Mrs. Wilsons Kitchen

Homesteads need cats.
Cats help in so many ways
They keep the mouse population down in the chicken coop.
No mice bothering the chickens makes for happy ladies.
In the garden voles and mice will eat the root vegetables.
Beets and carrots are safe with cats prowling the rows.
We have eleven cats on our homestead.
They are wild or feral when they arrived here.
After veterinarian check ups, shots, deworming and any other necessary medical attention they come here to live.
Cats are curious. After settling in we begin socializing. It’s a slow process.
A wild cat is terrified of humans.
Often they have been hurt, abandoned or abused. It takes time to win their trust.

This is a real happy story
Torty the cat lived here in the woods for two years. We would see her often.
She is a beautiful little girl.
We tried to trap her many times, but she is so smart. We could never catch her.
In bad weather she’d come to our living room window for relief under the over hang.
She’d stretch up and put her little white paws up on the window and cry.
If you could have seen this poor, wet, hungry and cold little cat crying for help your heart would break.
Trying every idea for trapping a wild cat we still were unsuccessful.
She was so scared. She’d run away as soon as we tried to help her.

Finally success.
My little granddaughter decided to take a bowl of food outside for Torty.
Maybe because she was small
Torty wasn’t afraid to approach
For the first time Torty filled up her tummy.
Bursting with joy my little granddaughter
ran in the house to tell us.
In her excitement she’d forgotten to
close the door.
It must have been that Torty thought
she had finally found a human she could trust.
Soon the little cats curiosity got the best of her
She ventured into the warm house to find her new home.
This is her. She is now completely socialized and living a happy, healthy life.

With the cold setting in we are hopeful for donations of old blankets, towels or bedding.
They will be used to insulate cat houses for the winter.

Meow and thank you.




Sometimes we find a loving family and the cats are adopted.

Why is the freezer in the Mr Wilson truck?

You’ve purchased so many of our
homemade Dinners from
Trader Teds
We want to say Thank You by offering you
more variety of meals.
More to choose from.

We are adding a second freezer to
Teds Store

In Mrs Wilsons Kitchen
We make Home made food.
Each meal is prepared by hand one at a time

At Trader Teds
You can pick up
Meat Pies
Lasagna
Hot Hamburger Dinner
Mac and Cheese with Bacon
And lots more.

New meals to be Coming soon
Shepard’s Pie
Meatloaf Dinner.
Tuna Noodle just like Mom used to make.
Ham and Scolloped Potatoes.

All our meals are home cooked
We still use the very best ingredients.

Our meals are fully cooked
Just re-heat and serve.

If you’ve got a great idea for a meal you’d like us to prepare; let Trader Ted know.

Homesteads use permaculture methods
It’s like a circle.
Everything starts, rolls around, becomes something else and goes back where it starts.

A homestead story.

Stryker that lucky cat.

“When the phone rings around here
You just never know what will happen next”

One day a few summers back we got a call from the EMS.
Odd I thought as I answered the phone.
“Hi, Mrs Wilson it’s Josh. I’m a paramedic in Parry Sound. We’ve got a problem.
There is a cat hanging around the ambulance bay. She’s very friendly but I have to find a home for her. We’re afraid she’s going to get hurt here. Some calls are so urgent.
It’s hard for us to take the time to make sure she’s not under one of the ambulances.
Yesterday we found her sleeping under one of the Stryker stretchers.”
“Please can you take her?”

A little history for new readers.

Our homestead is in the woods
Way back 15 years ago a young farmer found what we thought was a tiny kitten while he was cutting hay.
He brought the kitty to us and asked
“Can you keep her”

Sure; and off to the vets we went with what
we thought was a kitten
The vet checked her over.
This was not a kitten.
It was a 4 month old cat.
Why was it so small?
The vet explained that the animal was starving so it was unable to grow.
Yikes that is so awful.
How could this happen.
The vet explained if cats aren’t fixed they just keep having babies over and over again
People can’t take care of them.
They just dump them somewhere in the woods.

Poor little thing.
Will she be OK?
Hard to say, Maybe, Hard to say.

We brought the little cat home to see if we could nurse her to health.
She got one sardine every three hours
Her tummy was so tiny it could only handle
little bits of food.
With good food and lots of love
The little cat started to grow.
Once nourished we learned she was not a she
The little kitty turned out to be a boy.
Later when he was in good health he was adopted by a wonderful family.
That little starving kitten-cat was the start of the cat re homing project.

In conjunction with
Georgian Animal Hospital over 20 stray, feral and suffering cats have been brought back to health, socialized and placed in loving homes.

So back to Stryker the cat.
Arrangements were made with Georgian check her over.
When the paramedic arrived at the vet with the cat he was asked for the cats name.
Ah Ah
He told us he just called her Stryker after the stretcher that her found her under

That’s how a stray cat got named after an ambulance stretcher.
Stryker was spayed, vaccinated and checked over. She was in good health.

The next day we picked her up and brought her home to the Homestead.

Patiently we slowly worked with her.
She is a beautiful girl.
Brown tabby with expressive eyes.
She was very scarred and it took a long time to socialize her.
We wondered if the homestead would be her forever home.

A few years have gone by and Stryker has blossomed into an affectionate loving lady.

Just the other day we got a call from a family

“Hi Mrs Wilson we are looking for a cat for our family. Sadly our last cat grew old and passed a year ago. At first we didn’t want another pet. Now time has passed and we’re ready for a new kitty.

“So, tell me about yourself and your family”
I need to be sure the cat will go to a very good and loving family.

The answer almost brought tears to my eyes
“I’m a paramedic. I work at the EMS”

We talked awhile and I reiterated the whole story about Stryker.

“Amazing.” he said.

The next day the family arrived at the homestead to visit with Stryker the cat.

The visit went so well.
Stryker ended this wonderful day sleeping at the end of her new families bed.

So there you have it.
The circle
The cat
The paramedic
The homestead
Stryker the cat going Home with the paramedic.

I just love this homestead life.