outside cats

Some beautiful babies, and a visit with the doctor

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First, the cuteness!

I got this photo of Brussel, earlier.

I wasn’t able to push the cat cave back into the cube, and it didn’t take long for Brussel to knock it over onto its side. When it was being used by the inside cats, they were constantly knocking it over, too.

Gosh, Brussel is a beauty!

My daughter and I had our appointments with the doctor today. When we got back, it was well past when the outside cats would normally have gotten their second feeding of the day, so they were all over the place – including Brussel. Once the kibble was out, I took advantage of the opportunity to fix the cat cave. I was able to taker her babies out and set them on one of the cat beds on the platform above.

What an adorable pair!

Also, they didn’t hiss or spit at me, or act afraid, while I handled them this time. We need to be really careful about handling them, as it risks Brussel moving them somewhere else if she doesn’t like it, but they do need to get used to human contact if we want any hope of socializing them.

I was able to get the cat cave pushed into the cube in the cage, then used a broom handle to push it in even further, and settle it onto the blanket on the bottom of that cube. Hopefully, it won’t get pulled out of the cube again, and the walls of the cut will keep it from tipping over.

Once that was done, I went to park the truck in the garage and, by the time I got back, Brussel was in the cave with her babies, and I was able to give her her wet cat food treat. If nothing else, the extra food we give her might be enough to keep her from moving her babies. I’ve found the mamas tend to move their litters several times before they get too big – sometimes to the empty farm buildings across the road from us, and we really don’t want her dragging her babies through the garden, across a rather busy gravel road, ditches on either side, and around a pond on the other property, before crossing the farm yard to reach one of the buildings they can get into!

We do what we can to keep them close, but with the ferals, there’s just no real way to do anything about it. Even Butterscotch, before we finally got her spayed and indoors, would move her kittens across the road, and she was a socialized cat!

We shall see how it works out.

In other things…

My daughter and I had our appointments one after the other – having the same doctor is very convenient! – in the afternoon, but we left a fair bit earlier. We stopped at the feed store in my mother’s town to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble (we’ll need at least 2 more, but I’m hoping to get them at the feed store to the north of us) for the outside cats. Another quick stop for drinks and some beef jerky for the road, and we continued on to the town the clinic is in. We got there in good time and hung out in the truck for a while, chatting, before going in. My daughter had her appointment first, and I was waiting in the examination room next to where she was by the time she was done and making a follow up appointment for next month. I could even hear her at the desk and made a point of checking my calendar to let her know what dates/times worked for me. My own appointment was for a physical, so I was booked for a longer time.

Last month, I had brought my medical files from the other clinic over, and was able to keep the hard copies after they were scanned. I finally remembered to go through them last night, and I certainly had some things to discuss with the doctor! I was quite perplexed by some of what I read in there.

For a number of appointments, there was a list of “no this” and “no that” for various symptoms. There was one in there that should not have been; every one of the lists included “no joint pain.”

????

I’ve been dealing with joint pain and osteoarthritis for 30 years – and the OA was never even mentioned in there! After one appointment I remember, it mentioned that I brought up about going on disability, but that it was not recommended. It did NOT mention why I thought I should go on disability – which was my joint pain! More specifically, I had so much pain in my hands at the time that I couldn’t even grip the door knob to my bedroom to open it. We actually switch to a lever style handle to accommodate me. That was on top of everything else, like needing to use hand rails and arm bars, just to take two steps, and using my husband’s bath chair to take a shower. I mentioned a few other things that should have been in there, but wasn’t, like my chronic cough, and the mystery pain in my side that, while getting better, has never really gone away.

While talking about the arthritis pain, I remembered to ask if the painkillers she prescribed to me were something you could get used to. She had doubled my dose (basically, so I could take the full dose twice a day, instead of once a day), but it was no longer really working. Especially at night. Lately, my hips have really been bothering my, making it much harder to sleep due to pain and constantly have to roll over. She double checked. The general answer was yes; our bodies can technically get used to any pain killer, but also yes for this specific painkiller.

