With a night storm forecast we thought we were on the ball, paying it safe when we disconnected the router and phone before going to bed .. Ha! You are not going to get us this time! At around 2 am the predicted storm arrived, the sky lit up for hours, and the rumbling shook our mountain home till well after 6am. Though it wakes you from your sleep, somehow your take comfort from the fact you’re indoors and you’re not scared. Though there was no wind to contend with the rain bounced off the flat bedroom roof as severe as any Winter storm, and we were quite taken aback to discover in the morning that a lot of the pebble dashing on the side and back of the cottage had literally been stripped off! Still our broadband was safe yeah? Wrong … Mother Nature wins again and the lightening hit the box in the village causing damage that can not be fixed in a day! Well maybe another company could but when Sky have to call in Open Reach you know it’s going to take time to get anything done!
3g is really poor here but occasionally I can just about log into Facebook and see the odd post. I was amused to discover someone’s “working bred” GSD’s were terrified of the storm. I’m not amused at the dogs distress only at the fact the owner regularly comments that the “show line bred” GSD is not fit for function, unlike her “Working line” dogs. Well my show line dogs slept through the storm, they didn’t give a flying feck about it! In this case … Point made I think!
Mikey is doing well on the gabapentin. The vet treating him is on holiday and another vet decided to cut the dosage by half on the repeat prescription. I’m quite concerned but they assure me this is sufficient as a maintenance dose. He does look odd .. I’m not sure what I mean by that, but his expression is different, his eyes almost popping out of his head his pupils a little “starey.” Maybe he’s a bit “high?” Maybe I should try them???
21/7/16 “Oh What I Have Done!”
Sharon who owns Maya, Asha and Mikey’s sister, works at Ffor vets. Every year throughout “Kitten season” she takes in dozens of unwanted, farm or feral kittens. She domesticates them, nurses them to health when needed before finding homes for them. So many kittens in this area owe their life to her. A couple of weeks ago a litter of ferals where trapped in Wynnstay in Rhosfawr. Sadly up till now mum has avoided being caught. Ideally, she should be trapped neutered and released back in the same area. A feral cat after all is as close to a wild animal as you can get and don’t take kindly to incarceration. But the little people, caught early have a chance of making it as domestic pets. Though she is very careful Sharon’s kittens are usually rehomed quickly through her work place and this litter were no exception .. apart from one of them! Sharon has christened the little guy that was left “Jamie” and the first time I saw him was when we took Mikey in. (the day we both thought he may not come home!) Already an emotional wreck I cried as I cuddled him, well we couldn’t call him Jamie could we … there can be only one! Yeah, Jamie, Junior and … Jimmy I joked! Updates told me during the week that other kittens had come and gone, but little Jimmy was still there. I even mentioned him to someone who said they would love a kitten, but not that one! Hell why? What’s wrong with him? He’s not the most glamorous guy in the world but he’s not plain, actually he’s quite cute with bags of personality! My heart ached for him, and I started sharing his rehoming post on Facebook. 6 days later I was back at the vets collecting meds for Mikey .. yes Jimmy was still there. That night I couldn’t sleep, all I could think about was Mikey and Jimmy, Jimmy and Mikey .. and whether I could make it work for the little guy here .. or not! The conclusion was, well why not? I would be breaking my own 6 cat rule, but what the hell! Jimmy arrived at Blanik at 7 pm last night, and the name has stuck!22/7/16
Mikey is doing really well, the reduced dose of Gabapentin does not seem to have made any difference to his mobility. I was concerned at first, but now agree with the decision to reduce the dose. The original huge dose gave him the boost he needed, and that vet saw him whilst he was in tremendous pain. As I said yesterday, at one point we didn’t think we would be bringing him home that day. Anyway now a lesser maintenance dose is sufficient .. and Mikey is more himself. He has lost that strange expression, is eating well and today he came for his first walk since before my surgery. The lump is enormous.. horrible to look at but now that the pain is under control again it is not affecting him.Jimmy is settling well, occasionally uncertain of himself but getting more affectionate and playful with every hour. As I held him in my arms earlier I cried. I reassured him, it wasn’t that nobody wanted him, it wasn’t like that at all. Someone somewhere had a plan, it was just fate that he should come here to be with us, he was the one chosen to come here when we needed someone to lift up our spirits! He was never left behind.. he was chosen!
