This morning when I woke up, I realized that once again, I was running low on cat food. Thankfully a donation had recently arrived, so I went over to the store to buy what I could to keep the kitties going until payday.

There was an elderly gentleman by the cat food. he was picking up individual cans of cat food, examining them and putting them down while shaking his head. He looked so perplexed, I asked him if I could help him with anything?

Turns out he just had a stray show up and he wasn’t sure which food would work for this boy. I went over to where he was standing, picked up several different kinds of canned food. Told him that the best thing to do is to feed him a little bit at a time out of a can until the cat lets him know what kind he likes.

I explained to him that he would be wise to stay away from beef of any kind. Not feed consistently fish, but mix it up a bit with chicken and fish. He told me I sounded so knowledgeable and asked me why I knew so much? I told him what I do for a living and how many cats we had in the sanctuaries. I showed him some pictures of the rescues, then turned my attention turn back to trying to find a case of cat food that I could actually afford. The prices locally around here are totally out of control.

I was looking at the selections, the prices, and mumbling to myself. I picked up a case, but found I didn’t have quite enough to cover it so I put it back and started putting individual cans into the cart. He  questioned why if I had so many cats, why didn’t I buy the cases? I explained to him that since Covid hit donations have dwindled. Most of the cat food that I buy now comes out of my check.  I just have to be careful because at the end of the day there isn’t enough money to go around..

He gave me an encouraging smile. As he walked away passing my cart, his hand passed over my purse which was sitting on top of the cart. Then he just left.

Curious, I went over to and I looked inside the side pocket that was opened. There was $100 bill inside! I ran after him, (I confess I was crying). I asked him if I could give him a hug. I gave him a great big hug and I told him he has no idea what he just did for me and my cats. He just smiled, hugged me again. Then he just left.

Today is our wedding anniversary. Still not easy to get through some of these anniversaries. It was a somber morning for me when I woke up, until this guardian angel, this kindly old man, reached out and touched me deeply.

After lots of fits and starts, the cat enclosure was finally tarped over late yesterday. Just in time too- the weather we are having here right now is wild. What looks like sunlight coming in the back of the enclosure is actually the tarp. We attached the roofing tarp firmly to the sides of the roof. But on the back we also brought it down so we could attach it to the tarp that was already covering the backend. (That’s where all the wicked wind comes in).Now I will find out pretty quickly (especially after next week where it’s predicted we’re going to have a whole week of heavy rain) whether or not it’s going to stop the water from getting inside .

Last week when I returned from town after doing errands, I noticed that Aspen was acting a bit off. She was hunkered down by the heater. Her rear end was in the air, but her tail was tucked.  It was a posture I’ve never seen on her before. I watched her and Addie came in the room. For the first time since they’ve been together, Aspen actually attacked Addie full throttle. Hurrying to intervene, I picked up my jacket and set it over Aspen. I scooped her up in my arms,  she was growling at me . This was not like her at all. They must’ve tangled when I was away.

On that assumption, I put Addie in the cat room and gave both kitties timeout for a while, just to cool down. Addie seemed fine with the encounter, I could find no wounds or bites on her at all. Aspen had withdrawn. She was hiding and try as I might, I could not find her.

Chow time came and went, no Aspen. I did a search for her and found her hiding in the closet. She was in a laundry basket. When I approached her, she growled I ended up letting Addie out of the cat room and confining Aspen inside instead.

This was four days ago. Aspen was not eating, she was not pooping, she was peeing, so she was drinking. I was monitoring her food. She would eat maybe two pieces of kibble, and then go lay down. I examined her for bites, she had no fever. she just didn’t want to eat.

I figured out what happened after this morning. I moved a pile of boxes in the spare room, behind the boxes was a small pile of half-eaten rubber bands.  (The only place I keep rubber bands is in the spare room in the desk.)  She must have gotten up there at night and opened the drawer. Unlike her sister, who had a fascination with plastic, based on the pile, I found Aspen’s fascination is with rubber bands.

She is on the mend now. Thanks to a lot of mineral oil which I tried to carefully syringe in her mouth. She had a nice visit with the litter box with good results. Afterwards, she  went over to her food bowl for the first time on her own. She actually ate the food like she enjoyed it. She is hopefully on the mend. I will continue to give her small doses of mineral oil to see if more rubber will pass.

