantz had to be poured out of the soft sided carrier; she would not leave on her own! She then immediately went under the heat bulb. She had a bandage for the IV on her leg that she was trying to shake off. We were told it could be taken off after half an hour, which had passed in the time it took to get them home, so I did manage to get that off. She didn’t make it easy, though at least she didn’t try to run away.
We will have to visit them frequently over the next while. That will be mostly on the girls, since tomorrow I’ll be going to town to finally get a much needed oil change for the van, and will most likely be heading to the city to do our Costco trip the day after.
Hopefully.
Our storm warnings have become blizzard warnings, but for the south of the province. We’ve seen no sign of the system in our area, yet. It still doesn’t look like we’ll be getting much snow, but the main concern will be high winds. From the weather radar, it looks like the most severe weather we’ll be getting won’t happen until 8 or 9pm tonight, with blowing snow tomorrow, plus several colder days.
Whatever ends up hitting us, I’m glad we were able to get the cats done first.
This morning, we got Butterscotch and Nosencrantz in to the vet.
There’s a storm on the way that’s supposed to start with sleet, then 6-10cm (2-4in) of snow. It was supposed to start about 8am, and drop off time was 8:20, so we headed out early, just in case. Not that these forecasts are accurate for where we are, most of the time, but why take a chance?
When I came into the sun room, I found Butterscotch and Nosencrantz had been using the swing bench, completely ignoring the beds we made for them, and even the space under the heater bulb. Clearly, it never got cold enough for them to give up those soft cushions! :-D
Butterscotch was not a happy camper when I put her in the carrier! I’m actually surprised she let me put her in so easily, considering she’s had this ride before, to get stitches on a gash we found on one of her back legs.
Nosencrantz was much, much calmer about going into the soft sided carrier. She is a much more easy going cat, and I think she will transition into an indoor cat very easily.
Once they were safely tucked away, I could quickly take care of the outside cats.
It’s been a while since this was done while it’s still dark out!
Tuxedo Mask is looking at the water, and the water is looking back! :-D
Once the critters were taken care of, my younger daughter and I headed out. We got to the clinic quite early, but they were okay with an early drop off. We’re expecting a pick up between 4 and 5pm, but they will phone us if the cats are ready earlier.
Once at home, I finished my rounds before heading back in. Things are still looking good out there, and we’re only at -12C/10F. We are expected to reach a high of -3C/27F by late this evening. Looking at the weather radar, the Alberta Clipper heading our way looks like it has already dissipated a fair bit. We should get bit of snow this afternoon, but it will likely have passed over us by the time we have to go pick up the cats. The rest of the system is looking like it will hit us in the evening and overnight. Where we are, I don’t think we’ll get any sleet at all, but who knows. We tend to have a strange climactic bubble over us that seems to push away a lot of these systems. I think it’s part of the lake effect where we are.
As long as we can get the kitties safely home today, we’re good with whatever the weather throws at us. :-)
This morning, my morning rounds included snagging outside cats.
Not these ones.
The heat bulb inside the cat’s house is clearly working!
Nosencrantz was easy. When I go to fill the kibble tray under the shrine, she always goes to eat there, instead of the kibble house. The tray is there because Rosencrantz had Nosencrantz and Tosencrantz in the junk pile on the other side of the fence. We wanted to make sure they got some food and didn’t have to push their way through other cats at the kibble house to get food there. Nosencrantz still prefers to eat at her own personal kibble tray. :-)
Butterscotch often joins her there, but not this morning.
She’s in the corner, on the left. After I finished with the food and water, she wasn’t there anymore. I finally found her eating at the kibble tray on the outside of the kibble house.
She is why we had to make sure to snag them early in the day. Nosencrantz hangs around but, after breakfast, Butterscotch will take off and we might not see her again until the next morning.
When I picked her up, she was pretty good with that and enjoyed her ear skritches.
Then I started walking to the sun room.
Oh, she did not like that!
I managed to hang on to her and get her inside, but she immediately started trying to get out. Nosencrantz was already settled and eating, but Butterscotch started jumping up the door to reach the window. I had both outer doors closed, and we’ll have to be careful to keep them that way. When we turned the sun room into a maternity ward a couple of years ago, bringing a very pregnant Beep Beep and Butterscotch in to have their kittens where we could socialize them, we still had the old, broken storm door on there. It had a screened window that couldn’t be closed. No matter how many times we patched that screen up, she would tear her way through.
I’m sure she remembers being able to get through the closed door.
I left them be while I finished my rounds, making sure to message my family that they were there, and Butterscotch wasn’t happy. My husband came in to visit with them for a bit, where he found Butterscotch somewhat settled on a pillow. He was able to pet Nosencrantz, but that was it.
