My daughters and I were able to get the three female kittens that were in the isolation shelter for their overnight fast, into carriers. We were even able to double check that they really were female. Two of them were quite small, but they just needed to be over 2 pounds.
We had a later drop off time, too, so it was actually fairly light out by the time we were on the road. Along the way, we even came up with names. Sweetie for the little grey tabby, Bug for the tuxedo with eyes too big for her head, and Domino for the bigger tuxedo that is mostly black.
As we finished checking them in, someone came out to take them to the pre-surgery kennels they have (they don’t stay in the little carriers the whole time). We were heading to the truck when I decided to hit the washroom first. As my daughter headed out, she held the door for a woman bringing in a larger carrier with a calico in it. My daughter complimented the calico and the woman responded with, yes… ferals.
Ferals?
Plural?
My daughter stayed at the doors so she could hold when the woman headed out to get another carrier. I got there just in time to see the absolutely gorgeous chocolate point Siamese inside. She said it was a feral, too, then commented that she had 27.
Ah! One of my people!
We paused to chat. Which ended up being about people dumping their cats, which happens so often. She finds a lot of dumped pregnant cats.
We were just parting ways and my daughter and I were about to leave the clinic when one of the ladies at the desk, talking on the phone, called out, don’t leave yet! She was on the phone with someone at the back, and they were asking about the cats we brought. Where these “owned” cats? I explained that these were colony cats. We care for them, but they are outdoor cats and not pets.
The techs thought they might be too small, but wanted the vet to examine them, first. So we were sent to one of the rooms to wait until she was done.
When she came in, we were told their weights. Bug was the lightest at .97kg (2.1lbs). Sweetie, who we thought would be lighter, weighed in at 1kg (2.2lbs). Domino weighed in at 1.5kg (3.3lbs). She felt she could do Domino, but felt it was just too risky to put the smaller ones under anesthetic.
We talked about their ages and I mentioned they were all around 6 months old. She looked stunned and said she would examine them again and look at their teeth.
When she came back, she told me that they still had baby teeth. There was no way they were over 6 months.
Thinking of the litters we’ve had, I felt they would have been born in July, at the very latest, which still would have put them at over 5 months. I was sure Sweetie, at least, was one of Slick’s five, which would have made it older, though much smaller than her siblings. If they’re under 6 months old, though…
Suddenly, we don’t know where these kittens came from! We had two really late litters. Frank’s kittens, none of which survived the weaning stage, and the tiny ones I found in the collapsed shed that we are sure were Brussel’s second litter, except Brussel disappeared. That last litter was born so late in the season, there were no lactating creche mothers around to nurse them, except Frank, and Frank was already weaning hers.
So it’s possible we had younger kittens show up and didn’t really notice them as new among the crowd – some of them look so very much alike. I just have a hard time seeing that. Bug has a very distinctive look, too. I’ll have to go back over my older photos and see if I can at least spot Bug. Sweetie would be harder to identify.
Anyhow.
Once it was decided it was not safe for them to be spayed, my daughter and I packed them up and headed home.
In the first picture above, there’s Sweetie on the left, Bug in the middle and Domino on the right.
Along the way, we talked about what steps to take next. Do we keep them in the isolation shelter and “fatten them up”? With warmth and regular food, they would hopefully get bigger faster, but who knows how long that would take. In the end, we decided to set them in the isolation shelter again, give them a cat soup treat, and then open the shelter up again later in the day. You can see them in the next picture of the slide show above, after finally breaking their fast!
I ended up treating the rest of the outside cats, too. I mixed up a very thin cat soup using several cans of wet cat food, then poured it over the trays that still had dry kibble in them.
We didn’t see Frank this morning, but she’s in there, between the short haired calico (Sprig) and the long haired tabby. I even saw Sprout today! It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, but it looks like she’s just being shy.
Of course, I made sure to keep the rescue group chat up to date. They were surprised about the kittens not being done, since they were all over 2 pounds, but it’s understandable. They already brought up making other appointments. For the next ones, we’ll just have to take in any adult sized cat we can grab. Which will be the males, first. If nothing else, it means they won’t be getting any of the ladies pregnant. I’d hope it would also reduce any fighting between the cats, but we’re still seeing some of that, among both male and female cats that have been fixed. Very strange.
Speaking of fixed…
Pinky has been hanging around close to the house. She’s been wanting into the closed up isolation shelter, too. I’ve been able to pet her and, aside from Colin (who is neutered) being a jacka$$ and going after her, she’s been socializing with the other cats more. That makes me happy, because she basically lived in the garage by herself last winter, and only came to the house to eat and drink.
Well, there is one plus side to coming home so much ealrier.
I can work on getting straw over the winter sown beds today, instead of tomorrow. We’re supposed to reach a high of only -7C/19F today and tomorrow. After that, temperatures are expected to drop. So the sooner I can get extra insulation on those beds, the better. Given how things turned out this past year, and the likelihood of another drought next year, winter sowing may once again be the only crops we get!
Well, Magda got out of the isolation shelter again. Poor Grink was all alone in there. I decided to catch Kohl and put her in with The Grink for company.
It wasn’t until after I got back from running errands, late enough to do the evening feeding, that we were able to grab Magda and medicate her ears. We put her back into the isolation shelter after that, then dosed The Grink’s ears.
Kohl, seemed to want out, but not too desperately. Since she might be in there, with the heat lamp, for a couple of weeks, we figured this would be a good time to bring out the clippers and give her a hair cut. She is almost solid with mats, and it must be quite uncomfortable. I know there’s at least one patch on her tail that is burrs stuck in her fur.
Unfortunately, by the time we got the clippers out for what would be their first use, she made her way into the bottom of the isolation shelter, settled on the box nest, and completely ignored us as we tried to convincer to come come to us!
We finally have up.
We went inside and did David, instead.
David wasn’t as bad as Kohl, but we’ve been using a mat cutting comb on him, whenever we could. He really hates being combed or brushed, though, so he still had mats in various areas we haven’t been able to get at.
David did NOT like getting his hair cut. My daughter and I would work at one of us holding him while the other trimmed, then trading off when he got too squirmy. We had to stop a couple of times to just let him have a break and destress a bit – and to clean up the piles of hair.
That is one very fluffy cat!
We got most of him shaved now. Almost, but not quite, a lion’s mane style. It’s a bit of a mess in places, but the mats are gone, and that’s the important part.
He is most displeased with us.
He did finally allow much husband to cuddled him and keep him warm for a bit, though.
I’m hoping to get a picture at some point, but that might take a while. 😄
Meanwhile, the littles in the sun room are getting so very active!!!
The black and white one has climbed out of the cat cave, several times. The calico has been climbing the opening, and there have been a few times I’ve seen her basically dangling from the top. Even their adopted sibling is squirming and worming around.
