Little flowers

I saw the first flowers on a couple of our plants this evening as I was walking in the garden. Our golden raspberries are blooming. I hope that means we'll get some fruit this year. I also saw the first little yellow blooms on one of the tomato plants. You know what that means - in a few weeks we'll be seeing fresh tomatoes. The bees are doing well. As I was standing near the hive watching the activity one of my cats, Rooney, our first feline leukemia rescue cat, came over to the hive. He was not very aware of the bees. He is now. His tail brushed against the front entrance to the hive and he got a nasty surprise. He had a small number of bees burrowing into the thick fur on his tail to sting him. Poor kitty. Of course, Steph and I tried to remove the bees without getting stung ourselves, which we accomplished but not without a fight. Encountering one bee that is determined to sting you is a serious challenge (and a GREAT adrenalin rush!). Encountering a lot trying to sting you is a hopeless cause. We got away without being stung. Rooney wasn't so lucky.

As an aside, all of our cats are rescue cats that have feline leukemia virus. Feline leukemia is often fatal but some cats survive if diagnosed and treated soon enough. Feline leukemia is responsible for more feline deaths than any other infectious disease. We have two male, orange tabbys and a calico female. We also had the gray and white kitten of our female calico, but she succumbed to the disease and passed away very young. Most feline leukemia positive cats are kept indoors and isolated because the disease can be spread through their bodily fluids to other cats. Once we moved out here we began letting the cats out a little at a time to increase their quality of life. At this point, they are very much like any other cats and you would never know they are positive for feline leukemia. They roam outside and catch mice, voles and birds like any other barn cats.