Heidi Chronicles - Just Hanging Out Until Spring

Have y'all seen this? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1070861/

I thought that it was bought out years ago...

best place to look for info on Daves is the Daves forum...

and i do recall right after i joined Daves, 3 yrs ago?? Daves sold to a company in MA. as i recall the subscription went from $15 to $20.

i'll go snoop around...

this is way at teh bottom....

I thought so...Thanks!

Still looking for info. http://domainnamewire.com/2010/01/12/namemedia-sells-600k-worth-of-domains-vivant-com-for-30000/

Oh, NO!

This has very ominous tones, Folks!

Does anyone know where the quote in the Sewing Forum originated. I mean, to be quoted that way doesn't it have to come from elsewhere at DG? I don't see anything about this in the DG Forum.

Dave did sell DG to NameMedia a while back. From the quote in the Sewing Forum it sounds like NameMedia has now sold the site such that Dave may no longer be involved.

This site is unlike any other I have seen online anywhere and is what it is because of Dave's extraordinary vision and insight. I can't imagine a world without DG, and by 'DG' I mean the DG that currently exists, the one where anyone can speak directly to Dave and the other admins and where we all feel as though we have a voice however small, the DG where 'by gardeners, for gardeners' means something and where we are all one, big more or less happy family (even if we do argue now and again).

I am very, very unspeakably and inconsolably sad to think of possibly loosing DG and my friendship with all of you. :-(

Just FYI, if at any point things here should come to some abrubt end, Heidi will be moving to blogspot and Heidi news will be available on YouTube.

I haven't found anything else on it yet. I am guessing that we will have to wait for an announcement. Glad that you thought of blogspot & YouTube.

The news is true, but at this time we are not able to say much. Hopefully the new owners will make an announcement shortly.

Please try not to jump to any conclusions or speculate on what is happening. We're hoping that the transition will go smoothly and we'll all happily continue gardening and sharing.

Whew! What a relief!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1070930/

thanks Melody... i did find this on the Daves Forum
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1070930/

June,

Thanks for the heads up as I would never have seen this otherwise.

Heidi and I already have a spot on YouTube as that is where I hosted the video snippets of Heidi and the gang in the past. Note that links to the videos have been posted in various places in the Heidi threads (in spring/summer 2007 and 2008).

Edited in view of melodies post which I only saw after posting.

This message was edited Jan 21, 2010 6:47 PM

melody,

Sorry, I'll try, but jumping to catastrophic conclusions is a feature for my model.

I knew that I could find you on YouTube.
My Sister and BIL lost control of their company recently. Giving up ownership to a board of directors can come back to haunt you. Dave did it in 2007 and now he is finding his way with the new owners...

My model features a worrier that works in overdrive as one of it's lowest speeds.

June,

I'm right there with you. My work friends [lovingly] kid me about this tendency. I would try to quote them here as they can be a riot sometimes, but I could never do them justice. Of course, it is all in good fun and not meant to be mean, just cute.

Some of my colleagues also noted years ago that I have a penchant for hyperbole. I think this can be an asset in my writing, but in the real world sometimes my friends have to act as interpreter for those who don't understand my tendencies. "It's the 11th hour and I may not make deadline" becomes "OMG! They are going to put me before a firing squad", for example.

Anyhow, I'm still pretty bummed about this but am trying to keep my cool 'until the sky actually falls'.

Well, trying to act normal while waiting for the rest of the sky to fall...

This morning as i was rushing to get to work - in my living room but that's beside the point - Kitty met me at the back door when I let Widget out. And then Widget started chasing Kitty and I could neither get Widget back in the house nor feed Kitty. Argh!

So I closed the door and ignored them both while getting dressed. Even though Kitty was in the back yard 'playing' with Widget, I filled Kitty's dish on the front porch (thingy) because it was raining lightly, and we all know that cats don't care that much for water (on their fur). Later, even when I finally got Widget back inside, Kitty was left peaking through the window of the back door while her food was sitting at the front door.

