I got called over to check out the skunk, from the living room window.
When I got to the camera, I could tell something had his attention.
Oh, that’s what it was…
Checking each other out!
Then I saw the other one…
And my husband kindly shut off the TV so the camera could focus beyond the reflection. :-D
The skunk continued around the back of the house, closely watched by the deer. The deer hung out under the crab apple tree until something else startled them.
So beautiful.
The Re-Farmer
One thing about the chillier weather; it has made for much quieter days! It’s too cold to do much outside, and what little we have left to do can wait for the few days it’s supposed to warm up again. Otherwise, it was a good day to stay warm inside, drink lots of tea, and catch up on various things. In my case, crochet. :-D
I did want to share this cute little thing that happened, though…
Heading into the Old Kitchen, to close up the sun room’s outer doors, I turned on the sun room light and immediately saw through the window, all these pairs of ears turn towards the window! A pile of kittens, in their favorite spot.
So I go back to get my phone to see if I can get a good photo. It was a pile of the shiest kittens, so I wasn’t expecting to get them all, but who knows, right?
I open the inner door and check them out through the window of the second door. There they all are, looking at me. As I unlatch the door, they jump around a bit, startled by the noise.
They weren’t the only ones.
Our stinky friend ambled out from under the swing seat and headed outside!
I just managed to snag a photo through the screen before he was gone.
Then the kittens all scattered, so I wasn’t able to get a picture of them. Ah, well.
A few things were knocked over and pushed around that needed to be cleaned up. No turd bombs that I could see, but it does look like the skunk left some puddles. :-(
At least this time, it was easier to get everybody out of the sun room to close it up for the night.
After the last few years, I can really enjoy things like this being the most exciting action in my life. :-D
The Re-Farmer
Today, the plan was to open the outer doors to the sun room during the day to let the kittens use it, then close it up for the night.
At one point, I was outside and decided to sit on the swing seat they like to cuddle on and play with Doom Guy, and get other kittens used to me.
One of the things I did when cleaning up the turd bombs and transferring the cat kibble from its chewed up bag into a 5 gallon bucket, was to put the bucket itself into a box on its side. It just fits into a size medium moving box, with barely enough space above to be able to use the bowl we use to measure out the kibble without taking the bucket out. The box and bucket are sitting on the plastic couch that is also in the sun room, to further make it hard to get at.
Well, that didn’t stop them completely, of course. While I was there, Doom Guy jumped into the box, squeezed in behind the bucket, then stood up to look in. He was able to reach into the bucket and just reach a piece of kibble, take it out, and proceed to crunch away, out of view, behind the bucket. He only did it a few times before coming back for cuddles. It was cute, but I’m thinking we need to find a lid for the bucket!
Just a little while ago, I went through the Old Kitchen to close up the sun room’s outer doors. There was a whole pile of kittens, some scattering out the door, some behind the swing bench they were on, and Doom Guy made a dash for the old kitchen.
One of the other things I’d put on the plastic couch was the bag of deer feed. It normally sits somewhere else, but I moved it there while the floor was being mopped, and hadn’t put it back. It had been knocked onto the floor, with most of the feed spilling out.
*sigh*
I was able to sweep the majority of it back into the bag. As I did that, kittens were dashing around me in all directions, and it sounded like one was stuck behind the dresser I use as a tool chest. I swept up the last dregs of the seed into a dustpan to throw out into the garbage can just outside the doors. I took the opportunity to see which kitten was stuck back there.
Whoops.
So I guess, when I went into the sun room, the skunk was under the plastic couch where I couldn’t see it and, when I disturbed it, it hid in the corner.
I’d seen it earlier in the day, coming through the front gate and up the sidewalk to the house, like any other visitor, before coming around to the cat food under my office window. There was a fair bit of ruckus under there, as not only is the skunk pretty loud under there, but the blue jays were having a field day, going after the kibble.
So I went to check the bowls and, sure enough, they were empty. The skunk had gone in to look for more food, most likely.
I refilled the bowls, hoping to tempt it out.
I waited a while to see if the skunk would come out, then came out of the house through the main doors with a flashlight. No sign of the skunk, but I certainly tempted the kittens out!
All seven of them were very happy to have the bowls refilled!
At first, I couldn’t see the skunk and hoped it had at least come out of the corner and would be making its way out to the food bowls.
I was wrong.
It wasn’t hiding in the corner, after all. It was settled in, quite comfortably! Not the least bit disturbed by my flashlight, nor the flash, when I’d taken photos, earlier.
As I started writing this post, my daughter came by to let me know that all 7 kittens are in a pile on the swing bench. I don’t hear any crunching under my window, which means the skunk hasn’t come out to eat.
This could be a problem.
Hmm. I hear skunks make good pets…
:-D
The Re-Farmer
Today is officially Thanksgiving, so I will happily say again, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope my Canadian visitors had a wonderful holiday weekend, with lots of food and family – or a lovely, quiet, non-party weekend, like we did!
Since we did our celebrating yesterday, and today was a fairly pleasant day, we were able to get some work done outside. The girls were able to rake up lots more leaves to layer on the flower garden by the Old Kitchen, which I’m pretty excited about. Lots of lovely organic matter! :-D
We are going to have to stop keeping the sun room doors propped open overnight. More turd bombs were discovered this morning, plus something chewed a hole in the bottom of the open back of cat kibble. Most likely the skunk, we think. We did end up still leaving the door open during the day. Which makes looking out the bathroom window something to look forward to!
