rescue

Hello and goodbye!

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So today ended up way longer than originally expected. But the, I originally didn’t have anything outside of home planned for today at all. I even offered it up as my one day that I could do my mother’s grocery shopping for her this year, and she said no, so I expected to have another day to work outside.

Then I got the call from home care last night, saying there was no one to do a med assist for this morning, so that got added on. When I called my mother to let her know, she told me she had a grocery list started, so that got added on. Then I was in contact with the rescue that would be taking Poirot’s orphan babies, and that got added on, which would get combined with a trip into town to refill our water jobs.

I still expected to get things done at home.

Ha!

First off, my body let me know in no uncertain terms, I needed to back off. While sitting at my computer shortly before going to bed last night, I got hit with another Charlie horse. This time, the back of my right thigh. I managed to stand up and grab the tube of tei fu lotion, then stagger over to my husband’s room. My husband, darling that he is, caught on as soon as he saw my face, what was going on. Even with his door closed, so I could draw my drawers for him to work the lotion into my leg, my older daughter could hear me and came dashing over as fast as she could so see if I needed help. So she was able to assist me with getting around and eventually to bed.

So… definitely not a day to overdo things, today!

I found myself up at 5am, though, and unable to get back to sleep, so I did my morning rounds pretty early. The outside cats were quite happy with that. I got kitten food bowls set up on the kitchen floor before I headed out with the dry kibble and had a whole row of kittens already ready and waiting at the door, and went straight to the kibble!

While doling out the dry kibble, I had a little fuzzy surprise at the shrine!

Two, actually, but one ran off immediately.

Sitting on the box nest was a little orange baby. The one that ran away looked to be a tortie, but it was such a short glimpse, it was hard to be sure. The orange one ran off a short distance when I came to put kibble in the bowls. As I came around later, I found a white and grey, too!

From what I could see, the orange kitten and the possible tortie are Sprout’s babies, and the white and grey matches the feral mama with no name. They have finally brought their babies to the yard!

When I started setting out the containers with cat soup, I made sure to leave one under the shrine for the newbies. Later on, I saw both cats and mamas – and very round soon to be mamas *sigh* – enjoying it. Lady Hypotenose and Ink are both heavily pregnant now.

*sigh*

After the cats were fed, I did the rest of the morning rounds, and made sure to grab a carrier for Poirot’s littles.

Then it was time to head over to my mother’s for her med assist that home care wasn’t able to do this morning. I got there a bit earlier than they had her scheduled for. When I walked in, though, the first thing I saw was a laundry basket.

Her time slot on the shared laundry calendar is for Friday afternoon, not the morning.

Thankfully, the unit’s marked in for the morning were not using the laundry room today!

There was also a bouquet of artificial flowers. When she’d gone to the cemetery with my sister to leave fresh artificial flowers and family gravesites, they didn’t have enough, so her mother’s gravesite didn’t get any. My sister got more flowers and left them with my mother, and could I put those in the cemetery for her?

Thankfully, it was very much on the way for us, but I’ll get to that, later.

While doing my mother’s meds, she gave me the usual hard time about how I’m doing it instead of them. She’s angry at home care for calling me to do her meds, but she takes her anger out on me. Then she demanded I leave out her other two meds of the day, because on the assumption no one was going to show up for her two evening med assists. Which I refused to do.

I was able to get her to focus on her shopping list, though, and went over that before heading out. I was going to start her two loads laundry (there are only 2 washers and 2 driers for the entire building. It’s a small building) before I left when she told me there was something written on one of the machines she couldn’t understand. It turned out to be a hand written note saying the machine wasn’t working, and what it was doing that it shouldn’t, and that it was going to be replaced.

So that doubled the time for her washing.

*sigh*

Today’s errands included a stop at the pharmacy for a couple of things. She had called them about her refills and was told they weren’t ready, so she arranged delivery for Monday. Which is her last day of meds in the bubble packs. Her inhaler was also out, so she as getting a refill on that, too. So once at the pharmacy, I checked if her meds were ready first, just in case. The bubble packs weren’t, but her inhaler was. Since she was out completely, I decided to take that.

That little thing cost almost $200!!!

I paid for it myself, since that was more than all the cash she gave me for her shopping – and it was more than enough for the day’s needs. I made sure to call her before I went to the grocery store to let her know, so she wouldn’t be surprised by it when I got back with her stuff. She got all angry because it was supposed to be delivered on Monday, and why did I pick it up?

…

I told her, because you’re out completely! This way, she would have it for her last med assist of the day.

She was still upset even when I got back with her groceries. I think it was partly because she was going to pay me back with cash, and she’s been increasingly weird about that. After I put everything away, she started digging through her purse when I suggested a check, so I could do a mobile deposit rather than driving to the nearer city to deposit it, and she could hang on to her cash. She was quite happy with that suggestion.

So I stayed around for the next while, waiting on the one laundry machine to be done. As we were talking, things went back to the homecare situation. I ended up calling the case coordinator and, much to my surprise, actually got her instead of a machine! 😄 I let her know about the missed meds yesterday morning. She looked up my mother’s file, and there were no notations for that time slot. They’ve got some new people – but were still short staffed for this morning! The person that was on the printed out schedule they leave for my mother, with the names for each time slot, was not supposed to come that morning. A new person was. There were other issues related to the staffing changes, including shift confusion that lead to my mother having someone show up twice in the mornings.

After the call, my mother had her usual unfortunate things to say about the case coordinator, and the home care workers. She can’t understand that the case coordinator is not the shift scheduler, and they don’t all magically know everything about her file, including things they were not told by the home care aides!

*sigh*

Because of the broken down washing machine, I was still there when my mother’s Meals on Wheels was delivered. I used that time to go back to the laundry room, where I could fold things, though I didn’t have time to put them away.

Once the laundry was brought in, I soon made my goodbyes. My mother must have been seriously tired, because she made no effort to get me to stay!

From there, I headed home, but was soon heading out again, this time with my daughter and Poirot’s kittens in the carrier.

I’d been messaging my contact at the large animal rescue about the times, but they hadn’t seen the most recent one. My messages weren’t even being seen at that point. We brought the kittens, anyhow and swung by on our way out. My contact took the kittens, but not before I was able to get one last picture.

When we got there, they were in the middle of unloading a horse, so we didn’t stay long.

I’m going to miss those babies!

Our first stop after that was the local cemetery to take care of the flowers for my grandmother. Then we visited other family members laid to rest there. I noticed that my aunt and uncle did not have any flowers at all. My daughter ended up making a little bouquet of wildflowers she found nearby for them. That was very sweet of her!

