Well, it’s done. Our Wolfman is gone off to new adventures.
His eye actually looked a lot better today – he just really hates it when I try to take his picture! – but we could now see something different about it. Where, before, there seemed to be a dent in the eye, the eye no longer looks shriveled but now has a spot sticking out, like a little pimple. You can see it in the photo.
The Cat Lady took one look, and said that it’s a hematoma, and that this is not from a scratch, but blunt force trauma. One of her own cats had the same thing. What likely happened is that, while horsing around with the other cats, Wolfman ran into something.
Which wouldn’t surprise me, considering how often we’ve tried petting a cat, only to have it poke itself in the eye with one of our fingers!
He’ll be kept somewhat isolated in a kennel (there will be other cats in the room), and then see the vet tomorrow. Depending on how things he, there’s a free special eye clinic happening on Monday that she may take him to.
As we talked, I discovered I was wrong about how many permanent cats they have. It isn’t 17.
It’s 21.
Plus another 8 that are up for adoption, so Wolfman puts them at 30 in total!
He will be an easy one to adopt, though.
We ended up talking about some of the other “problem cats” they haven’t been able to find homes for, including at least one other that was adopted out but returned, repeatedly, just like the one from us. We never named him, and weren’t even going to pass him on to the rescue, as he was so sick we didn’t think he’d survive. He wouldn’t have, either, were it not for them! They’ve named him Leo.
They were told repeatedly that he wouldn’t last long. They tried to have him fixed twice, and his heart stopped when they put him under. They resuscitated him and the final time they tried to get him fixed, they didn’t put him under at all, but used a local anesthetic. He’s had other times when he’s stopped breathing. Yet, he keeps recovering! He’s become a big muscular brick of a cat, too. That doesn’t surprise me. He would be one of Shop Towel’s progeny, like Tissue and the Printer Babies. Tissue is also solid muscle, and so are several of the white and greys outside.
The Cat Lady also had some donations for us, including some surprises.
I knew she had kibble for us, and then she said she had some litter boxes for us, but wow! There is so much!
The funny addition is that round litter box you can see in the back. That was Leo’s litter box, barely used. He would go into the box, but then couldn’t figure out how to get out of it. Instead, he would just go around in circles.
She jokes that he’s the dumbest cat they’ve ever had.
Along with what turned out to be three litter boxes, there was 8 bags of kibble, 15 cat milks, and more than a dozen bags of fancy, high end treats. She’d actually bought the treats for her own cats, but they wouldn’t eat them. In fact, Cabbages stole a bag, put it in a litter box and tried to bury it!
I already gave some to our cats, and they went bonkers for them! Totally love them!
The cat milks are going to come in handy for our elderly Freya. She needs the extra calories!
There’s also a little cat scratching tower with a couple of dangly toys, which is now an upstairs cat toy. There was even a little litter scoop hidden among the stuff!
This was an incredibly generous donation, and really helps us out a lot! Especially the extra litter boxes. The smallest one will be tucked away to be used for those times when we have to isolate a cat. In time, we hope to replace most, if not all, of our litter boxes with covered ones.
While transferring all this stuff from her vehicle to ours, the Cat Lady said that she’ll have more for us, next month! Which is totally amazing! I’m just to thankful for ever bit of it.
After we parted ways, I took advantage of being in town to do some errands, but that will be for my next post.
I got a call from the Cat Lady this morning. We will be meeting tomorrow afternoon, so I can drop off this handsome dude.
He even has an appointment with the vet, the next day. I keep thinking the eye is looking better, but then the light hits it, and it starts glowing a horrifying red. I hope it won’t take much to get him healed up. The Cat Lady and her family are already afraid they might end up keeping him. He’s such a beauty, and so very sweet! I told her, just post a picture of him with that tail, and they will have people lining up for him!
I learned something interesting during our conversation. They have a cat from us that got adopted out – and returned! – three times, so they’re now keeping him permanently. He was so very sick when they took him in, and still has returning health issues, which people had said they understood and were willing to work with, but then, didn’t. Their daughter that took such good care of Cabbages has been taking care of this one, too, and they adore each other. She’s excited to know that one of his cousins is soon to join them! When she leaves for school, he will sit at the window in the door all day, waiting for her to come back. Even the dog adores him.
