Horrible , horrible start to Sat morning....

I have only just felt able to blog about all this, as it was so very upsetting . A stray dog came into the garden early on Sat morning (before 7 am) - we were woken up at about 7 am by the barking, which came from behind the house...

so went out to see what was going on - the dog ran off before we could see it but it had managed to scrabble open the pet rabbits and guinea pigs hutches and killed the rabbits and guinea pigs...fortunately it had not mangled them but just broken their necks - I guess by throwing them around a bit...  

The hens were also very upset as the dog (not any of the neighbours dogs, they are all locked up at night and definitely not a fox) had been scrabbling and digging around the hen house but could not get in.

Cassi and Tabitha cats were very distressed by the commotion and  Tom Cat was missing as well all morning which was VERY worrying - he turned up about 11 .30, all upset and fluffed up - I guess he went out to look at what was going on and got chased...

Have warned our farming neighbours - they have small pets, hens etc also sheep....
 
Not a nice way to start the day Burying small pets, with a weeping Compostgirl at our side......not nice at all.

Am very sad here..

Am very sad here..

Just after Compostman left to take Compostgirl to Brownies, at 6.15 a knock on the door was followed by a man saying he had found a cat in the road...it further transpired that his car had hit Sidney our lovely cat outside our house.

The man ( all credit for having the guts to tell me what had happened, and not just drive off...)
had brought Sid in to the garden, so I rushed inside to get a solid board, towel and warm blanket, plus phone..we lifted Sid ( who was alive but not moving) onto the board, and I covered him up and went inside to phone the vet...

I got Sid (on the board, wrapped up) into my car and sped to the vets, ..at 6 30 pm he was given oxygen..at 8 pm a phone call told me he was stable, seemed to have a broken pelvis from the initial X ray but his breathing was still worrying them...but they could see no major, other injuries...so we were all happy and I was telling a distraught CG that maybe Sid might be OK, eventually....

but as the vet was talking to me there was a shout for her as he had stopped breathing...and when she called me back 5 min later it was with the news that he had stopped breathing and despite CPR, had died....

CG is over come with grief..we are numb with shock..Sid was the rescue young cat we got last year..after the Monty puss shaped hole had ceased to hurt quite so badly..he was lovely, friendly, a character and so motherly to the 2 kittens Tom and Tabitha...


RIP Sidney Puss, we will ALL miss you so very much.....

Update on Spike the hedgehog

When Spike the little Hedgehog was handed over to us after being found on the School playing field, he was a weak and poorly little hoggie. He only weighed 150 g and was desparately in need of food and water and warmth.

Once I got some drink and a bit of food down him he perked up and has twice in the past 3 weeks been into school to have a look at the children and for us to answer questions about hedgehogs.

We weighed him on 18th Oct and he had increased in weight to 300g....so he doubled his weight in 5 days!



he is getting bigger and eating more and more cat food so we weighed him again on 30th Oct and he weighed in at 450g.....



and when we weighed him again last night, he was a wopping 550g!





At this rate he will be big enough to release outside before the end of November and he will be big enough to go into hibernation!

Oh, and he looks a bit dusty in these pictures because we have just scrubbed out his cage, dried it, put in fresh bedding and dusted it with Diatom powder to kill off mites and fleas.... he isn't really grey!

Spike goes a visiting....

Spike went a-visiting yesterday !

I am rather unwell with a sore throat and cough so Compostman stepped in for me and helped at Eco club yesterday. As Spike is now recovered and eating well, Compostman took him into school as the plan was to make some hibernation houses for insects and things...

and Spike was an absolute star! He uncurled and trotted around the inside of the circle of children sat on the floor, stopping to sniff at them and generally be very friendly. The children adored him!

Compostman talked about hibernation and how/why hedgehogs hibernate. He also discussed with the children about what happens to the late summer baby hedgehogs and why "autumn orphan" hedgehogs are unlikely to survive the winter and hibernation without human help. (For those who don't know, a hoggie needs to be at least 500g to survive hibernation and waking up in spring, and the late babies often don't have time to get to this weight before the food runs out)

Compostman mentioned that Spike wasn't really ill, as such, when he was found on the school field (although he looked it) but was just cold and hungry and thirsty. When Compostman added that Spike had probably got separated from his mum, several of the children had to be stopped from running up the field to look for her....ah bless!

Spike is now back in his cage, in the warm, tucking into yet more cat meat and has gained 10% of his body weight in 1 day... !

Mole!