From there, we went to the cemetery my MIL is buried in. We had tried to go there, at my FIL’s request, as he physically cannot visit the gravesite anymore, but never found the stone. My daughter had accompanied my husband to the funeral as his mobility assistant, but she was so sick that day, she barely remembered anything, never mind where it was. What we did find was a sign saying that, due to flooding that spring, some of the stones were damaged, so they had been removed for repair and would be returned another time. We figured that’s what happened to her stone!

So this time, we expected to be able to find it.

We didn’t.

I finally messaged my husband, asking if he could remember, and he gave me an area that I’d already gone through. Then he messaged her exact plot coordinates.

I had walked right past it and never saw it! It’s a very low profile stone, but I’d actually noticed the one next to it, because of the interesting solar lights around it.

My daughter stayed by the stone while I went back for the truck, which was parked at the opposite end of the cemetery!

We had brought a solar powers light up cross along with the flowers and vase we’d picked up and made up a pretty bouquet. While we did select the heaviest vase available, it was clearly not going to be heavy enough to stay upright with flowers in it. So we went into town to a dollar store – the only place that would have was we were looking for – and got several bags of decorative glass beads to weight it down. My daughter thought the bouquet was looking a bit sparse, so she looked at the floral display while I headed over to another section. I picked up a set of solar powered fairy lights, while my daughter got some greenery, then back to the cemetery we went.

Where we found the vase already fallen over!

Not broken, thankfully.

I helped my daughter with redoing the whole thing, as she added the fairy light string into the vase, then added some of the decorative glass beads, and kept on going. The light string was long enough for plenty to be inside the vase, and still have enough to be wrapped around the bouquet, as the pieces were put back in.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t test it, even to see if we had turned it on or not. It had a mode setting, too, but the solar charged batteries needed much more time before we could test it out. We’ll just have to come back later, when it’s darker and the batteries have had time to charge.

My daughter did a great job making it all look pretty.

At this point, I was realized I hadn’t eaten anything since my very early breakfast – and my daughter hasn’t eaten at all – so back into town we went, this time to get something to eat! Meanwhile, my husband had messaged me with a request, which meant going to a store across the street from where we eat.

Then, finally, we could get the water bottle refills we’d gone into town to do in the first place!

That done, we could finally heat home, with only a brief stop at the rescue to retrieve our carrier. The rescue is officially open to the public this weekend, so they were really busy, and we didn’t get a chance to see them where they were set up for now.

By the time we got home, it was well past time for the outside cats to be fed again. Once we were unloaded by the house, I went to do that, and was able to distract cats away from the truck so my daughter could park it. Sir Robin likes to run under the truck!

Once again, I made sure to leave a bowl with the cat soup under the shrine for the new kittens, though I when I finally did see one, it was just the orange one.

Around this time, I got a message from my brother and SIL, letting us know they were on their way here, to spend the weekend in their trailer.

With the new kittens in mind, I sort of skipped my evening rounds and instead focused on getting the isolation shelter out for cleaning. The plastic around the bottom for winterizing was removed, along with everything inside it, so I could start hosing it down. When building it, I tried my best to have it open and accessible enough to reach inside for cleaning. Some corners are still had to get to.

I was still working on that when my brother and SIL arrived. They had lots to set up so, I left them to it.

The isolation shelter is now set up near the shrine and catio. What I’m hoping is that the new kittens will discover it as a place with food and water and shelter (the beds and cat blankets were hosed down and will be returned later). Which would make it far easier to catch them, if necessary!

Once my brother and SIL had settled in, and I popped over for a good, long visit. While I try to keep them up to date with messages, when it comes to my mother, some things just need to be talked about in person. Especially with some of the things she sometimes says. It’s a good thing we keep the lines of communication between us as much as we do, because my mother has a habit of saying different things to each of us, and trying to play us against each other.

By the time I headed back to the house, it was starting to get dark. The yard light is nice and bright, though, so I could see where I was going…

… and activity in the grass!

Yes, I saw kittens.

There are at least four of them in total, and one of them appears to be a calico.

I get the impression Sprout and the other feral mama have been co-parenting the litters together, too.

Well, I hope they discover the cat isolation shelter.

Tomorrow, I was expecting to do our Costco shopping, but my younger daughter is dealing with a lot of pain right now and wouldn’t be able to come along to help me. My arm is much better today, but clambering in and out of the back of the truck would certainly not be a good idea! With the stock up trip we’ve already done, we can get away with waiting until Monday. That’s the day before Canada Day, so Costco will likely be insanely busy. We’ll deal!

Which means that tomorrow, I get to stay home. One of the things I want to do is set up a fresh litter box and clean cat beds inside the isolation shelter. I spotted Ink dashing around in a way that made me think she’s looking for somewhere to have her babies. If I can set up a nice, cozy “nest” for her in the isolation shelter, that would be idea! Well, not as ideal as having them in the sun room, but she’s too feral for that, I think.

We said goodbye to three kittens today – and said hello to at least four, by the end of the day.

I’m hoping things work out with this other rescue, with the one that’s been helping us shutting down, soon, and that Poirot’s babies will get lots of love and attention, and get adopted soon!

We shall see how it works out!

The Re-Farmer

Looks like it’s going to happen!

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I heard back today from the large animal rescue not for from us. I had approached them about Poirot and her babies. They are interested in taking them in, and will be contacting me later in the week!

Oh, how I hope this works out!

Inspector Japp will have to find new things to teeth on.

That’s one of the tie downs for the portable greenhouse. The paracord was added for visibility. We often see various cats playing with them. 😁

Now, if we could find a home for this beauty, too.

Eyelet’s eyes are actually bluer in the photo than in real life. They are so pale, they are almost white.

Most of the kittens around the house can be handled now. Zipper went from being very skittish to appreciating being held while we wash his eyes with warm water. Only Havarti is getting harder, rather than easier, to approach. Gotta find a way to lure him in!

It’s going to be a challenge to get Poirot, though. She is great about jumping into the cat cage in the morning, and waiting for me to bring her a squeeze treat, but aside from then, she runs away when we come close. At least we know she’ll go for the squeeze treat, though, so maybe we can use one of those to get her into a carrier with her babies. The rescue that will hopefully be taking them is aware of her socialization status. She and her babies will be used as a way to raise awareness for the problem of ferals and rural colonies like ours, and hopefully result in increased donations, adoptions and resources.

We shall see how it works out in the next while!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

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Just have to share the cuteness, first!

And the gorgeousness.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think that stunning cat in the first image might be Kohl’s brother, Rabi. He seems to want to be around me when I’m out and about in the yard, and even follows me while I’m doing my rounds at times, but will not let me come close. The problem is, once Kohl and Rabi got bigger and more mobile, we simply couldn’t get close to them. Kohl’s calico pattern made her easy to identify, but Rabi was one of several fluffy tabbies with white we had that year. I’ll have to go through my old photos from when they were little, and maybe I can tell.

