daily dose of dogs (aka cats with your coffee)

Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving week.  I am thankful that all of the animals on this property are safe and healthy in this moment - donkeys, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats cats cats!

I am also thankful for Andrea’s  Holiday Auction to benefit the cats of Winnie’s Wish!  Andrea’s Auction runs through December 11^th.  There are new items being added throughout the auction.  Lots of great things are in this auction, but definitely the big hits are Andrea’s own creations.  She has round crocheted beds in awesome colors.  She has crocheted toy sets that are just SO cute.  And she has her puffy beds – big, soft, gorgeous, and reversible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea is amazing! And so are all of you who are bidding on items in this auction!

 

Before I close, let me share with you that even though I’ve been unsuccessful in trapping the tabby cat that I’ve been watching for months now, I did have another sighting.  And this time it was right across the road from my house, in the same field where I finally trapped Theo in December a few years ago.

 

Arrow points to where the tabby was.

 

 It was yesterday morning about 7am.  I looked out my kitchen window and thought I saw an odd shape in the field.  I stared for a bit, but there was no movement.  So I got out my binoculars and sure enough – there was my tabby cat, just its head above the tall field grass.  I grabbed a jacket and stepped out onto my front porch.  I called to the cat and it immediately went flat, down into the grass so that I couldn’t see it.  I kept calling while I was trying to think what to do.  But even as I cautiously went down my steps, it dashed away as fast as it could.  It was twenty-something degrees outside; so bitter cold that I was immediately sad for this kitty.  If only I could get it in my trap.  I will continue to try.  Fingers crossed, my Friends!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

 

Andrea’s Holiday Auction THIS FRIDAY

After I posted to my blog yesterday morning, I received an email from Andrea (Celestial Kitties).   She said she was doing her Holiday Auction to benefit Winnie’s Wish and that the auction would start THIS Friday, November 19^th!    I’m so so so excited!    I had just told Andrea NOT to do her Holiday Auction this year because she has recently battled through some health problems and I know this auction is A LOT of work for her.  But guess what?  She’s doing it anyway.  Bless her heart! 

As I’ve mentioned, Winnie’s Wish is still home to 32 cats.  Their care costs a fortune as I’m sure most of you know by taking care of your own groups.   Andrea’s auctions are always such a success.  I’m just thrilled that this auction is about to take off and SO grateful to Andrea for doing this.

I hope you will visit her auction.  Here is the link.  You can come to this post and click this link at any time.  Or you can click on the auction graphic at the top of the sidebar.  You can also go to Andrea’s blog and find the link to the auction.   And I will post it on Facebook.

 

Link      https://winnieswishauction.blogspot.com/

 

 

Here’s to a super successful Holiday Auction put on by one of the biggest supporters of Winnie’s Wish ever! 

 

Another Elusive One

I’m not blogging every week anymore for the reasons I’ve mentioned here before.  Going from a shelter with a revolving door to a sanctuary means there are no stories of cats leaving (being adopted) or coming in as new rescues.  But as I’ve said, that doesn’t mean things have slowed down here even a little bit.  The 32 Winnie’s Wishers are still here.  There’s lots of activity, but very little to write about.  And at the moment, all is well.

Today’s post is about this extremely elusive cat that I’ve been telling you about for months.  I believe my first sighting of this cat was last February.  That would mean that I’ve been periodically glimpsing this one for nine months now.  I think the last time I posted about it (him/her?) was in the Summer.  Since then, Older Daughter has seen this cat twice, her husband has seen it once, and I just saw it this past Saturday night.  I was leaving Younger Daughter’s house, and as I slowly drove up the gravel road I spotted eyes just off to the right in the field.  If you don’t live in the country, you might not realize just how dark it truly is at night.  It is pitch black and I only saw the eyes because my vehicle headlights reflected off those eyes for an instant.  I immediately turned my vehicle towards the eyes and drove a few feet into the field in the direction I’d seen the eyes.  My headlights lit up the perfect portion of the field and there went my tabby cat. 

It was quite disappointing.  Our temps dropped into the twenties at night over this past weekend.  I drove the rest of the way up the hill thinking about where this kitty goes for shelter. 

The traveling area for this cat seems to be the same as it was for another stray cat a few years back.  Do you remember the story of Theo?  In fact, he got his name (ThEO) from being The Elusive One.  My first sighting of him was in June one year.  I saw him sporadically after that over the months.  And then, that December, I was finally successful in trapping him.   He was hiding in my yard the first time I saw him.  After that, I watched him cross the field in front of my house.  I watched him hunting.  I set my trap in numerous spots but never got him.  Then just a few days before Christmas (and before a terrible winter weather event), he FINALLY walked into that trap.   He is now a very happy, healthy Winnie’s Wish cat.