It turns out, he’s a Down’s Syndrome cat.
I didn’t even know cats could have Down’s Syndrome.
He was seeing a different vet one time when the vet took a closer look and told the Cat Lady, this is a Down’s Syndrome cat. She had no idea, either, but he explained what he was seeing that identified the diagnosis. It does explain quite a few things, both with his health issues, and behavior.
The Wolfman, however, should be a much “easier” cat for them. He is already fixed – she was happy to hear that, as she was already planning ahead to get that done – and once the eye is taken care of, that should be it.
I’m so grateful that they’re willing to do this. We’re still waiting on my tax return, so who knows when we’d have been able to get him to a vet – or even if my return would be enough to cover the bill. We absolutely must get that pill switch replaced on the septic tank once the money comes in, so whatever was left after that would have been it.
So we’ve got one more day to enjoy the Wolfman’s company. He’s such an easygoing cat, he will handle things quite well, and will make some lucky family very happy!
Meanwhile, I brought up the idea of doing some sort of fundraiser for the rescue in the summer. There isn’t much we can do to help out, but we can at least help with something like this!
Yesterday was incredibly gorgeous, reaching 8C/46F, bright and sunny. Things were melting all over the place! I’m loving the longer days, too. My daughter was able to slog through the snow to do a perimeter check I haven’t been able to do for some time, and tells me she is seeing signs of new growth all over the place.
As I write this, we’ve reached our expected high of 6C/43F, with a “feels like” of 11C/52F The outside cats are in heaven with these temperatures!
There’s the cat with the messed up eye, which seems to be doing better. I counted 32 this morning. I did not see Sad Face anywhere.
Speaking of messed up eyes, Wolfman’s eye really does seem to be looking better to me. I got a call fairly late last night from the Cat Lady about him. She’s just gotten a call from the vet! He’d felt bad about not really answering her when she showed him the pictures of Wolfman and he kinda blew her off. So he took another look at the pictures. He thinks there is still vision in the eye, and it can be saved. There’s a non-steroidal drop I don’t know the name of that he thought would be the right treatment. The Cat Lady told me has a cat she’d used this stuff on before. She had been sure this cat would lose it’s eye, as it was all shriveled. When this stuff was prescribed to her, she had been shocked. She’s never seen such a tiny amount before. A single drop is applied, every 2 weeks, for a 6 week treatment. So, 3 drops total – at about $100 a drop! However, after just the first application, the next day the eye looked almost completely recovered, and the cat is still doing fine. The vet is aware of the situation, though, so if Wolfman in brought in, under her name, he does have samples he can give her for free. !!! Technically, he’s not supposed to give them out to the general public, but she’s a rescue, and they’ve got a good working relationship. They are a business, though, and need to do things the right way.
So next week, I’ll meet up with her with the Wolfman, she’ll take him in for the usual shots and blood tests, and he’ll get his eye properly checked out. Who knows. He might not need this stuff, after all. The main thing, though, is that the vet thinks there is still sight in the eye, and it can be saved. At least that’s what he can say based on just looking at the (rather horrifying, I thought) pictures of the eye.
After all the usual vet care and assessments, Wolfman will then be officially put up for adoption. I told her, I would expect him to be adopted out fairly quickly. He is such a gorgeous cat, with this massive, fluffy tail! Talking about him with her family, it seems they are already bracing themselves, though. So many cats from us have become permanent members of their household, they’re half expecting to fall in love with him and keeping him. 😂😂 He’ll be going into the “cat room” part of their house, for the adoptables, with other cats, but if he ends up in the regular household…
They know themselves too well!
That got us to talking about some updates she got from other cats they found homes for, for us. She sent me a picture of one bonded pair that were adopted out together. One had been so very ill, but is now fully recovered. They are currently hanging out at their winter home, in North Carolina, where they had been flown out first class (!!) and are living in the lap of luxury.
Can she find people like that to adopt me, please?
Then there was another pair they adopted out for us. One of them we’d named Plushy, because she looked like a gorgeous, fluffy stuffed toy. She has another name now. Shortly after adoption, she had a sudden emergency surgery that everyone was surprised by, and ended up having a portion of her small intestine removed. There had been zero sign of any problems, then boom, this happened. She recovered very well, though, and the couple that adopted her and her buddy just dote on them.