The next photos are of Poirot’s kittens, and Poirot, enjoying breakfast.

It was pretty wet when I headed out – not actively raining, but still wet enough that the older kittens were all hunkered down in the warm and cozy cat beds inside the cat house. Which means it wasn’t until much later in the day that I saw Kale and Sir Robin. Oh, my goodness, they each have one really badly infected eye. We were able to get their eyes washed, but the antibiotics we had left in the fridge had gone fuzzy, so we don’t have any medication for them. Havarti, the orange tabby, has one messed up eye, too, but he seems to be getting better. Other kittens have leaky eyes, too – it seems to always happen when they get big enough to be weaned – but from what I could see today, these two have it the worst. 😢 I was thinking of contacting the Cat Lady about getting some more antibiotics through her, but she is slowly stepping away from rescue and may not even be in the country, with all the stuff going on with her kids.

I’m not sure how we’re going to manage once her rescue is done in a few months. The one other that I contacted, based on the Cat Lady’s recommendation, basically blew me off. They’re too full, anyhow. They all are. It’s no wonder the Cat Lady is burning out! I keep hearing people say to contact the humane society in the city, who are also full up, but when I looked into them before, they wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone outside the city. There’s a local branch, and they stopped doing intakes long ago, yet are still always full. It’s pretty ridiculous.

Well, we do the best we can for the kitties. What other choice is there? Besides calling the municipality to send someone out with a rifle, that is. That’s the only “help” they offer for rural colonies. We certainly aren’t the only ones will a yard full of cats! Not by a long shot.

Ah, well. It is what is it, and we play the hand we’ve been dealt.

The Re-Farmer

Well, this heat was good for one thing! Plus, a surprise.

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My daughter and I headed outside for what was supposed to be one last check around the yard. That one raised bed cover needed more fussing with to keep the plastic from ballooning.

As we were finishing up, I asked her to go into the basement while I went to the ejector, so we could test it out. The septic pump had gone off not long ago, so I asked her to run the pump manually for just 30 seconds. My brother told me he’d left the cap off, in hopes it would warm up better in today’s heat.

Yes!!!! It’s working!!!

The stand pipe promptly got filled, because there is still ice on the bottom, but the venture pipe is finally clear! Every now and then, the water coming out would go completely black as it cleared settled gunk out.

My brother was so thrilled to hear the news!

Now, we just have to hope the warmer water flowing through will keep it from freezing up again, and actually help melt the ice in the stand pipe and the frozen ground, faster.

After messaging with my brother for a bit, I went to get a screwdriver to put the cap back on, forgetting that the screw on the elbow portion is a different size. So it was back to the house to get a smaller screwdriver and get it all put back together. My daughter, meanwhile, left the valve to the diverter closed. We’ll leave the diverter set up for a bit longer and, once we are sure it’s not going to freeze up again, we’ll store the pipes and hose used to direct the flow away from the house, then put a cap on the end of the pipe from the basement. With the valve installed, the diverter pipes in the basement can stay permanently, so if we ever had another emergency like this, all we would need to do is set things back up outside, then open the valve. Which, hopefully, we will never have to do again, but you never know, with this place!

While going back and forth to the house through the sun room, I made a sudden discovery.

With our water bowl shelter set up, we’d put a blanket in the back for cats to lie on. Then we added a couple of cardboard boxes, over time, just because cats love cardboard boxes. Plus, it would give them a bit more shelter from the elements, particularly in the winter.

This spring, while moving some of the cat beds around, I added one of them into the shelter, turning one of the boxes sideways and shoving half the cat bed into it, to create a sort of private cave. Something a mama might feel safe enough to have babies in, even. Not likely, considering the water bowls are in there, getting refilled a couple of times a day, and plenty of cat traffic, but you never know, right?

This afternoon, while topping up the water bowls, I spotted black fur on the cat bed, with the rest of the cat hidden by the box. My topping up the water bowl didn’t seem to disturb it, though, so I figured it was sleeping.

Well, apparently it wasn’t sleeping.

It was giving birth.

When going by this evening, I startled Poirot, and her new grublings!

It appears she has three. A white and black, a black with some white on the belly, and one that looks almost all white, but possibly with some cream patches, like Ghosty was when she was tiny.

After I was done putting the cap back on the ejector, I saw that Poirot was comfortably nursing, so I got a can of wet cat food for her. She is one of the more feral cats and doesn’t let us go near her, so I put it into a wider container, so I wouldn’t have to get too close for her comfort. She did start to get up, babies suddenly disturbed from nursing, and looked ready to either run away or go on the defense, but that gave me space to put the container into the cat bed with her.

I then stood guard to make sure no other cats went after her food while she was eating.

She must have been very hungry, because she ate the entire can and was licking the bowl clean before I could finally reach in and move it away.

We’re supposed to have some very cold nights coming up, so I’m hoping to perhaps move her and her babies into the cat cage.

While standing guard, I was hearing some maternal noises behind me. It was the white and grey mama.

She was trying to lure Eyelet away. Probably to wherever she has her third kitten hidden. I tried to discourage this and kept putting Eyelet back in the sun room. If she gets them away from the sun room, they won’t be getting their wet cat food anymore, and we won’t be able to socialize them. Well, Eyelet is quite happy with human attention. He brother is not!

Oh! I just thought of a good name for feisty brother!

Grommet!

Anyhow, I definitely would like to get them socialized, so they can be adopted out.

I’ve talked to the Cat Lady. This will be her last summer working with rescue. It has been taking a toll on her health, and she needs to back off. It’s a real struggle for her, as she’s been doing this since her teens, and she feels like she hasn’t made a difference. She says she will get three spays and a neuter for us over the summer, before she stops entirely. She also gave me the name of a no-kill rescue in the city she trusts that might be able to help out. This would get us on a wait list, but if we work on socializing the kittens, they might be able to have room to take them in for adoption by the time they are old enough to wean. So that’s a call I need to make, tomorrow.

Anyhow, finding Poirot just after she gave birth was a surprise. I suspected she was pregnant; the only reason we realized she was female was because I saw one of the other cats having his way with her. She didn’t look pregnant, though! She’s a fluffy cat, but not THAT fluffy, that we couldn’t see. I’ve even been looking at her, any time I’ve spotted her in the last while, trying to see if she was looking rounder or not, and deciding, not. Now she’s got three babies!

