Wednesday dawned bright and brisk with a temperature of -20C and another 10-15 cm of snow. I have to get myself moving again even though I am still fairly weak from the food poisoning bout.

Serendipity and Sweetie have pretty much moved into a boat while there is a new feral Tom sheltering in the Orange building. He is very friendly and badly matted and his nose shows that he has been the looser in more than one cat fight. Poor thing, he is actually quite handsome with a thick if not matted gray and white coat. UUnfortunately he seems to suffer a bit of respiratory distress which could be a sign of the dreaded and contagious kitty respiratory problems. He has been her for almost a week but I am worried as the big coyote/wolf dogs are now actively hunting in the building making the shelter unsafe. I think that today I will contact the local humane society and see if I can get him some help as our little eco system cannot support another feral and I don't want the other getting sick.

Rufus on the other hand seems to take offence at them intruding on his territory and makes sure that his first duty of the day is to go out and mark the entire circumference of Defiance. All fine and well but the critters also smell his sent which is without doubt why they come so close looking for that ttastykitty snack. Rufus on the other hand for all his bravado is a mush and spoiled with a gourmet buffet on call. Fortunately he has taken to sleeping with me and not roaming at night.

It looks like there are 3 with one big one judging from the tracks in front of the office. The bad news is that ther tracks also tell me that they are actively looking for a quick cat snack. There is a lot of activity at the government dock and on Bills Thorley's property corner indicating they are hunting rodents under the snow.

This is a picture of a couple of these coyote/wolf critters that Bob nailed last year. So far I have not been able to get a shot of them prowling next to the boat and only have the tracks to tell the story.