I don’t know about you guys, but the days and weeks and months are just flying past! We are more than halfway through the year and halfway through the month of August —
— and only 18 weeks until Christmas.
Yeah, I know. You’re welcome.
My current desktop is a butterfly. I had a dickens of a time trying to identify him but I believe I know what he is now. He is a fritillary and although there are several different butterflies with this last name, I think he is a variegated fritillary.
Do you see what he is sitting on? Yeah, it’s goldenrod. And just because the goldenrod has taken over my wildflower fields, I can’t be too upset about it. The butterflies and bees seem to enjoy the goldenrod just as much as they do any other flower.
Itsy had a rough few days after the surgery to remove the mass from her mouth and eight teeth.
The first day she was home she was so groggy from the anesthesia that she peed and pooped on herself a couple of times. I couldn’t be upset with her or blame her, you just clean it up and go on. But after that she was fine the rest of the day and didn’t have any more boo-boos. The next day she was much better and even seemed to get some of her old bounce back, And then surprisingly, that second night she peed on the bed.
If you have animals that sleep with you, it’s probably happened to you a time or two too! Still, putting your knee in a cold wet spot is not a pleasant way to be roused from your sleep.
What in the world… I wondered and patted around on the bed. Laying right there on top of the covers, wet with her own pee and sleeping on the wet spot was Itsy.
I crowded Mike so I didn’t have to sleep in it and in the morning all of the bedding got a wash and line dry — I love to hang my clothes on the line! — The next night Itsy slept in the kennel — with the door shut so she couldn’t come to bed with us. But she was dry the next morning and even climbed back into the kennel for a nap later that day. I thought she might have found the kennel comforting so I let it sit in the living for a few days but she didn’t use it again so I put it back in storage. Itsy is in her spot on the back of the couch once again and all is right in the world.
“How are the kittens?” you ask.
They are doing really well and they’re lots of fun to watch as they rough and tumble with each other, stalk and attack and practice evisceration on each other.
I normally give them a little food in the morning to hold them over until the Kipp’s get here midmorning to feed them and I give them a little food at night before I go to bed too.
Rascal, Spitfire and Feisty have been sleeping under some boards that are leaning against the garage wall just inside the garage door. There is a cat door right there beside the garage door and one advantage to sleeping there is they hear me when I come out in the morning and they shoot through the flap and are right there, crying, “Feed me, feed me!” And I am a well trained human. I feed them.
About a week ago I was putting a bedtime snack down for the kittens when the flap of the cat door opened. I was holding a flashlight. I took it with me to find my way through the garage without turning on the lights and when I heard the cat flap open I turned the flashlight on it and there was Anon, poking her head in, and in her mouth was a black and white kitten. She froze. I froze. Then she backed out and was gone. Anon is a gray and white cat; one of the three wild ones that only Lamar Kipp can get close to.
I could hardly contain my excitement as I went on a kitten hunt the next morning. Without doing a lot of hunting, I walked around the back of the mill where there are boxes and boxes in storage, but I didn’t find them. I got myself ready for an errand I had to run and as I was getting into the car I heard a tiny little, faint little, “meow, meow.” I tracked the sound and found the kittens.
See the picture of the garage? Do you see the three boxes stacked up on the bench? The top box, an old blue and white microwave box? Do you see it? That is where Anon put her kittens.
There were two of them. The black and white one I saw the night before hanging from his mama’s mouth and a tabby. I reached in the box and the tabby hissed at me but is much too small to hurt me at all. I picked her up, scolded her for hissing at me, cuddled her, pet her and put her back. Then I picked up the other one and I could tell it was a lot smaller. I loved on him a little and put him back in the nest. Now I worried that Anon would know I had found them and she would move them so I checked them everyday and everyday they were still there. After about the third day the tabby gave up hissing at me.
We are in and out of the garage all day so I suspected that Anon was coming in the night and taking care of the kittens because in the morning they had fat tummies.
One morning, about a week later, I checked on the kittens. They didn’t have fat tummies and they were crying. I let it go that day and the next day they were even hungrier.
I don’t know why Anon brought her kittens in. With all of the rain we had been having, maybe her nest got flooded. Maybe something got one or more of her kits and she brought the two survivors in to keep them safe. Who knows.
And I don’t know why Anon stopped taking care of her kittens either. Was it because I had found them? Or was she just plain done? Again, who knows.
I had some canned milk in the fridge. I had a kitten bottle from years gone by. I dug out the bottle, mixed the evaporated milk with water and started taking care of the kittens. It’s been about five days now and based on their weight and the teeth they have, I guesstimate the kittens are four to five weeks old.
Here is a picture of the kittens with Spitfire, who’s around four months old. Spitfire is no dummy. He may not care for the babies but he knows there is some really yummy leftovers to be had when I get done feeding them.
Stephanie Robinson was at a yard sale and picked up a couple of new games for us to play. One is Chinese checkers, but some of the marbles are missing so we need to find some new ones. The other game is called Rummikub.
“I think I played it a long time ago and it was fun,” she said. “Here,” and she handed me the instructions. “You figure out to play it and I’ll be right back.”
