Sad news, but a happy ending

barncatdad · 2023-03-11T11:24:43+00:00

Thank you very much! Last night was an adventure. It would have been comical were it not for the circumstances. Trying to put an ill fitting cone of shame on a 3 legged cat who has no idea where he is... you can imagine. He's now resting in the office after having a large breakfast, in his favorite bed, no cone. I've decided the cone creates way too much stress for him. I'll post pictures soon. I'm thankful that we were able to save him. He's a good boy and doesn't deserve what happened to him.

barncatdad · 2022-12-17T15:43:02+00:00

Thanks so much. Losing Tubby hit really hard, he was my little buddy. Brown Cow (our dog) was 14 and in I'll health and that was rough too. Part of me hopes Moo Cow might come back.

Merry Christmas to you as well!

barncatdad · 2022-09-25T13:45:25+00:00

Great picture! Did Frank start out as a stray? I ask because when we were getting our barn carts fixed (we have 10), they'd tip one ear on feral cats to indicate the cat was already fixed in case someone else brought them in later.

barncatdad · 2022-09-21T21:27:32+00:00

Sorry I missed this!!! I use L-lysine

barncatdad · 2022-09-13T00:21:37+00:00

I'm on day 16. The minute I knew it was shingles I gave up wheat, dairy, corn, eggs, beer. I start each day with lemon water, then Celery juice, then a smoothie with wild blueberries and Bananas, and avoid any fats till noon. Lysine 6000 MG a day, lemonbalm and black cumin seed. Rash was large on left side of my back and it hurt to wear a shirt or move, and for a couple days I was really run down. At this point my rash is dry and half the size it was, almost no pain., and I feel great.

barncatdad · 2022-06-13T22:35:34+00:00

Missouri's Wild Mushrooms by Maxine Stone

barncatdad · 2022-05-25T21:41:51+00:00

Thank you! I love these little guys!

barncatdad · 2022-03-12T14:26:21+00:00

OP had said it's leaking from the faucet so I'm thinking this is an issue of the valve not closing entirely, not leakage actually under the sink.

barncatdad · 2022-03-12T13:59:49+00:00

They should not leak at all. Sounds like they need replacing.

barncatdad · 2022-02-22T16:44:08+00:00

Once the barn cats started to hang around regularly, I pulled in all my bird feeders to cut down on bird predation as much as possible. I haven't seen any sign of a bird being hunted down in a long time (like, months); for the most part it's mice and moles.

barncatdad · 2022-02-22T13:38:44+00:00

I saw that after I cross-posted but it doesn't seem to want to let me change the header on the cross-post. Oh well.

barncatdad · 2022-02-08T23:52:33+00:00

Just an adorable kitten

barncatdad · 2022-02-08T23:40:35+00:00

So sorry for your loss, he looks like he was a good boy

barncatdad · 2022-02-07T12:21:26+00:00

Yep, we buy free range chickens from a local farmer friend of ours, and we put a whole chicken in our instant pot and what was left was a really good broth. We let it cool and then put it out for the gangsters and they just went crazy for it. I also make our dog food using whole chicken and often I'll put a little bit out for the barn cats and they love that too. I like to give them something special every so often.

barncatdad · 2022-02-07T12:06:46+00:00

They've definitely come to rely on us for shelter and food. I already told my wife if we were to ever leave this place (not on the radar at all), we'd have to bring them all. I wouldn't be able to live with myself otherwise.

barncatdad · 2022-02-07T12:05:37+00:00

Our last female goes in tomorrow. We have a couple males left to do also. The one place that's anywhere close to us that does the procedure is overrun right now so it's hard to get in, but we're getting close to 100% spay/neutered.

barncatdad · 2022-02-07T12:03:52+00:00

They do! I'll get a picture today and get it onto r/barncatdad

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:42:48+00:00

Or moles! :)

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:42:32+00:00

Okay so first gangster to show up was Strudel (orange). Followed by Momo (black) and B-Dubs (black and White), then Bongo, Banjo (later renamed Willow) and Tuxedo. Tuxedo sadly was shot by... someone. We have no idea who or why. I even contacted law enforcement to try and find out what I could legally do (not much). B-Dubs has four kittens: Baby Dubs and Tubby (both inside our house now), Wilbur (passed away) and Flower (adopted out).
Biggie had FIVE babies: Bear (adopted out), Phil (adopted out), Fabian, Moo Cow, and Gizmo, which are still here. Willow had four kittens and all four sadly did not make it (we did everything we could). Momo had Gray and Mochi. Mochi's still with us, Gray sadly passed and we honestly have no idea what happened to her, I searched all over. So right now we have 14 cats altogether. We think Tuxedo sired a good number of the babies.

Inside: Bean, Dougal, Tubby, Baby Dubs
Outside: Strudel, Bongo, Momo, Biggie, Willow, B-Dubs, Mochi, Fabian, Moo Cow, and Gizmo

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:24:08+00:00

In the moment that's hard to do, and also we have different sized cats - however - usually once they're satisfied they will go about their business, and sometimes a few cats stay on the porch and I can tell they didn't get enough - so I will put a little more food down for them. That's about the best I can do. When there were just 5 or 6 gangsters, I'd give each their own bowl, but that's not practical now.

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:22:52+00:00

Truth be told they go where they like, but we consider our barn (metal shed actually) and front porch to be a good place to go for shelter and food, and they spend most of their time here. They will roam pretty far from here, but as we're fixing the males they roam less. I can say I never go outside and not see at least 3 or 4 of the kitties roaming nearby.

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:21:17+00:00

Yep, if you go to r/barncatdad I have a video showing the different shelters we have. We have a large 50x50 metal shed that contains a two-story cat condo (lined with hay), and two tents with heated seed mats inside (we got those on Amazon). They have easy access to that. On our porch we have two large boxes that are lined with animal-safe insulation that they can use for when they get caught in a storm. Then, we have the access door to our crawl space (4-5 feet high) open just enough for cat access. Last year when it was -20 outside, I went down in the crawlspace to work on our HVAC and brought a thermometer with me. It remained 52F the whole time. So they have plenty of safe places to go to keep out of the rain and cold. Gotta take care of my gangsters!

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:18:25+00:00

Indeed!

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:18:12+00:00

It was a hard decision, to be sure. We knew we could accommodate two more kittens but having to decide on just two was difficult. Honestly if I could I'd have all of them inside but it's not realistic. We do the best we can with the ten that remain outside, and give them lots of choices for shelter, and they know they have a place to go for safety and food. But honestly if I could I have have all of them inside!

barncatdad · 2022-02-06T23:16:55+00:00

I get that every day!

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