Homeless Cat -- Now Spotacus' Legacy

[Wanderlost]

On 18 Dec, a very large cat showed up at our house. It was late and cold, and he looked in the door and made it clear he wanted inside. Well, since we have two cats already and he was a stranger, we could not let him in the house. WLToo walked out and the cat ran to him, so he walked the cat into the garage and into the climate controlled room out there.

He was extremely hungry and thirsty, but in otherwise good condition and very clean. We fixed up a bed for him, set up the feeding and elimination stations, and went to bed.

Next day, we worked in the garage all day, while the big guy slept or supervised. We found him to be an intact male, no sign he's ever worn a collar, and he has a strong need to be in the general vicinity of humans. For an intact male, he's remarkably mellow - I don't think he was the alpha cat in his previous home.

Have had zero responses to the "found cat" notices around the area and online, so we'll be working with the local rescues to get him neutered and all his shots, then find him a home. We can't keep him because he's just too big for our two cats to share our small house. Alex would have another emotional meltdown, and I don't want to go through that mess again (long, ugly story).

For now, we're calling him Spot, not that he answers to it (does answer to "Kitty, Kitty"). No idea how he travels; we'll find out when we take him to the vet on Tuesday.

If anyone knows of someone who would like a large (about 15-18 pounds) cat who needs to be with people, please let me know. No cat novices, please; this cat needs someone who knows exactly how to handle an adult cat of this size, especially when he's feeling frisky.





We're at Canyon Lake, TX, so if there are any Winter Texans nearby who would like to meet him and maybe give him a home, that would be great.

[Wanderlost]

The concert was wonderful. Afterwards, us alumni all gathered onstage for a photo with our director. At age 92, he's still truly amazing, both as a director/conductor and as a mentor.

Barn swallows are feeding six fledglings, so Czarny won't even try to go outside on the north. I walk with him from the house's south side to the west side of the garage, where Obi-Wander is parked, before he feels safe outside. He managed several hours outside yesterday, but only about an hour today before he wanted back inside. If he decided to be a solely inside cat, I'd be fine with that.

Saw a Cook's Country episode for a pork loin cooked with 40 cloves of garlic. I'll be making that later this week. Gathering family tomorrow for enchiladas. Think I'll have each one of them take a turn at scrubbing the dead algae out of the swimming pool, too....heheheh.

Time to change the pool filter again. Later, y'all.

[Wanderlost]

Nothing fierce, just a fair amount of rain, which we desperately need.

I sat on the north porch this morning, sewing buttons on a shirt. The barn swallows talked a lot, but didn't do anything. Then Czarny stepped outside and walked over to me, and they went nuts. He hid behind my chair, but they continued to swoop nearby. Poor guy gave up and low crawled back into the house, and the birds immediately reverted to normal. I gave him a few bites of beef jerky, and he's asleep on one of his towers.

Had a lovely dinner with my university band director and about 12 other WT alumni. As we finished, a young man who graduated from our university last week came up and chatted with us for a bit. Then we just up and sang the fight song, which silenced the otherwise unbearably loud rest of the restaurant, and then they applauded.

While the food there was good, the overall ambiance was one of noise and more noise. They also had a total of six handicap parking spaces, all some distance from the door - not the best organized parking I've ever seen in a restaurant that large. Don't think we'll go back.

The concert is this afternoon. In fact, it's a little over an hour's drive away, and we need to allow for dropping SU at the door, then me finding a parking place, etc. So we'll need to leave in a few minutes.

Later, y'all.

[magnusfide]

Glad to know you didn't get any of that fierce weather. Or did you?

[Wanderlost]

With six babies in the nest, the barn swallows are definitely swooping Czarny. What I don't understand is why they don't feel we're a threat, because they certainly don't scream "Predator!" and swoop when we're out on the porch or deck.

This morning, Czarny went out the south door and promptly hid behind the trash can. Since it's quite pleasant, I left the door open for a bit. When I came back out of the bathroom, Czarny was up on his tower, bathing. Appears today is not the day he'll be outside. Darn swoopy birds...

