FLOWERS, KOI & CRITTER VISITORS

Hey Pals,
It's Katie here today.

I have some more flower photos to show you and a few more photos of our koi fishies.  The flower blooming has just begun here.  Our daylilies will be opening soon.  One color did open a few days ago while it was raining.  Normally daylilies are already blooming here in Iowa, but with the cold weather spells, many flowers are starting late.

This is one of my favorites, cause it's my favorite color PURPLE!

The koi waiting for Mama to pour some food out for them:

The koi eating their food:

This is another one of our Japanese Iris, the name is FLASHING KOI, how appropriate.

Some Asiatic Lilies:

Purple Coneflower:

Asiatic Lilies:

Snowball Hydrangea Bush:

Hmmmm, these darn critters keep coming around at night right by the back door area:

And this little bambi and the mother keep eating Mama's hostas:

Ok, well it's time to go chew my toys again.

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

OUR POND WATERLILIES

Hey Pals,

It's me Katie Tater Tot!

Some of our pretty waterlilies are finally blooming in our ponds.  Our Iowa weather has been so strange this Spring and Summer, first ice cold, then burning hot, then ice cold, yadayadayada.  So many of our plants and flowers are blooming much later than normal.  But here are a few of our lilies blooming:

Here is one of our Japanese Iris:

This is Koi Sugar.  She is one of our largest female koi.  She's approximately 24 inches long.  She produces many of our yellow babies that we get. 

Mama hasn't collected any koi eggs yet for raising indoors because we have had rain almost every day lately.  Hopefully it will be dry this weekend so we can collect some eggs.

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

SCUBY IS TOO SKINNY AND KOI FISH

Hey Pals,

Last week my sisfur Scuby went to the vet to have her toofers cleaned.  Low and behold, she lost 11 ounces since February when she got her shots.  She is only 7 1/2 lbs. now, approximately 3 years old.

The vet was very concerned so they did blood tests on Scuby before cleaning her teeth.  The good news is that all of her blood tests were great!  They can't find any reason why she has lost weight.  So we guess she is just not eating enough.  Scuby is the most active of all of our cats here at Mutton Hollow.  She's always running around doing zoomies and racing me up the steps.  If we put more food in her dish, she doesn't always eat it all.  She gets 4 small meals per day.  Anyone out there with cats have some good ways to help Scuby gain some weight???

Scuby and I Katie helped Mama with the koi babies today that she has raised from eggs since last May 2010.  Here are some of those koi a few weeks ago in the large aquarium:

Well today was the day that they graduate and get to live in the huge ponds we have outside.  We have 9 of the koi that we kept.  Mama sold the rest and was able to buy lots of koi food to feed all of our outdoor koi.

Here are some close up photos of the koi in a container before going into the ponds:
(you can click on the pictures to biggify them)

Three of them are about 8-9 inches long and probably females.  So hopefully by next Spring, the male koi will be breeding with these females.

Later this week Mama will be collecting fresh koi eggs from the ponds to raise indoors again.  We already have koi babies swimming in the ponds.  Some of those are already 1 inch long.  The koi breed like crazy with the stormy weather that we have been having.  Thank fishness the koi eat a lot of the fresh eggs.  Otherwise we would have a gazillion babies out there, hehehehe!

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

PIPER IS SAFE BACK AT HOME THIS MORNING!

Hey Pals,

Wonderful news!  Piper is back in Cheryl's arms and home again.  Here is the Facebook post from Wire Fox Terrier Rescue this morning:

WIRE FOX TERRIER RESCUE MIDWEST

CAPTURED & BACK AT RESCUE! Our elusive fox PIPER was caught this morning at the farm on 250th. When Cheryl walked up to the barn she was not in there? There is also a fenced kennel outside where they had put the crate with food in and the gate was shut. What? The storms and wind last night must of blown the gate shut but as soon as PIPER heard Cheryl walking up she came out of the dog house wagging her tail and so HAPPY to see her. Now safe and sound back at Rescue everyone sniffing her - Carson, Mickey, Toodles, Louie and the gang. PIPER ran right over and got in her purple furry bed!

We are so thankful!  I helped Mama drive around that area yesterday looking for Miss Piper, but we did not see her anywhere.  We did see some bambi, wild turkey and some baby raccoons!  But no Piper.  Thank you to everyone for your prayers.  We know the ONE above helped capture this little girl!

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,

Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

PLEASE HELP FIND PIPER, SHE IS LOST AGAIN!

