The TP Caper

My niece bought us this gift a while back.  Jumbo roll toilet paper.  Cool gift and I thought it was unique and functional.

Then this happened.

It didn't take long for Fanny to find something new to amuse herself with.

When we found her she looked like a little angel.  A guilty little angel.

Who, me?

The stand is now being use for scarves, hair accessories and masks.

 

Cats can amuse themselves in cute, and sometimes not so cute, ways.

I'm sure you have many stories about how your cats have gotten into trouble.

Let me know.  I'd love to hear from you.

 

Calico

 

I know this photo is not the best.  In fact it has even been enhanced.

I did not snap this myself which I will explain later.

In the late 70's, when I was about 27 years old, I lived in a small apartment near the Greater Pittsburgh Airport.  One evening I was visiting my sister and this beautiful calico cat came to her door.  I could tell she was a mature cat and she was hungry. Definitely a stray.

My sister felt sorry for the cat but she isn't a cat person.  So I took it upon myself to save this feline.  I always felt that if a cat needed a home they would find me.

So, I took the cat to my little apartment. That is when I came to the realization that my landlord did not allow pets.  I couldn't let them know the cat was there.  Another realization was.....I didn't have cat food.....I didn't have cat litter.

Okay.  I came up with a plan.  In the morning I'll take Calico (yes I named her Calico) to my parent's farm.  In the meantime I will give her some milk, which she slurped up quickly. And I'll take dirt from a potted plant, put it in a box, and instant litter box. Genius!

In the morning I snuck Calico out of the apartment and placed her in my '72 Malibu.  I got on the expressway enroute to my parent's farm.

Well, maybe it wasn't such a great idea to have given Calico all that milk (I found out cats are generally lactose intolerant).  While going 70 mph Calico became frightened and started jumping all over the car. And while doing so was having diarrhea everywhere-backseat, frontseat, back window, and all over me.  

When I got to the farm I was close to tears.  I opened the car door and Calico darted out.  I spent the rest of the day cleaning the inside of my car.  I took a shower and luckily I had left some clothes at my parent's house.

But some good came out of all this.  Calico loved living on the farm.  She hunted and brought little presents to the back door (mice, chipmunks, birds).

She always ran up to my car when I visited my parents.  It was like she was thanking me for saving her. 

My parents welcomed her and when they decided to sell and move to South Carolina, Calico was made part of the deal with the new owners.

So now about the photo.  I moved to California. The new owners took a photo of Calico with her first litter since the sale.  Calico had now lived there for about 7 or 8 years.   

I am so glad the new owners kept her.  Unfortunately we lost touch and that was the last time I saw Calico. But I knew she was loved.

If anyone out there has some unusual cat stories I'd love for you to share.

Until next time.....

Automatic Feeder Update

Ok.  It's been a minute since I started using this feeder for Fanny.  Here's the latest scoop.

I am happy to report it seems to be working.  If you remember, I was trying to get Fanny to stop waking us up at 5:30am to feed her.

We had a few hiccups due to the time change and also we had to get up early for appointments on a couple of mornings. That confused her.

Anyway, I started by setting the timer for 5:30. Did that for a few mornings to get her used to it. Then increased to 5:40 for a few days. The time change actually helped. So after increasing in 10 minute intervals we currently have her eating at 6:40 (soon to be 6:50).

Even if she gets up early she waits for the feeder to open. 

Now I'm not saying she doesn't make a few "yips" in the morning but she is becoming less vocal and of course we have the luxury of not having to get up. 

After she eats she goes right back to sleep.  I call that a VICTORY!!!!

Please let me know if you, or anyone you know, has ever used an automatic feeder for a pet.  And what was the outcome?
 

Peacock Feathers on Display

My niece, Shellie, found some photos of a peacock feathers display.  The feathers are actually from my dad's birds.

It is said that peacock feathers displayed in a house can indicate happiness and good luck.....as long as the feathers were not obtained by violence.  That means you wait until the bird molts or loses those feathers.

The iridescent color of the male's tail or "train" is due more to angle of light rather than pigment.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, my mother and her friends made beautiful shadow box creations and many other artful displays.

An interesting fact: Almost all white peacocks are not true albinos.  They can produce pigment but not deposit the pigment to their feathers.

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More Exotic Birds On The Farm

Although I don't have good original photos from back in the 60's, I still wanted to chronicle more of my Dad's hobby. His bird display brought joy to so many people.  Check out my previous post on his peafowl as well.

Here are examples of white and golden fantail pigeons.  We had several different colors. It was so cool watching them strut around with their tails spread.

I only had this one photo and it's of a white one.  It's hard to see but a black one is on it's left. 

Golden Chinese Pheasant. Beautiful.  
During mating season the male struts around and fluffs up his "ruff" or"cape" to attract the female. They are pretty friendly birds.

The Guinea fowl. They like to roam so ours were kept in pens. They roamed free on my grandmother's farm.  A fun fact: Guinea fowls have been used to alert chickens and other farm animals from hawk attacks. Believe me, they can be quite noisy.

Reeves pheasant. They are native of China. My mother and her friends made artwork out of their feathers. Their sound is most like a warble. Our Reeves was named "Rocky" because he was a fighter. This type of pheasant is known to be aggressive.

Ring necked pheasants are native of China and East Asia. It is the state bird of South Dakota even though it isn't native to the United States. Often interchangeable with the common pheasant.  Both are considered game fowl.