Meanwhile, I’ve moved the trap closer to the kibble house. I’ve even seen cats lounging in it – usually Syndol, who is already done! Now that it’s closer, and the overnight temps are warmer, I want to actually set the trap and see who we catch that isn’t already fixed. Tomorrow is Monday, so if we do one, Wednesday is the earliest we could get a cat to the clinic – if they can take us in on such short notice – because my daughter and I have medical appointments on Tuesday.

Here’s hoping!

The Re-Farmer

A day of driving

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Today was supposed to be a bit warmer and, technically, it was.

We also had high winds.

That ruled working on the cat house out completely. With the direction of the winds, they would have torn the roof off – or at least damaged it significantly – if we opened it up.

I had to do some modifications to the catio because of the wind.

As I thought might happen, the plastic overlapping the back, which couldn’t quite reach the centre support of the frame, was getting damaged in the wind. I found it torn free from its tacks at the top, and the only reason the bottom wasn’t also torn free was because the excess was tucked under the bottom of the frame.

I ended up taping it to the first layer of plastic. I used packing tape, which should come off more easily when we take it off on the spring. There is a chance it won’t last the winter, but we’ll see.

Wind was still getting into the catio through the open door, causing the plastic to billow. I was already planning to prop the door so it was open just wide enough for the cats to get in and out. I decided an extra bit of security would not go amiss, and added paracord around the whole thing, while also making sure the door wouldn’t blow open, either.

It didn’t take long for the cats to discover the improvement! In the photo above, there are three cats in there. Not only is it now more sheltered from the wind, but would be a warm little greenhouse as well.

It would have been better to secure the paracord through the plastic at the hinge side of the door, but I don’t want to put larger holes, in the plastic, since I intend to use it in the garden next year. I think, for next winter, the door will get it’s own covering, separate from the catio walls.

This will be our first winter with it, though, so we’ll analyze how it worked out, in the spring.

With high winds kiboshing my outdoor plans, I decided a trip to Walmart was needed. We never did get to the feed store and were running low on kibble already, so I contacted the Cat Lady. Yes, she was able to meet me today. After working out the time, I left right away, since it takes me a lot longer to get to our usual meeting spot that it takes for her.

It took a bit longer than usual. During parts of the route, the winds were doing their best to blow the truck right off the road! I was driving against the wind for much of the trip, which visibly affected the mileage, too!

When we finally connected, we had a chance to chat while we transferred over a nice big cat tree, a couple of large bags of kibble, some smaller bags of kibble, and a big garbage bag stuffed with cat beds. She even gave us a 24 pack of wet cat food; turkey chunks in gravy. She got it for her own cats, but they don’t seem to like it – and The Wolfman turns out to be allergic to poultry, so he can’t eat it at all. The problem is, he loved chicken so much, he kept stealing the roasted chickens she fed them, while they were cooling down. It turns out he’s a real greedy guts, and constantly stealing food!

She no longer goes to what used to be her favourite vet clinic. The owner – the man that saved Cabbages’ life, and even Tissue, after her attempt to destroy their car – sold the clinic. She’s been there a couple of times. Once was to get Button neutered. That was when the new vet insisted Button had to be only 8 weeks old, and would not believe otherwise, no matter what. She had also talked to the new vet about The Wolfman and allergies – and was immediately offered euthanasia!

She is not going back.

She did take Button to another vet, though, and got some more information about his condition. It was determined that the reason he is so tiny, and why he is now deaf, was due to a particular virus. The vet figured that the reason we found him was because the mother had died of it, because it usually does kill off the adults. We never did figure out who the mother was, so that may well be true. That’s the thing with yard cats. When they disappear, we almost never know why. Very rarely do we find an adult cat that has died. Last year, there was one.

It’s entirely possible we’ve recently lost more. We haven’t seen Sad Face in weeks, now. There was that one day when I counted 50 cats and kittens. This morning, I counted maybe 33. Yesterday, 26. Aside from Sad Face, who is rather distinctive, I have no idea which cats – or kittens – are missing.

Meanwhile, the Cat Lady is trying to arrange spays for us. The clinic she’s been booking us with is very busy. At this point, they should be able to book two in December, and maybe one in November, plus she is on the cancelation list. The vet would really like to get the long haired tabby adult in, as she is more likely to go into heat before the kittens do, in the spring. I’ve actually been able to pet Adam a few times, so there’s a possibility we could get her in, without having to trap her, too.

The Cat Lady is going to need descriptions of what cats and kittens we can bring in. While I could do that, it doesn’t mean those are the kittens we’d be able to bring in. There is one very friendly little tabby with white that we’d have no problem catching. She’s really small, though. Button is probably bigger than she is, now. The vet prefers them to be at least 2kg (almost 4 1/2 pounds).

There is no way that kitten is 4 pounds, and she is definitely close to 5 months old.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, she’s had to deal with 4 cats that showed up at their cottage. They’ve closed it up for the winter, but they have a neighbour that lives there full time and called them about it. They were all males, about 8 months old. I guess someone knew the property was owned by a family that ran a rescue, and dumped them. You’d think they would consider that, like most of the cottages in that area, no one would be there in the winter. Thankfully, the neighbour that does live there full time keeps an eye on their place for them. So she had to go get the cats, was able to get them neutered and has already adopted one of them out.

One of the things that came up was comments people make about country cats like ours and, “why don’t they just get them fixed?”

That came up when I mentioned that we have gone from a high of 50 cats to now being down to a little over 30. We just don’t know what cats will show up, or if they will stay. There are some distinctive cats that do stay, even if they are more feral, but others… we just can’t tell. Especially with all the white and greys. They get so hard to tell apart! In previous years, we had lots of grey tabbies. They are all gone. The grey tabbies we have now are from more recent litters. At least the ones we did get fixed have been staying, but males like Judgement are still prone to disappearing for the summer and coming back for the winter – if they come back at all.

Then, of course, there is the cost. Especially for females. We’re both very frustrated by people who made disparaging remarks about how people should spay and neuter the strays, barn cats, yard cats, etc. Yes, that needs to be done, but some get very angry and accusatory when it doesn’t get done. To which I say, are you volunteering to pay for it? Are you donating to a shelter specifically for spays and neuters? No? Then zip it. People do the best they can. Those who aren’t willing to help – and it’s a huge problem in our province right now – aren’t entitled to cast judgement on others.

The Cat Lady and her family spend ridiculous amounts of money out of pocket to help their rescues; donations don’t come near to covering it all. She is constantly on the hunt for things people need. Recently, she found a particular cat item that is in demand, but hard to find, and she bought the store’s entire stock. Nine of them. As she was paying for it, another customer started ranting at her for being so greedy and taking them all. It was one of the staff who knows the Cat Lady well by now, that called out the customer, saying that they were all for donations. She wasn’t buying them for herself.