They also entered her into a cat show. The show was for Norwegian Forrest cats and Maine Coons, but of course there is no lineage for Plushy, so she was entered in the “long haired house cat” category.
She won third place!
So she is certified gorgeous!
I’m absolutely delighted that these former yard cats are now in such loving homes, and living their best lives.
The Wolfman is not even a year old yet, but he’s already a stunner, and I think we’ve got another David happening – we think he’s going to be a big, fluffy boy! So different from his siblings. Soot Sprite is getting bigger, but he’s still a very slight cat. Tiny, The Beast, on the other hand, looks like she’s going to stay pretty tiny! She’s another stunner, too. They are both short haired cats, and absolutely sleek.
Oh, I almost forgot. The Cat Lady has been talking to the vet at the clinic that still does cheap spay days. While they will also do males on these days, they’re looking to do a males only day in the near future. That’s good news for us, because among the outside cats, the most socialized ones that we could easily get into carriers, are all male. If we could manage to get Sad Face in there, that would be amazing, but getting him into a carrier would definitely take some doing! He’s such a big boy, too, there’s only one carrier we have he would even fit in. We can easily find 5 outside cats for our 5 hard sided carriers, if the Cat Lady can things out. We’ve also got the 2 soft sided carriers, so we could potentially bring in 7 cats, but with outside cats, they might actually tear their way out of one of those. They may be more socialized, but stuffing them into a carrier is something else entirely!
We shall see how that goes. We’re still waiting on our tax returns. I hear these are delayed because Canada Revenue had to fire several hundred people who inappropriately got CERB money during the illegal lockdowns. Not very encouraging to know so many tax department employees had no problem committing fraud, but not very surprising, either. Hopefully, the refunds will be processed soon. Aside from potentially paying for cheap neuters, it’ll be nice to finally get the pill switch replaced on our septic tank, so we’re not having to turn the pump on manually several times a day!
Ah, well. It is what it is. It’ll work out.
Meanwhile, I’m still giggling over the updates on our adopted out yard babies. I knew we had some really gorgeous cats, but now it’s official; some of our yard cats are show quality gorgeous!
It’s been a quiet, homey sort of day today. Not much to write about.
I head-counted 31 while feeding the outside cats this morning. Then, as I was returning from my morning rounds, I saw Broccoli and Sprout had arrived – they, at least, are very distinctive! – making 33 in total.
I heard back from the Cat Lady about Wolfman. She talked to the vet about his eye, but the vet would not comment either way without seeing Wolfman directly. I was hoping to at least get a ballpark figure on what a removal might cost, if one is needed. So she will let me know the next time she needs to be near our usual half way meeting point to pick up Wolfman and pass on some kibble donations.
As for Wolfman, if we were to go strictly by his behavior, you might miss that there is anything wrong at all. Just a little while ago, I saw him dashing around me, and it does seem like he can still see through that eye. Given what it looked like in the photos I managed to get, that’s surprising. He may simply have gotten used to it. She still sometimes squints with the one eye, but that’s about it. There is no appearance of discomfort, and he’s his usual playful self. He’s even still play fighting with his adopted siblings, which may well be how the eye was injured in the first place!
In other things, I’ve decided to try sprouting the seeds I got soaking yesterday, before potting them. They are now between layers of damp paper towel in a take out container. With large seeds like this, I covered the semi-transparent lid to reduce light exposure, and I did also scarify their outer shells.
While tending the seedlings, I noticed a strange thing with the large tray that has the eggplant and hot peppers. Most of them are getting nice and big, but a few seem to be wilting, and are more stunted. The stunted ones are all on one side of the tray.
I need to look up my old post about starting these. This tray may be the one where I ran out of one brand of seed starting mix, and opened a bag from another brand. Most of the cells in the tray would have a bit of both, but one end would have had only the second brand.
What I didn’t do was mark which side that was!
If this tray is the mixed brand one, then the San Marzano tomato tray is all the second brand. So far, they seem fine. In fact, I’ll be needing to add more mix to top up the cells around their stems soon. I’ll leave them in these cells a while longer, before I thin by transplanting.
