No hard feelings, right, guys?

On Saturday, I headed up to the barn cat farm.  I needed to pick up a couple of carriers, plus I wanted to work on some traps that had malfunctioned Wednesday night.  Oh, and I stopped by the house where the guy who pushed me up the hill lives and dropped off some cupcakes as thanks.  No one was home, so I left them on the porch with a note.  I was discussing him with the farm owner, and in the "it's a really, really, REALLY small world" category, it turns out that he's the father of one of the young women I clean with at the adoption center!

I also brought along some catnip toys, so the cats would know that I wasn't ALL bad:

This guy was GETTIN' it:

These guys, however, weren't falling for it:

slurp:

Pretty pose:

Big guy:

This girl has already been spayed, but EVERY TIME we bait traps, she's first in line to be caught.  On Wednesday night, I had to literally SHAKE her out of one of the traps, she was so determined to get that mackerel.  And on Saturday, as soon as the traps came out, she was right there:

All traps are now functioning as designed:

And I had to take more pictures of this lovely girl:

She sure is a beauty.

Well, THAT was an experience (Part 2)

See the previous post for Part 1.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay!  So, I was supposed to be at the barn at seven yesterday morning, in order to get the cats loaded up and transported to the clinic by eight.  Except it snowed Wednesday night.  A LOT.  Several inches' worth.

Which, granted, is not a HUGE amount, but it was enough to cancel school.  And once school gets canceled, I swear to God my town's highway department employees roll over and go back to sleep, and the roads don't get plowed until they flipping well FEEL like it.  It drives me CRAZY.  Some of us have WORK to do, you lazy bastids.

So I got up at five, figuring I needed to give myself more time for the trip, got showered and dressed, and shoveled out the driveway.  At six-thirty, I headed for the farm on totally unplowed roads.  I actually made it the first three miles, but when I had start up the hill to the farm, I couldn't make it.  Not even close. I love my little Hyundai dearly, but it is TERRIBLE on snowy hills.

I couldn't even call the farm owner because I don't have cell service out there, so I turned around, headed back home, and called.  I explained that I couldn't make it the last quarter-mile, but if she could get the cats to the bottom of the hill, I could take them the rest of the way in.   She said the plow had JUST gone past her house, so I said great, I'd be right there.

I headed back to the farm, this time on plowed roads, started up the hill, and ... nope.  There was just enough snow and ice left from the plow that the car wouldn't make it.  Which is where a man who lives at the bottom of the hill, and just happened to see my plight as he was snowblowing his driveway, came out and PUSHED me far enough so that, slipping, sliding and going sideways, I was able to get up the hill and get the rest of the way to the farm.  I'm pretty sure I have no tread left on my tires at this point because I burned it all off, but I MADE IT.  Ha.

Well, the barnyard hadn't been plowed out yet, so I pulled over to the side of the road and hoofed it to the barns, where the barn owner was trying to figure out who needed to go.  The woman who usually helps identify which ferals need to be altered and which have already been done wasn't able to make it because of the freakin' ROADS, so in the end we loaded up two of the trapped cats who the farm owner was fairly certain needed to go (none of the trapped cats were ear-tipped, but because some of the cats had previously been altered without tipping, that's not really a reliable indicator), and she scooped up two of the less-ferals who she also thought needed to be done and put them in carriers.  We only had four slots, so we let the rest of the trapped cats out.  And then we hoofed the cats who were making the trip through the snowdrifts out to the car at the side of the road and loaded them up, and I was off.  Back on the terrible, plowed-but-still-icy-and-snowy roads, for the drive to the clinic.

At one point my windshield wipers FROZE to the windshield, and there was a brief moment of terror when I got to the clinic and thought that one of the cats had ESCAPED its carrier (it hadn't; it was just a small cat who had wedged itself in the very back of the carrier), but the cats all made it there safe and sound.

It turns out one of the cats had already been neutered (ooops, but at least now it's EAR-TIPPED), so they ended up neutering one male (he was a cryptorchid, so it's a good thing we got him) and spaying two females.  Total count to date:  Five males, seven females, and we've got four more slots on the 23rd. 

And my car is at the tire place right now, getting new tires.  Ha. 

Well, THAT was an experience

We had four slots at the spay and neuter clinic this morning for the feral barn cats.  So last night, I headed up to the farm, where I was meeting my friend Sarah to set traps.

When I got there, there was an upset man in the barnyard.  He had been driving by, he explained, and a cat darted out in front of his car, and ... he hit it. 

Sarah was already there and had located the cat, who had severe injuries.  She got it into a carrier and the farm owner rushed it to the emergency vet, but the cat had to be humanely euthanized.

Well, that was awful. It was horrible, of course mostly for the cat, but also for Sarah, who had JUST had to put her elderly dog down the day before.  I told her to go home, that I would handle the rest, but she said no, she wanted to stay and get the traps set.

How do you even measure the worth of a person like that?  I have no idea.  Gift ideas welcome, because man, I OWE her.

While the farm owner was at the vet, Sarah and I set eight traps.  As we were setting the traps in one area of the barn, we could HEAR the traps already set elsewhere going off.  Within an hour, we had trapped five cats.  We were both pretty frazzled at that point, so we elected to de-activate the remaining traps and call it a night.   I was to come back this morning and pick up the cats for transport to the clinic.

And then it started to snow.

To be continued ...

A Theory - Now with updates!

So!  In the last post, we explored some of the more ... esoteric of the quilt squares.  James P. thinks that some of the images may be nursery rhyme characters.  And The Queen thought that the running man looked like a monopoly character.