At one point, my daughter walked past and heard a squeaking noise. She looked over and found the black and white with its front legs outside the cat cave, looking at her and “yelling”. It didn’t stop until she reached in and started petting him! Brussel has been leaving the sun room more often, and for longer times, so we’ve had more opportunity to pick up and cuddle the babies while she’s gone. After taking the last picture, with the black and white one outside the cat cave, I reached in to pick him up, cuddled him a moment, then put him back into the cat cave. Brussel was in there that time, and she was most displeased with me!
In other things…
It looks like we lost our window of opportunity. Slick no longer looks pregnant. I saw Sprout today, which I haven’t for a day or two, and she is looking less round, too. There wasn’t a chance we would have gotten her this time, though. I do wish we’d gotten Slick, though. Well, we just have to concentrate on catching some of the others. At this point, it’s probably a matter of bringing in any cat we can trap, male or female, though if we trap one of the mamas that just gave birth, we’ll have to let them go. The vet won’t spay them while they are lactating. The problem is, with the more feral ones, chances are we won’t be able to tell until the vet actually sees it.
Well, it is what it is. We do the best we can.
Hopefully, Magda will stay in the isolation shelter this time, and get some rest and recovery – and wet cat food! She did get at some of it before The Grink and Kohl ate it all, so maybe she’ll make the association between staying in the isolation shelter and getting extra tasty food, and not having to fight off a dozen other cats for it! 😁
I definitely over did it yesterday, and was in major pain this morning, so we just took care of the cats, and then I went back to bed. Taking care of Magda’s and The Grink’s ears went much better than expected.
The first image above was taken right after treating their ears. Since they are in the isolation shelter, they get treated with wet cat food, which The Grink has been enjoying, but Magda seems to be ingnoring.
Then I went out through the sun room to go to the post office, and spotted a very scrabbly looking cat on a cat bed.
It was Magda!
Since getting spayed, she has developed the runs and is looking very messy.
On checking the isolation shelter, I found a corner of the sliding window by the foot bowl was pushed out of its track at the top. I popped it back in place, then got Magda and put her back. After closing the window up again, I noticed it was bowed outwards slightly, so I took it out completely, flipped it so it was bowing the other way, then put it back. I thought that would do the trick.
Then I went inside to change my shirt. Magda left a mess on me while I was carrying her.
By the time I changed and came back out, I checked on the isolation shelter and found the window partly open! Magda figured out how to slide it open from the inside!
The Grink was just sitting there, looking at me. She had no interest in leaving, but she did really want attention!
I don’t like that The Grink is in there alone. We’ll have to find a way to secure the window before we put Magda back, though. When I came home from the post office, I found her snuggling with Syndol. Later on, while my daughter and I were going through the garden areas, she kept following us, when she needs to be resting and recovering!
In the first photo, Caramel, in the bed she moved her kittens to, had them completely hidden. I did manage to get a picture of her babies while she was out, though. They are getting very active! With the sides of this bed being so much higher, I could just see their heads bobbing around.
Brussel’s babies are getting downright rambunctious, but they still aren’t quite climbing completely out of the cat cave. They’ll dangle a leg out, or stick their heads through the opening, but so far, that’s it.
When we noticed that Brussel was out, my daughter and I took advantage to take the babies out and snuggle them. I got some pictures, though it was really hard to get good ones. Caramel’s baby’s eyes are opening now, and it seems more active than its siblings in the cat house.
We also had a chance to look at what seemed to be a wound on the black and white kitten’s back leg. With my daughter holding him, I could get a closer look, and it does just look like missing fur. My theory remains; some wet cat food dripped onto him and mama was too aggressive in cleaning it off!
So far, all seems to be well, though I was not seeing any cats going to the food bowl inside the trap today. It may simply have been too windy, even though it’s mostly sheltered by the catio. If we’re after Slick of Adam, though, we’re unlikely to catch either of them in that location. Any female we manage to get will be good, though. We’ll have to figure something out.
The -34C/-29F is bad enough, but a wind chill of -41C/-42F just kills it.
The next image in the slideshow above is how I feel right now.
I waited until past 8am to do the outside cat stuff. It only warmed up a couple of degrees, but even that makes a different. I also made sure to open the gate and run the truck for a while. When using the remote car starter, it shuts itself off after 15 minutes, which is very handy.
The sun room was much warmer, of course, but the wall thermometer was still reading -20C/-4F. That would be colder than the ambient temperature, given its location, but the rest of the room wouldn’t be all that much different. I’ve started to scatter kibble on their beds and the self warming blanket on the platform, as well as other areas they like to hang out, just so they don’t have to go far to eat. There is a ridiculous amount of kibble left in their various bowls and trays, but it’s frozen, so they avoid eating it.
My daughter and I were planning to stop at Walmart before going to the vet, so were quite early to get Fluffy into a carrier.
She did not cooperate.
My daughter had the carrier open at one of the sliding windows, while I was at the other. We keep a broom outside the main doors to sweep the sidewalks in summer, and I ended up using that to be able to reach her and try to push her towards the opening.
She did not cooperate.
The main thing was to make sure she didn’t jump down to the lower level, which she thankfully seemed to be trying to avoid all on her own. In the end, as she repeatedly jumped onto the hammock, next to the window I was at, I was able to reach in and grab her, and eventually pull her out. My daughter dashed over with the carrier, and we finally got her in.
It’s a very good thing I was wearing bite proof gloves, or I would have been bleeding all over the place!
We had put a small bowl with half a can of wet cat food in the carrier already, so my daughter quickly went to the truck while I put away the empty tin (The Grink got the other half of the tin to himself!) inside. I also made sure to set up the wind breaker box over the open ramp door. The Grink was free to leave, if he wanted, and other cats were free to go in.
That done, we were off, about half an hour earlier than originally planned. Which is fine. Better early, than late! We also made sure to leave the gate open when we left, as we had a prescription delivery coming later on.
Boy, did leaving early turn out to be the right thing.
When we got to the city the vet is in and parked at the Walmart, I went to get my purse…
That’s when I realized I never brought it with me. With all the fussing with the cat and getting things set up, I forgot to grab it when I went back inside to put away the empty cat food tin.
Not only had I just driven without my license, but I couldn’t buy anything and, if the vet bill was over the rescue’s budgeted amount, I wouldn’t be able to pay the balance. I would need to go home, but it’s an hour’s drive, and we wouldn’t be back in time for the appointment – not that we wanted to inflict that much more driving on an already stressed cat! My daughter had the carrier on her lap, and Fluffy was completely silent for the entire drive, huddled into the back of the carrier, right on top of her bowl of food.
