Driveway, cats, happy tails

We have a driveway, again. Look at the difference between the two days! 

It is so joyful, even if we are going from green to yellow with our recent uptick in COVID–19 cases. We went from a few Monday, to 19 in Lanark West: 52 to 67 cases, led by Lanark East. 

Nutmeg sits at her post. The birds are quicker than she is.

One morning the goldfish pond was refrozen.

Nutmeg brought home her first vole in awhile. And then her second one!

Speaking of cats, I found images on an older camera card, as well as three short videos. These are from November, 2019.

When we first took in and rescued the kittens, we kept them in the guest room.

kittens from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Kittens 2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

kittens 3 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Kittens, kittens, kittens

Back a few days... it was a nice day. I let the cats out. They've been lobbying like mad, running back and forth, wanting to get at that dratted red squirrel (DRS). Since then, we had a bit of a storm!



Our melt had begun. (My poor snowman!) Since then we had another 10 cm of snow, but my snowman is toast.
.


These have been unusual visitors.



Then, the action.


Apparently, being put in the Muskoka Room, while I was BBQing, really wasn't acceptable!


They loved being out front.



Then there is the tiger...



BTW
I had a report about Annabelle cat. She is now an indoor cat. I'm sure she doesn't mind. All she wants is food and a warm, loving home.

I keep meaning to call you! Yes, Annabelle is doing so well here. She is a sweetie and she knows it!! The other Short-haired cats are somewhat in awe of her...

Saturday's Critters #324

🐱Kitten chaos 🐯

We're holding our own. JB's cough is still hanging around. He's had a breathing test. The nurse showed him how to properly use his inhaler. He has a pinched nerve, which he ignored with his cold and cough, and has what my massage therapist used to call a 'crunchy nugget' with the pain referring down his arm. He's been to the doctor. He's got muscle relaxants. I've been massaging it, as best I can, three times a day. I think he got this from looking after his cold, and not moving around much. Necessary, at the time, but not good for a septuagenarian.

Novel Corona Virus

Two Canadians aboard a cruise ship off Japan test positive for new coronavirus https://t.co/rYplXuQehJ

— The Canadian Press News (@CdnPressNews) February 6, 2020

The nCoV 2019 has been spreading around the world. We're grateful not to be quarantined, or on a cruise ship (two, with 6000 people stuck in 3 x 5 m cabins), that would drive me nuts. Happily, 211 Canadians are being brought home after the government jumped through hoops to evacuate them from China. We have strict protocols in place, which we learned from SARS, and soon all will be well.

Feb. 6th, they are coming home

Kittens

We treated ourselves to Take Out Asian food from our restaurant in town. I was supposed to be with the grandies Wednesday/Thursday, as there are rotating strikes here in Ontario, but I didn't want to leave him alone. They were doing a good business, which was good to see.

After my breakfast, and my morning workout, I went out to fetch trailcam memory cards. Cinnamon was birdwatching!

Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 29

Annabelle seems to be fine. She loves anyone who feeds and loves her. We miss her, but we need peace and quiet. 

We are having much fun with the kittens, who are now relaxing. Nutmeggie has been sleeping with us, between our pillows. Meggie and I had a nice play. This is a fun scratch post. She loves sleeping in it.

We went out to dinner last Friday, for the first time since mid-November, when JB got sick. We we returned home, the beautiful scatter rug from Jean looked like this! I'm sure it gave them great joy, as it does us! Thank you, Jean.

After dinner, JB was snuggling under his sleeping bag, two kittens perched on his footstool. Those are his knees on the left!

Dratted Red Squirrel (DRS) avails itself of the bird feeder. I'm thinking I might lose some plants before we are done.

Friday, Nutmeggie spent a couple of hours sleeping in the Muskoka room. She's a hoot. It was chilly, but she was happy.

Playtime

I snagged a photo. "If I fits, I sits! "

🐱Kitten report Tuesday antics 🐯

Annabelle cat, AKA Queen B,  is being boarded, but Feb. 3rd she is going to a new home for a trial period. We'll hope she behaves. Everyone is breathing more deeply. JB is still coughing as he breathes, but he is breathing! We are trying to be kind to all the rest of us.

Tuesday morning

The kittens are doing rather well. They are relaxing. Funny story. JB went out to the library in the morning. I looked and looked for Nutmeggie, and couldn't find her. I vacuumed in the bedroom, hoping she was under the bed, but she didn't come out.

