Blueberry Hill

We were invited to go blueberry picking this week. We got on the road at 6:30am to get to Dora, Mo.

The fog was in the valleys

Everything is lush and green from all the showers.

After  many miles and a hour of driving, back unmarked roads we see a tiny sign to the blueberry farm. It was full of acres of berries. We got 6 gallons and are still trying to find room for it all. But they are the best we have ever had. We came home and mulched our small patch of blueberries. We hope one day ours will be as prolific the ones from this farm.

What I see everyday

These tiny little faces of orphaned kittens. I am feeding five of them 4-5 times a day. They get  powdered kitten formula. Never give them milk, it causes diarrhea and they can die of dehydration.These guys had the squirts last week. I added a pinch of tapioca flour in their formula. Their stools firmed up and life got better for them.

This is the runt of the litter. She is filling out now and catching up. She is on a heated towel. Newborn kittens cannot keep warm and need heat. After feeding they need to be induced into eliminating their waste. That gets put in a litter pan in their carrier. They learn how to find the litter pan and use it.

The rest of the gang look similar to this tabby.They all fight the bottle. Eventually I get the bottle in their mouths. When they are eating solid food and using a litter pan they will be put up for adoption at the local animal shelter.

Fostering Kittens in June

I got a call from the animals shelter asking if I could bottle feed and foster 5 kittens.  The mother cat was killed from a snake bite.There are not many volunteers are available to bottle feed kittens in our rural area. So we drove out and picked them up from the shelter. They were hungry and cold but feisty. We got the bottles and the KMR Kitten formula mix and got busy. Our shelter pays for all expenses raising these kittens to adoptable age and they find new homes for them.

This one is a tiny runt that was rough shape. But it is eating and keeping up with its litter mates. Fostering means lots feedings, cleaning up messes, towels to wash, heating pads and kitten wrangling. But the rewards are raising them to become healthy adoptable companions, playmates and rodent control.

End of the Week

My German Shepherds had this gift waiting for me last week. This one was a huge armadillo they mauled outside my garden. It later became a light snack for Zilla by the weekend. Sometimes I feel like this after a busy day on the farm.