I was called over to see this adorable pile of fluff, and while I was taking photos through the bathroom window screen, I started getting called to look out the living room window, to see a deer!
It was under the crab apple trees, looking for apples, and we did get some photos with the DSLR. I will upload those tomorrow to see how they turned out. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a photo of the deer standing up on its hind legs, trying to reach the apples on the tree!
After a while, it slowly wandered away down the garden, and we couldn’t see it anymore. However, when I went into the master bedroom, I found I was able to see it through the maple grove. As I stood watching it, I suddenly saw a second one, going through the trees and heading towards the house!
I was able to get a few photos through the screen of the west facing window. This one was also going under the crab apple and plum trees, looking for fallen fruit.
So beautiful!
After the deer left, I went to work on the sun room. Most of the kittens took off when I came in through the Old Kitchen. Doom Guy, however, managed to dash in before I could close the door!
Good thing the inside door to the rest of the house was closed!
I started taking things out of the sun room so I could clean the floor. In the process, I have come to the conclusion that the turd bombs are not from the cats, but from the skunk.
After I got the mess cleaned up, washed the floor and transferred the cat kibble from the bag with a hole into a bucket, I sat outside to clean my late father’s wheelchair with a disinfectant cleaner while the floor dried.
When I was able to start putting things back inside, I found the sun room occupied already.
Doom Guy is such a cutie! He even let me pick him up and sit for a while with him cuddled in my arms.
Later on, I found him back again – this time with company!
Corvo is letting me come closer, but still won’t let me pet him.
Adorable brothers!!!
After all was finished and we were settling in for the evening, I found out about a legendary raid – Mewtwo – in Pokemon Go that was happening in town. My daughter and I have not been able to do one yet, so we decided to head into town and join the raid.
When I came out the door, I was immediately set upon by Doom Guy. As I picked him up to cuddle, I saw we had company…
He’s back!
(In fact, he’s back right now. I can hear him under my office window, knocking the metal food bowls around, as I write this!)
Before we left he dashed into the sun room.
*sigh*
Well, it’s now closed up for the night, so hopefully, no more turd bombs!
The Re-Farmer
I try to do a walk around the yard every evening, while there’s still light enough to see, and just check on things. The inside cats tend to different windows as I do. The mama cat likes to sit in windows and meow at me, while DahBoy likes to sit quietly and just look at the other cats.
Last night, I got to see this. :-D
Doom Guy, checking out DahBoy. He hung out there and played at the bottom of the door for a while, but wouldn’t let me do much more than touch him, while I was sitting on the concrete and he went under my legs.
Tonight, I was away for much of the day, meeting with my older brother and his wife in the town where my mom is in the hospital, driving to the airport to see our relative off as he returns to Poland, then going to see my mom at the hospital. She was asleep, so we let her be. She is healing well and, if they can get home care worked out, we expect her to be going home on Monday.
So it was pretty late before I got home. After supper, I took a walk around the yard again. Butterscotch came out and started following me, trying to rub against my legs as I walked, so of course she got kicked in the head a couple of times. :-/
It looks like the kittens have been sheltering in where the old wood pile used to be, and where Butterscotch took her kittens for a while. As I came around the house, I could see some kittens by the old dog house there. Doom Guy, the tuxedo, was barely visible in the half light. Much to my delight, he came right up to me, and not only accepted pets, but seemed to want to be picked up. So I did, and he started to purr and enjoy being petted. He was even okay with me continuing to walk with him in my arms!
I was so thrilled!
Eventually, I let him down near the food bowls, then sat in the chair by the sun room. The other kittens had come out and were running around, climbing the arm rail by my mother’s white rose bush, and generally being very entertaining. I took lots of photos, but the light was just too low for any of them to turn out. I hoped some of the other cats would maybe come by, so I just stayed in the chair with my phone handy. Only the tuxedo would come up to me, but not for pets. He tried to climb up my leg a couple of times, and another, jumped up can clawed my butt through the back of the chair! I’m glad he’s more comfortable around me, but I didn’t expect it to be so painful! :-D
Then I heard a noise and looked over to see…
… that’s…
… not a cat.
Nope. It was a skunk, ambling towards me as if I wasn’t even there!
Doom Guy started hissing at it, and the skunk stopped and lifted its tail. There I sat, trying to take pictures (they didn’t really turn out), thinking, “I’m about to get sprayed…” over and over!
The skunk, of course, won the battle of wills, the kittens all ran off, and the skunk continued to amble over to the food bowls.
As soon as it started eating, it was a confirmation for me. Many a night, I’d hear a strange crunching sound outside my office window. It was not the same noise the cats make when they eat, but any time I looked, I could see nothing. I thought it might be a skunk, and now I know for sure.
It’s so cute!
Which means that those shallow holes I’m finding in the yard, that I thought might be a skunk digging for grubs, were probably made by this little guy.
I’ve read that skunks can be very friendly, make good pets, and are very cat like. We’re not about to make a pet out of this one, but I certainly don’t mind it being around.
As long as the cats don’t bother it and cause it to spray! :-D
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 