Hey Pals, Remember several months ago when a rescued puppy mill foxy girl named Piper escaped near Galena, IL and was missing for many weeks, then found???  Well, she has since recovered from most of her injuries and was staying at the Fox Terrier Rescue here in Dumont, IA.  BUT, this is what has just happened: REPORTED FROM WIRE FOX TERRIER RESCUE: OUR HEARTS ARE BROKEN ONCE AGAIN and it is with great sadness that we report our beloved Piper is once again missing and on the loose. She was boarded with the other Wires at the animal hospital in Waverly over graduation weekend and had broken loose from a kennel girl. The search has been nonstop with Dr. Frost, vet girls, Cheryl, family, friends, Tricia and even Chris & Faith arriving to search for Piper. We have posters, signs and two Find Toto campaigns running. There were 3 sightings yesterday - one in Waverly and two in Shell Rock. Dear God this cannot be happening again to our little Piper we repeat. Please if you have any family or friends in the Waverly area of Iowa - please cross post and ask for their help to watch. We can't believe this.  Dr. Frost's place is only 5 miles north of us, but across the river.  Unfortunately, Piper is not running towards our direction.  Since being reported in Shell Rock, this means she has headed west, away from Waverly.  (if the report is actually about her)  There are many open farm fields and luckily the crops are just barely coming up, so it would be fairly easy to see her running through an open field.  Here is her picture:

Here is a map of our area:



View Larger Map

If you click on the link above that says View Larger Map, you can see more towns in our area.

Piper may try running along the Shell Rock River which going South goes to Janesville, if she goes North, this leads to Clarksville. I haven't seen the posters yet, so not sure who to contact if you see her.  But here is the email address to the Midwest Wire Fox Terrier Rescue:

info@wirefoxrescuemidwest.com

If you live near here, please copy her photo and pass around to people everywhere.

We pray God will help Piper be found FAST!!!

UPDATE:

Here is the poster for Piper:

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

MY NEW DEW!

Hey Pals,

Can you believe the strange weather everyone is having?  One day it's 100 degrees here in Iowa, the next, only 59 degrees with rain for days.  Mama thought it was time to strip and groom my hair for summer so that I didn't look like a woolly lamb!

So she got out the flashy beast thing and started snapping pictures.  She told me I'm getting much better at posing for photos, hah!  I just wanted that treat she was holding in her hand.  So tell me, which photo do you think I look best in:

Mama told me I'm looking more grown up all of the time.

Of course my sisfur Ruby had to intrude on my picture:

Whenever Mama brushes my hair, Sylvester and a few of the other cats always come running over because they want Mama to brush them.  Silly catsies.........................


Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek

THE TUXIE BOYS AND PLUMBING LEAKS

Hey Pals,

We took some new pictures of my lazy catsie brudders.  Most of the time they just lay around.  EXCEPT if Mama gets the hair brush out and brushes me or one of the other cats, then Sylvester comes flying to get his hair brushed.  For some reason he just loves it, especially if Mama uses my stripping knives on his hair.

( Sylvester on left, Zeek on right )

Can you see Sylvester sticking his tongue out at Mama???

Uh oh, they saw another hummingbird out the window...

Now what is Hootie up to, she's whispering something into Zeek's ear...................

Darn, he won't fess up and tell me what she said.  Oh well.

We didn't have a very good week here.  Mama went downstairs one day to feed the catsies their lunch and she heard water dripping.  So she turned on the light in the back corner and HOLY MOLY!  Water all over the floor, water running down the drywall.  So she got the ladder and crawled up into the floor joists where lots of icky spider webs are, hehehehe!  She finally figured out it was the plumbing leaking that goes to the tub faucet.  WHAT A PAIN!  That plumbing in the basement is smack dab right beside the main house 2 x 12's that sit on the basement walls.  But where the tiny holes were that the plumbing goes through up into the flooring, she could tell the water was coming from above there.  So that meant it was leaking somewhere in the bathroom walls.  UGGGGGHHHHH!

And what does that mean???  Well, see this nice painted wall above the garden tub???

And all of this junk that Papa brought into the bathroom???

Now the wall looks like this!

And they even had to cut out a 2 x 4 in order to get their arms down to the plumbing:

Looking down the hole:

And then crooking your neck to see past that:

The TINY PIN HOLE leak was in the elbow where that bucket is sitting.  For such a teeny tiny hole, it sure sprayed a lot of water on everything.  And of course there is NO WAY you could weld copper plumbing there, just NO WAY!  So it's SHARK BITE parts to the rescue again!
 

Mama says SHARK BITES are the best thing invented for plumbing repairs.  The parts are not very cheap, but if you added up how much it would cost to have welding torches and supplies, plus being able to get into a small spot to weld without burning your house down, SHARK BITES are soooooo much cheaper!

Now we leave the hole in the wall open for a few weeks just to make sure there are no water leaks.  Mama wants to put a wood door on the wall so that someday, if there is another leak or the faucet needs replaced, you just open the door. BUT NO, Papa wants to drywall, (which will always show where you patch it) and Mama will be stuck trying to match the paint.  So we'll see who wins on that one! hahahaha!

Guess I better get back to having Mama groom my hair.  She started stripping my hair this morning.  Then silly Sylvester had to climb up on the grooming table with me, begging Mama to brush his black shiny hair.

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby, Hootie & Zeek
PS  A big thank you to everyone again for all of your love, help & support during this sad time for us losing Butchy.  It's even more sad since 3 more blogging pals have joined him at the rainbow bridge.  We know they are all pain free now, running and playing together having a grand time!