Well, my tabby cat has been straying through the area for even longer than Theo did.  I’ve set my trap for long periods in various locations.  No luck.  But seeing this tabby gal or guy again the other night has me determined all over again.  We are headed into the coldest time of year.  Oh how I wish I could trap this cat right now.  Starting on Sunday, I’ve been setting the trap between the gravel road and one of the ponds.  This area is very close to Younger Daughter’s home.  So I’ve been setting the trap at dusk and having her venture over at night before she goes to bed to check and trip the trap.  I cannot imagine what it will take to get this kitty.  The reason I still have hope is because of what happened with Theo.  Maybe there is a day coming (soon) when I will have this tabby in my trap – and he or she won’t live in the fields and woods all alone anymore.

 

This is the picture I snapped in the summer when I accidentally walked up on the cat.

 

 

I’ve tried to magnify the pic enough for you to vaguely see him/her.

 

Friends – keep your fingers crossed.

 

ADDENDUM - I just heard from Andrea and she told me she is doing a holiday auction to benefit the kitties of Winnie's Wish!!!!!!  I'll be back tomorrow with more details!!!!  YIPPEE!!!!!

 

Wildlife Wednesday - Squirrels

First I’ll give you a peek at Tiny Dancer. (Her story here.)

 

 

The story for today is also about a squirrel.  Two, in fact.  Not a great story really, but with a happy ending – because Older Daughter now has those two squirrels at Wild Angels.

I believe I’ve mentioned that Older Daughter now has a relationship with the conservation officer in the next county over.  He discovered Wild Angels and has needed Older Daughter’s assistance a few times.  Well, he called the other day and told her this story:   A man was arrested and put in jail.  While the police were at his home, they discovered that he had two squirrels in a cage in his house.  Of course, this is illegal, not to mention that once the man was in jail the squirrels couldn’t feed and water themselves.  The police called the conservation officer and the conservation officer called Older Daughter.

So he got the cage with the squirrels delivered to the shelter where Older Daughter works.  Then she had to wait until her Husband could meet her there with his truck to get the cage and occupants loaded up and taken to her home.  The squirrels are grown.  Older doesn’t know if they were tame when with the man who had them, but they are definitely not acting tame now.  They have so far stayed hidden in a log in their cage.  Older hasn’t even seen them yet – spotting only some fur she can view through the log’s hole.  They will be checked for health, transitioned to an outdoor enclosure, and after an adjustment period they will be released. 

 

Not a suitable permanent world for squirrels

 

 

hiding

 

Lucky for these two squirrels, life will return to what it was meant to be.

 

Have a great week and weekend.   (Keep a lookout for black cats.  They especially need our help right now.)

 

Orange and Black

When Halloween gets here, I know the holiday season has officially arrived.  As I’ve said in my last couple of posts, there isn’t much to blog about right now.  The 32 Winnie’ s Wishers are here.  There are no new Wishers and nobody leaves.  So the best I can hope for is smooth sailing as far as the health of these sweethearts.  And in this moment, all is well.  In honor of the Halloween holiday, here are pictures of the orange kitties and the black kitties who call our house or Winnie’s Wish home.

 

Peep is our 19-pound black cat.  He is a handful – both in weight and in personality.

 

 

Wisher Goldie

 

 

Three black cat Wishers stacked nicely on this cat tree.

 

 

Our Mango and Butterscotch

 

 

Wisher Theo

 

 

Wisher Peeta

 

 

 

 

Ginny - THANK YOU.

 

See you tomorrow for a Wildlife Wednesday.

 

Happy Halloween!

 

 

Grateful for Quiet Times

The last time I blogged was a couple of weeks ago.  The title of that post was Still Here.  I included a bunch of pictures of the Wishers.  It was good to give you a reminder look at these precious sweethearts.  I also wrote how there isn’t much to say about the Winnie’s Wish sanctuary cats at this time.  That is mostly because I no longer take in more and more cats.  And I don’t adopt out anymore.  But not having much to say is also because all is well here in this moment.  And for that I am grateful.  I have kitties with chronic conditions, but there are no acute medical issues right now.  And nobody is terminally ill.  What a wonderful thing to be able to say.

 

The Patriarch and Matriarch of Winnie's Wish.

 

 

So without much to report (which can be a good thing), I’ll leave you with this gift that Winnie’s Wish received from the amazing Andrea.

 

Andrea (and Greg) – THANK YOU.

Have a great week!

