Raccoon release repeat!

Two years ago, some raccoons that had been rehabilitated at the Rideau Valley Wildlife Centre were released here. Yesterday we did it again!

We drove three of these cuties back to the woodlot in the RTV.

They were brought into the centre as babies. This is really their first taste of freedom in the great outdoors!

Once again, they took their time waddling off.

Hey, I think your friends are calling you!

And off they went! I hope they do well out there in the big bad world!

Happy National Cat Day!

Today is National Cat Day! Hug your kitty.

Pip and Mootie are settling in well.

Pip doing a taste test last night.

Isn't she gorgeous? She's an active, curious, beautiful little cat.

Mootie is lovely too.

They both enjoy their cat toys.

And the scratching log!

Not to mention that Sweeter Heater. Pip had just caught sight of Redford roaming around the lower barn.

Mootie is such a lady!

Look who's watching me through the straw!

Meanwhile, Redford was checking out how work is going on the box stalls.

He's an excellent foreman! Forecat. Forfeline?

The paw of ownership!

Meanwhile, peace reigned on the bed this morning...

That's Emerson, Alex and Louise. Louise has been beating up on Emerson lately. Not sure why, but we're not happy about it. I've been trying various things to dissuade her. Sometimes she's fine with him, as you can see in this photo!

And for Nationarl Cat Day, here's the oldest cat in the house with the oldest human in the house...

Julius is nearly 15 now.

I love this old guy! I do clean his eyes regularly, but he seems to get a lot of eye-goo these days.

My handsome old boy.

Go hug your kitties!

Mootie and Pip have arrived!

Mootie and Pip were dropped off by their owner today, who was very sad to part with them. If she weren't having health issues and having to move, they would still be with her.

Here are a few photos. I will get some better ones soon!

Mootie came out for supper, bless her. 

She has had all her teeth removed but does just fine without them. Before she was adopted by her owner, she languished at the shelter for five months. Everyone thought she was 12 years old, but as it turns out, it was the awful state of her mouth prematurely ageing her! She had a terrible gum infection which is why all her teeth were yanked.

But she does just fine and apparently is a great mouser!

And her coat is gorgeous...

She loves to be brushed, and she let me do that for her this afternoon! She is a very sweet girl and I hope she will be happy here. It must be hard on her, as this is her third home. So much change for a cat!

Pip is a bit over a year old, and quite friendly and brave. She sat on Gordon's lap this evening!

They'll be shut up in the old pig pen for a few weeks until they know they are home. We'll be giving them lots of attention.

Meanwhile, did I mention that Missy was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis? She seems fine but because of Lionel's situation, the vet prescribed antibiotics. I have to give her a pill a day for 30 days.

As you can imagine, she is less than impressed. In this photo, she is trying to kill me with her laser-beam eyes.

More pics to come!

Pigs 'n' stuff

First off, how lucky am I? Joanne from Cup on the Bus wove two beautiful teacloths (or tea towels, or dish towels -- call them what you like) and sent them to me!

They not only look great, they are super-soft and absorbent.

I love woven things like this. Thank you so much, Joanne!

It's been awhile since I've posted pig shots...

Luther is growing up to be a fine young man! The piglets are six months old now.

Olivia was hoping for a treat. I love the spots on her nose.

And Button has a button on her rump!

Cordelia and her mother Ophelia were enjoying some grass this afternoon.

But as the weather grows cooler, the pigs spend more time snoozing inside. Dahlia, Cordelia and Button decided it was worth coming out to see if I had treats!

Hello, Dahlia!

Meanwhile, it was crazy here again today.

The cement truck came with the stuff for our box stalls in the lower barn.

He didn't want to take the truck down behind the barn, so they built a chute from upstairs

It's looking a bit like a construction site right now.

Meanwhile, work on the horse fencing continues...

The boys sure aren't very afraid of my beehives! Not that the girls are very active right now.

And have I mentioned that I love the panorama feature on my iPhone?

This is the duck pairing pond we had put in this past winter. It's looking good! Hopefully some ducks got lucky down there this year. 

And look!

A rainbow over the soybean fields next door.

We are sad over the shootings in Ottawa today. I have walked by the War Memorial there many times and thought that it must be a bit of a tough, boring job doing guard duty there. I'm glad I wasn't there today.

I was a Naval reservist for many years and was never afraid to wear my uniform in public, but I would be now! It's sad to see this kind of thing happening in Canada. I don't want to see our Parliament Buildings becoming an armed fortress....

Have a peaceful evening!

New additions to the cast of characters...

Well, two more lovely girl-cats will be joining Redford and Missy in the barn this Friday. Meet Mootie and Pip!

Mootie

Pip

Yesterday I got a message from my lovely friend Deb over at Just Cats. A client of hers has to move from her home for health reasons, and give up her two cats. Mootie is about 7, Pip about 1-1/2. Poor Mootie languished at the shelter for five months before being adopted by her lovely current owner. Pip showed up of her own accord.

But now their owner must move in with friends, and she cannot take the cats. Deb agreed to help her find them a home, and yesterday she asked if we would consider taking these two on as barn cats, as they currently spend most of their time outside anyway, and are magnificent mousers.

