Because we're not getting full numbers of trucks in that we normally do, hours are short - got off at 1130PM last night, so only 6 hours on the clock, and it's supposed to be that way at least the rest of this week. The heat is doing it, for one thing. The trucks have to be packed with a certain number of birds, and the heat is just killing them before they get to the plant, and then we can't run them. The other reason is that the someone (I think the USDA, but don't hold me to that) has determined that the birds we ARE getting in are undersized, which means they are heat-stressed before they even get on the trucks, as the heat affects their growth rate. Ah well, a few weeks at most of short hours and we'll be back to working 45 and 50 hours a week, because you can guess who gets to make up the backorders. Not that I'm griping. I'd like the extra money from a full or slightly overfull check, sure. It would make things a lot easier financially. But on the same token, it also means I get more sleep, and more done here that can't be done outside anyhow. Like writing. I've got an ideas list for books that's around 5000 titles long. Some days, it feels like I'll NEVER get them all done, but they get moving one book, one page, at a time.
And thanks to all my friends who know me and the boys, and all the birthday gift certificates to Petco that they sent a couple months ago, the boys are tricked out for goodies now. I finally had time last week to sit down and really look at what was available online at Petco ("Where the pets go!"), and put in an order. The UPS guy really doesn't like me because of our road. He should be grateful he doesn't often have to go up to the top at Eric and Bobbi's place, because after this place, the road gets steeper, and it has a wicked near-90-degree turn up at the top. Woops. So anyhow, the UPS guy delivered a big box from Petco yesterday just before I headed out to work. Included were a cat tree, a scratching post with a catnip ball on a spring on top of the post, and some mylar cat balls. I love those. They make a nice crinkling sound when they're played with, and if I step on them in the dark, they don't hurt bare feet!
As for feral cats, I may end up with two or three more cats eventually. There's a feral or mostly feral female outside that hangs around here a lot, and she has one or two kittens with her. They're about three to four months old, and she cares well for them, as the one I've seen for sure (and one other suspected) is a fat little butterball. You can tell she is the dam, as the one I've seen for sure listens to her when she calls. I have been feeding some kibble in a shallow plastic dish for them and tossing whatever cat-friendly kitchen scraps I can out the door into the trash pile off the deck that hasn't been completely cleared up yet. I can't afford a Hav-A-Hart trap and to get them altered yet, but I can make sure they've got some food and hang around to help keep the rodent populations down. I know - tossing out kitchen scraps attracts rodents, too, but with Momma and baby/babies around, either the cats will eat the scraps, or the rodents will and the cats will eat the rodents. Either way, I win. I do want to catch them though, and get them fixed. Even if they do not turn out to be friendly enough to keep as indoors pets, which I'm sure they won't, I can at least make sure that the feral population here stays reasonable and doesn't get insane. The fact that they are here has me wondering if I should pursue one of my dreams and set up a 501(c)(3) as a feral rescue, doing TNR for adults and older kittens and attempting to socialize and rehome the younger kittens.
If you are patient, it's not that difficult to socialize a feral somewhat, at least to where they are calm around their special human pets. Look at Smudge - several months of basically ignoring him and letting him come to me, letting him eat and sleep and whatever when he wanted to, so that he'd realize I wasn't a threat. Now the pudgy bugger curls up next to me and plasters himself against my leg on a regular basis when I'm sitting in bed with the laptop. Oh yeah, he's such a feral now ... what he is, is an eating machine that's agorophobic. He wouldn't go outside now if you threw him out, without trying his darndest to get back indoors. The outdoors is scary - there are no walls or ceiling and there's this green stuff that squishes under paws and smells funny ... no way is he going outside. Goofy cat. Anyhow, time to hunt down lunch and books, in that order. Hugs, all!
(I'm bad, thanks to DD mentioning her, and stumbling across a video of hers on Upworthy, I am now a fan of Laci Green. Trying to do this and listen to her videos is a bit problematic, especially since I need to leave in a bit for work!!!)
KINDLE FREEBIES OF INTEREST
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