Feline Forum, save the date!

In my mailbox today:



September 24-26, 2009 * Marriott Chicago O’hare * Chicago, Illinois

Join PetSmart Charities® for this comprehensive, national conference focusing solely on cats and how to care and advocate for them. PetSmart Charities’ 2009 Feline Forum will cover key topics such as:

Facilitating more, and better, cat adoptions
Managing effective free-roaming cat programs
Reducing disease transmission in shelter settings
Operating a feline-focused spay/neuter program
Understanding cat behavior … in the shelter and in the home
Increasing the lost-cat RTO rate
Examining new perspectives on how to elevate the value of cats in our society

AND MORE!

Details and registration information will be available April 1, 2009, at http://petsmartcharities.org/felineforum.

Gettin a good wash

The advantage of foster homes is they have cats who are not tired of kittens. Nonetheless, I can't believe Simon hasn't tired of Hope, yet!

Pet Note of the Day

Gus!

More boars on cat blogs

Cats and Stuff also blogs on wild boars this week. How odd is that?

Fur everywhere!

And for once it's not in my cat facility!

Feral pigs in the Finger Lakes

What rock have I been living under?

Wild boars in New York State.

Hunter conversation here..

I'm assuming the new "wild" population is due to escapes from game farms, as the population seems localized and I'm not aware migration from the south has reached this far. I'm sorry, but the practice of non-resident species hunted in fenced game farms really needs to end. If you want to hunt, put on your insulated undies and do it the hard way--outside of fences. Inevitably, the "fenced" animals get out, and now this is what we have...another once-noble animal that becomes a "nuisance species" causing real damage in a habitat where it never normally would have been found.

In a short internet search I found all sorts of fenced game preserves near me, one just over the border in PA that advertises buffalo of all things. Do you know how hard it is to shoot a buffalo? It's like shooting a cow, people. If you see one hanging on someone's wall, you have my permission to point and snigger.

Stray Haven Open house December 13

Debra, point person for the Waverly Erie Street TNR project, sent me a photo of Tilly today, a rescued kitten from her colony, and gave me a heads-up on the Stray Haven Open House.

Tomorrow!

Stray Haven plans open house Saturday

Stray Haven Humane Society and SPCA is holding its annual holiday open house from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

The day will include a full lineup of activities, including an ongoing bake sale, raffles, gift items for sale, refreshments and music.

The schedule:

* 10 a.m.: Vestal Middle School Saxophone Ensemble directed by Denise Corcoran.

* 10:30 a.m.: Waverly Central School Flute Ensemble directed by Jeremy Corcoran.

* 10 to 11 a.m.: Blessing of the Animals by Pastor Ann Canfield from the Waverly United Methodist Church.

* 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Pet pictures with Santa.

* 12:30 p.m.: Free pizza and soda or coffee.

Pictures with Santa will be uploaded to a digital site where participants can download or order the photos. A donation is requested for this service.

The event is being held at the shelter grounds, 194 Shepard Road in Waverly.
-- Staff report, Star-Gazette

Thanks, Debra! I'm hoping I can make it!

At least it's pretty

And I managed to get it shoveled out before the mailperson arrived!

Post note: I now see I was lucky not to get slammed by the ice that nailed the rest of New England. I'll enjoy the snow, thanks.

Yes, the hat is back.

Are there even any original Cat Out Loud readers left? It's been a long, long while.

By the by, Amazon discontinued it's Amazon Honor donation program. Thank you to everyone who has donated to spay/neuter via the blog and Amazon. I'll be replacing the Amazon link with a PayPal button once I create a PayPal account that is linked to the Wildrun spay/neuter bank account. My currently PayPal account is linked to my personal bank account and that just ain't acceptable for donations.

I hope you aren't tired of Simon and Hope yet

Because they are just so darned cute!

Rescuers find lost dog...and are themselves rescued

Good news all around. The video is is here (at right). There is a raw video of the entire rescue as well.