So we drove to the vet. After going inside and explaining the situation, my daughter went in with Fluffy and stayed with her, while I headed home. My daughter messaged the family for me, to let them know what was going on. Once home, I just ran in, grabbed my purse, and left, pausing only to message the family to let them know I was leaving home again.
By the time I got back to the vet, Fluffy had been seen and they were back in the waiting room. Forgetting my purse added an extra 2 hours of driving time to my day! It probably cost us about $50 in gas, too. *sigh*
Fluffy was actually much calmer at the clinic, and they were able to handle her. They knew about the trouble we had to get her in and, if they needed to, they did have permission to sedate her, if necessary. Thankfully, they did not.
There were still signs of infection in her ear, so she got another injection of slow release antibiotic. The vet knew this was a yard cat, and was concerned that she would be let out to fend for herself in these extreme cold temperatures when we brought her home. My daughter reassured her, telling her about the isolation shelter, with its heat lamp, food bowl and heated water bowl, that all the cats would not have access to, the sun room set up, the kibble and water bowl shelters, and the heated cat house. Fluffy would have many places to stay warm and fed!
When I got there, my daughter left Fluffy with me while she used the facilities, giving me a chance to talk to the vet at the receptionists desk, too. The visit turned out to be under budget, which the Cat Lady will be happy about. The vet asked if we could watch for Fluffy scratching at her ear and stuff like that. We hadn’t even seen her doing that before her spay, but we’ll do our best.
Before going to the truck, I remembered to get a picture.
She was not at all happy to see me through the door of the carrier! Definitely holding a grudge. 😄
Once Fluffy and her carrier were settled on my daughter’s lap in the truck again, it was back to the Walmart – for real this time.
I got quite a few things, but my older daughter had sent funds for it, so it didn’t come out of budget, which was nice. I had to go to the customer service to take care of being charged for 8 instead of 6 items, which took only moments.
Once the shopping was done, I went to the McRaunchies in the Walmart to pick up lunch for my daughter and I to eat on the drive home. I was able to get a single burger patty for Fluffy, too, just as a treat, since she didn’t eat any of the wet cat food in the carrier with her. Their patties are 100% beef, so I knew it would be safe for her. I was rather shocked when I looked at the bill later and saw that a single 1/4 burger patty cost $2.10! Considering they packed it in a breakfast tray with lid, and even included a knife and fork, though, I guess we did get our money’s worth for it!
Once everything was put away in the truck, I cut up the burger patty and put it into the deeper lid of the tray, which my daughter put into the carrier with Fluffy.
She was not impressed.
Then, because my daughter was stuck holding the carrier, I helped her get set up with her lunch before we left.
Fluffy made no attempt to eat anything, though she did make her way to the door while we were driving, and try to get out. In the end, she jammed herself against the back end of the carrier and stayed there for the rest of the trip.
Once at home, I drove up to the house and my daughter took the carrier into the sun room before opening it. Then we unloaded the truck and she parked it, so I never saw how Fluffy behaved once she was free to leave the carrier. Later on, though, I looked out the bathroom window and found one cat half in the carrier, eating, while three or for more were prowling all around it!
When I came out later to do their evening food and water, I took the carrier into the house. While going to the various places to distribute the kibble and top up their water, I did see Fluffy, once. She was coming towards the cat house, saw me, then ran back to the storage house, to disappear under it.
She is most definitely still holding a grudge against me!
… Midnight has rediscovered the isolation shelter and was willing to go in long enough to eat.
I don’t think The Grink ever left.
I don’t think The Grink has any plans to leave!
Another cat had run out when I came close, but that fluff ball is the same one that had frost on his fur (my daughters think it’s a he). As I opened the windows to put in food or top up the water bowl, it didn’t leave that spot!
If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see that Midnight was replaced with a young tabby. I believe this is the one that was sick for a while, and we tended to him as best we could. If this is the same one, he is fully recovered, and even allows pets, while he is eating.
The three cats in this second photo are all about the same age.
So that is done! Thanks go my being a good and forgetting my purse, things didn’t quite go as planned, but I’m so glad my daughter was able to come with me. Her being able to stay at the clinic with Fluffy while I drove home and back was a huge help!
Meanwhile, I’ve updated the Cat Lady on how things went. She and her family were travelling today, so we were not able to connect at the vet clinic, as we usually do.
Tomorrow, I get to stay home. The only appointment I have is by telephone, with my mother’s doctor. We’re still under an ongoing extreme cold warning – the warning period has been adjusted again, and they are now saying the warning is until 7:18am. We’re supposed to drop to -32C/-25F around that time, and we’re still looking at wind chills in the -40C/F range.
Oooo… I’m just looking at my calendar. Since we have rescheduled my mother’s eye clinic appointment to next month, I don’t actually have anything scheduled for a week! I’m still likely to go out at some point. I’m sure my mother will need more groceries or something like that, but nothing that involved hours of driving! The long range forecast is still teasing with temperatures above freezing in the last week of February, which is when we’ll be doing our stock up shopping, working around another medical appointment for my daughter, this time in the town to the north of us. A good time to stock up on the 40 pound bags of kibble the cats like better!
I completely forgot. We’ve got a long weekend coming up. This coming month is a statutory holiday across Canada, but has different names in different provinces. Most have Family Day, but it’s also Islander Day (PEI), Louis Riel Day (Manitoba) and Nova Scotia Heritage Day (Nova Scotia…. of course). The Yukon has their Yukon Heritage Day the following Friday.
For us, it will be just another day.
Me, I just want to stay home until it gets warm again – and by “gets warm”, I’ll be happy with it just being on the warm side of -20C/-4F overnight!
Fluffy, as you can see, is staying well away from me. No chance of checking her surgical site. Even when I came back later with wet cat food, she would not go anywhere near the food bowl (there’s just one again, as the other was knocked down to the lower level) while I was around. The Grink is more comfortable being nearby, but wouldn’t let me touch him, either.
At least one of them has yet to figure out the litter box in the lower level. 😬
With the ramp door closed, there is no need for the wind shelter box around it, but I did find another use for it. There are some cats that are too shy to come to the food bowls in the kibble house, shelf shelter or sun room, but will eat kibble left on the concrete well cap. Others just prefer to eat kibble there. I used to keep a scrap piece of rigid insulation on the cap, to keep little toe beans protected from the cold concrete, but no large enough pieces seem to have survived to this winter. So I generally just try to keep it clear of snow.
The wind shelter box makes that easier. It keeps the snow off the kibble, the scaredy cats get to have some shelter while they eat, and if they get startled, they have a “back door” to run through.
After the critters got their food and warm water, I went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I found the gate cam like this.
On checking the files, later, I found the motion sensor still worked, as there were several files where all I could see was the ice on the camera lens cover! It was surprisingly thick, too, and took some doing to clear. Mostly, it was using my hands to melt the ice off, because it could not be scraped off without a tool, and I didn’t want to do that and risk scratching anything.
