Lily's kittens

I may have bears and raccoons...

But Cary has a porcupine!



If you want to view it in higher quality (which is very cool) click on the video while it is running. That will take you to YouTube and you can click on "view in higher quality at lower right of the video."

(And Cary has bears and raccoons of her own)

Totalily Water Gardens

I couldn't travel for work without the help of Tim and Donna of Totalily Water Gardens. They care for the cats when I wander across the U.S.

When mom was up for her birthday, we stopped by Totalily during a break between central NYS thunderstorms. I thought I had taken more photos of their beautiful ponds and gardens, but appears I got to yakking too much!






They are located between Spencer and Candor on Route 96, and it's well worth the trip. The wonderful thing about water gardening is that you can start at this time of the year. If you go to a greenhouse now to upgrade your terrestrial window boxes, you'll find that pickings are pretty thin. But if you want to add a water garden, you'll find everything you could want and need at Totalily.

Or go just to dream. :)

Fixed the mower

Last week, the push mower broke. I've already been reduced from a lawn-tractor user to a push-mower user because the lawn tractors are out of commission (won't go there in a blog post). But when the push mower gave up the ghost, I peeled back my lip in a snarl, and then let the anger go. What's a push mower? It's a tiny engine that any fool and the Internet can fix, as long as you are willing. Briggs and Stratton made their engines with people like me in mind. They go and go and go, and when they quit, anyone who can reason from A to B should be able to fix it, if it's fixable. It doesn't take balls to fix a standard push mower.

Turns out I didn't need the Internet. The mower and I had a pow-wow this afternoon and we came to an amicable understanding. It was clear gas wasn't getting to the engine. It would work for six seconds when I primed it, and then it sputtered out. I'm thinking: clogged filter, or clogged line. Or, worst case, a broken line.

So I unscrewed everything I saw that could be unscrewed, and cleaned with gasoline everything that could be cleaned. Then I checked the lines, and realized the gas tank was quite loose and therefore the gasket connecting the tank to the engine gas line was pulling back, leaving a gap. I poked around and realized a bolt was missing holding the tank to the engine (engine? motor? engine? motor? I always get the terms mixed up). I poked around in the barn and actually found a bolt that fit. I put her all back together, and she roared to life.

Bear-the-cat watched all of this from the second floor of the working barn (different from the cat facility barn), and then trotted down the vertical ladder like it was stairs of a house, to say hi. He certainly has made himself at home around here.

Pardon me. It's time to go mow some lawn.

Neighborhood Cats on FeralStat

from Neighborhood Cats (please cross-post):

This past week, word has become widespread on the Internet about a product called FeralStat - its manufacturer claims it is a safe, effective oral contraceptive for feral cats that only needs to be placed in the cats' communal food once a week.

According to an interim statement from the highly reputable Alliance for Contraception in Cats &Dogs (ACC&D):

*In numerous studies over three decades, FeralStat's main ingredient (megestrol acetate) has been found to pose serious health risks in cats, including diabetes mellitus, mammary swelling and tumors, uterine disease, pyometra, and skin disorders. Megestrol acetate is not now, nor has it ever been, approved by the FDA for use in cats.

*FeralStat is not yet known to have completed any formal review process or been subjected to acceptable, controlled studies.

* Because it is a food additive, there is no way to control the amount of FeralStat each cat ingests, and there is the risk of ingestion by wildlife and owned pets.

For the full ACC&D interim statement, please see the attached pdf file.

Neighborhood Cats strongly discourages anyone from using this potentially dangerous product for any purpose. For the latest developments in non-surgical sterilization, we recommend relying solely on information gained from the Alliance for Contraception in Cats &Dogs.

Bryan Kortis
Executive Director
Neighborhood Cats
212-662-5761
www.neighborhoodcats.org

Tumble's Owner Found!

Nancy posted flyers and notices on Craigslist for Tumble and she called tonight with the great news that Tumble's owners saw them and showed up at the door to bring him home!

Tuffy 2 back in his old stomping grounds

Here he is on Valarie's own blog.

New blog friend

Visit 50Kittens.com (or "5K" for short). How's that for a name?

If only...

...it were this easy.