In a hurry, I went out there, picked Kitty up, carried her through the entire house - with Widget at my feet, now less - and put her down on the front porch to eat her food. And she let me do that! I think we've pretty much made it now, Kitty and I, after that. She was a bit freaked out looking at all of the stuff in the house as we walked through and wondering where we were going, but I talked to her the whole way and petted her head, and she managed to keep pretty darned calm all things considered. She has obviously learned to trust me quite a bit to allow me to carry her through the house that way. Oh, and that was the 1st time I had ever held her while standing upright much less walking. In the past I had only held her 2 or 3 times for a few minutes while seated. Yay, Kitty! Good, Girl!

Wow! She does trust you a lot!

June,

Yes, and she is a very good kitty, not inclined to be mean. I knew it was a risky maneuver and that I might end up chasing a cat and a dog around the house for the next few hours as a result, but I had confidence in Kitty and decided to 'just do it'. So now I know. Glad I did it. Kitty got to eat sooner, and I got to find out where the line is drawn - or not.

That is an unusually nicely-colored possum in your link, Cheryl, but still not something I'd want to wear or drape around the house. I mean, I've grown to think possums are totally cute, but their coloring is just not a wow. And the faux porcupine throw frankly looks pretty ordinary; even at the reduced price, no thanks. It's still pretty darn expensive for something that honestly looks like it came from a thrift store, well-used. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Wow, I'm very impressed with Ms. Kitty letting you carry her through the house, especially after being chased around the back 40 by Widget. That is one VERY tame kitty who'd really like to explore the house on her own, I'm sure (lol).

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since the DG site was sold a few years back, so can't say I'm surprised. I'm afraid that negative conclusions also come standard with my model, but am trying to reserve judgment and see what happens over time.

Hi Ruth,

Sorry, I didn't respond sooner. I did read your thread, and then I went into my characteristic ostrich pose for dealing with stressful situations. Sorry.

LOL RE "...like to explore the house on her own". Yeah, last night she was trying to decide whether to follow me inside and had both front feet up on the threshold when I closed the door. I immediately peaked through the little side window curious to see her response. I had to laugh as I looked down to see Ms Kitty still standing their both front feet up on the threshold nose against the door where she looked for all the world as though she were waiting for me to realize my error and open the door again to welcome her inside. I wish I had gotten a picture of that as it was too cute. She stood there for a few minutes.

I took her through the house again this morning. This time I stopped in the kitchen to hold her in one hand while scooping up food with the other. She wasn't amused. The crinkly, crunchy sounds caused her alarm. This time she was more than a little beside herself by the time we reached the front door, but she did make it.

Friday when I got home, I took a little afternoon nap and, for the 1st time, I found myself thinking how nice it would be to have Kitty on the bed with me - and Widget. LOL at that last part as I'm sure with both of them on the bed I wouldn't have gotten much rest.

Recently, I've begun feeding Kitty on the bench beside me so that I can spend time close to her, and she can get more comfortable around me. Afraid to hop up there beside me, the kittens sit a little ways back along the walkway. While they watch, I pet their Mom now and again. I found that Kitty likes Widget's Purina Carvers chicken slices. They are made with 80% chicken and a little soy flour. They look just like fresh, flexible, slices of chicken breast. Last night I took a slice out with me, and when the kittens sat watching as Kitty ate on the bench beside me, I tore little pieces off the chicken slice to toss to them. That they didn't run when I threw things at them was a big improvement. They enjoyed the chicken bits and, hopefully, learned that I'm not so bad.

Kitty seems to be trying to show the kittens that I'm ok. Last night she was sitting across the dish from me eating. Then when the kittens came near, she stepped around the dish to get up close to me as if to demonstrate that I'm safe. She was so close then as she ate that she appeared to be growing out from under my arm as I sat on the bench beside her. The kittens watched, ate chicken bits, and walked up close from time to time trying to decide if they dared join her. Being babies, they were too funny as they tried to sneak up on us from behind shrubs and all different vantage points only to end up each time realizing in the end that they still could not reach the food without getting up on the bench beside me.

Tonight I took out cat food and a single serving container of cottage cheese. The latter was a few months expired but still smelled and looked find, and according to Kitty and her kittens was quite tasty. It's amazing sometimes to realize the things many of us humans send to the landfill routinely. Tonight I tossed cat food onto the walkway for the kittens, but it wasn't long before the lure of that cottage cheese brought the little black one right up there on the bench beside his mom. I hadn't expected that to happen so soon. Although his mother was beside him, still he was only 8in or so from my hand, a major step forward in getting to know the kittens.

