The arrival of some expected snow kept being pushed earlier and earlier. It hit us last night, so we woke to a winter wonderland of soft, fluffy snow. We were at 0C/32F while I was outside, so it could just as easily have been rain. That was supposed to be the high of the day, but by the time I was settled back inside, we’d warmed up to 1C/34F and the system had passed us by. As I write this, the system is still hitting the southern part of our province, and crossing into the next, as well as hitting the Canada/US border. From what I’m hearing, the city is getting more snow than we got, and some of the highways are getting packed snow. Enough that I’ve decided to not bother with a dump run today. It can wait until next week.
We’re supposed to hit 3C/37F over the next couple of days, and then warm up a bit more, before we’re supposed to start getting highs below freezing next week. All I care is that the roads and weather are good for Saturday, when we’re heading to the city so my husband can finally visit his family!
The deep snow did make it a bit harder for the cats to eat on the roof of the cat house – but they insist on eating there!
It wasn’t until I uploaded this photo to my desktop that I realized I’d caught, not one, but two tongue blehps!
I didn’t even try to do an overall head count, but…
… at one point, I could see eight cats crowded together in the big cat bed at this window! Then the tabby in front came by – there was no room in the cat bed for him! – plus I saw some other movement in the background.
They do love the cat house, this time of year!
While I was out, I took advantage of the snow still being light and fluffy and shoveled around the cat shelters, paths around the yard, including to the compost ring, the back of the garage and our emergency bathroom – the outhouse! 😄 I also made sure there was a path from the house to the front of the garage, wide enough for my husband’s walker, and cleared enough snow that we can open the doors on the sides, to access my mother’s car, of where the little snow blower is stored. No point in using the snow blower at all, though. The snow may have been light and fluffy, but it was also very sticky. Nothing like trying to toss a shovel full of snow and nothing happens, because the entire load is stuck!
We’re supposed to fluctuate around the freezing mark all day today, but as we reach our high tomorrow, all those paths should melt away first and make things easier, later on.
It’s a good day to say inside and work on the Christmas decorations I am crocheting for this year’s ornament.
We have a cat free zone in the living room now. We can actually put up a proper tree, rather than hang one against the door in the dining room. The problem with that is, we’ve been using the room as a catch-all for everything we need to keep safe from the cats, so it’s just jammed full of stuff!
Wanting to set up the Christmas tree is a good excuse to finally go through everything and reorganize.
First, my apologies for the terrible picture, but it was the best of the lot.
Meet our new baby.
This is the kitten, sibling to Soot Sprite, Tiny and Pom Pom, that I’ve had to bring inside every now and then, to wash its eyes. It’s the only kitten right now with such messed up eyes.
When I got back from town, I unloaded the truck by the door, then my daughter started taking things inside while I parked in the garage.
It’s rather difficult to haul things through a pair of doors while one cat inside – Big Rig – is trying to get out, and another cat outside – Rolando Moon – is trying to get in. So she got her father to do door duty while she went back for the 5 gallon water jugs. This time it was the one orange tabby kitten of the year that was trying to get in.
As she came out again, this little black puff ball came over. Purring.
It tried to get in, too.
So my daughter ended up picking it up, and it was so very happy. This was the first time she had handled it!
As I came around, she asked me what I thought about bringing it in. It’s eyes were getting messy again, and it’s basically skin and bone. I’ve been debating keeping it inside, every time I brought it in to wash its eyes, and after finding 2 dead kittens we didn’t even know were particularly sick… well…
What else are we supposed to do?
So my daughter took it to the isolation ward – my bedroom – while I did the evening cat feeding. While I was doing that, the girls did the evening cat feeding in my room, too – both were being done hours early – including wet cat food.
The kitten was purring non-stop already, but once there was wet cat food to be had, it was in heaven!
Also, they were able to take a peek, and it seems we have a little girl on our hands! Which is awesome, because we’ve had such bad luck when it comes to socializing the females, so we can get them fixed and help with population control.
As I write this, the feeding frenzy is over, and she’s on my bed, loafed next to the tiny cat bed that has Soot Sprite and Pom Pom in it. So she’s getting reacquainted with her long-lost siblings!
My daughter was able to wipe her eyes while they were setting up for feeding, but we’ll give her a bit more time to settle before we try to wash her eyes again. My husband and I did her eyes this morning.
Aside from a couple of surprised moments that brought out quiet growls, there was been zero issue between her and the other kittens. Even the adult cats in the room were barely even curious.