Thanks to Ann, who sent that link at an ungodly hour. Go to bed, Ann!

Kittens and mom, complete with sniffles

The Waverly folks took this lady to Stray Haven for a spay, but she gave birth to kittens before her date came up. They therefore came to stay with us, but not before mom and her older kitten caught an upper respiratory infection--entirely expectable in a shelter with scads of kittens in the isolation area. Green goo usual means "bacterial infection" and believe it or not, with the aid of a towel, mom let me treat her eye.

Her older kitten (no photo available yet) is the nastiest little buggers I've run into for a long time. He is the only surviving kitten from her previous litter, and I can see how he survivied! He also has an upper respiratory infection, and I'm hoping that baby food will tame his wild little soul. When I picked the family(s) up at Stray Haven, I wore my gloves out of respect for the shelter. But when the 8-week kitten lived up to their warning that "he really bounces around" I was glad I wore them. He chomped down hard through the towel and the gloves kept me safe. And that's why ,they cost a mint and are worth every dime. In my experience, the nastier a very young kitten is, the faster they tame up. Let's up this hold true for this fellow!

These little guys aren't biting anyone yet, but since they are so young, there is danger if they also have contracted their mom's infection:



So, once again there are kittens in the house. Hopefully, they'll do OK! They are on Floor One, entirely away from the adoptable cats. And I'll be taking more showers than a human ought to be exposed to, as usual when there are sniffles in the house.

I was very impressed that Stray Haven had at least three staff members working on a Sunday when the shelter is closed. In my personal experience, "Sunday at the shelter" often falls to one lone staff member. Kudos to Stray Haven for their extra help for their animals, and to their cruelty investigator who was on her way our for a call with the sheriff's department.

NYS thunderstorms....

On one hand the thunderstorms are a blessing (I don't have to water the gardens). On the other hand, they are a curse (I can't mow the sopping lawn; the farmers can't hay). We have entered an odd period of "sun one minute, a storm the next" that has plagued us for over a week. I've given up worrying about staying dry. I have mowed in the rain. I have washed cat boxes and cages in the rain. Today I walked with Eliza and Kagen in Ithaca while it "Ithacated" (snizzled rained). Who cares? In NYS, you get wet now and then. At Lorenzo the other day, I met at least four people who admitted they--like myself--did not even own umbrellas.

It does make releasing cats a bit of an issue. I've been trying to get Tuffy 2 back to Valarie and Craig for a week now, and the heaven let loose each time. I just took him over today--finally--and we had a nice 20 minute talk in the sun while Tuffy (they have another name for him, and I blank on it now) wandered back and forth to be petted. An hour later, the heavens are booming and we've just had a downpour. I hope Tuffy was smart enough to stay on the porch!

When I could have used the gray day to keep the truck cool, driving a feral cat and her kittens back from Stray Haven, of course the sun decided to come out with all her glory. So I drove as fast as I dared to keep air moving through the truck, and immediately unloaded the family into the cool of the barn. Thank goodness I'm only 15 minutes away. But it's impossible to judge the weather this month.

I've let it all fold over me as so much circumstance. I'm not sure anymore if my steady calm and dark cynicism is a newfound patience or a backwash of anger. Furniture it took two people to move in, I've managed to move out alone, with no kicking or swearing, even when things get hung up in doorways or have to be hoisted into the truck. Today I walked up Buffalo Street with E and K without a huff or a puff. If there is one benefit of not having husbandly help, it's that I'm fitter now than I've been in five years.

So the thunderstorms are kind, to me. I may have to work in them, or around them, but the drumroll mirrors my anger lately, while still giving the farm (and myself) rain to cool the temper.

Lorenzo Driving Competition in Cazenovia

Sometimes I try to get together with other local cat folk, but they are so busy its hard to get in their schedule. Susan M. and I seldom manage to connect, so I figured the only way to catch her, was to find out what she was doing, and do that to. This weekend she was off to the Lorenzo Driving Competition, in Cazenovia, so I came along. This gave us time in her car to talk cats (and life). And I haven't been to a driving competition since college.

There are any number of festivals this weekend. There is the Grassroots Festival, which may be its traditional glorious and muddy self after the downpours we had, and the Finger Lakes Wine Festival in Watkins Glen, which is a crowded and happy wonder.

