We’re melting! Plus, vet trip arranged

February 22, 2021 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Oh, my goodness! It is so incredibly warm out there right now!

The Weather Network app on my desktop has not been working well with our intermittent internet connection, and often will not update at all, but the weather app that came with my computer seems to get through better. (Even while writing a post, I’ll get the red bar across the top, telling me the autosave didn’t work because I have no internet, several times before I’m done!) Between those two on my desktop, plus the one on my phone, we have three different forecasts at the same time. :-D They would be linked to different weather stations. None of them tell me which weather station they are linked to. Ah, well. They tend to be close it enough, it doesn’t matter too much.

We have all sorts of melt happening right now! This is the diverter from our rain barrel; it’s mostly full and frozen right now, so I’m not letting the melt go into it for now. I did empty it in the fall, so all the water in it – minus what I was able to bail out several times over this winter – is from when things got warm enough to melt. A demonstration of how, in spite of the polar vortex we’ve been under for the past few weeks, this has been a very mild winter!

While doing my rounds I, of course, checked on the yard cats. Nosy’s eyes are still leaky, but they are more open. He’s spending much of his time in the cat house, with the white cat with calico markings. I was looking through old files and confirmed that she is Rosentrantz’s baby. I have some photos and video from last spring of her and her orange sibling, being groomed by Rosencrantz, outside the pump shack. We never saw her orange sibling again, and have no idea what happened to it. I am just sort of assuming this cat is also a female, but we really have no idea. She runs off too quickly.

It was Potato Beetle I most wanted to check out. He had looked really messed up, just a few days ago, and had blood on his fur at his back legs, but we weren’t able to see where he was hurt. Yesterday, I saw him and, while he was moving around better than before, he was still messed up. Plus, there seemed to be some (frozen) bloody mucus on his fur on a back leg. I tried to see where it came from and thought there might have been some swelling inside a back leg, but he wouldn’t let me get a better look.

This morning, when he came out for food and water, I was happy to see he seemed to be moving normally again. He was eating with good appetite, and followed me around as I continued my rounds. He even let me pick him up and carry him, at the same time as Butterscotch. When I got back to the house, I was able to put Butterscotch down and try and get a look at Potato Beetle’s back legs and belly. I saw no sign of injury or swelling. There was no longer any dried blood, either. So I put him down and watched as he went into the kibble house.

When is when I saw the matted fur on his hip. I tried to get a closer look, and found it was a wound. My touching the area obviously was uncomfortable and he moved away, but I was able to see the fur was matted with blood and getting into the wound. I am guessing this is from a bite. It’s not a clean wound, like the gash we found on Butterscotch, but a messy hole. From what I can see, he just needs to be cleaned up and will likely need a stitch. Getting him on an antibiotic would be good, too. He would probably be fine if we did nothing at all, but… why take the chance?

So… time to dip into the emergency funds and take him to the vet. Thank God we actually have emergency funds! Before moving out here, we would never have been able to set money aside for any sort of contingency fund or savings. It’s amazing what a different not paying cash for rent makes, even if we have much higher expenses in other areas. :-)

I am going to my mother’s to help her with shopping today, so we will be bringing him in tomorrow afternoon. I’ve already called the vet to arrange it. At least Potato is one of the more socialized cats and will not be a problem to catch. I should still probably close him up in the sun room when I do my morning rounds tomorrow, just to make sure he’s in the area when it’s time to get him into the carrier.

Meanwhile, all the cats seem to be really enjoying these warmer temperatures! Including Potato Beetle with his injury. The younger cats are very rambunctious, playing in the snow and wrestling. They are such fun to watch!

The Re-Farmer

Stubborn Kitty!

January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

After getting Butterscotch’s wound stitched, and keeping her in the house overnight, we’ve been keeping an eye on her to make sure she is doing okay. As much as possible, anyhow.

She is not making it easy!

I had to zoom in, just to get a picture of her NOT letting me come close, this morning. :-D You can sort of see her skinny chicken leg, where the fur has been shaved off on the inside of her right leg. Her tail hides most of it.

She did eventually come over for some pets, though.

She will take attention on her own terms, thankyouverymuch!!

With her constant moving, it was hard to get a look. I had to giggle at myself, “chasing” a cat around, trying to look under her butt.

She seems to be moving around normally, and not favoring the leg more than the other, so that’s good sign that she is not in pain and the injury is healing up.

Other cats were much more friendly.

Nosey is such a sweet cat!

Interesting thing about him is that he wouldn’t come near us for the longest time. He sister would let us come near, which is how we were finally able to snag her and bring her inside before she could get pregnant. Once his sister was no longer around, he became much more willing to let us near, and now he’s one of the friendliest of yard cats!

