A Simple Prairie Life

My dh just called our wonderful vet.  The vet said he was able to get the cat sent overnight to K-State, so we should have the rabies test results no later than Tuesday, and he will call as soon as he hears something.  He is also calling them today to make sure they received it and have the testing underway.  He has helped us so much through all of this.  I am so thankful for everything he has done.

Let me start off by saying I have caught Will, our cat, a number of times.  Awhile back I could even hold and pet him without any problems.  Well Friday morning I caught him at the food bowl so we could take him to the vet.  I had him by the scruff of his neck and his back legs.  A large area on his neck was scabbed over from a fight of some sort.  So as I was trying to put him in the carrier my hand slipped off the scruff on the back of his neck so all I had was his back legs.  To make a long story short he got a hold of my leg and bit me.  I still managed to get him in the cat carrier, but we did not get the door latched in time and he escaped.  Since this cat has not had his shots (the reason we were trying to catch him was to get his shots and have him neutered) and since he has clearly been in several fights, rabies is an issue.  We ended up trapping the cat in the night Friday (which is what we should have done to begin with, I should have read Kitty’s comment sooner~ LOL), took him to the vet Saturday morning, and our vet will have him sent to K-State to test for rabies.  My dh and I have nearly made ourselves sick over the whole thing.  We feel really bad for the cat (we know longer call him by his name because it is too hard).  I feel responsible for getting bit and making him the bad cat.  He didn’t come after me.  He was just scared; considering at the time he bit me I was holding him by his back legs only.  I would have bit me too.  It did make us feel a little better about our decision to take the cat in when our neighbor told us he had to shoot a skunk in the daylight two days prior.  The skunk didn’t run from him, spray, or anything.  Scary!  I cannot go to the doctor yet for antibiotics or blood tests for any other infections or blood diseases (which I have been informed they carry many) because our health department is very aggressive when rabies is suspected.  The hospital told me even if the cat is on its way to K-State, and they will have the results in a day they still make the patient undergo the first round of rabies shots just to be safe.  There are a million reasons I did not want to start the rabies shots unless absolutely necessary.  I have a nine day window (but will allow myself 4-5 at the absolute most).  We are hoping to have the results of the test tomorrow (Tuesday), so I can get into my doctor Tuesday or early Wednesday. 

Even with all this excitement I did managed to get a few things done.  Friday afternoon I cleaned house, baked bread, and made a fabulous meatloaf for my dh who is dealing with me and my emotional rollercoaster like a champ. LOL  Saturday he had to help change out a tire on Dad’s combine, so I hung out with my Grandma who also helped me through my struggles Friday morning when I didn’t know whether to go to the doctor or try to trap the cat.  With any luck (and no rain) they will start cutting what is left of the wheat harvest this week.  They are calling for rain pretty much all week, so it’s not going to be good.  Everyone in this area is struggling to make the minimum test weight the co-ops and elevators will accept, so anymore rain and the elevators may start refusing the wheat or taking it for animal feed (a huge financial hit).  My parent’s are so stressed between the sheep battling worms due to the wet conditions and the wheat doing so poorly.  Here in Kansas we generally pray for rain, but for once in my lifetime we will be praying for sunny, hot days to come. 

Sunday, we wormed our sheep again for fear they were battling them.  Sure enough, most of their mouths were pale and even slightly gray (a sign of worms).  We didn’t have the wormer for Hank, the llama, so we have to worm him tonight.  We missed church because we were worming, but it just had to be done.  Dad lost ewes and lambs to worms before he got it stopped, so we had to be on our toes.  My dh mowed while I mulched, thinned plants, and transplanted plants.  Someday our Sundays are going to be our day of rest.  We know this is important, but for now we just cannot do it.  We have been doctoring a ewe with a torn teat for over two weeks now, and it got infected Friday, exactly two weeks after we started treating her.  Thursday it looked nearly healed, but Friday when she came in it was a mess again.  She won’t allow the lambs to nurse, so we also have to milk her out every evening.  Last night it looked a lot better, so we are hoping our evening milkings will come to a screeching halt soon.

Spring ’08 is the tentative date dh and I have decided on for my last days at work.  We have discussed all the things I can do and ways to make it possible for me to do even more at home.  We will need to build equipment for livestock handing, so I can do it on my own.  I will be in charge of mowing and weed eating (since my husband has asthma this should be my responsibility anyway).  I will take care of the pool, and I will have time to take care of our home by cleaning and decorating, and have more time for crafts.  I am so excited and can’t wait for this day to come.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

I think we have made a decision on our cat dilema.  We are going to try to catch our wild (nearly feral) cat, Will, and take him to the vet for a checkup, shots, and have him neutered.  He stopped in for breakfast this morning, and Cooter couldn’t stop cuddling him.  Will knows (knock-on-wood) not to get in the backyard, and he was somewhat tame up until the point he started wandering off and getting into cat fights.  So, if we can get him to stick around and be Cooter’s buddy, life will be good again for the little guys.  Cooter’s going to lose his voice from crying so much if we don’t get something figured out soon.  I called the vet, explained the situation about how we may or may not get him caught, so we are tenatively scheduled for tomorrow.  Let’s hope we can catch him without any major injuries. LOL

It’s my last day at work for the week, and I couldn’t be happier.  We have plans to side the front of our shop turned garage.  Dad will be down tomorrow evening to show my dh how to get it started.  I will be weeding the gardens, digging cactus in the pasture, and all my housekeeping chores this weekend.  We are out of bread, so that is at the top of my list. 

My peppermint leaves smell incredible.  I’m going to have to start putting those to good use soon.  I have to tie up my cauliflower in hopes it will be ready before it turns off too hot.  My potatoes need more dirt around them.  I have got to get creative with my potato growing next year.  The lettuce is in full swing as well as the onions, peas need picked, and there are more onions and potatoes to plant.  Oh, and our sheep and lambs need to be wormed (again) due to the extremely wet weather we have been having. 

I have a feeling I will need longer than three days to get my list accomplished, but I’m going to do the best I can.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

I think we have a cat in mourning at our house.  Is that possible?  Cooter was a kitten when we moved to Mom and Dad’s house.  He had a sister named Daisy, who was killed by one of our dogs.  There were approximately 25 (give or take) cats on the farm when my dh and I took over.  Most of them were wild, but after months of working with them I got 7-10 of them tame enough to haul to a vet an hour and a half away who would give me a special rate to have them all fix, treated for ailments, and get their shots.  I had numerous pills, ear drops, eye ointments, and liquid medicine to administer.  Then we took another bunch into our local vet for the same things.  A lot of $$$ later we had a manageable cat population and not chance of it growing.  Slowing they continued to crawl through the fence into the backyard with the dogs and meet their fate.  A few disappeared and two (now three) came down with pneumonia and died with in a couple of hours.  So my point is Cooter once had LOTS of company and now is all alone.  Will is our part-time, wild cat who comes and goes as he pleases and isn’t much company for Cooter.

Yesterday Cooter wouldn’t leave the front porch.  Last night we tried to spend some quality time with him, and he was extra cuddly.  My dh checked on him in the night and he was curled up in a ball in the corner of our porch tucked as close to the house as he could get.  This morning he was crying at the front door when I went to leave for work and cried as I was backing out of the driveway.

We are really having a hard time deciding what to do.  We really don’t want the expense of another cat, but Cooter needs a buddy, and we don’t mice to overrun our farm.  However, a new kitten/cat may wander into the backyard like so many of the other ones did, and we are just tired of all the heartache and having to bury so many.  We will just have to see how the little guy does on his own and go from there.