It's always insightful to read the comments on internet news articles. So many people critical of the cost. Yet we send full rescue outfits out for drunk drivers who smash into trees (we don't just sit and let them bleed to death), and people who go into dangerous areas despite signs saying "don't" and get stuck on ledges (we don't just leave them to freeze or fall)...we rescue people who throw themselves off bridges clearly wanting to kill themselves (we don't just say, they want to die, so let them go).

But two women go out after a dog, and at least succeed in finding him, and people say "no wonder the state is broke." I guess if it had been two women and a child, everyone would be cheering in unison. And if two women had simply gone for a hike and gotten stranded there probably would be no negative comments, either. But two women and a dog, well, how silly.

Frankly, two women who would go out looking for someone else's dog are probably also likely to throw themselves in the street to save your child as well. We should clone them.

Do you get the feeling....

...that little Hope really likes other animals?




Does the white cat look familiar? So much for Mr. Tough Guy Street Cat.

By the way, Waverly folks, he now weighs (hold your breath) TWENTY THREE pounds.

Whiskers in Winter, January 4th!

Hold the date! Our annual Christmas party is now a New Year's Party, and we hope you'll be able to stop on by.

If you would like to attend, please leave a message in comments or email me at info at americancat dot net (you'll have to translate that in email address format)and I'll send you an invite.

Every year I have a day-long bash (1pm - evening's end) for people to stop in, visit the cats, eat some great food and drink some great wine, and stay for dinner if you choose. Some people come for just a minute, some people stay for hours! I'll be getting invitations out. Everyone who has attended in the past should be getting one. If you haven't attended before but might like to visit, please drop me a line so I have you on my invite list.

There will be more info to come, but I figured I'd best get the date out there.

Kittens to go

This next month is going to include a big adoption push. I have a bunch of cats and kittens that need homes. Hope, the Terrorist Kittens (who appear to have overcoming their sneezes), Emmi, and Bear, all need to be adopted.

Emmi and Bear are a priority. Their presence in the house has caused an Imbalance In the Force that has resulted in actual cat fights. When Bear liked lounging on the front porch, he wasn't a problem in the house at night. But he refuses to go out now that it's cold (smart cat!) and is staking his claim in the house. Ivan is attempting to keep his Alpha Cat status (and frankly, he's too old to be taking on 16 pound Bear), and Emmi just doesn't get it, and ends up being a target for Squeak and Ivan. I woke up last night to squalls and thumping, and found bits of Emmi fur all over the hallway, with Squeak disappearing down the stairs.

Poor Bear has been banished to a run in the cat facility (with daytime runaround privileges on the farm).

Today I'll take another trip to Home Depot for the stair door I've been planning to put in, or a temporary screen door for the upstairs hallway, to keep Emmi safe. Thankfully I can use these screen doors in the cat facility this spring, or I would be grumbling over the waste of money.

The time has come to Poster The World and get ads in the paper, as well as update the Petfinder page. Its Home for the Holidays at Wildrun.

I am thankful...

As I prepare to leave for family gatherings, kittens are ramming from one end of the house to the other. Stodgy Ivan has decided to join the general mayhem, adding the sound of thunder to the pitterpat of kitten paws as he launches off the furniture to join them.

It has been a rough year, but out of difficulties have come so much to be thankful for, mostly in the form of YOU, dear readers. While I've done less rescue this year while life is reorganized, some of you took it upon yourself to fix cats in your own neighborhoods and properties (and in many cases, get them off the streets into homes) and we were some small part of that, in getting some of them fixed. And we did have some handfuls of cats and kittens come through here from existing colonies, to be fixed and placed in homes.

On the money front, Mary and the Leewit Fund, the generosity of several past adopters, the natural gas lease, and the thoughtfulness of a long-absent father who nonetheless included his daughters in his will, have provided a jumping-off point that may actually mean there is seed money for a REAL community spay/neuter fund for outdoor cats. I need to be sure the farm is secure, and that mandatory maintenance is taken care of, that the natural gas lease is real and not just smoke-and-mirrors, and must complete the 501(c)(3) process, but it's looking good.

(as Ivan comes roaring back into the room...Nellie and Ditzy on his tail).

