Cat Diary 30

I’ve been in training. The first new habit I’m supposed to pick up is to scratch either one of the three objects she got into the house for that purpose—to be scratched!

I really don’t know why she bothers? I scratch the uprights of the couch and after she told me NO! a few too many times, I graduated onto the vinyl chairs.

Look at me, I’m thinking. This after the old woman said NO! about the couch. I want her to see my expression which says I am not pleased to hear NO! when I’m trying to get her attention.

She didn’t stop and I switched to the vinyl chairs. Too bad the vinyl is so strong I can only make holes. She said a blind woman could read these, and she’d be saying NO! just as many times.

She also said, this is the last straw. Whatever that means. She collected the three things to be scratched and lay them out …

The cardboardy thing is in the middle, it’s useless because I get my claws stuck. The thing with rope around it is just too weird for me. The thing on the left is the board the old woman found on the riverbank after a flood.

That’s the one we settled on for training. She lays it beside her on the couch. The first session she dragged a cord over it and every time I touched the cord, she’d go all gooey, slathering me with praise.

But more importantly she gave me a kibble everytime I touched the cord. After about twenty toes worth of kibbles, she said that’s enough today. We both relaxed then.

Cat Diary 7

Now that I’ve proven that I know how to play, the old woman is constantly thinking up new games. My favorite one so far is hunting kibbles.

Round about her lunchtime she’ll wander around with a small handful of kibbles and drops them tinkling into the various little plates and bowls she has hidden around the unit.

I know she means me to listen for the sound of them hitting the china but why would I? I just watch her bending over here and there to pour them from only a little height.

Then … this afternoon … she totally tricked me! We had a parcel delivery this morning that came in a cardboard box. After unpacking it, she set it in the living room.

“Go ahead,” she said. “Find out what’s in it. You should be able to smell them.”

First I just walked past it. It smelled new. Cardboardy. After her lunch I walked past it again. Hmph, still new and cardboardy.

By mid afternoon I’d worked it out though I continued lying around. A box with flappy bits—like that—seems like they’ll jump up and get me if I try to jump in between them.

The old woman weakened and lay the box on its side. That’s when I made my move …

Cat Diary 6

I’ve been here a month now and thought I knew the old woman’s habits pretty well. At 9 p/m she says “Bedtime!” And shuts me up in the shed. I’ve struggled but so far she has won. That could change today.

See me lying strategically in front of her on the couch? Right where she can see me at all times, to remind her that she hasn’t filled my kibbles bowl. What she usually does after cleaning my litter tray?

Before she sat down she set three bowls each with three kibbles in them as far apart in the unit as she could find, it seems like. Huh?

Oh wait! Last night when she caught me up trying to escape the bedtime routine, she said, “You’re getting to be quite the heavyweight. Is it possible for a cat to put on a kilo in 30 days? Guess you don’t get much exercise!”

I bet the new kibble bowls are a strategy to get me to walk more. I ate the ones in the kitchen. She did not leap up to give me more. I’ll just go and sit beside her on the couch. Maybe I’ll get some action then.

Cat Diary 5

There’s this gerbil floating around. I meet it every so often and we have a game

Sunday Silences …

Screenshot of Apple TV screensaver I suppose you’d call that function.

It’s Sunday morning here and quieter than I appreciate. It struck me earlier that while I’ve been alone much of the time for the last twenty years, I absolutely depend on people sounds in the background to feel I still belong in human society.

My apartment/unit is so well insulated that I don’t get any noise from my neighbours. A blessing in disguise. Heating the place, for example, is no trouble at all.

With the balcony doors open, I get noise from the bus interchange across the road… buses arriving and leaving.

With the wind from the south, there is plenty of action in the trees. Leaves rustling. The podium sports many leafy plants.

With the balcony doors open, I can hear crows at their business harvesting food from the rubbish at the shopping centre, and seeing off rivals.

But no people. No voices.

Down at groundlevel, at the front of the building, there will be a few people waiting for their Sunday pick ups and a dog walker or two starting or coming back from their jaunts.

I’ve been toying all week with the idea of joining the dog walkers. Or cat owners, if there are any. Or even a bird … budgie, cockatiel or cockatoo. Imagining scenarios of how that would be …

Go Low, Go Slow …

The above motto is the only thing I’ve retained from the exercise program I invested in September 2022. It was a disaster.

Graded exerecise is one of the worst things I could’ve done for my ME/CFS. In my defence, I was under the impression I’d fully recovered.

So. The motto. I apply it to every kind of new thing I need to adapt to, and this week that is LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)

Last week’s dose of 0.1 mg per day went down very well. I had a great week, suddenly with a lot more energy every day!

Which felt amazing! I haven’t that kind of energy for years! And so much less pain. That means a dive down of inflammation.

These have to be taken at night. And their so-called half life is 4-6 hours. Meaning most of their strength is gone by morning.

This week I’m taking 0.2 mgs a day, at night. First 2 days I had a fatigue slump at 11 AM that lasted till about 2PM. Third day the slump started esrlier. Today, I slumped at 10 PM and am still in it at 6.45 PM.

Tonight I’m going back to 0.1 mg … going low and going slow. We’ll see what happens

My sky pic is from Saturday 5PM, beautiful!

Out Walking …

My first walk around the block … south along Carindale Street, east up hill and down on Winstanley Road, then north along Surbiton until Banchory Court.

It seemed a long way but at only about 2000 steps which equals about one kilometer, not very far at all.

Not yet off the premises, discovered that this plant, that I had thought non-flowering, is blooming.

Saw a few fungi … maybe three different species. Here’s one …

Last, a real surprise. A tiny native violet in amongst all the sturdy fast-growing exotics…

That one could’ve been sharper. My apologies. It was a long way down and shadowed by that plant adjacent.

I wonder if there’s an FB page for feral lego?