It looks like the only thing we’ll have to deal with is making sure she figures out the litter boxes.
I’ve already sent this picture to the cat lady and told her why we brought her in. I don’t expect a response for a while, since they’ve got so much going on right now. Nothing is going to happen until after their house is sold and they are settled in their new house, so some time in December, at the earliest.
Which will give us plenty of time for us to get her healthy, and get some meat on those bones!
She is tiny, long haired, black with some white on her chest, and tiny patches of white in other areas. I think she will find a forever home very quickly, once she’s ready for adoption!
I missed getting a picture of Judgement curled up around the kitten. He moved when I stop to get a picture.
Every once in a while, that kitten lets me pet it, and even pick it up.
Today was not one of those times.
It’s been really nice outside today. According to the weather apps, we hit 6C/43F instead of the predicted high of 4C/39F. We hit 6C yesterday, too. The forecast is for 4C tomorrow, then 7C/45F! All the paths we shovelled are melted and green, and there is water pooling in parts of the driveway, visible in the tire tracks.
A perfect day to walk around!
The guy that was interested in the old vehicles has come and gone. He came with his wife, his son, and two of his son’s friends. Really nice people! We started off looking at vehicles in the old hay yard, then made our way to the car graveyard, then back into the outer yard to where there are some vehicles by the storage shed, and even the ones by the old threshing machine. The son and his friends were really excited when we went past the old Farmhand tractor. Turns out one of them has one, that runs. They were so thrilled to see that it still had the original hand crank! 😄 In fact, they were geeking out all over the place. The wife, meanwhile, was just following along with her coffee, slightly bemused. Cars are definitely not her thing. 😁
In the end, they identified three vehicles they want to make offers on, and the son and his friends asked to include the tractor, too. That actually made me happy. I’ve already talked to my brother about having someone take it. I was thinking one of my nephews, perhaps. This is something that has historical value, and can still be restored. The longer it sits out there, though, the worse its condition will become.
They will talk it over, then he’ll call me with an offer to pass on to my brother.
I know my brother asked me not to let them in, but I hope he can trust me enough to understand why I did, anyhow. We’re already talking about selling this stuff for scrap, and we won’t get much money for them. Not the cars, anyhow. The old farm equipment would get more, since they don’t have things like vinyl dashboards and padded seats that need to be removed. If there is someone willing to buy individual vehicles for parts and restoration, I see that as a better option. We’d get a better price per vehicle that way, too, even it’s not by much.
We shall see how it turns out! I was very happy to meet them all and we had a great time walking around and chatting. They were excited like kids in a candy store at times! There were even a couple of vehicles they’d never heard of before, and would be all giddy about things like window shapes on an Epic, and the fins on the back of one old car from the 50’s.
The only downside I can think of, is that I don’t think my brother knows just how bad a shape most of these vehicles are. He thinks anything can be fixed, which may well be true, but who is going to fix them? Not us, and he sure doesn’t have the time to do it. He’s already got way too much to deal with! I even feel bad that he took so much time to come out here to climb up on the roof, then into that tunnel, and finally to replace the light fixture. He was here for 4 hours, plus another 2-3 hours driving time, plus time at the hardware sore, plus the amount of money he spent on the supplies. He really went above and beyond! He always does.
He is protective of his baby sister, too. Perhaps a bit over protective! 🧡😁
I tried to do a head count this morning, while feeding the yard cats. I got either 34 or 35. Rolando Moon was not around, but Sad Face was there this time.
I still don’t know which ones are the new ones. All 15 cats in this photo are regulars, as far as I can tell. There’s that spotty grey tabby, on the water house roof, that I was talking about yesterday, that I hadn’t seen in a while.
I ended up spending most of the day in the van with a friend, two cats and our aquarium fish in a bucket, while my daughter took a walk around downtown until I messaged her to come back.
What a mess the whole thing turned out to be.
It gives me the willies, just thinking about it.
On a completely different note…
I’m going against my brother’s wishes today. Partly.
Last week, I got a call from someone interested in some of the old vehicles we’ve got lying around. He’s interested in restoring vehicles which, to me, is a lot better than just selling them for scrap! I did tell him it was my brother that owned the place, and we were going to wait until the weather was better for him to come out. He called last night, and talked about his son and a friend coming over, late this morning. I did tell him, he wasn’t going to be able to get anything out right away. He’d have to see, to understand.
