Odd Looking Cat Toy

 

I made a new cat toy with remnants from cutting a fleece up to become two cage covers.   I had this strip of remnant and this is what I made:

I don't know what it is, but I stuffed it with cardboard, paper towel bits and cloth.  Oh, and catnip.

The cats don't care that its ugly.

They love it.

Roadie, aka Surprise, was neutered and vaccinated today.   He was so happy to get back to the holding cage and to scarf down two more cans of wet food.  He's been eating like he has hollow legs that need filled.   

I went out to the bird feeder this morning.  Saw something under it.   It was a rat.  Just sitting there, half stunned.  I wondered if he'd been dropped by a bird of prey.  But then I saw the neighbors cat behind their fence, frantically searching.  Ah, I thought, he got chased under the fence by their cat and probably is injured from the cat.   I went back to get my phone to take a photo and when I turned back around, the rat had run right back under the fence to the neighbors.  Ok.   It's seriously suicidal to be a rat or mouse around here.  Several neighbors on the street behind me have free roamer cats who visit this block too.  And if a rat or mouse ventured into the cat yard---certain quick death would follow.   Then we have the swooping in Cooper's Hawk, after small birds but would never pass up on a mouse or rat.

The huge stump piece left on its side, after the maple was cut down, has rotted and is falling to pieces inside the cat yard.  I've begun the task of putting the chunks in a bucket and taking them to the yard debris.   It's tedius.  That was a massive piece of wood, almost four feet long and nearly 2 1/2 feet high, on its side as it was.

I filled in a few holes too, created when the former maple roots rotted and disintegrated.  They left behind perfect looking holes that run both horizontally and those can collapse under foot, and vertically.  Eventually they'll all just collapse on themselves.

There's always a lot of work to do here.  It's never ending.  One of the runs had developed a large hole, from age rot.  It wouldn't be long before the hole would be big enough for cats to exit through it.   I went to Home Depot and got a single osb 2'x4' board.  It was $5.  Once home, I covered the board in the vinyl stick on tiles I have in the garage, to replace the floor ones that have broken over the years.   It took 8 of them.  I then shoved the board into the cat run from a ladder and attached it in three places over the area with the two ragged holes.   At least that area of the run looks brand new now.

It's nice to get these long on the list projects off the list.  I have a lot of trapping coming up.   25 appointments in all.   3 different clinics.   10 of them are next week, from the trailer park.   The next week, five from south Albany, 2 from wherever the next day, then 8 more trailer park cat spots at FCCO.  I'm hoping with 18 more for the trailer park, maybe that will be close to getting them all.   It gets harder and harder with most of them fixed now.

I need to catch that lone Siamese way out there where I caught Roadie.  But the feeder lady would have fed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so its jumping the gun to try today.   I'm chomping at the bit to try today, but I would likely not catch the cat, feel sorry for it and leave food, disrupting efforts tomorrow.   I need to wait one more day.