I am thankful for all the friends who have gotten me through my reintroduction to single life, with cards, email messages, phone calls, and dinner out. I received two invitations to Thanksgiving dinner, which brought me to tears. I am thankful for my family, with whom I've had more contact than ever before and who haven't once told me to buck up and get over it, no matter how long they've listened to me ramble on the phone!

I'm thankful for this house, barn, and land, which I appreciate now more than ever before. I am thankful for this good green earth, and the tiny patch of it that I hope to make into something more than just a living space.

So while I lost one thing, I gained so much more, and learned how to love what I have.

I'm extremely thankful for my fosterers, and for Donna and Tim, for looking after my cats while I travel for work. Special thanks to Cary for taking on my bottle babies this year!

I can think of more, but I'll post that on the Feral By Nature blog this evening.

(as Ivan gives up on kittens and tries to cuddle into my lap...which is occupied by the laptop...He succeeds).

So to all of you, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

CFA International Cat Show

I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport on my way home from travels and thought I'd catch up on blogging. While I was here, I stopped at my very first "real" cat show--curious, as I had never attended one--the CFA International Cat Show. I'm afraid I'm not feeling very chatty at the moment, so I'll just post photos.

Terrorist Kittens are slowly getting over sniffles

Not fast enough to make me happy! Tinker, on the right, was finally spayed yesterday. The vet tech brought in two kittens she was fostering to be neutered, and they had a sniffle, too. I gave dire warnings about them swapping sniffles, and the vet told me the tech practically took a bath in Roccal-D between their surgeries.

Tink is going to a new home with a friend of my Mom's. Hopefully next week or the following week.

Velvet gets a grooming

Not much gets me out of the house early, unless it's an opportunity to visit a grown-up adoptee. Now, for some reason I thought her name was Violet, but when I look through my pictures, I find Velvet. Nancy will let me know what her name really is, because I have now confused myself so much I don't recall.

She has grown into quite a pretty lady, but she had some mats on her belly so was off to The Grooming Room for a spiff-up. Nancy let me know that Velvet was going to be in at 9:30 am Sunday, and there I was, believe it or not. It was great to see her owners, who used to foster for me until they filled up their homes with not only Velvet, but Gnocchi as well (who apparently has grown up into quite a pisser, picking on all the other
cats).

Even cats sometimes need a bath, so if yours does, Nancy will help you out!

Caretaker photo: Tuffy

Here's Tuffy, i.e. Teddy2, yet another big ol' tom cat who has found that a guy and an armchair beats being a tom on the street anytime.

Foster photo: Hope

Cuter every day!




Here's a little size comparison (scroll down).

Adopter photos: Zuzu!

Apparently,Zuzu thinks she's hiding.

Buyer beware--mistakes happen

My Terrorist Kittens have an upper-respiratory that refuses to die. They get better, they get worse, they get better... They can't go into new homes if they are sneezing. So I made arrangements for one to go to the vet to pull out the "big gun" medications. The vet did a thorough exam and provided a prescription for Azithromycin, which needs to be obtained from a pharmacy. I trotted up to get it and when I got home, I squinted in skepticism at the label.

1 ml per lb? That would be 10mls for a 10lb cat. TEN droppersful for a single dose. My vet was closed so I called another rescuer who has used Azithromycin and she told me the likely dose was .1ml/lb (my guess as well). I called my vet once I was back in town today. Sure enough, she had marked the prescription "1ml/10lbs" (i.e. .1ml/lb) and there had been a typo by the pharmacy.

Needless to say, I would have some pretty sick kittens if I'd given them 4-5 mls each of this stuff for 10 days. Worse yet, I had a refill to continue it beyond 10 days if they weren't totally resolved.

A) Listen to your vet when they prescribe drugs verbally in the office
B) Read the prescription the vet gives you while you are still in the office. Make sure it matches what you heard her tell you. When the pharmacy takes it away, you may never see it again
C) Make sure what the pharmacy hands you matches what was on your prescription and there wasn't a typo.