Silver Pheasant.  They are from Asia like so many of these beautiful birds. I have to say, this was probably my favorite pheasant on the farm.  They were so regal appearing.  Also they were larger than the other pheasants.

My dad may have had other species but these are the only ones that come to mind 

I just want to mention that the males are the ones who are so brightly colored and the ones I have spotlighted in the photos above.  The females (hens) are much smaller and lack the vibrant colors.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has ever raised or known anyone who has raised birds.  I'd be interested in hearing your stories.

 

Automatic Feeder For Fanny

Automatic cat feeder

We are trying something new. Especially since we would love to sleep in some mornings.  

It all started with Fanny getting us up at 5:30 every morning.  This is an extension of the routine our other cat CC started years ago. 

I used to get up at 5:30 for work and that's when this craziness raised its ugly head.  CC demanded her and Fanny got fed at 5:30.  Even on the weekends. 😒  Now I'm retired.  

CC got sick and we had to put her to sleep last July and Fanny couldn't break the habit.  Every morning she cries for us to feed her.  If cries don't work she graduates to obnoxiously loud howls.  Then either my husband or I would get up and feed her---to shut her up. lol

So about five days ago I started to use an automatic feeder.  Only in the morning.  To start with I set it for 5:30 and have increased it by 10 minutes every day.  And we have it near the bedroom door.  So she sees it as soon as she gets up.

She has learned that when she wakes up she can just sit by the feeder and wait for it to open.  

She still makes a little noise but at least we don't have to get out of bed like before.  And if she does wake us up we can easily go back to sleep.  Anyway, we are at at the 6:00 mark currently.

Now the bad part. Tonight we turn the clocks ahead (DST).  I don't have any idea what tomorrow morning is going to bring.  I'm still trying to decide if I should change the timer on the feeder or just toss the dice.

Anyway,  I think this is really a game changer in the long run. I feel confident we will be able to reprogram Fanny and finally get her on a better schedule.

So I am recommending this to anyone who has an early rising cat.  And also I am wishing you the best of luck. 😏

https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Mate-Automatic-Feeder-Digital/dp/B01MXDFB28/ref=sr_1_30?crid=3JXZJV8EZUDCD&dchild=1&keywords=automatic+cat+feeder&qid=1615696574&sprefix=automat%2Caps%2C293&sr=8-30

Our Awesome Peafowl

 

I begin by apologizing for not having great photos of our beautiful peafowl. I am sure there were better ones but they have been lost over the years.
Note: Peacock is the name given to male peafowl. The female is a peahen.

One of my father's (Pete Maslek) many hobbies during the 60's was raising exotic birds.  He had built huge pens from chicken wire so they could move around freely.  He had separate areas for each species.

Today I'll just focus on the peafowl.  They of course were my favorites.  That is, except in the mornings. They make very loud shrill noises, especially during mating season.  And it just so happens that they love to be noisy very early in the morning. 

As a young girl, I kind of wanted to sleep in when I wasn't going to school.  Unlikely to happen with these creatures around.

There are blue, green and white peafowl. The blue are the tamest of the three.  

It's very important that they have enough space so the peacocks (males) can display their long tail feathers without injury.  There were shelters and roosts.  My dad landscaped their pens.

Unfortunately we could not let them roam freely since foxes and other predators lived in the area.  

Dad had been communicating with a man who was an expert in raising peafowl and other birds.  My dad would buy eggs/chicks from this man, raise them, and sell them for a profit.  Our peahens also laid eggs and raised their own chicks. 

There was also a market for feathers.  My mom would collect the shedded feathers and sell them.  The neighboring women loved to make beautiful pictures and arrangements with them.

I often think of how privileged I was to be able to say I got to see "Peacocks" every day when I was young.

In my next post I will talk about some other birds we had on our farm.  Please come back!

Water Fountain For Your Cat

This water fountain was well liked by CC before she passed last year.  It was helpful in making sure she was well hydrated because it kept her interested. CC had end stage kidney disease.

Fanny also enjoys the fountain.  And she has stage 2 kidney disease.

I thoroughly clean the unit once a week although the company says it's okay to clean it at least every 2 weeks.  I just want to make sure that Fanny always gets the freshest water.

Please refer to my post from 2/16/2021 (What Happens When Cats Get Older).

Buddy's Sudden Illness

Buddy and Mutchka were a wonderful duo.  Buddy always watched out for Mutchka.  And Mutchka was entertaining just by his strange behavior. He jumped at the slightest sound.  He almost knocked you over trying to hide when the doorbell rang.

Buddy on the other hand was "chill".  Nothing rattled him.

But one day my husband and I were having a conversation in the hallway when all of a sudden Buddy had a violent seizure at out feet. 

He was barely responsive when we got him to the Vet.  They gave him some fluids.  Ran some blood and urine test.

He did become responsive but the Vet gave us some terrible news.  He had end stage kidney failure.  We were shocked since he never showed any signs of illness prior to the seizure. 

The Vet said cats hide illness very well and there wasn't anything we could have done different.  We had always taken him for his routine check ups.

So the next day we made the decision to have him put to sleep since there was nothing the Vet could offer in way of treatment. It was June of 1999 when we said goodbye.
RIP Buddy.

In my next post I explore kidney disease in cats.

Please come back.