sometimes people suck

First storm? Also… 38??? Plus unfortunate news

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

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.

The Re-Farmer

My cat adoption rant

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For those new to visiting this blog (Welcome! Thanks for visiting!), I’ll give a bit of a background.

When we moved here, there were a number of yard cats. My late father loved the yard cats and took care of them, and we are continuing to do so. Outdoor cats do play an important part in keeping the rodent population under control, so they are quite welcome.

Of the cats that were here when we moved in, there are three left that are “originals”. In fact, I have pictures of them from when a daughter and I were able to visit in 2015. Being in the country, the life span for cats is pretty short, so we’ve been encouraging the cats to stay close to the house as much as possible. The females do tend to stay, but the males usually disappear. Once in a rare while, they come back.

The first summer we tried to adopt out yard kittens, we did manage to get a few adopted out, though a couple ended up indoors, either because they were injured and required more care, or they would otherwise not survive outdoors. We’ve also been snagging the females to bring them in before they could get pregnant. We were able to bring in two pregnant females, both “originals”, to have their litters indoors. One was a successful transition, while the other hated being indoors so much, we discovered she was killing her own kittens. We had to let her back outside, where she promptly got pregnant again, and those kittens got well taken care of.

The end result is that we currently have sixteen cats indoors, two of whom moved out here with us. The males are fixed, but most of the females are not. We had been able to socialize some of the female yard kittens enough that we could snag them indoors before reaching their first heat, then had to work on socializing them all over again, as they got used to new cats around them, and learned how to use a litter box, etc.

The thing is, in the last couple of years, we have been able to adopt only one cat – and that was at about the time time we had to bring in another, so the number indoors stayed the same. We’re in the country. Everyone already has more cats than they know what to do with. We are where people dump their unwanted cats. If we want to adopt cats out, we have to reach out further.

A few years ago, before the world went insane, we reached out to a “local” humane society, but got no response. No one answered the phone, they didn’t respond to emails or Messenger. Talking to other people who tried to go to their location, they found the doors locked and no one around.

I follow them on Facebook, however, and recently there has been a lot of activity. So I thought I’d try again and, in the wee hours of the morning, sent a note on Messenger. This morning, there was a response, asking for a phone number. I got a call soon after.

Here begins my rant.

When I sent my message, I briefly stated we had some socialized yard cats to adopt out and asked if I could put the word out through their page. I didn’t want to have to turn them in to be able to adopt them out.

I would have been happy with a simple yes or no.

The first thing I was asked was if they were fixed and up to date on vaccinations. Which, yeah, I understand they would need to know that, but did it have to be the place to start? The person clearly had already made some assumptions, so I had little chance to explain our situation, and she was far more interested in our outside cats than the inside ones.

Because we’re expected to be able to have all of them fixed and vaccinated, too, even though we can’t even touch most of them.

At one point, she did mention in passing that they were completely full.

Yeah. That’s why I was asking if I could put the word out through their page, not bring them in.

They also weren’t going to offer any sort of assistance, unless the cats were fixed and fully vaccinated.

And since the male indoor cats were fixed and there was no chance of the indoor females getting pregnant, we needed to focus on the outdoor cats. We need a plan of action. Do we have a plan of action?

…

We went from my asking “hey, is there a chance I offer socialized yard cats up for adoption through your page?” to “spay/neuter/vaccinate the outside cats.” Especially the females.

Because they’ll get pregnant, you know. Population control and all that.

Yes. I know.

And they probably have FIV, because there are intact males, and they are likely fighting.

…

I eventually got a chance to say that we had about 20 outdoor cats, give or take, and the cost would be extremely prohibitive (not to mention unrealistic). She started telling me that those 20 cats would quickly become 80 cats.

Yes. I know. Cats can get pregnant.

As to the 80 cats comment, I told her no, not really. They’re yard cats. They tend to have a short life span. Of the cats that were here when we moved here, there are only 3 or 4 left.

There was a bit of a silence, followed by an “oh.”

Newsflash. We live in an area where things eat cats like popcorn.

Anyhow, she started to get really pushy about the “plan of action” and were we willing to do that, because they’re not willing to help people if they’re not willing to do that.

What “that” is, I never quite fully understood, but apparently, I was supposed to have it.

Eventually, she mentioned there was someone local who could spay and neuter cats at a lower price, and apparently would even come here to trap the cats and transport them. But she’d help only if people were willing to have a “plan of action.” I agreed to having my contact information passed on. Oh, and somewhere in there, she did answer my question, saying that no, they couldn’t post anything about our cats, because if they let just anyone “advertise” their cats, they’ve have nothing else on their page.