When I got back, she was prowling around. She even was standing on her hind legs, looking at the highest shelves we stuffed with gardening supplies, trying to see if she could jump up there.
We will need to check on them a few times and make sure they are doing well and getting along, then to take away the food and water bowls when it’s time for them to fast.
We have 2 carriers to bring them to the vet tomorrow morning. We’ll have to make sure Butterscotch goes into the hard sided one, because she’ll be able to tear her way out of the soft sided one. Thank you again, M, for gifting the kitties with that hard side carrier!
After finishing my rounds, I went through the trail cam files and was very amused by some files on the sign cam – aside from many files of the roads being cleared. They broke out the big plow, that’s higher off the ground and has a MUCH bigger front plow attachment. The snow was too deep to see clearly, but I’m sure the side plow attachment was quite a bit bigger, too. Beautiful machine!
The deer much prefer to use the nice, clear roads to move around!
I just had to put in the arrow to show where the second deer is. This is the mother and her little one we see outside our living room window all the time. Her little one is almost fully grown now, but still small enough that only it’s ears showed above the snow piled up on the sides of the road!!
The date and time on about half the files from this camera were completely wrong. It got so cold, the batteries “died” enough that the camera reset itself to the default time and date. When it warmed up enough that the batteries started working again, all the files after that started from midnight, Jan 1, 2020. LOL There were also a lot of black files, because there wasn’t enough power for the infrared flash.
It’s supposed to stay warm enough over the next while, that this should not be a problem.
I just got a phone call while I was writing this. The vet clinic was confirming tomorrow’s appointment for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz. Drop off time is 8:20, and no food after 8pm tonight. She did say water was okay. I double checked, because the cat lady had said no food or water. Which is good. I won’t want to be fussing with the heated water bowl, if I don’t have to.
We will be in touch with the cat lady tonight; she was planning to call us to follow up on these two. I look forward to hearing how Cabbages is doing, too. The fact that we haven’t heard from her means that Cabbages has not taken a turn for the worse, at least.
If you would like to read more about Cabbages and our fundraiser to surprise-reimburse her for vet expenses, click here. Or, you can go straight to the fundraiser page here.
Today’s focus will be to keep an eye on Butterscotch in particular, and try and keep her calm.
The last time we tried to bring her indoors was when we set her and Beep Beep up in the basement to have their kittens. When we had no choice was to send her back outside, with Beep Beep adopting her last, surviving kitten, it took months before Butterscotch would let us come near her again. I expect, after she is recovered and we can let her out again, it will be at least that long before she trusts us enough to pet her again. But it will be worth it. I get the impression she is so done with the whole “mother” thing! I’m sure she’ll forgive us. ;-)
Well, we’ve been doing as much as we can in the sun room for now. It’s as ready as we’ll be able to get it, for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz’s recovery period.
We were able to tape up the wire on the old heated water bowl, so it can now be safely used again. The wire itself is not damaged; just the outside was cracked, right at the bowl. Thankfully, we’ve got a tape that can handle that tight of an area. If it hadn’t worked, we have a silicon sealant we would have used.
The main concern we have is with Butterscotch. We’ve used the sun room as a maternity ward before, for Butterscotch and Beep Beep to give birth in. Beep Beep handled it well, but Butterscotch tore her way through the old door’s screen to escape, no matter how many times we patched it up. She was more than content to leave Beep Beep to take care of both litters and probably wouldn’t have come back, if she hadn’t needed to nurse. She is not going to be happy in here. I do hope that, at least for the first day or two after surgery, she will be too drugged up to go too wild. It’s certainly going to make it interesting to go through here to get kibble and seed. Most likely, we’ll put a carrier in with her, and close her up until I’m done going in and out.
As we expect Butterscotch to basically tear the place apart while in there, my daughter and I bagged up the sunflowers heads, and they are now stored in the old kitchen. We’ve packed the top shelves against the window with as much gardening supplies as we could jam in, then made beds on the two bottom shelves. Then we tried to make the rest of the shelves and surfaces as impervious to destruction as we could.
I picked up a new litter pan for the sun room, since we’re using it for yard cat recovery so often. It’s set up under the swing bench. The heat bulb is ready to go, with scrap pieces of rigid insulation as walls, because there will be a cold draft from those windows, and more on the floor so they can eat and drink with their little toe beans kept off the cold concrete.
The plan is for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz to be brought in tomorrow, after we do the morning rounds. They have even been staying together when I put the kibble out, so they will be easy to catch at that time. They will have their own food and water until evening, at which point they will be put on a fast until after their surgery.
