Rickey, Of course it was Fred. Who else his age is out driving around visiting gardeners in the middle of the afternoon? LOL If you see Billy Fred, do see if you can find out what he knows because he may know more details. Nowadays, when I ask Fred "who" he is talking about, he often can't remember names and will say something like 'you know...that guy that lives over yonder' and, of course, I have no clue who he means. Having said that, I hope that when I am Fred's age (and I'm not sure what it is but think right around 90?) I still get around as well as he does. Sometimes I do have to get Billy Fred to tell me who his dad is talking about because, while Fred always seems to have his facts straight, he does have trouble remembering names now and then. I had wondered about those goats....about how he keeps them safe because I've never seen any kind of guardian dog like a Great Pyrenees out there with them. I heard a loud growling this morning from the woods oddly enough (and I was inside the house and it sounded like it was right there in the room with me!) and it about scared me to death. As far away as your house is from ours, it is odd we've both heard that growling sound recently. It isn't like we're so close geographically that we'd hear the same growl at the same time. I've never heard this sound before and I pretty much thought I'd heard everything there is to hear around here. The dogs were going nuts in their dog yard, and I ran downstairs and didn't see a thing, but the cats were on the porch wanting to come inside. After that growling sound, I canceled my plans to work in the yard. James, I feel like much of what you say is true, but we have both good and bad government employees and always will. I know sometimes the local wildlife people seem to say whatever the 'official' story line is but their eyes and body language are telling you something else. Our local law enforcement officers are pretty good about telling us to 'do what you have to do' to stay safe, because they know they can't be everywhere at once. They also come as quickly as they can when called, but with only 1 or 2 or 3 county deputies/reserve deputies on duty at a time, their response time can be frustratingly slow. Game bird, I promise, if you tell me you see three dinosaurs crossing the road, I'll believe you. And. on a funnier note....Chris was 15 when we moved here and had a huge iguana named Alex. He built Alex a nice roomy outdoor pen, but somehow Alex would escape and run around although he always came back to the cage when he was hungry. We alerted our neighbors, and I showed Alex to Bill one day. We were watching Alex from the road and he climbed to the top of the pecan tree, which was then losing its leaves for autumn, so you could see Alex very clearly. At that point he was about 5' long. When Bill saw him, he said he needed to warn his wife and daughters because he feared they'd about run off the road and wreck their vehicles if Alex ever ran out into the road in front of them. Bill was afraid the women in his family would think Alex was an alligator. Carol, I do think a lot of people know exactly how to play the system. Tim and Chris both work at D-FW Airport, which is incorporated just like a city, and has a large Department of Public Safety consisting of police, fire and emergency medical personnel employees. Their department has several hundred employees and most are wonderful, but there are a couple that of virtually worthless. How people like that keep their jobs is just beyond me. Dawn

We have straggled out again, and we are parched []]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]](that was a note from kitty that just walked on my keyboard...your cats and dogs will have to decipher it for you...it seems to be a new binary based language). Kitty has a big history with the vet. I do have nasty neighbors. One of them baited her with a can of Tuna into a small squirrel trap...and while kitty is small and keeps her girly figure, she has unusually long legs and was faster than a speeding bullet when she ran. The neighbors left her trapped over 17 hours before they contacted me. At that point, there were not to many humans kitty wanted to be around, she became a fraidy cat. Many of the people who visted the house, identified her in the trap and still left her there without contacting me. It took her over a year to even walk over to my father. He used to walk around, muttering to himself "why is she like this, why is she afraid of me? I didn't hurt her!" I would always tell him that it was because her brain was half the size of an avocado pit and it couldn't store more information than 'humans attacked me'. His brain must have not been much larger ... that fact never really sunk in. Miss half-a-walnut-shell-sized-brain did have enough room to recognize "TOWEL" "BLANKET" "PILL POPPER" "PILL" and the examination is over the minute a "THERMOMETER" comes in view. She got sick from insect bites and that being the one summer day that dipped down to the low 40's high 30's (in temperature at night), a touch of Pneumonia followed. She has a dislocated vertebrae, she compensates for it well. You still feel it running your fingers down her spine. There were many vet appointments following the incident. That was almost eight years ago. The vet just calls her feral now. I don't believe that is technically accurate, she's just has had it with humans and she is almost ready to put me in the 'had it' category. She's difficult to handle. Since the trapping, she's not the cat I originally had. BT (before trapping) every time the doorbell would ring, she would be the first at the door, ready to lead the visitors back to the family room, or where ever my mother was holding court. Those days are long gone. There's a person here and there she will warm up to without introduction, but those chosen individuals are few and far between. The vet used to use anesthesia(sp?) just to examine her (post trapping). The vet did wrap her in a towel to show me how to administer the pill and after 15 minutes he said "See wasn't that easy?" My reply was "It took you and two assistants." The moistening of throat sounds like a good deal ...and might be at the base of this huge objection...besides not wanting to be told what to do. Its so obvious, no one ever thought of it. I will try your suggestion with a little tuna water, I'll see if that will bribe her into agreement. Skeptical but trying - thanks. marf

