Shadowcat's Shelter Page

09/17/2023

Meows and mrrrps...
May you be inscribed for sweetness and productivity in the New Year!
5784
If you don't get the apple and round challah, Google 'Jewish New Year+Apples and honey'.

09/13/2023

I like to watch Momcat and her son, PC (Partly Cloudy). It gives me great joy to have been able to keep these two together. And they ARE TOGETHER!
They are staying mostly in the shed these days for the shade. Now and then one will venture out and sort of trot across the yard, staying in shade as much as possible, do their 'business', and hurry back.
I guess I ought to move a food and water set out there!

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09/10/2023

Meows... and Mrrrps...
Once again I have been absent.
I REALLY DO hope to pump some life back into this 'domain'. I have not been up to much except maintaining my 'feed bag'.
In case you missed it, after several years of this and that, it has finally come down to my esophagus does not work. There are no constrictions to move food along. The only way anything gets from mouth to stomach is via GRAVITY. And yes, that is a rather GRAVE situation.
Ergo I now sport a feed tube going direct from the 'outer world' into my stomach. It is always either SEALED or has liquid nutrition flowing through it.
I have designated my back pack as 'dePaque' in an attempt to 'personalize' my new near constant companion. To get my 'Recommended Daily Allotment I should be connected and flowing TWENTY HOURS A DAY. I don't WEAR it him night, but he is next to my pillow and I sleep connected to him.
As for the clowder...
We are at an even dozen inside that Patty mostly tends to. And I feed eight 'free roamers', a mother and son of which have been with us for better than 10 tears now. I feed another four in a 16x16 enclosure.
At this writing all are well save for one onside guy who is diabetic. We need to withhold food from him except for twice a day when it is accompanied by a shot of insulin.
Drop in if you are ever in the 'hood. Now that I have 'help' coming in, the house is near presentable.
And now that I don't get out much, company is ever more appreciated!
Meows...and Mrrrps...
(=^..^=)

05/25/2023

On the topic of Pest Control...
--Beetles and Roaches...

I've a Pyrex mixing bowl about 14" across and about 6" deep.
I tossed in a handful of 'kibble' and left it, more or less in the open on the patio overnight.
In the AM, there must have been a good dozen beetles and roaches scrambling in vain to get out.
A little shower of hot soapy water, and they were soup.

I want to know HOW THEY CAN GET IN AND NOT OUT?!?!?
I repeated my experiment with a stainless steel mixing bowl narrower and taller. Once past the small curve at the base, the sides are VERTICAL until a small ridge/lip around the top. A six inch climb to a FLARED top!
Yep! Another dozen or so bite the dust.

Someone suggest they are 'dropping' in.
It is under an 8' high corrugated aluminum roof, and about 6-8ft from the roof support between uprights.
Another offered that they fly in. But the why not fly back out? Not enough 'runway space'? Can they not just 'rise' but need to fly forward?
I don't really give a crap, except that one ought to know their adversaries.
I still flood the concrete in rotating sections.
Sorry, no pics this time.
I've pretty much beaten the flies - with a lot of cleaning immediate post use! I beat the roaches and beetles last year! I can beat them again!
(=^..^=)

05/13/2023

Man, I HATE when that happens!!!
Go in with a mysterious mole and go home with cancer!
Well, almost. Tops had escaped the pen and ran loose a couple weeks. When she'd returned we noticed a problem with her eye, We took her in and the vet said it had been scratched and she apparently had been quite beaten up. We went home with eye drops. Which she was VERY reluctant allowing us to dose.
We've been keeping watch. One Patty said the thought it was looking better. And the next day I said it was much worse. So, we made an appointment with the vet. We'd already had one cat going at 4:30, and we squeezed this one in, expecting a follow-up, and an eye extraction Monday AM.
Uh-Uh.
The eye was the LEAST op 'Tops' problems. Tops had developed a tumor in her neck that was not only pressing her eye out, but also impeding her ability to swallow. We'd been through this before, There was nothing ahead for her but pain.
The vet also said that from feeling around other places that the tumor was more than likely malignant.
I believe the techs and the vet were sincere in their sympathies, and in accord with my decision to release her.
She would only allow a couple stolen strokes while concentrating on food, but I got my fill as she lay on my lap and got the shots injected.
Safe travels.˙
(=^..^=)...
All photos © Images, Icons, & Ideas, Phoenix, AZ
Posted via Shadowcats Shelter.