I was already at the max dosage.

So that was going to need to be changed.

She asked me how I felt about getting hip replacements. I told her, I’ve never been referred to anyone about that, but I’m still pretty mobile, even with the pain, so it’s not really something I think I’m ready for.

Then she asked me about going on disability. As in, was this something I’d be interested in starting the process for.

That rather surprised me, and I asked if she thought I qualified and she said yes; with my OA, I most definitely did.

I found out later that she suggested it with my daughter, too.

So I’ll need to go online to find the paperwork to fill out – I did that years ago, but there would be changes in the forms since then. I also need to find out why my printer started to print things squeezed onto the page in landscape orientation, as if for a 2 page spread. I’ve gone through all the settings and can’t figure out how to fix it. Technically, we can still fill them out that way; it’s just that the print is really tiny!

Once we have the forms printed out, there’s parts we need to fill out, then parts for the doctor to fill out. We went through this with my husband, of course, so we already know they will probably be rejected automatically, and we’ll need to apply again, which will get accepted. I think that’s how they weed people out, since many won’t try again. Or they die, first.

While I was getting my physical exam, she was palpating the area in my side with the mystery pain. Which got rather painful!

It’s also no longer a mystery.

She explained that, since it was determined not to be related to any organs, it had to be the muscle (when I first noticed the pain, years ago, I at first thought I’d pulled a muscle). Not the obliques, though. I just had to look it up; the Latissimus Dorsi. They attach at the floater ribs and around to the spine. Which would be why I feel pain at the bottom of my ribs, and why I have a tendency to hunch to one side.

I told her, this is the first time any one has mentioned this to me in all these years. She told me, she wishes someone had, years ago! This pain goes back to somewhere around 2011-2012.

What I forgot to do was ask what I can do about it!

That’s okay. I’ll have a chance to ask her, next month.

It’s been ages since I’ve had my blood work done, so she wrote me up for that, along with an EKG. I got my regular prescription renewed, and the new painkillers to try. Since my daughter will be back next month, she said to double book with her again, and we’ll follow up on the test results, and on how the new painkillers are.

That done, I was going to do my blook work at the lab right there, but they had closed for the day by then. I’ll be going to my mother’s tomorrow, though, and will be taking her for her monthly blood work, so I can do mine – and the EKG – at the same time. My daughter had already called the pharmacy about her medications, including a new one, so I called ahead about mine. I told them where we were, so they knew they had more than half an hour before we’d get there, to have the medications ready for us.

So we made the drive in to pick those up, then run a couple of errands, since we were in town anyhow, before heading home.

I really hope those new pain killers work better. The last while has been particularly bad for hip pain.

I must say, I’m really happy with this doctor. More importantly, so is my daughter! It’s been so hard to get her to see a doctor – and to find a doctor that takes what she is there for, seriously. The last time she’d tried to see a doctor, it was for major upper back pain, and the doctor instead kept asking her about things like her periods – she quite obviously has PCOS, so that is legitimate, but it wasn’t why she was there! Now that we’ve found this doctor, she’s actually starting to be able to bring up various things she’s been ignoring for years, so it looks like we’ll be doing monthly appointment for quite a while. Which just happens to get me to finally see a doctor more often. I’m terrible for just not bothering. Especially after all those years of trying to find out why I have a chronic cough, or that pain in my side, and having test after test come back normal. After a while, the doctors start to look at you like you’re making things up, or that it’s all in your head.

So that is now done for this month.

Tomorrow, I’m off to my mothers to do her shopping for her, and get her to the lab for her blood work. She has an appointment already booked with her doctor in a couple of weeks, so we’ll be able to go over the results for that.

