Saturday, December 13, 2008, 21:29
Heroic Measures
Once again, my husband had to go to heroic measures involving cats.
It all started Thursday morning when I let the barn kittens outside. It wasn't really warm, but it wasn't below zero, either. And the sun was shining. While I fed the horses, Petunia, Violet, Rosie, Miss Kitty and Sir Thomas were snooping around up by the house. Several of them went down to the barn, too. And a couple of them came out to the pasture while I cleaned up horse manure. I finished my chores and went in the house.
After a couple of hours, I went outside to see if the kittens wanted to come in. They were all five waiting by the basement door. Violet, Petunia and Sir Thomas came in on their own. Rosie and Miss Kitty (the one who is blind in one eye) were scared to come through the door on their own.
And that's when the trouble started.
I went outside to catch Rosie and Miss Kitty -- and they immediately went into the culvert that runs under the driveway. I tried to coax them out, but nothing doing.
Three more times I went downstairs in the next few hours to see if they wanted to come in. Each time they were waiting by the basement door, and each time, when I tried to catch them, they either went into the culvert or got under the cedar tree. Since the branches are low, it's hard for me to get under there. And even when I did get under there, they would get scared and would take off for the culvert.
Thursday afternoon I had to do an interview for a newspaper story, and when I came home at 4:30, I was hoping Rosie and Miss Kitty were sufficiently cold and hungry that they would want to come in the house. Nope. When I tried to catch them -- you guessed it, they ran into the culvert.
I tried coaxing them out again, but nothing doing. I tried talking to them and I tried kitty food. I knew they had to be hungry.
By this time, the sun had set, the wind had picked up, and the windchill was far below zero. I tried several more times to get the kittens, but no luck. I took Pixie for a 30 minute walk, hoping the kittens would have come out when we got back. Nope.
By the time I went to township meeting at 6:30 p.m. to cover it for the newspaper, I was beside myself. The weather was turning colder. And Rosie and Miss Kitty had not had anything to eat all day. And they were stuck in the culvert. If they would go down to the barn, I could stop worrying about them. There's hay to snuggle in down in the barn. And there's cat food.
When I got back from the meeting at 8:30 p.m., I was even more beside myself with worry. I explained the situation to Randy.
"Calm down. Let me get my winter clothes on. And then we're going to get them out of the culvert," he said.
"How?" I said.
"By putting something into the culvert to push them out," he said. "And when they do come out, you will have to be ready to grab them."
"Okay," I said.
We went to the basement and found a cedar board nearly 10 feet long. The board was lightweight, so that's why Randy wanted to use it.
My husband had also brought the big rechargeable flashlight outside. It's the one that when we stand in the yard at night and turn it on, we can see the other end of our five acre hayfield.
Randy positioned the light and then began pushing the board into the culvert.
No kittens appeared out the other end.
So, my husband nailed an extension on the board and pushed it farther into the culvert.
No kittens.
Next he taped a piece of pipe to the shorter extension and pushed the whole apparatus farther into the culvert. It's about 30 feet across the driveway.
Still no kittens.
In the meantime, the wind was blowing fiercely and it was getting colder and colder.
Finally, one of the kittens stuck her head out the end of the culvert. I made a grab. And missed.
The last I saw of Miss Kitty, she was headed up toward the back of the house.
"I missed her," I said. "I can't believe I missed her."
"Get ready for the other one," Randy said.
By now he was lying on his stomach, in the snow, arm pushed deep into the culvert to try to get more reach out of his apparatus.
A minute later, Rosie came out of the culvert.
I grabbed. And missed again. Rosie took off for the barn.
"They're both out," I said.
"Good," Randy said. He stood up and brushed the snow off his clothes.
"Where's your boards?" I said.
"They came loose. My best cedar board is in the culvert now," Randy said. "I'll have to wait until spring to try to get them out."
I went into the house for some cat food and Randy went about the business of plugging up the ends of the culvert with snow so the kittens couldn't hide in there again.
By this time, we had been outside for over an hour trying to get the kittens. My hands were and stinging with cold and my feet were so cold I couldn't feel them. We went down to the barn. Rosie was down there. But she wouldn't let us catch her.
"At least we know she's down here," Randy said. "She can get food down here."
I opened up the kitty food container to put some out for Rosie. Just as I was putting the cover back on, guess who came for kitty food?
Yup. It was Rosie. I made a grab for her and got her.
"Hang on tight. I'll take the kitty food and flashlights," Randy said.
I carried Rosie up to the basement and put her inside.
"Now we have to find Miss Kitty," I said.