Ah, I just went and looked up my old post. Yes, this is the tray with the two different brands of seed starter mix. Considering that I had the tray mostly full before I had to open the second bag, there would be fewer cells with the second mix, only, and the others would have had the first brand in the bottoms, and then just got topped up with the second brand before the seeds were sowed. Which means the smaller number of cells that have stunted seedlings in them would most likely be the ones with the Miracle Grow brand of seed starting mix. I believe the other brand was Jiffy, but I’m not sure.
Dangit. I should have taken better notes! Ah, well.
We have more seedlings that we need, so if some don’t do as well, that’s okay. At long as we have at least a few of each that survive transplanting, we’ll have enough for our needs.
Considering what time I made my last post, I’d say it was an excellent start to the day – we have a toilet that flushes again, and it’s still flushing. 😄 In fact, it’s working better than ever.
We have got to find more of that bio stuff!!! If I can’t find it locally again, I’m even willing to Amazon it.
I should call the plumber back and leave another message, saying we don’t have an urgent need for him to come out anymore. Getting that main drain pipe cleared still needs to be done, but it can wait a bit.
It’s still rather chilly out there, but we’re supposed to reach a high of 4C/39F this afternoon. With a bit more melting, we should be able to drive into the yard again, which means finally being able to load up the truck and do a dump run. The dump is open tomorrow, and highs are supposed to drop below freezing again after today (so much for the long range forecasts have highs above zero for the rest of the month!), which means our skating rink driveway is going to have a fresh layer of ice on it. At least it’s not the roads! There are some patches, of course, but for the most part, the gravel roads are clear of snow and ice.
I didn’t bring our water jugs to do our refills when I did my mother’s shopping yesterday, so I’m debating going into town today. The thing is, I’m going to meet up with the Cat Lady with Ginger some time this week – she’s not sure what day she can meet me, yet, but assures me it’ll be this week. Hopefully, they won’t have any more disasters like losing part of their roof in the high winds we got a few days ago! Since I’ll be meeting her at a half way point that’s close to a Canadian Tire, I would rather wait until then. Their refills are almost half the price as locally, plus they have a sanitizing station for the insides of the jugs. If we manage to do a dump run tomorrow, though, I might just combine trips. We’ll see.
I don’t mind hanging onto Ginger a bit longer, but he’s still being harassed and bullied, so the sooner he can be adopted out, the better.
*sniff*
Speaking of cats, check out this crowd at feeding time this morning.
If you look closely at the black and white cat on the left (Adam), you can see something in her fur. That’s a big matt of burrs! She also has some stuck in her tail. Yesterday evening, the tip of her tail was actually stuck to the burrs on her hip!
The problem is, like all the other females (including the three around her), they won’t let us near them. Even Junk Pile, who for a short time came to me for cuddles after she lost her litter, won’t let me touch her anymore.
Today, however, I had some success with Adam!
While she was eating on the roof, I came up behind her and put my hand on her back. Normally, she’d notice me and run off before I could touch her. This time, she was startled and looked at me, but then kept eating. So I started giving her shoulder rubs – and she let me! For a little while, at least. Then she moved out of reach. No matter! That was the most contact we’ve managed to get with her, ever!
In the back, on the right, you can see a tuxedo. That’s another one we can’t get near, so I’m assuming it’s female, too. That’s the one with one damaged eye. I was able to get a fairly clear view of it this morning, and half of the pupil is looking brownish now. I suspect that eye will be lost. The cat doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort, but cats are weird that way. I remember when we had Ginger in the sun room, waiting for his appointment to remove his leg, and Ginger was rolling around on the floor, leg flopping and bending all over the place, like it was nothing!
Speaking of eyes…
We need to keep an eye on the Wolfman (formerly Pom Pom). Yesterday, the girls noticed one of his eyes was red and had swelling around it. I haven’t been able to get a look at him today. It’ll take two people to check it out properly, and maybe apply some eye drops, or assess if this is going to require a vet trip.
My daughter also asked me to keep an eye out for one of the “printer babies”. That’s the term they use for all the white and grey cats, collectively, since they can be so hard to tell apart. When she was dumping out the cat litter behind the outhouse, she saw one through the trees, hop-walking while keeping one back leg off the ground. I hadn’t seen anything like that when I fed them last night, nor did I see any limping or favouring of limbs this morning, so I hope that whatever was bothering the cat healed up. The alternative explanation is, I’m simply not seeing that cat at all.
