Well we finally got our snow today. So far it isn't really sticking much and not on the roads at all but they show more to come. Supposedly points South of the Small-Hold are getting hit harder all the way down to I-44 so I decided to not go cut wood today. I have plenty of reserves and the Lord only knows how many truckloads I can split out of the big pile. I split a load yesterday and didn't even make a dent in last years leftovers and I have at least two cords split and stacked in the deep reserve pile as well.
I think it's pretty safe to say the abandoned kitten is now a permanent resident. I know we don't really have room for another cat of all things but even with this new addition we are still down one overall for the year so the needle is moving in the right direction. The problem is the poor little guy is now so attached to my son I am not sure it would be fair to separate them. If it had been an entire litter maybe but this one little kitten has no litter mates and no mother so his entire world is kinda directed to the only creature around all the time.
He is between six and seven weeks old now and still way too small to be allowed to free range so he spends most of the time locked up in my son's bedroom. between the wife and I we get him out to do a bit of exploring but he is still soooooo small you cannot take your eye off him for a second or it's hunt the kitten time. I swear I have no idea how mother cats keep track of these little buggers. We tried keeping him locked in his cage when my son is gone but that didn't work very well. He really hates that cage.
He still takes milk everyday but no longer needs the bottle and will readily eat solid foods and drink water too. Instead of sleeping 85% of the time he is now down to sleeping about half the time and his eye infection is completely gone. He has managed to escape and find his way down the stairs a few times but the other cats (who are now inside more than out due to the cold) alert us quick that there is an intruder around. Usually he doesn't even make it down the steps before they are like "Hey get that thing NOW"
The interesting thing is the two neutered male cats tolerate the new guy and one of them (Pantheon don't ask why) has even taken to playing with him and showing him the ropes. The two female cats hate him like he is a spawn of the devil or something. My bet is though that once he gets a bit older and before he gets neutered the two females will decide they like him. That's how it worked out with Pantheon. For a while there he was the most popular playmate of the girls around until that fatal day and now he is just an annoyance.
Oh ya and my son named him Ezreal apparently it is the name of some hero or other in whatever weird game he is playing right now. The two of them have quite the system going on with microwave heating bags and a basket on my son's desk. About every couple of hours the Son comes down and reheats the bag so the kitten can sleep in the warmth.
Aside from Pantheon the kitten only has one other animal friend which is the ancient border Collie rescue we have. She tolerates him whacking her nose and grabbing her tail and is usually instrumental in helping us find him when he escapes. She can sniff out a kitten blindfolded if you can get her off her bed and motivated to do it.
Anyway I had a couple of emails asking about the kitten's progress so I thought I would share for today's Sunday Reading. Now I guess I will go out and get my shop back into some semblance or order and switch it over to reloading configuration for Winter.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Kittens and puppies have a way of getting past our defenses, don't they. Said she, who most of her life has been up to her neck in stray and unwanted animals. Good on you for taking care of that little lost soul.
ReplyDeleteVicki - Yes they do. I usually have to be the hard ass about it though because if it was up to the wife we would take in every stray on earth. We found homes for seven kittens this year. Last year was eight and we ended up keeping two barn cats. I should just file to become an animal charity and see if I can get some kind of tax break.
DeletePeople thought I was nuts getting 5 cord of wood but its very comforting to see a lot of wood ready to burn and plenty more ready to cut and split. I could easily cut down another 4 cord from just the dead stuff locally.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the kittie is doing good, I bet the heated basket is better than a woodpile for sure.
Max - No doubt. I have the luxury of having more trees waiting to be cut down this year than I can handle, which is a change of pace. I easily used 20 cords of wood last year. I can usually get about a cord on my truck and trailer combo and I had a deep reserve and I used pretty much everything I had. I hope this year is a bit easier.
DeleteThat kitten will start screaming at my son when his bag gets too cold. It's pretty funny actually.
Good to hear from you!!!
20 cord, that's a lot of wood! What square footage are you heating (just curious) and are you wood heat only? Our electric baseboard is perfect when we aren't home, otherwise it's 100% wood. I think the cost of wood vs. electricity is about the same but nothing makes the house 80 degrees (and too hot for me) like a good wood stove.
DeleteMax - It wasn't so much the square footage that pushed my use up last year as it was the cold outside. I have an outside wood furnace that I use to heat the entire house. The trouble is there is no inside thermostat really but one inside the furnace, when the box heats up to 115 degrees it blows. Last year was so cold I couldn't keep the thermostat in the furnace hot enough without letting massive amounts of air in which almost doubled my wood use. The furnace works great on down into the teens but last year that wind and sub zero temps pushed it past it's real limits. We just never had that much sustained sub-zero temps before.
DeleteThat will be a pretty cat this time next year. Sounds like you have some feminist cats running things in the small hold? Clouded up today and we are supposed to get rain so I brought in two truck loads of wood and need 4 or 5 more to be up to the full level but of course I am burning it as I haul in new loads.
ReplyDeleteSf - Oh the female cats run things around here. The two boys are usually ignored although one of them is a big monster so he pretty much gets his way. It's funny though the males all get along fine it's the females who can't tolerate each other for the most part.
DeleteI am having a new issue develop using so much split hardwood. My furnace isn't letting in enough air to keep it burning properly. If I mix in some really old stuff it's fine but straight split is wanting to go charcoal more than burn sometimes unless I get it more airflow.
Such a wee little kitteh. Very cute my adopted cat would love to have a friend.
ReplyDeleteJMD - Anytime you want a friend for your cat just let me know I always have a list of new adoptees that someone has abandoned out here. It's got to where some people run when they see me coming.
DeleteOh PP you big softy! he is precious. does he have a name yet?
ReplyDeleteJuGM - Ya my son named him Exreal, don't ask me why it has something to do with some game he plays online. I found the little guy 3 weeks ago sitting in the middle of a gravel road with his eyes so infected he couldn't see. He was only about 4 weeks old and couldn't move very well either even if he could see. Needless to say he hadn't been there long and I am pretty sure I saw the asshole that put him there. So I brought him home. It was either that or drive over him or pick him up and move him and honestly once I picked him up I couldn't just drop him at the side of the road.
DeleteSo there ya have it. I am a pushover.
When i worked at VetCom on the Navy base, we had that same problem over and over. It got so out of control the Army Vet started a spay and neuter program for the left behind community. Dang people getting orders, and leaving their cats. Finally housing dept. came out with a new SOP that said all animals must be registered at the base veterinary office and microchipped.
DeleteAnyways, he is a real cutie...