I arrived home after 16:00 hours, and asked about Meggie. JB says she turned up around 13:00 hours, on the back porch. OUTSIDE! We assume she went out when one of us were on the back deck. What a hoot. They usually sleep late morning, after breakfast and a playtime. (See below!) She must have found a spot to sleep all that time.

Having left and returned, I spent my 3 hours with my respite client (13:00 – 16:00 hours). I've loaned her my large clock from the auction, which looks rather nice on her wall! She was concerned about the time. I don't wear a watch, so it helps me, too. Both clocks were a total of $5, plus 10% buyer's tax and 13% HST. It's still a deal!

Wednesday morning playtime

The red squirrel figured it out.

This is the prime location, where sleeping and bird and squirrel watching occurs.  It's cozy on top of my gramma's handmade quilt. She didn't have a sewing machine.

Meggie doesn't like having her photo taken.



No, young lady, it's -10 C. and you are NOT going out!



Cinnamon has a fondness for 'snake,' dragging it in and out of the room three times. Snake is a metre of fake fur, attached to a plastic stick, with some feathers on the end. This is the 2nd time he did this. I picked up the camera.



The 3rd time I grabbed the videocamera.



Clip0 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

For more critters: 

Saturday's Critters #320

Hormones Part IV – feline aggression

Sat., Jan. 25 – evening

We were watching Along Came a Spider (2001) .Excellent, Morgan Freeman, kidnapping, suspense all for distraction.

In desperation, JB has been reading the insert on the Feliway package.

"Diffuser is not recommended for overt aggression between cats..."

It's a bloody myth. We've been bashing our heads against the wall. We're done. Annabelle will go back to the vet, where we got her.

Annie slept in the spare room. The kittens were free to play.

Sat., Jan. 25 – morning

 Feliway is in the living room, the spare room, and on Annie's collar. We'll cross our fingers. The deadline is next Friday, Jan. 31st.
Annie was in the spare room overnight. No banging on the door. The kitten had two stints out in the Muskoka room. They quite like it. Cinn came in and had a play, so we brought in Nutmeg, and put Annie back in the room.

The new litter medium, the wood pellets, are working out well. Annabelle stunk up the room with a big poo, but I took them out, and all was well!

Friday, Jan. 24

We brought home Nutmeg, who had her stitches removed. Dr. Brianna gave us Feliway spray. 

We have been putting the collar around Annie's neck since Tuesday, and putting the Feliway on it. It can take up to 7 days, they say.  

JB went out shopping to beat our predicted Saturday ice rain storm. (It ostly snowed!) We put out two Feliway diffusers: one in the living room, another in the spare room. We kept Annie in there overnight.

It's $60 for the two pieces, $30 for a refill. JB bought two refills.

Nutmeg and Cinnamon were encouraged to visit the Muskoka Room. When I checked on them later, they were happily sleeping, curled up around one another in the small cat bed. They moved when I peeked, of course.

I let one kitten in, I thought it was Cinnamon. He went into the kitchen to eat. JB was in there. He said, "You let Nutmeg in!"
"That's Cinnamon," I replied. Annabelle came in the room, roared at the kitten, trapped her in the pantry. I realized I made a mistake. It was Nutmeg. I am so stressed out with this. My stress symptoms are increasing.

They slept together on the couch. At one point, I looked over and they had their paws on their sibling's shoulder making an X!

PART III: Plan D Friday, Jan. 24

We're keeping Nutmeg isolated from Annie. Annabelle is out in the night. Then, when she sits and sleeps, we put her into our bedroom and let Nutmeg out to play. We made a mistake and while I was on a 2-hour conference call for ODPRN, we forgot about Annie in the bedroom. She peed on my cotton t-shirt, which soaked it all up, fortunately.

We have plan D. We will try Feliway on Annabelle's collar. We can't put it in all the rooms of the house, but this could work. It could take 7 days to work, if it is going to work.

Once Nutmeg gets her stitches out on Friday, she is less fragile. Hopefully, the hormones in both kittens will work their way out of their systems, too. Annie hunts Nutmeg down, and just goes for her. Nutmeg is cautious. They are fine early in the morning, when they are hungry, then things go awry.

If this doesn't work, the vet has said they will take Annie back. She was rescued by one of their former employees, and that is where we adopted her from.

How to make a cat collar

Annabelle and her bird collar

Cat tales: 

Kitty Hormones... |   Hormones, cats – part II