Right now, I am happy to report that she is nestled in my lap purring. She has fallen asleep. This is right after her, and Addie were racing up and down the stairs and down the hallways. I thank God, she was not blocked, or that a rubber band had somehow constricted around her tongue. Being able to put the pieces together and figure out a solution has stopped her from experiencing more  discomfort as well as a trip to the vet.

Here she is on my lap. Yes, I know her fur looks oily, that was my fault. Some of the mineral oil did not go into her mouth. Some of it actually went all over.

She passed her test with flying colors. She was found to be heavily infested with parasites. Those have been dealt with. In a few days she will be treated for her flea infestation. She is now safely inside with her new mom, and they couldn’t be more thrilled with each other! She was great on the ride to the vet not one peep out of her, but the minute she went through that front door at the clinic she just let loose. You would’ve thought she was being tortured the way she was crying. But there was a very nervous German Shepherd in the vicinity, and I think she was pulling from his negative energy. One more stray safely rescued and in a loving home. Good day for all.

This is my fire kitty Magoo. He was just groomed and unlike his sister he loves any type of comb or brush on him. Thankfully, even though he has long hair, he doesn’t matt very much. He was more nervous about the kitties scratching at the door of the bathroom. I tried to get a good shot of him, this is the best I could do. He is a beautiful flame-point I think back to how he was when he first arrived, he has come such a long way. We both have.

This year I find that we are $50 shy of reaching our nonprofit registration.  If anyone could reach out us send whatever they can, to help reach our goal we would greatly appreciate it. The money may dwindle from time-to-time, but our work continues, regardless.

Case in point- This is Little Mew- she has shown up recently. When she first arrived, which was about two weeks ago, she was bone skinny. Now she is putting on more weight than she should. I’m going to catch her tomorrow and take her in and get her tested. My fear is she has wet FIP. She is so sweet, she has a tattoo on her belly so she’s not pregnant. That weight gain so quickly has us very concerned. You can just see it in her eyes that she has “The Feel Bads.”

This morning, I finally was able to pet Ashley for the first time in months. As I was petting her, my fingers could feel so many mats all over her body. A few days ago I had a feeling that something wasn’t right with her. She does generally come out to see me when I’m feeding or visiting  within the enclosure. But lately, she’s been virtually nonexistent.

Following my instincts, I placed the top loading cat carrier underneath the feeding platform with the top open. As I was petting her, I gently scuffed her lifted her up into my arms and put her inside the carrier. I carried her inside and put the carrier in the bathroom turned the light off and just let her decompress.

Knowing that her grooming sessions are always so stressful for her, I wasn’t sure I was up to the task. Due to my recent injury during the ice storm, the doctors are now telling me that not only do I need a right shoulder replacement, but I also now need a left shoulder replacement. They’ve scheduled a test for early May to determine the extent of the damage. Regardless of how my arms are not working at the moment, I knew I had to get those mats out of her.

Surprisingly, she did not growl, swat or bite me. I wish I could say that she didn’t poop all over everything including me. That’s just the reaction she gets when she gets handled and brushed. I apologized to her for not being able to do it as I had promised her last year. We had started out on a good note, I was able to brush her almost daily. But then I got injured and re-injured. So all that stopped.

it took two hours just to remove the mats that were under her chin, on her head, by her ears. She has a lot more of mats to remove. I worked slow and methodical. We took a lot of breaks in between everything. Afterword I put her in the introduction cage, knowing full well that I would not get close to her for at least a few months after that grooming session. It may be that she will hide inside the insulated straw covered box for awhile. She has to come out sometime. Next time she does, I will again scoop her up and put her inside the carrier and take her inside to the bathroom, to try to finish what I started.

To be so terrified of a human, during a grooming and de-matting session just breaks my heart. She’s such a beautiful kitty and she would’ve made someone a lovely companion if I could’ve just broken through her trust barrier, and shown her that all humans are not bad.

Perhaps, during the next grooming session, she will at least not poop all over herself, me and the room. That would be absolutely wonderful, because it would tell me that I finally broke through. She is finally ready to trust someone.

We did all that we could to get the required amount needed to cover the roof of the cat enclosure before the storm hits. However, we are still $30 shy of making it before the next storm hits. If anyone can help out, please do. The rain that’s coming inside the enclosure during these bizarre storms is really concerning.

this roof is supposed to lay flat. It is slanted, so the water can drain off of it into the gutters on the one side of it. I suppose the storm had other ideas on how it needs to exist to protect the kitties inside.

