Crisis Averted, Part Two: Jezebel

All our kitties’ outdoor adventures ended after I saw what looked like rice on Jezebel’s backside. The same vet who cared for both Tilly and Luna confirmed a tapeworm infestation. Back home I vacuumed every crack and crevice of furniture and carpeting and made my decree.

I don’t know how sick she could have gotten left untreated but am grateful I got her an appointment so fast. Quite a scamp in her youth, she jumped up onto our fireplace mantel (!) numerous times. She broke a candle holder once and found the catnip bag ‘hidden’ up there on another occasion. ~rolls eyes~ We returned home from someplace or other to find the herb scattered all over the carpet and three very stoned cats. My saddest casualty was a beautiful Christmas cactus knocked down and broken to pieces.

Even when fading away she continued enjoying
many favorite lounging spots.

A focal point of our entryway destroyed, at least it landed on linoleum. She’d been found by friends a few blocks away as an older kitten and lived a long, long, easy life. Inevitably her body became frail and thin but we believe that adopting Terra and Polly invigorated her until old age overtook our sweetie. I have video of my husband hand feeding all three treats and Jezzy was very much engaged.

Why do graceful felines sometimes become the proverbial bull in a China shop? Can you guess I wouldn’t have wanted Jezebel any other way?

-

Crisis Averted, Part One: Tilly

With a little more than a quarter century of pet stewardship, I’ve seen several close calls. I didn’t intend this to be a series on my silly blog, let alone a string of eulogies, but an event Thursday afternoon started me thinking. And here it is. I hope it’s not too tedious.

Tilly was especially adept at proving cats have nine lives, especially when we hadn’t yet learned not to let our cats outside. One day she got scared up a tree by a German shepherd. I didn’t realize this fact until walking onto our second story deck, noticing her high above next door, and then seeing the dog.

I quickly descended our stairs and stood on uneven ground at the base of said tree encouraging her to climb down. Holding a towel intended to cuddle and comfort her once safe on the ground, instead I watched horrified as she slipped and fell. In the blink of an eye I somehow turned the towel into a safety net and caught her without us tumbling down the slope.

Another time we were out having breakfast with my parents when an ominous feeling sent my husband racing home. He found Tilly downstairs with a deep throat slash and raced her to our veterinary clinic. Bless him, he likely saved her from bleeding out. To this day we don’t know what happened. All three had been outside the day before and came inside seeming fine, so perhaps Jezebel accidentally snagged her neck during a rough overnight wrestling bout. How even a razor sharp claw could cut through Tilly’s thick wooly coat… again, we have no clue, but something did.

Our sleepy old girl with slowly balding hindquarters...

Tilly lived until the end of 2019 and died peacefully at home before our sorrowfully planned euthanasia. What amazes us to this day is that she ran to jump into my husband’s lap the night before passing away. Our loveable goof lived to twenty plus years of age, her health only failing in the last few months.

Is it not bittersweet when a pet passes like that? And isn’t it sad that my husband never experienced this before Tilly?

-

Two Great Amazon Buys

I get so tired of suffering heat exhaustion during the day and mosquitoes swarming at night. In fact I’ve been bitten many times in broad daylight; those disgusting greedy vampires seem to tolerate direct sun better than I do. lol My husband once witnessed a cloud of the bloodsuckers chasing me.

He and I often quip that Amazon is the devil taking business from local shops. The convenience is hard to deny. Finding a natural mosquito repellent and cordless rechargeable fan, I didn’t hesitate.

I am sure the cats would despise this spray...

The lemony eucalyptus smell is strong, less than pleasant, yet has deterred insects. My little fan is amazing, with multiple features. Here’s the link if anyone is interested.

Do you have an Amazon Prime subscription? What about video streaming services?

-

A Little Adventure – & – Sharing Meals

My iPhone battery needed switched out, so my husband and I traveled up to a shopping center called The Greene Tuesday afternoon. Besides the Apple store and our dentist’s office, there are 75 retail shops, a theater, comedy club, over 20 restaurants, and even apartments at the back. I’d like living there in my old age, I think. The only lack is a grocery store, but I think there’s one at the strip mall across the street, or certainly not far away.

After a quick look, this place is out of my price range;
but I really like the amenities and small town layout...

I wish our closer Austin Landing had half the dining/shopping options of the Greene and not the haphazard parking layout. Oh, well. This is the shopping center we visit for eye appointments and one thing Austin Landing has is an extensive running water feature. It doesn’t stock any koi, however, which would be nice.

Meanwhile, the Apple store apparently got hacked and our kind assistant suggested returning either that evening or the next day when their network service recovered. We opted for the latter. Still, we dined at Club Oceana and greatly enjoyed mussels in white wine sauce and a huge salad. We didn’t even try to dive into the clam linguini entrée. Our server boxed it up and this, too, was later devoured.

On Wednesday we got the battery replaced. The process took a few hours and this time we ate at Scrambler’s. As at the seafood place, we split the food order, having discovered that our appetites have lessened with age. I’m not a big fan of their crab cake benny, finding the crab cake too sweet and hollandaise sauce always a bit too rich, but it filled my belly and we didn’t have to worry about leftovers spoiling in the hot car.