All of this was shared rather quickly, as we loaded stuff from her cat to our truck. The wind was brutal and cold, so we parted ways soon after.

I then went to the Walmart and, yes, got more kibble on top of the donated kibble!

That done, I headed home, with a brief side trip to get some gas. This time, I had the wind at my back, and I could really tell the difference by the gas gauge!

By the time I got home, it was well past 1pm. After the truck was unloaded, we loaded it up again – with garbage!

Two of the cat beds that were donated went straight into the isolation shelter; one on each level.

I then waited until 2, when both the dump and the post office opened, grabbed the water jugs we needed to refill and headed out again.

My first stop was the dump and, I swear, it is looking worse every time I go there! There’s barely room to drive in and turn to back up to the pit, for all the garbage that’s been allowed to spread over the driveway. I’ve never seen it allowed to get this bad.

At least the driveway area wasn’t covered in nails or glass.

Not that I could see, anyhow.

Once that was done, the next stop was the post office to pick up what turned out to be two parcels. I also got the first 2025 seed catalog of the season! I’m going to have fun going through that!

Then it was off to town and to the pharmacy for a prescription refill. Normally, I would have had my one prescription included with my husband’s deliveries, but we forgot to order it last week, and this week, my husband didn’t need any refills.

That done, the next stop was the grocery store to refill our water jugs, then finally, home again.

While the dump and town trip were planned on, I wasn’t expecting to be on the road more than that. Which is just as well, since the wind wasn’t going to let me do what I hoped to do in the garden.

Tomorrow, I’ll also be gone for much of the day, as I will be going to my mother’s place and helping her with her errands.

Meanwhile, I have also started working on this year’s Christmas decorations. Every year, I try to make new decorations for our tree, and maybe enough to give away to family and friends. This year, I’ve been inspired by Singlade balls. The Youtube channel in the link has some really amazing examples of them.

This video is a beginner tutorial.

I’m cheating a bit. I happen to have a number of Styrofoam balls, so I am using those as a core. At the moment, I’ve got six of them wrapped in white yarn, with the contrasting yard dividing them into eight sections, like the one you can see in the video thumbnail.

I’m working on the second half of my first ball, which is being made using bulkier yarn than wat’s in the video. As these will be Christmas decorations and meant to hand on a tree surrounded by lights, I went hunting for sparkly or reflective yarn. This first one has two colours per triangle and is mostly a red yarn with a silver metallic thread running through it. I also have some bits of reflective yard left. I had enough of a forest green to do half the ball. The other half is using a peacock blue reflective yarn. I have some neon colours of the reflective yarn that would be gloriously tacky. I also have some mini skeins of yarn that is almost a lace weight yarn, some of which have metallic strands in them. Those would make much finer stitches, but would also take longer to work up. I’ll see how far I get with the reflective yarn remains I have now before I start working on a finer weight yarn.

I’m happy with the progress, so far.

The only thing is, we will probably just have a small Christmas tree set up on top of the piano in the cat free zone again, this year. We have a couple of very small Christmas trees, and these balls would look gigantic on either of them! 😄

But that’s okay. I enjoy learning a new craft and, when it comes to yarn, my options are pretty limited. My hands are so rough, bit of fibre in the yarn sticks to my fingers!

That’s pretty much it for today. It may not have been the day I planned out, but at least it was productive!

The Re-Farmer

So… Costco didn’t happen

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Okay, so after confirming that we didn’t have any flat tires this morning, then getting diverted with a trip to town before doing to the city, the trip to Costco has been dropped entirely for today.

When the Cat Lady and her husband caught up with me, I could see why they had to much trouble with the catio! With her husband’s short box truck, it was leaning against the tail gate. It is really quite light. No wonder it got blown off! They did get a strap for it, though, and ended up giving me the strap after it was transferred to our truck. She also gave me four bags of kitten food that fussy little Button won’t eat!

They’ve had to put a bell on him. He’s so tiny, he kept going missing!

I still used one of my new straps, along with the tarp and some bungee cords to secure it. The catio just barely fit into the box of our truck, between the fenders on the sides, and the rolled up cover by the cab and the tail gate. I did have to slightly bend the remaining roof panel to squeeze it forward, so we could close the tailgate.

The second photo shows it unloaded behind our garage.

The Cat Lady hoped we could at least use the parts and pieces. They’ve had this catio for a while. As we unloaded it, I did see that one corner on the bottom will need to be reinforced. The wind tore off part of one of the fabric cat beds, but my younger daughter is pretty sure she has some heavy duty fabric she can replace it with.

The mesh has a hole in the back that had been the entry through their basement window in their old house. That will need to be patched. It’s the same half inch hardware cloth that I just picked up for the isolation shelter I’m building, and we’ll have enough to patch that up.

I’m surprised that the wire is just held in place with staples! Definitely something heavier duty than what we’ve got. Any time I’ve tried to staple something like this down, the staples tend to pop out again, easily. I was a bit surprised to see that those shelves are just “floating”. They are attached to the wire only, not the frame!

You can see that there is some rust on the wire, too. Once we reinforce the corners and do any other fixes or modifications, we’ll give the whole thing a paint job. If the wire needs to be painted, though, I think I’ll go for black, so it’ll be easier to see through the wire.

We might add a second latch on the door, near the bottom, as it’s bowing out in that corner – reinforcing the frame should fix that. Racoons can figure out how to open those latches, though, so we’ll probably look for something different.

By this time, it was past noon, so instead of going to Costco, I went to my mother’s town and the feed store to pick up 40 pound bags of cat food for the outside cats. While there, I asked about lysine. The guy I spoke to before was there, and he said he found some in 1 pound buckets, so he got two of them for me. They will arrive on Tuesday (after the long weekend).

I was going to get 4 bags of cat food, but they had only 3 in stock. I paid for those, but when the guy went to get the bags to load into the truck, there were only two left on the shelf. More will be coming on Tuesday. I was going to come back for the lysine and another bag of cat food, anyhow, so I’ll get the bag that’s already paid for at the same time. The two bags I got are equivalent to four of the Kirkland brand I get at Costco, so we’ll be good for a while.

That done, I decided to swing by the hardware store. They also carry roofing supplies and materials, so I asked about clear roof panels. They don’t carry them in stock, but they do special order them. After looking at my options, I went ahead and ordered two 3’x8′ panels. They will be cut in half cross wise, and will be enough for both cat shelters, so I won’t be using the salvaged metal roof pieces that I was expecting to use. They couldn’t say exactly when the panels will come in, but will call me. At best, they might even be in by Tuesday, too.

