Unproductive Day

Having it. Any Comments I might’ve wanted to make on my daily reads … thrown down the gurgler by WP.

Sorry, #Content Catnip. Sorry, #exacticablog. Sorry, the two or three others of you. Why do I have to be logged in to make a comment? Why isn’t that stated before I start typing? All my words, disappeared into the ether again.

Not that my words are of an earth-shattering quality that must be saved at all costs! Not at all. It’s the loss of a possibility to communicate that I regret.

An unproductive day represented by a stripped shrub.

There’s so much gate-keeping happening everywhere. I’m blaming that on the lessening of good online communications. I suppose it’s a good thing for face-to-face socializations. We’ll have to go back to them out of sheer frustration.

Called my Night and Day Pharmacy to repeat a couple of scripts, to be ready for the drought during the public holidays. They called me back, said they couldn’t repeat e-scripts only paper ones. Huh? Why not? Didn’t have any problem before? I called the Doctor’s surgery. Can’t get an appointment to iron the problem out till next week. Cutting it very fine again. I have 20 days supply remaining … gets me to the New Years long weekend. Nerve wracking.

But, I will say, a kind receptionist said she would call the pharmacy to see what was what. She’ll be calling me back. And she did, and she fixed the problem. I will take Reception@HealthCarePlus a bunch of flowers tomorrow. They are wonderful!

“Take the flowers on Monday,” my sister said. “They can enjoy them all week then.”

Will do.

I’m trying to sew/embroider the tiger’s face. I need something like ‘button yarn’ for the whiskers. Button Yarn? Usually I use ordinary sewing yarn doubled for sewing on buttons. I’ve never heard of Button Yarn. The ears are too big and they still have to be stuffed. I may need to re-open the neck seam and stuff the face more.

Tiger, looking kind of dumb without ears or eyes and with hanging threads.

Bleh … that reminds me of Linus.

Here’s Hoping …

I’m hoping for this https://www.google.com/search?q=wasp%20parasite%20on%20Orchard%20Swallowtail&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-m#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:81f10512,vid:rC4PssRlfx0,st:9

to happen some time in the next couple of hours. We’ve got 34 degrees Celsius forecast today. There are only three leaves remaining. Only three caterpillars.

Yesterday the predators were starting to gather …

A tiny parasitic wasp … probably intending to lay its eggs in a caterpillar or two

This evil looking fly …

Also sitting and waiting …

Then there is the evidence of an Asian gecko in the scene … a loud call and its droppings … I suspect that it took number four.

Four remaining …

Caterpillars, that is. I wish they would just hurry up and pupate. They’re so exposed. And they’re doing weird stuff like this … (this photo from indoors looking out)… three congregating at the top of the largely denuded bush?

The one with what turned out to be a tiny white spider moult stuck on its back, is still eating. There are maybe six whole leaves left and a few halves.

Below, photo snapped from afar, number four is still eating …

I wouldn’t have been able to get citrus leaves till tomorrow, so I told my contact don’t worry we’ll have to let nature its way. They’re still a worry.

Cat Diary 22

Although we are more or less back to normal, there is a slight flavour of a new normal. For one thing, the old woman still has not tried to pick me up. A good thing that.

For another, she made my puzzle board about six times harder to find kibbles on. Not so good.

Everything is a different height and there is a little person sitting on it staring at me.

Another good thing is that she made more room at the edge of the balcony for me to sit and peer under it at the people passing by. I’m OK with that now.

I’ve been here four and a half months and I think I’ve done pretty well getting accustomed to some of the strangest things a cat has got to put up with. I mean, who has ever heard of puzzle boards for the likes of us?

And do you know, the only time I get a swag of kibbles in a bowl is at bedtime?

Ecosystem 1

Saw this idea, I’ll get his name later, and am going to try it. Drag you along with me, of course!

A handful of soil and a slurp of water since the soil was quite dry. Wack the lid on and watch what happens. Did that a few hours ago.

Now, at 3.45 pm, telling me there’s life in there exploring its new boundaries.

The tiniest of worms/nematode? Makes me wonder did I add too much water?

Can even see its gut with food in it?

And Then …

And then there five. Caterpillars. Another one fell down and …

But managed to climb back up, slowly and laboriously, arriving much diminished. Losing about a quarter of its weight, it looks like.

Picking up some fluff on its back—I’m afraid that if I tweezer it off I’ll do it a worse injury—but after half an hour back up there with its mates, eating eating eating to make up for lost time.

I don’t know what happened to the ones missing. The Asian gecko got it? A noisy miner snuck in? The Moggy cat taste tested them? Though they must’ve been on the ground already.

Cat Diary/Human Input

Things are not so good between Moggy and me. I’ve been put on antibiotics, the deepest scratch is not closed yet. But my whole hand is not swollen any more.

This all happened on Saturday evening, it’s now Wednesday. Monday Tuesday Wednesday I was out of the house for hours at the time and it’s hard to ‘read’ a cat the best of times, let alone a cat who seems determined to stay a stranger.

In all that time, three and a half days, I have not tried to touch her. I’ve got admit I’m more hesitant now. She does lay in wait round the corner sometimes and lash at my ankles. Most recently, I gave her big voice and she looked shocked.

Various people in my immediate and not so immediate circles are saying I should trade her in, and that animals from Rescue Centres do not always transplant well into a home situation. Moggy was a stray rescued from the streets and was in the cattery for 100 days.

This afternoon she seemed ill at ease and down in the dumps. Is it possible cats can get depressed? I don’t know. But I thought to try to cheer her up. Got some kibbles, and spread the towel over my knees.

She jumped onto the couch without needing encouragement. Took kibbles from off my knees and from my hand, though she did flinch away a couple of times when I moved too fast and unexpectedly.

And I flinched when she moved fast. Looks like we’ve got to rebuild trust. And I have to put a few expectations out of my mind. I have a wilder animal than I had expected to get.

Of course I regret that I can’t expect cat cuddles. Or that she’ll probably never want to have anything to do with the kids. Even just stroking her is a no no at the moment. How we will get her to the vet will be traumatic. See? She does need training.

I thought at about three years old, as the cattery said she is, I thought be able to train her to accept a harness and take her outside to sit in the sun. Since we don’t have any coming into the apartment. I might get a sun lamp instead.

I thought I could train her to climb a cat tree to the new shelf I had installed, to sleep there. She barely jumps up. I’ve offered her the patio table, and I often put kibbles on a high stool on the way to the tabletop. No go. She leaves them.

Right now because of that little training session getting her to eat out of my hand, she made the tiniest purr of approval and jumped onto the back of the couch there to doze. Probably 30 cm/12 inches distance. I have to take that as a plus on the way to better things. She’s been with me for four full months.