The plan for today was to break out little Spewie later on, to clear the driveway. The snow system should be past us completely by now, but we’re also expecting high winds, later on. The main thing would be to clear the plow ridge at the end of the driveway, and we’ll need to use a shovel for that. Little Spewie was not made for jobs like that, and there’s bound to be gravel and rocks mixed in, anyhow.
This morning, though, I took the time to shovel out all the paths before heading back inside, including enough in front of the garage that the side doors can be opened to access Spewie and the extension cord collection. While clearing the paths from the shelters by the house, to the shrine and the catio, I made sure to put more snow around three sides of the catio for extra insulation. I don’t plan to go any higher than where the floating shelves and hammocks are. This way, the cats can sit and look through the plastic wrapped walls, and the sunlight can get in.
I am not taking the snow off the roof. The clear roof would let more light in and add to the passive solar heat, but the snow acts as an insulator that will help keep the heat in when it gets dark. I’m thinking the passive solar heat from the plastic wrapped walls should be enough. It will never get particularly warm in there, but at least it will be better than outside! I’d put snow around the front, too, but the propped open door needs to be kept clear, in case we need to get inside. Like when the cats (or other critters?) push the food bowl too far away from the door. Normally, I can just reach in with the scoop of kibble, and not disturb any cats too much (the more feral ones usually run off before I even reach the catio). Sometimes, though, it’s way too far, or even knocked over. I’ve had to go all the way into the catio at times, to get the food bowl and put it back in reach.
I may be short, but I’m not that short!
I was reminded today, just how much I enjoy shoveling snow! I kept telling myself to not push it, but it was just too much fun. At least the snow was still light and fluffy, and not packed down by the wind. Still, when I finally went back inside, I made sure to take some pain killers, right away! Not my prescription ones, as I want to save those for before bed. I need to talk to my new doctor about that. Painkillers that can be taken only once a day is great for helping me get some sleep, which is when I need them most, but not of much use during the day.
Aside from working on the driveway, we’re going to have to set up the laundry hose out the front door again today. From the gurgles I hear when we’re using the kitchen sink, I don’t think that section of pipe is clear enough to handle the the amount of water that would drain from the washing machine yet. It drains very quickly, and I don’t want to take the chance of it back flooding. I’m more than content to keep running the hose through the storm door until spring or so.
We’re still using the bacteria and enzyme pipe maintenance products every week, plus flushing with straight hot water and detergent every few days, as the plumber recommended, but there still seems to be a bottleneck in there. When the ice in the roof vent was cleared, we might have gotten things like leaves and other debris. Leaves would have a tendency to stick to the inside of the pipes and be harder to flush away with the water.
There’s only so much that the drain auger can clear stuff like that away. Ideally, we’d use something equivalent to a bottle brush that could be pushed through the length of the pipe that could scour the insides. We do actually have something like that, which is great for clearing smaller pipes, but isn’t quite large enough, or long enough, for this one.
It’s not a big deal. We just have to make sure to keep the wash loads going, with no breaks to wait for the dryer in between, and regularly pop outside to make sure the hose is drained, so it doesn’t freeze closed. We’ve even stopped doing cold water washes only, so that there is at least warm water running through to keep it ice free.
So that will get set up next. I don’t know if I’ll be up to doing the driveway with little Spewie as well. We’ll see. Normally, my daughter would do it, but she’s been quite sick for the past few days, and in even more pain than I am.
In other things, I’ll be sure to talk to my mother again today – assuming the hospital staff have left the phone in her room from yesterday. My sister has been contacting more distant family members about my mother, as she’s got their contact information (to be honest, I hadn’t even thought of it; I only thought of my siblings!). While we were chatting last night, she let me know that our vandal is back in a different hospital with an infection related to his recent surgery. I’d like to wish him well; it would be good to reconcile with him, but he’s so far gone, my sister can’t even mention my name around him, because he just loses it. I honestly can’t be angry with him about it; he’s clearly dealing with psychiatric issues. I do have a problem with the people around him that are enabling him and not getting him the help he needs. That, however, is not my problem. I have my mother to be concerned about.
I do wonder if I should be calling the eye clinic in the city. Her appointment is for near the end of February, and they don’t plan to do the injections this time. The will just check to make sure nothing has gotten worse. We won’t know for several more days, whether my mother will be released from hospital and sent home, or if they will be able to get her into assisted living or long term care – which is what she would prefer – instead. She is quite enjoying her time in the hospital, and things like having her meals and meds brought to her, and having all these doctors and nurses tending to her. She says the food is very good, too. She’s not on any dietary restrictions; just fluid restrictions, so she’d be getting “normal” meals. It would be so much better for her to NOT go home from the hospital! We shall see what happens over the next few days. I think, once we have a better idea of where she will be, then I’ll call the clinic and update them.
Well, I’m procrastinating now. Time to get that hose set up and start some laundry!
I prepped the cat carriers last night, including adding a couple of reflective cat collars around one of the handles for later. I have the collars linked together in a chain, so I just grabbed the two at one end. Which just happened to be a pink and a black.
While I got the truck warming up and opened the gate, my daughter brought the carriers to the sun room to see which cats we could catch. When I got to the sun room, she had the fluffy tabby in with her, and she was one we really wanted to get, so we closed up the door. It took a while – the poor thing was panicking – but I was eventually able to get her while she was on the window shelf and start scritching her neck and shoulders. She actually stopped trying to run away. She was still very nervous, but she accepted the pets until I could finally pick her up and get her into the carrier my daughter brought close.
While we were trying to get her, I spotted a collar loose on one of the cat beds. Oops.
Once she was secure we opened the door again, and several for the regular males immediately came in, expecting feeding time. One of them was a grey and white, with no collar. I was able to check his ear and confirm that this was Colin, so after the fluffy girl was in the carrier, I got the collar we found onto him.
It was not the colour of collar he had before, though! Which means there was another fixed cat missing his collar out there.
One of the other males that came in was Midnight, our one almost completely black outside cat. He has a small white blaze on his chest and that’s it. He is social enough that my daughter was able to pick him up and put him in the other carrier while I quickly shut it.
He was NOT happy about that!
From there, we loaded them into the truck, and I headed out right away, even though it was quite early. I didn’t even stop to close the gate, leaving that for my daughter to take care of, after she gave the outside cats their kibble and warm water.
I am so glad I left as early as I did!
The first part of my drive, the road wasn’t too bad, but I still drove under the speed limit. The sudden appearance of at least 5 deer on the side of the road was one reason why!
Then I found myself behind some slow driving vehicle with lots of flashing amber lights on it that kept blinding me. I wasn’t able to pass until it pulled over near the exit I needed, which is when I could finally see it was a snow plow.
