How could I have forgotten the tree-falling drama we had last week that I was going to write about yesterday?! I'm going to blame it on the pain medication I had to take last night for the tooth pain - you know the pain is bad if I have to take something for it!
Last year, we paid to have a chain-link fence put up on either side of the back yard. We have a wooden fence at the back and front of the yard, but there was a wire fence on either side that was getting more flimsy by the year, especially in one section where Beau had been jumping on the fence for years, barking at cats in the yard next door. He would push it down a bit more each time, and when we got Rusty, the bratty pup took great joy in jumping over the fence at that section and romping around beyond our yard.
About three weeks after the fence was erected, a tree fell on one section of it. It was like the tree had been waiting until there was a new, shiny fence nearby before taking its swan dive. The people I called to remove the fallen tree and check the other trees in case more were about to fall pushed the chain link fence back up but the rod at the top was bent and has been an eyesore for the last year.
Last Tuesday afternoon, the doggies and I heard a Very Loud Noise. We went out to the back yard to investigate and found that a tree from the back yard next door had come crashing down, yes, again on part of the chain link fence. It was such a big, heavy tree that the portion of the fence it crashed on went right down to the ground. Rusty could have jumped on the tree trunk and trotted off into the yard next door but surprisingly, he didn't! The pup is growing up.
I called "our tree guy" and he came over that evening itself to look at the damage and give me a quote for removing the tree. I asked him if his guys could fix the fence and he said yes! He said they'd come to do the work the very next morning (I was working in the office that day so I left the gate to the back yard unlocked). When I got home that afternoon, the fallen tree was gone and the fence had been repaired! Both the newly damaged section and the portion that had been damaged last year were restored. I'm so glad we've found someone who can do removal repair work like that, but I hope that's the last of the tree-falling for a while.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Augustus Dramatis
OK, logically and linguistically that subject line makes no sense, but it's only the 15th of August and so much has been going on that I wanted something dramatic and befitting of Augustus to start off this post. Besides, a language is kept alive by the creation of words, usually hijacked from other languages or by combining existing words, so I'm doing my part.
Last night was fun. It was Jonathan's birthday on Thursday and we usually take the kids out for a special dinner on their birthday, but I asked Jonathan if he'd prefer a home-cooked meal or going out to a restaurant and he chose home-cooked, because that's easier with Evelyn, who just turned one a couple of weeks ago. We're all too busy and tired to get together on weekdays so we planned dinner here on Saturday night. I invited Jason and Crystal to join us because it's nice when the whole family is together and I thought it would be good for Evelyn and Kaia to see each other. We're all hoping they grow up to be close-knit cousins and want them to spend time together whenever possible. Kaia turned nine months old on Saturday and is starting to crawl. Evelyn has just started standing on her own and taking a few steps without assistance. I love watching them grow!
They exchanged some hugs and kisses and I enjoyed watching them crawl around. Evelyn got a little jealous when she saw me holding Kaia, so at one point I ended up holding one of them in each arm, like that photo I have of me carrying Meera and Jehanita (although Evelyn and Kaia are much smaller). That was the highlight of the evening for me. I love having two babies in our lives. I just wish they would stop growing so quickly.
I also invited John Jackson, who Bruce has known since they were teenagers and who has known Jason and Jonathan since they were born. John's wife recently decided she no longer wants to be married to him (after over 30 years together!), so John has had to move into his own house. I worry about him not eating properly and being lonely, so we include him in family get-togethers whenever possible.
There were seven adults and two babies altogether and we had a lovely night. I made crab dip for an appetizer and shrimp scampi with angel hair pasta for the entrée. Apart from a simple salad (I had meant to include apple slices and strawberries but got too busy with other things) and the pasta, we had a yummy casserole that Crystal cooked. For dessert, I tried a new recipe that turned out well - no-bake mango cheesecake. (The house gets too hot if I use the oven in the summer, so I'm boycotting it until Autumn.) I bought mango puree for the cheesecake from an Indian grocery store and now have enough to make mango lassi - I'm looking forward to that.
After dinner, John had to leave but the kids stayed for a while. Jason and Jonathan played their guitars while the rest of us played with the babies and listened. Bruce had to work yesterday and was tired, but one of these days the three of them are going to play together. Perhaps in October, when we have our next birthday dinner, this time for Bruce and Jason.
