Speaking of licenses, I decided I'd best get my nuisance wildlife control license again. They sure have a clear and straightforward (mostly) licensing option. A GREAT updated book ($56.00 and arrived within 2 days), and online test (free) and a licensing fee and application ($50 with yearly reporting). If you plan to use anything other than cage traps, you also need fur-trapping training and licensing. If you plan to use firearms you need to take a hunter safety course. In other words, the license is flexible. 

(And no, please don't steal the image below thinking someone else can submit it to get a license. The URL comes back to me and also there is a record of me registering for the exam.) 

I ordered the book two weeks out (since I've taken the exam twice, maybe three times before over the past 35 years). A lot has changed, so I'm glad I'm taking it. I've probably been giving out inaccurate advice over the last few years. The book is also organized in a (pretty much) clear manner, although the glossery could stand some additions, and an index would be nice.  But I was happily impressed with the changes and the emphasis on humane and ethical handling, and public value for wildlife. It's still going to be an alarming guide to anyone unfamiliar with the difficult side of wildlife control (species that can't be relocated, etc.) but if you want a crash course in what's actually legal in NYS, it's a great place to start.

Just like in 2001, I got a 98. I wish there was a way to find out what question(s) I keep missing! 

Next month I'll send in the application and fee. 

I sure wish the rescue license was this straightforward, and boy, a similar 400 plus page guide sure would be nice! Maybe down the road...

Why don't I a get a wildlife rehab license? Well, a NWCO license allows me to rescue animals, but not keep them. A rehab license would allow me to keep them. And I think cats are enough of a responsibility without adding baby squirrels and bunnies to the mix. I did always want to turn this place into a bobcat rehab location, but that's a dream I have to give up. Life is too short.

Wireless and MUSIC in the house

I don't know how long this will last, but I once again am hooked up to fiber internet. I was absent so long (using my phone hotspot to save money) that I actually qualified as a new customer, and got a $39 versus $59 a month rate -- at least for a year until it reverts to the old rate.

I have to have wireless internet for at least a few months, even though I really ought not be adding another monthly expense, in order to print the templates and paperwork I need for the state. 

I tried to just do it all virtually, but it's a pain to log into the hotspot and update temps and other data every single night. 

Having it on paper and then transferring it to an online log once a week or whenever I happen to be on my laptop will be easier. I'd also prefer to just be able to show an inspector a notebook of everything, from temperature and ammonia logs to volunteer education verification, vet protocol, pest control program, etc. rather than have to sit at a laptop and run through different documents with them.

I didn't realize how much I missed MUSIC. Streaming music on a hotspot eats up my monthly data. Once the installation guy (thank you, Calvin!) left, I dug out and dusted off my Alexa devices. It took a bit of swearing to figure out which device was which in the app, but I finally got two working. And I now have classical music throughout the downstairs. 

I found my wifi extender, and wonders of wonders, it hooked right up! So I'll keep rummaging for my other Alexa cables (found the devices but who knows where the cables went) and soon the cats will have music again, as well.

How did I live so long in a silent house? No wonder I was dragged out and uncaring. Sure, I had the radio, but the reception is so bad here that I was constantly having to fiddle with it when it turned to static, and when you only have one or two stations, the music selection is nil. What they play is what you get. 

I do NOT like that Alexa now obeys commands whether or not you say her name. I'm going to have to squirrel around online to figure out how to turn that off.  I hate her more-human voice. I like my robots to sound like robots, or at least the handful of AI voices we are already familiar with. When she started chatting to me with the voice of a friendly female 18-year-old I'm pretty sure I actually rolled my eyes at no one. I've changed the voice to the closest I could get to the old Alexa, but it's still too human. I suppose I'll get used to it in time (unfortunately).

But ah...music. I already feel my blood pressure lowering and quiet joy creeping back in my life.

Working on regs, bit by bit

Well, word on the street has it that a nearby (probably overwhelmed) cat rescuer was put out of cat adoption by NYS, and of course several TNR groups in NYS have stopped doing adoption on their own. So I guess I'd better getting moving faster than I have been to try to finish up meeting the new standards. Then I'll ask the 501c3 who has agreed to take this on, to send in the application and $150 fee.

The Ag and Markets rep at the Shelter Medicine conference said inspectors were more concerned about paperwork than facilities (sigh). But I don't want to risk a first inspection and end up with a whole laundry list of things to correct, if I can get it close to right the first time. For example, the regs say "no permeable surfaces." One webinar I've listened to said this means a shoe tray under food dishes and litter pans is enough in carpeted area (???) but then another person who has already been inspected apparently said they were told their tiled bathroom wouldn't work as an isolation area because there were cracks between the tiles. This sounds like a BIG difference in interpretation to me, so I'm just going to go with the strictest (possible) interpretation I can reach here in my home.

