outside cats

Morning kitties and morning harvest

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I got to give Nosencrantz full body pets this morning!

She hadn’t even started eating yet when she let me pet her – and she was purring!

Then she joined her Grandma Butterscotch for breakfast. :-)

Do you see that orange over on the far right?

That’s Rolando Moon. She’s still around! It looks like she spent the night either in the tree in front of the kitchen, or on the roof. I love how she looks so happy to see me when she comes running across the lawn. Even if she does end up hissing at me, while she stands up on her hind legs, asking for pets! :-D

No sign of Rosencrantz this morning, but her babies took turns having breakfast with Grandma and … cousin? Little sister? Not sure how the genealogy works, at this point! :-D

Mornings are starting to be quite cold these days, and this morning was quite windy, but I wanted to make sure I picked what I could from the garden early. The girls and I had a “date” with my mother, and I wanted to give her some of our tiny tomatoes! She won’t eat the pattypan squash, because they are unfamiliar to her, but I did grab a couple of zucchini for her that we picked yesterday, instead.

My mother has been wanting to take the girls to a local marsh and wildlife centre for some time. The birds are starting to head south, and the place is now open until dusk until the end of the migration season. Due to restrictions being reinstated, the interpretive centre is closed and the restaurant is take-out only, so we picked up some of my mother’s favourite fried chicken and wedges, and had a picnic outside. The winds had picked up even more, but we managed to find a picnic table next to a bush that was more sheltered. I’m pretty sure it’s a type of bush we have on our list that we plan to get ourselves, to create a hedge where our furthest garden beds are right now.

My mother isn’t up to walking far, even with her walker, but she encouraged the girls to look around. They ended up doing a 2km hike! :-D In the process, they found a picnic area with lots of tables, so the next time we do this, we will know to park in the overflow parking lot, where it is closer and easier for my mother to access. Their hiking paths are very solid, wide and well groomed, which will make it easy for her walker, too. Between the condition of the paths and the many benches along the way, my husband could even navigate it. The girls and I want to go back and, if he’s up to the drive, it would be fantastic if my husband could come a long, too. We shall see!

All it all, it was a good trip. We were able to distract my mother away from her more… unfortunate… favorite discussions. ;-) Along with the chicken, my mother brought some of her quick pickles which, to be honest, I am very uncomfortable eating. Her safe practises are minimal, but she loves them and they haven’t made her sick, yet! LOL I brought out the container of tomatoes as well. Of course, her response was to talk about the wonderful tomatoes my sister gave her, but then she tried one. She still wouldn’t say anything positive, but she sure scarfed a bunch down! That’s good enough for me. :-D

Where we were sitting, we didn’t actually see a log of waterfowl, but the girls saw more as they hiked the trail. What they were really excited to see was all that water. With this year’s drought conditions, that would have been a concern, but the marsh still has water. Even with the rain we finally got, most of the usual places I see water are still completely dry.

We definitely want to go back again on our own and hike the trails.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and wayward vegetables

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Heading out to do my morning rounds is pretty awesome these days. ALL of the kitties come running!

I even got to give Nosencrantz full body pets – but only while she was eating! Toesencrantz started to come close, but she was too nervous with me being so close, and kept going away. So I left, to give her a chance to eat.

The other eight kittens, plus Potato Beetle, converged on the kibble house! :-D What a crowd! Gosh, they’re getting big. :-)

While I was out by the furthest garden beds, I started hearing some exciting meowing. It took a while, but Rolando Moon came over from wherever she had spent the night across the road, all excited. She let me pet her, then followed me as I went around the garden and made my way back to the house. As we got closer to the house, she would start hissing in between her meows, even though there were no other cats in sight. She was sure on the lookout for a nasty Potato Beetle!

By the time we got to the kibble house, all the other cats were done eating and were gone, so she had a chance to have breakfast in peace.

There were a few squash large enough to pick this morning; a small enough harvest that I could fit them in my jacket pockets! :-D

I found another Madga squash ready to pick, and even one of the mutant sunburst patty pans – the one that’s part green, part yellow – was a nice size to pick, and even one zucchini was ready.