The next section of the drive was one I was concerned about, as it was very slippery, and where there was a major accident, yesterday. The conditions were much better, though with oncoming traffic, I could see the reflections of black ice on the highway that I couldn’t see, otherwise.
There was a cross road I needed to take and it, as always, was pretty bad. Lots of icy patches.
By the time I reached the final section of the route, the sun was starting to rise, so I could see that there was quite a bit of fog around. The highway was wet, but not slippery, at least.
Then I got to within a couple of kilometers of the city when I drove into a wall of fog. Visibility dropped to just a few feet. Which wasn’t too much of a problem, except that I couldn’t slow down safely because someone was tailgating me! Thankfully, they did eventually back off a bit.
With all that, I got to the vet clinic only 10 minutes early. Normally, with the time that I left home, I would have been at least half an hour early.
While waiting for the clinic to open, I messaged the family to let them know I arrived safely. I’d also kept the Cat Lady up to date when I left, so I let her know I’d arrived safely, too. Then I made sure to post a road conditions report on the highways group I’m on, so others could know how things were for driving.
Several other vehicles arrived while I was waiting, too, before the Cat Lady arrived. We talked for a while and she transferred some donations she had for us. In a bag, there was a water fountain with filters, plus she had more wet cat food with poultry in it that she couldn’t use anymore, plus bags of dry cat food – including two bags of cat food for senior cats. We had several elderly ladies that this will be good for!
She was also getting phone calls and having other stuff to deal with, so when the clinic opened, I left her to it and brought the cats inside. While waiting my turn, I made sure to put the pink collar on the carrier with Midnight. A black collar on a black cat won’t help us easily identify him as a fixed, when the other mostly black cats are around.
As I was checking the cats in, they needed names, so I decided the fluffy tabby was now Fluffy. When someone came to get the carriers, I brought up the collars, explaining what we were using them for, and made sure to say the pink one was for the black cat, not the black one. That got an understanding laugh!
After a while, though, they needed the Cat Lady’s signature, so I went back to the parking lot. By then, she was with someone else that brought a cat she was covering the spay for, too. So we all went in, finished processing our two, then did the third. That done, she parted ways with the other person, then talked to me a bit more about my expected connection with the woman from the feral and stray group. It turns out this person’s habit of posting pictures without permission is one of the reasons the Cat Lady no longer uses her Facebook; she just used Messenger and that’s it. Yet, this person does help a lot of people and manages to get a lot of donations, so any help is welcome, as long as we’re careful not to give out personal information.
From there, we parted ways and I headed to the Walmart to do my shopping. Normally, I would have stayed in the area, until I noticed my tire looked low and checked it. That was when I started getting messages from the other lady, which I had to answer in between driving around, getting gas, then having to go to another gas station across the street to pump my tire, since the compressor at the first station was out of service. I still had to go back to hit the Canadian Tire for litter pellets, so we arranged to meet at a nearby Tim Hortons.
I got there early enough to have “lunch”, but they still had only their breakfast menu, which was fine by me.
In the middle of all this, I got a call from the Cat Lady. The clinic knew to call me for pick up, but to call her for anything financial.
They’d called her about Fluffy.
Now, these are yard cats, and Fluffy is the more feral one. While Midnight was more social, neither of them have really been handled much at all. We also just assume they all have ear mites.
It turned out that Fluffy has really, really bad ear mites in one ear. Bad enough that there was a risk of them getting past the ear drum and to her brain, and to cause a severe infection.
The vet that called her is new to this clinic, and the Cat Lady could tell she wasn’t used to dealing with yard cats. When asked, how did it get this bad without anyone noticing, she had to explain that this cat had probably never been handled until today (she was correct). These are yard cats, so we just assume they will have ear mites, but that’s about it. No, we wouldn’t be able to give her ear drops three times a day. This is a yard cat. Especially not drops that have to be put in at a specific angle that is hard to do with a house pet!
As for treatment, this is a yard cat. It makes no sense to go all out financially on an outdoor cat that will probably just get ear mites again.
In the end, the Cat Lady authorized a couple of injections, for both the ear mites and the infection, but that was it. It still added more than $200 to her bill! They want to have the cat brought back to follow up in two weeks. We will be keeping her and Midnight in the isolation shelter for two weeks, so that is at least possible, but we certainly couldn’t keep trapping her to bring her back regularly after that! Bringing her indoors is not an option, either.
They talked about things like quality of life, and how she might end up going deaf in one ear, and we’re both… well, then we have a cat that’s deaf in one ear. As for if she gets sick because of the infection, or if the ear mites get bad enough to cross over to the brain, then it would actually be kinder to put her down. When it comes to the yard cats, sick cats disappear and don’t come back. Whether they just die somewhere, or if the coyotes or foxes get them, we never know for sure.
The Cat Lady doesn’t think it would come to that. Fluffy hasn’t actually shown any signs of being sick. She’s been eating fine, she’s active, she hangs out in the sun room regularly. With the treatment she’s getting, she’ll probably recover and be just fine.
In the end, she agreed to talk to them about her on the phone in a week, and make a decision from there.
Then, while I was waiting to meet with the feral and stray cat group lady, I got a call from the clinic. Both cats were done and recovering, and would be ready to pick up in about an hour. Meanwhile, my husband remembered something, and I needed to go back to the Walmart.
Which is about when the cat group lady arrived!
So we ended up not sitting and talking as we originally expected to, and went to transfer stuff from her vehicle to mine. Which was easy to do, as she just happened to park next to my truck!
I couldn’t believe how much she was able to donate!
There were a number of kibble bags of various sizes. I think the largest were about 5kg. I actually lost track of how many smaller ones there were!
Then there were the cases of canned can food. All Tuna. I’m not sure how many are in each case, as they’re all cardboard boxes sealed in plastic, but there ended up being 10 cases! She said those ones were from the humane society.
After the truck was loaded, she asked to take a picture with me and the open truck box. That’ll get posted on FB, but there isn’t anything identifiable on there. Not even my face, since my FB profile picture is cats. I don’t mind that. I was so happy with the very generous donation!
She did ask questions about where we lived and how many cats we’re caring for, but “in the boonies” was a good enough answer (she does know we’re near our little hamlet), and I honestly don’t know how many cats we’re caring for outside. I’ve mostly given up trying to do a head count, as they run around so much, but it’s different every day. Sometimes by a very wide range!
That done, I made a quick run back into the Walmart, then headed to the clinic, just in time for pick up.
While going through how things went, they basically wouldn’t let me leave with the cats without making an appointment, two weeks from now. The estimate was emailed to the Cat Lady, along with the bill for the three cats she covered today, but I asked what it was. I know that Cat Lady has already extended her budget as much as she could for the extra treatment for Fluffy today. I’ll have to go through our own budget to see if we can over the amount. I think we can, but not if it ends up costing more.
