The McKayse's Farm and Home for Wayward Animals

29/01/2024

Ugh. We went from tundra to swamp and flooding in just a few days. Real fun trying to feed everyone when the earth is sinking below you as you walk. Some parts of the property are fairly solid with a lot of rain but others just can't drain the water fast enough. Of course all those parts surround the animal enclosures. 🙄 Good times. Last night the front part of the big barn flooded which rarely happens but it can when we have the weather we've been having. The area where the ducks and geese are usually has some water but now it's flooded into Lake McKay. They're happy but I could do without all the water. All the critters are covered in mud and all the dogs... Don't get me started on that mess.

I'm glad it's not snowing and I'm glad I'm not freezing to death but this seems extreme and I'm over it. I'm sure the critters are too.

26/01/2024

16/01/2024

Cats. Especially this monster. Ms. Gray was one of the residents that just showed up in the barn one day. She was initially an all outdoor barn kitty but Mama cat kept chasing her off and one time she didn't come back for a month. Dave was so upset because he thought she got killed or something. One day while closing up the birds, she came squeaking up to me (she doesn't meow, she squeaks). From then on Dave and I decided to keep her indoors so she'd be safe.

But this turd is a brat. I started this bad habit of giving the indoor cats a little bit of the outdoor cats food when I feed them as I keep it in the house. I have a little bowl on the counter top that Ms. Gray eats out of. I usually feed them around 5:30-6. Well yesterday around 4, Ms Gray started bugging me for the food and I told her no she had to wait. So she decided she didn't like that answer and knocked her bowl on the floor and looked at me like take that. Then started squeaking at me again. 🤨

Talk about cattitude. 😼

14/01/2024

This weather is zero fun for taking care of the critters. 🥶 Hopefully the gobs and gobs of straw I've been loading them all up on is keeping them warm.

27/12/2023

Really, why are cats like this? I put a paper towel on the counter top and turned around for like 30 seconds and this happened. Looks like I'm getting a new one. Then, I put this flower pot in the bathroom so it would be safe but I apparently left the door cracked and this happened. This pot has the flowers Dave gave me and I'm wintering them. What's still alive is smashed. Thanks MS. GRAY...🙄

I have beds all over the house, not to mention couches for them to snuggle on but the cats would rather fight over pizza boxes and bins with vinyl records in them to lay on. Goobers.

23/12/2023

I turned a light on. This was the face I got from this one. Guess I interrupted her precious slumber. 🙄

The cats have been on fire this week. The other day one of the outdoor cats left me a rodent present in the driveway right in the path where I walk. I told them that was gross, move it. Later on I came out and one of them moved it, but it was just guts and blood left. 😳 Guess I should be more specific next time. Sebastian walks between my legs when he wants something. If he doesn't appreciate my feet getting too close to him as I try navigate walking with a cat that is trying to rub up against my legs at the same time he whacks me. The goes right back to trying to walk between my feet. 🤦‍♀️ This morning, one of the cats decided to barf all over the new cat bed. I will refrain from saying what happened to it before I could clean it up. 🤢🤮

Cats. Sometimes you never know with these guys. Never a dull moment. SMH.

13/12/2023

Breakfast time. 🐱🐈🐈‍⬛

06/12/2023

This goober was "yelling" at me from his house. The weather was too crappy for him to come out to the fence to bleat at me. 🤣🤣🤣

29/11/2023

I put a heater in the garage for the cats. Apparently the Amazon boxes on the front porch in the arctic weather is warmer. 🤨

21/11/2023

On a crappy day like today, Skips is happy to have his house. Then of course he came out to find out why I was taking pics of him. He looks like he wants to call the cops on me for being nosey 🤣🤣🤣

19/11/2023

Our friends Jim and Rene Nelson, founders of the nonprofit Tripawds, have dedicated their lives to providing advice and support for amputee pets and their people.

In 2009, their journey connected them with Wyatt Ray, a tripawd "guard dog" who lived the first few months of his life tethered and neglected in a backyard. Excited for attention or eager to escape, his confinement caused the chain to wrap and strangulate his right rear leg. A Tripawds member involved with a local animal rescue helped save Wyatt, who ended up abandoned at a vet clinic. At eight months old, Wyatt joined the Nelsons' pack.

Jim writes: "Wyatt Ray indirectly showed his love for us, as best as he knew how. Our steadfast German Shepherd was not a cuddler. He didn't care for hugs, baby talk, or deep eye contact. If he joined us at night, it wasn't for long. Instead, he preferred to lay at the foot of the bed, always in protection mode and sleeping with one eye open."

"Protecting the pack was his job, and by doing it well he showed his love. You can't blame him, really. As a puppy, his first introduction to family life was to stay chained up out back, ignored and starving for attention. And from that early experience, he not only lost his leg, but a level of his trust in the humans around him."

"It took years for him to regain what was stolen from him at a young age. We cherish memories of those rare occasions when Wyatt felt free enough to let his guard down, and be an ordinary family dog."

To read more about Wyatt Ray — and about a special "heart and soul" dog named Jerry, who inspired the Nelsons to start the Tripawds community — check out Jim's heartfelt essay (written in 2021) on our blog: https://bit.ly/47HaGtN

04/11/2023

Larry says, mmmm nice tail 😘

(Larry is a girl, naming courtesy of Dave 🥰)

04/11/2023

I feel like I walked up on something I should've be privy to... 🤨

29/10/2023

On today's episode of Cats are Pretzels... She's been laying like this for the last 10 minutes. Cats are weird.