After that we spent time in the air conditioned Winan’s Chocolate and Coffee shop. Their overly expensive sweets didn’t much impress me. Seated on bar stools facing the window made for relaxing people watching entertainment. I did like the blueberry flavored jellied fruit candy we split in two, also vastly overpriced at $5(USD) for four pieces. On that note, I need to get into another fruit flavor this evening. lol And I really need to make chocolate covered potato chips again. The sweet/salty combo is my favorite but not worth what Esther Price charges for a seasonal grocery store box.

Can you believe I forgot we brought home some candy? Are you a big fan of sweet treats?

-

Hard Work and Great Expectations

This past Monday I spent long, arduous hours fertilizing plants in all my grow bags and the raised bed. Long after I’d spooned out dry components for each plant it occurred to me that a plastic cup could be marked with the desired amount. ~sigh~ I’d done that with liquids, so why not? Measuring proved a bit trickier but made things way quicker. Meanwhile, I’m incredibly grateful for my ‘portable oasis’ shade and these cooler temperatures.

This is my little raised bed contains dill, eggplant,
sweet basil, and bell peppers...

The little 3 pack purchased at our Walmart garden center looked like it contained basil and I wasn’t wearing my reading glasses. LOL What’s even funnier is that the tag gave no clue as to the variety; the image included everything from sweet bell to some of the hottest. Weird, huh? Oh, well, I look forward to finding out what they are, which is probably green bell.

Meanwhile my husband, most beloved by me and our three cats cannot conceive how hard I work. He does appreciate it, though, and cooked our dinner that evening. The next day my body complained, for sure, but a good foot soak and rest restored me. And I’m excited.

I took this today and need to keep an eye on that twine,
making sure it does not interfere...

Do you know that eggplant got its name due to the original white skin matching the mass produced chicken egg’s shell? Why do you think growers felt the need cultivate the purple variety?

-

Wow!

My thirty year old neighbor’s abilities and work ethic astound me, especially with so many skills being self taught. Hired to a friend’s family upholstery business with zero knowledge of its intricacies, he learned by watching YouTube videos and experimenting. His greedy employers didn’t pay him near his worth, so he walked away, hoping to start his own business someday.

So much for friend/family loyalty, right? He filmed some of his later efforts, which will go in a future portfolio. His only regret is not filming all of them.

In the meantime he provides custom car repairs. The current project is a magnificent beast of a vehicle, a Ford Mustang GTS. Her owner requested both minor mechanical and some very precise cosmetic work on the hood. If too much varnish gets sanded off there’s no going back. So he’s experimenting on one of his own needing similar attention.

The color is not my favorite but what counts is under the aforementioned hood and the stripped down design;
less weight means greater racing speed.

I’m glad to have grown up in a family of car enthusiasts. When possible I express my admiration, which thrills the drivers. And my neighbor appreciates my shared appreciation while teaching me how intense the culture considers any modification. The interior ceiling headliners he’s shown me are true artworks, which I didn’t even know was a thing.

I find it interesting that cars and boats are both referred to as ‘she’ in American English. And that in linguistics, gender means ‘category’ or ‘type’ rather than biological sex. On that note, comedic essayist David Sedaris shared his hilarious struggle with the French language. I highly recommend you seek it out if you’re unfamiliar.

Do you know that Spanish and French adopted noun gender assignations from Latin? Is it not cool that this performance package model saw a limited release in 1995?

-

Another Garden Update – & – A Lingering Annoyance

My lemon cucumber plants are growing like gangbusters. I added another level to my Earth Box trellis. The growth rate is astounding at three to four inches a day. The straight 8 variety are growing slower, for whatever reason.

I apologize for the poor image. The vines have reached
further toward the sky and deserve an updated photo.

This jungle parrot sweet bell pepper looks great.

This corn is growing well; I need to move the other
three grow bags into more direct sunlight.

I’m going to address my ‘first world problem’ with a message to Strayer. Yesterday I clicked to sign in to Blogger and actually reached the sign in page this time, but it dumped me out again. ~sigh~ My friend, I’m sorry about the sudden loss of Juno. And thanks as always for the good you do through your nonprofit The Happy Cat Club.

Did you know that corn is a heavy feeder and tomato plants need a lot of water to prevent blossom end rot? Isn’t it fortunate an automatic watering system finally solved the latter issue?

-

King for a Moment – & – Foodies for Life

My husband went to a routine doctor appointment and stopped at Burger King on the way home. Amusedly lamenting over my spoiling his lasts two surprises, this afternoon he got me.

He met me wearing a paper Burger King crown. I burst out laughing. Why the clerk gave it to him, I don’t know. And I neither know nor care why the chain is affiliated with Ohio State University’s football team, the Buckeyes.

I did enjoy the taste of my flame broiled whopper jr., though. If he’d called ahead to ask if I wanted one the answer probably would have been no as I’d eaten a while earlier. But by golly, I cut the burger in half and still ate the whole thing in one sitting.

Something similar happened after I saw that another fast food chain, Arby’s, brought back their chicken pecan salad sandwich for a limited time. The slices of hearty whole grain bread are rather wide and packed with equally yummy filling. But about twenty minutes after storing half in the refrigerator I went back and devoured the rest.

It’s rare that I crave any fast food, let alone rave about it. But the fresh crunchy flavors of apple, pecans, and celery perfectly balance the abundant juicy chicken chunks while a light, simple mayonnaise dressing keeps the whole thing (mostly) together. Trust me when I say that any bits that fell out onto my plate didn’t go to waste.

Is it wrong to wax poetic about fast food? Do you agree that limited releases are a gimmick, however tasty?

-