However Lorenzo trumps them in that it is quiet, has horses, and is free. There's something to be said about a venue where you can hear yourself think, and people are downright kind to you. There are no jostling crowds. Susan normally drives at this event, but was just watching this year, so I met many of her friends and colleagues as we walked the grounds and visited the horses in the stabling area.









Sadly, around 4 pm it was shut down until 8am Sunday due to storms. If you live in the Cazenovia area and the weather looks OK Sunday, head on over to Lorenzo.

Afterwards, I visited with Susan's cats. She also rescues feral cats.




Susan lives well off her quiet road, and lets her cats out to visit her garden. Lemur gets a drink from her garden fountain:



Tomorrow Tuffy 2 goes home, and we pick up a feral mom and kittens, and another kitten, from Stray Haven. They originated with the Waverly colony, and mom had her kits while she was standing by for a spay. So tomorrow (despite my best efforts to stay kittenless!) we get our first kittens of the year!

A first photo of Norma

Little Norma is the tiny torti in this photo. While she is very friendly when you are tucked in bed (demanding pets, in fact) she is shy about being touched any other time, and she never comes downstairs. Getting a photo of anything other than her butt has been a challenge. Today I snuck up on her. Three seconds later, she was gone.

Plans for the Farm

I've been reflecting seriously on the farm. There needs to be a plan for it, otherwise there is no sense in owning it. When we bought it, my dream was to set up the cat facility. My husband's dream was to farm. Exactly what to farm changed as he evaluated the land. Just because he gave up his dream doesn't mean I can't pick it up. It's a good dream and doesn't deserve to be abandoned.

I am not enough of a farmer to grow produce. It is far too unpredictable, takes considerable knowledge, patience, and skill, and nickles and dimes just aren't going to cut it. The kind of produce I could grow I could only manage on a small scale, and around here you only make money if you can supply a specific outlet (a store, or local restaurants, etc.). The kinds of "forgiving" produce I can grow successfully are really only suitable for me to freeze and use myself (kale, etc.)

However, flowers I would enjoy growing. This was one of my husbands ideas, and we have a shelf full of books to support it. If it turned out there were no market for them, or I did not have the time to market them, they can be given away, and local friends, restaurants, and nursing homes would love them. Unlike gift-zucchini, which gets tiresome after awhile.

I have the space for a cutting garden (for neighbors, and my own use). I have the space to grow one or two flower varieties this year that would be suitable for weddings, and market them last minute (Hey, I didn't arrange for flowers until the week before my wedding, and I couldn't find a single flower farm with flowers available at that time). Like sunflowers, for example. And if people came and cut them themselves, they could get them cheaper than at the market.

That is my preliminary plan. I had been toying with the idea of building a stand at the side of the road. It's a low priority...why build something when you have nothing to sell?

Then last night, I was driving by a former garden market, and noticed they had one of their produce stands sitting forlornly outside. I whipped in (would I be late to the vet's yet AGAIN?) and talked to the men who were putting in big new windows on the building. Did they want to sell the farm stand?

Sell? No, they would give it to me. They not only would give it to me, they would load it for me, and throw in a six foot section of cabinet top, too. They were absolutely sweet and wonderful, and shared their new plans for the building (ice cream!) Apparently someone else had stopped for the farm stand, too, but had not fetched it after a week and a half.

Nancy asked how I'd get it out of the truck (it weighs a ton). I just slid it out right where I plan to keep it. I'll get some landscaping fabric, put down mulch, and build a roof on it. And paint it, of course. I think I'll stay with green. I'll need to stake it down before someone thinks I'm giving it away and carts it off. And I'll probably move it under the tree, where it would be shaded and visitors would be somewhat protected from black flies.




The top is tile. Filthy, of course, from sitting by the road. But I can fix it up and seal it so it's quite cute. And it's small. That's a plus.

I have changed the name of the farm, which was formerly Old Ferris Farm. However, I'm going to mull the new name over for a time, to make sure it's right.

Martha gave me some sunflowers that Liza had started. It's fitting that "friend flowers" be the start of all this. Nothing much will happen this year, but something will! If I can keep the sunflowers from becoming deer food or insect food, just before they are ready to bloom I'll list them on Craigslist as you-cut wedding flowers for a very cheap price, just to see what happens.

