Rest in Peace Willie Will

Our young man Will passed on yesterday at almost 16 years old. 

The Husband and Lester found this little 2-lb kitten out under one of the apple trees back in 2008, a whole year before we started building the house. I was vacuuming and cleaning up the Dump when they showed up at the door with a bag full of apples and a tiny hungry kitty.

As we were ready to get back on the road to New Jersey, we didn't really have anything to feed him, so I gave him a piece of leftover chicken from the cooler. He thanked me by biting my finger. 

Will travelled from NY to NJ and back to NY again when we moved in 2010. He was a companion to Lester, Dave, Sophie, Woody, Monkey and Cyrus—in that order—I think.

Monkey and Will spent the most time together and were probably bonded the most, although Monkey had to divide his time between Will and his buddy Woody.

The Monkey is missing both of his boys almost as much as we are.

Goats, Midnights and Starlights

The goats came out for a visit on this sunny day. The recent wet weather has been keeping them in the barn to avoid the mud.

And while we are talking about something other than ornery dogs—I made a run up to Tractor Supply when I heard they had something other than the usual chicken breeds.

Midnight Marans lay a dark brown egg, and the Starlight Green Eggers supposedly lay an olive green egg.

My previous experience with Green Eggers (a different kind) produced not a single green egg, but

I really don't care all that much what color they are.

Aunt Mabel's sofa

For a change of pace (and because Jessie is doing so well these past few days) we are offering some red clouds over the old homestead at sunset tonight, and the sofa story.

Our favorite Pottery Barn sofa was battered by years of wear and tear. I have been looking to buy a new one since this one lasted a good 18 or so years of abuse (see below), but the new ones are about $3,000.

So when a friend of ours posted her Aunt Mabel's sofa on Facebook, I jumped on it. Not literally.

It is a bit flowery in competition with the rug, and several inches shorter, but very well made and very comfortable.

We'll see how it works out.

Janet says Aunt Mabel would not be horrified by the presence of (sometimes) obnoxious children on her beautiful sofa.

 

Not over yet

After the last dilemma, Little Missy shrugged off her collar just in time for some more bad weather.

Cyrus and I do not understand why she would rather be out there getting covered in snow, when she could be inside with us on the sofa. These first 2 pics were taken at the same time.

She was out there for a few days and nights, until it got really bad. I had set up a crate for her with some protection, but it took her quite awhile to trust it enough to go inside.

The one night when it was really nasty and windy, I went out to check on her at 2 am. She ran right up on the porch to the back door—as if I had never tried to get her inside before. Go figure! At least she's back inside at night, still preferring to be out most of the day.

A close call

She's back in the house and safe and sound and mostly healthy.

This young lady put us all through hell by escaping from the fence on Tuesday. We could not catch her when she was inside the fence, imagine what fun it was to capture her outside and running free.

A team of concerned neighbors, along with Jean from Dog Control, was out there for 3 hours trying to keep her out of the busy road—at rush hour no less—not an easy task. And she has no experience with roads to teach her to not stand in the middle, on a sharp curve, to dine on the rabbit road kill.

This photo to show that she survived being hit. After being broad-sided by a Jeep, she ran off to the back of our property and hid in the swampy area by the creek. I can not thank our search team, especially Alan and Roberta, enough for spotting her back there just before dark.

We were able to get her in the car, and then off to the emergency vet in Sidney. We were all truly amazed that she wasn't injured more than she was. Nothing broken, not bleeding, just some bruising and minor abrasions. With meds for a few days she should be fine. 

She is officially back to the long leash outside, and sleeping inside. Now I get to do some sleeping inside as well.

Some day, maybe

I decided to take off the long leash for a lot of reasons, mostly that she was using me to come out and get her, rather than learning to come in on her own. The weather has been getting warmer, and I thought it would be a good time to try a new tactic—learn to come inside without me helping!

Now, 5 days later, I am finding out just how stubborn my little angel is.

On the nice days, Cyrus and I will sit out there and play with her. Or maybe I will do some much needed yard work and ignore them both.

Those days go well, except for the fact that SHE STILL WILL NOT COME IN THE HOUSE! (pardon the caps)

She has been outside, including nighttime, since Tuesday. Yesterday it rained most of the afternoon into the night. That last pic of her looking all pathetic in the window is not her trying to come in...just so ya know. I even tried to get her in through the window. No go.

The latest idea is to go out with the leash and offer to take her for a walk. If and when she lets me hook her up, I walk her, bring her in the house when we're done, and then let her back outside if she insists on it. This will probably only work on the nice days, but I am sure there are some of them in our future. Going out for a try right now.

Update: no luck.

The neglected ones

Willie, Monkey, and Cyrus were all making the case today that they have been largely neglected with all these posts about that darn Jessie, birds, and (really?) outdoor cats!

All of these children, behaving so well, and still no mention of them...

So here they are, lazing around on a very sunny day.

Cyrus should be showing off his newly cleaned bright shiny white teeth (only $928!), but no, he said he didn't appreciate that they pulled 5 not so shiny teeth while they were at it.

And the cats were happy to report that they had the whole house to themselves while Cyrus was getting shiny and Jessie was outside.

Blackbirds and Swallows and the Jessie Project

The Red-winged Blackbirds made a grand entrance on February 15, declaring that spring is on the way. There were at least a dozen, including youngsters, at the bird feeder. That's the first time I've seen them since last fall.

And the Tree Swallows are back at the little red birdhouse, also the first time I have seen them this year. One of them is most likely the parent of the baby birds that died last year when the other parent who was feeding them was killed.

It makes me happy that mom or dad found a new mate.

