Martius Had No Fur

It is possible I have blogged about this before. When I brought my 600 g Martius home, I examined him on my kitchen table in full sunlight, after the 3-4 days we spent acclimatizing him to our house. I discovered my little one had felt which has aspects of baby down, but no fur. I remember almost crying. I did not know if this was maybe nutritional, or if it was his age or what. What I do recall was an overwhelming feeling of a sense of responsibility to make sure this little kitten grew fur. So, I did research on the best ways to grow hair. I called the vet for advice.

We put Martius on the top cat food. I remember buying CatMilk. Then, when I got it home and read the fine print, there were warnings about no human drinking it, or there were potential problems. The standards were not the same. Of course, I could not feed it to my kitten then. The CatMilk sat around. I should have returned it. If it cannot be consumed by me, it cannot be consumed by my cat. I did try Martius on cow's milk. He discovered for himself that he was lactose intolerant. He drank it for awhile, and then he stopped. He had had enough. I also fed him essential fatty acids off the tip of my finger.

This is how it evolved that I had bought a dog sweater for my cat. He wanted to go on the deck, but his fur was far too thin. He needed non-stop infra-red heat from us to keep him warm enough. For months, I babied him. I kept checking him for growth of his adult fur or rather just fur. I recall the first time he shed, I hurrayed. I know all kinds of people who complain about their cat shedding. I was just plain joyous he could shed.

Today, Martius has fine fur with dark markings. His coloring has darkened a bit as he has grown. His eyes have changed color a bit too. He still does not have the thickest fur, but it does the job for inside. It does the job outside on warm days. I have not tried anymore clothes on him. We passed that phase.

What do you do when your cat swallows a pin?

This issue has come up twice for me. My mom is a seamstress. She always had groups of cats. One of her cats was called Honey. He was a long living cat who had diabetes the last 8 years of his life. He is one of the reasons I was able to identify diabetes in my own cat Margaret. Honey was a huge ball of white and full of sweetness. His capacity to pour out love was immense. He was the alpha cat like Thomas in our home. He would stand up and protect the pride. He was gentle when he played, but willing to be playful. He would accept all newcomers and integrate them slowly. He had a couple girlfriends. The girl cats would typically compete for his attention. Whoever got to sit closest to him was prime for the day. More or less I am establishing here he was a dear and well loved cat.

Now, a seamstress is bound to have pins around on the table while they are pinning and sewing. My mom likely sewed like I have myself with a cat for a companion on the table while working. In 1993-1994 season, when I pulled the cats in from outside in Caroline, Alberta, my mom was sewing when Honey swallowed a pin. She panicked. It went down all the way into his stomach. Mom prayed, because she did not know what else to do. She asked God for help. The cat, just then, threw up and the pin was once again deposited onto the table. She thanked God. Then, she phoned me to tell me what happened.

It is a habit of mine to pray whenever anything has truly gone out of my realm of control. I saw my mom do this. If anything stresses you beyond your capacity, you may do the same. God, who hears our voice, answers.

Now, I did once know a young girl who would shoe horses. She held hoofing nails in her mouth while she hammered the horseshoes in. She exerted herself and accidentally swallowed a nail. I was aghast. These nails are really long and fairly sharp. She sought the advice of a doctor. Her treatment was to eat gobs of potatoes for a while. The potatoes would engulf the nail and take it through the intestinal tract.

Thankfully there was an answer for this girl. I have no idea if prayer was involved. It was just interesting as a parallel to Honey's story. Her situation happened at about the same time.

Animals like cats are very involved with their owners' activities. They love small shiny things or reflections on or from objects. Predict their attractions and give them a similar style toy to distract them. For example, a cat might be distracted by a tin foil ball. For it to be attractive to a cat, a cat owner needs to pay attention to the cat toy too. When sewing, put all the pins away from the cat's access. I recall times when cats have picked up pins from the pin ball with their front teeth. Then, I had to take the pins away.

The Year the Rabbits Ate the Crabapple Trees

Each year, during the winter, and especially during times of inordinant snowfall, the rabbits become desperate for food. If times are desperate, I will buy a bale of something and put it out. We had a group of 8 rabbits, and I would not want them to diminish.

We went through one of these tough seasons, before I had learned to put out a bale of alfalfa. We had these prized crabapple seedlings we were fond of seeing making progress. The rabbits were very hungry and they ate our trees' bark. This kills the trees. All of them were affected. We ended up in the spring cutting all the trees down.

My husband kept saying, "Those D#$%^& rabbits." We considered pulling out the roots, but that seemed like a lot of work. We began to plan the garden around them. I concluded that the rabbits had to be really hungry to have to decide to eat our tree bark. I was not upset. I felt bad, but I also felt bad for the rabbits.

A wonderful thing happened. Two of three trees grew back. The birds planted a seed from one of the first two and gave us a third. I have all my trees back. The trees grew back way more beautiful than the first trees I had planted. They were exceptionally more healthy. Both of these trees are about 20 feet tall. I think this is bigger than the average crabapple tree for the time they have been there. My trees turned into crabapple bushes coming back from the root. When we first bought them from the garden centre, someone had pruned them into a tree. A tree with only 1 trunk is very susceptible to damage, whereas a bush is not. The crabapples are a huge joy in the yard attracting large groups of birds to pop by daily. My husband revised his saying about the rabbits to be, "Thank God for those rabbits."