Just one.

While going through the squash tunnel, Rolando Moon ran ahead of me to the end, then flung herself to the ground, waiting for pets.

Right next to a zucchini.

When I had picked squash yesterday, I was carrying them in my arms rather awkwardly, and it looks like I dropped one! :-D

With the fix on our main entry door hinges giving out, we’ve been using the sun room to go in and out of the house. This requires going through a door into the old kitchen, where the cats are not allowed. The door is an old style door with a skeleton key lock on it – though there is no key for it anymore. From there, there is a pair of doors going into the sun room; in the summer, we leave the solid, inner door open. The outer door, which has a window with a screen that we keep partly open for air circulation, is a sort of buffer between the old kitchen and the sun room, in case an outside cat is in the sun room, or an inside cat sneaks into the old kitchen. There are a couple of them that REALLY want to get into the old kitchen!!

Finally, there are the sun room doors. Once again, for the summer, we leave the inner, solid door open, while the outer door, with its screen window partially open for air circulation, is one last barrier. I used to leave the sun room doors open while working outside and have to go in and out frequently, but sometimes an outside cat slips in to investigate and I accidentally close them in when I’m done, so I try to keep that one closed most of the time, too.

When I came into the sun room after finishing my rounds this morning, I spotted a cat jumping off the old wood cook stove in the old kitchen, though the window in the old kitchen door. My initial thought was the Fenryr had once again slipped by me so fast I didn’t see her.

Boy was I wrong.

You see, the old door leading from the house to the old kitchen has… issues. Sometimes, when it seems to be closed, the latch doesn’t actually catch. Then, after a while, the door simply pops open.

By the time I came back, it was wide open, and most of the cats were in the old kitchen, exploring.

As soon as I opened the door from the sun room, there was a rush of cats going into the sun room.

Thank goodness that outside door was closed!!

It took a spray bottle and a few minutes, just to get the cats out of the sun room and into the old kitchen, so I could close that door. Then it took a few more minutes to get them out of the old kitchen and into the rest of the house, so I could close that door. Only then could I empty my jacket pockets of vegetables onto the big freezer, though as I hung my jacket up, I spotted a Nicco in the little niche by the wood cook stove, hiding under my late father’s folded up wheelchair. At that point, I left her along, put things away and, by the time I came back, she came out on her own and I was able to get her to leave.

Inside and outside cats all together, I had 28 cats to deal with this morning! And I didn’t even see the three mamas, yet. :-D

I guess that makes me a crazy cat lady!

The Re-Farmer

She’s back!

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Rolando Moon is back!

We have not seen this lady in ages!

And she is HUNGRY!

The poor thing is so skinny. In the photo, you can even see the hollows near her hips. She has always been a big, beefy cat. This is the thinnest we have ever seen her.

When my daughters saw her, there was no food left in the kibble house, so they refilled the trays a bit. Unfortunately, that brought Potato Beetle over, and he immediately started a fight with Rolando. Rolando has always been rather mean to the other cats, but now they all seem to have it in for her. I’ve seen Butterscotch and Rosencrantz go after her, too.

So my younger daughter took one of the food containers over by the sun room and stayed with her as she ate like she was starving, keeping Potato Beetle away and giving her some love. Rolando would go from ignoring the pets while eating, or stopping to hiss – then lean in for more pets! She was always the sort that would let you pet her, then turn around an bite at you.

Later on, Potato came around and went after her, and just wouldn’t stop. She ran up a tree and he ran right after. Even when we got out the hose to spray him, he kept trying to fight her, ignoring the water. They were so high up, one of my daughters ended up climbing up a step ladder to be able to spray him more directly, and finally got him down, eventually shooing him out of the inner yard completely.

Last I saw, Rolando Moon was still in the tree, but she had gone down lower and was settled into a comfortable crook.

