Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Bling is Back

Bling is back. I had to go retrieve him. He behaved exactly as I told her he might for up to two weeks. He hid under the bed. A day of this behavior however, and she wanted him gone. So I went and got him.

I don't get it, but then I don't get a lot of anything these days. He's back and thrilled to be back, racing around chirping, tail up, fat sides waddling, happy as a clam. Sure I'm frustrated. But oh well. Not much I can do. He's a nice boy.

Frodonnah, THANK YOU, for the Revolution. That is soooo helpful. I appreciate it!

I've been terribly bored lately, with the big lull in getting cats fixed. Terribly alone too. Not much I can do about it. I thought I had a big break when I answered a craigslist ad from Corvallis. A woman was trying to start a walking group. Boy, did I jump on that. But then she e-mailed she wasn't going to do it. I'd tried the same tactic and got only spam responses.

So, I'm working on the home made bed frame. It's slow going because I have to paint the boards. There's not much space in my garage and it's cold in there, so paint dries real real slow! Real slow. Not much space means I paint only a couple boards at a time, one side at a time. I put each end of the board on a live trap sitting upright to paint, in front of my car.

When it's done, it will function and be pretty, unlike the stupid useless Ikea crapola bed frame that came without function. What a rip off. I siced the OR Dept. of Justice pitbulls on them. I hope they get some answers and an apology out of the machine people of Ikea. I am not holding my breath on that, however, and have moved on with my life. The useless pieces of Ikea bedframe wood will become cat runs.

I mean to do some projects. I want to try out a cat teeter totter. I want to make a cat ride down. For that, I will need two pieces of PVC, I figure, maybe four inch, maybe 10 feet long. I will cut a slit down one piece, leaving the pipe intact at each end. I will insert into the PVC with the slit a smaller piece of PVC, at the top of which I will attach cable rope. I will cut a hole in the side of the small piece, into which I will insert and attach an arm that will extrude through the longitudinal slit down the pipe. To that arm I will attach a platform with sides. I will glue carpet to that. This is what the cats will ride down on.

That slit piece carrying the platform, will be attached at an angle, top to bottom, maybe 45 degrees. The smaller piece of pvc inside the larger diameter will have that cable rope attached at its top. That will run over a pulley and down into the second equal length pipe, that will stand vertically. Inside that piece, attached to the other end of the cable rope, I will add counter weight. Weight equal to the weight of the platform would hold it in place, at the top. Cat steps onto the platform and it starts sliding down at the angle. The counter weight will provide resistance and I might add a spring. Once the cat steps off at the bottom, the counter weight will take it back to the top. Won;t that be fun? Yes, it will.

I call it the De-elevator.

I just need to find some free or discarded PVC, is all, since I'm almost broke again.

Then, I want to make another cat wheel. That prototype was fun, but I made it of very very previously used pieces of cedar fence board. It was heavy and fell apart in one summer. The cats loved it, however. Wish I had a welder to weld a lightweight frame. But I don't, so I must get very creative on the next one, with materials, too (the being broke thing).

A bored mind is a dangerous mind. I know mine is. I start wanting to invent cat gadgets of all sorts. I once wanted to create a cat zip line run, from one window to the cat yard. How cool would that be? I know they'd love it. Or grow to love it. I wanted to create a perimeter tube, that went all around the house under the eaves, for the cats to race around and around the house. Boy would that ever have sealed my fate as nuts in this neighborhood, except for with the kids.

I go to garage sales and thrift stores and look at things, and think, oh my gawd, that item could be used for this alternative purpose.

Well anyhow, I better get to bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a call about cats needing fixed. The trailer court preggie is beyond my control. I tried to hand it off, to another person who sometimes traps. She might try it, not sure, however.

The Sprite Oldies still have my traps but are in the midst of a lot of doctor appointments and currently don't want to try for the one remaining unfixed cat amongst all those. Other people I know of, with one or two unfixed cats, don't return my calls on getting them fixed. This is frustrating, but nothing I can do about it.

I only leave the house now to get groceries or, like I did tonight, go retrieve poor Bling. Another storm is supposedly moving in and I am tired of this dreary weather but also wondering what in the world I can do with the rest of my life. I love this house but I am really for homesick for somewhere to live where I can connect with other people and have some recreation. I don't want to die here completely alone surrounded by concrete. I am lonesome for my roots. Maybe I'm just plain lonesome.

I think I do ok really. I think most people who are alone as much as I am would be far crazier than me by now. That's just a guess and I might be wrong.

2 comments:

  1. I don't understand when people expect an animal to behave perfectly normal when their lives have just changed dramatically. Especially when they give them such a short time limit to get it together!

    P.S. You're welcome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. that's really too bad they didn't have the patience for him. i wonder what people think sometimes. we knew tim would need some getting used to - his quirks and all..so we have an alter-name for him..JIM..when he acts up to weezie we call him JIM haha. i know he doesn't even notice. but he comes when you call him

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