Musings on a Small Life

"...Painted ladies and a bottle of wine mama "Ooh ooh Feeling good mama..." I'm certainly old enough to remember that Ian Thomas song. :-) However, the "painted ladies" I'm referring to are the painted turtles (no idea of gender) I saw yesterday, while out of town visiting a friend. I took many more turtle pics, more than any person needs, but these were just a few. We saw adults and young, tiny ones; oodles of turtles! The pond we stopped at first was pretty scummy, though. Disgusting, actually. But a haven for geese, ducks, fish and even a heron. Maybe I'll post more pics another time; right now I'll leave it with just some of the turtles. I had to post; I've had that song's chorus stuck in my head since yesterday afternoon!  :-D Peace.

I see it's almost ten days since I posted; I didn't realize it was that long.  I now notice that when I want to add a photo from my Google Albums, it no longer shows me any past 2021. I have to go into Google Photos (i.e. not the nicely organized albums) to scroll to the pics I want. Hmm. Not impressed with Blogger at the moment. Anyway, it was a wonderful extra long, long holiday weekend from May 20 - 23 inclusive. I wish  EVERY week was three days of work and four of "weekend!" This weekend IS another four-day weekend for me, as I took yesterday (Friday the 27th) as a vacation day, and I'm taking Monday as well. I'll be out of town for most of the day on Monday visiting a friend--she's driving half an hour, I'm taking the train for half an hour, and we're meeting in the middle to catch up. I'm looking forward to it! Below: The ferns from the other side of the fence have been making themselves at home in my garden for the third spring and are ...

I'm thankful for this dear little one, my heart. ♥ I'm thankful the university is closed tomorrow, giving us an extra, extra long weekend. Monday is the Victoria Day holiday and since 2020 the administration has given us an extra day off. I presume all Ontario universities are doing the same; ours certainly wouldn't do it solo! I'm thankful for the blooms, now come and gone. Last week was quite warm, summer-like, and all the apple and cherry tree blossoms peaked. Most of their flowers are gone now, but they were glorious while they lasted. I'm thankful the dentist who replaced the filling in one of my lower molars this morning had a soft touch with the needle, because I needed three of them to completely freeze me. I'm still frozen, almost four hours later, but it's better than feeling any pain! I'm booked for a temporary crown on that tooth (it's cracked in several spots) on July 15, then for the permanent one on July 29. Ugh. However, I'm certa...

Of sorts.  😸

No, no more adoptions! LOL. I finally was able to get a so-so snapshot of the baby robins (three of them) in the nest tucked into the cedar shrub outside the front door. Not great, because of all the branches, but you still can see all three beaks. Or parts thereof. They're finally big enough to be seen, and Derry certainly enjoys watching the parents come and go in the early mornings, feeding them. (I put a stool in front of the screen door for him.) I wish Derry would eat more, but oh well. He likes the Royal Canin urinary + hydrolyzed protein dry, but is meh on the Hills z/d canned, even with the beef liver topper I add, or the FortiFlora. Well, he's almost 15 (about 76 in human years), and my own appetite might not be great when I'm that age either. As for other critters, I did luck out with a snapshot of a woodpecker earlier this week, while on my morning jaunt for a latté, and also managed to snap a pic of a rabbit, who froze in someone's driveway, while I fumbl...

  Comments are off. Have a great mid-week!

 

Four months later (on Monday May 2): I'm glad it's done, as the half-destroyed tree was was a danger, IMO, but what a sad "view" now. A far cry from "Escape to the Country."

First and foremost, Mr. Sunshine seems to be back to his usual self.     He quite likes the prescription RC urinary + hydrolyzed protein dry, and because I don't have any other options, I have chosen to ignore the ingredients. At least Hills z/d has real animal protein in it. Too bad they don't offer a hydrolyzed protein + urinary combo too. Anyway, the vet bill certainly was enough this past week, never mind the bag of RC dry (yikes!), but yesterday I had to buy a new fridge, and because my stove has been broken for a long time (the drawer and part of the plastic at the top), I decided I might as well get a new one at the same time. Double yike$. My current fridge (and stove) came new with the unit when I bought it 22 years ago, so it doesn't owe me anything. However, while it's still running (constantly), the freezer isn't keeping the food frozen and the fridge isn't cooling very much at all. I will lose most of the food in there, unfortunately. I wish I had b...

I need a bit of levity after this week. Apologies if I've posted any of these before; I'm too tired and/or lazy to go back and check. After this week, I wish! Alas, no wine for me.

Today I'm very thankful that Derry ate a bit more late yesterday evening and overnight, and also this morning. He wouldn't touch his Hills z/d (wet or dry), though he ate the hydrolyzed protein dry that Royal Canin makes. (I've got their urinary hydrolyzed protein on order from the online vet store.) We're both thankful he did not have to return to the vet clinic! However, I popped out to the vet clinic a short time ago to pick up a dozen small cans of a different food, in case of future need, and also for more eye meds to have on hand...just in case. Then I swung by PetValu for some "gravy" type foods to keep on hand, again, in case of emergency. I also picked up various food toppers, including some beef liver, to entice Derry to eat his Hills z/d canned again. I'm thankful that worked! He just ate a decent amount of his prescription canned, and is comfortably ensconced in the back space with his lawn chair, freshly cleaned litter box (yes, I put one out...

Poor little mite. (Pic from last week.)     I took Derry to the vet yesterday for a full work-up because he's been throwing up fairly regularly since the latter part of February, usually at night and usually just clear liquid. I was concerned it was his pancreas, kidneys, thyroid, or liver. They sent off a full blood panel and the urine sample and we came home. Well, I don't know why I forgot how sick he gets after the vet visits, being so stressed and traumatized. That's how he ended up at ER the second time last summer. Duh, Kim. He ate a little bit late yesterday afternoon, but nothing since, not even water that I could see. By early this morning he was drooling with nausea. I gave him some Cerenia, as I have several tablets on hand from the fall, unopened of course. That was at 5 AM. Then, around 6:30 AM I gave him some Mirataz (appetite stimulant), assuming the Cerenia would have kicked in and settled his stomach. Wrong. The drooling continued all day (it's about 4...

Derry had quite a lot to say while out in the garden this afternoon, and I knew the reason must be one of the neighbourhood cats. Many have homes and wander freely, but this poor fellow looks homeless and battle-scarred:     I had zoomed in with my little point and shoot from my vantage point by the front of my garage, and even from that distance I could see his wonky ear. I couldn't see the scars on his face and body, though, until I downloaded the snapshot to edit it.   He certainly breaks my heart. He looks quite chunky in the pic, so I hope that someone is feeding him, or perhaps even has taken him in. There are three townhouse complexes in the area, including mine, so he could have come up from either of the two below ours. I hope he'll be okay. ♥ As for Derry, he's currently fast asleep inside, so here's a pic from last week, in his new lawn chair. Peace.

I happened to spy this gorgeous cat (those eyes!) last week on a lunch time walk, when it was sunny and warm, not cold and snowy! (We had wet snow most of the day yesterday, the 19th. Bleh.) Happy mid-week!

A very happy Easter, happy Passover, happy Spring, happy whatever! We hope you have a lovely, peace-full long weekend. May the Easter Bunny bring lots of treats! 🐰🐣 Comments are off.