Gordon and I read Deb's message, took one look at each other, and agreed they should become part of our kitty family.

When Mootie was at the shelter, they thought she was 12 years old due to the state of her gums and teeth. After she was adopted, she ended up having ALL of her teeth pulled! And they realized she was quite a bit younger than initially thought.

Not surprisingly, she became much happier and more playful once she wasn't dealing with a terrible gum infection!

You can read Deb's posts about them here and here.

We are really happy that we are able to take in these two, and I hope they will enjoy life in the barn. We are working on setting up warm places in the barn for winter, with heaters and heated mats and whatever else we can put together to make it toasty. We are also planning on putting a cat door into our garage, which is heated to 50F all winter. 

I continue to feel conflicted about having two classes of cat here (barn cats and the indoor crew) but among other things, we desperately need continued rodent control in the barn. And six cats indoors is about all I can handle. We've achieved a delicate balance with those six and I'd like to keep them happy!

That said, Missy and Redford seem to be enjoying life out there and we make a point of giving them love and attention (and two square meals!) every day. I told Gordon we'll need to make a "cuddle chart "to make sure all 10 cats get some love each day. :) Not to mention the dog and pigs and whoever else is around!

Hmmm... I guess I should add Gordon to the "cuddle chart'!

Speaking of cuddles, Louise has been getting her turn as I type this.

Pictures of the new additions to follow after they arrive on Friday!

PS A little word of thanks to my hubby Gordon, who helps make these things happen. Love you, sweetie!

My life flashed before my eyes...

Okay not really. But just a little! We had another riding lesson yesterday. Oh how I love these riding lessons! And I now own the first pair of cowboy boots I've EVER had. But back to the title of my post. Here I am on Bonnie, aka Bon Bon...

Bon Bon was sporting some ATTITUDE yesterday, testing this useless newbie ider for all she was worth. But I was doing fine, until all of a sudden, something spooked mah horse! Gordon thought a bug flew in front of her. I dunno what happened, but all of sudden we went from quietly sauntering along to crazy-ass jerking around... I don't even know how we ended up in the middle of the ring!

And then I prepared to die. Fortunately, my instructor's voice cut through my thoughts of imminent death, and I did the "spook circle" thing she'd taught us, pulling on just the right rein so that Bon Bon would turn in a circle instead of bolting forward. And it kind of worked, except (a) I was so freaked when she started to spook that I immediately wrapped the rein tightly around my right hand and (b) I forgot to ease off the rein once she was circling, so she kept spinning like a top and I kept squealing like a girl. For one brief moment, I thought "That's it, I'm going to fly off the back of this horse and it's going to hurt and rhen I'll die!" I think I had that feeling people have when they are about to drown. But then Linda, our teacher, called out to me to ease off the rein, and I did, and Bon Bon came to a halt.

So I survived my first spooking! In reality, I wasn't going to fly off, and Linda said I did mostly all the right things (including leaning forward on the horse) and that she was really pleased. And despite the fact that I wanted to run screaming from the riding ring at that point, Linda made me keep going. And it turned out to be a great lesson, because I learned that I can actually control a freaked-out horse. No, maybe I won't be able to all the time; I don't know. But I did this time!

I can see where that expression about "getting right back on the horse" comes from.

That Bon Bon was in some kind of mood yesterday! She was being such a pain that Linda took her around the ring a few times to remind her how to behave, then I got back on. But she was testing me on every corner as we did a posting  trot, until finally I sucked it up and became the leader again. And then I made Linda and her daughter laugh as I trotted past them and said, "I am not taking any more sh*t from this horse today!" 

Yeah, Bon Bon must have heard that, because we did great for the rest of the lesson. But  I think she knew I needed a little push so that I wouldn't get complacent. The horses we ride are actually very well behaved and well trained, but they are animals, not machines, so sometimes things happen!

I really wish I'd started this about 30 years ago, but better late than never. It's one of the things I love most in my life right now, so I hope not to break bones or get crushed or anything like that. They are big on teaching us safety, so fingers crossed that those lessons stick, because I really LOVE riding a horse.  

Speaking of which, here's how things are looking in the lower barn where the four box stalls are going...

Luc is pouring concrete next week, then the walls and doors will go up. Those posts are hemlock and weigh about 100 lbs each!

It's exciting to see all this progress down there. The pig palace is currently being winterized too! And we just had electricity put in the granary (where the pigs live), and we finally got a new barn door installed, so there's lots going on.

I took these pics out the bathroom window Wednesday...

It was a madhouse out there!

And today I took Missy to the vet...

She wasn't pleased, but she was a really good girl! We had her tested for toxoplasmosis (which killed her buddy Lionel.) In two weeks, we'll repeat the blood test. If she has it, and the levels have risen, they will know it's an active infection and treat accordingly. But I'm just hoping she's fine. The vet checked out thoroughly and found her healthy, and she got a FIV and Feline Leukemia vaccine (she already had the others.) So I think she's good to go! I had her microchipped as well.

I don't think Missy was too impressed with the pirate dog in the waiting room!

Have a superb weekend, my dear readers. I will try to catch up on my blog reading now that bee season is almost over.