Sierra and Incspot Cria
A very enthused Judy called us the other afternoon to let us know that Sierra had just given birth to a coal black Incspot daughter, India Inc..
Congratulations from Laura and I.
Fred
Category Archives: News
Our Pond During Heavy Downpour
It has been an extremely unusual two days on the farm. Over the past 24 hours we have received nearly 9 inches of rain. Our farm is located at the top of a large hill which is one of the highest points in the state of Indiana, so we were not experiencing any flooding near our house.
Early this morning we attempted to drive to Bloomington to pick up cat food and other essential items from Sam’s Club. As we headed down the hill, we got about a 1/2 mile south of our house and found the road littered with large chunks of stone which had been washed out of the large drainage ditch along side the road. We finally made it to the bottom of the hill and found the Southbound lane of Indiana highway 67 closed by a mud slide. We turned around and headed back North in an attempt to do our shopping in Indianapolis. We only got to Mooresville before heavy rains started to fall again. Feeling it was too risky to proceed to Indianapolis we headed back to our home to wait out the storms. In the hour and a half we were gone, we had received an additional 3 inches of rain!
Spillway Overflowing
The final insult came when I headed to the basement to get a screw driver, only to find that we had about an inch of water in the basement. This was not supposed to be possible since the floor of our basement sits above our pond. Unfortunately, our spillway could not handle the high volume of water flowing into our pond, so the surface of the pond had risen over the top of the drainage tile from our basement floor drains. Fortunately, most of the things in our basement which could be damaged by water were already on shelving or in water proof containers. Once the weather subsides I’ll need to deepen the spillway so that we can avoid this problem in the future. We have never seen this much rain in such a short period. Our pond had not been this high during the 15 years we have lived here.
This has been a very unusual spring. It started with unseasonably cool weather in April and May with an immediate jump into the 90s this week. Then last night this unbelievable quantity of rain.
I am listening to the scanner and have never heard it so active. There are peopled stranded on the roads trying to get home. There are others, trying to get out of their homes because they are about to be flooded. Several dams are overflowing and at risk of breaking. Hopefully the rains will subside soon before the whole area turns into a disaster zone.
Fred
Polly’s New Kittens are Growing Up
Itty Incision After Leg Amputated
On the Road to Recovery
About a year ago, we had a small white cat move into the loft of our stud barn. Laura’s suspicion that she was carrying kittens was confirmed when we found a litter of three tiny kittens in our hay loft when we were putting up hay last June. Of course Laura quickly became attached to these little bundles of fur. As you can see, they quickly realized they had arrived at kitty Shangra La with great food, good shelter and free medical care. About two months ago, Laura was working in the stud barn when she noticed that Gail, the small black kitten, was limping and would not put any pressure on her right rear leg. A quick trip to the vet confirmed our worst fears. Gail had experienced a very severe break in her right rear leg. The break was so bad that her femur was broken right through the knee socket. Our vet gave us three options: euthanasia, a very risky and costly surgery to try to repair the break or amputation of the leg. We struggled over our decision overnight and finally decided that amputating her right rear leg would be better than risking the surgery and resultant long recovery. Of course after we amputated her leg, we knew she would need to become an addition to our collection of cats which are allowed to live in the house. After the surgery, Gail was in significant pain for the first couple of days. Even though she was getting synthetic morphine, she was still howling much of the time. Finally after two days the pain subsided and she was starting to move around the house. Gail is shown here walking around as if she had all four legs. We have discovered that a three legged cat can jump as high and run as fast as a cat with four legs! Gail is a holy terror around the house. Her small size and handicap have not prevented her from taking charge of all of the other cats in the house–including our 25 lb. Maine Coon cat. The other four indoor cats give her plenty of space to avoid her growl and fast polydactyl front paws! It never ceases to amaze us how adaptive animals can be. If only we humans could adapt to our own infirmities with such ease.
Fred