This is true of human meds as well as animal meds, of course! Don't fall into the "why should I pay attention to the verbal directions when I know it will be on the label" trap. There are too many steps in transferring the doctor's advice to that little bottle.

Black Cat Rescue blog

Yet another blog by friends! The banner is going to make you laugh out loud. So perfect for a feral kitten blog! And hey, quite the nice homepage, too.

The founders of Black Cat Rescue in Boston used to feed the Fast Food Ferals when they lived in Ithaca. I'm proud to have played a small part in corrupting them to the Feral Side.

Setting boundaries and cleaning up the edges

You know how when you try to do a little of everything, you do nothing well? I've decided it's time to organize my countless ventures. Wildrun will return to what it was created for: a blog on feral rescue. I've created a second blog, Feral By Nature for friends and family who might be interested in the day-to-day. I realize that this is a bit of a nuisance to those who don't mind viewing both. To make it easier, I'll be placing a link immediately to the right for Feral By Nature, so you can just click over if you like.

That way, if someone sets a link to Wildrun elsewhere on the internet, a newcomer won't click in and find themselves in the midst of a rant about over-45-life-in-general instead of feral cats.

The cats all applaud.

The heat's on. The clan finds new sleeping places

And Emmi has discovered there is a heat vent under the pedestal sink! Mmmmmmm....warm! Stretch and curl up. Silly cat!




I just got home from a work trip to Augusta, Georgia, and Ft.Lauderdale Florida. As we flew into Ithaca, I looked down at a white world. Snow! So on the way home I stopped for 4 new tires to replace the bald ones on "Ebu," the white truck, because I need to do some driving for family.

Am I ready for winter? I'm not sure. I went out to the cats at around midnight for one last tuck-in last night. The beautiful bright white fields, the crisp cold, and the porch light over the snowy lawn sure were worth the visit.

Post Note: Alice has posted Emmi here. Thanks, Alice! And I was just talking to my friend, Susan, about how her cat chooses to use the tub as a urinal. I'm glad Emmi has decided that the sink makes a better napping spot than a potty spot.

Election Night at Wildrun

No TV at Wildrun, but CNN has streaming video. I had been hoping to find an election party tonight. I did spend about 45 minutes at Chili's, watching the returns, enjoying a beer and barside commentary, but I needed to get home to build a screen door.

Yes, 11:13 on election night, and I'm starting a screen door. With an enthusiastic Atlanta congregation singing from my laptop.

Make a Difference for Grayson County HS, KY

Donna, who helps care for my Wildrun cats, is a friend of MANY groups, including the Grayson County Humane Society in KY. Please feel free to link or copy this post, to get the word out!

As part of the national Make A Difference Day, the Leitchfield Veterinary Clinic (located in Leitchfield, KY) performed 40+ cat neuters and spays - all free of charge - for cats waiting to adopted or rescued from the local Grayson County Humane Society (GCHS).

With more than 100 cats/kittens now filling every available space at the GCHS, it's BEYOND urgent that the ones that are fully vetted and/or sponsored (i.e. fees paid to be vetted) find loving homes or rescues ASAP.

Any cat that is now at the GCHS can go to an approved rescue group FREE OF CHARGE. Many - if not most - of the cats/kittens that are four-months-old or older, are now fully vetted (spayed/neutered, rabies vaccinated, FVRCPC vaccinated, FeLV/FIV tested, dewormed, and treated with flea preventative) and ready to go. Adoptions - which normally cost $55 for a fully vetted cat - are now only $30. Out-of-state adoptions ARE allowed. To speed up the process, you can fill out an adoption application online at http://www.graysonhumane.org/forms/ .

Transport to the northeast or towards the Chicago area can often be arranged and work is being done to put together a transport for the weekend of November 8th.

Please take a minute to look at the individual photos of the precious kitties in need by visiting the Grayson County Humane Society/SPCA Petfinder web site at http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/KY103.html .

