Archive for September, 2007
Posted by Kay
Well we have been hard at work all morning, painting the underside of all the decking tiles and now it is starting to take shape and I’m painting the top surface with decking oil as fast as John puts them down. I like the way it’s coming together, can’t wait to show off the finished product! We’re about a third of the way done now.
Providing the weather continues to co-operate, it should be all done by tomorrow morning or afternoon. 
Posted by Kay
Not just summer, any day when the temperature goes above a balmy 22-24 deg C. Not only is it unpleasant for me but it’s hard on the cats too. Mojo spends his days stretched out as long as he can get in the cat park to try and cool off in the shade but Rosie seems to get an allergic dermatitis in the warmer months. We initially had this problem with her shortly after we adopted her in February this year. That photo was taken after I noticed it, it got reddened, raw and inflamed really quickly but after a course of antibiotics, cream applied four times a day, a shot of antibiotics and basically lots of TLC, it cleared up. I was really hoping that this problem was just due to the type of flea medication they used to treat her on the last day she was at the shelter. But we have been treating both cats with Revolution since then with no problem. The weather warms up and it appears again, thankfully nowhere near as bad as last time. I had some cream left over so I’m putting that on to keep it at bay but poor Rosie!! This means she can’t be spot treated with Revolution….which means bath time again until the fur grows back. Fortunately she’s a pretty good sport when it comes to getting bathed.
Posted by Kay
The house we live in is fairly new (built 2000) but unfortunately when I moved in here, the landscaping was a touch on the wild side. The garden beds formed by the rock retaining wall were choked with weeds, the only turf was out the front and the backyard was a forest of all sorts of weeds of fascinating sizes, shapes and colours. Some of them I had never seen before but given the size of the thorns on them, no way were they staying in town. So with much persistence, the weeds were removed from the garden beds, natives planted out the front and along the side and the backyard forest was decimated with several lashings of Zero weed killer to keep them at bay.
But what happens when you remove ground cover and leave bare soil? Bingo, wind and water erosion of the soil. Around 2003, we noticed that the slap was starting to show underneath on the side of the house. I tried planting a native ground cover but as soon as I started watering it, the weeds started popping up to life and pushed out the plant. The weeds were not giving up without a fight. So in the absence of any real idea to do in that area, the weeds have been allowed to take up residence again just for the sake of keeping the soil there.
In the backyard, erosion hasn’t been so much of a problem. Although the plants were all killed off, we let their remains rot into the ground to increase the fertility of the soil. Plus we just couldn’t get the roots out, even once the plant was dead. Since all the nasty weeds were killed off, a new breed of weed took over. It doesn’t look like turf when mature, but when mowed short it is passable so I have let it hang around town on the pretence that it really is turf so that I can look out my window and see something green that doesn’t resemble something evil from Lord of the Rings!
2005/2006 were very exciting years here, it was the year of the patio and fence - an event that brought us closer to the year of the Dog, which is as yet undertermined. You see as much as I love my kitties, I love dogs equally as much and I would like to have my own doggie again. The fence went up and we tested it’s keeping in powers by hosting a lovely yet excitable labrador of my friend. It kept her in just nicely and we are looking forward to having her here again in November until we get our own doggie. That brings us to 2007, the year of the deck!!
And it has arrived, albeit in parts that have been piled nicely in our patio area. Let me show you a before shot of what we are working with. You can see our lovely weed turf popping up there after a nice flush of rain. That lovely green spot there is where the pink spa is going to go. We have had the spa sitting on our patio for around a year or so….we figure this summer it should actually get some use - that is after I eradicate the population of spiders, cockroaches and creepy crawly population that has set up residence inside the spa.
Posted by Kay
I think there is a funny correlation between some cats and your parents. When I was younger and I’d invite a boy around, then my parents would insist on open door policy. I could close the door partially but not fully, presumably so that she could peek in at a moment’s notice and make sure we weren’t up to any hanky panky.
Mojo has a similar policy in this house….they object strongly to any doors shut, even if there are no humans behind them at the time. He will howl at the door and paw at it to try and open it. Then if I tap him on the head or the shoulder to tell him “hey buddy I’m out here”, he will have this look on his face that almost says I KNOW but this is fun for some reason…hehehe..
I’ve grown accustomed to leaving all doors just that little bit open so that I can have a little bit of peace and quiet. It’s not always a successful policy because sometimes he will just sing out to himself while he’s wandering around the house. Sometimes I will look at him, thinking does he just like the sound of his own voice??? Rosie in comparison is only vocal when you walk into the kitchen and open the fridge.