At some point, I have to get my husband to a lab for his blood work. He got a requisition in the mail, weeks ago, but between his pain levels, and both of us simply forgetting, it hasn’t been done yet!

He’s one that has pretty much given up when it comes to any sort of treatment or health care, even with his new doctor.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

My morning buddy

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Judgement decided to follow me around while I was doing my morning rounds today. Which is fine, except that he kept running in front of my feet, then flinging himself into the snow in front of me. I finally had to pick him up and carry him, to avoid stepping on him.

He may be one of our most socialized cats, but he’s not THAT socialized! He did not like being carried!

I tried to get a picture of him, but he was moving around so much, it was really difficult. So I am so happy to have managed to get this shot!

This may well be the best picture I’ve ever managed to get of him! He doesn’t even look judgmental, for a change. 😄

We’ve had a light snowfall through the night that is supposed to continue, off and on, throughout the day. Or not. The forecast has changed, again, and now it’s saying the snow should stop within an hour or so. Of course, it’s also saying we have snow falling right now and, as I type this, I’m no longer seeing any. Our high of the day is supposed to get a few degrees above freezing. What that is actually expected to be seems to change every time I look at my weather apps, but we’re supposed to reach our high of the day somewhere around 6pm

Looking ahead in the 10 day forecast, we’re supposed to stay just above freezing for a few more days, then get a couple of days where the highs are below freezing – and then we’re supposed to get highs warmer than 10C/50F. What I’m really looking forward to is when the overnight lows get consistently above freezing temperatures! Well get a few nights above freezing throughout April, but it won’t be consistent until May, at the earliest.

The outside cats are going to really love the warmer nights!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025(+) Garden: They survived!!!!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

But first, the cuteness…

Gouda has a new necklace.

He has lost his other reflective collar before, but I’ve always found it and was able to put it back on. No sign of it this morning, so now he has a spiffy new blue one. We use the collars to make it easy to see which cats have been fixed, but we have only two orange cats right now – Rolando Moon, the grand old lady, and Gouda, who is about half Rolando’s size. So we really don’t need a collar to tell if he’s been fixed. It does, however, make him more visible at night and, if he every visits a neighbour’s farm, they can see that he’s not for target practice.

I got his collar on while I was doing the second feeding for the outside cats. I put out less food, in hopes it will all be gone and there will be nothing to tempt the racoons and skunks during the night. On the critter cam, though, I spotted a skunk at one of the trays, surrounded by about 6 cats, all eating!

After they were fed and watered, I went around to check on things as much as the snow and ice will let me. That included checking on the hose for the emergency bypass from the septic pump. It runs past the rigged fence where the tulips and Liberty apple tree are. On my way back towards the house, I noticed that the snow had melted away along the fence line, including where we’d planted saffron crocuses in the fall a couple of years ago. They had started to come up in the spring, but we couldn’t keep the weeds away, and they were soon choked out. If they had made it, we should have had flowers around August, with saffron to harvest.

Last fall, I didn’t even bother to mulch the area over them. They are a zone 4 crocus, so the chances of them making it was already low, with our without mulch.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this.

Do you see those sprays of greenery?

Those are the saffron crocuses!

Not only did they survive the summer, after being choked out by weeds, they survived the winter without a mulch, and have made their way through the still frozen ground!

After taking the picture, I looked around some more and got another surprise.

They have increased.

Last year, there was a single spray of green where each corm was planted. This year, I saw more sprays, and even clusters of sprays, showing that more corms have developed.

How they had the energy to do that, after the weeds took over, I have no idea. But there they are!

I have no idea how we are doing to do any better to keep the weeds from taking over again, once things warm up, to be honest, but we will definitely be trying.

The rest of the area, where the tulips are, still has a pretty thick layer of snow, so it’ll be a while before we can tell how many tulips survived.

I’m just blown away that even a single saffron crocus made it!

The Re-Farmer

Seriously???

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Good grief… and it’s not even noon, yet.