I’ve actually been chatting with the Cat Lady while I’ve been writing this.
Once we had all the details done, it was time to bring the kitties home!
Fluffy was actually the calmer of the two. You can’t see it in the photo, but they did manage to get the black reflective collar on her (when the clinic called me, we talked about the breakaway collars, too). I think. It wasn’t attached to the carrier’s handle anymore, but I honestly haven’t seen it through her fur.
If you click through to the next photo, I managed to get Midnight to almost face me, so his bright pink collar is hidden, too.
For the first part of the drive, Midnight was really fighting to get out of that carrier! Fluffy was, too, but not as violently. Eventually, though, they both settled down and were quiet for the rest of the ride home.
Meanwhile, my daughter made sure the isolation shelter was ready, with the ramp door closed. When I got home, she helped me get them into the shelter through one of the upper level sliding windows.
They both immediately went to the lower level to get out, only to find the door closed.
They were not happy.
My daughter and I then unloaded the van – with a special gift for her for all her help that my husband reminded me to pick up waiting as a surprise. Her PCOS has really been giving her a hard time lately, so we know she’s been really struggling to do as much as she has been.
After unloading the truck, she parked it while I opened up one of the donated bags of kibble with pumpkin in it and gave the outside cats an early feeding to distract them.
They really, really liked it!
As we unpacked the back from the Cat Lady with the water fountain and filters in it, we kept finding more and more stuff buried underneath! Including a package of special wipes to clean cats. Those will come in quite handy for our messy butt cats! There were even some food bowls, and more bags of cat food on the bottom.
The Cat Lady is so awesome!
Once everything was put away, I grabbed one of the loose cat food cans for Midnight and Fluffy. That will be one of the benefits of being in the isolation shelter. They will regularly get wet cat food while they are in there, and the food bowls are positioned so the heat bulb will keep the wet cat food from freezing.
We got so much wet and dry cat food donated today, we could probably do without buying more for the rest of month! I probably will, anyhow, because it’s always good to have extra stocked up, but this makes it so much easier on the budget. What a huge help! I know so many people are really struggling these days, so it’s amazing that people are able to make donations at all.
I am so incredibly grateful to both the Cat Lady and the stray and feral group lady for it all. We were just blown away! So much more than I expected.
We are going to have some very happy kitties for the next while!
Well… maybe not the ones in the isolation shelter right now. 😄 They’ll get used to it, though, and I’m sure they’ll get used to the warmth, food and water, all to themselves!
The kitties that usually use the isolation shelter are going to have to get used to using the sun room and the cat house again! 😄
Oh, how lovely it feels outside right now! I did my morning rounds and even remembered to wear a lighter coat instead of my parka, so I wouldn’t over heat.
What I didn’t do was break out little Spewie to clear the rest of the driveway. Not today!
As far as the pain levels go, I could do it, but I know myself well enough by now to know that if I did, I would be useless for the next couple of days – and we’ve got too much going on in the next while!
One of those things is to hopefully be able to snag this fluffy lady and get her to the vet on the 30th.
She needs a name, still. So far, no name seems to stick, other than “fluffy lady”, and we have several of those!
After I took this picture, I tried to reach out to pet her, but she kept backing off. I was able to move around and reach her more from behind. Once I started to pet her, she was good with it. She does love to be pet, and I was even able to give her double handed skritches on either side of her head. But we can’t just walk up to her, or reach out to her. We still have to sort of sneak in to pet her.
I am 99% sure she is pregnant right now. Last year, she’s the one who dropped her litter all over the yard and abandoned them, leaving me to have to euthanize the survivors. She got pregnant very late in the season. This year, she went into heat so early, there is almost no chance of survival for her kittens. Especially if she drops her litter again, like last year. So getting her spayed is a higher priority than getting Brussel spayed. We know Brussel knows how to be a mother. The chances of her kittens surviving is still really, really low, just because of the time of year, but we do know she has a safe nest somewhere beyond the inner yard.
As for which male we are able to catch, it could be any one of several friendly males. It might even be this one.
I was actually petting both Magda, when she was up on the shelf, and Kohl (you can just see Magda’s face beside Kohl, near the window) when this tabby pushed himself in, demanding pets. I believe this is the male that was pretty sick for a while, and allowed us to tend to him. He’s grown quite a bit since then!
It was interesting to see these three, plus a couple more kittens on the cat bed inside, and realize they are all almost the same age. There would be only days or, at most, a couple of weeks age difference between them. Magda, another grey and white, and a black and white cow baby the girls call The Grink, are all really, really tiny. Then there’s this tabby, Kohl and her brother, Rabi, who are all so much bigger! Kohl and Rabi were the first litter last year, so they are the oldest among the kittens, but by this time, the others should have caught up.
With things freezing in the snow and being visible that would normally not be seen in the summer, we have a pretty good idea of why some of these kittens are really small. At least one of them has a serious case of round worms. I was very perplexed when I found what turned out to be frozen throw up. There was nothing in the ice but these worms; no partially digested food or anything like that. I’ve seen tape worms before, but I’ve never seen roundworms before, so I was quite perplexed by what I saw. They are very curly!
I’d sent a picture to the Cat Lady (it’s a good thing we’re such friends! 😄😂) and she identified it for me. These are the worms that Button had. He needed to be treated for worms three times before he was clear of them. During treatment, she said it was like he was pooping spaghetti, it was so bad! Once he was clear of them, though, he started growing again, and is now almost normal size for his age. Still on the small side, but not abnormally so.
The question is, how do we even begin to treat yard cats for round worms? It’s not like we can give them a pill. For starters, we have no idea which cat had those throw ups I found. We’d have to basically treat all of them – yesterday, I got a head count of possibly 36 – and just hope we get the infected ones. I lean towards thinking it’s The Grink, a cat we can’t get close to, but there are the two other very tiny cats that likely also have them.
One of the recommendations is to feed them pumpkin. Which would be great if we could do cat soup for the outside cats. Without heated food bowls, though, we had to stop giving them the kibble we softened with warm water we’d been doing in the fall. We could mix in the lysine and ground pumpkin seed with that. When the softened kibble started freezing before they could finish eating it, there was no point in continuing. Once we start consistently getting temperatures above freezing, we can start softening the kibble for them again. That makes dosing them with supplements easier. Not that there’s any way to control the doses this way, but at least they’d get some.
The jury is out on how well pumpkin actually words for this. It might be worth getting more of the Happy Poops stuff as a supplement. Looking up the ingredients – pumpkin, flax seed, coconut, chicory root, turmeric, ginger and banana – I found that several of them were noted as helping against worms. The larger jar would be pretty expensive, though. It’s one thing to buy it for the inside cats, where we at least know that they won’t just get infested again. Quite another to get something like that for yard cats.