Thank you all so much for your kind words and your interest in our "growing" little family! Baby Tonto quickly found his way into our hearts, and as with Posy, we are absolutely smitten with this kitten! He is SUCH a little lovebug. He will literally run and jump into your arms when he sees you come through the door (he's still sequestered away from the rest of the gang, but we are doing slow introductions), and he nuzzles and kisses like crazy, and has his purr-motor going constantly. I have a fuzzy pink robe that I wear in the mornings, and he has taken to kneading it like mad and suckling on it. It must remind him of mama! I just let him do it ... it'll wash! In typical kitten fashion, Tonto is nonstop movement and it's hard to get him to sit still long enough to take his photo. This one looks slightly possessed, but this is pretty much him in action! He manages to somehow look like a big boy in the pictures I do get of him ... But he's still quite itty-bitty, as the size of his head will show here ... The other cats are having mixed reactions to Tonto. While Posy initially seemed ok with him, she's started acting a bit more aggressive towards him. She sits right outside the door to "his" room, but when brought INTO his room, she sits next to the door and whines and yowls, sticking her paws out underneath the door as though to say to the cats on the other side, "Get me OUT of here, you guys!" She has run at him a few times and slapped at him, and of course there's the hissing that comes from BOTH of them. Tonto sounds like the tiniest little snake! He seems to be able to hold his own, and while he hasn't been the aggressor, he doesn't run away from the others either. After awhile, they'll sort of settle down, and even sleep within a couple of feet of each other, but they are still keeping a wary eye out. The playful interaction I'm hoping for just hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, Posy is getting more and more integrated into the activities of the older cats. She is almost always in their presence, and they don't seem to mind her anymore. Penny especially is doing much better with her. Although they still won't play or cuddle together, Posy does seem to have infiltrated their little "posse" and more or less become one of the gang. Old man Pooh seems to like BOTH of the young newcomers. Molly is still ambivalent and a little grouchy about the whole thing. Penny is not at ALL keen on the new baby. I'm sure all things will work themselves out in Catland, as they always do. That doesn't stop me from longing for everyone to get along well in the here and now, so I'm working on my patience as well! Here is Posy after tiring herself out Friday evening being grouchy towards Tonto. Perhaps having a baby makes her seem so much bigger in comparison, but I swear she has had a major growth spurt just in the past couple of weeks. This pic of Posy was taken just recently: And this was taken on Saturday. (I love how her face is a little bit Spuds MacKenzie looking here! Remember him?) She is an amazing little cat. :-) Finally, here's a quick snap of Penny I took yesterday. Her eyes looked so green up against the colors of the bedding. Doesn't quite translate in this photo, but I thought she was still looking pretty. :-)

I'm so sorry your cat suffered that Carol. Hugs! I realized that if that it was the case, I would push hard for my child to put their cat down. I know I didn't want happen over and over again. I know I wouldn't want to suffer that. I've got a note into the vet asking if we should consider other options. I haven't suggested an anti-inflammatory but maybe that's where we should look next. I have to admit I quit the pain reliever, because I read that it would reduce their appetite and he's already lost a pound, not to mention the fact I want him to eat so he'll keep his strength up. This morning, we gave him as much wet food drenched with water that he would drink and eat. And I knew we were going to be gone all day. So once he was satisfied, I gave him his pain medication, hoping he would sleep all day, and repair. 12 hours later, I got home, and he'd used the litter box, happy to have two platefuls of food, lapping up all the water I add to it. Seems so successful, that I may give him the pain medication only at night, and hopefully he can rest enough to get up and walk around the next day. It'll last twice as long, and that's a good thing too. 🤞🏻