Once home, unloaded and settled, I phoned the septic company that charges by the hour, to arrange to get the septic expeller area fixed. They won’t be able to come out for a couple of weeks, unfortunately, but the owner is going to be in the area on Monday. He will be swinging by to look at the area on Monday evening.

The good thing is, the renter’s cows are no longer here, so we can move the electric fence and chain away from the vehicle opening in the fence by the barn. It’s wide enough for heavy equipment. I should probably head out there in advance, with the extended pole pruning saw, and cut away the willow branches overhanging the expeller.

I was going to do it with the loppers, but I’m not tall enough.

So today turned out to be not at all as I expected it to be, but I don’t mind. We now have the ratchet straps and tie downs we meant to get for the truck kit anyhow. The tarp did get damaged by wind during the drive home, but it’s repairable.

More importantly, we have a cat shelter that can be used until the isolation shelter I’m building is finished. I plan to use some of the wood lath I have to reinforce the wire mesh, because I don’t trust staples, along with any other repairs it needs. Then we can move it closer to the house. Probably on the patio blocks under the kitchen window, so we can see it, though we’ll need to find somewhere else for a wood bench and the swing bench, if we put it there.. The clear plastic roof panels can be added, and any painting can be done, after it’s been moved. Once it’s in place, we can leave the door open and allow the cats and kittens to enjoy it. That way, when we have a cat that’s been spayed and needs to stay in there for two weeks, it will already be used to the shelter.

I might even be able to get some stuff out there done, while there’s still light out, since I’m not exhausted by a Costco shop.

I should probably eat something first, though! I keep forgetting to do that.

The Re-Farmer

No more Button! (and unexpected family drama) (updated)

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Yay, for Button!

Poor little guy passed right out, during the drive. For a while, there, he was really trying to get out of the carrier, and almost got the door open!

The exchange has been done, though. He is now with the Cat Lady. He’ll stay at the rescue for a week for standard vet care, then – if all goes well – be on his way to his forever home.

Even the Cat Lady commented on how tiny he is. He has definitely grown since we found him in the junk pile, but not by much!

One of the Cat Lady’s daughters was in the vehicle with her. She ended up holding Button rather than putting him in their carrier, and he actually started to fall asleep in her arms within minutes!

The Cat Lady also gave us a donation of cat food. There was a couple of cases of cat food – the kind that comes in pairs of packets with individual meal portions – plus a small bag of “immunity boosting” kibble.

She also found her bottle of the antibiotic drops for the eye baby. We are to give one drop in each eye, every 12 hours, for at least 14 days. She also warned that this stuff does does tend to burn, but to make sure not to wipe it off.

The hard part is going to be opening the eyes enough to get the drops in there!

I’ve got the kitten inside and in the carrier for the night. I’d gone out for my evening routine and found her in the outer yard, heading for the driveway, giving out her squeaky meow! The poor thing can’t open her eyes at all, even after we wash them. The eyelids are just too swoleen.

The girls and I will be doing the first dose of drops, soon. The kitten has already eaten and settled down in the carrier. Thanks to the individual portion cat food donation, it was easy to mix up some cat soup, just for the eye kitten, with the same supplements we use for the big batch we made for all the cats. When we added the food and water bowls to the carrier, I got some of the soup onto her mouth a few times before she figured it out and started lapping it up.

She asked us to keep her up to date on how things go. After Button has gone on to his forever home, they might be able to take this one for care. I appreciate that, but fear they’ll be stuck with another one of our sick cats – to go with the 6 cats from us they already have, all of which have had some sort of health problem! At least with The Wolfman, it was an injury that healed, rather than things like viral infections or heart problems.

She has us booked for the beginning of September for a spay or neuter. She’ll send me the exact date when she has a chance. This will be whichever cat we can catch, so I really want to get that isolation shelter finished before then. I was able to do the last of the painting this afternoon, which means assembling the frame can start tomorrow!

Several minutes later…

Wow. So much just happened in just a short time!

First, I started getting updates from the Cat Lady. Button has been eating well and sleeping well.

From his teeth, he looks like an 11 week old kitten, but he’s the size of a 6 week old kitten!

His eyes are weepy, which we could see, but he also had ulcerations in the back of his mouth, which we did not know about! Classic calicivirus, she says, and expects him to be put on antibiotics when he sees the vet tomorrow. Which likely means other kittens have it, too.

She also warned us that there is a severe panleukopenia outbreak in the province right now, and what symptoms to watch out for, and recommending to use bleach to clean even the outside bowls, if possible.

As we were chatting, my daughter came down and we took the eyes baby into the washroom to try and get those drops in. I don’t know that we managed to open the eyes enough, but at least it’s a start.

While that was happening, the phone started ringing. When I got to it, I found a message from my mother to call her.

*sigh*

My mother just heard geese flying by, and that reminded her that she wanted to take me and the girls to a nearby migratory reserve.

She has no idea what a problem this request is.

I told her, I would talk to the girls.

She didn’t like that, and then offered me a choice. We could go to the reserve and have a picnic there, or we could share a meal at the one local restaurant, then go to the cemetery where my father, brother and other family members are buried. That, I definitely don’t want to do, because then she’ll want to come here, and that’s never pleasant.

She could tell I wasn’t enthused, and I tried to explain.

First, there’s the fact that we all keep different hours, so my daughters would have to mess up their schedules. Which they wouldn’t mind doing, if it was for something pleasant, but my mother is never pleasant with them, but rather always testing and prodding and judging.

The other thing is, it would leave my husband here at the farm on his own – and no one to be on watch in case our vandal has another mental break and decides to burn the house down or something. A concern she dismissed.

What I couldn’t figure out how to explain was that, because of her own behaviour towards them – and how she treats me – the girls just don’t want to be around her.

It didn’t matter, though. She instead went on a rant about how I keep the girls basically imprisoned upstairs, and they should be free to go places.

I told her, just because she doesn’t see something, and it doesn’t involve her, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. The girls can go where they want (frankly, I wish they did want to go out more, but they don’t). They are adults and free to do so.

She instead started ranting that no, they aren’t free, and now she can see why the government takes children away from their parents, because they don’t know how to parent…

Which is when I said goodbye and hung up.

I think she has forgotten that the girls are 28 and 31 years old, not the 9 and 12 year old’s they were when we left this province because of her. She did not approve of our homeschooling and kept reporting us to different levels, making up lies about what was going on in our household (which she knew nothing about, but thought she did). Each time, we got “investigated” and they recognized that this was a problem with her, not us – but at that point, the next place left for her to report us would be children’s services, and she would have been perfectly willing to do that, and have the girls taken from us, simply because she did not approve of how we were raising our kids.

*sigh*

Well, that’s it. I’m done for now. I need to update my family and siblings on what just happened, because she’s going to cause problems for us over this.