Then, of course, I told my brother. I would never sell anything without talking to him, first, since this is all his stuff.
My brother said, don’t let them in.
???
We were messaging, so he called and we talked about it.
There were a few concerns he had. The first was that this was someone trying to take advantage of me and offer less than the vehicles are worth – and I sure as heck wouldn’t know what they’re really worth. Still, I think my brother doesn’t realize just how far gone some of those vehicles are. I didn’t even know which one the guy was interested in; he’d said a Ford truck, but there are several of those!
Another concern my brother had is that these vehicles have basically been used as storage. They have all sorts of things in them he might want to keep. He’d have to go looking through them all, even if we were just going to call a scrap dealer, to make sure nothing was hauled away that shouldn’t be. That won’t happen until spring, at the earliest.
And finally, there’s the question of how to transfer ownership. As far as we know, none of these vehicles have any sort of ownership papers left. It wouldn’t matter for something going for scrap, but if a vehicle is going to be restored, registered and insured, there needs to be some sort of paper trail. It’s something he and my parents had to deal with, years ago, and it was a major pain to find a workaround.
So when the guy called this morning, as I asked him to, so I could open the gate, I told him I had bad news and explained the situation.
In the end, though, I decided to let them come and take a look. I honestly don’t think they’ll find anything worth buying, but looking wouldn’t hurt. It turns out he’s not only interested in looking at the ones in the old hay yard, but was wanting to see the vehicles way out in the car graveyard, too. He knows nothing will change hands, but he will bring along pen and paper and write out which (if any) he’s interested in, and an offer. I can then pass that on to my brother.
I hope my brother understands that I’m actually trying to help him out with this. Of course, if they don’t see anything they’re interested in, it won’t matter either way. In the end, we really need to get those old vehicles out. If for no other reason than they are a hazard for the renter’s cows!
So I’ve got the gate open, and am keeping an eye on the security camera live feed for them, and we’ll go for a walk together. The guy is even bringing his wife along. 😊
Would you look at that fur pile???? That is David, covered in kittens. Clarence on the left – he’s getting big! – Shadow in the Dark on the right, with Tin Whistle above him. On top of David, under his head and front legs, I see the pink nose of Mitzy, and finally, in the middle, with a paw in his face, is Pom Pom.
David is so good with the babies! They just adore him, too. Also, Tin Whistle still tries to burrow in to nurse him at times, which is kinda hilarious. He’s got so much for, she’s usually nowhere near a nip, but burrowing into his hind leg or something, instead.
On a less pleasant note…
When I headed out to feed the outdoor cats, I happened to look into the larger south facing window that is next to the entrance of the cat house. The entrance is an add on, so there is another opening inside that goes into the main space. There was one fluffy black kitten at the big window, in the cat bed near the heat bulb, looking at me, but there was another black kitten lying near the opening into the entrance, and… Something did not look right. It wasn’t moving, even when I knocked on the window.
Damn.
My husband was available, so I got a small carboard box and threw on some gloves, then he helped me open the roof.
There was another black kitten, closer to the other wall, that I hadn’t seen in the shadows. Both were gone.
I tucked the two of them together into the box. Clearly, they’d been gone for at least a day, maybe two. In fact, I’d been wondering about one of them, as I hadn’t seen it this morning, when I normally would have. I’m not sure about the other.
There were no injuries. As they were in the cat house, it wasn’t the cold that got them. It was most likely this year’s strain of herpes virus that has apparently been killing off a lot of kittens all over the province this year. I was talking to the Cat Lady about it, back in the spring, and she was telling me the vets she works with have all been saying, they’ve never seen it this bad before.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to bury these ones, this time of year, so they will be cremated.
Damn. We’ve lost so many kittens this year.
What makes it a bit strange, though, is that I still got a head count of 35 this morning – and there were at least a couple of regulars, including Shop Towel, that weren’t there at the time I was counting. Now I realize we were also down two kittens. That means there are possibly as many as 5 “new” cats that have joined the colony! Considering which ones are the friendliest or the most distinctive that we see, I have to guess that these newcomers are all grey tabbies. The tabbies and the white and greys have been the hardest to tell apart, but the white and greys tend to stay closer to the house and we see them more regularly, so I know there is not more of them. We do have a lot of black cats with small patches of white on their chests, or a touch more white in other areas, that are hard to tell apart, but I know we have had fewer of those, not more. The one that lost an eye, for example, seems to be gone entirely now. So that leaves the grey tabbies and, at least once, I spotted one that seemed unfamiliar. That one was adult sized but, now that I’m keeping an eye out, I’m wondering about some of the smaller tabbies that look more like teenagers. Only one of them is really distinctive, because the colouring around one eye makes it look like the eye itself is darker and shaped differently than the other, so I know that one isn’t new. Then there’s Junk Pile and Slick (Octomom) that we can identify among the adult tabbies.