 

Still Here

With no additions and no adoptions, Winnie’s Wish doesn’t have much to say for itself.  But there are still 32 cats here, and they will live out their lives here.  For me, not much has changed.  Taking care of 32 cats every day is the same no matter what else is going on in my world.  There is about a two and a half hour morning routine.  There’s an hour long 4pm routine.  And there’s a bedtime routine.  If I’m going to be away from home I have to schedule leaving after about ten in the morning and getting home before four.  When I do a fund-raising yard sale for the shelter where my daughters work, it means getting up even earlier than usual to get through the morning routines for the Wishers and for our own animals.  (yep, that means getting up when it’s still dark)   Sometimes it feels like too much.  But all I have to do is walk through the front door and see my first Wisher, and no matter how tired I am or how many other things I need to do, I melt at the sight of those sweethearts.  Every single one of them is precious.  All different, each wonderful in his or her own way.  Here are some new pictures (of almost everybody).

 

Toast and Peeta - still big buddies

 

 

Goldie - completely deaf

 

Peeta, Snowflake, Finnick, and Slate

 

 

Quinn

 

 

 

Cole and Raven - siblings

 

 

Fannie

 

Pretty Boy and Kin Kins

 

 

Sherwood

 

Isis

 

Sunspot

 

Prim

 

Rocky

 

Binks and Blue

 

Kizzie - only one seeing eye

 

Bunny

 

Winter and Gandolf

 

Halo

 

Took this picture thru the window - Pippin, Smokey, and Clover

 

Theo

 

Sweet ancient Angel

 

Tinkerbell

 

The Winnie's Wishers - a gorgeous crew if I do say so myself!

 

 

Wildlife Wednesday - Dancing Against the Odds

This will be a very short post.  But I wanted to share Tiny Dancer’s progress.  I know things could still change, but right now this little Wild Angel is doing really well.  Her pneumonia is behind us.  She is putting on a bit of weight.  She is bright-eyed and active.  She loves her formula.  And she has recently been introduced to some solid food and is learning how to eat!  I will never get over the fact that this sweet baby came to me for help.  I’m so very glad that she was placed in Older Daughter’s hands just in time.

 

 

 

 

Sometimes we really do need a story with a happy ending.

 

Our Farm Animals

The definition of livestock is -  farm animals regarded as an asset.

We have pigs and donkeys and chickens.  They are NOT “livestock.”  No doubt our farm animals are a financial liability; certainly not an asset (smile).  Large animals like pigs and donkeys consume a lot of food.  Our pigs get a special food designed for the large pot belly pig.  They get a mixed salad daily and a few bites of apple.  Our donkeys get their grain (two different types), hay in the winter, and a few bites of apple.  The pigs and the donkeys have required vet care multiple times over the years and you don’t load up a 200-pound pig or a donkey.  That means the vet has to come to you (extra charges, of course).  The pigs have a stall with two houses inside.  They have heat lamps and blankets and straw in the winter.  The donkeys have a stall and feeders and water tanks.  The pigs have one industrial fan; the donkeys have three.  And we pay a farrier every six weeks to tend to our donkeys’ hooves.   Our chickens do pay us back with delicious fresh eggs.  But the savings in egg purchases doesn’t begin to compensate for their feed.  And by the time we finished building their chicken coop – a nice large house with a fortress pen around it – it would take right at 200 years of eggs to pay for their abode.

Nope.  We do not have “livestock.”

I’ve mentioned before that our donkeys and our pigs are rescues.  The chickens are not, but when I purchased them I felt like we were saving them.  I can’t go into my feelings about how livestock are treated.  I would have to write for days to cover all of the changes I feel should be made.  And I would, no doubt, offend someone along the way.  But I DO feel like it is time for humanity to view its livestock differently.  They are animals, not crops in a field, and they deserve to be treated with compassion. 

I will treat with compassion two donkeys, two pigs, and six chickens.  I know there are other people who do actually care about their farm animals.  I can only hope that as humanity progresses, we will begin to see our farm animals as the beings they are.  And that we will learn to value them as beings and not just as a commodity.

 

Radio

 

 

Jenny

 

 

Jenny has continued to improve to the point of returning to the field.

 

 

 

 

 

Two chickens enjoying one of the pig's dirt holes.

 

 

This is the chicken fortress; they are put in here at night to stay safe from raccoons, opossums, and coyotes.

 

 

I think eggs are beautiful

 

 

 

Chickens sharing a dirt hole with Annie

 

 

Annie and Arnold

 

 

 

 

 

As I was adding pig pics I noticed that they are always lying down. That's because when they are up snooting around they are never together. But they are SO cute lying side by side.

 

 

 

Farm animals are still animals.  They deserve our love. 

Tomorrow – a short update on Tiny Dancer.  See you then.

