A Friend For Theo

Our weather is feeling very autumn-ish. Although the daytime temperatures are mostly in the low 70s to mid-80s, there is an underlying coolness that signals that summer is nearing its end. Last night the temperature dipped down to 45 degrees for the first time. EJ says that on his way to/from work, he sees trees beginning to change colors. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons (along with Winter, Spring, and Summer) but it’s always a bit of a surprise when it comes. The change from Summer to Autumn feels sort of like jumping into a cold lake on a hot day. The first plunge is a shock, but once in, we adjust and enjoy it.

This morning we saw two deer eyeing the ripening apples on our trees. We have fences protecting the trees, but some branches are hanging over them. I hope we can get the ripe apples before the deer do.

After we moved into our house, EJ made a cat entrance into the pantry/storage room where the litter boxes are. A few months ago, Hannah Joy figured out how to get through the door to access the “goodies” the cats leave in the boxes (yuck) so EJ made the entrance even narrower. She somehow was still able to wiggle her way through. I’m not sure how she managed it. A few days ago EJ made the entrance even narrower. When he finished, he shut a cat in the pantry and watched to make sure he could get out through the cat entrance. He could. So far Hannah hasn’t gone through. Here’s hoping…

EJ finished my poultry feed barrel. It’s awesome. I poured 3+ bags of feed into it and it’s not even half full. With our next paycheck, I want to buy a few more bags to fill it all the way up.

Thursday EJ and I drove to the local Farmer’s Exchange to buy ten bales of straw for the coop. The straw has been harder to find this year and I was getting a bit concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find any. Our normal places are out of business, are sold out, or aren’t selling it to individuals anymore. The Farmer’s Exchange didn’t have many bales left, but we were able to get what we needed. It was a little more expensive than straw bales that we found advertised elsewhere, but we had to weigh the cost of the straw from a nearby location with the cost of gas/time from cheaper sources further away.

When we got home with our straw, EJ stacked the bales in the garage until we can move them to the coop. In the next day or two, I will drag out the old straw for EJ to use in the garden and move the new bales in. The straw bales insulate the coop to keep the chickens warm in the winter and the chickens like roosting on them at night.

A month or so ago, we lost our outside cat, Millie. Outside cats don’t live as long and she was getting old. Theo seems to really miss her. He’s been peering in the windows and meowing plaintively. So we decided to get two more outside cats to keep him company. We are pursuing getting the cats through the Michigan Barn/Working Cat Program, which finds homes for cats who prefer to live outside. We had gotten both Theo and Millie from them.

We almost went with a cat rescue place from downstate that contacted us from the program–they would have delivered the cats to us. However, the 3-page application form they wanted us to fill out asked for a lot of private information that we weren’t comfortable providing. I understand that they want to make sure the cats are going to good homes–and we want that too. We know there are awful people who don’t treat animals well. However, we don’t think it’s necessary to have to provide EJ’s place of employment, driver’s license number, number of years that we lived at our house, type of house we live in, whether we plan to move soon, the history of all the cats we’ve ever owned, and so on. I mean, why would they need to know his employer? Are they planning to call them up to ask if he would make a good “cat dad”? What possible reason do they need his driver’s license number? It’s not as if we are paying for the cat on an installment plan (there is no fee). Why do they need to know what type of house we live in? Why do they want to know who will be the primary caregiver of the cat, feeding and playing with it? We very much love our cats and provide them a good home, but we are adopting a cat, not a child. We told the rescue place “Thanks but no thanks.”

EJ and I are private people and we don’t feel comfortable with any business/person wanting too much private information. A few weeks ago EJ contacted a website that was buying used cars so we could maybe sell our Xterra, which needs more work than we want to pay for. They wanted a photo of the front and backs of his driver’s license and title and a bunch of other intrusive information. He felt it was a possible scam so he backed out. “Thanks, but no thanks.” We are willing to provide necessary information, but some information is “none of your business” for the transaction we are considering.

We are continuing our efforts to find a friend for Theo. We are contacting the next person on our list of possibilities as Plan B. Plan C is to contact our local animal shelter. We’ve gotten animals from them before (including Hannah) and they are really good. We just want to make sure we get a cat that prefers to be outside.