Yesterday, while we were still in the midst of a rainstorm, the Calvary arrived at my door. My barn roof was in danger of completely collapsing due to several rainstorms after the ice storm. I had been praying several days prior,  asking God what I could do. With limited funds, and most of Michael’s friends now long past. I couldn’t fathom how I was going to be able to save my roof where so many of my outdoor feral cats take refuge.

I had gone into town earlier on Thursday curious as to how the article regarding the feeding of the workers who were working nonstop to try to return power to so many. To my embarrassment,  I didn’t realize, that the reporter who had asked me so many questions intended on writing an article about me. The photo we definitely will not discuss. But it was mortifying to see. Now I know why she asked me so many questions. I just thought at the time, she was waiting for more workers to show up so she could talk to them.

I went to put the paper down, a section fell out containing ads to some of the local churches. I picked up my phone and I started calling looking for help. Literally hours later, I had in my yard gentleman who were covering my barn, cutting the limbs that had fallen off the trees into manageable sections and carding them away. They were talking to me about what else needed to be done. There were several churches involved. No one pressured me to become a member ( something that has happened in the past.) They were all just here to help.

A few days prior, I was outside removing storm damage. There was a lot of it. About an hour in, I went to lift a huge pile of pine boughs with my pitchfork. I dug deep into the pile, unbeknownst to me, underneath that pile was a huge limb that had fallen and been covered by pine needles. as I dug deep and lifted. I hit resistance. I also heard several pops, then a loud snap in my shoulder. Searing, hot pain ripped from my shoulder down to my elbow. I ended up in Urgent Care about an hour later.

The pain was pretty intense. After more than a few x-rays,  It was determined that nothing was fractured. Thank you Lord! But there is severe swelling and I have an extreme case of tendinitis as well as I have damaged my bursa. I was given medication to control the pain and reduce the inflammation and told to remain immobile for four days. I don’t quite understand how anyone who has animals can remain immobile for four days. But I’m doing my best. So all the men were here working I couldn’t even help them.

During the last storm, which was a pretty severe rainstorm. When I went back to the creek to see how overflowing it was, I noticed to my surprise,  a stump that is clearly over 200 years old, and was at least 10 feet from the embankment between two other trees, was now in the process of sliding down into my creek! I was stunned because it’s a huge stump, covered with Ivy, I thought it was buried deep enough in the ground to never be removed, except by mechanical means. The only thing that is keeping this stump from falling into the creek is the wire fence that stretches across the creek between myself and my neighbor. The wire is now twisted into a hammock type of pattern. The stump is resting precariously on top of this steel hammock! Should it fall into the creek it would create huge flooding potential.

Although it looks like a huge bush full of ivy, it is not so. I only wish it were. I asked one of the gentlemen if he would go down to the creek with me and take a look at it and give me some idea of what I could do about it before it does end up in the creek. Turns out his son is a teacher at the local high school and he teaches forestry. He has a program in his classes when it comes to finals. He challenges his students to locate people who are having issues with trees, or the land or plants whatever they can find. He then challenges them to create a team of other students form plan snd  contact the homeowner. Then they go out to the location, take a look at what needs to be done. They take photos before and after. Work on it together until it is solved put together a report and present it to the class. That is their final. The homeowner signs off on the work. That form is also presented to the teacher after the report is done orally. His son will present my problem to his kids on Monday and then they will be in touch. II feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity. There is no way currently that I could afford someone to come in and haul this huge stump off my property. in my case, it’s not simply a matter of removing the stump from the creek. It’s also a challenge to cut down all the blackberries that cover the path over the culvert that leads to the other side of the creek. They will then have to cut more blackberries because they have to see what’s going on if the roots are still in the ground because Ivy is covering everything. It will be interesting to watch this take place.

Now  this morning, I am facing another challenge. Due to the high winds and heavy rain that we’ve had overnight, my main cat enclosure roof is leaking heavily. I’ve had to turn off the electrical because some of the water is becoming very close to the wires  snd outlets.  This shuts off the cats, access to light, their heated water bowls, and their heated cat beds. I still had some dry straw leftover, so I just stuffed as much straw as I could into the cubicles and sleeping places so the kitties could stay warm. I will be unable to do anything as far as buying another tarp until my next check. The last tarp that covered the barn and the cat enclosure (because they are attached) measured 40′ x 24′. The tarp was several hundred dollars. So the Kitty is tapped.