I completed the ASPCA Learn module a few months ago and went back in to summarize for a shorter course for my own vistors/volunteers, and get this -- once you take it, it appears the only way to review the content is to take the 3-4 module all over again - including all the short exam questions.

I sent off an email to the ASPCA Learn staff hoping I missed something (a pdf of what you've completed, maybe, that's buried in a link somewhere?) because I'd really like to touch base on what they felt was important without having to take the whole thing over. 

I have to create something I think people visiting here will be able to finish and retain, and I'm also trying to make it relate to their pet-loving life outside of here, too. But I do want to be sure I'm touching on the things the ASPCA found most important, too. For example, which particular zoonotic diseases they highlighted. I know there were some they DIDN'T include that I find important, but I absolutely want to include the ones they DID.

Right now my own shorter training is still in its "write all the boring shit down" stage and then after slimming it down and spiffing it up, I'll test it on a few long-time adopters and visitors. I want to know if it hurts their brain so much that, if they were new, they wouldn't bother visiting to socialize cats and kittens. 

There are also printable written resources by the ASPCA and the NYS Animal Protection Federation but they are long, comprehensive (for actual animal shelters), with teeny tiny fonts in their pdfs. The digital marketer in me cringes, and I'm sure the people who wrote the content are cringing too, because it's super hard to get that much info in a pdf, especially utilizing tables. And nonetheless, there's a ton of stuff my visitors don't need because it's cats-only here, and visitors aren't restraining cats and cleaning cages, either. 

I'll also be doing a video on cat and kitten handling here, with a facility video walk-through, because I do things a bit differently than others. For example, no "offering a finger to sniff" here because it gives the shy cats static shocks right on their sensitive noses, and makes them distrust hands. We ask people to offer the knuckles of their relaxed fist, or just start right in petting behind the cat's head, since that's what the cats here are used to. Also, no "pisst-pisst" noises here, just "kitty kitty" since the noise sounds like hissing.

Also, there are concerns like holding onto the damned stair rail that people often don't do that I want to include that the other courses don't. 

Of course, there's the health care protocol, the pest control protocol, the forms to log temp and ammonia levels, etc.  Even though my "flying insect control" is a fly swatter it has to be written down, and a dedicated fly swatter needs to be at hand.  I can't even recall the last time I saw a fly upstairs. Probably the cats catch that random fly before I even see it!

Once it's all written down and approved...it's done. So it's really only quite painful this first time around -- although the daily grind checking and logging all the info will add a lot to my day. 

The other pain is that my lap tops won't talk to my printer using my Pixel 3 phone hotspot. So now I need to add another $59.00 to my monthly budget for internet service to use a router again. I've got a new Pixel 10 (free!) so I'll fire that up first to see if perhaps it has the internet guts to connect devices to one another.

So there we are. Once it's all done it will ALL be posted online for anyone to look at. I probably should wait until after the inspection. I'd had to publish something online that another cat person grabs to use and then discover something in it is insufficient.

The birds are singing and it's a nice cool late afternoon, so it's time for a break to play with the cats and kittens. Part of the 20-minute per room (per cat, technically) play time I'm required to provide them with. Technically, the kittens aren't mine. I'm fostering them for a veterinarian, but they are good practice!

Update: Reply from ASPCA Learn

Hi Susan,

 

Unfortunately, there is not a summary sheet of the courses and no way to view them again without taking the exams.

 

Thank you,

Sigh. 

          

Feedspot Top 100 Cat Blogs Inclusion: Resting on my old, old laurels

 I got an email today that The Owl House was included (again; we were on it a number of years ago) Feedspot's Top 100 Cat Blogs at #33.

Given how few posts I've published in the past few years, I'm certain the 2026 inclusion is due to all the backlinks I've received over the past decade when I posted more prolifically, and old, old topics that are still relevant today. This old cat blog has some historical SEO power. But, hey, the Feedspot page it's a nice place to go find some old school (and new school) cat blogs, and also is a great quick link for me to see that some old blog friends are still posting, too!

I'm guessing this award page is a wonderful SEO (search engine optimized) page for Feedspot that grabs all the people who are searching for "top cat blogs" versus being an actually people-curated (versus data curated) award. But in this day and age, all the more power to them and a big thank you for including me.

What does that mean for The Owl House blog? Well, for the sake of people who land there this year, I guess I ought to shake my tail and post more often. There's nothing more disappointing that following a recommendation only to find the so-called current resources were semi-abandoned long ago.

I'll take whatever initiative will move me!