Today is looking like it’s going to be a gorgeous day. It’s bright and sunny, with some cloud expected later, and we’re supposed to get a high of 0C/32F, which means things are going to be melting all over.

It’s also already been a WTF day.

First up, was finding this when I went outside to do the cat stuff.

The cat cave had been tucked into that cube, but it was pulled out like this, today.

Brussel and her babies are just fine inside, but I have no idea what happened.

Brussel did not leave her babies at any time while I did the outside stuff, even when I tried lifting the cave and discovered they were still inside. It made giving her her wet cat food more awkward. She seems fine with how it is now (I did move that loose piece of carboard aside). I was also able to reach inside and give her head scritches. She growled at me the entire time, but she did not pull away, nor did she try to attack me in any way. I got some squeeze treats to use to try and socialize her more, and I might actually be able to do that, now that the opening to the cat cave is easier to reach.

When doing the morning stuff, I go through the old kitchen (our buffer zone) and the sun room. We tie off the doors – sometimes just the outside door, if the weather is nice – so that cats can get in and out, but the sunroom has shifted. We can still close the inside door, I think, but I don’t think we can close the outside door anymore. The problem is, the rain barrel at the corner was allowed to overflow to the point that the sidewalk block it’s on was undermined and has sunk at the end. It looks like it has also affected the concrete pad the sun room is built on, which means the room continues to shift downwards at that corner. The door frame is no longer plumb, and it seems to be ever so slowly getting worse.

That’s the sun room, though, so not really that big of a deal.

Our main entry doors, however, are another issue.

We already had a problem with the door not latching properly; the door itself is splitting at the latch bolt, and the face place is loose. Sometimes, the door would just pop open on its own.

Lately, though, it’s become harder to open and close. It’s really stiff at the hinges and, when closing it from the inside, you really need to put your shoulder into it. When I was heading out today, I tried leaving through that door, but couldn’t close it from the outside. The bottom half of the door seems to be hitting the door frame. I had to go back in, shoulder it closed from the inside, then leave through the old kitchen door (we do have another door to outside in the dining room, but it is not mobility accessible for my husband, so we don’t really use it). We already know the entire frame and door need to be replaced, but that ain’t cheap!

I had just a quick run to the post office to make today, and was soon back home. After parking in the garage, I went to open the door…

It wouldn’t open.

I pulled on the door handle again…

It still wouldn’t open.

I tried one more time…

Yeah. It broke right off.

That left me in a pickle. With the console in the middle, it’s not like I can shuffle over to the other door. I ended up messaging the family, asking if anyone could come out. My older daughter answered, and I told her what happened, but I think she was already booting up and heading out and didn’t see the messages. She though I was injured or something!

Meanwhile, it occurred to me, I could just open the window and open the door from the outside. So I gave that a try.

It wouldn’t open.

I tried again.

Nothing.

When I opened the window, I noticed the door was locked; normally, it automatically unlocks when the engine is shut off. I’d unlocked it, but when I reached to the door handle outside, my arm pushed the lock down again. Once I realized what happened, I was able to open the door – just in time for my daughter to reach the garage.

So what I think happened is that I accidentally locked the door after parking the truck, so of course, it wouldn’t open when I pulled on the handle.

Instead, it broke off.

Looking into the opening with my phone’s camera light, I could see the edge of where it broke off, and that was about it.

I have since sent the photos to the garage, asking if this is the sort of work they do or not. They’re not an autobody place, so I might have to go somewhere else. I haven’t received a response, yet.

Until we can get it fixed, I’m going to have to get used to opening the door from the outside for a while.

What a bloody PITA.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: pre-germination progress – plus the cuteness!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I will start with the cuteness!

Brussel is such a good mama.

Also, she seems to now be more expecting and accepting of her wet cat food delivery. She didn’t growl at me this morning, as I used the food delivery back scratcher to drop it as close to her face as I could. She didn’t even bother leaving the cat cave while I was doing the kibble this morning, and simply waited, nursing her babies. Once the food was delivered, she didn’t hesitate to start eating, too.

