How did we get here???

Life has been so busy (and I have been so incompetent) that I haven't posted much here.

Here's a short rundown of events:

Spitfire was adopted by one of Molly's friend's roommates.  I was happy to give him a good home but his mother is still depressed about his absence.  It makes me feel very guilty.  (But not as guilty as I would feel about having him get smucked in the road or freezing to death in the barn or getting an infection in  some cat-fight wound that I can't afford to treat - so it's all good.)

2nd grade is gong as well as can be hoped.  Issues with working memory are making themselves known and ADHD is looking like a potential problem.  Maxx's teachers and special needs coordinators are Awesome, though.  I could not ask for a better team.

 Molly had her pins and plate removed just after Thanksgiving.  Her ankle is doing MUCH better, much less swelling, greater range of motion, no more hobbling, no more sobbing.  Just in time for the musical.  She will be playing Ruth in Pirates of Penzance.  She was hoping for Mabel but her teachers felt that she was the best possible Ruth because she can do comedy and her strong voice has a great range so she can carry Ruth's music off beautifully.  She hopes to be able to sing with the Pirates in the "With Cat-like Tread " number.


Ruby Thursday is HUGE.

Just about as big as her mom - who is ready to be bred again but I keep procrastinating about that.  (Stop reminding me of my failings!)

Ruby is not a dairy cow.  We're not sure what she is.  She's big, red and fuzzy.  She has horns but they are still tiny at 3.5 months and we may have them poled.  She's pretty calm and friendly, loves to have her neck scratched and is almost as greedy as Svenya about grain.  She may end up being the first cow in Jonathan's future beef herd.

Time to run.  Molly has her post-op follow up appointment today to make sure those bones are filling in nicely.

All photos are of Ruby in her first experience with snow.  Taken over Thanksgiving break when we actually had snow for a minute or two.

The outdoor cats (I suspect one of Elaine's older kittens) left me a gift this morning.







Molly says it is no gift.






It is ransom for This.
















......

Got in touch with the shelter.

No room - not for months.  Someone dropped off about a gazillion cats there earlier this week in a huge dog carrier and now they have no room in the shelter and no crates to loan out.

I will not have another feral cat about the place.  It is one thing when they wander through but when a feral calls this place home it just increases my stress about things like rabies and my other cats getting in fights with them.  (Not to mention the 3:00 am barking that accompanies a feral fistfight outside on the porch.  No thank you.)

So.  This little fuzz ball is in a bin in our small bathroom with his mother.  He is so soft.

We will tame him and potty train him.  Someone will adopt him and give him a home.

Right???

P.S.  We need a large doggie crate for he and mama to live in until he finds a home or is tame enough to live in the woodshed without being contained.  If you have one, please let me know!

So - remember Elaine?  Turns out that she did have two kittens this spring.  They are growing up nice and wild in my barnyard.  There is one little girl kitty that will now eat while I sit a few feet away from her food but the other one won't come near.

Elaine had another kitten a little while ago.  I had been watching her for signs of pregnancy (she will let me pet her and feel her belly) and she seemed not be reproducing again any time soon - except that a few days ago, Maxx came in and said   "Mom!  I just saw a little black kitten!"

He carried on about it for a while but I didn't think much of it because he is BIG into pretending lately.  But then Bry came in and said  that a little black kitten had run across the yard and hid in some stuff near the barn.  I went to look and sure enough - there was Elaine, nursing this one little kitten.

This morning, I stepped out to feed the feral family and the kitten happened to be on the entry way.  When I stepped out, he/she/it was effectively trapped in a little corner.  After much hissing, spitting, clawing and biting, I managed to catch the little bugger sweetie and put it into a cat carrier.  He/she is terrified and trembling and I'm sooo tempted to just set it free to live its little feral life but . . . .

 I do not want more cats around the barnyard that I can't touch and take in for rabies shots, spay/neutering or other care.  And we really can't justify taking Elaine in to be fixed and keeping her on as part of the crew.  She is mean to Emmeth and Midnight - in fact, she won't allow either of them into the barn where they can stay warm so - she has got to go before winter.

Elaine is a beautiful cat (when she lets me take the burrs out of her tail) and I think she would be very happy as an indoor/outdoor cat in a home with no other cats or where she could be the alpha. She likes attention and she's actually pretty affectionate.  I'm sure that this pretty baby will grow up to be a gorgeous cat - looks like a medium length coat and a very pretty face coming on there.





 . . . . .

So yesterday when I thought Svenya had made another escape, I called Bry at work and left a message about my frustration and to plead for some advice.  My language may have been just a tad bit too rich for a District Relief Society President.

And then I had to call and leave another message to apologize for my grouchy one once I found Svenya and her calf all safe and sound hidden in the sumac.

He called me back after he got out of his meetings.  When I told him how utterly unprepared I was to encounter such a perfectly endearing creature, he laughed at me!

It wasn't a nasty laugh or a teasing laugh.  It was the kind of laugh you have when a friend discovers something wonderful and unexpected that you have known all along and it's good to share that thing with them.


I always thought puppies were the best thing in the universe.  It might just be newborn cows.  ( I don't know - maybe it's a tie.  You can pick up a newborn calf and cuddle it under your chin.)

Photos don't capture it - there's something about the way she curls up, all small and quiet and is hardly even there.  And the way her eyes are SO Big when she opens them up and how she's so wobbly and unexpectedly soft.  And that sweet, soft  little mooing song her mama sings to her doesn't hurt either.














. . . .

This is the event I've been stressed and obsessed about for weeks - practically the whole month of August.

 Poor Svenya has been so big and uncomfortable with a bag bigger than I'd ever imagined it could get and lots of cow labor signs that literally went on for weeeeeeks instead of the days or mere hours that they were supposed to last before the calf was born.

 Svenya has also made a couple of escapes this summer so when I went out this afternoon to check on her and couldn't find her, I immediately assumed that she had made another break for it. I went into the house to change my shoes and call some neighbors and then decided to go take one last, thorough look around the pasture before tromping up and down the road with a grain bucket and lead rope.

 Well, I discovered a part of the pasture that I didn't know existed. There's a little stand of sumac between the old stone wall and the far corner of the fence. I thought I could see a Svenya shape back there so I bushwacked my way in there and found her finishing up the placenta and crooning to her baby.

 I had NO IDEA how adorable and soft and endearing a newborn calf is.

 Call me smitten.

 No idea what we'll call the baby yet. There's been talk of naming it Yo-Yo because Svenya has been so indecisive about labor all month long but we'll need to discuss that in further detail. Here are some photos. Hopefully, I'll get better ones this evening when we can move them out of the sumac and into the pasture.

 - Gets your heart rate up first thing in the morning

 - Burns off a few hundred calories before breakfast

 - Helps justify eating that last half of the Maple frosted doughnut your mother brought over last night

 - Prevents one from lazily sleeping the morning away

 - Encourages family unity because you have to wake up the whole neighborhood to help track her down

 - Gives you a chance to meet more of the neighbors because you must warn early morning commuters of the danger of sudden cow appearances

 - Gives you a brand new, fuller appreciation of the phrase "Stupid Cow"

 - Banishes vanity  because who really cares about parading around in your jammies when you've got a thousand dollar investment and a potential lawsuit scampering loose in the road

 - Provides concrete evidence that the gate IS too hard for the woman of the farm to open by herself in a pinch

 - Guarantees a guilt free afternoon nap