outside cats

Slowing down, and cats, cats, cats!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

With all the rain we’ve been having, life is starting to slow down on the home front lately. After the various trips made in the last while, we’ve got a couple of “days off” to just stay home.

It’s been either too wet or too windy to do the junk wood burning I had hoped to do, so there has been no progress there at all. While there are a number of things I want to do around the yard, they are not things that should be done in the rain. We’re supposed to warm up over the next few days, and even start approaching 30C by Tuesday, so I hope to get a chance to work on those.

Yesterday was a quiet day in which I got to spend some quality time with my hooks. My husband requested a pair of warm and cozy slippers for winter, so I picked up some blanket yarn while in the city for my medical appointment. I wanted to try something different, too, so I basically made up the pattern as I went along. I am very happy with how they turned out, so I plan to pick up more of the blanket yarn and do different sizes for myself and the girls.

We had rain all night and most of the morning, so it was pretty damp when I did my morning rounds.

The cats inside even seem to be feeling it. This is what I woke up to.

Continue reading →

Critter of the Day: a story in pictures

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Lately, Beep Beep has been very aggressive about wanting human attention.

She has very sharp claws!

After we made our trip to my medical appointment yesterday, the girls and I ended up going for a walk-about beyond the outer yard.

Beep Beep followed us.

Continue reading →

Clean up: old dog houses moved

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Brrr, today has turned out to be chilly!

With some help from my daughter, though, I was able to get a lot more done outside than I expected.

First on the list was to move the old dog houses to what I hope will be a permanent – or at least long term – location.

Unfortunately, things are really level in the area I wanted to put them. After discussing it a bit, we decided which space was the most level, then hoisted the dog houses over.

Continue reading →

Critter of the Day: I know there’s food here, somewhere!

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

We started leaving food out for Junk Pile Kitten and his mom beside the junk pile, since the other cats crowd around the food bowls by the house, and sometimes chase them away.

Then the other cats discovered we leave food there.

In fact, it’s now become routine for the other kittens to follow me as I put food out, ignoring the food by the house and eating the food being left at the junk pile.

I’ve taken to leaving little piles of food on the ground beside the bowl, and even on the log I’ve set up as a seat. I started doing the same thing by the pump shack, too, since not only have some of the kittens started following me there, so do Butterscotch and Beep Beep!

Bonus Critter: playing

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While switching out the empty hanging bird feeder for a full one, I noticed Junk Yard kitten was out.

So I sat down on the log I placed near the junk pile as a seat, and tried to lure him in.

There was a cat toy I’d found while cleaning out the old wood pile; one of the ones we’d left for the kittens that were living in there for a while, last year. Between it and the tree branch I wiggled around, I was able to get him to come within 3 ft of me and play!

He (she?) is such a beautiful cat! Those dark framed, golden eyes are just amazing!

The Re-Farmer

Morning company

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

In the last while, the kittens have become more interested in following me around as I do my morning rounds. Especially when I go to switch the memory card in the trail cam. Usually, it’s just one or two kittens, though.

This morning, my daughter came along, and that really got their attention, so we had 4 of them from the start. :-D

Continue reading →

Matched Set, and hot water woes

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

When doing my morning rounds, I used to get followed by at least Beep Beep and Butterscotch. Sometimes, other cats would come along, but it was usually those two in particular. That changed after they had their kittens. Butterscotch no longer even likes to be picked up anymore (I think it has become uncomfortable for her) and she’s become a lot more stand-offish. Lately, I’ve been seeing her as infrequently as the male cats.

Beep Beep is a lot more homey and, while she doesn’t like being picked up as much as she used to either, it doesn’t seem to be out of any sort of discomfort. She has started to follow me again in the mornings, and the kittens are beginning to expand their territory.

Even Big Jim came out to see what was going on.

Continue reading →