Oh, good grief. I just remembered we had a grey tabby with distinctive spotting rather than stripes, and realized I haven’t seen that one in ages. So… more than 5 or so are “new”?
Well, whichever cats are “new”, they have certainly been absorbed into the colony seamlessly by the other cats.
I counted 35 this morning. I didn’t see Shop Towel this morning. Broccoli showed up later, so… 36?
I got some pictures after the feeding frenzy had died down. 😄
I’ve decided to call the black and white cat, Hypotenose. Actually, I was going to call him Hypotenuse, but then my husband made the pun and I just had to run with that.
I think the white with grey tabby spots has a name my daughters gave it, but I can’t remember for sure. (Update: I have had a wonderful name suggestion for this cat. Purrthagoras. )
We haven’t given this sweet boy a name yet. He is pretty well socialize, and I can usually walk right up to pet him, and even pick him up and cuddle him. He’s so incredibly soft! He’s also got a permanently stunned expression that reminds me of Decimus (who now has a new name in her new home). Unfortunately, he also reminds me of Pointy Baby, and my heart kind of breaks a little bit every time I see him.
*sniffle*
He’s such a sweet little thing.
He needs a name!
(Update: I got an awesome name suggested for him! Syndod (sun-dod). Welsh for “surprised.”)
In other things…
We are hovering just below freezing today, though we might warm up a bit. Yesterday turned out to be warmer than predicted, so that might happen again today. It’s cloudy and has stopped snowing, but it actually looks like we have snow or fog, off in the distance.
Tonight, we have to isolate the 6 cats that will be going to the vet tomorrow morning, to fast overnight. The rain that had been predicted for tomorrow morning kept getting pushed back, and is now supposed to start on Sunday afternoon. Temperatures are supposed to continue to reach highs above freezing for at least another 10 – 14 days. By Tuesday, they are now saying we will reach a high of 7C/45F. After that, it’s expect to be colder, but still above freezing, for the highs. At this point it looks like the day we are planning to visit my husband’s family in the city will have good driving weather.
The weather app that came with my desktop includes monthly forecasts. For what that’s worth, it’s predicting mostly sunny days and relatively mild temperatures; all highs warmer than -15C/5F, and even the lows are expect to mostly be warmer than -20C/-4F, with only a few nights dipping just under that, all winter. We don’t even plug in the vehicles unless temperatures are expected to go below -20C/4F. With the strong El Niño we’re getting this year, that should mean we won’t be getting those dangerous, bone chilling, polar vortexes for a change. Between that and the new truck’s higher clearance, we should actually have a winter where we aren’t stuck at home for weeks at a time!
Not that we’ll stop stocking up, just in case. With all our spare funds going towards getting the truck, we won’t have the 2 – 3 months of supplies we normally try to have on hand for the winter, but we will at least have enough for 1 – 2 months. Especially once we pick up our quarter beef in January, which will be quite a bit larger than previous years. We’ve been paying $100 a month towards it since spring, but for November and December, we’re paying $200 a month, for a total of $1400. In January, the final balance should be about $35. The price is by hung weight, and the first quarter beef we got was about $800 at $6/pound. The next year was over $1000. This year, they had to increase their price by just under 50¢/pound, on top of the weight being quite a bit higher.
We’ll have to make more room in the chest freezer! 😁 Christmas is going to be tight, but we’ll have plenty of food! We don’t really do much for gift giving anymore, unless it’s hand made, and our Christmas and New Years are spent quietly at home. Gone are the days when we would do Christmas dinner with my family on Christmas day, here at the farm, then Réveillon with my husband’s parents after Midnight Mass, and finally a Christmas dinner on Boxing Day with his brother’s family. We’ve lost so many members of our families over the years, we couldn’t do those gatherings anymore, anyhow. We’re planning to just have our usual quiet, non-traditional Wigilia dinner on Christmas Eve.