She could have told me that from the start, and in a less insulting way. It was actually the answer I expected, but thought it was worth a try. I now regret asking.

I was bighting my tongue a lot in this conversation. It really felt like I was being attacked for something I wasn’t even contacting them about. She just took over the conversation to push doing things to the outside cats, based on assumptions she had no interest in clarifying.

This is why I hate contacting humane societies. Only once have we had a positive experience. All others treated us with disdain, condescension or even open hostility. And we’re talking about experiences in three different provinces. It’s like they get special training on how to assume the worst about people, and treat them like crap. I realize they probably deal with a lot of shitty people, but that doesn’t excuse the attitude being aimed at everyone. It actually makes me kinda understand why people would dump animals at their doors. Or dump them in the country. It should not be done, and there’s no excusing it, but in my experience, shelter staff are doing a good job of driving people into it.

She must have caught on to my extended silences meaning I had a problem with what she was saying. At one point, she did switch gears and start telling me how great it was that we’re taking care of these cats, and thanking me for doing it, because there are people out there who don’t do that, and people who will just dump their cats.

I said yeah, that’s likely how we got some of the ones we have. That gave me an opening to bring up The Distinguished Guest as a possible lost cat. They did have a lost cat on their files for our area, but the description did not match.

As for her attempt to switch gears and thank me for taking care of the cats, she somehow managed to still be condescending about it, but that could be just me already being ticked off. Still, going from insinuating I was irresponsible for not having a “plan of action” (without defining what was actually meant by that) to thanking me for being responsible for the cats… let’s just say it was too late to make up for the damage done.

I was really glad to end that conversation.

With all our efforts to adopt these cats out, there is one thing that keeps irritating me. The woman I spoke to reminded me of it. She said that if the cats aren’t already fixed and vaccinated, no one wants them.

Therein is the heart of my rant.

If you’re paying to adopt a cat, yes, it makes sense to expect that they’ve received a particular level of care and treatment, first.

The thing is, any time we’ve had a nibble on someone interested in adopting, the first question is whether the cats have been fixed. Not about the cats themselves, their history, if they’re socialized, litter trained, get along with other cats, etc. No. Just, “are they fixed”.

Here’s the thing.

We’re not a pet store.

We’re not a shelter.

We are just trying to keep the cats from starving, or ending up in the belly of a coyote.

When we’re trying to adopt a cat out for free, to a good home, and the first question we’re asked is “are they fixed”, it tells me two things.

The first is, this person is basically asking us to pay THEM to take in a “free” cat. For a female, in our area, it’s typically $350 to get fixed. Yes, it’s possible to get it done at lower cost, but there are usually limits to that; either the people who do it are booked solid, or it would require putting the cats through the stress of a very long drive, or we don’t qualify for the programs because we don’t live in the right area, or are not destitute enough. This doesn’t include the cost of keeping up on vaccinations. What it all boils down to is, they want us to pay about $350 for them to take a cat, at no cost to them.

The other things is, if the person wanting to adopt a “free” cat isn’t willing to spend the money to take care of it themselves, then they are not the “good home” we’re looking for. The cats would probably be better off taking their chances with the coyotes.

What really chokes me after people find out the cats aren’t fixed, they act as if we are such terrible, cruel people for not doing it. Suddenly, we are the “bad guys” and irresponsible and the reason why there is such a huge problem with exploding cat populations.

Agnoos is not impressed.

Nope. We take care of our cats.

And other people’s cats.

And strays.

For the amount of money we’re spending since moving here, just on cat food, we could have replaced our roof two years ago, but we do it anyway. We’re not going to let animals go hungry, but expecting us to also pay to have them all fixed and vaccinated before someone is willing to adopt a “free” cat is not reasonable. If they’re not willing to pay to take care of a free cat, we’re sure as heck not going to do it for them, and they’re not the “good home” they’re trying to convince us they are. And I am not going to be made to feel guilty for it. We’re also not going to shoot them all because people won’t adopt a “free” intact cat, as has been recommended to us (not that we can do it, but we have plenty of neighbours with guns who could, and would, if we asked them to).

So yeah. I’m frustrated. Being treated with condescension and being told I wouldn’t get help I wasn’t even asking for, unless we spend hundreds more dollars we don’t have, isn’t helping. We’re giving up a lot to keep the cats fed, warm and as safe from predators as we can.

