Sunday, September 28, 2014

Second bed...claimed by cats


It's 2 a.m. I spent the evening working on booth info, and drank waaaay too much coffee. So I'll post the new bed. I had picked up a Jenny Lind bed at a garage sale last year. I may horrify some folks by showing that I painted it gray. But there was no way I would ever sand down all those curves to be able to refinish it as natural wood. Besides, I'm no where near the only one.


Pitter has a very self-satisfied look on her face.


The mattress I bought for cheap off Craigslist is decent quality but very firm. I looked on Amazon for a topper, but they were ridiculously expensive for what they are. In reading the comments, one man said "You might as well just fold a comforter in half and put a regular mattress pad over it for the same softness!"

Hmmmm... I dragged out every extra blanket I own that is not in use, and put them under the mattress protector. And now it is PERFECT! Thank you, unknown Amazon commentor!

Now I have sleep-worthy beds in both downstairs living rooms. No more dragging of furniture, and I can sleep wherever the temperature happens to be the most comfortable at that particular time of year.

Kitten-catching advice via phone

It went something like this. My sister calls and says: "Hi Susan, it's Linda. Dave and Ruth have stray cats and kittens everywhere! Here's Dave!"

OK, it wasn't quite like that. There were probably six or seven additional sentences, but it's after midnight a day later, so my memory is a blur. I had a rapid conversation with Dave about how to catch the kittens (discovered in a cellar) and reintroduce them to the mom (who Dave had found, with a youngster who was probably from a previous litter, a few days earlier).

He did good. Mom has been reunited with all three kittens (Number Three played hard to get for a long while). Linda asked me via text "If they are around eight inches long can you guess how old they are?" My reply was something like "LOL! No!" So she texted me a photo:


I love the tape measure touch!

I told her I guessed 5-6 weeks but couldn't be sure based on the photo. Then Dave and Ruth were off to go buy kitten chow and canned food.

I'm not sure if this family unit is coming my way or not. But a least they have their mom. Kitten-care is so much easier with a mom in the picture!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

We will be at the Baker Florist Fall Festival tomorrow (Sunday!)

Everything happens at the last minute around here. If you need an excuse to get out this weekend, come visit us at the Baker Florist Fall Festival tomorrow, Sunday, from 10-4. I stopped by to buy some tiny pumpkins for my fence when I saw the balloons flying, and they had a space available.


I have zero time for this, but I MUST get these kitties adopted before snow flies!

If you are local, stop by! There are apples, pumpkins, baked goods, beautiful crafts and FREE COFFEE! It's just what you need to kick off your fall. COME TO THE FOUR CORNERS IN SPENCER NY. YOU CAN'T MISS IT!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Remember Me Thursday is today, September 25!

What can you do? When you hear a friend mention they are looking for a pet, please steer them toward a shelter or rescue.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Kitty-Kitty and Nueve, and Octave

Sooo sleepy. But I must post this cuteness. Here are Kitty-Kitty and her single kitten Nueve, in Waverly with Debra:




And here is little Octave, another singleton!


And now to bed... (12:51 am)

Winter is coming


I hate the fact that somehow summer passed me by. Here we are, counting down to winter again. Gah!

Last winter was hideous. Just hideous. This year I've decided to give up on the "dragging of furniture from one room to another" to deal with the switch from summer warmth to winter ice and then back again once spring comes. It's not like I have tons of company here that I need to be set up like a parlor with fancy furniture. Out goes one of the couches and in comes another twin bed, so each downstairs room has one.

Someone is one their way to look at the couch/chaise now. Nope--Update, it's sold! That was fast!


To take care of the cat fur before the chaise went to its new home, I used this handy Pledge Fabric Sweeper on the left in this photo:


They are pricey: over $20! But they can be emptied and they live forever as long as you don't sit on yours, so they are worth the money. I seem to recall I had a huge coupon for mine and purchased it back when they were first introduced. It's several years old and still going strong.

While moving furniture around, I discovered the cats had been at my thrift-store velvet chair! Ack! I had picked up what I thought was double-sided sticky tape strips at a conference, but they turned out to be Fresh Kitty plastic corner protectors (on the right in the photo above). They are barely visible, and I'll let you know if they work, since they also are an investment.



With the money from selling the chaise, I'll purchase another twin mattress (very carefully) on Craigslist. It won't be a good one, but whatever bed I'm not using will just be a pseudo-couch anyway.