There was only one problem, though. I had a crowd of cats following me as I did my rounds, which is usual when it’s wonderfully mild as it is today. Butterscotch tends to pick fights with the other cats, but this morning, after she hissed at Potato Beetle when he got too close, he actually went at her! As I moved to break it up, Butterscotch ran off, but Potato stayed, intently sniffing at the snow. Some of her kittens came by, and they started sniffing the snow, too.

When I got close enough, I could could see fresh urine in the snow, and they were very interested in it! My guess is, with the antibiotics and other medications she was given, it smells very different.

Butterscotch, meanwhile, did not go far!

There she is, with her baby. :-D

I love how the cats peek under the garage door like that!

As much as I was able to see of Butterscotch’s wound, it looks like everything is going well. Which is a relief. There is concern of her getting aggressive with the other outside cats, but that would be much more of a problem inside than outside. :-/ Ah, well. She’s a hardy cat and has probably survived far worse, before we even moved out here!

The Re-Farmer

Back outside: Butterscotch recovery update

January 13, 2021 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We ended up keeping Butterscotch indoors, overnight. After 2 hours in the carrier, she was certainly more active and alert after the anesthetic wore off, but she was totally cracked out! We did not feel it would be safe for her to be outside, yet.

She got the basement all to herself for the night. The inside cats were most upset over the closed door! :-D

This morning, my daughter got her into the carrier again (after checking her out) and I took her outside and let her go.

I could tell she was feeling better. As soon as one of her kittens came up to her, she batted him upside the head!

As you can tell, he wasn’t too bothered by that. :-D

Her wound looks good, and she did not seem to be favoring the leg as she walked around. She was soon in the kibble house, having a snack.

When I first let her out of the carrier, she was all about getting the pets, but after that, she wouldn’t let me near her!

After bringing the cat carrier back in, the inside cats were all over it, sniffing away. We’d put a small, soft crocheted mat inside for a bed, and I took it out and put it back into the box bed it’s normally in. Before long, I found Cabbages and Nicco – both Butterscotch babies – obsessed with sniffing it!

My daughters had started to talk about the possibility of trying to keep Butterscotch indoors, but she is much happier outside, and I think even the inside cats were pretty disturbed by her presence. Except Beep Beep, who simply ignored her! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Groggy Kittie

January 12, 2021January 12, 2021 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Well, Butterscotch is home!

Just look at those pupils!!!

She is still recovering from the anesthetic, so we’ve been told to keep her in the carrier for a couple of hours. She is on a 24 hour painkiller, the sutures will dissolve on their own in 3 weeks, and she has the 14 day antibiotic. We’ve been told what to watch out for, but they did everything they could to prepare her for being outdoors as she recovers.

For now, she is in the carrier behind me. We had to ban all the cats from the room, except Beep Beep, who is sleeping and has no curiosity about her “sister” in the carrier. (For all I know, they may be sisters. Or mother and daughter. Or no relation at all! LOL) As we supervised, a parade of cats came by to sniff at the carrier, from all sides, and the top! Which was fine when they were just sniffing. Nicco came to see her mom, but Cabbages had no interest and ran away from the crowd. It was when cats started hissing at Butterscotch that we had to put a stop to it and send them away.

After a couple of hours in the carrier, if she seems alert enough, we will gently transition her back outside.

I suspect she will be quite eager to get away again!

The Re-Farmer

Cat on a … cold, snowy roof! Plus a trip to the vet

January 12, 2021 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I spotted movement in an unexpected place while doing my rounds this morning, and just had to try for some photos!

Yes, that is a cat butt.

This old shed’s roof is falling apart, and it looked like she was trying to decide if she could jump down through one of the holes.

Wise kitty (known as Thickalous, I am told) has decided not to jump into the vast empty space below!

What a funny girl (or boy. We’re not sure).

After this, however, I saw something not funny at all. Butterscotch had followed me as I did my rounds, but when I came closer, she moved away from me.

Which is when I saw blood on her fur, inside her right hind leg.

She was also favoring the leg as she walked. She did allow me to pick her up, eventually, but would not let me look at the wound. I let the girls know and they went out together. Between the two of them, they were able to find a gash in her leg, about 2 inches long and gaping about half an inch. It was clean, however, and not bleeding.

I phoned the vet and explained the situation, including that this is an outdoor cat who does NOT want to be an indoor cat. She still doesn’t trust us, since we tried to bring her indoors while she was pregnant. Because of the size of the gash, we decided that – if we could get her into a cat carrier – we would bring her in and they would squeeze her treatment in between other appointments.

Thankfully, a dear friend gifted us with a hard sided cat carrier. Aside from leaving it out for a while so the inside cats could get used to it, this is the first time we have used it. Butterscotch would have clawed her way right out of our soft sided carriers!

