Tag: animals

Day #60 – Slinky the Incontinent Skunk

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

I feed the night critters (and the day ones also). We have a sweet little skunk that either got hit by a car or was born with a defect. He cannot walk so he slithers. It’s almost like he’s partially paralyzed. The problem with that is that it makes him incontinent. I was putting the food bowl on the patio until I realized that he cannot help it when his “stink” slips out. So now I feed him in the grass away from us.

We try to be mindful of him. It takes him almost an hour to eat. The other night I thought he was choking and could just see myself trying to dislodge the food. Luckily he did it on his own. We have two younger skunks that will come up and eat, but I have noticed that they treat Slinky with respect and let him eat without bothering him. They will fuss among themselves though. One night I want to follow him (he’s a slow slitherer) to see where he goes.

We have also started feeding more of the stray cats. Our neighbors across the street were feeding the ones living on their side (it’s like west side story turf war between the cats) but they have started all coming to eat around dusk. I have to keep O’malley inside because, although he too was street cat with them, he’s very protective of his home base now.

Tonight I finally got to touch the grey and white one who we call Fidget. She is getting braver and walking up to me. The two little black ones are newcomers.

This is Mr. Whiskers. He’s always let me love on him and is very protective of the other ferals. I need to get him fixed because I have a feeling he has fathered most of the ones that come to eat. Someone put a flea collar on him, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t belong to anyone.

Oh and I colored my hair today and I’m posting it so I can remember when I did it. I didn’t have a hair bag so I just wrapped my head in Saran wrap.

I have been using the Wella color from Sally’s and I really like it. I use medium intense blond with a 30 developer. It’s so close to my natural color so I’ll take it.

The kids start college tomorrow. I think I’m more nervous than they are.

King Queso

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

I HATE writing this post. Saturday night Queso and Monkey did not want to come in the house. It’s not unusual for them to be outside. Queso was my daughter’s cat that we took in when she moved to the Hill Country. Donny and I both fell asleep in the living room watching a movie. I got up about 1 am and since he looked so comfortable I let him sleep. He later told me that at about 3 am he heard a cat ruckus outside. This isn’t unusual because we have a very cat friendly street and there are a lot of strays that we feed. He went outside to look around to find Queso and Monkey to bring them in. He couldn’t find them.

Sunday morning Milo woke me up to go outside at 6:10. I always start the coffee and then go outside to make sure the cats have food and fresh water. When I walked out onto the patio I saw Queso laying under the big table. I called him but he didn’t respond. I got closer to him and realized that he wasn’t breathing. My heart broke. I went inside and woke Donny up. We picked up Queso’s body to see if we could see anything that would explain what happened to him. Nothing. Not a scratch that we could see. He had looked like he was just sleeping. We wrapped him in his blanket and buried him in the backyard.

This was the last picture I took of him. He was the coolest cat. He weighed 15 pounds and would not take no for an answer. He loved HARD. His favorite place to sleep was on my pillow with his arms wrapped around my neck. He loved to give kisses. He wanted all the other cats to be his friend. He would stand guard on our cars or the trash cans. His favorite place to nap outside was the plant shelf.

Taken during a thunderstorm.

His favorite napping spot.

Always wanting to help.

Late night snuggles.

Loving any basket, bag or box.

He and Milo were best friends. They always wanted to be near each other. Milo is having a hard time with Queso not being here. He wants to be in the same room as I’m in and if he’s not he will loudly meow. We are all going to miss Queso so much. He was definitely one of a kind and it felt like he was always more human than cat.

P.S.

We found some coyote tracks in the ditch mud so now we believe that he tried to fight off a coyote and when he howled he scared it off. There must have been damage that we couldn’t see.

New Month

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

October was a challenging month. Donny’s shoulder got a little better and then it moved to his elbow. He went to the doctor and they ran a complete blood panel and everything came back good. They have no idea what is causing this migratory joint swelling. We went to his family reunion and one of his cousins has the exact same thing and they doctors can’t figure out what causes his symptoms either. Well, since last Sunday, it has left his shoulder and moved into his knee. It’s so painful that he is having a hard time walking. This has been happening since the kids were little. It only happens in either October or November, but it has usually only affected his foot and ankle. The big thrift store is having a 5 cent book sale the month of November. I found this book today. I’m hoping I can find something in it to help him. He does have a follow up appointment on Thursday.

There is a mama cat and her two kittens that hang out across the street. The, what I’m assuming is the dad, has been hanging out on our driveway and patio. I have been putting food and water out for them in our ditch because they feel safer eating where they can’t be seen and have the storm drain to run into if they feel threatened. The neighbor across the street on the corner has set a live trap to try to catch them. Luckily I was notified of this by my other neighbor so I can keep an eye on it. So far she has only trapped a possum. I’m hoping it’s not one of the ones that I feed. I’ve seen the larger possum and thought I saw the smaller one, but I only saw its face so I can’t be sure which one it was. The skunks are getting along with the possum(s) now and I’m still feeding the 3 raccoons. I came out tonight and the largest raccoon was stuffing his mouth with marshmallows like a little kid gorging on candy. Raccoons have a huge sweet tooth.

All of our cats have a 10 o’clock curfew now. I always make coffee and then let our cats outside. I go with them and have my coffee on the patio. The other morning after I let them out they went into the front yard and then bolted past me onto the grill. I stood up to see what was going on and I saw this HUGE coyote coming across my yard. I immediately started yelling at it and chased it down the street. I’m worried about the mama cat, kittens and Mr. Whiskers, the dad. So far everyone is still doing good.

Mr. Whiskers just chilling.

I’m going to be trying to keep up with my blog this month. Donny has been having to sleep on the couch so he doesn’t roll over on his elbow, shoulder and knee which means I’m not sleeping well. I used to think I wanted land to live on, but taking care of the animals we have and everything else while Donny is incapacitated has made me change my mind.

We did early voting last Friday. I think I’m getting election fatigue. I am very ready for November 5th to roll around. Only 4 more days!

And yes, I went to the polls with no makeup and needing to shower but we just wanted to get it over with and avoid the lines on election day.

Tuesday Thrift Finds + Night Visitors

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Today I wanted to run to the thrift store right by our house to find a big water bowl and food tray for the raccoons. They had a big table with kitchen stuff on sale. I got these for 20 cents.

While I was looking around I saw a lady pick up this big glass fish. I walked over to her because I really wanted to see if that’s what it was. It was hand blown and amazing. She said that she didn’t have a place for it so she put it down. When I saw that it was only $5 I snatched it up.

It reminds me of my sea glass fish.

I also found this recipe notebook. I would much rather use written recipes instead of trying to get through those I find online with all the ads.

I can’t wait to start using this. For $1.50 you can’t beat it.

Jackson found this cute little Halloween cat. I googled it and it’s a vintage Avon cat. We just replaced the batteries and it started lighting up and changing colors. It was $2.

I am sitting on the patio writing this because I’m waiting for the raccoons to show up. Skunky already made his appearance and at all of the hotdogs off the tray. I put another one out and he ate half of it.

This is a picture of one of them from last night. I gave him some fish sticks and he loved them.

Here’s our sweet little skunk having dinner tonight.

I’m hoping the raccoons come before I have to head in to bed.

And now I’m wondering if skunks have bad eyesight because as I was sitting here he walked right by me and started eating the cat food. I guess he just knows who keeps him fed.

I just thought I heard the raccoons, but it was this beauty.

It’s animal kingdom around here and I’m loving it.