When I was a kid, we butchered our own cows and chickens. We sometimes had pigs and geese, too. One year, my parents tried turkeys, and they had ducks for a couple of years, too. Between that and the garden, they kept two freezers; one just for meat, and the other for everything else. I look forward to a day when we can have that set up again! Though if we ever have meat in such quantities, I will most likely can, quite a bit of it. I’d hate to lose a freezer full of meat if the power ever went out for an extended period.
But I digress!
We’ll have to adopt out and fix a lot more cats before we can afford that, anyhow! 😄😄😄
The cats were very hungry, so I made sure they got their food and warm water, first. I actually had to knock snow out of the kibble bowls, first! Somehow, at least some snow always manages to get in, but when the wind comes whipping around the West side of the house, it really gets into that kibble house.
I messaged my daughters for a refill of the water jug while I started shoveling. I wasn’t sure if I’d need one, but I set the kettle going after I filled the first jug (half cold water from the sink, half water heated in the kettle), just in case! The cats really, really appreciated that warm water!
I didn’t want to scare away the cats with shoveling, so I cleared the stairs in front of the main entry, then the sidewalk to the chain link fence, before digging my way back to the sun room. From there, I cleared in between and around the shelters, then a path to the shrine. I actually had to take the ice scraper to the concrete in front of the sun room. I even cleared the snow on the hand rail. From the last photo in the series above, you can see that even the birds appreciated that!
After that, I continued my morning rounds, including switching out the trail cam memory cards. The snow is really light and fluffy, bit it’s also quite warm – we’re already above freezing as I write this, and warmer than the expected high still listed. Which meant that, at first, the snow was very easy to push down the path, but when I paused to shovel it to the side, the bottom was heavy with wet snow. The ground is not frozen yet, and even the grass is green, so the snow as basically being melted from below.
When I was done and starting to head inside, I realized that there was no kibble left in the sun room at all. Not a crumb! Nor was there anything left in the two levels of the shelf shelter I drop handfuls into. There was still a bit left in the kibble house, at least, but before I headed inside, I topped up their food a bit. They need those extra calories, this time of year!
I’ve asked my daughters to clear other needed paths to the garage, the compost pile and the area we dump the litter sawdust as its own compost pile. Burning it would be preferable, but in the summer we rarely had days with low enough winds – we only did one burn all summer! Other paths I would normally shovel can wait. With how much snow there is on the ground now, and the long range forecast changing downward, I no longer expect all the snow to melt away next week. The next couple of days are supposed to be a bit warmer, and the main paths we shovel today will clear faster, which is what we need.
I’m hoping that, this winter, we’ll be able to keep enough of the south yard clear that we can drive right up to the house to load and unload the truck. We’ve only got the little electric snow blower, but it can do that job. The snow we have right now, though, is too wet and would clog up even the gas powered snow blower, if that thing still worked.
In the near future, we need to invest in a variety of straps. With the truck, we can now take the snow blower in to be checked out and, hopefully, repaired, but right now we don’t have what’s needed to secure anything back there, properly.
I’m keeping tabs on the local highway information group, and a lot of people were saying, stay home if you can! Even the local school division closed the schools in our region, because road conditions were too dangerous. The plows and sanding trucks are out, though, and I’m already hearing about some of the highways being clear.
Yesterday, my phone gave me a notification for an appointment I had today. !! I completely forgot about it. It was for a 6 month follow up, with a field of vision test and dilation, so I’d have to make sure my daughter came along to drive me home.
I’m glad I always set my phone to remind me of appointments 1 day ahead! I called and rescheduled to next month. When I told the receptionist I had an appointment for today, which she confirmed, then asked to reschedule, she just laughed! She was not at all surprised, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few out of towners were rescheduling their appointments!
Unfortunately, as I write this, I’m realizing I think my neck and one shoulder is having rather painful issues. Not from the shoveling, though. I think I slept in a bad position or something, because it was already a problem when I woke up. It’s just worse now, after the shoveling.
So… I injured myself by sleeping.
*sigh*
I was hoping to avoid taking pain killers for at least one day!
We have been getting both snow and rain for the past while. Yesterday, while I was feeding the outside cats, we had this.
This morning, we had this!
It was snowing again when I started this post, but stopped by the time I started this sentence! Depending on what app I look at, we are either at 0C/32F or 2C/36F When we cleaned out the cat house, we took out the thermometer that was in there – the cats kept knocking it off the holder – and I’ve got it in the tiny shelf shelter section that I use for storing things. It was reading 1C/34F.