Well, I got a bit of good news from my husband, while I was writing this! He tried looking up the drain maintenance stuff on Amazon, but only found another brand. It was marketed as “green”, but I couldn’t see anything on the label about what was in it that made it work. I didn’t throw away the empty bottle of the stuff we used, so he was able to look it up by brand. It turns out another branch of the hardware store I bought it from has plenty in stock. It’s only an extra 10 minute drive away – and the dump is about 1/3rd of the way there, so it would be convenient to keep on going, after stopping at the dump.
If I can get the truck into the yard tomorrow. We really, really need to do a dump run, but the path to the garage is even more slippery now than ever!
Driver is putting full weight on that foot, and he’s no longer limping! He even followed me around while I was doing my rounds, running ahead, flinging himself to the ground and rolling in the snow.
I only counted about 23 or 25 yard cats this morning, but one of them was Judgement. He was hanging out in the sunroom again, and looking just fine. I wasn’t able to check his nethers to see how things were healing up, but he did allow me to pet him.
As for the indoor cats, Wolfman is behaving as if nothing happened. Beast is behaving normally, too, but has been avoiding me more. Tissue is still mad at me, even as she cuddles against my legs at night. PBC has been running away and hiding more. I think a couple of the other cats have been less than welcoming, and she’s nervous. She hasn’t allowed me to pet her lately. She is, however, exploring the house, and the girls have found her upstairs. We will still keep the basement door closed, at least until she’s healed up. We don’t want her getting her incision infected, dragging her belly on the floor while exploring under shelves. She’s all over the place! Meanwhile, Butterscotch barely even goes out the door and into the hallway at feeding time. The little one is much more willing to check things out, while the grand old lady just wants to sleep in my pants shelf all day. 😁
As much as we need to keep trying to find homes for all these beasts, and they’re eating us out of house and home, I sure do love them dearly!
Shortly before 6:30 am, I got the girls to try and get Shop Towel into the big carrier in the sun room while I got the others into the smaller carriers. They made sure to put on jackets and gloves to protect themselves from getting clawed! It didn’t work, so we ended up snagging Judgement.
By the time we got them all set up (Tissue started to panic as soon as she saw the carriers lined up on my bed!), the gate open (the slide bar was frozen in place by recent rain), and the carriers into the truck, it was almost 7 am. Road conditions were good and the drive went well. It was still full dark when I left, but full light when I got to the clinic, about 10 minutes before the 8am drop off time.
I was the first one there, which I appreciated, since it gave me time to warn them about Tissue and Judgement, both of whom tried to tear their way out of the carriers during the drive out. I never saw which one it was, but from the smell, one of the cats had a stress poop along the way. 😞
After the paperwork was done, I paid for two, then hung out until the Cat Lady arrived. She called ahead to say she was going to be a bit later than expected. Muffin has had all her teeth removed, so they had to force feed her, since her gums are not healed yet. Her husband tried to hold Muffin wrapped in a towel, but she got out. The Cat Lady got clawed up, and even got bit – or should I say, gummed – on her palm. It all took far longer than expected, and in the end, she had to leave her husband to try and finish feeding her.
We’ve been talking about getting that fluffy tortie – now called Peanut Butter Cup, or PBC – adopted out. She needed to get back to me about whether or not she could take PBC today or not. She recently took in three rescued males; they’d been dumped near a farm, and the farmer didn’t want cats, so he never fed them. Which isn’t too bad in the summer, but in the winter, hunting is very lean. So she’s treating them for worms while getting them carefully fed to get to a healthy weight before she can put them up for adoption.
The good thing is, she now has a completely separate, heated shed that she can use for cases like this!
She said she would get back to me within an hour or so to let me know about taking PBC right away or not.
Once we connected and she took care of the bill for the other three cats, she passed on some donated supplies for us. Several cat beds, blankets and a fluffy towel, a new litter box, some cat food and treats, and a cat-size hard sided carrier. The carrier is missing most of the wing nuts to hold the two halves together, but I’m sure I can find new ones, somewhere.
