For some reason, my other post vanished along with the photo and I can’t seem to get in and even delete what is in there now.

So here we go again

Piper and Pippi

Phone rang yesterday-
~”Is this Mary Anne?”

~”Yes it is. What can I do for you?”

“You have to come NOW!”

“May I ask who this is?”

“This is Farmer Windom”

“Farmer Windom, what can I do for you?”

“I have cats I want to get rid of!”

(Inward sigh) “How many cats are we talking about?”

“TEN!” I want to get rid of em now.
They are eating!”

“They are eating?”

(His frustration growing) “Yes, eating- not drinking mom, eating food!”

I see- well, I am sorry but I cannot take ten cats right now.”

“Why aren’t you a RESCUER?”

I did a lot of sighing during that conversation and ended up going over to the farmers place and taking a look at the situation. There were only two adult cats- which I suspect since he doesn’t neuter his “mousers” are the mom and dad and the rest were kittens. All outside at such a young, vulnerable age.
None of them sociable, there was a huge woodshed with wood stacked inside and young kittens were playing hide-n-seek with me as they went in and out of the cords of wood as I tried to grab them.

I managed to scruff two of them and then another friend arrived who also rescues. She will trap the rest and we will go from there.

So here are the two new arrivals who I don’t really have room for- but I took them anyway. The last time I got into this type of situation with such a man- the cats ended up being disposed of in ways I won’t recount here.

So here are the two babies. They will go to the vet today. They were flea-ridden, full of worms and have been de-flead and de-wormed. There is an upper respiratory going on. They are now in the bedroom and the tortie girls are out and about in general population. The newcomers ate two jars of baby food (meat) without stopping!

I don’t play musical chairs anymore, but I do play musical kittens sometimes shuffling these babies around to get them a better place to live then they had before.

This morning, I learned that my website www.felinexpress.com and one of my articles about my beloved Guinevere; Headbumps of Courage won a Certificate of Excellence from the Cat Writers’ Association.

I entered both plus my blog and a poem I wrote in their annual contest a few months ago.

I am thrilled by the recognition. It simply means that out of a score of 100- these scored 90 or better! It also puts me in line for a Muse Medallion. I will know after their convention in November which takes place in New York.

A few days ago, I received an email from a young girl who pleaded for help. She had found a small kitten (barely alive) and was forbidden by her parents to bring the kitten into the house. She decided since it was so young, unable to even crawl- the back legs didn’t work right, to put it into a box with a thin cloth and go looking on the Internet for help. That’s where she found me through kitten-rescue.com.

Turns out, she lives in India and for the past few days, I have been helping her with this baby kitten who she said was abandoned by the momcat. She had seen the mom dump the kitten in the yard and walk away.

It was cute she said the kitten “moos” and she was sneaking out of the house every two hours to feed the baby. But her parents scolded her and told her to leave the kitten alone and the neighbors also made fun of her and told her the kitten would and should die!

So I kept plugging, knowing full well that this kitten was in dire straights and this young girl listened to all I told her to do and this morning, she informed me the kitten crawled out of the box in the yard and “mooed” loud enough that mom came running and grabbed the kitty up and went over to the bushes to feed the kitten!

I have never heard of this happening and I know my prayers weren’t being ignored on behalf of this kitten worlds apart from me.

The girl wanted to thank me and she said her parents now have a greater understanding of the problems these kittens face. Next time, they have promised her that she can bring the kitten inside and care for it properly.

I love it when a plan comes together-

The month of September for me was a learning curve in many ways. I took in more kittens than I intended to-I saw the passing of some great older feline friends, and God brought me to my knees several times a day every day of the month.

My great grand-baby was born and she spent time in the Newborn ICU as they struggled for answers to her seizures. My grand-daughter is getting married to a boy she barely knows and life goes on in an almost uncertain pattern. So these family members are now centered in our prayers.

I reached my quota of spay certificates this year (already!) Which is a good thing and a bad thing, because I have made a difference in the lives of some kittens who have either been adopted out or they will soon be (God willing and the creek don’t rise). But, I still have eight kittens here needing to be neutered and like so many families who are struggling with finances, ours are tight as a drum. I will not even put these kittens up for adoption until they are spayed. I remain part of the solution not more of the problem.

My foot is still giving me fits- the holistic worked for only a few days and then I was back again on my knees giving my foot to Jesus on a daily basis. I will go and see my primary care doctor on the 20th to get his opinion of what to do.

I wonder, when they stopped being a family doctor and turned into a primary care physician? Why you have to make an appointment and then wait weeks sometimes even months to get in to see them?

I see farms around us being swallowed up in foreclosure as good, honest, hard-working folk are unable to make the payments on equipment, land or homes. The younger generation even those willing to put in all the work and sweat to help produce crops are seeing there is no longer profit to do so. They are being seduced by greedy land developers who want to go in and build strip-malls, storage units and take rich valuable soil and concrete it over. So I pray for a change in the market prices and marvel still at the one farm still standing who is paid to grow pumpkins every year, then paid to plow them under? What sense is that I wonder?