Apparently, that’s not good enough.

Maybe we should start charging for the cats. $400 up front for a female, a month in advance, and we’ll take their chosen cat in to be fixed and vaccinated, and care for it during recovery.

Do you think that would work?

The Re-Farmer

More baking, and my daughter works in a tent now

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I went into town today, driving my daughter to work. We got there at our usual 10-15 minutes early, but there were already several cars in the parking lot, and people standing by the doors. I’ve seen this before, but not with so many people. Weird.

Since I was in town anyhow, I made a quick run through the grocery store. My husband was running out of brown rice (he’s the only one who eats it) and the girls were running low on lactose free milk. There was plenty of milk, but almost no rice of any kind at all. Oddly, there were no potatoes, squash or onions. Entire sections of fresh produce were empty. I find myself thinking there are other reasons for the stuff to be gone, besides more panic buying. There was no shortage of bread or meat on the shelves, but they haven’t restocked in things like flour, sugar or yeast yet.

Still no toilet paper, either.

Thankfully, we are not in any need of these items.

Once at home, I did a couple of different breads. One was a sourdough soda bread from Alaska Sourdough, the cookbook that got me into sourdough many years ago, though I acquired my own copy much more recently.

This recipe uses 4 cups of sourdough starter, along with oil, sugar, salt and baking soda. I tried to get a video of the chemical reaction when the baking soda (mixed into a “jigger glass” of warm water) is added, but it just couldn’t capture how the mixture just… foams. It’s really quite fun to watch!

The recipes in this cookbook are hand written, and in this one, the instructions forget to mention when to add the salt! I just add it with everything else, before the soda and flour are added.

The recipe also said to use 8 – 10 cups of flour.

Eight to 10??? What’s with all these recipes that use huge amounts of flour? I barely got 3 in. I’d wonder if my sourdough starter is too thick or something, but it’s the same with non-sourdough bread recipes, too. I know we’re really dry here, this time of year, but it shouldn’t make that much of a difference!

This recipe requires just one rising, so it got shaped into loaves right away and I left them in a warm oven to rise while I made another double batch of my seedy bread. I ended up making it into a bunch of mini-loaves this time, just for fun. By the time that bread had its two risings, and finished baking, the sourdough bread was ready to go into the oven.

They came out so pretty!

While I was working on that, my other daughter came down for a break and let me know her sister is now working in a tent.

A tent?

The cash desk now has a plastic curtain around it, to protect the cashiers from plague customers who won’t keep their distance. It hangs from the ceiling, and is Tuck Taped to the counter, with windows cut into it to reach products for scanning. The pharmacy counter has its own plastic wall, with a slit for the pharmacists to go in and out at one end, and a slit at the pick up counter. Customers, apparently, are still trying to stick their faces right up to the openings.

People suck, sometimes.

After I picked my daughter up at work, she needed to go to the grocery store, so we swung by on the way home. Some of the empty produce displays were no longer empty – there were onions again, though not many. Still no potatoes or squash. So very odd!

As we were going through the till, I couldn’t help but comment to the cashier about how nice it must be, to be able to clean the belt more often. She confirmed that, yes, it is! She was quite enjoying the cleanliness. Customers still try to shove things onto the belt, but at least now the cashiers are allowed to tell them to stop, so the belt can be cleaned. I remember only too well how difficult it was to keep things clean in between costumers, when I worked as a grocery store cashier!

They’re also back to single use plastic bags. This franchise had only recently made such a big deal about no longer having plastic bags and encouraging people to bring, or buy, reusable bags. Now, if people bring their own bags, they have to pack them themselves. It’s long been known that reusable bags are very unsanitary, but it took the Wuhan flu for that to finally be taken seriously. :-(

Well, we’ll be able to go back to staying home for the next few days. No plague people hiding among the deer that visit us. There is plenty to keep us busy! The only thing I’ll need to remember to go out for is to get the mail, since I’m expecting my seed order to come in soon. I look forward to starting some of them indoors.

Oh, I also broke down and ordered a bottle cutter. This is not something we can find locally. I chose a type that can cut square bottles, as well as round. I look forward to using it to help make bottle bricks! Since I already know we plan to make the walls on our cordwood practice building 8 inches think, we can get a head start on making these.

Also, my daughter found a really nice recipe for no-knead Focaccia that I think we’ll be trying out tomorrow.

Should be fun!

The Re-Farmer