Tales from the SSUVFL

The SSUVFL stands for Super Secret Undisclosed Virus Free Location. I just thought that I would share that with anyone who happens to read this and doesn't know what I am referring too. It is what we call our home somewhere in Minnesota. Those that have been here are sworn to secrecy under penalty of a vicious herpes outbreak, should they choose to divulge the location. ( I'm talking to you Jethro!)

This past week I got up out of bed to use the facility like so many old people due all night long. I often go to our front door and look out at our surroundings. Ever watchful for marauders, Sasquatches and the relentless politician. Lo and behold! What do my wandering eyes see? A kitten. Right out in front of our front door. So I hastily shuffle back to the bedroom to get my glasses to make sure that I saw what I saw. Sure enough. A kitten. So I went to our garage door and opened to see if the kitten would come to me but it ran away. So I put out some food for it and went to bed. That was at 3:18 AM. What!?

In the morning the food looked like it was partially eaten. We then started working on "Operation Kitten Rescue". The second night I saw the kitten come for food around 11 pm.

So I went to the door again and it ran soon as it heard the door open. Well, that's not working. I thought for sure I could run over there and with my Ninja like reflexes capture it. But once a black cat runs out into the night it is very hard to see.

Day 3. Plan "B" had to be developed. Lisa's mom has a live trap so I went over to borrow that from her. The trap was set and all we had to do was wait.

Now you can tell from my commentary on the videos how shocked I was. That raccoon was way too fat to even get in the cage. Good thing because I wouldn't know what to do if he did. That was the first visitor of the evening. A little while later we had another visitor.

I really amaze myself with my commentary. Why was I not a play by play sports announcer? 

You can tell by my voice that we have made a grave mistake. I ran into the bedroom to wake up sleeping beauty to tell her the good news. I said excitedly "We caught something!" All she said was "What, a skunk?" She's a mind reader now. Well I had to get it out of the cage. Here is where Lisa gave me a hand.

I did not get sprayed. However the cage took a direct hit. Boy, did that stink. Well that was enough fun for night 3.

Day 4. I set up the cage again but didn't have high hopes since it stunk so bad. 

Who would have ever thought that if you put a little bit of cat food out by your front door that you would get so many animals visiting. So at the end of night 4, I didn't really think that we would have any luck. We have not seen the kitten for 2 nights now and with the fox sighting I was sure that it was his dinner at one time.

Day 5. I was really hesitant about putting more food out. Not knowing what was going to show up next. I mean we haven't seen the bear yet. Plus that cage reeks of skunk. I sprinkled a little food in it and checked it the next morning. Nothing. Poured my coffee and looked at the Facebook. Coffee done and wisdom accomplished, I checked the trap again.

We finally caught it. It is kind of feral so we don't know what we are going to do with it. We are hoping to turn it into a barn cat. We have had it for several days now and it will let us pick it up and hold it. It does like that because it will purr and purr.

Did I tell you that the kitten also smells like skunk? It does, from being in the same cage that a skunk sprayed. It is smelling better after several days though. I guess I owe my mother-in-law a new cage. LOL.

So that is our excitement for the week.

I also wanted to add one more thing that I forgot to mention in our past posts. We sold our fifthwheel. We decided to sell it because we have not used it in two years and not using them is hard on them also. So hopefully the next owner will get as much enjoyment out of it as we did. 

It was a sad day when that left. Just looking back at all of the places we have been to with that. The adventures we had in it. The years that we lived in it. So we are no longer full-time RVers. Not even part timers. We still have our pickup camper if we get the urge to go somewhere.

Until inspiration hits me again.