The Jessie Project is still progressing slowly. Lots of sun and wind and temperature changes make for a very noisy house. Now that it is warming up a bit again, I am letting her out in the morning when it is still cold, convincing her to come in to eat (when I can) and then just leaving her out there for the rest of the day until the sun goes down.

Cyrus and I go out to visit, and play, and they (not I) do zoomies around the yard, and/or lay in the sun when there is some. I was keeping her entertained with her Tumbler toy (which is actually a Kong Wobbler, not Tumbler :) but just a few moments in the snow made it fill up with little snowballs to the point where the cookie bits don't come out anymore.

Fixable problem. And the snow is melting.

No snow. Just clouds.

The big winter storm avoided us. I remember some of the Jersey folks complaining about no snow last year...I think you are getting it now.

We have these amazing clouds, a bit of sun, and plenty of wind—which means Miss Jess is hanging outside because it is too noisy inside for her.

She has her Tumbler toy with cookie bits in it to keep her amused. And she is.

Hope and Donna

The photo above is the usual reaction I get when I call in the Jessie—maybe just maybe she will look in my direction—and then turn away again. Today was the very first time in almost 3 months here that she came in the house with Cyrus after I let them out in the morning.

I didn't even call her. 

There is hope on the horizon!

And this second photo is the elusive Husband with the latest addition to the goat herd, Donna. He assisted in her birth on Friday because I was too busy having lunch with Tara. Does that make him the goat midhusband? :)

The sun

Two days of sun and the pretty snow is almost gone. But now we have a new problem—the hot sun against the cold windows makes cracking sounds that are completely freaking out the nervous pooch.

I have been leaving Jessie outside the past 2 sunny days because, even with white noise playing loudly from my phone or the computer as close to her ears as possible, she still jumps, shivers, pees a bit, every time there is a sudden sound. Even outside, if she is too close to the house, she will run off when they crack.

She is mostly content to hang outside, following the sun around the yard. I am the one who feels bad.

We had visitors as the sun was setting yesterday—our somewhat new, almost neighbors, Dmitri and Caroline.

Dmitri is a professional photographer and took some photos out in the goat pen that we haven't seen yet. Caroline is not a professional, but managed to get this great shot of Jack and little Matilda.

Pretty snow, goats and Otis

The snow always looks pretty coming down in those big flakes, especially (maybe only) if you don't have to go anywhere. 

We had pretty snow on Sunday, for The Husband's birthday. We celebrated his birthday with dinner on Friday at The Buzz in Fly Creek. He washed down dinner with an Old Smokey—an Old Fashioned (bourbon and bitters)—served in a glass with a big chunk of ice, on a wood board, under a glass dome filled with smoke. Quite the presentation!

Most of the outside animals don't seem to mind the snow. The goat kids are at that age where they are having a blast bouncing around and chasing each other. I think the humans and animals all agree that mud sucks, snow rocks.

Otis, our outdoor kitty, wasn't minding the snow as much as he was feeling the pain of losing a fight with some other critter. He usually hangs out in our garage, but still goes out hunting mousies (and big fat rats!) even in the snow. 

Apparently he encountered something larger than a big fat rat who gave him a beating.

Nothing a $300 trip to the vet can't cure. He is trapped (until Monday) in a big dog crate in the garage until we can get him back to the vet to have the drain removed from the abscess on his leg. Poor Otis!

4 degrees

We are still making progress every day. I had a nice chat with Sarah the trainer at the shelter where we got Jessie. She said because Jessie was kept in an outside pen for the first 2 years of her life, that is where she is most comfortable. She will probably come in on her own when she gets too cold.

Today I was going to try to leave her out there until she made that decision, but it was 4 degrees. She did come right up on the porch after only a few minutes, but still just sat there and came no closer even when I called her. She went back and forth a few times from the porch to playing outside until I finally caved and (pretty easily) caught her. Only 40 minutes! Yay!

Now we can get to work on some of her other issues. She has no fear of outside noises, but unexpected inside sounds make her hide and shake with fear. One safe place is under the computer desk in between the 2 speakers with a YouTube video of pouring rain to drown out the windows making cracking sounds in the wind. 

Right this minute she is upstairs by herself hiding from the wind. At least she is all warm and cozy on her little bed with the dryer running to cover any other sounds...

My difficult child

It has been exactly 2 months since we brought Jessie home. That should have been enough time for her to adjust to her new spoiled life, but no, she still needs some work.

Coming back into the house is her biggest problem. She has refused to come back in ever since that first cold rainy nasty night when I missed one of The Hub's gigs because the little wanderer was out there for 5 hours avoiding me.

There was a week or so where she would go into a smaller garden fence and wait to be captured, but then she changed her mind about making it so easy.

For a while I could let Cyrus out to play with her (previous post) and then he would "catch her".

She has been dragging a long leash since about the second week. I was able to grab the end of it, until we got snow. Now she is smart enough to know exactly how long the leash is, and exactly where it is behind her. 

I have tried offering food—tiny pieces of dog biscuits, kielbasa, cheese, chicken, or big plates of our dinner, her dinner... At least now she almost always comes running for it (progress!). She will come close enough to get the food, even take it from my hand, but then she charges off if I even look at her (middle pics).

We have colder weather on the way. I left her out there at 7:20 am this morning when it was about 44° and barely raining. Then it rained harder for about an hour. She did come up on the porch several times. She was 3 feet from the inside door, bits of kielbasa on the floor, but she would leave them and run off as soon as I opened the door. 

When I finally ignored her long enough to have breakfast, the sun had come out and she was back to sitting in one of her safe spots by the fence (top pic). It was almost 10 am when I finally gave up and went out with Cyrus to get her. 

Cyrus and I are both exhausted. We are definitely not used to this much early morning activity.