Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Poor Haley

Haley has taken a turn for the worse, with her dental issues.   She originally had an appointment end of December but I'm not sure she can wait that long.  I'll call the clinic today, get on their cancellation list for her and try to think of somewhere else she could be seen.  It's not easy to find a place that will do feral dentals, as I've discovered over the years, without being charged over $1000.

I probably won't be able to get in elsewhere either before that.  Appointments even for spay neuter are a scrounge job now, as they are hard to find.  I don't know if that means more people are fixing their cats or that we've had an entire state with a population explosion.  Demand is extreme but affordable places to get it done do not abound.

I think its more that people have discovered the more affordable options through social media and are relieved to find somewhere they can actually afford, but unfortunately supply can't meet demand.


Without appointments most of the month, I've had a lot of time.  Been reading a lot but also doing projects and there are always more than I can ever get done.

I cleaned the gutters and just got a can of Flex Seal to try, once again, to repair two chronic gutter leaks at either end of the gutter running along the far back of the garage over the cat yard.  They are more the result of inadequate downspout numbers, so the gutter back of the garage, hanging over the cat yard, collects water.  The slope isn't right and  there is only one downspout even close to drain out the water.  My brother always was going to add another back there, but he hasn't visited his own house, this one, in years.

He's in San Salvador right now, with a friend of his from his church, checking out building sites.  I haven't heard anything from him or his wife, who is I believe in Wisconsin maybe, with his friends wife and kids, while my brother and his friend are both in San Salvador.  I assume all is going fine with his trip.   The major issue he will deal with there is heat.  He's not good with heat, being born and raised near the southern Oregon coast where fog, wind, rain and overcast are the norm.

I have been putting up mini blinds over windows, not only for privacy but to reduce heat loss.  The windows are very old, 50 years old in fact now, with aluminum frames.  They lose my heat to the outside and lost heat means higher electric bills.   Also, when the darkness comes so early, with lights on in the house, people outside can see in too easily.   Guess I"m getting prudish or something.  I don't really like window coverings, like to feel open and see the stars at night, let the sun shine in, what little we get, watch storms.   But, I also don't like people staring in at me.  Hence the blinds.   I've reduced myself some years to covering windows with reflective insulation, blankets, even cardboard when my electric bills are going sky high.

I had one Butternut squash, a small one.   I cut it up and roasted the pieces then made it into soup.  Simple ingredients, just the squash, onions, and vegetable broth, salt, pepper, olive oil and a dash of cinnamon.   It was delicious.  Today I may get some leeks, and make a leek soup with potatoes, onions and corn too.  I like soup in the winter.

This morning, I headed to 7-11 early, because I was out of coffee here.   I get there, get out, go in, come back out to my car, and stare with mouth open at my drivers seat.


It's the neighbor's Siamese!  Fluffy Butt!

He apparently got in my car at some point yesterday evening when the windows were open, then hunkered down in there when I came out to close up the car before bed.  When I saw him in there, at 7-11, after the initial shock, I cracked the door, slipped one arm in, got him by the scruff, while I climbed in, drove home with him sitting calmly on the passenger seat, then let him out.  
Fluffy Butt also likes to hang out in my garage, if I leave the door open, and sometimes gets closed in there, if I don't see him.  The latest tame guy in my yard, Buffy, also likes to come in my garage.  I feel like a kitty daycare, an unpaid one however.








9 comments:

  1. I left my windows open in the car when I was a teenager, and a cat got in overnight, because it was cold out.

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    1. I would too, if it were cold and I was a cat and there was a open window on a car. He's usually in my garage now, if he can sneak in, sleeping on a chair with a cushion. My reading chair! Ha.

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  2. Anonymous2:01 PM

    Fluffy Butt obviously likes you.

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  3. Have you tried any of the storm plastic over your windows? It will blur your view some, so it wouldn't be for everyone of them. However, it's relatively inexpensive and really helps. The house I grew up in had no insulation and we would regularly have frost on our outlets. Plastic around the windows was the only way we survived downstairs.

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    Replies
    1. I just got some of that! I also got some sheet plastic to make some windows covers with using just some very thin framing wood. I can also staple it. It's thicker than the heat shrink I usually get, but I got some of that too, the stuff you then use a blow dryer on.
      I remember in Alaska, the cold would be so intense, when I lived in a tiny apartment, with an oil heater, that the ice on the inside of the windows would be an inch thick. Frost on outlets seems dangerous! I used to get those inserts for outlets at one place I lived, for outlets, that were supposed to insulate from cold air coming through the wall to inside. Do you remember those? Lots of places I've lived had zero insulation, so happy more of that is done now.

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  4. we are sending Haley some purrayers and POTP to get her through her dental issues.
    we're also glad FB got home safely. We have aneighbor cat who joins us at meals...

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, I think I'm going to have to use the emergency vet for her and hope very much she doesn't have mouth cancer. It's an expensive alternative but the appointment for her is too far off at my regular vet.

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  5. I hope you can give us good news on Haley. Stay safe, yourself! Best wishes, my dear.

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