 

Wildlife Wednesday - Tiny Dancer

The story I will tell you today is true.  But I will admit, it seems unlikely.  When I told each of my daughters (they of course believed me), each one said – You know, if someone we didn’t know told that story we probably wouldn’t believe it.  They are right.

Let me set the stage.  I had been way behind on my gardening chores, primarily weeding, because of knee trouble and really hot temperatures here in Southern Illinois.  Last week we had some beautiful weather.  On Wednesday I made a lot of headway.  Then on Thursday I was at it again.  It was afternoon and I was down to my last big flower bed.   Sometimes when I am weeding, I am listening to the sounds of Nature – the birds, the cicadas, etc.  But sometimes, especially if I’ll be at it for several hours, I put in my ear buds and listen to the music on my phone.  When I do this, I sing or hum along.  I live way out in the country so I don’t have to worry about distressing neighbors with potentially off-key performances.  Anyway – I was busily pulling weeds from between iris rhizomes, humming along softly when I suddenly became aware of something very small and furry in my field of vision.  It was definitely moving towards me through the irises.  My first thought was that it was a chipmunk, but my brain couldn’t quite wrap around why it would be moving in my direction instead of away from me.  I stood up and focused and saw that it was a very tiny squirrel.  And it kept coming towards me.  I started backing away from it as I pulled my phone to call Older Daughter for advice.  I was pretty sure I needed to find the nest it had fallen from and try to get it back home.  I couldn’t get enough of a signal to get a call through.  I was slowly walking away from the squirrel holding my phone in the air looking for signal.  And this little baby was continuing to follow me.  I could see that it looked too thin and it seemed wobbly (weak).  But what I became more and more shocked by was that it continued to try to get TO me instead of AWAY from me.  I realized that I was going to have to go up closer to the house to be able to get a call through to Older Daughter.  Just as I was thinking that I shouldn’t leave the little thing alone (since it didn’t seem quite right), it wobbled over to directly in front of my feet, rose up on its back legs and literally reached up to me.  I instinctively reached down for it.  My brain was fried.  I could NOT imagine any wild animal, especially a baby, going towards a human – trying to get picked up!  If I had been a predator, this would have been the end.

 

 

I was dumbfounded as I reached down and picked up this helpless little creature.  As soon as I held it against my body, it immediately started trying to find a place to nurse.  My heart broke as my brain fell deeper into bewilderment.  I started walking towards the house and finally got a call through to Older Daughter.  Hey I need you up here at my house.  I have a baby squirrel and it doesn’t seem to be in good shape.  I was so lucky that this was on Thursday, Older Daughter’s day off.  She was there within five minutes.  She immediately examined the little thing.  Older told me that this little baby girl was too thin and massively dehydrated.  She checked her gums and found that she was anemic.  Then she showed me why.  She was COVERED with deer ticks and mites.  Clearly, these parasites knew this was an animal who was dying.  And they were taking over.  Older left with her and told me not to get my hopes up.  I told her to keep me posted.

I know (from Older educating me) that you cannot start feeding a starving dehydrated animal immediately.  She would need to receive fluids and a bit of sugar water and be placed on a heating pad or in the incubator to bring her body temperature to where it should be for a baby squirrel.  First she had to bathe her to remove as many mites and ticks as possible and then try to pick off the remaining ticks.  Hours later I heard from Older Daughter.

Well, she’s had a bath and fluids and some sugar water.  She is warming.  She is asleep.  She will receive formula a little later.  Mom, you know I never name the wildlife that come  to me.  But I’m calling this one Tiny Dancer – I believe she came to you because you were singing.  I believe she felt like you were not a threat and that you might be help.

Older told me that of course the chances of her living were slim because she was in such poor shape.  I guess I wasn’t surprised.  I mean, she looked pretty normal when I took that first picture of her.  But that was before I felt how thin she was and before Older showed me all of her other issues.  I needed to try not to get my hopes up.

 

covered in ticks and mites

 

 

only tiny amounts of sugar water initially

 

 

finally comfortable and sleeping

 

The next day Tiny Dancer showed signs of pneumonia.  Older added antibiotic and we kept our fingers crossed.  Older told me that with that level of starvation and dehydration it was likely she had already suffered organ damage and that her lungs probably weren’t up to the battle.  But of course Older Daughter would do everything possible to save this special baby.   On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Tiny Dancer was doing better.  Her breathing was less labored.  Today is Wednesday.  And she is doing really well.  I don’t know what the final outcome will be, but I’m SO hoping that this little angel (Wild Angel) will survive and thrive.

 

enjoying formula

 

 

Things are looking up!

 

 

See you next week.