the circle of life

Sad news

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It is already turning out to be a very warm day today. We’re supposed to hit a high of 15C/59F this afternoon!

While doing my rounds this morning, I had a Potato demanding cuddles the whole time. :-)

It was warm enough that I went to try and move the saw horses by the storage shed. The ground was thawed enough that I got one of them loose, but the other turned out to be in worse condition than I expected. Instead of breaking loose from the ground, it just broke. !!

Of course, I checked on the babies before heading out this morning.

Beep Beep and her brood are easier to check. They are even right in a sun spot, in the morning. :-)

Butterscotch’s babies are harder to check on, since she tends to block the opening with her own head. I’ve been using the camera on my phone to try and see the babies.

Which is the only reason I was able to see a problem this morning.

In the photo, I could see one of her babies was pushed off to the side. I’d noticed this same kitten had been pushed off to the side yesterday, and had brought it closer to mom, but when I saw it this morning, I knew it was gone. Judging from the state of its hind end, something had gone wrong with it. My guess is, Butterscotch sensed it was not doing well and had been pushing it away from her healthy babies. It may well have been weak from the start.

My daughter and I have been talking about how we can set Butterscotch and her remaining babies up in a new nest, and block the inside of the old radio off completely. It’s just too difficult to see them in there. It’s unlikely it would have made a difference, to be honest, but at least we’d be able to check on them more easily.

A sad way to start the morning. :-(

The Re-Farmer

The reality of things

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I’ve been told I should make sure to add warnings before I post certain things, so I’ll start with that. Towards the end of this post, there are pictures of a dead bird.

Aside from that, during my morning rounds, I did get photos of Two Face. Her wound is healing quite nicely. You can hardly tell where it is, if you’re not looking for it!

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Bitter cold, and sad news

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The cold snap that has been working its way across the prairies has hit us.

It was -31C/-23F, with a wind chill of -39C/-38F this morning. At the time I write this, we have warmed up to -29C/-20F with a wind chill of -31C/-23F. The weather alert on my app is still saying wind chills may reach between -40C/F to -50C/-58F. !!!

Hard to believe that, tomorrow, we’re supposed to warm up to -9C/15F!

Heading out to feed the critters meant layering up. Two pairs of socks in my new, rated to -40C, winter boots. Two pairs of pants. A t-shirt under my sweatshirt. A hoodie – hood up – under my down filled park – also hood up! and double layered insulated gloves.

I was rather impressed when I saw this under the door.

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Little Squeak!

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Cats, being cats, will hunt things.

The outside cats do a great job of keeping the rodent population down.  Every now and then, we’ll see signs of their successes.  All part of that whole “circle of life” thing.

On the way out this afternoon, I took the time to get another pitcher of warm water for the cats before we left.  I saw The Outsider by the entryway steps.

He looked at me, paused to bat something around, then ignored it for a bit, then batted it around some more.

A quick glance and I could see a tiny little fur ball and realized he had caught a vole.  Something I’ve seen quite a few times.

Then he batted it again until it was upside down…

… and I saw the little legs wiggle.

Then I heard the tiniest of squeaks.

The vole righted itself, only to have The Outsider bat at it again, and pounce a bit.  No claws.  No actual biting.

Yeah.  He was playing with it.

The poor thing would get tossed a bit, would right itself and sit there, but as soon as it moved, it would get batted or pounced on again.

While squeaking the tiniest of squeaks.

Normally, I wouldn’t do anything about this.  Rodent population control is one of the reasons farm cats are so good to have around.  But I could also see that this little guy was completely uninjured.  Plus, The Outsider was interested only in keeping it from running away.  He was much more interested in the pitcher I was holding.

Then he batted it again, the vole righted itself and just sat there.

I couldn’t help it.

I picked it up.

It made no effort to run away.

The Outsider seemed to be wondering what I was doing, until I put the pitcher of water down, when he immediately lost interest in the vole and went for the water, along with three other cats.

The vole stayed in my hand, no longer squeaking, but trembling mightily.

My daughter came out, and I handed it to her, so I could distract the cats away with the warm water – the bowls of water outside were already frozen.

It made no effort to run from her, either.

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Of course, I got a picture, first.

He was so velvety soft!

Looking at that long snoot, I find myself thinking it might be a mole, not a vole, but when I try to look it up, I’m not any clearer on this.  It’s like it has a vole body with a mole snoot.

I’m still thinking it’s a vole.

While the cats were distracted, my daughter went to where there were leaves piled up as a mulch in the flower garden on the south side of the house.  She made a little nest in the leaves and dropped it in.  It snuffled around in a circle for a bit, then she loosely covered it with more leaves, so the cats wouldn’t see it.

We are such sucks. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Beep Beep: Mighty Huntress

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(Circle of Life warning)

Of all the outside cats, Beep Beep is notably the smallest, in every way.  Yet, now that she’s got kittens to feed, she is proving to be a Mighty and Prolific Huntress.

Case in point.

Earlier today, I was hearing an odd meowing outside my office window.  A very unusual sort of meow.  So I went outside to look at see what was up.

It was Beep Beep.  Doing this.

The odd sound I was hearing was her meowing with a mouth full of dead chipmunk.  Usually, I see her with a vole, sometimes with a bird.  This is a first I’ve seen any of the cats with a chipmunk.

Then, this afternoon, my older daughter noticed some odd meowing and went out to see.

Yes, it was Beep Beep again.  This time, with a bird.

Both bird and chipmunk remain beside the bowls of cat kibble.

As the kittens have starting coming around the house to the food bowls, I am no longer going to be putting food out for them by the garden shed.  Which means, kitties have a meaty lunch waiting for them when they come around.

The Re-Farmer

Stunning!

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Earlier today, while in my office, I heard a loud bang on a window somewhere.  Going to check, the girls, who were in the kitchen, were also wondering what the noise was.  We’ve had many birds hitting our windows lately, and that seemed likely, but never this loud!

So I went outside to check.  Sure enough, I found a stunned bird on the ground, outside the dining room window.

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When I first picked it up, it was panting and groggy.

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After a while, it was doing better, but still stayed in my hand.  Happily, it did not seem to be injured.

I waited a while, then put it near a tree branch, but it still stayed in my hand.

So I sat on the steps at our front door (which, I’ve discovered, we cannot open.  The inside door opens, but the outside screen door is stuck, as if painted shut.  My brother had removed it to fix it, and it had been working fine in the fall!) and waited.

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As I sat, Rolando Moon came by, curious, but not curious enough to climb the steps.  Instead, she moved to the corner of the house and settled in.

Eventually, the bird flew into one of the bushes.

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It still stayed for a while before moving to another branch, then continued to hang out for a while before finally leaving.

As I was still sitting with it, however, I saw out of the corner of my eye, Rolando Moon suddenly spin around, pounce on something, then run off with something in its mouth.

After the bird went into the tree, I went around the house to see, thinking Rolando Moon had maybe caught a rodent.

I was wrong.  It was another bird.

I now wonder if there had been a second stunned bird that I did not notice before, because of how close it was to the house.

Now I’m torn between happy that we saved the one bird, but sad that we lots another at the same time.

I had taken a bunch of short videos and have put them together in a playlist.

I hope you enjoy them. :-)

The Re-Farmer