I do hope she stays around, and that we can keep the other cats from going after her. She is one of the cats that I have photos of from when my younger daughter and I had made a road trip out, staying here at the farm with my dad, back in 2015, along with Beep Beep and Butterscotch.

As glad as I am that Potato Beetle is back, he has not been good for the other cats. At least he doesn’t go after the kittens; just the adults. Rolando Moon is not a cat that we could ever bring indoors, but this old girl deserves some peace and love!

The Re-Farmer

Aaaall the babies

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I just realized I had an achievement this morning.

For the first time, I got photos of all ten kittens this morning! Usually, they are running around or hiding so much, I miss a couple.

There are no adult cats in this photo. We’ve got seven kittens from three litters, including Junk Pile’s kitten that looks just like her.

Under the shrine, we’ve got two adults and three kittens. The kittens that are at the food tray are from two different litters, Toesencrantz and Bradicous, but I can’t tell if the one on the ground is Chadicous, or Junk Pile’s tabby that looks so much like Bradicous and Chadicous.

Sadly, I did not get to touch any kitties, nor spend time trying, as I had to hurry to finish my rounds and make a trip into town.

But that will be for my next post!

The Re-Farmer

A bit of Ginger, and morning kitties

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Ginger let me take his picture this morning! :-D

He so loves his morning skritches!

Outside, I had an avalanche of kitties come out when the kibble trays were filled.

Too funny, how Nosencrantz is fully in the pan. :-D She stayed with her cousins this morning, rather than dining with her mom and sibling in their usual spot under the shrine.

Potato Beetle is also in the photo, on the left. Ginger’s outside siblings, Nutmeg and Creamsicle Baby, seem to have been driven away by him, completely. They disappeared soon after Potato Beetle returned. I do hope they’ve found another home on a nearby farm.

Nicky the Nose is another one was haven’t seen in ages. He’s not one of ours; he was here for the food and the ladies quite often, but I haven’t seen him in a couple of months. Which I don’t mind too much, since he was not only going for the ladies, but fighting with the boys. Rolando Moon is another one we haven’t seen in a long time, but she typically disappears for weeks at a time. She was always pretty mean to the other cats, and more recently, they’d been increasingly aggressive towards her, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to stay wherever else she’s been staying when not here.

The outside cat population is always pretty transient!

The Re-Farmer

Polite little kittens

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The very first thing I do when I head outside for my morning rounds is to feed the yard cats, then the birds.

The yard kittens have all now come to expect it.

They are getting increasingly brave about NOT running away when I go back and forth from the sun room. The tuxedo almost went into the kibble house while I was pouring out food inside. (I believe the one on the cat house roof is Junk Pile’s little tabby that looks like Bradicous and Chadicous.)

The problem is, when one of them gets startled and dashes off, it startles the rest of them, and there is an explosion of kittens, running in all directions! :-D

When I took this photo, one bunch had returned and were eating at the kibble tray on the ground outside the kibble house, while this bunch patiently waited for me to move on!

Nosencrantz and Toesencrantz, meanwhile, where with their mom at their own private dining area under the shrine. :-D

The Re-Farmer

I pet Nosencrantz!

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While topping up the yard cat’s kibble trays last night, I actually got to pet a kittie!

The fact that Rosencrantz let me pet her, for a change, probably helped, but Nosencrantz still looks pretty unsure of the situation! :-D

The lure of kibble was enough for her to ignore me petting her while she ate.

Unfortunately, she is still the only one of the yard kittens that doesn’t run away every time we come out, though a couple of them are starting to come back faster, or watch from nearby. I hope that, as winter sets in and they start using the cat shelter more, they will at least calm down in our presence.

The Re-Farmer

Sitting pretty, and an update on the unpleasant stuff

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I was just heading back into the house after a quick version of my morning rounds, when I realized I was being watched.

The Potato Beetle was all tucked in!

