took a little time off to go out and feed the fishes, who have picked a 97 degree day to come out from under their shelter and eat. But it’s good to count heads and find all the ones who were there…the eagle is staying away, and that suits us.
On the other hand, our chosen seating around the pond is the traditional ceramic drum-style stools, which lead me to believe Japan does not have many 97 degree days. My backside found the usual seat more than its usual ‘comfortably warm.’
Eushu got his rabies shot today, and his tag (as if a kitten would wear it) and he hissed at the vet. Our lad is getting quite a potty-mouth as he matures. He weighs 4 whole pounds. And we are looking at that coat of his with some curiosity. His first kitty-mama did say that there could be Bengal cat in the mix—and far from losing his baby spots, they are spreading into rosettes in the black coat, a leopard-style marking akin to what a black leopard shows in the right light angle. He’s definitely domestic on one side of the blanket, but the other? We are seeing some interesting behaviors, and a phenomenal jumping ability. I was dicing some chicken for our supper the other day, and suddenly realized the kitten had leaped up to the pull-out cutting board and was hanging on, watching with interest. I told Jane—we’re going to have work staying ahead of this one.
Jane planted the chrysanthemums, and we watered the new plants against the burning heat today. I am not fond of temperatures above the 70’s. This is, however, finally normal for summer. The plants will grow, and maybe things will get into good order for winter. Which could come early this year, or be as tardy as summer was in coming.
Wanted to pass on a dry cat food that might work for you — check with the vet and check with ingredients of course. There are absolutely no fillers in this stuff and the larger bag would keep our 2 girls fed for 3 months. One did not do good on it [bladder stones, which may not have been related, but still they thought it best to try something else in case]. The babies can eat it too — great nutritional mix. Marley hates the good-for-urinary health [SO], so we have him on a mix of that and the Feline Caviar — and a 3.3 pound bag will last him a month. But if Ysabel has allergies, still could be some problems. Here’s a link for Amazon [we get it from the local vet], so you can see all the particulars of the composition. http://www.amazon.com/Feline-Caviar-Chicken-Pink-Salmon/dp/B0040B841C
Interesting. I’ll give it a look.
Ah pets and vets. I don’t have much trouble with Beekle but as he ages (must be nearly eight now since I’ve had him for over seven and a half years) he’s started having to go for beak and claw trims. Most of the animals in the waiting room sit quietly – nervous perhaps? But not Beekle. He just squeaks and mutters to himself. On the last visit a dog actually did start barking and Beekle managed to shout him down. I think the poor dog was confused by Beekle’s temerity.
Anyway Beekle doesn’t have to resort to mere squeaking – he can say things. He hasn’t yet called the vet a pillock but he did give him a cackling laugh and told him he was “Brackley Beekle”. I don’t think either cut much ice with the vet though 🙂
Is Beekle an Amazon Parrot?
HA! It wasn’t even close to 97 over here on the other side of the mountains…more like low 80’s. Too hot for me. I have black wrought iron folding chairs around the miniponds with lots of ‘aeration’ (ie. holes in the metal fabric) and sitting beside the new whitecloud pond watching them catch daphnia was pleasant in the broken shade of my potted Japanese maples. I had placed a newly purchased blooming ‘Black and Blue’ Salvia (great color contrast to the potted apricot Asiatic lilies) by the minipond and a female Anna’s hummingbird came by to drink. Didn’t think they’d like the blue flowers but I was wrong….she buzzed right up and impressed me with her cheekiness.
I don’t think I could survive eastern WA!!!
Russ was home for four days and we actually had lovely weather for a change. Unfortunately, both the wildlife refuges we visit when he’s home were completely under water. We did get some much needed work done around the house, though — including the AC in the window. I also moved my office out to the front of the house to be closer to it. Hard to get used to, but I think it will be better.
