Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Same here J.

Back in the day I didnt think think I would like it, but the Shipyard brand was pretty good-but after a few, not so much and it was back to my regular programming of Coors or Molson. Oh and all cans suc too.

 

And might even qualify as keeping the cat "indoors" as some shelters will not allow one to adopt from them if the cat is allowed to roam "outdoors". Outdoor cats live on average 2 years.

This is a photo of Mr. T.



He was my shadow, we had to have him put down during his 16th year, he had arthritis, was loosing weight, and in pain. Major quality of life issues for a cat that was always jumping and chasing after us. The vet after examining him agreed with us. The first cat we had Rascal was in her 19th year when she was put down. We hope our current kitty KC also has a long life.

Rascal was born in a barn, Mr. T was found in a roadside ditch covered in fleas and mites by my BIL's wife, KC was a pregnant cat surrendered to a shelter in Tennessee and then surrendered to a shelter in Maine that has a group of volunteer foster homes that will raise kittens even those without mothers around. Her four kittens had just been adopted and she was on her way to one of the shelter rooms when we scooped her up from the isolation room. The shelter is set up for the cats to socialize, they are not caged, and the cats not welcome elsewhere can find a home. This makes for a lot of work for the shelter volunteers as simple issues can become hard to remedy.

 

My cats have always been free to go in or out as they please (assuming there is someone to open a door for them), but this is the firs time I've lived "in town" so cats aren't street savvy. I only lost one cat to unfortunate incidents (I assume so anyway, she disappeared - probably to a fisher ), and she was normally an indoor cat by choice. The rest of my cats have lived to 15 or 16 before kidney failure, heart failure, or some other failure has occurred.

Tory, a neutered male DSH, is currently 15+ years (got him as a kitten July 3, 2000 at 11 PM). He used to be a mostly outdoor cat choosing to spend days outside before consenting to come inside. I would leave food on the deck for him so he could eat. Since I moved here 2 years ago he has shown very little interest in going outside and is happy just to be in my lap whenever I am sitting down.

Fuzzy is at least 13 and is a Maine Coon type. He was feral when he showed up full grown at our place summer of 2003. For 5-6 years we fed him outside whenever he was around, but he never let anyone closer than 10 feet to him. He disappeared several times for months. The last time was for 6 months and he showed up at the end of winter literally starving and with almost no hair. It was a good thing I saw him as we had been having raccoon issues, so weren't feeding Tory outside anymore. The poor guy was so starved he was stumbling as he walked so I immediately got a bowl of food and he almost knocked me over to get to it (he had never, ever, done anything remotely like that before). That paved the way for him to finally start to trust us and eventually he let us pet him. After that, he decided he loved people (anyone, doesn't matter - he will go to them for pets). Got him neutered and shots, and he has been a homebody ever since. He still likes to go out even at this new place - in fact he went out this morning before I left for work so he will be out all day. Sure glad I have the pen to keep him safe while allowing him to enjoy the outdoors !

 

So tough to make that decision - never get easier but we don't want them to suffer .

 

Mr T looks identical to a stray Linda feeds. He will sit on our laps outdoors or on the enclosed porch. We can not coax him to come indoors and the one time I carried him in on a cold winter day cost me a quart of blood from my left arm as soon as we crossed the threshold. I settled for making him a pet door to a closed off corner on the porch that we stock with food, and a wool blanket.

He is content and warm in the winter and I guess, for him, that is enough.

We call him Gray Baby.

 

Mr T's real name on his vet records was Sir Earl Grey which sort of got shortened to Mr. T both because it was the name of a Tea and because his attitude was shall we say bad as in the Mr. T character of the A Team tv series.

You named it jt he was the true boss in this house.

 

Too many dangers for cat around here let alone when we were in the city. Coyotes, mink, fisher,raccoons, skunks,weasels,dogs, and fox have all paid our lot a visit.

There are two in and out BOTs (Big Orange Things and they are both Toms) next door that are just tempting fate.

 

Raked the leaves yesterday, bagged some in used pellet bags today but weather isn't cooperating( raining sporadically). Painted my battery back-up enclosure so no more ugly batteries in laundry room. Sent one part out for stainless steel fabrication for the Fahrenheit furnace. Haven't continued taking the furnace apart, maybe early next week!

 

Your cats don't try to climb over the top?

 

I feel sorry for them. We had one big old boy who lived to be 17. He was a real scrapper. One night he went out, never saw him again. He was never know to leave our yard. He did have thyroid disease. We were told that sometimes old cats go off to die. He didn't seem sick to me. With all the critters around, I don't know how he lasted as long as he did. I have 6 Himalayan cats and none of them go out. All are doll face temperament. I would be tempted if I had a totally enclosed area for them. But they all use their litter boxes properly so, while a lot of work and money, it is the best way for us. Three of these were born here. Just too attached to part with them. All neutered and current immunizations. Also, no food with grain fillers etc.

 

Pic of battery enclosure, I need to get white L-brackets to give a super finish appearance I used what I had at arm's reach

 

Looks good

Can you mount that directly to the wall into the studs , so you don't have to use brackets at all ?

 

The brackets hold a 2x8 lumber/2 batteries. I just made a plywood wrap around to tidy it up. The brackets are there because of the weight of the batteries( two 6 volts batteries are heavy). The wrap around can be removed if I have to remove the batteries for some unknown reason.

 

I here ya I thought it was more of a cabinet any how it still looks good

 

Wife got me some coney island hard root beer. It's not for me.

 

X2. The same goes for It's Not Your Father's Root Beer.

 

Too sweet!

 

Saw this load of pellets going down i95 today