29/10/2023

Our resident influencer, Mama Cat, was posing for her fall photos today. This means she was in a good mood. 🤣🤣🤣

26/10/2023

It's funny how Moe never made any real attempts to watch over Curly when she was out roaming free but now that she's enclosed he just sits by the fence where she is during the day, and then back in the barn with Larry (his other lady) at night. He also tends to spend more time with the chickens than Larry when he's not at the fence. He's such a weirdo. 🤣🤣🤣

22/10/2023

Two of these three goobers (or maybe all three) were involved in an incident with this nectarine. Someone rolled it off the island and someone else got ahold of it and tried to eat it, but she was on the couch and it got stuck in between the cushions so she just left it there for me to find. I know one of the fur balls with murder mittens rolled off the island b/c the white one isn't a counter surfer and I had put it behind a bunch of stuff on the island to try and prevent this from happening (not to mention the murder mitteny ones are always trying to roll my fruit off the counters). As far as I'm concerned, they're all guilty. 🤣🤣🤣

13/10/2023

This knucklehead is my coworker a couple of days a week. Today, she decided my computer charger was there for her to chew on. 🤦‍♀️

10/10/2023

This cat...😒

Ms. Gray LOVES pizza. I can't leave a pizza box out or she'll get into it. A couple of weeks ago, she got into a box that I walked away from for just a couple of minutes. She ate part of a slice. 🤦‍♀️ Last night, I had an empty pizza box on the counter. She was clearly excited about getting some pizza. But I thought, joke's on you kitty, I already put the pizza that was in the box away.

She retaliated by eating my bread. 😒 I really do feed these cats. They're NOT starving. 🙄

09/10/2023

The pigs and goats were saying, "hi mom, now feed us." 🤣🤣🤣 Moe was just showing off.

08/10/2023

This goober... She's been in hiding for several weeks. I wasn't sure where she was but I knew she was around because she was eating the cat food at the house (she was leaving "evidence" of her visits 💩. Yesterday, I finally found her hiding spot. She decided since I found her, it must be feeding time and kept crossing back and forth across the street while I was feeding everyone. She almost got hit 3 times and stopped traffic once, which I saw her going for the road and started running after her (to which someone decided me chasing a turkey was worth recording on their phone 😒). So today, she got banned to the senior piggies' area. I figure she won't hop the fence now that she's older and chunkier but we shall see... 🤞

PS- she's not happy about it. 🦃

08/10/2023

On today's episode of "I'm never getting my bathroom back"...

I turned the corner of the barn to feed Skips and ran into this mama and 1 chick. However, I knew with this hen, there isn't going to be just one as she's quite the brooder. So I went to pick up the little guy and when she got up, chicks everywhere . I'm glad I had the scoop because I don't know how else I was going to get them back to the chick crate, in my bathroom. I FINALLY moved the other chick out to the outside pen with the older chicks and with the weather turned cold I don't want the itty bitties outside. Of course as my luck would have it, while I was out shopping their heat bulb blew 🤦‍♀️. Luckily I found a spare.

Burrow is very interested in the chicks, all the chirping perks her ears up.

Yah, chicks! 🐥🐣🐤

02/10/2023

Beautiful Bessie, the all white peahen. Maybe one day I can find a rescue friend for her. ❤️

02/10/2023

Skips has some prime real estate. I'm a little jealous of his house. He loves it but hates that he can't sit on top of it because the roof is too slick and slides right off. 🤭

He's been awfully nice to me lately. Either he's up to no good or he loves his new digs. Never trust a goat, even when he's cute. 😂😂😂

20/09/2023

https://fb.watch/naD3BiZFBE/?mibextid=Nif5oz

20/09/2023

https://www.facebook.com/100067974704629/posts/650280030581148/?mibextid=Nif5oz

19/09/2023

I swear mom, the pillow just exploded. I had to lay on it to keep it from hitting the other pups. I'm ok though, I didn't get hurt. RIP couch pillow.

02/06/2022

The baby duckies got a very quick water bath and a nice sun bath while we cleaned out their pen. The runt wants to show you their wings. 😍

18/05/2022

So with all the baby madness on the farm, I forgot to mention that we have 4 more geese that we retrieved from ROAR after Wendy decided the goositude was not for her. Geese definitely aren't for everyone. They can be snotty and they're definitely loud. They are bitey and hissy. But I love them, they have such funny personalities and I'm convinced they hone in on and pick on the people they know they can annoy. They don't try to make human friends unless they're imprinted, but once you let them know you're not taking their crap they will give in (most of the time), eventually... 😁

However, this does NOT apply to the cobra chickens, aka Canada geese. 😂

16/05/2022

Nature can be very weird and very sad. The other day, Dave noticed this little guy hiding under the nesting turkey. Seemed so strage, he was actually just under her wing. Yesterday while checking on the animals the turkey was off of her nest feeding and I noticed the little guy that was hiding under her had passed away. Not sure if she suffocated him or if he perished from something else. Poor little guy. The rest of the babies seem to be doing well though, one of them figured out how to get into the kitty crib where we keep food for the cats and he/she dines in there at night. While it's a good sign they're figuring out how to find food on their own I'd prefer them not to eat the cat food. 🙄