Bogieblog

Goodbye Sweet Rita 8/23/2023

You were always ready to immediately forgive my transgressions such as giving you baths or making you take meds. You talked a good game and would growl mightily, or would try to push away whatever was bothering you with your paws, but never ever used your claws or teeth. You hung on for as long as you could and I'm glad I could give you a final release from your pain, although it hurt my heart to do so. Play free my good kitty.

The story of Rita's Adoption

Rita settles in with Fuzzy

Rita's introduction to the kittens

 

Sunbathing

Wednesday, I caught Rainey and Spot sunbathing in/next to the living room window. It was cool and windy, but they were nice and warm.

I moved a lot of plants out to the back porch, so Spot is enjoying getting to stretch out. I had also dropped the curtain panel on the big window pane to let in the solar gain and the cats like to lay on the extra padding it provides.

That night I had to bring in most of the plants as we had a frost warning (got down to 28*). I finally got to put them back out late yesterday morning as our temps should be fine from here forward

The creeping phlox are finally in full bloom. If you remember, last week only the bright pink phlox were blooming (they get more sun). I was happy the bright pinks lasted log enough to get a picture of all together.

An 8-10' branch from the neighbor's lilac came down over the winter. Weirdly it still leafed out and bloomed anyway. While cleaning up his yard last weekend,  I took a couple of snips from it before tossing the rest into his brush pile (the vase is 10" tall for scale). Yes, they smelled as good as they looked. 

Both the blooms and leaves stayed fresh a good long time too. Most of the week they took massive amounts of water so I filled the vase several times a day. I emptied the vase yesterday evening. I could have kept them another day or two as the leaves were only half wilted, but decided to stick the branches into the ground by the shed and see if they do anything. Probably not, but you don't know unless you try.

For Those Who Wonder

Cop Car asked if the youngsters voluntarily go into the cat pen. Yes, all the time. I happened to notice Rainey in it yesterday. If you look at the very bottom of the picture, just right of center, you can see the bottom door is open (as it is all the time unless I have a reason to contain them).

They do not view being in the pen as punishment at all. This was not done by training per se, I used the pen to keep them corralled when I first got them as kittens. It kept them safe from Rita (just in case) and hazards within the house while I was at work. They spent 12+ hours a day in there (obviously with a cat box, food and water). When they were small, it was plenty big enough for them.

Once they "graduated" to having access to the entire house all the time, I still left the bottom door open so they could enter and exit freely. Some days they don't use the interior at all, other days one or both of them are in it for a good long nap (or to grab toys).

Youngster Shenanigans

Had to go into the office a couple of weeks ago for computer issues. When I got back home, Rainey was in the bedroom window

Then last Monday the kitchen faucet suddenly developed a leak under the cabinet so I called a plumber to take care of it (after turning off the water lines). It turned out to be a simple fix that I could have done myself if it had happened over the weekend, but I was working so didn't have time to investigate and fiddle with it. While the plumber was here, I had the two youngsters in the cat pen. I'm unsure what Rainey was trying to accomplish on the floor of the pen. Maybe she was trying to hide, or maybe she was trying to use it as a blanket (she loves to sleep under blankets).

 

November Pictures

On 11/20/2022, the Thanksgiving cactus was blooming. I found it strange, but pretty, that it decided to throw some white flowers instead of the usual salmon color I am used to

On the 29th of November, I had my bi-annual eye tests. I'm not sure how to read the pictures, but the doctor could see floaters, cataracts, keratoconus, "wrinkle" (in right eye from retinal tears), and blood vessel health (which we are watching for glaucoma). I didn't see the results from the visual field test, but she said they were holding steady compared to 6 months ago. Which for me means there is no evidence of macular degeneration or additional impairment from the 4 cataracts.

From the solar array monitoring app, this is the performance for the month of November.  It is plain to see which days were very cloudy (the blue lines show production). Two things to keep in mind: the energy independence is only for the time that it was producing (roughly half the month) and that I was away for 5 of those days so my energy use itself was lower than normal.

And some pictures that the pet-sitter sent after each visit

No pics of Rainey. Not surprised, and I had told the pet sitter she would not see Rainey at all - I would have been shocked if she had.

Pictures from 11/05/2022

Last Saturday was nice and I did some outside work. One of those jobs was to touch up caulk on the back side of the house. I bought the brown caulk several months ago, and just got around to doing the job. I didn't necessarily think the brown would be the "right" brown to match the siding, but I was not expecting this.

So now there is a bunch of plum colored stripes in various places back there [shaking head]

I went out to water the pot of mums in the roadside garden and noticed a couple of things: 1st, that the Japanese maple had dumped all its leaves overnight (literally). Second, the Coppertina Ninebark, although mostly leafless, had a bit of color hanging on.

