outside cats

You’re not Slick!

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One of my daughters let me know that the water bowl in the sun room was no longer on its heater, so when I had a moment, I went out with a pitcher of fresh warm water, heading through the Old Kitchen to fix it.

On opening the inner door, I noticed the food bowl in the sun room was empty, so I paused to grab some kibble to top it up.

Of course, as soon as I opened the door, there was a flurry of cats running out of the sun room, while others were running towards the Old Kitchen door.  I saw Ferdinand run out, and then Slick headed for the door.

Except…

Wait a minute.

Is that Slick?

Thanks to Ferdinand staying in the doorway, preventing the other cat from getting out, I was able to grab a few quick pictures.  I had to show it to my daughters to confirm.

This is not Slick.

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What I did not see until my daughter pointed it out to me, not only is Ferdinand in the doorway, but Nicky the Nose is outside, looking through the window. 

The new cat finally ran past Ferdinand when I opened the door.  I never saw Nicky the Nose at all, but Ferdinand did not run off like he usually does.  He actually hung around, watching me from just a few feet away, as I knocked the ice out of the outside water bowl and refilled it, as well as topping up one of the outside food bowls.

The water bowl was indeed knocked off the concrete block, but there was no spill.  It was completely dry!  With the outside bowl frozen over, they were very happy to have fresh water.

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He has the saddest expression on his face!

My older daughter had been seeing a strange cat that was more grey than Slick, off and on, but this is the first time I’ve finally seen him.  So he’s actually been around for a little while.

This brings us to 14 outside cats in total.  The 6 kittens.  Beep Beep, Butterscotch, Rolando Moon and The Hand are all cats we were feeding when we first moved out here.  Slick, Nicky the Nose, Ferdinand, and now this guy.  That’s basically twice as many as we were regularly feeding last winter.

No wonder we’re going through the cat kibble so fast!  ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Late!

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Yesterday, I started on making a last minute Christmas gift – a wheelchair capelet for my aunt – and ended up finishing it at about 3:30 in the morning.  So I slept in a bit.

The cats did not appreciate my bringing their food out, later than usual! :-D

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When I came outside, there were cats running, jumping and scrambling from all directions.  Then they got confused, because I had to do something else first.  Not only did I come out of a different door, but I didn’t go straight to the food!  How dare I!

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There is a cat missing in the above photo; Rosencrantz or Guildenstern ran in as I came over, then hid when I got to the door. 

I’m glad that floor is concrete.  We’re going to have to empty the room out in the spring and scrub it down again.  Cat puke is a little more challenging to clean up when it’s frozen. :-D

The Re-Farmer

A Frosty Photogenic Morning!

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At 4:30am, we got a weather advisory.  A fog had rolled in, covering most of the province, with visibility dropping to near zero.

You know what that means?

Photo opportunities!

My husband got this first one, of frosty deer outside our living room window. Continue reading →

Right at home

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My daughter called me over and told me I needed to look out the bathroom window.

Were the kittens all being cute again?

Nope.

Ferdinand was.

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He had been asleep when she saw him, but woke up when I used my phone’s camera to be able to see (ah, the joys of being short…).

He’s made himself right at home on there!  The kittens don’t mind him at all, either.  From what I saw earlier today, there may well be a kitten or three on the other side of the blanket over the box.  They keep pulling the side down and covering the opening completely.

Strange.  I just noticed.  His nose isn’t the bright pink it usually is!

The Re-Farmer

Hello, Ferdinand!

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My daughter was able to get some good pictures of Ferdinand!

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Recently, while they were outside topping up the cat’s food and water outside, Ferdinand was there.  He ran off, but stayed close enough that they could hear him breathing.

He makes strange noises when he breathes!

We think there might be something wrong with his nose.

Good Morning

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Just a few shots to share with you this morning.

I was going to say I caught The Outsider, mid-meow, as I was feeding the outside cats this morning, but he wasn’t actually meowing when I took this shot.

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Too funny!

A couple of grosbeaks were trying to eat the frozen apples, left on this tree.

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These apples won’t fall, even while being pecked apart by birds.  No wonder I wasn’t able to knock down any more of them for the deer.

While I was taking this picture, I suddenly had a cat climbing up my front.  Beep Beep decided that I needed to carry her while I was doing my rounds.  She did let me put her onto a post, for a bit…

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Just a bit.  Then she jumped back on me, as soon as I got close enough!

While taking the photo, I realized why she always has one paw up like that.  There isn’t enough room on the top of the post for all 4 paws!

She was aggressively cuddly this morning. :-D

We were able to make a trip into the city this morning, to finally visit my FIL.  It’s been a while since my husband was up to the trip.  The girls and I will need to head into the city again, soon – unusual for us to go that often, but we will be doing a fair bit of running around to various places on our next trip, in preparation for Christmas.

I’ll have to remember to pick up more cat kibble.  It’s been less than a week, and we’re already finishing off one big bag!

Okay; so maybe we’re feeding a few more cats than last winter (13, compared to the 7 or 8 before).

And maybe we’re being a bit more generous on the quantities…

We are such sucks! :-D

The Re-Farmer