We are expected to have a “storm total” of 3-6 cm/1-2 inches, by tonight, according to one app. I didn’t realize we were supposed to get a storm until I read that! In fact, the other two apps I check, and even the website I check, don’t say anything about a storm. Of course, on the weather radar, I could see those climate bubble gaps in the clouds heading towards us, so while we’re certainly getting some heavy snow at times, we’ll also be getting nothing at all, while snow continues around us.
The only thing I’m concerned about right now is what the road conditions will be like on Saturday morning. From Thursday afternoon through Friday, we’re supposed to be clear, and Friday is supposed to be sunny, which means that the roads should be free of ice, even at 6:30am Saturday, which is when I plan to be on the road with the cats. I still plan on having to take some parts of the route much slower, as they are much more prone to icing over and staying icy. Depending on what I hear on the highway conditions group I’m on, I might even take a slightly different route to avoid those cross roads, though it simply means taking one crossroad instead of two different ones.
This morning, while feeding the outside cats, I tried to do a head count.
Then I counted again.
Then again.
I kept getting 38, including Sad Face.
Usually I count about 33. With Nosencrantz still here, plus Butterscotch still outside, plus Sad Face, I would get 37, maybe 38, at most, and that would be with the possibility of double counting some cats as they milled around. With Butterscotch now indoors again and Nosencrantz adopted out, I would expect to count 35 or 36, at most.
Which means we have some new cats, and I have no idea which ones they are!
I do think one might be a grey tabby. Recently, while doing my rounds, I saw a grey tabby, then did a double take because I wasn’t sure if I’d seen it before. We have quite a few grey tabbies, though, so I couldn’t say one way or the other.
No matter. If we have some stray cats that have found a safe haven here, I am more than happy to have them – as long as they don’t attack the other cats.
Sad Face (aka: Shop Towel) seems to have stopped attacking the other cats. Right now, one of the moms is acting way more aggressive than he is! She’ll walk past other cats and just start batting at them for no reason. But Sad Face? Not anymore. I’ve even seen him sharing food bowls with other cats he’s been fighting with before.
Also somewhat cat related…
I got some rather shocking news from the Cat Lady last night. They are dealing with a lot right now, with moving into a new home while trying to sell their current home, and all the normal activities that comes from having a large family and her husband running his business from a home office, on top of her health issues. Life is chaos right now.
Well, as if they didn’t have enough to deal with, during a 20 minute window when no one was home, they got robbed.
Seventeen years of zero crime, and then this.
Thankfully – and thanks to their dog – the thief didn’t get past the outside entryway, but there was a lot of stuff out there. She had asked people with cat carriers to bring them back, with two of them slated for us. We don’t need them anymore, so she had them all waiting for fosters to pick up, along with both canned and dry cat food. There was even a bag of crocheted cat blankets someone had made and donated. All gone. The Amazon delivery driver had come by and sent a photo of the boxes at the door as proof of delivery. All gone. The kids’ band uniforms. All gone. The shoe drying rack, with her kids’ boots and her husband’s boots for visiting job sites, all gone. An old, rusted, cat shaped cast iron shoe cleaner that had only sentimental value. Gone. The thief even took the light bulb and shade, and “happy holidays” mat! They didn’t take the new snow blower that was getting its battery charged, but probably only because they ran out of room. About the only “good” thing is that they also grabbed a garbage bag that was filled with used cat litter.
Best guess; someone with a truck or, more likely, an inobtrusive minivan was following the Amazon truck and took advantage of the situation. Since they have so many people coming by, either connected with the rescue, or the house being shown, etc., the neighbours wouldn’t have thought twice to see someone taking the cat carriers, for example, and loading them into their vehicle. They would have seen that before, and it would have been perfectly legitimate.
Oh! There was also a box, clearly labelled as a donation for the Children’s Hospital, of new, unwrapped toys that was taken.
What a sick, sick person. It’s one thing to take stuff that could be resold, like the cat carriers and cat food, and possibly whatever was in the Amazon boxes, but to take the kids’ band uniforms? Their shoes? Toy donations? Things like the uniforms can’t even be sold, since they all have customized embroidered names on them. And a light bulb??? Seriously?? The floor mat? WTF?
Her poor kids are already stressed out with the chaos going on, and then someone goes and steals their uniforms, boots and shoes!
