Jean-Luc, our tossed away kitten, has become living proof that one person's trash is another person's treasure. This little guy is an absolute joy. He is the most relaxed, friendly, affection kitten I have ever had. He completely defies the idea that cats are not social creatures. After a week alone, cold and hungry, he makes sure now that he is never far from his people. All catnaps are taken in a lap, draped across shoulders or tucked under a chin. He basically slept and ate for 2 days, and now when he is not napping, he is playing.
The Farty Boys, Sheldon and Sawyer, greeted JL with mild interest. They are now large, strapping toms. Sheldon is close to 15 lbs of muscle and fur, while Sawyer is a lithe, pretty boy. They spend their nights outside, scrapping (often w/each other) and hunting. Days are spent curled up under beds or on top of shoe piles, asleep. JL is a puzzled to them. Sheldon is the more serenely affectionate one, so he has met JL's innocent curiosity with patience. Sawyer just rolls his eyes and walks away. As if he doesn't have enough to deal with.
When it comes to the dogs, JL is very brave. Remember, the day he was rescued, the dogs tormented him for hours, growling and barking while trying to dig him out from under the baler. At first, whenever JL saw them, he growled like a small boy shaking his fists and uttering threats in a high voice at schoolyard bullies. He's settling down now, as nobody has shown any real intention of actually eating him or anything.
Still, while neither one of the dogs could be called aggressive, that isn't much comfort to a small kitten who facing being played with to death by Toby, or mothered to death by Mini. Toby is desperate to have JL as a friend, and in a few weeks I have no doubt they will be the best of buddies. For now, though, JL is just too small, and while Toby tries to be gentle, he's too much for the little guy.
As for the chickens, JL hasn't met them yet. We still have most of our flock from last year's Hovabator experience. There was the one rooster that we ate. That incident will be a post all it's own. We've lost a few hens to illness and coyotes. I nursed one hen through a broken back to complete health, yet lost another to a sinus infection after days of care. We also lost one hen to the realization that she was really a he who developed later than the other roosters. Beauty, the Americauna that we hatched, turned out to be a roo. Big surprise.
We still have seven roosters cooped up in the shed. As I said, we ate one. Yeah. I'm collecting eggs for the Hovabator, as a neighbour has paid us to incubate some of our eggs for him. We're going to do a batch for ourselves, too, and our neighbour said that he would take the roos. This means I am going to have to figure out how to sex chicks. I know there is lots of info on the net. I'm hoping for videos, too, as I am thinking I may not be very good at it.
I'm looking forward to hatching out chicks. It was a great experience last year. I know that the roos I give to my neighbour will end up in his freezer. It's interesting - the farmers reading this will wonder why we don't put our roos in our own freezer. The pet owners will wonder how we can fathom the thought of sending sweet, fluffy chicks down a road that leads to Sunday supper. I guess we are lingering in the middle. I am able to eat my own roos, but I don't enjoy it. I understand that for us to have more hens, we have to do something with the roos that will hatch. We can't afford to feed them and keep them for pets, nor do we want to keep them stuck inside all the time. And we need more hens. We have 7 hens to 3 roosters, and while there isn't a lot of fighting amongst the roos, there is confusion as to which hen belongs to whom and it makes it difficult for the roos to do the job of keeping the hens safe and cared for.
Call it the circle of life, or just the way things are. With the joy of having chickens comes the difficulty of tough decisions.
Speaking of the circle of life, Pippin, our rabbit, didn't make it through the winter. We miss him. He deserves a blog post all to himself, though.
All in all, it has been a good year. The winter was hard, but Spring has properly arrived in all her fragrant glory. She's bringing an inordinate amount of rain with her, but given the tornadoes going on in parts of the States, I'm trying really hard not to complain.
Peace out.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Saving Jean-Luc
It has been a long time since I have updated this blog, I know. I'm not really sure why, but I do know that once time starts to go by and blog-worthy incidents build up in life, it becomes difficult to know where to start.
Tonight something happened that I immediately realized is the perfect place to start. Marc and I had gone for a walk down the lane, and as we returned we heard plaintive mewing coming from the baler in front of the house. A week ago, I had found a young cat dead at the end of the lane. I assumed that she had been hit by a car. I was sad, and because I suspected that she had been dropped off by someone who didn't want her anymore, I was angry. I moved her to the side of the lane. She was lovely, silky black with a sweet young face.
Later that day, Marc saw a young grey kitten at the end of the lane near where I had place the young female. The kitten was so frightened, he actually jumped into the water in the ditch and got away. Tonight that little grey kitten had hidden himself away in the baler. Mini and Toby, the dogs, had spent much of the day digging up the wet ground underneath the baler trying to get at the kitten. We saw the results of the digging, but we thought they may have been trying to catch a chipmunk or something like that. Then we heard the kitten crying.
