This and That

I've had two fillings fall out in the last weeks.  I called my dentist.  I have coverage for fillings, check ups and emergency extraction, but for nothing else. If I needed a crown, I'd have to shell out probably $1200 to $1500 and I don't have that, so instead I've had to have teeth pulled.

  Most of my life I did not have any coverage to speak of.  So my teeth were in bad shape when I got a dentist here in town and I had to have multiple fillings.  I got them over a few month period by signing up to be called in on cancellations.  Turns out there were lots of cancellations.  Some days, I was called in twice.  I was very very happy to get my teeth fixed.

Some of the fillings needed were large and they are more inclined to crack and fall out.  I've had a few fall out.  I notice when suddenly I get something crunchy or grainy in my mouth. One of the fillings is particularly large and I was told, would never hold.  Well it has held quite a long time until two days ago, when suddenly a large chunk came out, like a rock.

That's when I called.   They have no openings even for exams until July.  For any work to be done, it's September.   But, they gave me a come and wait appointment early June.  That means I show up, with a book, and wait and hope to be worked in.  I am happy to have this opportunity.  It's doubtful any work can be done however outside of xrays.  But with an xray,  I can then officially be on the cancellation list.  So that's good news.

I stopped in at the Waterloo store yesterday.  I"d already returned Sly to his home, so I was feeling free and happy, with no extra cats to care for here.  The store clerk, whom I'd helped with cats, was happy to see me and said she'd lost my number and needed it.    An older man comes in, she said, and told her he has kittens with eyes glued shut from gunk, under his place and some adults and he doesn't feed them or even know where they came from.  She said he comes in every day and she'd give him my number immediately.

So much for my break.

I'd been called also by an Albany woman.  She had a female cat show in her yard with newborn kittens, but she kept moving them around, like a first time mom often does, and one died.  So she took the other two, only ten days old, into her house but the little boy wouldn't take the formula so she needed a trap to catch mom.   I took one over but the cat wouldn't go for it with the kittens in a carrier behind it.  It was day time, however, and neighbors have dogs and anytime you walk anywhere dogs start barking and charging fences.

Later she got the mom.  She put the kittens in a large carrier and waited patiently beside it.  The mom went into the carrier after a short time, unable to resist the cries of her kittens and she slammed the door of the carrier shut.

She's fostering them all herself under the guidance of KATA.

I have several situations to finish and a couple new ones to get at, but I'm sticking to my plans not to do any cat fixing in July.  I have no appointments and won't be making any.

There will always be unfixed cats but summers here are short and sometimes marred by wildfire smoke that fouls the air or something else, so I want to enjoy life a little bit, maybe go to the lake with my raft, nothing fancy since I'll never have any money for much of anything.  But that's nothing here.  There was an article in the paper recently saying 50% of the people in this county where I live, live in poverty or even below the poverty level.  That was no surprise to me.