Yes, I’m starting late again! I went to the hairdresser today, and then we went on to The Pines, because there was a jumper at My Size that I wanted to get, and I still had my $50.00 Birthday Voucher from them. We’ve just got home, and while I would normally have raced straight off to get my evening Stair Walk out of the way, I decided to have a much needed cup of coffee first, this time. So anyway, this new blog background is the colour of my precious, dearly beloved Gingee. I hope the colours aren’t too bright, or harsh… because Gingee was the best, dearest, sweetest, most loving of cats – he’d sit right on top of my bare foot, and curl his tail around my ankle, like a small child holding on to its mother’s skirt with one hand, while sucking their thumb – he’d sit there for ages, sometimes!. He didn’t particularly like being picked up, but he’d come and sit on you, or right next to you, cuddling against you – and he used to wash my face for me. He’d jump onto my desk, stand between me and the keyboard, and place both his front paws firmly on my shoulders, to pin me down, and very thoroughly lick my nose and forehead! Gingee (what an imaginative name for a ginger cat!) was a stray who wandered into the area between our house and the unit behind us, and seemed to be comfortable hanging around the place. One hot summer night, when we had the doors and windows open in the hopes of catching any stray breezes, our cat Boo (short for “Boojums”) was eating his dinner near the kitchen door, and all of a sudden we heard a most piteous mewling: “I’m hungry! I want some dinner too – feed me!”, and there was this ginger cat, standing right next to Boo, with only the screen door separating them. Boo seemed totally unconcerned – he knew he was safe with the door between him and this rude interloper, and he nonchalantly kept on eating (Boo was like that! 🙂 ) The ginger cat kept on telling us that he was hungry too, and where was his dinner, please? So… I went out and fed him too. The next morning, I gave him breakfast, and then I found that I was feeding him breakfasts and dinners. However, he was “entire” (i.e he was a tom cat), and I didn’t particularly want to keep an entire tom around, but I thought “if he’s going to stay here, he’s going to have to be neutered”. I lured him inside with food, grabbed him, shoved him in a cat basket, and off he went to the Vet, for a check up, inoculations, and a small “snip” under his tail. After a thorough examination the Vet put his age at “probably just past adolescence”. To be on the safe side, I kept him inside for a couple of days, and he seemed… very pleased! After that, I tried to let him out, but most of the time, he’d go a couple of steps from the back door, sit down for a wash, and turn around, wanting to come back inside! But he was outside a fair bit, and one day my favourite youngest daughter, Kate, noticed that one of his ears “smelt funny”. He was shaking his head a lot, and scrunching that ear down a bit, so we took him off to the Vet again. It turned out that he had a very bad abscess inside his ear – probably from a scratch or a bite under his ear from another cat during a fight. It had burst his ear drum, and was quite a serious infection. If antibiotics and topical medications didn’t cure it, the Vet said that they’d have to go in through his jaw to drain it, it was that bad! I kept him inside and kept him medicated, and he gradually recovered – but it was an expensive infection to treat – not that we minded – he was well worth any expense! but we decided that from now on, he was going to be an inside cat – we wanted a bit of “return” for our money! 😉 Gingee didn’t mind in the slightest! I used to worry that he’d fret, being kept inside all the time, and try to make a bolt for it if he got near an open door – but no, he never tried to get out, and I reckon that you could have left all the doors and windows open, and he probably wouldn’t even have noticed! Sadly, we didn’t have him for long enough… we think he was probably abused by a man before he came to us – he was terrified of men, especially men wearing big, clumpy boots, and the sight of a belt being taken off was enough to have him running to hide under a chair, hissing and flattening his ears. His kidneys had been damaged, we think probably from a kick or a blow. Then he developed Diabetes – we had to give him insulin injections twice a day, poor little boy, but he was content to have us treat him, and he was so sweet… But Diabetes and bad kidneys are an extremely bad combination, and we lost him when he was only about five or six years old – very young for a well loved and well looked after inside cat to die, and most definitely too young for our Gingee to go. I still miss him… I took the colours for this background and header from his photo…
Weigh-in this morning. Would you believe that I was back to 89.7kg, one point less that I was on Sunday, before I my body had its little “one point practice jump”!? If you can figure it out, you’re a better man (or woman) than I am, Gunga Din!
Next week at the hairdresser I’ll have someone different doing my hair – Brooks is off to Bali for a week’s holiday. But we’ve solved the problem of the wet back! I sat on a pile of towels today, and Brooks used a different basin neck rest thingy, and together they added up to… a dry back! Brilliant! 🙂 Tomorrow we have a third Real Estate agent coming to talk to us and tell us how much he thinks this place is worth, and we’re going to have another look at Flowerdrum Close. Carmen has finally listed the new place she’s been waxing lyrical about, and we’ll go and see that one, too… I think it’s Saturday that it will be open for inspection. Unfortunately it’s under “multiple listings” (no one Real Estate Agency has exclusive rights to its sale – they’ll all be trying to sell it to the highest bidder, otherwise it goes to Auction, and then it’s anyone’s guess how much it’ll go for!) It’s listed as 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 car garage, and as having all the bells and whistles known to mankind! (well, almost, anyway! 😉 ) so I’ll be very interested to see it! I just wish I didn’t have to wait until Saturday to do so! 🙂 So unless this “Gingee” background and header are too bright, I might give graphics a short break tomorrow, and spend a bit of “quality time” Rifting – lately I just seem to have been setting up my Minions every morning and every evening, and nothing else. Mind you, with the Estate Agent coming over, I’m not sure how tomorrow is going to pan out! But… you know what I’m going to say now, don’t you! 🙂 Exactly what I say every night! Drop by again tomorrow night, and find out what the Agent had to say! And… will my weight continue to tease me unmercifully and bounce back up again, or will it settle down? At this stage, your guess is as good as mine! The request for a Credit Report for my erstwhile “assumed” name has been sent off – it’ll be interesting to see what the outcome will be – most likely “None Found” will be what comes back – I hope the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages will accept that! And, that’s about it from me for tonight! I’m looking forward to seeing you all here again tomorrow night – however until then, bee good, remember that all you need is love… but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt 😉 and above all… please… stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 