Happy Birthday, Bob!

I will always love you!

 

Merry Christmas

 From all of us at The Pink House!  And boy is it cold here!!!  Brrrrr....

The Ripley Saga

 My little family has been keeping me on my toes. 

I bought this rug for the room where I fell and broke my hand.
Used to be just bare wood.
Ripley, who normally doesn't like "new" things in the house,
has claimed it as his own.

 Late in October, Ripley walked across the room and something caught my eye. His back legs (which are white) looked, ah, brown? I caught up with him and indeed, both his legs were stained with something -- poop? or...? I first tried to wash it off with a wet cloth, didn't work, so wasn't poop. Upon further examination I started to worry it was dried blood. Whatever it was, he needed to be cleaned up.

So into the kitchen sink went Ripley for a warm sitz bath. Now if you have every tried to bathe a cat, you know what a feat that can be. He struggled and cried as I gently scrubbed him with Mane and Tail shampoo and soft natural sponge. We both were soaked. Still I didn't see anywhere he was bleeding.

As I started to pull him out of the water to towel him off, he grabbed onto my head. With his claws. Into my scalp. 

So there I am, wet cat stuck on my head. Bleeding. Pulling out one paw, only to have the other grip on tighter. Pulling the other out, only to have his "free" paw latch into my scalp again. Finally, bleeding, in pain and exhausted I just let him go without drying him off. He fled.

I made an emergency appointment with his doctor. He had one scheduled for Nov. 12, but I didn't want to wait that long worried something was seriously wrong with him. (Internal bleeding?)

He is a totally different cat in the doctor's mobile clinic. They pull him out of his crate, plop him on the stainless steel table and he just goes limp. Sort of melts into the table, tail and feet tucked under him, flat as a 17 lb. furry pancake. They poke and prod and he just lets them go at it. The doctor always remarks what "an easy relaxed kitty" he is -- yeah right. She finds a wound on his back thigh, hidden under all that fluffy fur, where he has been licking which caused the bleeding.

After a thorough exam and x-rays, turns out he has severe arthritis in his back legs and hips. Doctor said a cat will lick where it hurts. She gives him an injection of a new drug called Solensia for arthritis pain in cats. She draws blood which was due. Gives me a wound cleaning kit which I have to do twice a day for a week. And $900+ later we are done. (That was my birthday.) 

Blood tests come back and his T4's are too high. (He has hyperthyroidism.) She tells me to double the dose, which means a larger pill. Now he was taking his pills nicely, hidden in cheese, but these are bigger and now he's refusing. Every morning is a struggle of shoving a pill down his throat. He starts hiding from me in the mornings. Waiting for me to leave the kitchen before he'll come out for breakfast. For some reason, he will eat the evening pill in the cheese but not the morning pill. I tell you, I was thinking I need a cat whisperer to figure him out.

Finally, I tried giving his morning pill on the couch instead of in the kitchen. Now, every morning I cover the pill in cheese, bring out his special cheese plate, set in on the couch and he will eat it there, but not in kitchen. I, of course, have to watch him like a hawk so he actually eats the pill and also so Kona doesn't steal the cheese.

He had a recheck last week. Good news, his T4 is back in normal range. Good news, the Solensia seems to be working, he's actually playful again! Bad news, that Solensia shot needs to be given monthly by a doctor. It's not cheap. But then, he is worth it.

The Kona Saga will be next..... stay tuned.

Found at the Foot of my Back Gate...

 Bob used to do a wonderfully funny Kermit The Frog impersonation....

Made me smile.

Finally A Blue Pool

 So the pool is filled and blue again! I'm glad I spent the extra money for the blue surface as it does look good... 

I had picked out two different surfaces one called "Bluestone" and the other "Aqua White" and when the company rep brought over samples I was shocked to see that "Bluestone" looked white and "Aqua White" looked blue under the water...  He said the Bluestone would only look blue on a sunny day as it reflected the blue sky....  I bit the bullet and ordered the Aqua White which actually looks blue on a cloudy day but was a bit more expensive.

Meanwhile, a young guy in a Hawaiian shirt and an Elvis hair-do showed up to start the chemical balancing of the pool. He told me that I need to "brush" the pool surface twice a day for the next 25 days. Huh? This was news to me.

He explained I needed to use the brush attachment on my leaf basket and sweep the floor and walls of the pool to clean off any "construction residue" and if I didn't do this twice daily, the surface could become stained and ruined.

So I did. For two weeks, I'm out there with the long handled brush trying to sweep the entire pool twice a day. No easy feat. First because I'm only 5'4" so it's hard to reach way down at the 6 foot end. Second, that brush is heavy under the water! Third, there are so many curves in the walls that are hard to reach that I nearly fell in a couple of times. Daily my back was aching, my arms were hurting and my hand (the one I broke) was cramping on me. After two weeks of this, I called the company rep one morning and told him I couldn't do it anymore, it was too hard. I started crying on the phone. I am not proud of that.

But he stopped me short. "What?" I explained what the Hawaiian shirt clad Elvis told me. He said, "No, no, no. You don't have to do that at all. We acid washed the pool and cleaned it already." He then explained that several other plaster companies do not acid wash the pool surface and in that case you do have sweep the pool, but this was not our case. And added, "Don't listen to anything he says, just nod and smile and talk to me."

Thank god.

Still can't use the pool until the chemical balancing is done. Then it's a month without salt. I will be glad when things are back to normal.

Almost Done!

 The pool project is proceeding:

Applying the new plaster

Finish coat done.

Acid washing the surface

After they acid washed the pool, I went out to ask the guys what the schedule was now and I was told they would start filling the pool. I asked if after the pool was filled if I should turn the system on. The guy said, "I don't know, call the company." I said, "Um, you're the company." and he says, "No, I mean the person in charge." I said, "I'm in charge." "No, the company you hired." I said, "I hired you guys." "Directly?" "Yes." He was floored. He said, "How did you find us?" I told him I googled "pool finishers near me" and their name popped up. He told me I was lucky as they normally work through contractors. And I guess I am lucky. Otherwise I would have been paying much more if a middleman was involved....  For once, I made the right decision, hey!

So the pool began to fill.

The guy told me to let it go all night.... 

An orb floating above the pool.... Bob watching?

I was up all night checking it! Finally filled by 7 a.m. the next morning. Now we are down to chemical testing for the next three weeks or so....

Meanwhile, I have to deal with this starting tonight:

Damn, I thought we were done with these storms....