Welcome back to the Blog!

Welcome back!  I KNOW, it's been a long time, over a month, since I've blogged.  That doesn't mean I wasn't blogging, it was just all talking in my head and never made it to the keyboard.  There's much to catch up on, so this may take a few posts to get it all done.  Let's do the tough stuff first.  We got the emergency phone call from Sarah on Aug. 20th that her cat was experiencing kidney failure and there was nothing to do for her.  We made the quick trip to St. Louis to be with Sarah when they put Dory to sleep.  Turns out she only had one kidney and it had failed.  I tried to find some pictures of Dory to share.  You can see she was a good companion cat, spent LOTS of time sleeping,.......

It's hard to tell here, but I'm pretty sure she's still sleeping, just sitting more upright doing it.  

 Dory had been Sarah's companion cat for 3 years, finishing college with her, surviving Covid, and becoming a City Cat when Sarah transitioned to St. Louis.

Sarah spent last week with us, working from Marshall, before returning to her apartment this past weekend.  We got to hear her arguing with people from India about the project she was working on.  It was pretty impressive how she held her ground and proved she was correct.  I know Sarah is looking for another cat.  Can you believe we didn't have any cats on the farm for her?  (Willow!).  She has been looking at a rescue shelter in St. Louis.  (Her father can't believe anyone would BUY a cat!)  I'm actually expecting a call today telling me she has adopted.  It is HALF-PRICE cat adoption day!  CLEARANCE KITTY!  It will come already "fixed", vaccinated, microchipped, and tested for feline diseases, so it's really a bargain.  I just hope she finds what she is looking for.  

In other animal related news................  the next group of babies arrived at the beginning of the month.  2700 of the cutest little pigs have found their home at Bentley Farms.

You're looking at a lot of bacon and pork chops!  Well, at least they will grow to be a lot of bacon and pork chops.

I had the wonderful "opportunity" to help with the weighing and tagging of the 1200 in the research barn.  The hubster had ordered the special (expensive) tags back in January and finally received them a couple of days before the pigs arrived at the beginning of August.  They usually come bagged and in numerical order for pens of 20 (10 boys, 10 girls), but this time, when he opened the box, he held up bags of 250 loose tags.

So, we spent a couple of "date nights" putting them in numerical order and bagging them ourselves........and yes, I am out of little ziplock bags!  We've only done about half of the order, so will have some more "date nights" after the first of the year to get the tags ready for the pigs that will arrive in January.

We took Willow to the dog plunge at the Marshall Parks Pool.  She had a good time.  There were lots of other dogs, especially Golden Retrievers, there.  She wasn't too sure about all the other dogs.  

She tried to catch the splashes David made for her.

And we had to explain that you go DOWN the slide.  She did go down it a couple of times.  David also coaxed her into just jumping in the deep end a few times as well.

And Esme is relaxing again.  She had a hard week with Sarah here.  She got lots of extra loving, holding, squeezing, and tormenting.  Our cats are not used to so much love.  Love has it's limits!

Christi