The black kitten stayed up there eating with him mom, and I sat motionless as the other kitten came over a few times to stand up between her mom and me, the only remaining space, her little paws on the bench seat beside me, trying to decide if it was safe to hop up there. She never did, but I am confident that she will in time. After a while Kitty nudged the black kitten away from the cottage cheese which he had been eating the entire time. She wanted a bite or two. With Kitty's head in the cottage cheese cup in front of him, the kitten stuck his head under her neck to eat from the cat food dish in front of her. At this point his head was even closer to me although I'm sure having his mom's body over him that way made him feel very safe. They ate that way for a while. Eventually full and wanting to get out of the light but blowing rain, Kitty jumped down and went over into the corner of the tiny porch-like structure leaving the black kitten alone on the bench with me. The kitten was so busy eating that he didn't even notice for a minute or so. When he finally looked up to see that his Mom was no longer there beside him, he looked at me for a moment, and then hopped down to run and hide.

I took this as the perfect moment to run tuck the food into the most sheltered corner of the porch and head inside. Bad weather was clearly on the way. In fact, it is 70 degrees outside now, the wind is very strong, it is raining, and we are in a tornado box until 7AM tomorrow. A minute ago I reached to turn the fan by my bed off only to realize that it WAS off. The wind noise was coming from outside.

After I fed the cats, I spent a few minutes in the kitchen cleaning up. The weather was windy but still not so bad then. Within minutes, Widget started arguing with someone at the back door. When I looked up to see what was going on, Widget was not 'fighting' with a reflection in the window but had his nosed pressed against the bottom corner of the door as though smelling something outside. I went over there and turned the lights on to look out but didn't see any sign of life. Still, based on Widget's behavior I'm pretty sure there was a creature out there and since I had just left the cats at the front door with food, I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of them. It was almost certainly one of the raccoons.

Yikes, I forgot to 'watch' this new thread!!! Will catch up tomorrow...glad I found you again, lol. Love the kitty pics!

Fascinating, Kitty working on getting the kittens comfortable with you. And important, since you'll probably want to have someone find homes for the kittens when she's ready to cut them loose. If they can become tame, they can find homes, especially at this time of year when kittens are more scarce. And I had to laugh that you've started thinking of her as a possible sleeping buddy someday. Cats are the best for that, IMHO; I dearly love our big dogs, but the cats don't snore, drool or crowd you out of the bed... and purring is one of the world's most relaxing background sounds.

>>; I dearly love our big dogs, but the cats don't snore, drool or crowd you out of the bed...

OH heavens... when Buddy dreams, the whole bed shakes... and he's not a large dog, maybe 60-65LB
but he cries and barks... while it is endearing during daylight hrs, at night, i'd like him to be quiet...

Charlie rarely sleeps with me.. I think he's up most the night, but he does have spots he naps, and sleeps with DH mostly.

Ruth,

I've seen numerous subtle indications that Kitty is trying to tell the kittens that I'm ok. She wants them to come to eat, too. When they follow her and then run back when they see me, she stops eating and walks over to the edge of the porch or bench to look after them as if to say, "Where are you going? Come and eat!" I find her subtle efforts to communicate this to them very interesting and quite adorable really, but I'm doubtful that I would have noticed them had the raccoons not already trained me.

Many of her communications with the kittens are similar to those I've already seen with the raccoons. What I find most amazing about this is that I've lived with and around cats most of my life and never noticed the mother/kitten communications before.

ROTFLOL, Terese,

Laughing at your comment RE the bed shaking when Buddy dreams. I didn't realize he was that big - 60-65lbs. The image of him shaking the whole bed is priceless.

Widget doesn't shake the bed, of course, but he does have noisy dreams apparently about chasing rabbits or raccoons or something. Strange as it may sound, Maltese actually have hound in their genetic mix. Widget doesn't so much bark as yelp like a beagle or a hound, a big, deep throaty sound that causes people to look all around for the big dog and then laugh when they realize that sound is coming out of that tiny little fur ball. When he chases prey in his sleep he makes a shorter, clipped off version of that same yelping sound. It's not 'pretty' when you are sleeping.

