When it comes to Ashley’s abject terror about being groomed in the house. We have been struggling to come up with another way to break through that wall that she has created and show her that we mean her no harm.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been going into the main enclosure early in the morning before the sun is up. Ash is a lot more relaxed during this time of  morning. My goal has been to be able to just pick her up, hold her gently in my arms and take her over to the platform. It is there that I try to groom her without the stress of the cat carrier being involved, or chasing her (which is never the answer.)

She has been remarkably compliant. By that I mean, she doesn’t bite, scratch or dig her claws into me. She no longer has poop shooting out of her backside. However, I cannot restrain her for very long. The way I found that works for us:  I lay her on the table encircling her within my arms, once she has settled, I am able to for maybe three minutes? Take the brush and the comb and attack the mats that are attacking her.

It’s not fool-proof, some days she’s not up to it, but we are making slow progress on getting her mats removed. I am only able to do one side at a time, before she decides that she doesn’t like this program and she wants to move. I wish I could say that I have all the mats removed off of her, but that’s not the case.

Here is a photo I just took of her. You can see just by her posture and her relaxed eyes that she is doing so much better than she was say a month ago? I couldn’t be more thrilled with how she is learning to accept being approached.

A couple weeks ago, while I was at the vet, I instigated a conversation with my him regarding the high vet debt that has been hanging in the air for so long. We talked at great length. He actually listened to me and I told him a lot of things that I have kept close to my chest. At the end, he asked me if there was a light at the end of this very dark tunnel. I told him well there’s not a light, but there’s a flicker of hope .

I have since decided that for the next six months, I will be giving my vet a very large sum of money every month to get this vet debt gone. My calculations if I give him this amount of money every month, the debt will be paid off in September. This leaves very little behind to cover the cost of cat food and cat litter. It also delays my chances to get my truck repaired, also to fix my tractor and my lawnmower. (This is not the right time of year for these two pieces of farm equipment to be non-working . My grass is so tall in the backyard right now that when I walk through it, you can’t see me! And I’m 6 foot tall. But I have to do what’s right in this decision. No matter how much a struggle this is going to create, this is the right thing for me to do.

If anyone cares to help out by donating cat food, that would be a blessing. Donating cat litter is not very viable because it’s so heavy and expensive to ship.

As always, monetary donations are always gratefully accepted. Please if you send dry food, only send Purina cat chow-As far as canned food goes, Friskies is always a good bet.

We are still getting cats that are being dropped off. We are also unfortunately, finding a few boxes of baby kittens. Thankfully a friend of mine, whose husband is a saint (he recently built her the most beautiful kitten room I’ve ever seen is taking the babies from me. Her kitten room even has an oxygen cage! Like I said, her husband is a Saint! The room is initially set up for preemies and newborns. It’s pretty epic!

There is one advantage to not having a working lawnmower right now. When I went out this morning to feed, there were three deer bed down in my pasture grass. At first, I thought there were only two adults, but when they got to their feet, I saw they had a fawn with them. It was such a peaceful sight. In what is now a pretty crazy world.

Again, if you could donate cat food, it would help immensely. If you happen to have or find any coupons for cat litter and you want to send them my way, please contact me via email and I will be happy to give you my mailing address. Please use this email address: mothermary55@comcast.net