If you can rescue, adopt, or foster any of these fabulous felines or if you have questions about any of the cats that are listed, please contact the shelter volunteers at dwhite@aggressiveonline.net (@aggressiveonline.net) or bethany@mail2cook.com (@mail2cook.com), or call 270-230-8839.

Special Kitty cat food recall, sold at Walmart

Just in case you missed this, here is the link.

Check out Rags to Riches blog

...at this link.

I need to update my blogroll!

We don't need no stinking voting machine...

Well, um, maybe it IS a stinking voting machine. Actually it is the Kitty Caucus.

Two cheetah escapes in one week?

How odd is that?

Escape Number One

Escape Number Two.

I used to work with these people

photo poached from here

Today I realized it was October 31 and I had a truck in the drive whose inspection expired in October. Whoopsie! So I grabbed the computer and drove off to drop the truck at the garage and work for the day from a cafe in Ithaca. My porch light turns on automatically (uh oh, it's Halloween) and I forgot to leave the candy out in a bowl on the porch (yeah, you can do that in my neighborhood, believe it or not). And I wouldn't be home until after dark! I obsessed about my neighbor's kids whose parents would stop at my drive (seeing the lights) to send their children hauling up my hill only to discover I wasn't there.

So I emailed my neighbor and former co-worker Nancy, and warned her not to bother to stop until later in the evening, and not to stop at all unless the white truck was in the drive, since I had committed the Halloween faux pas of leaving lights on when no one is home.

She got my message and replied. Nancy works in the Bio Department at Ithaca College, where I once worked. She sent me the link to the Center for Natural Sciences Building Halloween challenge photos (link below). Ummmm...OK, I miss my old job now! I see that they still are the crazy place they were three years ago. An infusion of new students every year will do that.

Somehow it seems that dressing up as a cat wouldn't have fit in with the horror motif. Be sure to continue hitting the "down" arrow to view all the photos.

Thanks, Nancy (no, not you Nancy, the other Nancy...there are so many Nancys!) for sending this link!

And yes, I did manage to zoom home so that the truck was in the drive in time to catch my handful of trick-or-treaters. So now I don't need to eat all of that chocolate. Just the half a basket they didn't take.

And the dogs just keep getting bigger....

Yeah, this is my itty-bitty-kitty foster home. I guess she likes her dogs big and her cats small. Look! Hope has ears now!

What are you doing for Halloween?

10 million dollar cat

And of course what I drool over is the habitat they have for Tama and her friends at the train station (You can see it in the background during a few shots).

LOL Cats Art Show and....Change.

I can't imagine anyone who found this blog isn't already familiar with the LOL Cats at Icanhascheezburger.com. Most of you will understand how the phenomenon made the leap off the blog page and into an art cafe. If you aren't familiar with LOL Cats, be sure to bookmark the page and check it daily, especially when you are having a bad moment and need a smile.

But if you bought a piece of this LOL viral art, eight years from now would a visitor to your home look it on your wall and understand what it was all about? Or will the phenom be entirely forgotten?

Well, here's a viral video from eight years ago (a Budweiser commercial, be sure to watch the whole thing). I certainly had forgotten it.



However, here's a somewhat surprising follow-up, just released:



Don't forget to vote next week.

True. True.

Way to go, Dave!

Dave Barry adopted a shelter dog!. Appropriately, it is Adopt A Shelter Dog Month!

The Grooming Room opens!

Nancy has been a life-saving "friend of Wildrun" from the day she answered an advert I put in the paper attempting to find a barn home for a tom cat. She didn't have a barn home, but she offered to foster, and I took her up on that in short order.

I'll be there this Saturday for the opening of Nancy and Chris's new venture "The Grooming Room." Here's their info release!


THE GROOMING ROOM
Opening November 1

1015 W. Seneca Street
607-273-1113
(Located behind our friends at Ithaca Grain and Pet Supply)

Let Certified Professional Groomers Chris Hennes and Nancy Cusumano take care of your four-legged family members. We lovingly groom all breeds of dogs, large and small… and cats too!

We met at The Rochester Institute of Dog Grooming achieving our professional certification recognized by the New York State Department of Education. Little did we know, we both graduated from the same high school in Commack, NY, just two years apart…small world.