Widget has a doggie bed on the bottom corner of my bed, but he prefers to sleep in the crevices around and between my legs. This annoys me since it has the result of trapping my legs so that they cannot move about freely. I tell him to sleep in his bed, and he does - until I go to sleep at which point he come right back over to sleep on my legs. Argh!

By far the worst thing Widget ever did while I was sleeping was the time when he was 2 mo old and had too much energy to sleep. Some time around 3AM or so he climbed up on the bookshelf on the headboard and then jumped onto my head. I'm totally not kidding! He landed right on my ear and scared the ____ out of me. At the time he only weighed about 2lbs, but that is still a lot when it drops out of the sky onto the side of your head while you are sleeping. When he was little I actually used to hold him down forcefully in the bed next to me with my hand over his little back refusing to let him get up. That was the only way I could get him to stop playing and go to sleep.

ROFL My sister's maltese sleeps on my sister's pillow, on top her head.

Ruth,

I hadn't thought about it, but purring does sound like a very therapeutic sound for sleeping. I'm surprised they haven't put that on one of those nature sound CD's yet - or have I missed that one? I have one with the wonderful sound of waves lapping against the shore, but sometimes just as I'm dozing off those loons call out and wake me. I think purring might be more compatible with sleep.

Originally, I had planned to 'yank' Kitty up anyway I could and whisk her off to the vet for spaying. Then I figured I would put the small wire cage out front with food in it to trap the kittens. That would probably work, but the idea always seemed flawed as I could only hope to catch the kittens after I had taken Kitty out of the picture and then only one at the time. The whole scenario seemed rather traumatic for all of them.

When Kitty turned out to be much tamer than I had imagined, I figured the best approach was to work on winning her trust slowly. By now, I could easily put her in a crate and take her to the vet, but I hate to take her away from the kittens so soon if I don't have to, especially while they are in the wild and would be left on their own. I figure the longer they can stay with mom the more they will learn and the better off they will be. On the other hand, it's a balancing act since they need to get accustomed to being handled by people before they get too old.

While I was debating how best to deal with the kittens, I quickly noticed that they were beginning to follow their mom to eat around me and that she was encouraging this behavior. Seeing this I thought it best to give it more time and let her help me get close to the youngsters. If I can earn their trust and eventually handle them, I figure that will improve the situation tremendously. It will make it much easier for me to catch them when the time comes and less stressful for them. It will also greatly improve their chances for finding good homes if I can help them to become people friendly.

So that's my current plan. Last night I SO wanted to reach out and touch that black kitten, but I knew it wasn't the right time and that doing so would only set things back. I'm biding my time. Ever since I 1st saw the kittens up close I have been dying to hold them and pet them and play with them. I SO want them to be like kittens are supposed to be, playing with yarn balls (and I have some of those, too) and chasing lazer pointers instead of running scared in the street.

I would love to keep them all, but I have my 2 pet limit here in the city. I'm optimistic for finding homes for the 2 kittens though. Both are as cute as buttons. The little brindled one, the one that is roughly the color of Kitty, has an especially unique pattern right now. I don't know if this is due to her size/age and something she will eventually outgrow, but right now instead of having dark stripes on a grey background, when viewed up close her 'stripes' are actually made up of a series of irregular splotches which, in effect, make her look more like a [grey-black] leopard than a cat, sort of a darker version of a snow leopard.

Hi KyWoods,

I'm so glad to see you again. I missed you and figured that you had gotten lost when we switched threads. I figured between the fact that we were chatting OT and the fact that the thread had grown so long and difficult to load on dial up, you might have missed the "we're moving" post.

When you go back and read to catch up, you will see that I asked about you a ways back. Glad you are back.

Yep, I saw that, thanks!
I have tamed our kittens, so I can pick them up and pet them--some tolerate it better than others, jumping out of my arms before too long. But if I play with them by waving around a cat toy on a string (which I made), they end up rolling around on the ground with it, and I can rub their bellies. They now play with my fingers while I'm belly-rubbing.
Even their Mommy let me pet her once while she was distracted by eating. As soon as she realized it, she took off, but I won't give up.