This afternoon, she did leave her babies briefly after I came out with the second feeding of the day, but went back before I was done refilling water bowls. She didn’t growl at me until I stopped to try and get photos and video of her.

My younger daughter has been having a rough time getting sleep (with both cats and high pain levels to blame), so she ended up awake all night. This morning, she was a sweetheart and shoveled the plow ridge away, and cleared the end of the driveway before going to bed for the day. We haven’t bothered to try and clear the rest of the driveway, or the turn around space in the yard to back up to the house. Though our high of the day was just below freezing, it was bright and sunny, and things are melting all over. I considered doing the Costco run today, but decided against it.

I did make a quick trip into town and stopped at the hardware store to pick up a heat mat. Unfortunately, they were all out. I did stop at the grocery store for a few things, but I will do the Costco run tomorrow. There is a Canadian Tire across the street from the Costco I go to, and I’m hoping they will have a heat mat…

… because our pre-germinated seeds need to be potted up!

The first image has the 4 Sunshine squash and the 6 Mashed potato squash. As you can see, their seed leaves are emerging from the shells.

In the second image, with the 2 Arikara squash and the 5 Baked Potato squash, are just going wild with their roots, as well as the seed leave emerging!

In the last image, the luffa now has 3 out of 4 seeds showing radicals.

I have everything ready to pot these up, except a second heat mat. The eggplant and peppers won’t start showing for a while, yet, and those need to be on the heat mat. The luffa will go into peat pots, so they can fit into the tray with them and be warm, but the rest of the squash will be going into the large celled tray. I might have to just hang out in the basement with the heater on and warm things up. I can also use hot water in the tray to help warm up the seed starter mix, too. The basement, however, was at only 10C/50F when I went down this afternoon. That would be really warm, if I were outside in the sun, but in the basement, it feels cold!

Those germinated seeds need to be put into the seed starting mix, though.

I think I’m going to take the chance and just do that today, then go hunting for a second heat mat for them, tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

That’s more than 10-20cm…

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

So… we got a bit of snow, overnight! 😄

It’s still snowing a bit as I write this. According to the weather radar, we are pretty much in the middle of the system that’s passing over us, but I’m just barely seeing snowflakes fluttering around at the moment. We are still under a snowfall warming, and they are now saying to expect a total of 15-25cm/6-10 inches of snowfall.

I think we already hit that.

Unfortunately, the wind direction was blowing snow right into the kibble house, and the space between the kibble house, the cat house and the water bowl shelter was deep with snow.

On the plus side, there is no longer a big puddle of water on the bottom of the catio! I haven’t returned the food bowl into there, though, and have been leaving kibble on the replacement hammock we put in to replace the damaged one. I can reach that with my scoop of kibble without having to untie the door.

As you can see in the second photo of the above slide show, the cats are quite enjoying the catio!

In the last photo, taken after I shoveled around the shelters and cleared some paths, you can see how much snow accumulated on the shelter roofs. I didn’t go all out on the shoveling, though. We’re going to be warming up again and, even when the temperature is just a degree or two below freezing, things will start to melt.

The yard cats were certainly appreciating the cleared paths around their shelters – and the shelters themselves.

They also seem to really appreciate that I left those box nests under the shrine for them to use. Since one of the kibble bowls under there has disappeared, I started to put kibble inside the box nests as well as the one kibble bowl that’s left. If nothing else, it keeps the snow off the kibble! The cats seem to like eating out of them – and sitting on top of the boxes, too. These cat been built to be used inside the isolation shelter, they seem to be quite useful in other places, too!

Speaking of the isolation shelter…

There was no way to get them all in a photo, but I counted 13 cats inside the isolation shelter! Including Syndol, lounging on the hammock which, I’m happy to say, is no longer being constantly knocked loose from its hooks. Simply adding a cord joining the two hooks closest to the ramp to the second level seems to be enough to keep it from happening.