Spousal Unit had steroid injections into his spinal area around the herniated disks. They said it might be as long as two weeks before he feels the full benefit, yet he said the pain was getting less as we drove away from the surgical center. Hope that's a sign that it will have a definite beneficial effect. Meanwhile, his physical therapy seems to be helping. He can stand a teensy bit longer than previously, so he's hopeful things will continue to improve over the next two weeks.

The deck stain is, frankly, ugly to my eyes. Looks like an indifferent brand of paint slapped all over it, unlike last year's less thick stain. That was a glorious western cedar red color, which went perfectly on the cedar boards. This is a slightly red, mostly tan(ish) glop. We knew the stain would be thicker in later years, but yuck. At least the color still blends with the stucco and limestone. I just miss last year's color. I will suggest to them they add a bit of red to next year's stain, since stains do have to have more pigment added the older the deck is. I have to wonder if eventually the "stain" will really just be a thick oil-based paint. Well, as long as it's actually a properly reddish cedar color, I can live with that. This year? Well, it's sealed...

Getting tons of exercise cleaning the pool after the salt cell died and green algae took over. New salt cell's in place, the majority of the spring live oak pollen and leaf shed has been scraped out of the pool, and now I'm ready to kill some algae and get that pool ready for me to live in it. As long as the sun's not beating down on me, cleaning the pool filter is kind of relaxing. Scrubbing the pool edges isn't -- but I learned something about the salt cell I didn't know, and promptly upped the chlorine generation percentage, so maybe we won't be algaed as much in future. It's a lot of work at times, but that pool is so worth it -- it's my refuge.

My university band director is "retired", yet at age 92, he's still guest directing. Local alumni are gathering tonight for a dinner with him, and then we'll attend the Heart of Texas Concert Band performance tomorrow, with Dr. Garner directing and several alumni performing as soloists. Very much looking forward to that.

Time to change the pool filter again. Later, y'all.

[magnusfide]

Wanderlost wrote:
Deck staining is finished, pool salt cell replaced, F-150 and Jeep repairs complete. Now I have to work up the energy to mow the green stuff around the house...

Spousal Unit has physical therapy twice a week now. I think it's helping.

Czarny is back to demanding I walk him, even though the current barn swallows have shown no indication of swooping down at him. It's kinda funny. At least I get my steps in, although walking with a cat is rather time consuming...

Back to the movie now. Later, y'all.

I gotta admit that walks with Molly Cat are much easier than with our hyperactive Irish terrier. I swear that dog’s got acute ADHD. It wears me out when I walk him. I’ll take the cat stroll any time.:W

[Wanderlost]

Deck staining is finished, pool salt cell replaced, F-150 and Jeep repairs complete. Now I have to work up the energy to mow the green stuff around the house...

Spousal Unit has physical therapy twice a week now. I think it's helping.

Czarny is back to demanding I walk him, even though the current barn swallows have shown no indication of swooping down at him. It's kinda funny. At least I get my steps in, although walking with a cat is rather time consuming...

Back to the movie now. Later, y'all.

[Wanderlost]

Tornados are such a rarity here that pretty much no one has shelters. Houses are built on concrete slabs for the most part, as cutting into the limestone to build a basement is a very expensive proposition.

Weather has finally cleared and it's a gorgeous day. Deck will have a chance to fully dry out before the deck staining guys get here tomorrow.

Czarny's outside, loving the weather and avoiding the two does who seem to have claimed our meadow. We should see a fawn or two in a month or less. Just hope the fawns survive this year and whatever illness that killed them last year doesn't manifest again.

The hummingbirds are going through an entire feeder of nectar every other day. We must not have enough hummingbird plants in the meadow. We have lots of Asclepias asperula (antelope-horns milkweed) for the monarch butterfly larvae, so there is that.

Think I'll join Czarny on the porch. It's way too nice to be inside. Later, y'all.

[magnusfide]

Yep those power surges are a misery. The house appliances can't handle it. Be safe during tornado season. Do you have a basement or shelter?

[Wanderlost]

Getting a bit calmer around here. Just a couple more Mom medical appts, then nothing for a whole month. The salt cell for our pool is supposed to be installed today, and then I can finally get the pool ready for use. Our barrier free shower is finally, finally finished and functional. And most important, our insurance paid for the solar panel microinverters to be replaced; just need to get that scheduled.

