Before we converted the big aquarium into a greenhouse, it was used to store our collection of baskets. They got moved to the top of the piano, and ended up just staying there.
This is partly why.
The cats discovered they fit perfectly, as Big Rig is demonstrating in the most adorable way.
This is not what we see, btw. This is me holding my phone up high to get the picture. What we usually see is nothing at all, until a cat suddenly gets up and stretches from a nap. Before I took this photo, all I could see of Big Rig was a paw (sticking over the edge, on the left) and an ear. My daughters, from across the room, could see a mound of fluff.
We used these baskets for Easter baskets. The little ones tend to be used for small baskets we give as gifts, while the big ones are used for our traditional family baskets.
Our new indoor addition is settling in fairly well. He’s so tiny, we’ve had to supervise him rather closely, in case he got stuck somewhere. Plus, the other cats aren’t too keen on the new addition.
This is him next to my wireless phone charger. He can just barely clamber over it, when he wants to walk down the window sill. :-D
We have been enjoying our company lately – as much as possible in this heat! Yesterday was a scorcher. 29C with a “real feel” of 35C! We were supposed to get thunderstorms, and one did quickly pass over us, but for the most part, they all passed us by. Which meant very little rain.
Today, we were supposed to get a series of thunderstorms, but again, they passed us by. We are, however, FINALLY getting a solid rainfall right now, and it’s even cooled down a bit. We need rain so much! At least it’s not as dry as last year, but it’s still way too dry. Yesterday, my friend and I went to get the mail, stopping at a park nearby. When we lived here, years ago, we once released a snapping turtle found on the side of the highway into the pond in the park.
The pond is completely dry right now. Even with the one downpour we had earlier, the only side of it was what maybe-couldbe-kindalookslike some mud, visible between some grasses.
Today, the girls arranged to take Dave to the vet in town. He got a check up and vaccinations, as well as a deworming pill. We got some antibiotic eye drops to take home. His eyes are getting better on their own, but the drops should help his eyes clear up faster. The vet says it’s from cat herpes, and that pretty much all outdoor cats have it (and worms).
He is a bit under sized for his age, which we could see just by comparing him to the other litters. However, aside from his eyes, he seems quite healthy. He’ll be coming back in a month for another round of vaccinations, and likely another deworming pill. Since we now almost exactly when he was born (thanks to date stamps on the photos I took!), we know to come back in November to get him fixed.
I still haven’t had a chance to process a new batch of critter pictures from the living room camera, so here is a kitty picture for you to enjoy! :-)
When I went into the sun room this morning, Beep Beep actually came out from her nesting box to say hello. This made for an opportunity to get a picture of her kittens without them being half hidden by mama.
Such adorable snoozies!!!
Butterscotch, on the other hand, came out from under the plastic couch against the wall.
Her nesting box was empty.
She had moved her kittens to a corner by the window. Long ago, I’d put an old seat pad on the dresser I use for tools for the cats to sit on, but they kept knocking it off. Eventually, it got knocked into that corner, where I couldn’t reach it without moving furniture. There is a homemade plant stand there as a shelf, and the pad was on top of its base.
That’s what the kittens were on.
Unfortunately, there is also broken glass from something the cats had knocked off a shelf back there that I can’t clean up until we’re able to empty the room for a total cleaning.
I ended up shifting some things around, got to the corner, managed to get the plant stand out, scooped the kittens into a little sling I made out of my shirt to carry them all at once, and moved them back to the box nest.
Butterscotch was not impressed.
Tough beans, mama. Your babies are going to be socialized this time!
As I was putting things back, and moving the homemade plant stand into the corner, I got what felt like a sliver. Checking it, however, I pulled out a little shard of glass. !!! It was a small wound, though, so I continued on.
Next thing I realized, I was leaving drops of blood all over the place. :-/
I am going to have to find some way to clean up that glass before a cat gets hurt. :-( They don’t normally go under there, but if Butterscotch is going to be trying to move her kittens, this could be a problem.
This isn’t the first time she tried to move them in the last day.
Yesterday, it was getting very warm in the sun room, but the old kitchen stays nice and cool. I was going to open the window in the storm door between the two rooms for some air circulation, but it wouldn’t budge. So I just left the doors into the old kitchen open and got the ceiling fan going in the sun room. I shut things down at the end of the day, but when my daughter went in later to do the cat litter, Butterscotch was at the door to the old kitchen and even sort of growled at her.
Then she heard the mewling coming from the wrong direction.
One kitten had been moved into the old kitchen, into an area by the old wood cook stove that is hard to get at. She found the kitten and had to move a bunch of things to get at it, then put it back into the box nest with its siblings.
After that, she did a head count of both litters, to make sure no others were missing!
My husband went out to visit the cats in the sun room, and found the kittens squirming around on the floor!
He put them back in their spot and told me about it, so I made them a new bed. Hopefully, the walls will be enough to keep them from rolling off the bench seat they are on.
Unless Butterscotch is the reason they were down. She’s been using the box next I made in hopes that Beep Beep will have her kittens there. I thought she might have tried to move her kittens there, but when I went in later, I found her in the box, and the kittens on the swing bench.
The theory is that mama needs a break from the babies. :-D
While mama was snoozing in the box, her babies were snoozing on the bench. Even when they started mewing as I moved them, Butterscotch stayed right were she was!
The Re-Farmer 