I am loving the kitty stories....

Oh, nooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Now I know why that black, presumably male, cat is hanging around. Apparently Kitty is in heat again, and even now before I can figure out what to do with the 2 kittens she has, they are working on a new batch.

This is pretty much a rhetorical questions at this point, but does anyone know the expected timing between litters? I presume she's a young cat and that this was her 1st litter. I figured I needed to get her spayed soon, but I thought I would have a few weeks. I don't even think a vet will do the operation while she is in heat.

I don't know for sure but I don't think the deed has been done yet. What should I do? I don't have any place to keep a cat (in heat, no less). And I sure don't need another litter of 1/2 wild kittens to deal with. Maybe I should just take her to the SPCA. At least that would [probably] keep her from having another litter. What a bummer. And things were, otherwise, going so well.

After work I went for groceries. I picked up a few small cans of Fancy Feast for her along with some Pounce treats. When I got home she was at the door waiting for me - and this time the black kitten was there waiting, too. I gave her some dry food and put a can of Salmon Fancy Feast on top of it. That actually looked like real fish, probably mostly the left-over parts from tuna, but she went bonkers over it.

The black kitten ran off when I got out of the car and walked up to the door, but when he smelled that 'Salmon' he came back fast. After a few failed attempts, he ended up not only eating from the dish at my feet but actually standing on the side of the dish that put him up against my feet while his mom was on the opposite side. And then, when she finished her meal and walked away the kitten stayed there against my feet eating that cat food. After a minute or so he looked up at me - and then went back to eating.

So you see, things were going great right up until I heard the snarling sounds and looked out to see Kitty and the black kitten on the porch with that big black cat over on one side of the yard. Later when I was putting the trash out, Kitty was sitting beside the door and there across the street sat that dark silhouette, the black cat, sitting, waiting. I'm pretty sure I've seen this behavior before.

Hi Sharran. Hi Marylyn.

Thank you. I wish tonight's cat story were better. It started out well, but it sure has taken a turn for the worst fast.

I'm just so not prepared to deal with a cat, esp one in heat and semi-wild, right now. I have 1 million things to do right now, all of which are top priorities and not the least of which is my job. I literally just got to sit down and take a breath about 10 minutes ago. I'm exhausted. And the rest of this week and probably the next promise to be about the same.

I don't have a litter box. I'm not prepared to deal with Widget and the cat in the house playing chase and fighting right now. I just don't know what to do. And then there are the kittens. What about them? What will happen to them if I do find some way to put their mom in a cage/crate or something?

Help.

Is your back yard fenced??

Cheryl, there are vets that are experienced with feral cats and use stitches that dissolve over time so that they don't have to come back to have stitches removed. Our rescue takes cats to a low-cost spay/neuter place for only $35. I don't know if they are a nationwide organization, but it's called UCAN.

Sharran,

Yes, the backyard is fenced - but I don't see how that solves the problem given that cats are such good climbers. It's a wooden, privacy fence, BTW, not a chain link fence. I'm sure a cat would have no problem climbing the fence posts the same way the raccoons do. For that matter, a cat could climb in/out under the gate. Widget can even squeeze out there.

KyWoods,

I'm really not so much worried about the price - although I appreciate the info. I just can't possibly take off from work to, say, whisk her off to the vet tomorrow even if I could find a vet with an opening. I've got serious and critical stuff going on at work right now with a multi-million dollar contract at stake, so I just can't take off. I'm expecting to meet with clients this week and am waiting to hear when they will be available. In the mean time I'm scurrying to polish my presentation as much as possible before the meeting.

I just did a quick check online and found that vets will spay a pregnant female, preferably one that is not too far along. I may have to take that route although I hate to do that to her. Either way, it will be next week at the earliest before I can find the time to take her to the vet to be spayed.

I'm not really going to take her to the SPCA though. I was just frustrated. I feel a little better now that I know that pregnant females can be spayed.

Is that it, Sharran? Were you thinking maybe the fence was a chain link one and that the cat would not be able to climb it? Chain link fences aren't allowed here. Rules. Rules. Rules. We have lots of rules.