When talking to the police, who knew they had lots of cats, they were told to check their animals. It seems there’s been a rash of theft in their area this year, and in some cases, only pets were stolen. So the Cat Lady was all in a panic because she couldn’t find the cats, forgetting that they were all boarded. One cat that isn’t was with her husband, and the other was with her and her daughter, I think. I can imagine how surreal it must have felt. We’ve come out to find our car stolen one time, and it felt so bizarre. I remember just standing there, looking at the empty space, second guessing my own mind that this is where it should have been. Maybe we actually parked somewhere else?? To have that empty space, but having so many things that should have been in it, just gone… in their own home! What a sense of violation, too.
And yet, as she was telling me all this, she was assuring me that she will meet me at the clinic on Saturday, before she goes for another MRI.
What an amazing, big hearted woman.
A plague on the thief that did this!!! I hope the police catch them soon, they get all their stuff returned, and the thief is appropriately dealt with by the law!
Who am I kidding. This is Canada. Even if they caught the thief, he or she will probably be back on the streets within the hour.
We’ve got some quiet days ahead of us, so there won’t be much to write about. There is never a shortage of adorableness to share, though!
Like this cuddle pile on my bed, from last night. How cute is this??? 🧡🖤🧡
Cheddar is so good with the babies, and they love him right back! But to see Cheddar hugging Sprite like that is just too precious for words!
The outside cats do their fair share of cuddling, too – mostly because they’re all in the bigger cat bed, under the heat bulb!
There is at least six cats in the window; one is mashed in the middle, under the orange and white, and moved while I was taking the picture. I’m pretty sure there was at least one more I saw through that top left corner of the window.
I didn’t get a chance to do a head count while I was feeding them this morning. They were running around too much.
Last night, I went to chase three massive racoons out of the sun room. When I turned around, I saw a Sad Face, looking at me from my storage shelf in the corner, his head level with the bathroom window. There’s a case to store the market tent in there, and he was using it as a bed. He was watching me, ready to run away, but clearly didn’t want to leave his spot. I made sure to not make any moves to make him think I was going to chase him out.
Now that things are colder, and the cat house is plugged in again, the cats have almost abandoned the sun room in favour of the cat house, overnight. By morning, though, there’s quite the crowd milling around, crying for kibble!
I’ve been tossing the new lysine powder that is more granular than the other brand, into the kibble. It does seem to be sticking, but I find myself thinking more of the granules are falling off before the cats are eating it. I can’t say for sure, since the fine powder also came off. There’s no way to measure. However, with winter coming, they are going to need more reliable doses. I looked it up and found that yes, lysine can be dissolved in water! The sites that talked about it gave warning that this might affect how well it works when used topically, but we’re not using is topically. So I’ve now started to put a bit of lysine into their water, as well as onto their kibble. Between the two, it should make a difference! There are a couple of smaller kittens with gummed up eyes, but I’m also starting to hear more sneezing and raspy breathing among the cats in general.
I think they’re going to appreciate the warmer temperatures we’re expecting next week! We’re supposed to have highs above freezing through this week, too, but we’re also supposed to get up to 10cm/4in of snow in total, starting this evening, through tomorrow night. Given that we’re also supposed to get highs of 2C/36F – at least, that’s what one app is telling me – I would expect it to be melting almost as fast as it hits the ground! Another app says to expect heavy snow this evening – but rain, overnight! Thursday night, into Friday morning, is also expected to have potentially heavy snow, but not rain. At least Friday and Friday night are expected to be clear. Friday evening is when we have to isolate the kittens and Toni for overnight fasting before their trip to the vet. The roads should be clear of ice and snow by then. I am planning to leave much earlier than necessary, just in case. The trip is about 45 minutes, and the drop off time is 8am, but I’m considering leaving at 6:30, so I have time to take it slow, if the conditions warrant.
It should be interesting, fitting the 6 carriers into the truck! I’ve got my emergency kit and a bin with extra winter hats, gloves, etc, tucked in along with our collection of hard sided, reusable grocery bags, so half the space in the back is already taken up. Thankfully, the hard sided carriers can be stacked and secured, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Until then, I’m going to enjoy some boring, uneventful days at home!
I am so glad we don’t need to go anywhere for the next while!
When I headed out yesterday evening to feed the outside cats, we had freezing rain on top of the snow.
We also had company.
Looks like the big, fluffy beast hunkered down as soon as I came out. I stayed where I was long enough to take the picture. As soon as I moved closer, he ran off.
I love how casual Driver is, sitting next to the racoon!