There is always a reason why things come your way. Some good things have been happening to me lately, and while I'm not a particularly spiritual person, I had some good mentors when I was in college who taught me that gifts often arrive for a reason. And Rune Hill is right next door, so maybe some of their good light will spill over here as well.

Proof my mom reads my blog

She read this, and got me these:



I laughed pretty hard. The "miracles" list and "priority board" are definitely finding a home on my refrigerator!

Open gardens in Ithaca Saturday

In the category of "being nice to people who are nice to me and having a lot of fun doing it," I told Martha I would be happy to volunteer for a few hours for an open garden event in Ithaca on Saturday.

Oh, woe is me, I had to sit in the beautiful sun for two hours and look at this:





I actually knew a few people who came through the tour, whom I had not seen in awhile, which was an added benefit. I must get out more!

Proceeds went to The Garden Conservancy and the Community Beautification" program.

Tumble ain't a girl

When I felt Tumble's backside on admission and noted a lack of male equipment, I assumed Tumble was a girl. But something about her/his unabashed friendliness and the shape of her/his face indicated "boy." She/he had a small wound under the tail, so I wasn't sure if we had a girl who had a prolapse, or a boy with an unhealed neuter. And Tumble was so friendly he kept spinning around to see what the heck I was looking at. So we let the vet decide.

Verdict: Tumble is a newly neutered male, with some scrotal tissue poking out of the incision, which they took care of. Since he was friendly, I foisted him back off on Nancy, who had rescued him (a highly experience fosterer for a variety of animal rescue organizations), and she is taking photos and reporting him as found, so hopefully we can locate his owner. Unfortunately, there was no microchip. He was likely hit by a car (or jumped out?) so he is one lucky kitty.

He is FIV/FeLV negative, a bit talky, and extremely friendly. He seems OK with Jack, Nancy's dog, but obviously has not been exposed to ceiling fans! "Whoa, what is that scary thing?" If we don't locate his owner, he will be up for adoption. Perhaps Felyne will come visit him when she comes East (unfortunately we are pretty far from Pittsburgh!).

Thank you also for Nancy for generously donating to the vet fund to cover his care.

Reflections on housekeeping, laundry edition

Do you suspect that when your favorite brand of liquid detergent suddenly comes out "new" "improved" and "concentrated" that they simply put the same stuff in a smaller bottle, say you can use less, and charge you more?

And is there a "word" for when you throw your underwear in the washer, and don't notice that a leg hole fell over the agitator until the wash cycle is done and you pull out a grossly deformed piece of personal clothing?

Yes, I have the morning off (work an extra hour a day for four days, get one morning free for the summer!), which slightly skews my mental functioning.

Adopter photo: Ben!

Ben has a new friend, adopted from a shelter in the Tri-Cities area (I have to run back to the email to see which one and link it). It looks like he has perhaps even learned to share!

Blogger being a PINTA with photos

Blogger apparently does not want to load photos right now. So I'm afraid my return to cat blogging will have to wait until tomorrow!

Tumble is off to the vet tomorrow. Tuffy 2 is ready to return home. I spent an hour in the cat facility tonight, combing, combing, combing... Poor Fluffy. He is so good about it, and he so wants to bite me as I keep pulling at his long fur. Instead he just gives a pathetic meow and lifts one of those huge paws in a warning...

Some of them love it. Buttons thinks a comb is heaven. Even Perci let me comb her for quite awhile tonight. Espie also loves to be combed, but she doesn't need it. Dustin's coat came out in gobs, but it only took one session, and now she's glossy and shed-free. It's amazing how different their coats are.

Storm is long-furred but never gets a mat, and never needs to be combed. Which is a good thing because she starts to whine a warning as soon as she sees the comb in my hand.

I got quite a bit of cat laundry done this evening, cleaned the house, poured out the vodka and whisky since I'm certainly not going to drink it and it still sits here unclaimed, FINALLY sold the lawn tractor (which will hopefully stop the progression of interested farmers appearing at my door every day) and LOOK! I'm getting to bed before midnight!