It was only the beginning of the week when I giggled at a news report on how bad Open Reach’s customer service is. No other company could get away with their shoddy shitty service, and they should loose their contract to be in control of all broadband/internet and telephone resources, get a bit of competition and they may pull their socks up. They have treated us disgracefully on more than one occasion … awful company and I don’t care if their broadband is cheaper then can stick it where the sun don’t shine! I’ve managed two short walk today .. and I’m proud of myself. I also drove the van to the village to post a card yesterday, bloody great! Sadly I could not do three walks, but the others got a run in the field with Steve whilst I was out. I’ll try and mix and match for a week or so now, before maybe building up to the third walk next week end. Here’s hoping.
Mikey is still doing well, I’m pleased to say he’s been quite a vocal knob today! His breathing isn’t perfect, but at least his pain management is working, and that’s all I ask. Quality pain free time whilst we still have him .. and also I’ve just measure the lump, it has not grown this week, so I guess another blessing! Maybe we can start to look further forward than day by day? Here’s hoping!
24/7/16
Out of pure frustration Steve phoned Sky at 4pm yesterday, not being able to use his kindle fire, he’s now lost too. The report from Open Reach was that the fault was fixed … errr NO! I’m not just saying this, but Sky are so helpful, they would ring Open Reach and get back to us within 30 mins, they did! Though Open Reach’s online documents record the fault as fix, on speaking to someone Sky were told, there was more damage than expect, we have ordered parts .. now hang on isn’t that what they said on Wednesday? Well yes, almost word for word!
I will need to ring the vets tomorrow and order more gabapentin for Mikey .. Oh by the way, not that it matters, but they are not expensive. It was the antibiotics prescribed with them that were expensive, had I looked at the break down of the bill I would have known! I hope to discuss with the vet the chance of getting a longer prescription, maybe a months worth of tablets. I’m hoping he will agree and have faith in us to now monitor Mikey’s quality of life, we will not let him suffer, we would never “keep him going” for us. Quality of life and no pain is paramount. Sammi is still not in season, though the boys are still showing great interest. I’m quite disappointed as she’s now getting to a point that I didn’t want to be in. To be honest to keep away from the Xmas period she needs to come in season now, or within a week or so at least! I really need this, I need something to focus on and look forward too. Come on Sammi, we want Ole x Sammi babies, shit I already have a pet name for my little girl! (No I’m not saying)
25/7/16
As we sat having breakfast this morning Jimmy was busy emptying the contents of his toy box all over the kitchen floor. Steve and I just watched .. mesmerised at his antics. He’s such a happy, busy little boy, who only seems to get demanding when he gets tired. Steve commented that the tabby smudge on Jimmy’s face made his face look dirty. I only see a tabby marking, Steve sees a dirty face. I wonder if others saw the same as Steve, I wonder if some people saw a dirty face and that was enough to sway them towards another kitten? People can be so fickle can’t they! Anyway to be honest, who really cares? Jimmy is part of our family … he even met a couple of the boys yesterday, and that went really well.
Yesterday was the worse day for me so far without my broadband. I found it all so totally frustrating, everything I wanted to do involved the internet. I could see from the phone that there were photos coming in from the breed shows .. but I couldn’t open any of them. A friend posted pics of their pups … I couldn’t open them. Steve’s niece and family came to visit, she posted pics of her kids with Asha and Loki … I couldn’t open them! I go so frustrated that I gave myself a headache! The 2 dogs where great with the kids, and though the kids where not 100% confident they were respectful and did as they were told. The youngest was desperate to stroke a cat, but with only Tia in the room we convinced them it wasn’t a wise move!
Right best get this vet rung and see where we go from here ….
Still no broadband but Linda has lent me her dongle. It will be Thursday before Open Reach make it to Fron!
Photo of a happy Mikey!