Chris moved back to the Ithaca area in November, 2007 after living in different areas of the United States. His current family includes 5 dogs, 5 cats, 2 green-wing macaws, and a 75-gallon reef tank. It’s a pretty active household, and one Chris enjoys. He is never lonely!

Nancy is a 20-year resident of Ithaca, a volunteer at the TCSPCA and a member of TCDog. She lives in Trumansburg with her two cats and her four-legged best friend, Jack.

Our philosophy of pet grooming is to take the utmost care of your four-legged family members in a relaxed environment. Whether your best friend is in need of full grooming, a wash and dry, or a trimming of the nails, we strive to make their visit one they’ll want to return to.

Our hours are:
Monday-Sunday through the holiday season
Call for an appointment or just stop by and say hello.
Walk-ins are welcome.

Nancy's blog (where I stole the photo) is Hair of the Dogs.

OK, I'll grow up now. Rant removed

I'm reposting the photo because it is, after all, totally cool.

Thanks to everyone who posted their kind thoughts. I still have the post saved, so I can review your support now and then.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled kitten!

Hope and Rose: Foster photo

I think I'm going to post Hope on Petfinder with this photo. Maybe we can find her a home now, so she's got a place to go as soon as she's old enough and has had her vet visit?

What a cutie.

The Terrorist Kittens are staying another night with Valarie and Craig, and Ditz is oh-so-happy.

Home again

I love airport art--mostly because any distraction is a welcome distraction when I am flying.

So here is the quiz to all those travelers out there -- what airport is this? (Note, the walls have iridescent waves on them which did not come out in this photo, and the waves do not move; just the colors change).

The cats are very happy that I am home. Ditz the snarler is especially happy and is letting me pet her all over, purring her head off, snuggled up next to me on the couch without a single hiss, because the house is kitten-free. Ditz despises kittens.

Wait until I bring the Terrorist Kittens back from their foster home today. She'll be back to her old hissy self, poor lady. However now the big push begins to get them adopted. Tinker already has a "hold" on her. Hopefully we can move them out so Ditz can have her blessed silence once again

Internet, TV, nachos, and beer...

What more could you ask for. I'm in the airport, on my last leg home, and found an internet cafe to numb my senses for the last bouncing miles through the grey skies. If you haven't guessed, I hate flying. I do it, because it's what one does. I like the destinations, but I don't like getting there. Luckily, the VP assigned me a rather interesting project which is ideal for sitting on one's keister in an airport.

I'm looking forward to being home sweet home.

More in a bit, after I've finished my project.

Video of Hope from Cary

Kittens and Packing -- Purrfect Together

My laptop started having issues, and work sent me a new battery and adapter. They arrived today and I cheered. So did the Terrorist Kittens.



Even Bear got in on the fun.



They played for two solid hours with a box, a sheet of bubble wrap, and one piece of nylon strapping.



And then they took a loooong nap next to me while I worked.

I woke them up at one point to hear them purr, and of course one of them had to fart. Argh!

Hope grows up and begins her travel adventures

Little Hope has proven to be a strong little lady, so she's off to PA to foster with Cary, who will spoil her horribly. I love bottle-feeding kittens more than anything, but I have so much travel in the fall, it isn't possible. Even Cary has travel for work, and little Hope will be off on a car trip to Silver Spring on Wednesday. But I have to fly, and planes trump cars when it comes to kittens! Thanks, Cary, for fostering Hope!

Here's a somewhat less alien photo of her:



This is the most easy-care kitten I've ever had. Can you believe she is waterproof? No kidding. You put her under a warm faucet and the water just rolls off her. If you work hard to get her wet, she dries off in mere seconds with a towel. Most kittens end up getting subjected to long towelings or a hair dryer to make sure they don't get a chill. But not Hope!

The Terrorist Kittens will be staying with Valarie and Craig, Donna and Tim are taking care of the cat facility cats, and the one good thing about hunting season is people with guns are happy to house sit.

