Category: Cats

As the school year comes to an end for the year here is Aus, work usually becomes a little hectic.  This year that’s been compounded by my reduced but vastly improved mobility, coupled with a principal who decided to completely change ALL the IT plans for next year and waited until 2pm on Thursday to tell us.  I mention this because I’m woefully behind, both in book posts and festive task posts.  My ability to ‘like’ posts here has suddenly stopped working and I can’t be bothered to figure out why yet, because … ugh.  IT.

But today is a gorgeous day out and MT and I survived the annual trek with all three cats to the vet for their annual checkups.  Even better, all three are healthy, and the vet could not say enough great things about how healthy Easter-cat is – he said for a 15 year old cat her kidney function is phenomenal – he actually used the word phenomenal.  Squee!  We were a tiny bit worried about ‘Lito because he felt too skinny, but it turns out we were just unconsciously comparing him to Pikachu (the vet said she’s healthy and at a good weight – she’s just going to be a big cat).  He’s healthy and the vet’s happy, although he’s got to have a broken incisor pulled next month.

I’ve been reading – and listening to audiobooks while I work on jigsaw puzzles, so I have a mini-mudslide of reviews coming up.

I tried with Invisible Women; I agreed with the premise, I just really, really didn’t like the writing.  I might have tried too much:  I found myself attempting to regain my equilibrium by binge watching all the Avenger and Thor movies in order of release.  That swallowed my weekend, and possibly swung me a little too far into the testosterone range, and so I spent the last week binge watching all 8 seasons, plus the recent 9th, of The Gilmore Girls, a series I didn’t originally watch more than a handful of episodes from.

I’d probably still be binge watching, but I can’t get ahold of Bones without paying for a Disney+ membership, and luckily, a couple of new books arrived that immediately appealed to me, so I think I’m back on an even keel again.  I’m currently re-reading an old Lynn Truss collection called Making the Cat Laugh and I’ve just started Ovidia Yu’s new release The Mushroom Tree Mystery.

In other news, I’m hobbling along without crutches or boot pretty much exclusively now, with my first outdoor foray yesterday (grass is so much more challenging than you’d think it would be).  Still not allowed back to working on site for a few more weeks, but with the COVID rally we have going on, I’m ok with that.

Pikachu gave us a right royal scare on Wednesday by becoming violently ill in the morning and spent the day in the hospital.  The vet eliminated all the obvious suspects, and we’re left with a diagnoses of PUO: pyrexia of unknown origin.  Helpful.  Fortunately, she came home Wednesday night and a follow up on Thursday morning had the vet deciding she would be fine.  She spent most of Thursday on my lap, and in the late afternoon, dragged her favourite toy into the library and laid it at my feet – her way of declaring herself healthy and ready to get on with life.

… I just want to tear a strip off the world.  The list is long, and the vitriol is potent, but nobody wants or needs to hear it and it won’t make me feel any better because venting just doesn’t provide the same catharsis as slapping the stupid out of those that need it.

So instead, here’s Pickachu, doing what she does best:

Well, this is a good sign: I woke up today wanting to write up a post on my blog.  Unfortunately, I don’t really have anything exciting to share, but it’s still a happy sign.

So, let’s see, what’s new?  Melbourne is in its 5th hard lockdown.  I’m calling it Melbourne 5: Lockdown Drift.  It should end tomorrow, while Sydney-siders, who, by-the-by are the reason Melbourne is in this lockdown (they let sick people travel into Victoria) haven’t been so lucky.  They’re into week 5 now I think, and their numbers keep going up instead of down.  Their idea of “stay at home” is open to personal interpretation, it seems.

None of that is really new though and god knows it’s boring.  In happier, more bookish news, I’m still re-read binging, and it’s made updating my archives here much more productive.  So has the barcode scanner I brought home from work to process new laptops with – how is it that scanning a barcode never gets old?

It was tax time here last month and for once we got a refund; that meant I finally got off my butt and upgraded to a new internet connection and home network. Even better, I used the remainder to go on my first book buying binge since November last year, purchasing 11 new titles.  None of them have arrived yet, but soon, I hope.

Our menagerie continues to entertain us.  Pickachu, (or Stinkbug, for reasons the moniker implies) is growing fast, although she seems destined to be a short-legged cat.  She is heart-meltingly affectionate and hilarious, as she tries to do all sorts of silly things.  She’s been loving the laptop boxes I’ve had at home as I work remotely.  I’ll wrap up this post with her doing her best settle into one.