After that, I could finally go for some breakfast and hang out until I got a call to pick up the cats. I ended up just going to a nearby Walmart, with a McDonald’s inside, because not much else was open, yet. Plus, it gave me a chance to do a bit of shopping, since I was there, anyhow. I ended up getting a larger, covered litter box. Eventually, I want to replace all our open litter boxes with covered ones, but they have to be larger. The one smaller one I have in my room doesn’t get used as much, and I think it’s mostly because of the size. Most of the adult cats don’t seem to like it, though they’ll use the one big one we already have, just fine. That one has three broken latches, so it needs to be replaced, too. We’ll see how the cats do with this one before getting more.
I did hear back from the Cat Lady, letting me know she would not be taking PBC quite yet. She’s going to focus on getting the three starved and sick males she took in. Once she has the space again, she’ll take PBC and Ginger, with a priority on getting Ginger adopted to a calm home, where he won’t be bullied by other cats.
I’m pretty pragmatic about saying goodbye to the cats, but just thinking about adopting out Ginger gets me a bit choked up. I’m going to hate saying goodbye to him, but he really deserves a better situation. Frankly, I’d rather adopt out the bullies, but they’d be much harder to place than him!
I ended up getting a call from the vet shortly after 11, letting me know they were ready for pick up. Really fast! They probably didn’t even start surgeries until 9 am, at the earliest.
The Beast was in the soft sided carrier, so she got the front seat.
The other carriers stacked up securely in the back.
I think Judgement was done last, as he was still pretty groggy. Wolfman was, surprisingly, the most desperate to get out of his carrier. He almost knocked his carrier right off of Tissue’s! He and Beast where the most alert and active. PBC was quite calm on the drive home. Tissue, while still pretty groggy, was clearly in half-panic mode.
The drive home was… interesting!
As soon as I was outside the city, I was driving into light snowfall. The further north and west I drove, the heavier the snow. By the time I was in the final stretch of highway from my mother’s town, the snowfall was heavy, the highway was covered, and visibility was poor! It was light, fluffy snow. The sort of snow I could appreciate as being very beautiful – once I was no longer driving in it!
I was very glad to get home, that’s for sure.
Once we got them inside, the carriers were all stacked on my bed to start with. I made sure there was food and water in the sun room, along with a couple of new beds for the outside cats, before putting Judgement in the carrier in. I set a bowl of food inside with him, and the heated water bowl was just outside the carrier, then left the carrier door mostly closed, so he could come out whenever he felt ready to.
Tissue was starting to try and tear her way out of the carrier by the time I got back. We put food out for the other cats to lure them away, then food in my room – with the door closed – before letting them out of the carriers. Normally, they should have been left in the carriers longer, but we didn’t want them to hurt themselves. Tissue was still in panic mode. Strangely, Wolfman was pretty wired up, too! The Beast actually stayed in her carrier and had to be persuaded out. The problem with the soft sided carrier is that other cats try to climb on top, and don’t care if there’s a cat inside, getting squished!
I wanted to leave my door open, but we had concerns that PBC would end up hiding somewhere in the basement. So, after making sure not cats were in the basement, I closed the door.
It’s a good thing we got extra litter boxes because, with the door closed, they no longer have access to the litter boxes down there!
The new litter boxes are now set up.
It’s getting hard to find space for litter boxes.
So far, all seems well. We do have a few cats that are growling at PBC, but most of them are pretty laid back out there being a new cat in the house. We did keep her closed up in my room for the night. To make it easier for fasting, we put all the food bowls away, so there was no need to close up any other cats. Which meant I was getting up many times during the night, opening and closing my door as the night wore on. They were looking for the food bowls. Finding another cat in the process was far less interesting to them! On top of that, PBC tried exploring my room, which meant things getting knocked down that needed to be picked up.
I got next to no sleep. It’s all I can do to not go back to bed right now, but if I do that, I’ll really mess myself up!
The usual cats have hissed at PBC. Fenrir, of course. Big Rig. Meanwhile, Cheddar and our old grandma were all ready to start grooming her, though she only allowed sniffing. When it comes to human attention, though, she is quite enjoying the pets. Still not keen on being picked up, but starts purring almost instantly when we pet her! She’s going to love being an indoor cat. Whoever adopts her is going to get a real long haired beauty!
As I’ve been writing this, I’ve been able to keep an eye on her. She’s made no effort to leave my room, yet, and I’ve seen her eating, which is good.
