Downspout Drain Connection Fail and Redo

I found some ten foot sections of sewer pipe at the Restore, and got five for water containment between the downspouts on the south end of the house, where the underground drain line was destroyed by a fence stud a neighbor put in, before I moved in, that is less than four inches from the house.

Some had holes cracked in them, but on only one side, so big deal.  They were cheap as all get out.

However, the connectors I got did not fit tightly into this pipe, for some reason.  It's not as thick as regular PVC.  What a pain in the neck.  I had tried to solicit help in finding connections that would fit or ideas, at Home Depot, but the employee sent to help, one Carlos, was not interested in doing anything but telling me "we don't sell that stuff".  When I asked where I might get the right connectors, he shrugged and walked away.  Gee, thanks.

So with rain pouring down in torrents today, I did a quick white trash type fix.  It will need redone, because I lacked gaskets.  But most of the water goes now where it's supposed to go, down the storm drain, and not under my house.

I call it the Kitty Litter Bucket Solution!

Pipe to the left brings the water from the far downspout into the bucket.

There's the plastic pipe sticking up from the bottom that carries water underground to the street.  I will fix this so the hole in the bottom of the bucket is smaller than the inside diameter of that drainage pipe, and fill in dirt around it, so the  top of the pipe sticking up is level with the ground, or cut it off.  I didn't have the will to do all this in a downpour today.  Right now the hole I cut in the bottom fits over it, without a gasket, so there is some leakage around the hole edges into the ground.

At the other end, a kitty litter bucket receives the water from the downspout that then drains out through a pipe, stuck through a hole I cut in the side with a box cutter.

The only thing I had to use for a gasket, since I cut the hole sloppily, was a piece I cut from a very old yoga mat.  I had used it once to line cages.  It then had become a doormat.  Now part of the mat is a gasket.

Go ahead, sky, open up again.  Rain on me.  I don't care!

I'm waterproof.

After I came home with Dano and Sunny this morning, from the vet clinic, Dano went to sleep on my pillow.  In the photo above, Starry checks him out.  Both boys were scared at the vet clinic, but Sunny was really scared.

I slept through my alarm.  Sunny had done his escape artist thing, releasing himself from the bathroom.  Frantic and without morning coffee, I searched him out and unceremoniously netted him so I would not be late to the 8:00 a.m. appointment.  This did not please him.

Dano calmed down some, after initially freaking out some, over one employees clothing color, for some reason.  But he was good after that.  But Sunny really freaked and had to be given sedation.

Their blood lab results should be back by this evening.  Sure it was expensive to take two cats to the vet for FIV/Felk tests, exams and basic blood panel.  But when I have already enough cats, plenty of cats, and there is a chance to get them into a good home, and the thing that stands between a home for them, and me keeping them for life, is about $250, what would you do?

I'll tell you what I am going to do, I'm going to shell out and not end up with my dead neighbor's cats.

I could not leave them out to be forgotten, in bad weather, with nobody, after he died.  I could not believe nobody else seemed to care they were out there, after his death.  They're lives!   His possessions are being sold and bought and given here and there.  But nobody wanted them.  Or to help them.

So yes, I've paid my dues in helping my neighbor after his passing.  I would hope someone would do  that for me, when I die.  It's the only thing I have I care about--my cats.  It's all he cared about.  He didn't give a shit about his dead lifeless stuff.

I could not handle two more cats here though.  No options came up locally for the boys.  Some others have stepped in to help with their bill, too, and to them, well, I could kiss them!  Handling that much alone would have been overwhelming!

I hope that blood work they had comes out just fine because if it does, Dano and Sunny get to leave Albany for the green grass of a new home on Saturday.