*sigh*

I would really love to have a boring life right now.

The Re-Farmer

Update: Well, I talked to my daughters, and they really do want to go to the nature reserve. With my daughter’s work schedule, though, she had deadlines she needs to meet before the end of August, so we looked into September. My mother’s 93rd birthday is in September, so that fits, too. So we picked an open day, I called my mother back, and now she’s all happy – though she really tried to get it to be sooner! September will be too cold, she says… 😄

All that drama, and for what?

*sigh*

Saying goodbye, soon!

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Well, the ball is rolling.

I got a call from the Cat Lady this morning.  We will be meeting tomorrow afternoon, so I can drop off this handsome dude.

He even has an appointment with the vet, the next day.  I keep thinking the eye is looking better, but then the light hits it, and it starts glowing a horrifying red.  I hope it won’t take much to get him healed up.  The Cat Lady and her family are already afraid they might end up keeping him.  He’s such a beauty, and so very sweet!  I told her, just post a picture of him with that tail, and they will have people lining up for him!

I learned something interesting during our conversation.  They have a cat from us that got adopted out – and returned! – three times, so they’re now keeping him permanently.  He was so very sick when they took him in, and still has returning health issues, which people had said they understood and were willing to work with, but then, didn’t. Their daughter that took such good care of Cabbages has been taking care of this one, too, and they adore each other. She’s excited to know that one of his cousins is soon to join them! When she leaves for school, he will sit at the window in the door all day, waiting for her to come back. Even the dog adores him.

It turns out, he’s a Down’s Syndrome cat.

I didn’t even know cats could have Down’s Syndrome.

He was seeing a different vet one time when the vet took a closer look and told the Cat Lady, this is a Down’s Syndrome cat. She had no idea, either, but he explained what he was seeing that identified the diagnosis. It does explain quite a few things, both with his health issues, and behavior.

The Wolfman, however, should be a much “easier” cat for them. He is already fixed – she was happy to hear that, as she was already planning ahead to get that done – and once the eye is taken care of, that should be it.

I’m so grateful that they’re willing to do this. We’re still waiting on my tax return, so who knows when we’d have been able to get him to a vet – or even if my return would be enough to cover the bill. We absolutely must get that pill switch replaced on the septic tank once the money comes in, so whatever was left after that would have been it.

So we’ve got one more day to enjoy the Wolfman’s company. He’s such an easygoing cat, he will handle things quite well, and will make some lucky family very happy!

Meanwhile, I brought up the idea of doing some sort of fundraiser for the rescue in the summer. There isn’t much we can do to help out, but we can at least help with something like this!

The Re-Farmer

Progress!

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See this lady?

I GOT TO PET HER!!!!

I don’t mean a sneak pet on the back while she’s eating, either, though I did start with that. She moved away while the boys came in and dove under my hands, demanding attention. While I was petting them, I reached over and started petting her, too. She got a bit startled, but I was already giving her shoulder rubs and neck rubs, and she leaned right up into my hand instead of leaving. I even got ear skritches, which she really liked. I stopped after a little while – didn’t want to push her too far – and pet the boys a bit more, which gave her more time to eat. I did reach out again and pet her, but she didn’t like being pet on the back, compared to getting the shoulder and neck rubs.

Her neck fur is just full of hidden mats! There’s still lots of burrs stuck in her fur, too. You can see some on her side near her hip. The tip of her tail is just a matted ball of fluff stuck to a burr.

While I’ve managed to touch her before, this is the first time I’ve been able to give her a real pet! This is HUGE progress!

Now, if we can just keep it up and get her socialized enough, we can finally get her spayed!

Speaking of which…

The large animal rescue that moved just a mile away from us last summer made a post on FB. They’ve got quite a few projects in mind in the near future and were looking for everything from material donations to volunteers. One of the things they were looking for was tractor tires. We have a few, though they’re not accessible until the snow is gone, so I contacted her about it. Finding regular sized tires is no problem for her – her brother is our mechanic, so he’s always got lots – but the large tractor tires are a bit harder to come by.

As we were chatting, she asked if we expected to have kittens this year, and offered to take some. !! I told her that we probably will, and explained about not being able to socialize any of the females enough to get them spayed. She said they were planning to do fundraising for things like pet food, spays and neuters that she plans to use to help other rescues like us! We’re not officially a rescue, but with what we’re doing, we’re sort of a defacto one. They’ve had cats and kittens in their rescue, even though they mostly do large animals, and have been able to get them adopted out, so she offered to help with that, too. Of course, I happily expressed my appreciation for the offer of help!

So, between the two rescues, we might finally be able to get more cats adopted out, as well as spayed and neutered.

We’ll still probably need to get a trap for the females outside, though.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to socialize Adam well enough and not need to use a trap on her! What I really want is for her to get to the point where we can use the mat cutting combs we have on her, and get those off. I’m sure her equally long haired brother, Driver, has them, too.

Right now, I’m just happy with today’s progress.

Little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

Our tripod Houdini, sick baby rescue, and unintended harvests

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Oh, my goodness. What a day.

Taking my mother to my brother’s place for a visit went rather well, overall. There were a couple of predictable incidents, like when she suddenly started yelling at me in a rage because I took a slightly different route than the one she always took. That took some time to calm her down. It amazes me how, in her mind, the “short cut” that she always took (it isn’t any shorter, nor is it a faster route) is the only right route. Which, in itself, I wouldn’t mind, but the sudden and incredible anger she displays because I prefer a different route just blows me away. She’s more laid back about other route changes, but this one, and one other, just set her off like nothing else. The one other route that sets her off, my brother had driven her and took a different route, probably more than 20 years ago, and she still hasn’t forgiven him for it. Very strange.

There was also the very predictable attempt to pit my brother against me. Of course, she brought it up completely out of context, saying that I’d “reminded” her that this is no longer her house – but she paid for the roof! She neglected to mention the parts about her and my sister being in the area, and my not inviting them over for an unexpected and unplanned visit, or how she had tried to guilt me by saying “don’t forget, you’re living in my house.” Then she tried to say that she “paid for everything”. Everything? She seriously has zero understanding of just how much my brother and I are spending to keep this place up – the “perfect” house she asked us to move into that turned out to be in far worse shape than I ever thought.

Thank God my brother now owns the property!

What was also not a surprise, but still sad to hear, is that after I said no to her about coming here, they instead went to visit our vandal. This, in spite of the abusive messages he still leaves on her answering machine, and the horrible things he says to her about me. I’m quite disappointed in my sister for doing this. She says she wants to stay out of it and be neutral, but there is no neutral in this. Part of taking care of our mother is protecting her from herself, too. And there is nothing neutral about staying in contact with him, knowing the things he’s said and done to the rest of us.