It was a nice ending to what had been a somewhat stressful day and week. On Thursday night, Bruce was coming to bed when he heard a sound at our back door. He found a kitten mewing on the patio. We have some feral cats in the neighbourhood but this kitten did not behave like them. It seemed to be a kitten that was used to being fed and living in a house. It was very thin and I of course felt sorry for it, so I put a saucer of milk on the patio for it. It was very skittish at first but hunger and thirst won out and it started lapping up the milk. It kept running under the table and chairs on our patio when we tried to pet it but then would go back to the milk. I was a little concerned about it being out there because Beau and Rusty were longing to go after it (and Beau has killed and injured cats before), but it seemed to be a sensible kitten and was no longer in the back yard when I let Beau and Rusty out a few hours later. The next morning, however, it was back, mewing pitifully again for food. I poured more milk in the saucer and this time it let me pet it while it was drinking the milk, so I lifted it and the saucer and took it to the front door. I put it outside and put the saucer down near the front door. The kitten proved to be smart - when it came back in the evening for its next meal on Friday, it showed up at the front door. That was a relief, because it meant it was safe from Beau and Rusty (who stared at it intently through the window in our living room and whined often because they could not get to it). The kitten kept trying to follow us into the house, though, and that made me suspect someone had abandoned it.
I didn't have a vehicle on Friday because the minivan had to be taken in for repair on Thursday (a problem with one of the tyres), so I couldn't do anything about the kitten until Saturday. On Saturday morning, Bruce drove the kitten and me to our vet - I was hoping they'd be able to take it and find it a home. Unfortunately, they said they couldn't because they had hospitalized animals there and couldn't risk taking in the kitten in case it had a disease. They suggested we take it to PetSmart, a pet store near our house that holds adoption days every once in a while for people looking for cats or dogs. Luckily, that very Saturday was cat adoption day and the person we spoke with at PetSmart told us to come back at 1:30, when the cat adoption people would be there. Bruce had to be on a conference call for work so I drove back that afternoon without him. I left the cat in the van while I went to talk to one of the people in charge of the cat adoptions. She was very nice but said she couldn't take the kitten unless she knew it didn't have a disease. There is a vet at each PetSmart and she asked if I'd be willing to pay for the test, which she said the vet could do right there and then. It would only cost $35, which I was glad to pay if it meant the kitten would find a home. It's a very sweet kitten. When I was putting it in a box to take it to the vet and then PetSmart, it wasn't happy but it never once tried to scratch or bite me.
I went back to the van to get the kitten and found it had got out of the box and all the way to the front of the van. I put it back in the box and went to the side of the store where the animal clinic is located. The woman at the counter said the vet was out at lunch but would be back in ten minutes, so I decided to wait. The kitten kept trying to jump out of the box but would calm down and start purring when I scratched it. Finally, the woman at the counter called me over to get details about the kitten. She then lifted him out of the box and put him on the weighing scale. She let go of him for one second and the kitten raced away! He rushed to a row of shelves and dived under. He wouldn't come back out and when someone tried to reach for him, he raced to a different row of shelves and then managed to completely disappear. I searched and searched for him with the help of a couple of other PetSmart staff and no one could find it. After about 20 minutes, I had to give up and leave because I had to get things ready for Jonathan's birthday dinner. I heard one of the PetSmart employees who had been helping with the search say to the woman at the animal clinic that she needed to get my name and address because it was illegal to dump an animal there. That made me angry because if I had intended to dump the kitten, I wouldn't have bothered speaking with the woman from the adoption group and wouldn't have waited to have the kitten tested. I told the woman from the adoption group that the kitten had disappeared somewhere in the store. She said at least he was indoors and would eventually be found. I left my name and phone number with the woman at the animal clinic and drove home.
This afternoon, the woman from the animal clinic called to tell me the kitten had been found (I figured he would eventually come out when he got hungry and sure enough, that's what happened). She took my credit card details to pay for the test and told me that the kitten was fine and would be put up for adoption, so that drama had a good ending. I hope he finds a good home soon - he really is a sweet cat.
While I was at home getting things ready for our little dinner party, Rusty was looking out the living room window and suddenly started whining. I went over to see what he was making noise about and saw a deer two houses down! At 4:00 in the afternoon! That was unexpected! I haven't seen one in our neighbourhood since the one that suddenly appeared in our back yard a couple of years ago. I didn't see any more of that deer after that one glimpse, and Rusty seemed disappointed. What with trying to get to the kitten all morning and then seeing a deer in the afternoon, it was quite an exciting Saturday for Rusty and Beau, and the icing on the cake for them was having the kids and grandkids here. They love the babies as much as we do!