 

The colder mornings have the squirrels building winter nests. The first is in the northeast corner and the second is on the east side. I'm surprised there aren't more as there are 4, sometimes 5, squirrels that are regularly in my yard.

Spot and Rainey (L to R) were exhausted from watching birds, squirrels and bugs

And, if you look really close, you can see a faint reflection of Rita sitting in the window - an ear is to either side of the post of the cat tree and her back is behind the dangly ball.

Kitties on Cat Trees

The cats have enjoyed the cat towers immensely, including the refurbished one that I finished the last Friday of November. First the finished product of the refurbish project. The cats love the sisal that I installed. It is of a thicker cord than that on the new cat tree, and they prefer the thicker type. Well, except Rita, she uses the wood chair that I have kept over the years just because that is what she uses.

So, now on to the cuteness:

 

New Cat Tree

The old cat tree was looking really sad and beat up. Understandable since I got it from the side of the road (obviously well used) back in 2014. I replaced the sisal but otherwise the rest was original. It has seen use from 5 cats (Tory and Fuzzy and now Rita, Spot and Rainey). I've been looking for a new cat tree for the last couple of months. I wanted a larger one, but didn't like the prices for those that seemed solid and not cheaply made. A couple of weeks ago Am*zon had some cat trees on sale, plus I had a lot of cash back from my cc to use, and finally decided to buy.

It arrived on Monday and after I logged off of work for the day I tackled the job. The box of parts was packed to the max. It was hard to believe that a cat tree that reaches my eye level was all in there.

This was both funny and frustrating. Every single part was labeled very well and basically in the order of use. The bag of hardware, on the other hand, was just a jumble of parts that I had to separate out and keep track of which screw was which.

Spt (in the cube) and Rainey checking it out right after the above picture was taken.

Rita being casual about checking it out a bit later. If you look really close, on the left, you can see Spot is still in the cube and eyeballing Rita.

Rita in the lower cave a couple of days later.

I will be stripping down the old cat tree and recovering it. I've already started but will put that in another post when I get it done.

One Smart Kitty

Spot is way too smart for my good. All summer she has been stymied from laying in the garden window in the bathroom by the double-cellular shade I installed. The shade is pretty stiff, so can't just be pushed aside and is the cordless lift type. I pull the shade in the morning to reduce solar heat gain but she really liked that window to lay in the sun.

On cooler / cloudy days I indulge her by lifting the shade about 1/3 of the way up to allow access. That leaves plenty of room for her to jump/walk in. The last several time I noticed her watching me intensely as I did so. Tuesday I saw her in the window and didn't remember pulling up the shade. But I figured I must have. Wednesday, I found her in there and KNEW I hadn't indulged her since there was just enough room for her to crawl under the shade.

Yesterday afternoon I was was changing out the trashcan liner in the bathroom, and Spot was sitting on the toilet (I leave the lid down), and she was looking intently at the shade. So I stood and watched. She pushed with a paw several times until the shade swung enough toward her to clear the window ledge (this is not easy, not like a regular shade, this one wants to stay in place). Then she stuck her nose under it and lifted gently and she kept nudging it until she had just enough room to get her body thru. The whole episode took a minute or maybe a minute and a half. Then she gave me a proud-as-punch look before crawling onto the ledge.

The little chit - so smart. But, she was so gentle with the shade, not using her claws or batting at it hard, so can't be mad. Plus, she left a minimal slot (not nearly as much room as I would have given her). Hopefully her sister doesn't catch her performing this trick. Rainey isn't one to think up antics, bu she sure as heck is happy to learn how after seeing Spot do it a few times.

 

Investigating the "box"

So the two youngsters are easy to get into a carrier to go to the vet. After all it's a box. Funny because they were both in that box a couple of weeks ago to go get their shots so you would think they would avoid it. Unfortunately Rita is not the same and she's the one I needed Friday. The two had fun exchanging places for a couple of hours until it was time to evict and grab the one I wanted.

Rainey

Spot waiting for her turn

Spot seeing if her sister is coming back for a sneak attack

Spot

Rita has a few issues; abscessed teeth (they have never been good and she only has a few teeth on one side), and she has been urinating outside the box (which was why I took her to the vet). The vet felt a mass in her abdomen and confirmed with an ultrasound.  She has been put on an antibiotic for the teeth and prednisone to help her gain weight. "Masses", according to the vet, are rarely benign in cats (unlike dogs who get fatty / benign tumors all the time). She may be with me for quite some time, or just a few months. We'll take it as it comes. Right now her quality of life is good, so that is what I will go by.