Green Drop

Herbicide handbook of the Weed Science Society of America
Weed Management Handbook I love my animal life out of doors. When we first moved into our home, I weeded by hand all the weeds on our lot and the neighbour's lot, to have them regrow and I did it again. At that time, I did not trust any spray at that time to not harm my outdoor jack rabbits. I did not spray, but hand picked weeds for seven years. I think it is possible I became addicted to removing dandelions, as I could not walk a straight line to the car to get anywhere, as I always had to pick three or four dandelions on the way there. It had become engrained. I would still do all day weeding sessions, but these were not enough to keep up.

I phoned Green Drop at one point in this 7 year period. They said their process was safe for animals, but I did not trust it. I persisted. Then, one year, I decided to give them a try. My neighbours used them, and the rabbits still went on their yard successfully. It did not seem to harm our local rabbits. After I hired Green Drop for our weed care, I would never go back. Just like the City's recycling program made a huge positive difference on the interior of our house, the Green Drop treatment made a huge decrease in work for our exterior home maintenance. I am no longer drawn to spend my afternoons picking weeds. I love you Green Drop. They also sprayed my tree for sawfly recently. In one treatment, they sprayed all my bushes and trees.

While the Green Drop application is on the lawn, the grass tastes bitter, so the rabbits won't eat it. They go elsewhere temporarily for a few days. They mostly eat the dandelions and clover. They would spread their seed too. I do think that dandelion seeds are very high in oil and very healthy for rabbits. Weighing all things in the balance, with all the dandelions next door for my rabbits to feast on, we continue the treatments. I do think the rabbits appreciate nicely groomed spaces. They have a tendency to go to yards which are the neatest kept.

Jewel Spiders in September

I had these water two water barrels. I had decided to give one of my water barrels to my neighbour. I invited him over to see the barrel which I fully intended to give him. Then, I saw our blond Jewel, then a mid to large size spider. I stepped myself backward through the offer, concerned at this time of year if I pulled a spider from her web, she might not have the resources to rebuild. The larger the back on the spider, the harder it is to keep herself fed. I don't know if I seemed rude to my poor neighbour. I still intended to give him the water barrel, but I thought I better wait till the spider was done using it.

Then, my husband was out doing yard maintenance. He too moved the barrel. He had not seen the spider when he moved it and found her afterwards. He brought her on the end of a stick to show me her immense size. My cousin was with me at that moment. He pushed me into the spider. I was pretty mad, since it could be a 2 week recovery process if I were bit. I did not take his joke very well. Then, I gave away our water barrel.

Back to the spider: We decided to move her to our rose. We set her there, and she chose to set up shop further down by the down spout. She has a massive web with 1 metre stringers. It was also attached to the faucet. My husband had to use the faucet to water the yard. He turned it on. Her web silk is extremely rubbery. The spider silk turned like a thread on a bobbin when the tap was turned on and undid when the tap was turned off. The web did not fall loose; it stretched. It never disconnected and it never broke a string.

This spider was able to rebuild her web. Sometimes, in the fall, if there are not the burst of aphids or the web is placed wrong, the spider can starve. Now that she is placed, I would not move her again. She is getting two close to the toonie size when she has to begin building her egg sack.

The aphids have had their typical mid-August, mid-September burst. We have taken damage, like we do yearly on our roses and our trees. If we had the garden in production, this often kills swiss chard, lettuce, and spinach. There also has been an abundance of sawfly which we sprayed for. (As an aside, an unhindered sawfly larva can eat a full grown blue spruce in 2 years.) The spider are more abundant this year than previous years. However, they've all chosen mostly good places to set up, so we have not minded them. The more of them, the fewer other insects we have to deal with on our plants. I don't know what the sawfly looks like, but I hope the spider gets a few.

When it drops to freezing soon, in the first few October days, the spiders will drop significantly in their activity. It is like they begin hybernating while they finish off their egg sack. Then, I would note them at that time, say my good-byes to them knowing it is soon, and then just a couple days later, the webs are all empty. Mostly, they go to the soffits of the house.

One time, a spider laid her egg sack at my front door on a plant pot. I had not formulated my spider plans at that time, and disposed of it. I felt really bad afterward, having wanted to be a mother myself, and afterall this was what she had been working for all year. I decided after that mistake to move egg sacks if required, and to not interfere with the new spider production. I also did research which proved to me that by having egg sacks on my home, this would not increase the number of spiders persay around my home. Most of the spider babies fly away on spider silk for kilometres.

Were one hoping to assist a spider get their prey in the fall, all that is required is to turn on a light or create a light source near them. They are naturally attracted to light sources, as this increases their chance of getting prey. If you have spiders attracted to your door, consider the light sources around it. How you use your light and how much light you let escape from windows direct spiders where to set up homes outside your house.

Cat of Strong Tail

Lucius, like dinosaur beasts, has great strength and mobility in his tail. He thuds it against you. Have you ever seen dogs that have strong tails that thud against a door jam and seem to have the strength of a machine? Well, I had not seen it before in a cat. This cat has an exceptionally strong tail beat and I've decided that it is probably a sign of a healthy animal. I don't mind the thuds of his tail on me. I am careful to not undermine his balance by diverting it in any way; it seems to have a role in managing the rest of his body plan.

The tail on a cat, most often when they are happy, forms a question mark and is carried high in the air like a Canadian flag. Our cats play a game. The boy cats run just a metre in front of CatMom most of the time with the question mark tale. Being sought after is part of the daily routine and they can measure just how much to walk/prance/trot/or run to keep just ahead of Mom's hand. They show signs of being happy from the attention.

Even mentioning a cat's name or a sweet nothing you regularly make up and repeat sends them into a happy state. I sometimes wish people had purr buttons which a person could read to know if you are effectively making them happy.

The cat of strong tail persists in our domain. He uses it to defy gravity and balance on the edge of boxes. He uses it in rolls and leaps. It is a metronome of action on an ongoing basis.