I read the instructions but it was like Greek to me. “It’s too hard!” I whined when she came back.
“Well, let’s just start and we’ll figure it out together,” she said.
Taking it a step at a time and having someone to help figure things out with made it so much easier and oh my gosh! Before we even finished the first round, I was in love with this game. It is my new favorite!
On our weekly trip to Wal*Mart, Mike and I looked to see if they carried Rummikub. They don’t. But maybe they will when it’s closer to Christmas.
Rummikub is a rummy game played with tiles instead of cards. It was developed by an Israeli games inventor named Ephraim Hertzano in the early 1930s. It has many names and I bet there are just as many variations of the rules too, so you make sure everyone agrees to the rules before you start.
Daisy fleabane.
This little flower got it’s name because they once believed that the dried flower heads would rid a dwelling of fleas.
Does it work?
I don’t know.
This monarch look-a-like is a viceroy butterfly. You can tell because a monarch has two full rows of white dots on his wings and the viceroy only has a row and a half.
Did you know that the monarch feeds on the milkweed plant? And did you know that because they feed on the milkweed it makes them bitter to the birds, so the birds leave them alone?
The viceroy is hitchhiking on the reputation of the monarch. The birds can’t count spots so they leave them alone too.
One morning I went out and noticed that all of the flowers were gone from the milkweeds.
Every. Single. One.
“Those deer!” I complained to anyone who would listen. “They ate all my monarch food!”
Without the flowers, would there be any pods?
I didn’t think so.
Then I saw a few pods appear here and there. I don’t understand it, but I am certainly very glad for them. Now I’ll have milkweeds next year.
Some people will even plant milkweed in their flowerbeds for the monarchs. Actually, I’ve only ever known one person who ever did that and that is my beautiful sister Phyllis, whom I love very much, and not just because she cares about the monarch butterflies.
This is a bull thistle. He provides lots of critters with pollen. Can you see the bee? He’s straight up and down looking at me.
Elderberries.
The birds have gotten a lot of them already.
Lots of purple things bloom this time of year and another purple thing is the bittersweet nightshade.
A lot of the flowers have gone to berry but there are still a few blooms.
The leaves and unripe fruit contain a poison called alkaloid solanine. Even though this plant is sometimes called deadly nightshade, the toxin is not fatal; however the berries are attractive to children and can cause poisoning if eaten in large quantities.
The bittersweet nightshade got its name because portions of the plant first taste bitter, then sweet.
Long ago this plant was used in England to counteract witchcraft.
What do you think about that!
This one is purple loosestrife. It’s considered noxious in many states. It’s aggressive and tends to crowd out the native plants which are valuable to waterfowl and other wildlife.
When I checked the information about this plant on the Missouri Department of Conservation website they say if you see this plant in Missouri — contact the MDC right away.
And another purple plant is the pickerelweed, which I think you’ve seen before, but did I tell you that pickerelweed is an aquatic herb?
The seeds can be eaten like nuts and the young leaves cooked as greens.
I just think they’re pretty.
This one is called virgins bower. There is a Japanese species naturalized here that may be mistaken for virgin’s bower; it differs in having leaves with five leaflets rather than three. I checked mine out and there are only three so I have the real thing.
You will be seeing more of this plant because as it matures the seeds get feathery tails on them.
I’m going to wrap up this week with an update on the baby possums.
I did a Google search for wildlife rehab centers in Tunkhannock and I came up with Second Chance Wildlife Center. I emailed them.
“I turned over a bunch of baby possums to the conservation officer a couple of weeks ago. Officer Kelly told me he found a place in Tunkhannock to take them and I was wondering if it was you and how are they doing? Were there six of them? Can you give me an update?”
“Yes, Officer Kelly drove them out to me. There are 7 total, doing well and growing like crazy. I now have 18 total baby opossums. Officer Kelly is awesome, not all officers would be willing to do anything for them. Thanks for helping them live,” Angie replied.
I agreed with her that Officer Kelly was indeed a blessing. Then I went on. “I’d love to have picture of them to go with my blog update.”
“This is a picture from when they first came in. They have longer fur now.”
“Wow. Thank you! They’re kinda cute. Tell me, is 7 an average litter for a possum? How old do you think they are?”
“Mom gives birth to as many as 21. She only has 13 nipples. Only the strongest make it to the nipples and stay attached for about 90 days. These guys were very much attached, so I would guess that they were close to 90 some days when I got them. It is so sad when they lose mom, but they quickly adjust to eating from a shallow dish. I already have them litter trained, so it makes clean up easier. 7 baby opossums poop constantly and 18 can really poop tons. Lots of clean up.”
You can litter train possums! I didn’t know that.
Angie went on to give me her Facebook page and website address. I’ll be happy to give you her Facebook page if you want it, it’s public. Her website is secondchancewildlifecenter.org if you want to check it out.
“I’d love to do what you do someday,” I told Angie.
“We need wildlife rehabbers up north here. I’m the only one in the whole northern tier now.”
That day on Facebook Angie posted that she got 7 more baby possums for a total of 25!
And with that we will call this one done!
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