We feed the kitty guys nothing but Hill’s Prescription Diet C/D Multicare. This is expensive dry food, and we buy it straight from the vet. Our cats stopped having any bladder problems, along with many of the other digestive problems cats can get. They are also living longer. Prior to this, 12 was pretty old. Lady Jane Pudgems lived to 18, and Wind (my current eldest) is about 13, I think. If you can afford it and get it, I really recommend this food, though it worries me to think the cats are eating far better (and at a higher cost) than I am most times. LOL
Unfortunately it contains corn, which Ysabel can’t tolerate. So far her favorite is Nature’s Balance. It seems to sit the easiest on her stomach.
Have you tried California Natural? It’s a limited-ingredient (but not novel protein) line of foods. For example, they do a chicken and rice that is only six ingredients (not counting the vitamins, etc.). I’m don’t recall what you are specifically looking for in a cat food, so it may have something in it that Ysabel can’t have, but it’s worth a look. No fish and no corn in the chicken and rice, which is important to me.
Reading this thread, I think I will go out and sit on the patio under the mulberry tree by our water garden. It’s been pretty humid and hot in the Boston area since the Fourth, but with a nice breeze generally. I’ll give our skinny, sick 14 year-old cat Mackie a pat before I go out. He, surprisingly, ate better than his new, normal “no I don’t think I actually want any” eating pattern at “lunch” today, my spouse reports. Mackie has been looking yearningly at his brother’s dry “crunchies” but unable to bring himself to actually eat any. Apparently today he pushed his brother aside and ate some! And then he went on to lick some of the “sauce” from the wet food as he still has been willing to do most of the time (doesn’t normally eat the rubber bits under the sauce but may have eaten a few of those today too). We’re also giving him doses of a high calorie goop that the vet recommended (seems to be mostly molasses, corn & soy syrups and lots of vitamin supplements). He’s hanging in there for the moment, which is more than I expected.
Good wishes to him. Something salty like a bit of boiled ham is sometimes a good treat, if you have any at hand.
I’ll keep that in mind, thanks. I just got him to “eat” (wash off what I dabbed on his paws) a medium-fair amount of babyfood, which is — I tasted a bit remaining on my fingers — the exact opposite of salty.
Beekle is a Budgerigar – an Australian parrot. Well, parakeet actually but that just means ‘small parrot’ as far as I know. I think in the US they are often just called ‘Keets’ along with several of their kind. Supposedly they are the most popular pet parrot in the world and maybe even the most popular pet bird. Easy to take care of as long as you don’t forget and generally good fun to have around. Can be a bit irritating sometimes if they decide to have a shouting match with the TV or Hifi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budgerigar
At their worst they can be like small children if you ignore them. Several times I’ve ended up shouting at him to be quiet while I try and fix some intractable problem. Unfortunately shouting at a budgie is like banging your head against a brick wall 🙂
Love Beekle’s name. I’ve kept budgies in the past.
..and for the more curious:
http://www.youtube.com/user/andruec
Lol—what a doll.
Late to the party, but.
Japan has a LOT of hot, sticky, summer days (we’re just getting out of the rainy season now, and going into the Just Plain Unbearably-Hot season). In that kind of weather it’s more comfortable to sprawl out on the tatami mats! If your interest in Japanese landscaping someday creeps into your house, I recommend a “washitsu” (Japanese-style room). Not sure where to get tatami mats in the U.S., but they smell HEAVENLY, and I wish everyone could enjoy them!
Sounds wonderful. I hadn’t thought of the smell-dimension. If we had the room we once had in Oklahoma City, by golly, we’d try it, but up here we’re a bit constrained in space. 😉 Best we do is have 2 sets of shoes, one for the garden and one for the house.
Summer has arrived with a vengeance out here. It’s been 100+ degrees these last few days. But you do have to love 30 degree temperature spreads! 100 for the high, 63 for the low. If you can survive till nightfall, you can throw the windows open and suck in the cool air for the next day. But even I cave and turn on the AC, which means the kitties have to stay inside.