Farewell, Grizzly

Yahoo has a little popup on the lower right of my screen that shows the subject line of the email message if it is sent to my Yahoo address. And around 5:45pm the popup said "Grizzly."

It's never good when an adopter emails with just the pet's name in the subject line.

Grizzly apparently got out of the house on Sunday while the family was out of town, and was hit by a car. He was euthanized today due to injuries.

Plushie and Pickles came from the same colony.

Well, he had six years he might not otherwise have had.

Sigh.

One of the worst parts of looking through the old photos to find one of him was to realize how many cats are no longer with us. Some stubbornly live for nearly two decades, but disaster strikes so many.

Rest in peace, Grizzly.

Kitten Play

Set for fuel for the winter

The wood arrived today. Phil and Cindy hauled it out over two days, and hauled in as well their 4 month old son! What a cutie. He sat in his removable car seat and watched mom and dad toss wood out of the truck beds, into big piles that I'll now de-construct and stack.




There's something very satisfying about having this much wood on hand. I'll make sure I get the next batch in spring so it can season over the summer.

He tastes like chicken

Beats being a country back road cat though. Looks like he's got a great home. Here's his "feral" shot. What a lucky cat that Valarie and Craig got him a place so call his own! Well, shared with a puppy, that is.

Tuffy Two was the first cat neutered with The Leewit Fund

Thanks, Cary!

They say "we like it!"

Cat Command Central

The sentence that sums up my life should be: "People give me things."

This week, Donna and Tim gave me this very cool desk, which they needed to move from their mom's house. It has given me a good excuse to start to turn the downstairs den into my bedroom, in anticipation of putting the door on the stairs and shutting off the upstairs for the winter. It also completely changed the design of the den from "antique/traditional" (Mark's rolltop desk) to modern. And I need as much change as I can get.

That cute cat tree by the window was sent as a birthday present from Cary (whose dad is featured a few posts below). I'll need to get a better shot of it. The kittens are lovin' it.

I also rearranged the bedroom (well, dragged the bed to a new position, and vacuumed under it) which totally peeved Norma, the upstairs feral, as it messed up her sleeping spots. When I came up I discovered she'd found a new one...in the dresser drawer I'd left open. Ummm....hmmmm...I'm not sure that can remain an option, even if she does look cute as sin sleeping on my jeans. I also dragged yet more of my ex's furniture out to the barn.

We're getting there.

I came home to discover Nellie (one of my pet cats) is holding up her front paw. So it's off to the vet for her.

More posts to come, as I still have some more thank-yous and updates.

Yes, I am alive and rescuing...

Here, the three current little terrors have sat still long enough for a photo. They are now old enough to be fixed and get outta here:



And yes, little Hope is doing great!



I had some family responsibilities this weekend so did not spend much time on the computer at the end of the week. I also planned to buy a new washer this weekend, since my only-one-year-old-cheap-as-dirt washer succumbed beneath the constant assault of cat towels. This afternoon I realized I was rapidly running out of weekend and ran into town, planning on spending big bucks on a washer and woodstove. Well, the woodstove places are all closed on on Sunday, but not the washer folks, thank goodness. Thayer Appliance was able to fix me up with a top-of-the-line front loading Bosch washer, which they say I can load as heavily as I need, and which they tell me will save money on the dryer, because it has an extra fast spin that will remove more water. I kind of feel like the day I bought my first brand-new vehicle. I've never owned a washer this nice. But given that the last one died in a year ($350 out the window), if I'm going to do this much wash, I need a machine that will take it.

And please, no donations to help! The natural gas lease paid for this baby, and will also take care of the woodstove.

I was a bit bummed that I couldn't move forward on the woodstove, but I think I'll just call them and have them come on out, since the chimneys need work, anyway. I'm sure they have books they can haul along, or can show me models on my computer.

It's time to get the heaters in the cat facility and put the fans away. Another season zooms by. It's also time to pull out Tim and Donna's raised pet beds so the kitties can sleep off the floor. They like the vinyl floor in the summer (nice and cool) but notsomuch in the winter.