What's that about, you ask? Back in Feb, a 300 watt power surge shot down the electric line and fried 26 of our 50 solar panels' microinverters before the system shut itself off. At least nothing inside the house got fried. But it's taken until now to get the solar panel company to sort out what was broken and what it would cost to fix. We will also be asking them to install a surge protector between the power line and the solar array, since we've definitely learned that lesson...

A few weeks ago, and again last Thursday, we had severe weather that snapped a lot of tree branches; Thursday included a tornado one mile west of us that we couldn't even hear for the hail pounding sideways under our porch roof and into the windows (nothing broke). So we've got an arborist coming in regularly, working on all our trees. The ones he's done so far look magnificent - we didn't know we had that many speciman oaks.

Now we're both recovering from a 72-hour nose runs like a faucet virus, followed by several days of coughing up phlegm. We never felt sick, just went through boxes and boxes of tissues.

My beloved F-150 is in the shop for two failing O2 sensors and a wiring issue in one window. Should get him back first thing tomorrow.

Czarny's enjoying the lovely weather, although he'd still prefer I was outside with him...

The wildflowers are profuse, in spite of us still being in extreme drought. The barn swallows are back and nesting, the hummingbirds nag me for refills regularly, and the fox family is around (we hear, just haven't seen). One doe is very pregnant and thoroughly exploring the meadow.

Life's pretty good, all things considered. And now it's time to go work at the library. Later, y'all.

[magnusfide]

I’m sorry to hear about med expenses. My wife went through chemo but a couple years ago they cleared her and only has to see the dr once a year now. Hopefully your spousal unit can also be declared clear.

Our new cat is pretty chill. So chill in fact that she waits for us to dangle the feather tease while lying on her back. She doesn’t move just waits for it to be within reach then bats it if she feels like it. She’d rather be in our laps watching tv. Laser pointer? Big deal. She’s not interested. :C

[Wanderlost]

This whole month has been non-stop, either medical appointments to drive someone to, household stuff needing repairs, and an upcoming writers' conference. I'm rather looking forward to the single appointment in May...

Spousal Unit learned that he will be taking an expensive medication the rest of his life to keep the cancer at bay. That necessitated a rearrangement of the household budget, as the co-pay is $600 a month. He's also finally getting physical therapy, and can even drive himself to/from that appointment.

Czarny, meanwhile, is having an interesting time... He loves a minced beef and salmon canned food, but every single time he eats it, he throws it up not five minutes later. When we get back from the writers' convention, I'll examine that food in detail to find out why he can't eat that one, but can eat other beef and salmon foods.

I gave the Czarny-can't-eat-that cans to Short Friend. Her cat, Millie, loves it and keeps it down just fine. Didn't want to have any cans here for the house/cat sitter to accidentally give to Czarny...

Time to get busy packing again. Later, y'all.

[magnusfide]

Homeownership fun never ends.


Just don't wear a read shirt.

[Wanderlost]

Freakin' Cardassians. They annoy me nonstop. Grrrr....

No kyphoplasty today. Doc looked at the pictures and said the targeted areas are already full of bone cement; nothing to do there. I believe he was a mite ticked at whomever wrote the report that led to this scheduling...

So now we'll concentrate on alleviating SU's herniated disks.

Spent the evening on the deck, enjoying the weather, until the front arrived with high winds. Czarny stayed out there, relaxing on the deck furniture until after dark.

Pool pump repairman supposed to be here Saturday. The chlorine generator seems to have quit. The joys of home ownership -- just one danged thang after another...

This week was so busy that I'm exhausted. Good thing there's nothing going on tomorrow -- except another 50-word short story challenge from our publisher. Hope one of mine makes it into one of these books.

Think I'll have an early night. Later, y'all.

[magnusfide]

WL & WL2:
I'm sorry to hear of your battles against the Cardassians and Ferengi. They have no honor. Hopefully they'll all go back to the Neutral Zone and leave you alone. Next time you talk to the shower people growl this at them in Klingon!





Q'Plah!

[Stephany]

Wow! I am a retired copywriter who took pride in writing tight, but writing a complete story in 50 words would be tough!

Sadly, we also usually have trouble with contractors. I have never heard of a bank who was so eager to pay! And now your solar panels! I hope their replacement goes smoothly.

Stephany