Keeping Tim Occupied

Friday was a rough day. Tim has been specifically warned against lifting over five pounds. He's supposed to avoid physically straining himself. I specifically brought up rehabbing, because I knew that would be specifically what he wanted to get back to and they specifically said that he couldn't. He can't archery hunt because he cannot pull back his crossbow. He can't walk hills. It's a lot of restrictions on him. 

Friday, he was chomping at the bit. He had a list of projects he wanted to do. The thing is, he shouldn't. He's got two problems that have popped up post surgery. We don't see the surgeon until Tuesday, and so he needs to stick to the game plan until at least then. He doesn't need to be making matters worse. So there was bickering, and I would not let him do those things that he wanted to do. 

I could see that by the end of the day he was getting depressed. I really did feel bad about that. So we sat down and talked about things that he could do. He decided that the thing to do was go take a walk in the woods. He had to pick a new place to hunt. He can't walk up hill. He also can't drag his deer out and so I need to know exactly where he is going to be so that if he gets one, I can find him and drag it out for him. 

A walk was a good idea, and I could see that he was glad to be in the woods. The fact that we saw deer on the walk in made him very happy as well. 

All's well that ends well, I guess. 

One thing that he's really been looking forward to is an antique auction which was held Saturday morning. There were two stained glass windows that he wanted very badly. Unfortunately the two that he wanted went for over $400 each. We did buy stained glass though, five windows, which was three more than we actually wanted, but we can always put them out in the sun room.  They are all old ones, and two need framed. We'll probably shorten them as well. We've never played with stained glass before, so this is something new for us and something fun. This was all considerably cheering to Tim as well. 

I had a job when we came home, to duck over to a rental and rake the leaves to the curb for pick up.  William helped out to earn some pocket money and I was glad for it. Tim watched and visited with Jim. 

While I was blowing leaves, Tim's eagle eye caught movement. There at the foundation were four tiny kittens, mewling and headed in all directions. The mother was nowhere to be seen, although Tim had seen a cat streaking towards the back of the property. 

Tigger has 2-3 batches of kittens a year. No one can catch her. Our Houdi is one of her kittens. His sister lives down the street at another tenant's house. There were two more in that litter, but they disappeared. Since there are many predators along the creek in the back and a pretty busy street out front, well, it's not surprising. Tigger is a good mother, but the odds are stacked against her. All of her last batch of kittens died. 

I handed a kitten to William, and grabbed our tenant Paula. She is a cat rescuer, and (bless her heart) she catches all the ferals she can and has them neutered out of her own pocket.  She knew that Tigger had had kittens but hadn't seen them yet. She had been worried. 

The two of us began gathering up kittens. I estimate that they were four weeks old and well fed little things. Lively too. We did not want them wandering into the street. After some discussion, we took a plastic tote, set a box inside of it for shelter. William ran home to get an old blanket that I'd put in a bag of rugs and throws and blankets to take to the animal shelter. 

We decided it would be warm enough outside for them to safely spend the night. I tucked them under Jim's back porch against the foundation of the house, familiar territory for mama cat. They would be protected from the rain, and the tote would keep them from wandering off. If their mother wanted to take them out she could, but we felt that it was important for them to continue nursing if that is possible. In a couple weeks, they will be weaning, and we can bring them inside at that point. We are also hopeful that we can use them as 'bait' to live trap mama. She really needs to be neutered. 

Tim and I walked back down tonight after dark to check on them. They were all sleeping in a pile, and blinked sleepily when the light woke them up. 

There was another discussion with our tenant. In the end, we collectively decided to leave them be for now. We have to assume that their mother knows where they are. They were not mewling with hunger. They showed no signs of distress. They are safe for now. We will recheck in the morning.