Ah, well. What’s done is done. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt.

My mother was very tired, even before we left, so the visit was relatively short. Which, of course, she turned around and made it sound like my brother wanted her to leave early, when all he had done was be solicitous about her being so tired, and giving her choices. She chose to leave.

During the visit, my daughter sent messages to keep me up to date on what was going on at home.

Two Toes had escaped again.

They reinforced the cage, and were able to catch her.

After I got home, I wanted to walk around outside, only to find…

… a tripod staple cat walking past me!

It took a while – and the help of another cat! – but my daughter was eventually able to catch her again and put her in the carrier.

She is such an escape artist, and so determined to get outside, that we had to make the decision to bring her inside and add her to the “isolation ward”. Which is getting pretty full! Her babies will be okay. Other creche moms will nurse them. Who knows. Maybe she’ll even nurse these guys…

When I brought the carrier in and put it on my bed, the kittens were immediately interested in it – and her! They were pawing at the door, trying to get at her. After a while, I opened the door, and a kitten dashed right in.

Much to my surprise, there was no hissing from her at all. The girls had tried to put the two sick kittens in the cage with her, but had to take them out, because she was hissing at them so much.

She comes out every now and then, but the carrier seems to be the spot she feels most comfortable in, and she goes back into the carrier fairly quickly. As I write this, she is napping in it right now.

So far, Butterscotch seems indifferent to her, contentedly sharing bed space with her, Nosencrantz is keeping her distance, and so is Marlee.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

While I was still at my brother’s, the Cat Lady came by to pick up the sick black and white kitty. She asked if there were any other sick kitties, so my daughter brought out the white and grey one.

I took this picture of the two of them napping together, yesterday.

I had not mentioned the second kitten to the Cat Lady because, to be honest, I didn’t think it would make it. Instead, it started to get better, though it’s still very weak and looks a mess. Plus, when I found out they were doing this out of pocket, instead of through the rescue, because donation money had gone to spays and neuters, I didn’t want to add to their expenses!

As sick as the white and grey one is, the black and white one is in worse shape. Before I headed out this morning, I washed both their eyes. The black and white one’s eyes were stuck shut again, and as soon as they started to open a bit, puss started to ooze out. From both eyes. The Cat Lady, however, has already let me know she’s picked up medication for them, and they will be seeing a vet soon for testing. Because she has the rescue, she can pick up medication that I can’t, without first bringing the cats in.

She is also asking if we can catch 4 older female kittens to place at that farm she was telling us about, plus she is going to arrange spays. Catching the mamas is not going to be easy, though! She was in a rush and using her vehicle to pick up kitchen cabinets they’d bought locally, so she wasn’t able to drop off a trap or anything else. She just took the kittens and that’s it.

She will also try to adopt the spayed cats out, but even if they end up coming back here, at least it will help reduce the number of kittens next year!

So that is done for now. I hope the kittens recover well for her. She’d be so heart broken if they don’t make it.

One of the things I asked the girls to do while I was gone was a bit of harvesting in the garden, mentioning what likely needed to be harvested. Which made it a surprise when I got a picture of these guys.

These are squash from the compost pile! I had intended to just leave them until the end of the season, but my daughter wanted to see how they are. She didn’t pick all of them, but I’m still a bit perplexed about it! I guess we’ll be cracking them open to see how they look.

Along with more bush beans, a few summer squash and some Spoon tomatoes, she also picked the largest, ripest Sweet Chocolate pepper. They had it with their supper. I’ll have to ask them how it tasted, since I can’t eat peppers without gagging, no matter how wonderful they look and smell.

I had my own accidental harvest.

While doing my evening rounds, I was checking the squash patch and found a couple of female flowers to hand pollinate. I’m amazed, every time I look at the candy roaster and pink banana squash. They are growing so fast, and there are so many of them! I also took a closer look at our one Honeyboat Delicata. It hasn’t been getting any bigger, but the colours were changing, showing that it was ripening. I moved it to look around and…

… the stem snapped.

It’s so tiny! Ah, well. I guess we can eat is like a summer squash, still. Plus, I spotted a couple more little Delicatas forming on another vine. Hopefully, these will reach the full size they are supposed to get!

So that was most of my day. I know I’m forgetting things, but my brain is pretty fried right now. Especially after I called my mother later on. Oh, right! After dropping her off, I had time to swing by her pharmacy to ask about when her prescriptions needed a renewal from a doctor. I’m so glad I did! It turns out the pharmacist had been trying to fax the paperwork to the doctor’s new office, not knowing that my mother is no longer his patient. He had extended her prescriptions himself, already, but he could only do it for 4 weeks, and only once. Then he gave me a copy of the forms they faxed to the doctor’s new clinic. When I take my mother to see the interim doctor, I can bring them along for her to sign, so there should be no hassle trying to look up what my mother needs renewed.

I waited until I knew my mother would be up from the nap she was going to take after I left before calling to let her know. I talked again about how this is going to be just about the prescriptions. This doctor isn’t taking new patients, so there’s no point bringing up any of the other things my mother wants to talk about. She always brings up the same things, but she’s convinced the doctors are hiding what’s “really” wrong with her and not telling her everything.

Then she started saying my brother should be taking her to the doctor. Because he’s so smart and knows English so well. Nice sideways insult thrown at me with that one. I pointed out that taking her to appointments is part of my “job” in living here. My brother not only has a much longer drive, but he would have to take time off work to do it.

Then she started complaining that my brother hardly ever calls her or visits her. I know full well he calls her, even though she treats him like crap when he does, and he is incredibly busy. I eventually got out of her that she was talking about how he used to visit almost weekly. This was before we moved onto the property. He would drive out here after work on Fridays, do more work around the property, trying to fix things, and since my mother’s place was along the route, he would stop and visit her, too. Part of our living here was to take that burden off of my brother, so he wouldn’t have to make the long drive out all the time. She didn’t care. She thinks he needed to keep right on making the drive out, just to visit her. She even said he needs to come out more often, because she’s getting older and he has to take care of her. I told her there’s three of us to take care of her, and it was wrong to put the entire burden on my brother, when he is the one least able to do it! He’s got his full time job, his own property to take care of and lives the furthest away. She pretty much told me flat out, she didn’t care.

*sigh*

This, after she betrayed him so badly not long ago. She still can’t understand that there was anything wrong with what she did and has essentially forgotten about it.

So… that phone call wrung me out even more than the drive with her today!

My poor brother. He’s such a good man.

For all the stuff going on, it was good to at least see him and his amazing wife today!

The Re-Farmer