The first thing was to find her. My daughter eventually found her sitting on one of the rotted pallets in the junk pile. She didn’t seem to to want to be there, but also didn’t want to jump down onto the snow! My daughter was able to get close enough to scoop her and carry her for a little bit. Butterscotch ended up in the kibble house, which made it easier for my daughter to bring the carrier close and get her in.

She was not happy about it, but we quickly got her into the car and headed out. She calmed down for the drive, but as soon as my daughter picked up the carrier to bring her into the clinic, she started trying to claw her way through a corner of the door.

They were able to give her a quick examination right away. The gash is just above her femoral artery, so they will suture it. Knowing that this is an outdoor cat, they will be giving her a slow release antibiotic that will work for 14 days.

The vet will give us a call when they are done and we can come pick her up.

Poor thing. We’ll see what they tell us when we pick her up, but we’re trying to think of some way to maybe keep her in the sun room for a few days. We can make a warm little den for her in there, and even use the spare ceramic terrarium bulb for warmth, if we have to, but will it work? When we turned the sun room into a maternity ward a couple of years ago, she hated it and tore through the screen on the door to get out. We’ve replaced that door and got the inner door to close properly, so she can’t do it again, but we know how determined she can be. She may be more likely to hurt herself trying to get out, than being out in the first place.

We’ll see what the vet suggests.

The Re-Farmer

Babies, bills and pills

April 20, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

This afternoon, one of my daughters and I brought our inside mama cat to the vet for a check up. She has been acting very ornery and out of sorts, and my daughter, sweetheart that she is, wanted to get her checked out.

They did some blood tests and even a quick ultrasound to make sure she wasn’t pregnant (ha!), and everything checked out okay. As she is an estimated 10 years old (we’re guessing she was about a year old when she first found us), it is most likely she is in pain from arthritis. My daughter got 2 weeks of pain killers, one every 24 hours, to try her out on and see if she improves.

They’re supposed to taste like cat treats, but she did not want to take it! Normally, I’m able to get the cats to take pills fairly easily (we just gave all of them worm pills, not long ago), but she was pretty upset and fought us off. We gave her more time, then tried giving her the pill in with a piece of meat.

She ate it right away.

Hopefully, this will make a difference. We were instructed to stop giving them to her immediately, if she starts to throw up. I don’t know how long it’ll be before we should be noticing a change, if any. After these are gone, we will know whether or not this is something to continue.

Thankfully, the bill wasn’t as high as we feared it would be. The vet recommended getting her fixed, even at her age, as apparently females that aren’t have a higher risk of urinary tract infections. With my daughter’s reduced hours at work, it’s going to be a while before she can afford to do that.

I really, really appreciate that she’s doing this, because we sure as heck can’t. :-(

Later in the day, my daughter and I disturbed the kitties. I wanted to give them clean bedding, which meant we had to take the babies out of their nests, then persuade the mamas to follow. We had a crate with one of the cat mats I’d crocheted at the bottom to put them in, which meant I could get a good photo of both litters in the process.

Here are Butterscotch’s babies. We now have a soft bed in the old radio she’s made a nest in that is large enough to cover the entire floor, plus go up the sides a bit. The babies will have softness and warmth around them, even when they start getting more squirmy and moving around in there.

Getting them out was a challenge. Two of them were attached, and did not want to let go of the nip! Butterscotch, at least, was fairly easy to lure out after the kittens were taken out.

Beep Beep, on the other hand, needed more persuasion! After taking her babies out, she stayed in the box her next is in and would not come out. The box is under a chair, and I ended up having to take the chair away, then we had to upend the box to get her out. I moved the box aside, as even the floor under it was damp, but as soon as I put it on the floor, she was right back in it!

We don’t have another box the same size, so we flipped it so the damp cardboard is now at the top and able to dry out, put a new clean bed inside, then shifted which chair it was under, so it was on dry floor.

The good thing about concrete floors; we’ll be able to clean and sanitize any messes much more easily!

As soon as the box was set up again, Beep Beep was right in there, and happy to get her babies back.

I think they were all glad to have new bedding, too!

Those furry little worms are so adorable!!

The Re-Farmer

Brakes are done!

March 20, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 9 Comments

Today, I was able to get the van in and finally get the front brakes done.

We’ve got quite a bit of driving to do at the end of the month, so I’m glad to be able to do it now, instead of in the middle of all that.

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One down, more to go!

January 10, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Well, the deed is done.

Little Susan had an appointment with the vet, yesterday, and she is now recovering from surgery!

Since we had to make sure to 1) have her available to take to the vet in the first place and 2) make sure she didn’t eat anything after 8pm the night before, we brought her into the house as quickly as we could catch her, the day before.

It’s not that she was actively trying to escape us. She just wasn’t interested in being picked up or anything.

Once inside, it was… interesting.

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