Quilt running man:

Monopoly running man:

Well, I can definitely see a resemblance there!    Googling "nursery rhyme running man" leads to Wee Willie Winkie:

Yeah, not so much.  That google search also leads to The Gingerbread Man, which I think we can safely rule out here.

Googling "children's book running man" leads to about a million entries for Stephen King's novel The Running Man, which ... would make for an entirely DIFFERENT type of quilt, yikes.

So!  I'm not sure if we're making a lot of progress, here, but it sure is interesting!

UPDATE:  James P. brought up "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" in the comments, so a quick google search led to this:

Also a possibility! 

Quilting a mystery

In my previous post about the quilt, I mentioned some mystery squares.  Here they are:

Let's see, that's a pair of axes in the upper left, but what's that on the bottom right?  A ... sled?  A ... baseball with extended stitch lines?
 

Clearly, RHW was a big fan of ... underwear?  Swimming trunks?  Bloomers?

In the upper left of the above panel, we have a flower and either some leaves or a butterfly.  And in the bottom right, we have ... Saint Bernardcat.

Below we have a dog, surrounded by the moon and stars, staring at a bear wearing a collar (?).  The collar-bear also appeared in another block of the quilt.

Okay, so in the lower right of the panel below, we have a welding glove.  And in the upper left, we have four interlocking rings.  And an arrow.  BUT WHAT DOES IT MEEEEEAAAAAN?:

And finally, we have what I think is my favorite panel of all:

In the upper left, we have a monogram.  And in the bottom right, we have a little man running away with something tucked under his arm:

WHUT

I do not know what the little man represents, but he is charming.  As are all of these panels, even though I have not been able to crack their codes.  Ideas welcome!

Summer Camp

The day after the Women's March I decided I wasn't done with walking for that weekend, so I headed for State Park and the summer camp there.  I think I've blogged about it before, but I couldn't find the post in my archives, so I'm gonna do it again. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the fifties, so I took my time and moseyed around. 

There's something ... lonely about a summer camp in the wintertime.

Swimming, anyone?: 

Usually the place is all locked up, but this time some doors were open, so I was able to get a look inside:

SOMEbody had a little too much time on their hands ...

Although I do love kid art.

I hope to God they're going to change those mattresses out before camp opens for the summer, although going by summer camps I attended as a kid, I kind of doubt it:

For now, all I can do is imagine what this place is like full of kids:

Don't worry, camp kids.  Summer's coming.

... and they're off!

Back last May 25, pretty Rosalita came to Foster Camp.

We waited and waited and WAITED for her kittens to arrive ...

And on June 24, they did!:

A week later, I got a call from the founder of the rescue - someone had surrendered four orphaned kittens.  Did I think Rosa would care for them?

Rosa proved herself to be a CHAMPEEN mom.  She nursed Pistol Pete, Lady Bernadette, Sandy, Jughead, and India (her original litter), PLUS Firecracker (formerly Pretty Pretty Princess), Squeegee, Bam Bam AND Pebbles!

One of the kittens (Lady B, if I remember correctly) started eating solids at two-and-a-half weeks.  I guess she got tired of waiting for space to open at the Milk Bar!:

Pretty soon, they all started on solids:

With plenty of time for snoozing, of course:

In October, Punkin Pie the barn kitten became an honorary Foster Camper:

And they started going off to the adoption center in twos and threes, as space opened up.  Finally, just Sandy and Jughead were left here at Foster Camp:

On Saturday, it was their turn to go to the adoption center.  I visited with them on Sunday and they seemed to be adjusting well; all of the other campers, plus Rosa, have already been adopted, so hopefully Sandy and Jug's families will come for them soon as well.

Bye, guys!  Don't forget to write!  Have fun!  Be good!

Thank you very, very, very much!

I wanted to take the opportunity to say thanks again to Kris for the generous donation to the rescue I volunteer for, Every Dog's Dream.  

That's Audrey, the founder of the rescue, on the right.  On the left is Kat, the long-time volunteer who adopted Pebbles and Bam-Bam!  (Bam-Bam's appointment at Cornell had to be rescheduled - He will be going in on Feb. 9.  In the meantime, he is doing great.)  

Thank you, Kris!  

And Miracle would like to say thank you, too:

Miracle was an owner-surrender with a badly broken leg.  Due to the severity of her injuries, the leg had to be removed, but she is already getting around on three legs and doing great.  And in the you-learn-something-new-every-day category,  the other volunteers tell me that cats with three legs are highly adoptable, and that as soon as her fur grows back and she looks a little less, well, gruesome, someone is sure to adopt her right away.  And in the meantime, we're keeping her comfortable at the rescue while she waits for her new family to come along.

Kris, it's donations like yours that enable us to help cats like Miracle, and all the others in our care.  Thank you!

I always feel like, somebody's WATCHING meeeee ...

Oh wait, they are!

Yes, it was time yet again for more Adventures in Trapping Barn Cats.

My friend Sarah mixed up the mackerel:

 We visited with some of the less-ferals in the horse barn:

And then it was off to the equipment barn to set some traps:

 

We only had three slots this time, and we had no problem getting three eligible cats:

So it was off to the clinic bright and early this morning.

and hoo boy, does my car SMELL.  :)

Winter morning, interrupted

We got some snow last night, so this morning I was up early, shoveling and taking pictures.

After a while it started to get light out ....

I took some snow in for the foster kittens to play with :

And I just happened to be taking  a photo of Sodapop looking out the front window when the snowplow came by:

And deliberately swerved to knock over my newspaper tube.

Yep, he definitely swerved:

Now, SOME might say it's because of the flag I fly:

Or maybe it's the rainbow horse in the front yard that angered him:

Myself?  I'm reserving judgment.  We'll just see how long it takes for the town to send somebody out to repair the damage.