For those who are new to this blog (welcome!), one of the things we did to help the yard cats over the winter, was create shelters in the bottom two shelves of a shelf we’d removed from upstairs while cleaning out my parents’ stuff. This remarkably heavy shelf was left outside the sun room until we could figure out where to haul it for storage, since the shed we’ve been using to hold all my parents’ stuff is now full. It ended up being so handy where it was, we left it.

The cats liked it, too.

Last winter, I used rigid insulation to create little cat caves in the bottom two shelves, and even left a cardboard box in one for an extra cozy little space. The cats love it, and one of their favourite things to do is just sit in the opening, watching the world go by. :-)

Speaking of shelter, when I came out this morning, I saw at least two kittens were inside the cat’s house. They are starting to come together into one big litter, rather than three little ones! :-) With the cooler nights, I’m glad they have discovered the cat shelter as a warm place to sleep.

I also found another sign of our changing seasons.

It looks like a squirrel has been building up a cache of pine cones for the winter! Usually, they do that in log piles or whatever, not at the bottom of a tree like this, but I think their usual places are now occupied by other critters! ;-)

On a less pleasant note, today was our teleconference court date for the civil suit our vandal filed against me, in retaliation for my applying for a restraining order against him. It was nothing but a call to set a trial date.

At the end of January, 2022.

*sigh*

Apparently, he is now going to have four witnesses, and asked about how to submit things like pictures. Which is pretty pointless, since he’s suing me over stuff I don’t claim ownership of. It’s vexatious litigation, plain and simple.

After the call was done, I tried the court office again about the status of our restraining order, and finally got through. Last month, my application was put on hold as our vandal agreed to undergo a psychiatric assessment, so this month’s court date was just to follow up on that, and the judge said I didn’t need to be there. That was a week ago. When I explained this to the clerk, she was surprised I was told I didn’t need to be there, and I had to explain several times that it was the judge that told me that.

She was able to look up the file and let me know that it was remitted to next month. (These court dates are always on the first Friday of the month, I notice.) There was no information on file to explain why it was remitted. My guess? He wasn’t able to see a psychiatrist within the time frame. Either way, I plan to be there for the next court date, so I can at least hear for myself, what’s going on.

I first filed for a restraining order in October of last year, and our vandal filed his civil suit against me a few weeks later. Thanks to all the restrictions and shut downs, nothing has been resolved in almost a year. About the only good thing is that he has a criminal lawyer defending him about the restraining order, and I think the lawyer is keeping him on a short leash. I haven’t seen him on the trail cams for a while, other than occasionally driving by in one of his many vehicles, or on his quad. As for the civil suit, he was representing himself on the call. While the trial date was being set, he said he would have four witnesses – previously, he’d said he would have three. To what, I have no idea. He also asked about how to submit things like photos. Again, I don’t see what he’s trying to gain, here. I don’t claim ownership of any of this stuff (most of which is junk, anyhow). Plus, in my response, I included an email I’d sent where I told him he could take the stuff he could provide proof of ownership of, like a bill of sale or a receipt. He had his chance, and he didn’t take it. This is all just a waste of the courts’ time.

Part of the frustration is things like today. It seems these court dates do nothing but book new court dates. It just keeps getting pushed forward, and nothing gets resolved.

No wonder our court system is so backlogged, even without courtrooms being shut down due to government restrictions. :-/

Such. A. Waste.

The Re-Farmer

Breakfast buffet

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What an adorable way to start the morning!

There are actually six kittens in this photo. There’s the four in the kibble house, Junk Pile Jr at the other kibble tray outside the kibble out, and there’s a grey tabby behind her. You can just barely see the top of it’s back.

Nosencrantz actually stayed in the kibble house with her cousins, while Toesencrantz and her mother used their own private dining area under the shrine. Potato Beetle as hanging out as well, though he walked out of frame as I was taking this picture. :-D I also saw flashes of the other three kittens, wanting to come and eat, but still too nervous with me around. The little tuxedo actually stayed close, and didn’t even leave the kibble house when I went around the other side to fill the kibble tray on the ground. :-)

What an adorable bunch!

The Re-Farmer