Because of my current injury, I can’t even go out and measure the cat enclosure. I put up plastic tubs underneath the major drips, and just hope that the roof doesn’t succumb to the next storm, which is supposed to be pretty substantial arriving within the next few days. What’s that saying? “When it rains it pours!” Boy ain’t that the truth.

We are still currently missing five outdoor kitties, everybody else is fine and accounted for. The inside kitties are a little bit squirrelly having to deal with all of this noise of the storms. The racing up and down the halls and the stairs, havie increased in the last few days to almost a frantic pace. I know they are unsettled.They don’t seem to have much of an appetite either right now.

The freezing rain and ice storm has finally passed. There are still large patches of ice scattered around the property. I spent the majority of today picking up what limbs I could manage and throwing them in the burn pile. The larger ones I will have to wait until they thaw out a bit before I can take the saw out and chop them up and throw them in the burn pile as well. We had five days of no power. I honestly think that if it wasn’t for Kota and the kitties, snuggling with me on the couch. I don’t think I would’ve made it. There was one night. It was so cold in the house. I could hardly breathe.

It was quite eerie during the freezing rain. Pitch black outside the highway completely devoid of any traffic. No sounds at all, just dead silence. I wrapped a blanket around me and opened the sliding glass door. I was leaning on the wall just listening. I was waiting for the ominous sounds of limbs cracking and  dropping to the ground.

I could hear so clearly. I knew that some of them were coming from my trees. However, there were so many dropping. I knew they weren’t all my trees. I could hear them all around me. Curious, I went over to the front door and opened it and listened and I could hear them across the highway just dropping it was the most eerie of sounds. I heard at least three trees falling. One tree hit was such a thud. I knew that it hit something besides just the ground.

After the storm passed, and I could finally get out of my driveway. I went into town to do a little bit of grocery shopping. While I was there, I was thinking about all the guys who were working in horrendous conditions, trying to restore power to the people of Sweet Home and beyond. I wanted to do something so I picked up a thank you card. I went back to the truck and I filled it out and I was sitting there thinking, wondering how in the world I could get this card to majority of the dedicated workers?

I happen to glance up, and I noticed three of the trucks were parked behind the store. So I went over to the trucks, but I noticed that all of the occupants were sleeping. I wasn’t about to wake them up to give them a thank you note. Unfortunately, even though I’m 6 feet tall I couldn’t reach the windshield to leave it there. Those trucks are huge, I started to leave and another truck pulled up and I thought OK well I know he’s not asleep. I went over he got out of the truck and I handed him the card and just thanked him profusely for all they were doing and still doing to get everybody back to normal. I told him I don’t know how you can but please just make sure that as many of these dedicated people see this card so that they know how appreciated they are. He started laughing, and he said I had good timing. There were several ladies from town, not part of any organization. But they have been cooking for days and they were serving lunches for all of the guys that had worked and are still working.

I turned to go, and this lady walks up with her cell phone. She asked me what I was doing and I told her that I was just thinking these gentlemen for everything that they did. I thought she was just a normal citizen like me that wanted to come over and thank them. She asked me if she could take a picture of me with the guys (there were three of them by that time.) I told her I hadn’t had a shower in five days. I kind of joked and asked her if I could run home real quick and take a shower and then she could take the picture. Thank God I was wearing a wintet cap because it turns out she was a reporter for the local paper. She interviewed me for about 45 minutes. I’ll just say this it won’t be my best photo. Lol. But at least these guys know that they are appreciated not only because of my card but the food and the love in that booth were the women were waiting to give them an actual dinner besides a greasy hamburger and fries.

we are supposed to have snow later today, I will welcome snow a lot better than I welcome, freezing rain. I do know that more of my limbs are in danger of falling. They have been starved for water for six years because we’ve been in drought. Then we had torrential rains, which made them extremely heavy, and now on top of that, we had an ice storm and freezing rain and wind so there’s more ready to just take the plunge to earth. I believe that’s part of why my cats are hiding. I know that sound of those limbs breaking was freaking me out  with their acute sense of hearing, I can’t even imagine what they were thinking except to hide. hopefully, as it gets warmer, they will start coming out. But I will not stop putting food out just in case they happen to decide that it might be safe to finally come out and eat. It was so cold that my heating bowl for my water were not keeping the water warm enough and the water was iced over. It was bitter cold, and it was really scary to be alone in the dark with my animals listening to all of these limbs crashing down to earth. If I had been outside, I would be hiding as well.