For the last couple of nights, I've been in a lot of pain when I go to sleep. I have an infected tooth and the pain comes and goes but has been really bad the last two nights. I went to see an endodontist on July 29th to have an RCT (root canal treatment) - the pain had started several weeks before that but that was the earliest appointment I could get. However, the endodontist looked at X-rays of my infected tooth and told me that he didn't think an RCT would fix the problem, because I had already had one on that tooth some years ago. Apparently the root for that particular tooth is difficult to completely clean out and there is therefore prone to reinfection. The endodontist recommended surgery to get at the root a different way. Unfortunately, the earliest opening they had is September 1st, so I have to put up with this another couple of weeks. I'm hoping the pain goes away again soon as it did last week - I had a whole week with very little pain.
So happy Meerabelle is on this continent! We are looking forward to seeing her some time in the next ten months, even if it means driving to Pennsylvania!
Last night was fun. It was Jonathan's birthday on Thursday and we usually take the kids out for a special dinner on their birthday, but I asked Jonathan if he'd prefer a home-cooked meal or going out to a restaurant and he chose home-cooked, because that's easier with Evelyn, who just turned one a couple of weeks ago. We're all too busy and tired to get together on weekdays so we planned dinner here on Saturday night. I invited Jason and Crystal to join us because it's nice when the whole family is together and I thought it would be good for Evelyn and Kaia to see each other. We're all hoping they grow up to be close-knit cousins and want them to spend time together whenever possible. Kaia turned nine months old on Saturday and is starting to crawl. Evelyn has just started standing on her own and taking a few steps without assistance. I love watching them grow!
They exchanged some hugs and kisses and I enjoyed watching them crawl around. Evelyn got a little jealous when she saw me holding Kaia, so at one point I ended up holding one of them in each arm, like that photo I have of me carrying Meera and Jehanita (although Evelyn and Kaia are much smaller). That was the highlight of the evening for me. I love having two babies in our lives. I just wish they would stop growing so quickly.
I also invited John Jackson, who Bruce has known since they were teenagers and who has known Jason and Jonathan since they were born. John's wife recently decided she no longer wants to be married to him (after over 30 years together!), so John has had to move into his own house. I worry about him not eating properly and being lonely, so we include him in family get-togethers whenever possible.
There were seven adults and two babies altogether and we had a lovely night. I made crab dip for an appetizer and shrimp scampi with angel hair pasta for the entrée. Apart from a simple salad (I had meant to include apple slices and strawberries but got too busy with other things) and the pasta, we had a yummy casserole that Crystal cooked. For dessert, I tried a new recipe that turned out well - no-bake mango cheesecake. (The house gets too hot if I use the oven in the summer, so I'm boycotting it until Autumn.) I bought mango puree for the cheesecake from an Indian grocery store and now have enough to make mango lassi - I'm looking forward to that.
After dinner, John had to leave but the kids stayed for a while. Jason and Jonathan played their guitars while the rest of us played with the babies and listened. Bruce had to work yesterday and was tired, but one of these days the three of them are going to play together. Perhaps in October, when we have our next birthday dinner, this time for Bruce and Jason.
It was a nice ending to what had been a somewhat stressful day and week. On Thursday night, Bruce was coming to bed when he heard a sound at our back door. He found a kitten mewing on the patio. We have some feral cats in the neighbourhood but this kitten did not behave like them. It seemed to be a kitten that was used to being fed and living in a house. It was very thin and I of course felt sorry for it, so I put a saucer of milk on the patio for it. It was very skittish at first but hunger and thirst won out and it started lapping up the milk. It kept running under the table and chairs on our patio when we tried to pet it but then would go back to the milk. I was a little concerned about it being out there because Beau and Rusty were longing to go after it (and Beau has killed and injured cats before), but it seemed to be a sensible kitten and was no longer in the back yard when I let Beau and Rusty out a few hours later. The next morning, however, it was back, mewing pitifully again for food. I poured more milk in the saucer and this time it let me pet it while it was drinking the milk, so I lifted it and the saucer and took it to the front door. I put it outside and put the saucer down near the front door. The kitten proved to be smart - when it came back in the evening for its next meal on Friday, it showed up at the front door. That was a relief, because it meant it was safe from Beau and Rusty (who stared at it intently through the window in our living room and whined often because they could not get to it). The kitten kept trying to follow us into the house, though, and that made me suspect someone had abandoned it.