There’s only so much we can do for them, but we do the best we can.
I swear, it was more hectic as soon as I got home than with the running around I did earlier!
The Cat Lady and I met up after I dropped the cats off at the vet, then had breakfast at McRaunchies at the Walmart. She started handing me things for the back of the truck.
The big reusable bag, the cat bed, the small bags of cat food under it, and the big bag on the other side, are all from the Cat Lady. These are all things she can no longer feed her own cats, because it all has chicken in it, and The Wolfman keeps steeling into it, even though they give him things like freshly baked salmon way too often. There are five small bags under the cat bed. They are some fancy type of cat food – she described it as a prescription cat food, though the bags say senior cat on them – that normally cost $60 each. *gasp* She got them at half price, which is still insane. She warned me that this kibble really stinks. It’s a herring and chicken blend, so it’s likely the fish smell, she says. The cat bed is one her cats have stopped using for some reason, so she passed it on to us.
I am more than happy to take her cast offs!!
The other two bags were donated by a friend of hers for us. She’d never seen the brand before, so she couldn’t tell me anything about it.
After we loaded up the truck box, parted ways. I headed to the Dollarama to get new vinyl to repair the catio covering and things I thought might help hold it in place better – and some spring cat toys.
Then it was off to the Walmart to get some stuff my husband asked for. I also got myself a pair of slipper shoes. I’ve been trying to replace my inside shoes for ages, and can’t find any that are as comfortable as the old ones. So I tried the men’s slippers. I wasn’t able to try them on, but I got some size 9’s – the size I usually get – that were indoor/outdoor with memory foam insoles. I figured, if they didn’t fit, my daughter/s would have some new inside shoes.
I would have looked around for other things, but so many people were blocking the aisles, I gave up, paid for my stuff and left.
I still had time, so I drove across the street to the Canadian Tire to hang out there. Usually, I would have just stayed in the truck and napped, but it was too cold.
I did remember to pick up a carabiner for the isolation shelter latch, and a windshield fluid funnel for the truck. I was able to pay for it with change. I’m glad I had some, because I wouldn’t have wanted to make such a small purchase on my debit card! 😄
I did almost buy myself a new winter “going out” coat. I found a display of nice parkas on clearance that were very affordable. Alas, it was not to be. Being built like a tank has its disadvantages. I found an XXL to try on, and it mostly fit, until I tried to move my arms. My shoulders were too broad for it, and they didn’t have any bigger sizes.
Ah, well.
I still had time and it was coming up on noon, so I headed over to a nearby Timmies for lunch. For my readers outside of Canada, Tim Horton’s, aka: Timmies, is an iconic Canadian coffee and donut shop, though I don’t think they are Canadian owned anymore. Tim Horton was a hockey player. Today, they now do all sorts of sandwiches, soups and so on, as well as coffee and donuts.
Until yesterday, when my daughter and I went to one for breakfast, I hadn’t been to one in ages.
My daughter worked at the local one for awhile. She ended up quitting because of the health and safety violations from one employee. When she made a complaint to the manager, she was the one who got in trouble. After seeing more health violations by this employee that got ignored, she quit. She later got a job at the pharmacy across the street. During her interview, she told them why she’d quit her last job. The manager that was interviewing her just nodded and told her, that manager was gone.
The problem employee, however, wasn’t, yet.
We don’t go to that location at all anymore.
Then the illegal lockdowns and mandates happened and the entire franchise went full gestapo, right down to the physical assault of patrons.
I would rather have gone somewhere else, but it was either Timmie’s or back to McRaunchies. I do like their chili. A nice, thick, robust chili that is low on spice heat, so it’s something I can actually eat, served with a generously sized baguette style bun. I figured I would have chili for lunch.
It was quite the disappointment. It wasn’t chili. It was soup. I ended up literally drinking it out of the cup, because I could barely get anything with the wooden spoon they now provide. The bun was half the size, too. Meanwhile, the price was higher than it used to be, too.
Ah, well. At least the Boston Creme I also got was still tasty! A donut used to be part of the meal deal, but I had to order it separately.
I should have gone back to McRaunchies.
At this point, I still hadn’t heard from the vet clinic, but I figured I would be hearing from them soon, so I decided to go back and stay in their waiting room until the cats were ready to go home.
When I got there and told the receptionist which cats I was waiting for, she went to check their status for me.
They were ready!
It turned out, they had tried to phone me and left messages, but I never got a call. I had given my cell phone number before I left earlier, and asked what number they had.
One digit was wrong.
Someone out there must be getting some very confusing messages on their voice mail! This happened last time, too. I will need to take extra care in enunciation when I gave them my cell phone number in the future.
I’m told the kittens both did really well. They got their spay and neuter, basic vaccinations, tattoos and treatment for ear mites.
Since the rescue was covering the cost of this, they had to call the Cat Lady before they could release the cats, and then I was on my way.
Once they were loaded up, it was straight home. I’d already arranged for my daughter to take care of getting the isolation shelter ready, making sure the food and water was topped up, the litter box was good, moving the entry box and closing the ramp door so that there would not be other cats in it. She had to use the bricks that were under the entry box to keep the ramp door closed, though, until I could get the carabiner on the latch.
When I got home, I backed the truck up to the house, then dashed inside for a quick bathroom break while my daughter headed to the truck to get the carriers out.
When I got back to help her, I discovered she had slipped and falling, landing hard on one knee, on the concrete.
She is now walking with a cane again, because of it!
😢😢
As for getting the cats in, we used one of the sliding doors on the second level. I tossed in a couple of the spring toys for them, first.
Kohl was easy to do; she let me pick her up and cuddle her a moment before I put her on the shelf board with the sheet of insulation on it. She promptly loafed on the insulation and stayed there.
The fluffball – we still haven’t named him – wouldn’t let me take him out of the carrier, though, so my daughter just brought it up to the open window in the second level and opened the carrier door. He dashed right in, then down to the lower level and tried to get out!
My daughter took the carriers in while I unloaded the truck. Kohl stayed calm, but the poor male was having panic attacks, in between stopping to eat a bit. He really wanted out.
With the stuff brought inside, I fed the rest of the outside cats early to occupy them, so that I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage. When I came back, I grabbed a can of wet cat food and added it to the food bowl in the isolation shelter. While they are in isolation, they will get to enjoy wet cat food, since we know it won’t freeze in there. Hopefully, that will help socialize the male.
In between things, I took the new cat bed and set it on my bed next to our elderly Freya, who was asleep on one of my pillows. I came back a few minutes later and found this.
There are three cases of 24 cans from the Cat Lady – plus the 6 I used to make cat soup. There were also two big containers of treats. Made with Real Chicken! There’s another case of 12 same size cans from her friend, plus I think 9 of the big cans. There are also 3 boxes. They are labelled duck paté, but also as “sensitive” and as grain free. The boxes look like they should have liquid in them, though, not paté. I’m curious to find out what these are!