I no longer take Brook to the woods to walk her. The trees have long been chopped down and hauled away and the place resembles a graveyard, not a woodsy forest where I used to see owls, deer, coyote and other critters on an almost daily basis.

So, as I wonder where we are headed next I continue to ask God to let me hear Him. To cancel out all the noise and distraction and listen to that still, voice inside. The ultimate GPS. He knows where I am headed, He has known it all along.

As kittens play at my feet and McGee chases my fingers across this keyboard and tries to bite them when they come to rest, I have to wonder- Where will these kittens end up? In a loving home is my hope and although there is enough love to go around this home- it isn’t the ideal place for them. Their cuteness needs to be spread around so they can give to others what they freely give to us; laughter, smiles and a whole lot of love.

This morning in my In Bin there was an email from a gal named Oksana. Her and her hubby adopted Muddy from me early this year. He is an older cat and I was glad to see that they had no aversions to taking a older kitty. After he left, there were so many emails about how he was hiding under the bed, and didn’t want to be petted or loved. It took some time on my part to break through to Oksana and I kept urging her to just let him be. Not to pull him out from under the bed because she had a bad day and she wanted a “kitty hug.”

She finally said she “got it” and then there were no more emails from her. I worried, but gave him to God and asked Him to keep Muddy safe and give Oksana understanding of what to do.

So here is Muddy with his new pal TJ and it gives me such a glad heart to share this with you. I’ve had Muddy since he was 3 weeks old- he is now 6 years old. I miss him every day but he is in the place he needs to be and he is adjusting well.

They are shy, my two tortie girls, but slowly they are merging with the others here. It is funny when I find them unexpectedly in another part of the house (besides the bedroom). As I enter the room, they look up alarmed as if I had busted them being a cat burgler, then they both scurry, slipping and sliding across the tile back to their safety area. I suppose I must be a scary creature for them being that I am so tall.

Piper loves to be scratched and rubbed. her voice is tiny and she is a talker when she wants her way. Her sister Pippi is much shyer and will hide under the bed until she can’t stand not being noticed any longer then she slides out and stands in front of me as if to say; “Stop that! It’s my turn now!” Then, I am allowed to touch and rub on her- this kitten who looks like God spilled orange paint all over her.

After dealing with all this pain in my foot and trying to work with the doctors with antibiotics, shots, pain pills etc.. I have received no relief from the pain. The pain has been constant as if I am walking with a hot rock on the bottom of my foot, so I stopped in and spoke to the town’s holistic healer and relayed all the information about my foot and what I have done to try and stop if from hurting.

She has put me on 1,000 mg of MSM daily, a soak in collidial silver water and she gave me this oil that she made up to relieve pain. I went home and soaked my foot, applied just a tiny bit of the oil and bandaged the foot. One hour later I am able to walk around the house normally without pain! It feels so good NOT to hurt.

I know that some scoff at holistics means, but I have witnessed it time and time again saving my horses, dogs and cats from various ailments and I am a believer.

Tomorrow, I will go into town and give Brandi a big hug of gratitude for what she did for me.

Riddle is suffering from dehydration, anemia and a heavy parasite load. Otherwise, he will be fine in about a week.

On a more somber note, the cat who I believe was Shell’s mom (Delilah) had a massive stroke last night and passed away. I am sad that she is gone- as she was our bedroom kitty but I am glad her pain is over with now. Her squamous cell carcinoma had come back and I had an appointment in a few days to have her euthanized. Best guess on her age by my vet was 19 years old. She had a bad start in life, but in the last few months since arriving here, she found love, warmth, good food and comfort. I will miss her gimpy walk and her headbumps that almost knocked me over they were so strong. I knew when wounds started appearing on her from unknown reasons- and they wouldn’t heal that she was on borrowed time. I am so glad I had her in the end and she knew she was loved.

About two months ago, Riddle one of my barn cats just vanished. A few days later, I saw on the road (quite a distance from our farm) a cat that looked like Riddle. I couldn’t get to the cat – the traffic was to heavy but there was no hope for the kitty there. I cried on the way to town thinking it was Riddle and when I returned home, the body had been moved (or taken by raptors).

I told Mike and we were both sad at the loss- but as always- life keeps going.

Yesterday morning when I went to feed the cats in the barn, I saw a grey mackeral tabby sitting under a hay bale. I did a double- take but it was Riddle. There was no mistaking the light dusky grey color and black tipped tail. He looked horribly thin and was eating the kibble that had fallen to the ground. I went over speaking softly to him and scooped him up. He was crawling with fleas and had massive amounts of drainage coming out of his eyes.

He is now upstairs on antibiotics, and he is eating but only Fancy feast. I gave him fluids twice and his gums are so pale. I have him on pet tinc as well as a vaporizer going in the room as he is all congested. He will go to the vet in the morning- but he came out from under the couch to snuggle with me, so I know he is glad to be home again.