First off, thank you for all the beautiful comments you left on my last post, and for allowing me to get that off my chest. The whole thing touched a nerve for me, but I am okay letting it go now. I needed some time. And I feel a lot happier now than I did in May! THANK YOU. xox
Meanwhile, the fostering continues on...
My shy beauty Taya is still here but making progress! She takes treats from my hand now and I can stroke her while she is eating, and best of all, she now "talks" to me every day! She is quite bonded to her granary friends (Mootie, Pip and Fanny) and at times it is hard for me to imagine letting her go, but I will if the right home comes along. She definitely needs to be with at least one other cat. She just adores other cats and I feel that she would be terribly lonely without them.
And I have some newbies...
Last Friday the 22nd, I took in this beautiful tuxedo girl named Peekaboo... and her SIX BABIES! Peekaboo was a stray who would show up for food the home of a kind man. He noticed she was pregnant. Then one day, she came back "deflated" and he knew she had had her babies. He followed her for THREE hours until she went back to her next, which was just a spot in the middle of a field of tall grass. He brought Peekaboo and her babies back to him place in a big Rubbermaid bin, then called my friend Elizabeth for help. She called me, and I agreed to take the little family.
THe babies are now about three weeks old and are fat, healthy, lovely kittens! And mama is just a sweetheart. She will be highly adoptable once the babies are weaned. I am really enjoying this little family. I had to put them all down in the barn room as my two foster cat rooms are full (and I have overflow cats in my granary!)
Because on that same night, I took in this girl...
Meet Valerie, named after my friend Valerie of
Wandering Cat Studio. Valerie not only sponsors my barn cat Keaton monthly, she has done many amazing things to help me with fundraising for my animals, such as donating beautiful hand-knitted items to my annual silent auction. So Valerie gets a feline namesake. A PREGGO one at that!
I had Valerie into the vet last week. She is due within a week or two and has two or three kittens in there. She is doing very well. She was a stray wandering the streets of our nearby city of Cornwall. She's very affectionate and chatty. I hope everything will go well with her birthing. She is my first pregnant cat! I've dealt with goat and pig births, but never a kitty one. Send good thoughts for this lovely dilute Calico gal.
And Jewel's kittens are doing great!
Jewel and babies have all had their first vaccines. Jewel and four of the seven kittens already have homes lined up. The kittens can be spayed/neutered when they weigh 2 kg.
It is wonderful to see this family doing so well! That dilute Calico (Star) and the tabby/white girl (Nova) are still waiting for homes, along with tabby/white boy Boomer. They are awesome, extremely well-socialized kittens. And I am so pleased Jewel has a fabulous home lined up in Ottawa. She'll be leaving August 11th.
And then I have this tiny beauty!
Meet Frances! She is about a year old. She was dumped in a farmer's machine shed after having kittens. I don't know what happened to the kittens, unfortunately. THey weren't with her, but she was full of milk and had clearly been nursing for some time. I'm hoping whoever dumped her just kept or rehomed the kittens, but I will never know.
Frances will be spayed and adopted out. She is just the sweetest little honey-pie of a cat! SO affectionate, and so tiny! I've got her in running around with the granary crew right now. She's very chatty and adorable.
And Mootie...
...prefers egg crates as a bed! She has MULTIPLE fluffy soft cat beds to choose from but no. She likes to sleep on egg crates. Love this old gal!
And in other news, we now own TWO quarter horses...
Gen, the bay mare on the left, has been boarding here for months. Her mama has decided Gen needed a stable forever home, so she has given Gen to us and we are thrilled to have her. She has heaves so she lives outside year round, but she's a gentle, lovely girl who is easy to care for and ride. And Roo loves her (sometimes a little too much when she is in heat! For a gelding, Roo can be awfully, er, randy!) So now we've got ourselves THREE horses, three ponies, and of course, this guy...
...Saul now has a fly mask! I had to special-order it from our local tack shop, but he is very good about wearing it. The flies really ravage his ears in summer, so I'm glad he's got protection. And yes, he can see through the mask. I didn't know anything about fly masks until I got equines, but they are made of breathable mesh, and most horses don't mind them at all. That said, Jimmy the pony likes to rip his off in the pasture and make me hunt for it.
So things are good here at the farm. Thank you for reading! Peace and love.