I’ll feel much better once I’ve seen her use a litter box, though! 😂
So, that’s five more done. No more inside cats need to be fixed. We can now focus entirely on the outside cats.
Little by little, it’s getting done!
The only problem is, without being able to do the females right away, we’re going to be dealing with more kittens before we can get much progress!
Yyo. I’m still blogging with my phone. Please forgive any typos I miss!
With the constant restarting, followed by the screen saying to check our Wi-Fi, and no way to bypass it, we tried something different.
My husband had suggested setting the computer up in the living room, where the Orbi signal boosting device is located.
There was no way I was going to haul everything over to do that.
So,,my husband brought the device to my room, instead.
The risk of that is twofold. One, the log walls of my room could affect its ability to improve signal to other parts of the house and two, my room is not a cat free zone. The risk of the device being pulled down, knocked over, etc. was much higher. We ended up setting it on the top of my wall shelf, so it’s now just the power cord that needs to be watched out for.
Did it work?
Well… sort of?
We dud a hard shut down to set things up. When I turned it on again, it went back to where it left off – this machine behaves as if it was in sleep mode, rather than powered down – when through the first part of the loop, got to the “Just a moment…” screen…
…and stayed there.
I left it and went to bed. Of course, I couldn’t sleep, so I checked it frequently. No change.
I finally fell asleep, and when I got uo this morning, there was still no change!
I went to do my morning rounds, and when I got back, there was finally a change.
It was off.
I turned it back on, and it went straight to the “Just a moment…” screen.
Then it restarted.
Since then, it has restarted itself and gone through the loop 5 or 6 times in the last hour.
I dud call the customer support number, but they aren’t open in California, yet. I left a message, asking for a call back. With the time zones, they won’t be open for almost another hour from the time I’m writing this.
What I hope is happening is that the computer is finding updates, downloading them, installing them, then restarting. After restarting, it finds another update, and goes through the process again.
The problem is that “Why did my PC restart?” screen. That screen is always part of the loop, which tells me there is a Wi-Fi problem.
Also, there is no other information. No download status bars. No installation status bars. Just “checking for updates” followed by “just a moment…” and then the restart.
I would expect it would take a while to find , download and install updates. I have NEVER had it take this long. We’re at almost 20 hours of this, at the time I’m writing this post.
It’s gotten to the point that I am considering setting up my old computer in the l8ving room and using the TV as a monitor. We have spare keyboards, though not ergonomic ones, and I’m using the new mouse on the new computer, so the old mouse is available. I just don’t know if we have a spare HDMI cable to attach the TV as a monitor. My husband might have one.
Oh, look at that.
The computer is restarting itself again.
*sigh*
Meanwhile…
Temperatures have been dropping since yesterday after, and a light snow started. My highway conditions group has been very busy. Everything is incredibly slippery, with several reports of vehicles in ditches, and at least one very major accident. People were reporting the need to drive at very low speeds, and advising others to stay at home, if at all possible. The high winds were causing many problems, too.
This morning, the snow had stopped where we are, and there was only a light layer on top of the frozen slush. I’m very glad we don’t need to go anywhere today. I hear the sand crews are out, so when it’s time to go to the vet with 5 cats tomorrow things should be safer. I still plan to leave very early, and expect to be taking it slow.
I counted about 30 or 31 cats outside, this morning. Nineteen, just in the sunroom.
Driver, here, is still not using that front leg. It doesn’t stop him from jumping up to the cat house roof, though! I am really unhappy that we can’t take him to the vet.
After he ate and seemed to want attention, I picked him up and cuddled him fir a bit. He was nervous, so I took him into the shelter of the sunroom and gently put him down.
Which, for some reason, caused all the other cats to explode in all directions, which also caused Driver to panic and bolt out of the sunroom, then squeeze his fluffy bulk under the kibble house.
I have no idea what trigged all that!
The ground under the kibble house is coveted by a sheet of rigid insulation, with another under the floor panels above, so that’s a good spot for cats to be. He was still under there, when I finished my rounds.
Tonight, we will grab that fluffy tortie and bring her inside for her overnight fast. Hopefully, in the morning, Sad Face will be around, and we’ll be able to get him in the big carrier. The carrier is already in the sum room, so the cats are used to it. If we can’t get Sad Face, there are many friendly males we can bring in, instead.