There were also three more bags of kibble hidden under the cans, the same size as the five small bags of kibble from the Cat Lady.
I’ve looked up the brand for most of these, and it looks like they are the house brand of a specific pet store franchise, which would explain why neither the Cat Lady nor I were familiar with it.
After I got all the cat stuff done, I finally settled down to try on the new slipper shoes I bought.
My daughter now has new indoor shoes.
I couldn’t even get my feet into them! I do usually get size 9 men’s shoes – in triple wide. These were NOT triple wide. *sigh*
Then I remembered that, since I had cats in the truck, I hadn’t stopped to close the driveway gate behind me, so I bundled up and took care of that. On the way back, I got a couple of pictures.
The entry box is just off to the side, and as you can see, it’s also being used as a shelter, even though it’s completely open at the back!
A lot of cats were trying to get into the shelter. Some of them had gotten used to being able to stay in there. Unfortunately, we can’t be letting other cats in and out when we have one that needs to recover. The fluffball male could probably be let out, but then Kohl would be in there by herself, and that would not be good. The male does seem to be calming down and only panics a bit and tries to get out when the house door opens and startles him. If you click through to the next picture, you can see that Kohl is still quite content to just loaf on the insulated shelf!
So the isolation shelter is getting its first test run. So far, it seems to be holding well, though it already looks like cats have tried to claw their way in from the outside! The vinyl on one corner at the back is tattered a bit. Not that they can get through the wire, but they may be trying to reach the window. They know it opens.
As I write this, we are at -16C/3F. The wind chill is -33C/-27F, but with the plastic around the bottom, that should have little effect inside the isolation shelter. The vinyl wrapped around the lower level should keep the wind out. They have the heat lamp, two cat beds to curl up in, one on each level, plus the insulated box “nest” under the shelf. Even the heated water bowl would add some warmth to the upper level. Some wind might get through the spaces between the boards of the ramp door, but this will make sure they get some fresh air coming in. With colder air coming in from the bottom, and warm air escaping through the gaps around the sliding windows and the space in the insulation ceiling the extension cord runs through, there should be decent air circulation in there, while still being warm.
Our temperatures are supposed to go up overnight, and keep going up for our daytime highs. Our forecast for Saturday is now a high of 4C/39F. It’s expected to slowly drop after that until we get a sharp drop on Wednesday, which is supposed to have a high of -20C/-4F, though the overnight low is supposed to be just a few degrees colder.
The long term forecast has changed and, while we are still supposed to reach highs above freezing in the week before Christmas, the overnight lows around Christmas and Boxing Day are expected to dip below -30C/-22F. 🥶 The cats will no longer need to be isolated well before then, so they will be able to join cuddle puddles in various heated areas by then.
Of course, the forecast is different pretty much every time I check it, so we’ll see how things actually go. I just want things to stay mild during their isolation period!
Meanwhile, tomorrow I will finally be able to do my Costco shopping. December is a weird month for my husband’s disability payments, though, and it comes in before Christmas instead of at the end of the month. Usually, that has meant us doing our Christmas/New Year’s shopping and January stock up shopping at the same time. This trip is so much later in the month than usual, I might be able to do most of that tomorrow, but we’ll see.
The less time spent shopping, this time of year, the better. I’d hibernate all winter, if I could! I don’t like shopping and I don’t like crowds at the best of times, never mind with holiday crowds and winter driving! Even just today, by the time I got home, I found the donated canned cat food I used to make the cat soup had started to freeze!
Ah, well. It is what it is. No point complaining about it! 😁
As for me, I didn’t get much sleep last night and had to get up extra early, so I am more than ready to go to bed early tonight!
Who am I kidding. I’ll probably be lucky to get to bed before midnight, anyhow! 😄😄
I’m currently sitting the the truck in a parking lot, waiting to meet up with the Cat Lady.
This morning, my daughter and I snagged two kittens for the vet. Kohl was easy to catch, once she joined us in the sun room, but none of the adult females were to be seen.
I’m writing this on my phone, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to see the above image slideshow.
The grey and white tabby turned out to be male. We’ve never been able to handle this one, though I have been able to sneak a pet while he was eating. He was too fluffy to easily spot gender.
They were both very quiet during the drive in. I hope they enjoy their recovery in the isolation shelter. The male doesn’t need 2 weeks in there, but I don’t want Kohl to be in there alone. Plus, we might be able to socialize him while he is in there.
After connecting with the Cat Lady, I will take advantage of being in the area and do some errands and possible shopping. Tomorrow is Costco day, though, so there isn’t much I need to get today. I do want to get more vinyl table protectors, and some sort of fasteners. Yesterday’s wind tore off a section at the catio door. It will be warmer on the weekend, so thar will need a good time to fix it.
Oh! Just got word from the Cat Lady. She will be here soon. I look forward to seeing her. She is awesome!
The rescue covered the neuter, a set of vaccinations, ear mite treatment and deworming. We were sent home with medication to give him tonight, then another dose in 2 weeks.
He will be staying in the catio for a couple of days – if we can keep him in there! – so we can keep an eye on him. I found some reinforcing plates for the upper corners of the catio while Gouda was getting his surgery. Once those are on, and the top is painted, I also found neoprene lined washers to use when screwing the roof panels on, to prevent water leakage.
The Cat Lady and I were messaging and talking to each other throughout the morning. As I was waiting for the pick up time, she started asking me questions about his behaviour and how socialized he is.
She might have someone who can adopt him.
This is someone who needs a barn cat that is friendly, but not too friendly. She doesn’t want a cat that will get under the feet of people coming in to the horses. He might get under the feet at feeding time, but when there are other people around, he’s not to be seen anywhere. Which may be exactly what she’s looking for.
This wouldn’t happen for about a month, though, as we are to continue observing Gouda – in particular, his ears – over the next month. As expected, he had ear mites and, as seems to be usual, it was pretty bad. He’s going to need time to heal, and we are to try and see if there is any leaking.
We’ll do the best we can!
As I was picking him up and they were finishing off the invoice, the processed the payment from the rescue. I asked, trepidatiously, how much it cost. With the extra treatment and medications, plus the cost of the neuter, I was expecting it to be over $300.
It turned out to be a bit over $160! Which is an amazing price! The rescue gets a really good deal with this vet! Most vet clinics do offer discounts for rescues, but this one seems to be making the extra effort to make spays and neuters affordable.
If the rescue can also find a new home for Gouda, that would be really something. Especially after the person that was going to adopt Button backed out!
I don’t have any dates yet, but the Cat Lady said she had us booked for 2 more males next month.
The Re-Farmer 