When I saw him this morning, he was still favouring that front paw. I still can’t see any obvious signs of injury, but I’m not able to get a closer look, either.
We got snow again, after the rain, so things were pretty crunchy, crispy out there! We’re supposed to both get more snow, and warm up, over the next few days. I’m sure the cats will enjoy the warmer temperatures, and the snow melting away. Of course, the long range forecast of up to 8C/46F have changed, but it’s still saying we’ll have several days of 6C/43F next week. My main concern right now is for the 11th. I’ll be bringing the cats in to the clinic quite early in the morning, and the forecast currently calls for sleet. More on that later!
This morning, my older daughter was planning on making a soup today. Using these…
That’s one of the big Pink Banana squash, a Red of Florence onion and garlic. The Sweet Chocolate and Cheyenne peppers were all green when we harvested them, but have been ripening up quite nicely! They’re also dehydrating a bit, too.
I don’t know what else went into the soup, besides shrimp, but my goodness, the house smells amazing. I’m told it’s not very spicy hot, which means I should even be able to do more than have a taste! 😁 I don’t handle spices very well, unfortunately.
I popped outside again not long ago, to get a meter reading, when this strange noise started coming out of my pocket. It always startles me when my cell phone rings! 😄 It was the Cat Lady. She’d been hearing from the clinic about our bookings. They are quite concerned that we might not show up. With all their no-shows last time, and with us having 6 slots, I can’t blame them! She said she assured them that we will be there. I told her to go ahead and tell them we went out and bought 2 more carriers, just to make sure we could bring them all in! If we don’t make it, it’ll be because we’ve gotten into an accident along the way, or the house has caught fire or some sort of emergency like that.
The Cat Lady is going to be in town that day anyhow, and will be meeting me. She’ll be going in for another MRI at the hospital just across the road from the vet clinic. All the kittens will be coming home with us. Currently, all her own cats, except 2, are being boarded as they prepare to move. Unfortunately, every offer made for their house fell through because the potential buyers couldn’t get financing. It’s adding an insane amount of stress to their lives! Meanwhile, the two cats that are not being boarded are also the two calicos from us, that both hate her for some reason! Cabbages came back because she refused to eat. I don’t think Muffin (who now has a different name) ever left. She is wildly attached to the Cat Lady’s husband, and goes off to job sites and coffee runs all the time. She’s good with the kids, too, but the Cat Lady has never even been able to pet her. She walks by and gets swiped and growled at! She’s never had a cat act like this before! Still, with only the two cats in the house, and one of them gone out for coffee with her husband, the house is amazingly quiet! At this point, I would not be surprised if Muffin has become a de facto sales cat! I can easily imagine potential clients and contractors being happy to see the guy with the cat come around. It is strange that she is so nice to everyone else, but not to the Cat Lady!!
Anyhow. I hope the next offer they get actually finally pans out, and they can finish moving to the new house they bought – a house with a whole other heated building that will be dedicated to cats! It would be awesome for them to be able to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s in their new home, without the added burden of two mortgages!
Oh! There was something else she told me that just blew me away. The last time we got a female done at the nearest vet clinic, it was $350. That included getting a tattoo and… something else I can’t remember right now. Things like vaccinations, etc, are extra. Males were half that. The Cat Lady was talking to the clinic with the cheap spay day about the possibility of bringing in a stray cat in their area and get her spayed. The vet told her that they’d be able to do it at the discounted price, since she is a rescue.
$408
!!!
She asked what the regular price was.
$497
That includes a wellness check, vaccinations, etc, right?
Nope. Just the spay. The other stuff she mentioned would be extra.
Good grief!!!
She did find a place that would give her a much better discounted price, but it involves a much longer drive. At under $200, though, that’s what she’ll be going!
One more reason to really appreciate the cheap day we’re booked for. It just blows me away that anyone would simply not show up when it’s only $75. I found out that the large animal rescue that moved in just a mile away from us had similar issues. They arranged for a mobile spay and neuter unit to come in. They would have been $175, male or female. We never booked, as we didn’t have it in the budget, but it turns out they had a lot of no-shows, too. Which really chokes me, because I saw all the excited responses and people asking to be booked for that day, when they announced it on Facebook. I figured they would have run out of slots and had to turn people away. Instead, they had people book and not show up!
Well, that won’t be us.
Less than a week, and we’ll have 5 kittens and 1 cat recovering from spays and neuters, all at the same time!