I already picked up a second bed frame for $25 when Debra took me to visit Crooked River Co-op in Waverly, where we hope to one day have a booth (or booths) to raise money for rescue work.

The bed is a little chewed up around the edges because the actual head and foot boards are just press-board, but the room is so dim I can't even tell, now that it's set up. If I find I'm sleeping in one room more than the other, all I have to move is the good mattress from one bed to another, rather than swapping the couch and the bed back and forth.


While Debra was showing me all the wonderful antique and thrift stores in downtown Waverly, I checked off two things from my list of things I watch for.

I've been watching for this nut-grinder for over 30 years! It's just like the one my Mom has (or had--does she still have it?). Hers is a different green, but it is the niftiest little thing. When we were too little to actually bake, Mom would let us grind the nuts with this, since it was virtually impossible to hurt ourselves with it. I've been chopping nuts by hand all these years because everything else I've found has been too expensive or too ungainly. And this was only a buck! I hope seeing it makes my Mom and my sisters smile.


Now that cold weather is coming, I also drink more tea. My current teapot holds too much for just myself flying solo. If I make a half-pot it gets cold too fast. If I make a full pot I use two teabags, which is a waste. So I've been looking for a cheap but cute smaller pot. I certainly wasn't looking for cat-shaped one, but when Debra took me across the street to the The Red Door, there it was!


Rattling around thrift stores was merely secondary to the real purpose of visiting Waverly. First and foremost, to pick up my little Molly dog after I returned from work travel. Second (and cutest--sorry Molly!) to visit the new kittens and a rescued mom cat. More to come!







Sunday, September 21, 2014

Adoption Maze at Stoughton Farm

Stoughton Farm in Newark Valley has an adoption themed maze this year!


They also have openings for shelters to table and show their adoptable pets. Shall we go?

This is so great of them to make their maze with this theme! What better way to get this message to kids?

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Next up: Corky!

Seven is out the door into a great home! We have ten more cats to go, and we have five, yes five kittens still on the streets that will be arriving soon.

Now it's Corky's turn. Corky has been here over a year. He was found shivering under a shed in a nearby village. Like Seven, Corky was rescued by Debra. The veterinarian who neutered him found two of his baby teeth buried in his gumline, and she felt his jaw had been broken in the past, and the teeth were absorbed in the wound. The teeth were removed, and Corky has a sweet little sneer due to the past jaw injury.

He is very friendly, comical, cute-and-handsome-at-the-same-time kitty. He is just over a year old He likes big brave friendly kitties. He picks on shy or snitty female kitties. He would be best with a great big laid-back adult male cat, or in a home by himself. He is (of course) a neutered male, FeLV/FIV negative, vaccinated, robust and healthy.


When two boxes of toys arrived (I combined them into one), he was the first cat to dive right in. The other cats allowed him to distribute the toys so there was no effort required on their part to access their new playthings (Thank you, Melissa, for the toys for the cats, and the wonderful coffee for me!)



New things are always a bright spot of the day in the cat facility, where everyday life can get to be rather ho-hum for the long-term resident kitties. Gifts for the cats are always appreciated, as they quickly live and die, either by being dissected by cats, tossed in a water bowl, or buried in a cat box just for fun. Corky will show you just how much they are appreciated:



To receive an application to adopt Corky, send us an email here! We adopt to indoor-only homes, within two hours of our area for friendly cats, and only in the immediate area for shy cats, although we have been known to make exceptions.



Corky's adoption fee is $50 (checks payable to our veterinarian for future care of rescued cats) but will be waived if you show proof of having purchased a large cat-scratching tree.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Totally not cat-related. Sweet spider-dog pranks innocents

OK, just for the record, I hate pranks on innocent people. I think they are cruel.

I also hate spiders. You want to see me break my neck? Watch me when I discover I didn't see the wolf spider in the shower until after I turned the shower on and stepped inside.

But this is so incredibly AWFULLY well done, I was laughing out loud. So I am sharing it. And I think the poor people who were pranked deserve a free cruise or something. 100 lottery tickets. Dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town. I would have probably peed my pants.

If you want to skip the swamp monster, move ahead to 30 seconds.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Seven plays with Bear's tail and gets smacked....gently



We have quite a few applications on Seven, and I'm checking veterinarian's references tomorrow. Work was quite busy today after the long weekend, so my apologies to anyone who hasn't heard from us!