Fireworks

 I didn't do anything on the 4th of July.  It was a very hot day, nearly 100 degrees, as was yesterday.

I had come home from camping to find one of my cats in trouble.   It was Shaulin, who is 14 1/2, and who seemed fine before I left for camping.  She's a wild thing though, whom the petsitter would not even have seen.

She came out wobbling from under the bed, lurching, almost like she had vertigo, like Rogue, but not quite the same.   I wondered if somehow, she'd fallen or suffered from heat while I was gone.  But she usually stays inside.   However, her usual sleeping perch is up by the bedroom window.  She had been sleeping there still before I left.  So I imagine she fell, while I was gone. As since my return, she has only wanted ground level.

I had her in the bathroom then, giving her fluids sub cu, trying to decide what to do.  It was far too hot to attempt the drive to the coast clinic, in my old car.   I'm not so content taking a feral to a vet around here, as it seems to be the reaction is to euthanize without question.

So, giving her fluids and whatever else I have for a depleted kitty, is my first option.  I cleaned her ears in case this was an ear infection exhibiting, wormed her and syringe fed her.   

I may make the trek Saturday to the coast.

She would not eat while in the bathroom, which is often the case with a feral, so I let her out last night.  She is walking better, but something is quite wrong.   

I spent much of the fourth in my kiddie pool, to stay cool.

I cover the pool when I'm not using it, to keep out bugs, the sun (algae growth) and neighbor cats.

Butterfly bush is finally starting to bloom.   Not sure I'll get any blackberries from my tiny patch.   I cut them back too far last winter.  My raspberries, along the side of the house, should produce a good crop, however.

The fireworks were louder than ever around here evening of the fourth.  There were probably five households within about a block each way shooting off massive numbers of illegal fireworks.  The law does not enforce the limits on legal fireworks, despite the large numbers of fires and injuries caused by them each year.

The people who get these illegal fireworks, that are the same as the ones shot off in public displays put on by pros have to be wealthy, due to their cost.   Even the legal ones, that can't shoot off the ground, are really expensive now.

I saw one Green Heron adult take off from near the corner, where I'd seen the fledgling heron.   She was making a run for it, literally through the blasts.  Two of the illegal fireworkers were shooting off very very close to where she was living in a tree.   To see her try to get through the blasts created a rage within me.   Every fire off thereafter made me pace and feel a dread.  My cats were picking up on my anxiety, so I went out to sit in my car.

My brother and his wife finally got back from "vacation"---the long long road trip, then five days or so in Nashville.   They were helping their daughter move.   I haven't talked to them, just got a text they were home and happy to be home.

I have no credit card currently, since I fell for a scam site that was pretending to be a Bed Bath and Beyond closing sale.  They had cat trees super cheap.  Too cheap.  I should have known better.  I use that card to buy my groceries so I'm in a pickle so to speak for awhile.