I have a sinking feeling, though, that if we bring that fluffy tortie in, we won’t be able to let her outside again. She will need more recovery time than a male, and with the sunroom bring used as winter shelter, it’s not available as an isolation ward.
Unless the Cat Lady is able to take her. The rescue is paying for three of the five cats. She thought the tortie might be easier to adopt, but I don’t know if she got any responses, or was even able to share the picture. I’ll have to ask her about that, today.
We shall see. It would be good if all three littles went off for adoption, rather than coming back here!
I was able to pick him up early. He was completely quiet the entire time, from the clinic to bringing him into the house.
Then, as I went to park the truck, my daughter let him out of the carrier, and he went into overdrive. Not the reaction to expect from a still sedated cat! He was running all over the place!
He also had a whole series of cats following along, trying to sniff his remaining nibby bits as he ran around.
He has finally calmed down and, as I write this, is wandering around the dining room.
While at the clinic, I remembered to go through the list of cats they have on file with us. Some have been adopted, while others have disappeared or passed on. Turns out they had Potato Beetle as two cats – Potato, and Beetle! 😆
While at the counter, one of the staff came by and asked where we found Soot Sprite, and whereabouts we live. I was a bit confused by the question, and just said, in our yard. She was wondering if we were missing a kitten that looks like Soot Sprite. She recently found one!
It turns out, she is a neighbor! She lives off a road a mile north of us, so she takes a paved road, another mile north, to get to her place, rather than the gravel road past our place, So while we live on the same cross road, she has never gone past the intersection near us. I would have driven past where she is, but all the houses along there are hidden by trees, so I only have an idea of her geographical location.
I mentioned we have a lot of black cats this time around, and that the number of cats outside at our place ranges from about 23 to 37, so I couldn’t know if any wandered further her way. Now that I think about it, though, she did say she’d found a kitten like Soot Sprite. Any kittens his size and age have been staying close to the house. My guess is, it would be from another farm out her way.
Though it probably has the same daddy that produced so many mostly black cats at our place!!
Unfortunately, while paying for the neuter and claiming Soot Sprite, I completely forgot to ask her name. That’s not a problem, though. We’ll be back there again, often enough. They take good care of our felines!
We have 3 kittens that did not go for the spay day last time, as they were too small. Two male and one female, all siblings.
This was Pom Pom. We now call him the Wolfman. He looks like he’s going to be a big, shaggy boy! He’s already the same size as the older kittens and Toni.
I don’t know where Soot Sprite is right now, but he is still tiny, like their sister.
We call her The Beast, now.
The problem is, the boys are starting to… practice, shall we say… on The Beast. She hasn’t had her first heat, so there are no concerns in that regard… yet. But we need to act soon.
I got an estimate from the local vet, and ti get both males done, including extras like nail trimming, etc, will be just under $340. Which is what one female would cost. Without the extras, it’ll save us a few bucks.
Meanwhile, I asked the Cat Lady about the next cheap spay day. I got a response today.
They have one for this month, but they are booked solid. The next is Feb. 10. They will do males, but want at least one female in a group, since population control is the goal. These are only $75 per cat, with just the surgery and, if needed, treatment fir ear mites. No wellness check, tattoo or anything else. They just do as many cats as they can. This is on a day the clinic is closed, and the staff all volunteer their time to allow it to be so inexpensive.
I called the local clinic to book our indoor males, but to do both would be more than a month from now. I could book one next week. So I did that. We will bring Soot Sprite in. He may be the smaller one, but he’s been the more… active… one. So he is the priority.
I’ve since asked the Cat Lady to book us fir at least three cats in February. We’ll do The Wolfman and The Beast, plus Tissue. Doing Tissue is a risk, considering what happened before, but with us bringing her in, she might not panic so much. If possible, we will also snag the fluffy tortie from outside.
This clinic tries to have these spay days once a month, though, so if we can start trapping female yard cats, we might be able to start getting them in, too.
I don’t know how much of this the rescue can cover, though. Donations are lean, with so many people struggling just to pay the bills and feed themselves. I have to assume we will be covering it, ourselves. Or, should I say, my daughter probably will be. Hopefully, she will have plenty of commissions!
The Re-Farmer 