While organizing the space as best we could, one of the concerns is that, in her displeasure of being trapped in the sun room, Butterscotch might start attacking Nosencrantz. Since Butterscotch is not ever going to be an indoor cat and is not up for adoption, she has to stay in the sun room during recovery.
There is no such requirement for Nosencrantz. She will be adopted out. After they are fixed, vaccinated and de-wormed, and the non-adoptable indoor cats are done, we will start getting the adoptable indoor cats done near the end of February. We will bring them in to the vet in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the evening and take them to the fosters for recovery before going to their forever homes. Then we will start working on getting the outside cats caught and done. They, too, will be taken to the vet in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the evening.
It just doesn’t make sense to send Nosencrantz back outdoors after recovery, if we’re going to have to catch her again for the cat lady to take. Plus, if we bring her inside right after the surgery, there is no chance of Butterscotch going after her. This will also give us a chance to socialise her more, before the cat lady is ready to pick her up.
The next few months are going to be pretty cat crazy!
Speaking of the cat lady, I am incredibly thankful that there are already some fundraiser donations!! You can read about the fundraiser here or, if you wish, go directly to the donation page here. It just blows me away that she has been so willing to take on the expenses for Cabbages vet care, and going above and beyond in treating her. She even sent pictures (which I won’t ask permission to share right now; this fundraiser is a surprise, and I don’t want her to know about this blog, yet. :-D ), and Cabbages was eating out of a bowl and looking so much more alert.
I have not heard any news today, yet, which tells me that the recovery continues. It’s still “no news is good news” right now. Cabbages is being lavished with care and attention, and I have full confidence and trust in the cat lady, to do what’s right by her, however things go.
I am so thankful that we were connected with her when we did. The timing was downright providential!
What a difference between this winter and last winter!
Though Chadiccus doesn’t know that, since it’s his first winter.
I’m sure the older cats are appreciating it, though!
Last year, we could barely go anywhere because it was too cold for our vehicles. At one point, we even had to ask my older brother to do some shopping in the city for us, because we couldn’t use our own van, or even my mother’s car. They started but, my goodness, the noises the engines made!
This winter, we’ve been able to head out as often as we needed – or wanted – to. I think I’ve gone somewhere almost every day this week!
With Butterscotch and Nosencrantz being dropped off at the vet on Monday, the earliest we expected to be able to do our Costco trip to the city would have been Tuesday, so I decided to pop into town after doing the morning rounds and pick up a few things we figured we’d need. It was disappointing to walk around the grocery store and being the only person open faced again, but not surprising for this town. At least I don’t get harassed in this grocery store. When I was done, I made a quick stop at the garage to finally book a much needed oil change. I kept forgetting to phone. Not a single sign on the door for the illegal restrictions. Gosh, it was so wonderful to see a beautiful, open face. It’s amazing how much removing people’s faces causes stress and anxiety that isn’t even noticed until it isn’t there. Anyhow, with the oil change booked, that makes Wednesday the earliest we’ll be able to head into the city, so I’m extra glad I made a small trip, today.
Today is Freedom Day. In support of the Freedom Convoy, all businesses have been asked to open fully, without discrimination or segregation. The main convoy has reached Ottawa, though it may well take days for them all to stream in. I’ve heard there are six convoys in total, coming in from different directions. Our Prime Dictator and his family have apparently been whisked away somewhere, for their “safety”, while the media continues to prime viewers to expect violence. As has happened before Antifa riots, people have reporting seeing trucks unloading piles of bricks in the area, while others are reporting finding piles of bricks already in place. Whistleblowers within the federal government have warned of paid agitators. Within the convoy groups, those who have reporting finding these bricks are being encouraged to report them to the police, and the constant thread is to encourage people on site to not allow themselves to be goaded into doing anything stupid. Considering that the overwhelming atmosphere among the Freedom Convoy supports is more like a massive, joyful, exuberant celebration, it would be pretty easy to spot the agitators.
Support continues to be overwhelming, and overwhelmingly positive. The GoFundMe now exceeds $8million, and armies of people are cooking, baking and donating food and beverages. Businesses that used to sell maybe 4 or 5 Canadian flags in a year, have been selling as many as 150 in a day – if they have any left to sell at all, anymore. Farmers in the area have plowed snow clear on their fields for truckers to park their rigs and get some sleep. Support flows in from around the world, with many forming convoys of their own.
It’s absolutely amazing.
Now we just wait and see how our governments respond. Whatever happens, this is big enough to affect even us, in our little hidden pocket of the world.
The Re-Farmer 