I didn’t even notice what The Grink was doing in the second picture above, until now. She’s got her face right up at that heat bulb!! (Yes, it is confirmed: The Grink is a lady.) I’m glad the new clamp lamp has a guard around the bulb, but she’s so tiny, she could easily push her face past it. I don’t think she will, but it’s a possibility.

Brussel seems to have picked up on my new routine for her. At first, when I came out to do the kibble and water, she would jump out of her nest and eat outside. I would wait until she was back with her babies, then use the long handled back scratcher to deliver wet cat food into the cat cave. Since she would be nursing her babies, I tried to drop it close to her face, so she could eat and nurse at the same time.

Lately, she hasn’t bother leaving the cat cave when I come out with the kibble. She growls at me when I take her food and water bowl out of the cage in the evening, then put it back, refilled, in the morning, but she doesn’t leave. She also grows when I deliver the wet cat food next to her, but she now immediately starts eating, without waiting for me to leave. This is encouraging, since one of my concerns is that she will take her kittens out completely, and who knows when – or if – we’d see them again. The mamas don’t bring their babies to the house until they’re ready for weaning and, by then, it’s a lot harder to socialize them.

I’m going to be on the lookout for another small cat cave like the one we brought over for Brussel. If we can fit another one in the cube where she originally went into labour, perhaps one of the other more feral mamas that went into heat really early will have her litter in it, instead of somewhere in the outer yard. We do have another cat cave in the house, but it’s far too big to fit into the cube. Plus, that one is in pretty constant use by the inside cats!

Looking ahead in the long term forecast, it seems this will be the last big snowfall for our area, and April is looking to have daytime highs above freezing consistently. In fact, we are supposed to start getting daytimes highs of 13C/55F and up by the middle of the month.

Of course, forecasts that far ahead are never a sure thing. What we’ll really be starting to look at as the season progresses is the overnight lows. Once the overnight lows are consistently 6C/43F or higher, the soil should be warm enough for cool weather crops. With my winter sowing, that means taking the mulch off the beds so the soil can warm up, and give the seeds we planted in the fall a chance to germinate. Those overnight temperatures, though, are unlikely to hit until the second half of May and into June.

With the current 10 day forecast, the snow we got should melt fairly slowly, which will be good for the garden beds. So far, it looks like we won’t be getting any serious spring flooding. Of course, that could change very quickly, if we find ourselves with an April blizzard. We shall see!

For now, I’m happy with the snow we got. We didn’t have a lot of snow over the winter, so this extra moisture will be good for the farmers’ fields, as well as our gardens.

All is good!

The Re-Farmer

Ah, spring… the moats are forming!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was in incredibly gorgeous day! We actually hit 10C/50F this afternoon!

So, of course, we’re now getting weather warnings for a major snowfall coming. It’s supposed to hit our area tomorrow evening, and we could get 10-20cm/4-8 inches of snow.

I’m still waiting on a blizzard to hit around our anniversary in the beginning of April.

Why?

Because it’s spring in Canada, that’s why! 😄

Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room was reading about 23C/73F, which was wonderful for the new babies.

Brussel is such a good mama!

I didn’t get a chance to sneak a pet today, though. Gotta work on that!

Of course, with things melting all over the place, the moat around the garage has started to form. Only the remaining deeper snow and packed ice is keeping it it in check. The path I use to reach the litter pellet compost behind the outhouse is getting pretty deep with water. I’m going to have to dig out my rubber boots at this rate!

The usual low spots are also filling, including the moat that completely encircles the storage house. The gap the cats use to get under it is a big puddle. I’m still seeing cats go under there, which is a bit of a surprise, since the entire “basement” space gets pretty full of water, too.

I did find water in an unexpected place, though.