So, as I said here , my friend A came round to visit us last week and get some compost leaflets and things. In that post I mentioned the Mole incident and promised to elaborate in a later post, so here it is....

While we were all drinking coffee, Compostman gave a shout from the sitting room, and when we rushed in, we found that the cats had brought in a live mole!

The poor mole was trying to dig its way out down through the carpet, so Compostman "fenced" it off from the agitated cats by putting books and DVDs around it, and stood guard over it, while I ran to get some leather gloves (moles can bite quite hard!)

Having put on a pair of gloves, he picked it up and we went outside with it and put it down on the grass. But the ground seemed too hard for the mole to dig down through, or maybe it was a bit shocked? anyway I picked it up,



it seemed undamaged, but a little shocked by all the goings on,


so soft and so clean as well!




I put it down on the soil in a flower bed.



and it rapidly tunnelled down into the soil..







It seemed undamaged, and rapidly disappeared.

The cats were MOST annoyed at losing their mole! They found out where it had been placed and hung around the mole hole all afternoon....and were very cross with us for the rest of the day.

We lay on varied entertainment for visitors to Compost Mansions :-)

Cat update....

This post is for all the cat lovers out there in the blogosphere, who have wanted to know how the Compost Mansion cats are doing.....here they are in the regular place they sleep in during the day..in Compostgirl's bedroom....


Sidney the lovely puss





Tom Kitten ( nearly Tom Cat, now..) and his sister Tabitha Twitchett





I think the answer has to be...very well indeed!

Kitty Cat was asleep by the Aga, downstairs...he is too senior to join in with huddles on the sofa in Compostgirl's bedroom....he stays in *his* special bed by the warm Aga.....

A catty problem...

Hmmm since we had Tabitha spayed earlier this week she has taken to pooing on the bathroom carpet....and weeing on any pile of material she finds or can pull down to the floor ( so think towels, dirty clothes, clean folded washing...)

I have asked our Vet if it is a medical problem and the answer is apparently not.....this often happens after a trip to the Vets!

So for now we are having to confine her ( and, unfortunately Sid and Tom also) in the utility room on a tiled floor and keep them shut in overnight, to try to "remind" her to use her litter tray if she wants to "go".

Oh dear...I hope it works! Not only is it not very pleasant to have to deal with poo and wee on the carpet every day BUT we can't have the other cats on the bed with us at night at the moment.....

And to all my lovely blog friends who have been wondering how I am ....I am rather upset with some "stuff" which is happening on a green forum I am a long term member of.....and I am feeling rather frail still from the shingles......AND Compostgirl is being "difficult" again with her ongoing ODD issues... so I have very little energy left at the moment to blog....

Sorry.. and THANK you for your concern....I really DO appreciate it!

I WILL be back..soon....

Lets make her do some work!

I have had an infested, plague rid sort of day ...have discovered
Fudge the Guinea Pig is crawling with lice ( yuck...poor thing!) which he wasn't before I opened a new supply of Hay for him when I cleaned hin out 2 days ago.........

AND the lice are all over the porch, on the floor, windows, blanket which covers his run...etc

AND Babs the new Rhode Rock is poorly and I am off to the vets with her in about 5 mins..( she is new, was bought for lots of money last week and is very sweet and I am worried about her...)

BUT I can't take her to the Vets until after I disinfect the cat carrier because that's where I stuck Fudge the GP, after his bath to get rid of the lice, whilst I disinfected his cage, the porch etc..

Have done NONE of the stuff I wanted today...zip, zilch, nada........ I PLANNED to make some chutney and dehydrate, blanch and freeze some veg ,

But I DID get to help Compostgirl make a puppet out of scrap materials...:-)

later on tonight....

Babs the Hen IS poorly..my instincts ( always good!) were right..she has a respiratory virus and she and ( as a precaution) Goldie are now isolated in a cat carrier ( insulated against the cold and the rain and with lots of straw inside) inside the Guinea Pig run..with antibiotic in their water. So no eating the eggs from THEM for 10 days!


And I am lighter by £11, and have further supplies JIC the other hens start sneezing, also.

I am NOT happy as MY hens didn't have this.....and I have only just bought in the 2 new ones.....

Ah well...is today ( in the doing stuff by the moon calender) a run compostwoman ragged with cleaning out/de lousing/spraying hens bums purple/going to the vets/cleaning up lice etc etc Day ..or what?



I TOLD you she had a purple bum!





I need Alkyhole and LOTS of it so will retire to the sofa with red wine I think!