And I am contemplating replacing my pomegranate tree. It’s doing fine.. that’s the problem. Putting on 5-6 feet of new growth every year, it is quickly outgrowing the site I have it in, and looking a lot like Sigmund the Sea Monster while doing so. Definitely not the “light lacy” tree that it is generally around here. Thankfully, I am a very good customer at my local nursery, and we are talking about what we can do in this situation. They are willing to discuss trading in the tree, since people like mature pomegranates out here, and replacing it with something more appropriate. I was thinking possibly a Japanese maple, until they pointed out that even under the shade covers they have, they get bad leaf burn during the summers here. I might go with a duranta, but I have till the winter to decide.
Flowering quince (similar flower to pomegranate)…crabapple (prairie fire is a good color), peach, cherry, santa rosa plum or redbud. Also mimosa: we just got a chocolate mimosa, which has bronze leaves.
Unfortunately, this is in an L-shaped corner of my house, so most trees are going to be too big. Which is why I am thinking the duranta, or possibly just letting the Yuletide camellias fill in the gap. Although that could take quite some time. I think it’s also why it is growing so thick: all of the branches on the back side are growing through the tree to get to the sunny side. But we will see what happens!
Ugh. Today it was 87 at dawn and 108 at four pm. UGH. Part of the time I wore a wet bandana on my head. Period. Awkward if unexpected guest came, but unlikely. I think the summer of 1980 has returned to n TX.
We had the hottest June on record in NE OK. It’s 110+ just about every day and doesn’t get below 80 at night. Yuck. Thank heavens I don’t have to worry about the electricity bill; it’s going to be a stinker.
Brutal temperatures: I’ve seen it do that, and it just sucks the energy right out of you.
Well I’m British so we get almost anything at any time 🙂
Two weeks ago I was walking around in shorts with my T-shirt hanging from my waist. This morning the heating has been on.
Back in May we went from shorts one week back to gloves the next :-/
@tulrose — it ain’t any cooler east of you in the TX panhandle. We’d love a high of 97. Compared to what it’s been, 97 would be downright cool.
My little white boy kitteh absolutely loathes going to the vet. I have to chase him all over the house until I tire him out, then catch him in a towel and stuff him in his crate. It takes two techs to get him out and hold him down for his shots, and such language! — He certainly didn’t get any of it from me — LOL! I need to get him shaved again but the only way they can do it is to knock him out. He has long fur, and will not let me brush him — I tried every trick when he was little — treats and cuddles, and he just would not have it. He gets such terrible mats — I clip them as best I can, but I can only get in one or two clips before he snaps at me. If I get him shaved, he can go two years before it gets long enough to mat again. Problem is, it costs about $250, nearly $300 if he gets his shots at the same time.
Good Lord, re that price! Sounds as if they’re the only game in town!
I’ll give you a tip that may save yours and your pet’s sanity. http://www.softpaws.com/vetsandgroomers.html
This is the air muzzle, and while it may take some argument at first, Ysabel, who has the conflict of an instinct-driven bite at being restrained, and the civilization that restrains her from biting, at first hated it and distrusted it. But it blocks the view of what’s happening below, it allows the cat freedom of breathing and movement, and Ysabel has gotten so calm about claw clips via the muzzle, that she’s begun letting me clip her claws without any restraint at all. It’s often more the restraint that panics the cat, rather than what’s being done. You, plus any second person, could do the clip yourself with a good Wahl clipper and a sure but kindly grip (they’ll fling their heads to try to shake off the muzzle) could save a bundle, after the cost of the clippers and muzzle.
@WOL – aren’t you west of me? We’ve a friend who used to live in Follett and is now in Darrouzett. He ran a feedlot until he was forced into bankruptcy the last financial crisis but one.
I work for a US company these days and they are based just outside Minneapolis. Now there’s somewhere I wouldn’t want to live. I mean the area is nice enough (although I kept getting lost on the roads) but an 80 degree – Celsius – temperature swing is completely unacceptable to me. Say what you will about British weather but it generally stays within habitable ranges throughout the year. The first time I visited them was June. I struggled into the Mall of America. I love to walk and didn’t realise what walking two miles in an oven would be like. I got into the foyer and what do I see? A competition where the prize was a snowmobile. I suppose it proves that Americans have a sense of humour 🙂
Still – anything above 25’c or below -10’c is ‘uncivilised’ as far as I’m concerned 😀