Inside the catio.

It is likely because I piled snow around three sides to act as insulation. Between that and the area being a bit lower, what has been little more than a puddle this morning has become quite a pool by late afternoon!

I took out the two box nests and the big bowl that used to be a heated water bowl that I used as a kibble bowl. Somehow, water actually got inside the bowl itself! The opening where the power cord used to run through allowed water to get inside, so I ended up setting it on the catio roof in such a way that it will hopefully drain.

The insulated box nest was still partially frozen to the ground, so it took a bit to get that loose. The uninsulated one was resting on top of a couple of pieces of rigid insulation, so it was easy to lift – except for the edge of the blanket inside that had slipped out and was frozen to the ground! Once the box was removed, I hung the blanket over the edge of the catio roof to drip and dry, making sure to weight it down, so it wouldn’t blow away.

In the second picture of the above slide show, you can see where I set up the box nests. Their bottoms were damp on the inside, but these have no “right side up”, so I just flipped them damp side up and set them under the shrine next to a kibble bowl.

There was another kibble bowl under there, but it disappeared a few days ago. I have yet to find it! I assume it got dragged off by a raccoon, maybe?

Magda immediately showed her appreciation for a new surface to stand on. 😁

With the bottom of the catio flooded, she still found a way to enjoy it. She used the brick I have in the doorway, to make sure it doesn’t close all the way by accident, as a dry surface to jump up onto one of the floating shelves inside the catio. From there, she could jump across to the other shelf, where she obligingly posed for a photo. The door was tied off again by the time, so I was sticking my phone through to take a picture, being VERY careful to not drop it into the water below!!

With the protective plastic around the side, plus the clear roof, it’s quite warm inside that catio during the day. Not as warm as the sun room, of course, but still a very noticeable difference.

I’m really glad we were able to give the catio a paint job before putting the roof on. That will protect the wood from the water at least a little bit. The original frame was painted, but the wood lathe I added in places could possible get water damage, since the water would be able to seep between the old and new wood on the bottom. We won’t be able to check for damage for probably a few more weeks, though.

In other things, my younger daughter and I went into town today. We had to go to the pharmacy for her to pick up a prescription, plus a couple other things. I was able to cash in a digital lotto ticket and my win not only paid for her purchases, but lunch and a quick stop at the grocery store to get drinks for the ride home, too – and I still have a bit of cash left over. It’s always nice to win more than just a couple of bucks, or a free play – though I won a couple of bucks and a free play, too! 😄

I also made sure to stop at the post office on the way out, as it closed at noon today. The seed packets from my Vesey’s order came in today, so as soon we were back at home and things were put away and settled, I headed down to the dungeon… er… basement, to start some of them.

Which will be the topic of my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Two

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Brussel had a second kitten some time during the night.

There’s always a lot of commotion in the mornings, when I first come out with the kibble. Brussel ran outside, and she ate while she was in the yard. That gave me a chance to check on her baby, and when I discovered a sibling.

She still wasn’t back when I finished my rounds – and I kept having to chase Syndol out, because he wanted to see what those squeaky little worms were! I saw she was just outside the sun room door, so I hung out in the old kitchen, out of her sight, until she was back with her babies. Then I used the bamboo back scratcher again, to deliver a chunk of paté into the cat cave in front of her.

She growled at me, the whole time.

I’d taken out her food/water bowl during the night, so no skunks or racoons would try to get into the cage. It was empty by morning, and the water was filthy. How do racoons get water in even such a small bowl to filthy?? Anyhow, it got cleaned out and refilled, so she has her own food and water bowl inside the cat cage, too. Once she got the wet cat food, though, I closed up the cage for about half an hour, to give her uninterrupted time to enjoy her treat.

So it looks like she has a black and white, along with the calico-tabby.

She is a very good mama.

The Cat Lady is already talking about making an appointment for her in 10 weeks to be spayed. Our job is to get her socialized enough that we can take her in!