Posted by Kay
Rosie is a silver tabby that I rescued from
Animal Welfare League this year in February. I thought Mojo could do with a playmate, having spent most of his life with other animals in the house, albeit dogs previously. I figured if he can get on just dandy with not just one dog living with him, but another dog visiting almost daily, then he would probably appreciate a feline companion. Plus as
Leigh at Crazy Meezer can identify - I wanted one that liked me the most rather than other members of my family.
So I go on down to AWL at Helensvale, with the instructions that I could get another kitty providing it was a) an adult and b) fairly dark in colour as my other half was getting just a little sick of pulling all the white Mojo hair off his clothes. Well Rosie is kind of dark in colour I guess. She must have spotted me for a sucker from the moment I walked in the enclosure, she popped her paws up on my shins and when I sat down, jumped straight up and gave me a lick on the chin. How was I to resist such cuteness?
So home we go to meet Mr Mojo….to say they got on like a house on fire when they met would be…..well a bald-faced lie. There was a fair amount of hissing and spitting (particularly from Mojo) but Rosie being the sweet innocent kitty that she is was not to be deterred. She made herself at home quite nicely albeit keeping a watchful eye out for any sudden attacks. While I don’t think that they’ll ever be snuggle buddies, they have formed an uneasy kind of truce. Actually I think they make quite a good pair….her sweetness tends to dilute his narkiness somehow. LOL
Posted by Kay
Meet Mojo, possibly the narkiest, worst-behaved yet oddly affectionate cat in the known world. If you think you can beat him, by all means let me know. I first met Mojo when he was a wee little kitten around six weeks old and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He arrived on my doorstep in a box from a well-intentioned person who clearly has not read the RSPCA’s advisories about giving pets to people as gifts. Well I could hardly turn away this bundle of fluff and he was very cute. So in November 1998 in a house that had been pretty much cat free for around ten years since the passing of our previous cat, Mojo came to turn our house and lives upside down. Let me say here, I have NEVER had a kitten before Mojo. Both of our previous cats, Sammy and Puss were fully grown adult cats. And while they both had their quirks and personality (as do all cats IMO), they were fairly sedate and set in their behaviours. They were predictable. Not so with Mojo.
Mojo has broken his fair share of things in the time that I still lived at home. A pottery pot planter that my father made before he died (and thus a sentimental object in my mum’s eyes), countless glasses, ceramic feed bowls, photoframes. You name it, even if it’s in a hard to reach place, he has probably broken it. He makes it his mission to get to the highest point in the house and will not be deterred….he can catapult himself to the top of the tallest object he can find. So far the record is around 7.5ft to the top of a rather large free standing bookcase.
After a few years of staying with mum when I moved out of home, Mojo has come to live with me again. Being an indoor cat with outdoor priveliges, we decided that he would need somewhere to escape the confines of the indoors yet somewhere he would still be safe…so now he has his very own kitty palace. I have to say, that hasn’t stopped him from turning our lounge suite into a relatively expensive cat scratching post…..but such is life when you live with cats.
And here he is, possibly at his most favourite activity in the whole world…..destroying stuff! Thank goodness this time it was only some bills instead of an assignment for uni. And for those of you who wonder whether the old “dog ate my homework” excuse works….well I can’t say for certain about dogs but it doesn’t fly too well that your cat destroyed it. LOL
Posted by Kay
As I’m lying in my bed, trying to get just a little bit more sleep, I’m reminded once more of how the world and our lifestyle is completely unfriendly to shiftworkers. I work a continuous roster which essentially means that sometimes I get to enjoy life in the world of the living and most times I am out of sync with it, either working late into the night or watching over others sleeping (or trying to sleep as is most often the case).
Today is one of the days I am transitioning from the land of the living to the land of the sleeping and other people insane enough to choose a profession which interferes with their body clock in such a hideous way. Even after almost eight years of working a continuous roster, I’ve never been able to successfully blend into the land of the sleeping. You would think I’d have the hang of it by now.
The cats ironically are the only ones who seem to fit into my nocturnal lifestyle, being of course largely nocturnal themselves. They are quite happy to lounge around on my bed all day while I toss and turn trying to get into that deeper sleep reserved for those who sleep at night. In fact it is not unusual for me to wake up at the end of a day’s sleep to find them in exactly the same position as they were when I drop off to sleep.
Speaking of the cats, since I’ve decided this blog is largely going to be about them, it’s probably about time that I introduced them to you. Bring on the cats!!