05/10/2023

QUWACK! I just got a handle on the fly situation and it appears to be BEETLE AND ROACH SEASON!!!
Been seeing a few of the little devils so I've started my Dawn© routine of flooding the concrete slabs.
In the last few months I have also learned that anything that has bee FLAT to the ground, likely has a beetle colony under it.
So any stones or pavers that I have put out are getting flipped and flooded. I SLOWED poured around the landscaping rocks. And I poured extra along where the dirt meets the concrete.
One BIG OL' thing came scampering out of one crack right where and as I was pouring down!

05/03/2023

WOOT! WOOT!
Fly population reduced by about 95%!!!
Collect and clean ALL dishes shortly after feeding.
I've a 14x16x18 cage that I use to collect my cans for recycling. BOING!!!!! BLINDING FLASH!!!!!!! ETHAN YOU FOOL!!!! COVER THE CAGE!!!!! So my FIRST thought was to have my friend and seamstress Carron Cruse make a cover for me. I picked my head up and thought to myself, 'Holy cow!!! There's a box ox 150 of them!!!!GARBAGE BAGS!!!.
That ought be near a final nail in the attraction box.
I've flies floating in a couple of moat setups that have not had food served. Just the big bowl of soapy water and a small bowl inverted as an island.
I don't do the whole moat set-up every meal, just the dishes that had food (a.k.a. Bait) in them.
I crack the lid and spray into the garbage can ere opening it!

And my bottles don't seem to suppress flies at the bowl, but they DO CONCEAL MY APPROACH WITH THE SPRAYER allowing a much higher 'kill count'!

05/03/2023

The Fel d 1 and Fel d 4 proteins. What make our pointy eared furry friends so problematic to so many.

'When it comes to allergies, the dander itself isn’t the issue, but two allergens that it can act as a vehicle for. The main allergens associated with cat dander are two proteins called Fel d 1 and Fel d 4. The first is produced both by cats’ skin and their sebaceous glands (which secrete a waxy substance called sebum that helps waterproof and lubricate their skin), while the second is produced in cat saliva and deposited on their skin when they grooms themselves. The dander can trap these allergens, says Dr. Christine Cain, a veterinarian and Assistant Professor of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and spread them around as the hair is shed.'
https://www.petmd.com/cat/grooming/cat-dander-8-things-you-didnt-know

04/28/2023

Battling the Beetles...
I have learned that IF it has a FLAT BOTTOM, and is to RESIDE OUTSIDE, it MUST EITHER BE ON A SOLID (i.e. concrete, stone, brick, tile,) BASE OR 'STILTED'!

04/28/2023

I prepare the chow for the clowder at cabinet in the breezeway.

Yesterday I flooded the concrete with soapy H2O and 'swept' everything together with a broom, scouring anything that looked like it might be a food bump. I then flooded it AGAIN with plain H2O for a rinse. What I 'swept' up was picked up and thrown in a covered garbage can, and the liquid left to dry.

I don't think it made any difference in the number of flies, but it is one step of many. I washed the trays I put the dishes on to distribute food. I sprinkled that Dia..whatever earth under the trays. There is a bunch of just plain clutter that I seem to keep clearing and replacing rather than leave EMPTY so I have ELBOW ROOM!!!

Eventually I will wash the front and side of the cabinet. Eventually.

One goal at a time.

- Hike BTA to the Legume Garden CHECK
- Lord of the population of flies - In progress
- Change litter boxes - in progress
- Clean, neat north room - In progress
- (Spider) Web free swept and vacuumed - In queue
- Mopped floors - In queue
- Hernia repair