The Re-Farmer

New baby update

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While I was out today, my daughters kept an eye on Brussel and her baby.

The first good news is that Mama has accepted the gift of a cat cave, and moved her baby into it.

The other good news is, there apparently is just one kitten. Not the four or five we usually see!

Unless there are more babies hiding under the fluff, somewhere!

Interestingly, the kitten seems to be a calico around its head and shoulders, but has tabby markings on its back!

While out today, I looked for a telescoping spoon, or something that would allow us to reach her from a distance. I could only find a telescoping camp fork, and that wouldn’t work. I did get some wet cat food in small packets, just for Brussel. After everything was unloaded, I fed the outside cats early, then used a bamboo back scratcher we weren’t using to hold the cat food and give it to her. She was growling every time I was in front of the cat cage and, of course, while I was passing the wet cat food over to her (she still had plenty of dry kibble and water in the cat cage with her). I ended up dropping the chunk of paté right in front of her.

Then I put the back scratcher in the old kitchen, turned around, and there was Gouda, in the cat cage, head in the cat cave, going for Brussel’s wet cat food!

I got him out, but then Magda jumped in, too.

I got her out, then closed up the door on the cat cage. I’ve got a time going right now, to go and open it up again so she can answer the call of nature. There isn’t room for a litter box in there, right now.

I will likely close her up in there again for the night, though, and open it in the morning, to make sure no skunks or racoons go in to steal her food. Either that, or take her food bowl right out for the night. That would probably be better. Otherwise, the racoons will try and break into the cat cage to get at it.

The live feed on the critter cam is going to be heavily used for the next while!

The Re-Farmer

First babies

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I got quite a surprise while feeding the outside cats this morning!

I’d done the food and was just about to go do the rest of my rounds when I heard a strange noise.

I tiny little squeak.

Being half way out the door, I at first thought I was hearing it from outside. It took some looking around, but I finally found the source.

It was coming from the cat cage under the platform.

Where Brussel was scrunched into a corner.

Giving birth.

After watching for a bit to make sure she was okay, I quickly finished my rounds, then checked on her again. I didn’t think she was done, but it was hard to tell. I could see one little calico squirming around, but Brussel is so fluffy, there could easily have been more hidden in there.

What I ended up doing was pulling the entire cage away from the window wall, where it would be colder. I grabbed a cat cave from inside and, after straightening out the blanket bed in the cut next to Brussel, I squeezed it in, using the handle of a broom stick to shove it into place. I’m hoping Brussel will move her kittens into there.

I also got a two sided bowl and set it up for her with food and water. I also changed the angle of the second heat lamp with the warmer bulb to face more into the cage.

She growled at me, the whole time.

I’ve let the Cat Lady know already. We have never been able to get close to Brussel, though her sister, Sprout, is even more feral than she is. But she chose to have her kittens in the sun room, which is a total shock. Given how insanely early in the year it is for having kittens, it was probably the warmest place she could find. Since she is in the cat cage, if we could get a litter pan in there somehow, we could close it up, too. That would keep the other cats – and racoons and skunks – out.

I have the critter cam set facing the cat cage and the live feed up right now. With the cage pulled further from the wall, I can see into it more, but the heat lamp’s shield blocks my view of the corner she is in. I did, however, catch another cat going in to check things out, and was able to use the camera to tell it to leave, which it did.

Hopefully, this will mean we can finally socialize Brussel, and be able to socialize her kittens, too, and get her fixed.

Meanwhile, I need to head out soon to run errands. The family can keep an eye on her while I am gone. My biggest concern is that she will move them out of the sun room completely, which would probably kill the kittens. I know, I know. We don’t need more kittens, but after last year, finding so many dead and dying kittens, day after day, I really don’t want that to happen again this year.

Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal with things as they come – but I can still try to set things up to hopefully have a happy result!

The Re-Farmer