I didn't have a vehicle on Friday because the minivan had to be taken in for repair on Thursday (a problem with one of the tyres), so I couldn't do anything about the kitten until Saturday. On Saturday morning, Bruce drove the kitten and me to our vet - I was hoping they'd be able to take it and find it a home. Unfortunately, they said they couldn't because they had hospitalized animals there and couldn't risk taking in the kitten in case it had a disease. They suggested we take it to PetSmart, a pet store near our house that holds adoption days every once in a while for people looking for cats or dogs. Luckily, that very Saturday was cat adoption day and the person we spoke with at PetSmart told us to come back at 1:30, when the cat adoption people would be there. Bruce had to be on a conference call for work so I drove back that afternoon without him. I left the cat in the van while I went to talk to one of the people in charge of the cat adoptions. She was very nice but said she couldn't take the kitten unless she knew it didn't have a disease. There is a vet at each PetSmart and she asked if I'd be willing to pay for the test, which she said the vet could do right there and then. It would only cost $35, which I was glad to pay if it meant the kitten would find a home. It's a very sweet kitten. When I was putting it in a box to take it to the vet and then PetSmart, it wasn't happy but it never once tried to scratch or bite me.
I went back to the van to get the kitten and found it had got out of the box and all the way to the front of the van. I put it back in the box and went to the side of the store where the animal clinic is located. The woman at the counter said the vet was out at lunch but would be back in ten minutes, so I decided to wait. The kitten kept trying to jump out of the box but would calm down and start purring when I scratched it. Finally, the woman at the counter called me over to get details about the kitten. She then lifted him out of the box and put him on the weighing scale. She let go of him for one second and the kitten raced away! He rushed to a row of shelves and dived under. He wouldn't come back out and when someone tried to reach for him, he raced to a different row of shelves and then managed to completely disappear. I searched and searched for him with the help of a couple of other PetSmart staff and no one could find it. After about 20 minutes, I had to give up and leave because I had to get things ready for Jonathan's birthday dinner. I heard one of the PetSmart employees who had been helping with the search say to the woman at the animal clinic that she needed to get my name and address because it was illegal to dump an animal there. That made me angry because if I had intended to dump the kitten, I wouldn't have bothered speaking with the woman from the adoption group and wouldn't have waited to have the kitten tested. I told the woman from the adoption group that the kitten had disappeared somewhere in the store. She said at least he was indoors and would eventually be found. I left my name and phone number with the woman at the animal clinic and drove home.
This afternoon, the woman from the animal clinic called to tell me the kitten had been found (I figured he would eventually come out when he got hungry and sure enough, that's what happened). She took my credit card details to pay for the test and told me that the kitten was fine and would be put up for adoption, so that drama had a good ending. I hope he finds a good home soon - he really is a sweet cat.
While I was at home getting things ready for our little dinner party, Rusty was looking out the living room window and suddenly started whining. I went over to see what he was making noise about and saw a deer two houses down! At 4:00 in the afternoon! That was unexpected! I haven't seen one in our neighbourhood since the one that suddenly appeared in our back yard a couple of years ago. I didn't see any more of that deer after that one glimpse, and Rusty seemed disappointed. What with trying to get to the kitten all morning and then seeing a deer in the afternoon, it was quite an exciting Saturday for Rusty and Beau, and the icing on the cake for them was having the kids and grandkids here. They love the babies as much as we do!
For the last couple of nights, I've been in a lot of pain when I go to sleep. I have an infected tooth and the pain comes and goes but has been really bad the last two nights. I went to see an endodontist on July 29th to have an RCT (root canal treatment) - the pain had started several weeks before that but that was the earliest appointment I could get. However, the endodontist looked at X-rays of my infected tooth and told me that he didn't think an RCT would fix the problem, because I had already had one on that tooth some years ago. Apparently the root for that particular tooth is difficult to completely clean out and there is therefore prone to reinfection. The endodontist recommended surgery to get at the root a different way. Unfortunately, the earliest opening they had is September 1st, so I have to put up with this another couple of weeks. I'm hoping the pain goes away again soon as it did last week - I had a whole week with very little pain.
So happy Meerabelle is on this continent! We are looking forward to seeing her some time in the next ten months, even if it means driving to Pennsylvania!
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