Dog Vaccination Day

As a part of our overall plan to be somewhat self reliant, I vaccinate our own dogs and cats. Adam's pup, Spotz, is due for his final vaccine of the puppy series, and it's close enough on the calendar to include Noodles & Crusty. The rest of the crew will be vaccinated at Christmas, the normal time that we do all once a year tasks. 

Around here, all the farmer/ranchers do their own vaccinations. And many pet owners also do their own. It's a combination of necessity (that is, lack of affordable veterinary services) and lack of extra non-essential cash to spend in having someone else do it for you. 

Now that Spotz is finished his puppy series, Adam will soon be able to start taking him out in public with less worry of Spotz getting parvovirus. 

Special Needs Cat

Ok, we've done it again. Added a mouth to feed that will contribute little to the homestead in the way of earning its keep. Luckily, it's a little mouth and we have plenty of surplus to feed it, as long as it will eat wild meat, slaughter waste, eggs. Ok, ... right now in our lives we can afford giant bags of cat chow, but I look to what the future might be when we may not be able to afford that. So as long as this mouth will eat homestead chow, it can stay. 

Meet .......

             (Hubby named her Rebecca.) 

A friend, who's not fond of cats, caught this one in a trap on his property. Normally when feral cats get trapped in housing areas, I pick them up and transfer them to one of the area feeding colonies. These feral cats are not candidates for pet homes. They are fearful, flighty, and often aggressively defend themselves. I'm suspect most are plotting how to murder me and escape while they are riding in my truck. I get mental images of claws slashing my eyeballs out, fangs ripping jugular veins, butcher knives slitting my throat... if a cat knew how to use one they would! As colony cats, they will be neutered, microchipped, treated for fleas and worms, vaccinated, and provided with food and water daily. A better life than being drown, shot, poisoned, or "humanely" euthanized. 

This kitty surprised me. She was calm, talkative, looking for attention. She's a full blown lap warmer and most likely certifiable to lower stress levels and blood pressure. Sometime during her life she was/is somebody's house pet. Does she have an owner? I don't know, but I'm putting the word out to find them if they exist. But perhaps she is one of the numerous pets abandoned when their owners moved away. Regardless, I am 100% certain that this kitty is being fed by someone, either her owner or a kind soul in the neighborhood. Reason? She's disabled. There us no way this kitty could catch a bird or mouse. Plus when I tested her, she does not recognize raw meat as being food nor has any interest in it. Crookshank brought a lizard into the house and Rebecca ignored it. Chicken feathers held no fascination either. So she's no hunter.

Disabled? Yes. She has significant neurological deficiencies in the back half of her body. Her abdominal muscles are overly flaccid, her tail movements abnormal, and both back legs are problems to use. Rebecca can walk though her action is quite abnormal. She lacks normal rear leg reflexes, often cannot keep her legs under her, has trouble when navigating turns and stairs, and needs to use a modified, exaggerated gait. You could say that her hindquarters were roaring drunk! But she's game and doesn't let her problems get in the way of much, except jumping which she cannot do well. 

Why is she disabled? Hard to say since I don't know her background. My first guess would be that she survived a significant back injury. Perhaps rolled by a car, grabbed by a dog, hit by something, a fall from a height. There are other reasons for her symptoms, but those are the most obvious that come to mind. I suspect that this injury, if that what it is, is "old". Rebecca shows no signs of pain, discomfort, distress. And she appears quite adapted to her physical situation. So either it's an old injury or she is amazingly stoic and upbeat. 

So until an owner comes forward to claim her, Rebecca will live at our place. She makes cat# 11. 

Farm Pets

Can a homestead farm justify supporting pets? On my farm...sure. But any homesteader needs to be sensible about pets. Pets are freeloaders, and there are only so many that a homestead can afford to support.

Pets do indeed offer a service, at least for me they do. They can be enjoyable, offer companionship, teach me lessons. Companionship is their number one value to me.

Knowing that I will be on a severe budget in a couple of years, I try to limit the number of pets on the homestead. They're going to be living here for years and won't understand that my financial resourses have diminished. I don't believe in acquiring pets, then killing or dumping them when times get tough. I value life far too much to do that. So once they are here, this is their home for life.

Pets that can forage for their own food tend to be more welcome here. I have a pet goat, Mr Bucky. And 4 pet chickens, two silver dove wing banties, a frizzle, and a leghorn who doesn't lay.

I currently have 2 freeloader dogs, throwaways who no one wanted. One is elderly and the other partially blind, so their chances of getting rehomed is close to zero. They're here to stay. The farm also supports a group of freeloader cats. Not good ratters, they have become pets. Everyone is neutered, so at least the population won't grow. Right now they eat commercial pet food, but if times get tough, they will have to learn to eat pig, mouflon, and pheasant.

Pets on this homestead have a living standard on par with my own. Basic food. Decent shelter. Basic in-house health care. A low stress life. Nothing fancy. No pampering.

I believe a homesteader can get into trouble by adding too many pets. Sometimes it's intentional via impulse buying, or "rescuing" animals. Other times it just happens...feral cats wander in, stray dogs come by and stay, etc. Sometimes it's by no fault of the farm owner, other than having respect for life and thus not killing the strays. Sometimes it's the unrealistic approach by a first-time farmer. I know one quite small farm that has 17 rams in their flock because the lambs were too cute to sell or slaughter. Another mini-farm has 25-30 roosters running around because the owner couldn't bring himself to kill and eat them. Both these people are struggling to feed these animals that have become pets. In these cases, pets are a burden that brings stress, worry, and expense. Not good for a struggling farm, at least in my view. I've learned from those farms to be very careful not to fall into the same trap.