We looked and looked and looked. And looked some more. Finally a black shadow came racing out from under the porch and headed for the cedar tree around the front of the house. We went down to the cedar tree, but Miss Kitty was nowhere to be seen. We went back to the porch. No Miss Kitty. After a while, she came out and ran for the cedar tree again. We followed her. She was gone. The third time we went back to the porch, Miss Kitty came out and headed across the snow as fast as she could for the barn. We went to the barn, too. But Miss Kitty was nowhere to be seen.
"If she's down here, she'll be fine. She's out of the wind and there's kitty food," Randy said.
"I know. But I'm still going to worry about her being cold," I said.
It was nearly 10 o'clock now.
"Do you think we could get some supper? I'm hungry," Randy said.
"Yes, we can eat supper now," I said.
We always end up eating late when I've got an evening meeting to cover for the newspaper. But usually not quite that late.
Later on, before I went to bed, I went outside to check on the horses. I was in the barn, just walking around the tractor with the kitty food water cup, on my outside to put it in a bucket of hot water to thaw it out, when I heard a tiny breathless meow.
I went to look. And there was Miss Kitty, by the lean-to wall.
"I suppose you'll run if I come any closer," I said.
I climbed over a piece of plywood we have nailed up in the barn to give more of a sense of shelter for the kitties. There's a space of about five or six feet behind the plywood to the lean-to wall.
The moment I started climbing over the plywood, Miss Kitty escaped under the wall to the lean-to.
"Miss Kitty," I said. "Please come out. I want to help you!"
I shined the flashlight toward the lean-to wall, and I could see little black paws.
"Come on, Miss Kitty," I coaxed.
I coaxed some more. The little black paws remained on the other side of the wall.
All of a sudden, while I watched, I could see the Miss Kitty had flopped over and had started rolling in the dirt. She flops and rolls in the basement, too, while I am cleaning out litter boxes or getting food or water.
I waited a few seconds more, then I reached under the wall and made a grab for Miss Kitty. She came quietly and without protest. I carried her up to the house.
In all, it had taken me one husband thoroughly chilled to the bone, several boards and a pipe, and 12 hours -- to catch Rosie and Miss Kitty.
Saturday morning, the temperature was in the upper 20s and it was very pleasant outside. By the time I fed the horses, it was closer to 30. The barn kittens all wanted to go outside, so I let them outside. They can't stay inside forever, and at least with the temperature in the 30s, I don't have to worry about them freezing to death.
All five them immediately went over to see if the could get in the culvert. They couldn't. So they all headed down to the barn. The kittens are six months old now. I suppose I shouldn't worry about them. But I do.(sigh)
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 15:53
Busy Birds (And Bailouts)
The birds were very busy at the bird feeders Wednesday morning. Juncoes. Blue jays. Gold finches (not very gold this time of year; more of an olive drab). Nuthatches. Chickadees.
The gold finches like to eat together in a flock. So do the juncoes. The chickadees and nuthatches tend to be solitary feeders.
I did not see any cardinals, though. But I will. Eventually. We have quite a few cardinals who live in the pine woods across the road, so cardinals are frequent visitors to the yard. Last summer, I was privileged to watch Poppa Cardinal bring his youngsters to the bird feeder to show them where they could find safflower seeds. Poppa Cardinal fed them seeds. The male cardinals are always so solicitous. Poppa Cardinal will often come to the feeder with Momma Cardinal. Then he will carefully select a seed and tenderly and lovingly feed it to his mate. It seems to me there is nothing quite so lovely as a deep red cardinal sitting on a green pine tree covered with white snow.
Tuesday afternoon it dawned on me that I had not filled the bird feeders in a while. Between Sebastian being so sick and then dying last Thursday and the craft fair at the theater over the weekend, I had not gotten around to mixing up more bird seed. I feed a mixture of sunflower seeds, a crushed corn and bird seed mixture flavored with cherry juice, finch seed, and safflower seeds.
It was four degrees below zero Fahrenheit Wednesday morning. So I'm just glad the birds found the bird seed so soon after I put it out . . .
Sign of the times
I was listening to public radio Wednesday morning and heard about Republic Windows and Doors closing abruptly in Chicago. They gave their workers three day's notice that they were closing. The business closed because Bank of America would not do any short-term borrowing to help the company keep going. Bank of America is one of those that received part of the $700 billion bailout money. My question is -- isn't that why we, as taxpayers, were expected to finance the bail out? So the banks would keep going with the short-term borrowing to help business stay afloat? What did they do with the money? Throw a party for their executives? School districts do short-term borrowing, too, until their state aid money arrives. School districts in this area have been experiencing difficulty getting any banks to submit bids for short-term borrowing. What are the school districts supposed to do? Not pay their teachers? Turn off the heat and electricity? Stop feeding the kids lunch? Jeepers.
LeAnn R. Ralph
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