Mid-Summer

Friends, I cannot believe it is already mid-summer. 

I have not posted since the end of May, and I really have no excuse except for being busy and tired.  I do try to post something on Instagram daily under Ksredhead1950, and it co-posts to Facebook.  I have noticed that many, many former bloggers with whom I was friends are doing that now, too.  One, whom I have followed for many years, noted this week that she had actually posted to her blog... she had not done so in weeks. 

You can at least keep up with things that way.

Last time I posted, I told you about Jack Flash and the mysterious gray cat that was coming to the deck to eat.  On June 6, I took Jack to the vet here in Tongie.  I had a wellness check done, and then had him neutered.  He got all shots, and had to go back in two weeks to get a second distemper shot. 

He began to waste... he did not leave the porch very often, and curled up in a chair by the door. 

I worried. 

 Molly and Bullseye learned to look at the chair before going in and out.  I picked him up to hold him on my lap daily, and realized he was losing weight and was very dehyrated.  

In the meantime, this little guy had been attacked by something... I think a bobcat... and supposedly had two broken ribs.  I spent a miserable day at the emergency vet... and had to go back that night to get him.  Let's just say, Bullseye is a very expensive pet. 

He spent ten days in isolation.

Bullseye was supposed to have a follow up, so I made an appointment for him with 

the vets in Tonganoxie who had done Jack's neuter... Pleasant Valley Veterinary Hospital. They are wonderful, three young women vets that are two miles from me.  My vet of 40 years is 

18 miles away, and very hard to get into.  So... I took Jack in Bully's stead... and the kind vet tested for FIV, and he was positive.  I could not bring him home, and he was in very poor condition, so I held him as she euthanized him, talking to him and kissing him.  She gave me five minutes with him after sedation, and I reassured him his pain was almost over.  

Here is why I am telling you. 

They asked me if I wanted to test for FIV the day of the neuter,  and I had said no. 

He was feral.  

It was a mistake. 

I would not have spent the money for the neuter. 

I spoke with a friend who has kept cats for many years, and she, too, had a cat that 

was positive for FIV, had not been tested, and had an episode after a neuter, and they lost him. 

I am not saying the neuter did it, but I think the operation trauma triggered something in him. 

Bullseye went the next day for his checkup... and because of Jack's being positive, I had him tested to be 100% sure, and believe me, I sweated.  He was negative. 

Molly goes for shots and wellness on the 27th, and she will also get an FIV test. 

Within days of the neuter, I found this in the shop: 

(Jax and I cleaned the shop this week after Mama moved the kittens to the garage. ) 

Oh, yes, friends.  The mysterious gray cat, still a kitten herself, 

had four kittens in my neighbor's yard and moved them into the shop. 

One guess who the father was. 

 Tomorrow, my job is to trap them, and on Sunday, a 

kind volunteer from Kitty Cat Connection is coming to get them. This is the organization from whence my barn cats came. 

Mama will come to me,  but the kittens will be harder.  Part of the problem is that they have vacated the hot shop, and are hanging out in the hedge or in the garage that sits next to the shop.  Tomorrow morning, their food is going back into the shop, they will have to go in there if they are hungry. 

You know I love cats, but I have been overwhelmed. 

Because Jack was so awful to Cleo, she will no longer come to the deck to eat. 

I watch for her and carry her food to her, but that stopped as of today. 

If she wants to eat, she has to come get it where I put it, and I realized she was hanging out in the Little Red Hen House (where I started her) and I am putting her food near there.  No more walking all over looking for her. 

Like I said, I'm stressed. 

Youngest grandson Jax has been working in the yard and shop for me for the last two weeks, and doing a great job.  I have plenty of work for him for the next few weeks, too.  The oppressive heat here has stopped some of the things from being done. 

I have lost a number of birds in the heat this last month. 

The old birds are six and seven, and the heat is hard on them. 

The main egg layers are the seven young hens I raised last year. 

Big Red was one I lost, and it was totally unexpected. 

This was the Silkie pair I used for programs at the Ag Hall. 

Brutus, the gentle rooster on the left, was lost shortly after this picture was taken, and through my own negligence.  For only the second time in seventeen years, I left a pophole open. 

To make it worse... I left his cage door open, I forgot to go back and close it, and I'm sure he and Mary jumped down during the night.  Something got Brutus. 

I have Pipsqueak with her now, and they and Doug the Killer Cotton Ball are the only three Silkies left here. 

And of course, Pipsqueak attacks me every time I reach in to move him. 

I have made a decision not to replace ANY chicken lost at this point.  It's time. 

Right now, I have just been out to check the little hen house two times in the dusk, as I can hear an uproar going on.  I cannot find a snake or any other predator in there. 

In the big hen house are left only two hens and the rooster, Singleton. 

Doug

Vulture going east. 

Two weeks ago, the sheep flock went home to give the pasture time to recover.  Yes, we have had rain, but they had been on it for two months, and there were fourteen.  

It has come back wonderfully. 

I cut it once, and I noticed today I may have to cut again.  

They will be back in a couple of weeks for another six weeks, I believe. 

Ben is going to devote some time to doing some maintenance things around here that need to be done, and gosh, I am really going to miss his help.

This is a strange bird that appeared in the bird feeder a week ago . 

(Wanda) 

See you all soon, I hope!