We slipped into rubber boots, and filled a bowl with cat food. It took less than a minute for me to lure the poor little guy out to eat. He was very thin, but otherwise in good condition. We brought him in and he ate desperately for several minutes. Now, as Marc watches a documentary on snipers and I type this, the kitten is crawling all over us on the couch, a bright, curious, purring grey baby.
We decided that, tentatively, we are going to call him Jean-Luc, for Jean-Luc Picard, the captain the the Enterprise in Star Trek, The Next Generation television show. After watching the little guy stand up to Mini and Toby when we introduced them, given the fact that they had most likely terrorizing him all afternoon, I'm thinking that he is going to live up to his name.
It is a cruel and brutal thing, to leave animals alone and uncared for in the country when they are no longer wanted. The idea that they will simply hunt and take care of themselves is false. Left at the side of the road, the animals are often killed by passing cars. What is worse, they are also often wounded by cars and left to suffer and die slowly because there is no one to care for them. They are unfamiliar with the danger of traffic, not to mention wild animals,farm yard dogs, hunger and disease. Dropping off mothers with babies is especially cruel. Cats and dogs are not wild animals. Their young aren't able to keep safely hidden while their mothers hunt for food. If anything happens to the mother, as in JL's case, the young are left helpless, unable to find food, and vulnerable to weather, wild animals and disease. I had placed some food in a bowl at the end of the lane near JL's mother in hopes that he would come back to his mother's body, and so he was able to have a bit of food. It wasn't enough, though. He wandered in the ditch and fields for a week, hungry, alone and frightened. The very thought of this makes me sad. And angry.
Owning animals is a responsibility that needs to be taken seriously. It's not rocket science. If we don't already know what our new pet will need from us before we get them, the internet provides endless sources of information. When circumstances dictate that we can no longer look after our animals, we need to seek out options that do not leave our pets in danger. What we should never do is just dump them like trash on the side of the road, thinking that someone else will take care of them. It is rare that discarded animals find caring homes, and even if they do, they suffer terribly before they are rescued.
At this moment, little JL is curled upon Marc's chest, purring as he slowly falls asleep. Tonight he is safe.
Tonight something happened that I immediately realized is the perfect place to start. Marc and I had gone for a walk down the lane, and as we returned we heard plaintive mewing coming from the baler in front of the house. A week ago, I had found a young cat dead at the end of the lane. I assumed that she had been hit by a car. I was sad, and because I suspected that she had been dropped off by someone who didn't want her anymore, I was angry. I moved her to the side of the lane. She was lovely, silky black with a sweet young face.
Later that day, Marc saw a young grey kitten at the end of the lane near where I had place the young female. The kitten was so frightened, he actually jumped into the water in the ditch and got away. Tonight that little grey kitten had hidden himself away in the baler. Mini and Toby, the dogs, had spent much of the day digging up the wet ground underneath the baler trying to get at the kitten. We saw the results of the digging, but we thought they may have been trying to catch a chipmunk or something like that. Then we heard the kitten crying.
We slipped into rubber boots, and filled a bowl with cat food. It took less than a minute for me to lure the poor little guy out to eat. He was very thin, but otherwise in good condition. We brought him in and he ate desperately for several minutes. Now, as Marc watches a documentary on snipers and I type this, the kitten is crawling all over us on the couch, a bright, curious, purring grey baby.
We decided that, tentatively, we are going to call him Jean-Luc, for Jean-Luc Picard, the captain the the Enterprise in Star Trek, The Next Generation television show. After watching the little guy stand up to Mini and Toby when we introduced them, given the fact that they had most likely terrorizing him all afternoon, I'm thinking that he is going to live up to his name.
It is a cruel and brutal thing, to leave animals alone and uncared for in the country when they are no longer wanted. The idea that they will simply hunt and take care of themselves is false. Left at the side of the road, the animals are often killed by passing cars. What is worse, they are also often wounded by cars and left to suffer and die slowly because there is no one to care for them. They are unfamiliar with the danger of traffic, not to mention wild animals,farm yard dogs, hunger and disease. Dropping off mothers with babies is especially cruel. Cats and dogs are not wild animals. Their young aren't able to keep safely hidden while their mothers hunt for food. If anything happens to the mother, as in JL's case, the young are left helpless, unable to find food, and vulnerable to weather, wild animals and disease. I had placed some food in a bowl at the end of the lane near JL's mother in hopes that he would come back to his mother's body, and so he was able to have a bit of food. It wasn't enough, though. He wandered in the ditch and fields for a week, hungry, alone and frightened. The very thought of this makes me sad. And angry.
Owning animals is a responsibility that needs to be taken seriously. It's not rocket science. If we don't already know what our new pet will need from us before we get them, the internet provides endless sources of information. When circumstances dictate that we can no longer look after our animals, we need to seek out options that do not leave our pets in danger. What we should never do is just dump them like trash on the side of the road, thinking that someone else will take care of them. It is rare that discarded animals find caring homes, and even if they do, they suffer terribly before they are rescued.
At this moment, little JL is curled upon Marc's chest, purring as he slowly falls asleep. Tonight he is safe.
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