A Vegetarian Confession

I haven't eaten red meat since 1987, but all the neighbors have been grilling burgers this weekend, and oh my, they smell so GOOOOOOOD! Oh well, we have Morningstar Farm mushroom burgers in the freezer, and topped with a slice of cheese and slathered in mustard, ketchup and pickles, they're almost meat-esque. Really, the only thing they lack is that yummy, yummy charred flesh aroma...mmmm.

Kitten Update

Introducing, from left to right, Mimi, Gigi, Kiki and Fifi!

My little feral foster kittens are doing so much better! They purr when I pick them up and are becoming very social and cuddly. They are still quite wary of other people, so at this point, I'm just trying to bring everyone who comes over to the house in to meet them...the UPS guy seemed very surprised when I dragged him inside yesterday! (Obviously, I'm kidding. Please don't leave me comments about how dangerous and foolish it is to invite strangers into my home when I'm here alone!) They are scheduled to go back to the animal shelter on the 31st of May, so hopefully over the course of the next week and a half, they will make even more progress. I would like to keep them a little longer, but they will stand a better chance of being adopted quickly if they are still tiny, and also, I'm going to Norway on the 6th of June! I never got to see the midnight sun in Lofoten while I lived there, so I'm traveling back for a week and flying up to the archipelago with Michele and Victoria, my American expat friends (aka the ladies who kept me sane when I lived in Norway with all their supportive emails and blog comments!) The upshot for you, the reader of my little blog, is that my regular "all kitten and farm animal all the time" programming will soon be interrupted by photos and anecdotes from one of the most beautiful places on earth!

Blessed

Although there have been a few issues with the house (leaking roof, flooding garage, rotten deck) I can't imagine living in a more idyllic place. These geese and their chubby little goslings spent the afternoon foraging for food in the backyard:
And every morning I open my eyes to this lovely sight:

It would be even better if those stupid power lines didn't block the view, but whatever, it's still gorgeous. Seriously, I feel blessed to call this home!

Hiss

The employees at the animal shelter have been asking me to foster a litter of kittens for the past several weeks, but because of all the noise and mess of the home improvements, I had a good excuse to refuse. (It's not that I don't enjoy fostering kittens, it's just that I have the tendency to fall in love with them and keep them, and at this point, I need another pet in the house like I need a hole in my head!) Unfortunately, on Monday, the landscaping crew packed up their tools, so I no longer had a valid reason to say no. In the past, I have fostered mother cats and their kittens, but on Monday I was asked to take a litter of 4 feral kittens who were found inside a pipe at a construction site. They are probably about 5 weeks old and have never had any contact with humans before...you can imagine how terrified they are.

When I first brought them home, they sounded like popcorn popping, hissing and spitting and hopping in the air whenever I dared to peek at them.

It has been 3 days now, and they are already so much better. Instead of wearing leather gloves to handle them, I can reach in and pick them up. They will accept a bottle of KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) while I hold them, and they will even lick Gerber's chicken baby food off of my finger. They still don't enjoy being held and petted, but as long as I keep the food coming, they will sit quietly and tolerate the handling.

This little girl is the kitten who is the most social. When I am feeding another kitten, she will creep out of the cage and sit by me, trying to score more snacks.

This kitten is also coming around pretty quickly and will let me pick her up and pet her with few protestations. She seems very curious about coming out of the cage too, and if I sit very quietly by the cage, eventually she will sneak out and look around.

This little girl is a bit shyer than the first two, but she has made a lot of progress since Monday too. She still flinches and squeezes her eyes shut when I try to pet her...I really hope that she will mellow out a lot more.

And then there is this little spitfire. She is a tiny ball of fury and rage and will growl and try to smack me every time I put my hand in the cage. Even when I am holding her and feeding her, she growls and snarls the whole time she drinks the milk from her bottle or gobbles the chicken. I guess she has made a bit of progress...a couple of days ago, she wouldn't groom herself or play or eat in front of me, but now she will do all those things in my presence.

I am still worried, though. I only have a small window of opportunity to socialize them before they get bigger and not so attractive to potential adopters. In addition to hand feeding and cuddling them 4 times a day, I have been hanging out in the room by their open cage for a couple of hours a day, just reading or checking email, so they get used to human activity. I also turned on a radio in their room. (I have heard that animals are soothed by classical music and also by country, but I couldn't find a classical station with good reception and I hate country music, so instead we are listening to 40's and 50's lounge singers--these kittens are very familiar with the smooth sounds of Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Sammy Davis Jr. by now!) I even have tried a new-agey tactic--I have been squirting a couple of drops of Bach Flower Essences "Rescue Remdy" into their water dish every day.

I can't think of anything else I can do to socialize them, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would be most appreciative. And of course, if anyone is actually interested in adopting a feral kitten of their very own, let me know!

At Least I'm Consistent

Once upon a time, I lived in Norway. I blogged about my life there, and included many photos which I took during my explorations. Many people who were looking for photos of that lovely country found my little blog...and were sorely disappointed. Somehow, the number of photos of cute Norwegian farm animals greatly outnumbered photos of fjords, Vikings and glaciers.

We spent this past weekend on the gorgeous Cayuga wine trail, but did I take any photos of the sparkling lake, the vineyards, the blooming fruit trees, or even of our friends? Um, no, but somehow I did manage to take about a hundred pictures of these cutie pies:

This little goat was at Button Grove Winery...I think his name was William, but I was a bit tipsy when I met him, so I could be mistaken!

Doobie is a miniature donkey who resides at Swedish Hill Winery. Several of their wines are named after him, and his portrait graces a couple of the bottles.

And finally, this is Melody, a Scottish Highland cow who lives at Button Grove Winery. I spent a ridiculous amount of time feeding her treats while she rolled her big cow eyes at my slurred words and stumbling attempts to remain upright!

Wonderful Weekend

Our wine tasting weekend was so great! In addition to yummy food and wine, we also got a chance to visit a couple of the amazingly beautiful waterfalls around Ithaca. This is Buttermilk Falls:
And this is Taughannock Waterfall:

And this is me and Kevin in front of Taughannock Waterfall:

I had tasted many, many wines before this photo was taken, so it is truly a wonder I didn't lose my balance and plummet over that wall!

Only 48 Hours Away

This weekend, Kevin and I are going with some friends to: http://www.cayugawinetrail.com/ to enjoy the annual Wine & Herb Fest. After weeks of construction/renovation dirt and noise, I am so ready for this little wine-saturated retreat!