After several exhausting days we finally have TP II moved from Oliver to Summerland. Spring seems farther ahead in Summerland, probably because of the influence of Okanagan Lake, which is just at the end of our short street. There are tiny leaves on the trees. However we had snow today for several hours. It didn't stick to the ground but it is quite cool, hovering at the freezing mark.
It's going to take a week or two for me to get things organized properly. In the end things were simply stuffed into cupboards willy-nilly, a shoe and a pie plate side by side, right next to the box of remotes and charging devices. Ask me where anything is and the answer is likely to be, "I know nothing."
We've both done quite well, we had wonderful help from friends and neighbours, but now we are tired and need a few days to rest and regroup.
Unhappily, our attempt to rescue one little cat and add her to our family has ended in dismal failure. She escalated her constant belligerence, from hissing at Sal to attacking him (and he was so patient with her), then she began to be belligerent and aggressive with us, growling when approached or touched at times.
This morning, while she was sitting in my lap, presumably content to be there, she whirled around and attacked me without the slightest warning. She slashed through both my upper and lower lips, and gave me two puncture wounds, one in the cheek, the other just in the middle of my lower lip.
It took a while to staunch the bleeding and I have a very sore mouth and face. We talked and decided we couldn't handle this kind of aggression, especially when it was totally unprovoked. With knew we couldn't put her out on the street, and we certainly couldn't pass her on to another family. With heavy hearts we took her to a nearby vet's and had her euthanized and cremated. It's very sad. Was it her time on her own, having to fight for her life, that turned her into a time bomb, or was she thrown out of a household for this kind of behaviour? We'll never know.
But we did what we could for her. She was warm, well-fed and safe for the last weeks. I wish we could have done more for her, but sometimes problems are beyond your ability to solve and all you can do is what you think is best and try to get through it.
2 comments:
Hi Deb, what sad news, after doing all that you could to provide her with a new life. Probably the trip to the vets, the trauma of being trapped indoors and then a move to Summerland, was all a bit too much for her to cope with.
I have so enjoyed your blog and will continue to tune in to your views on life. I don't spend nearly as much time on the computer as Dave, but do enjoy reading a few different blogs, yours is always enjoyable.
Today we had a mass invasion of cedar waxwings, about a hundred of them. They spent a few hours and completely stripped every single berry off our Rowan tree (Mountain Ash).
We also have a nutty robin who has been flying about three feet between our van and Susan's car, just non stop reapeating of this proceedure. Each time he alit, he sh--, so each car had a mass of 'whitewash' down the side.
We had the same, or a relative of this nutty character, last year. Then he was flying non stop at the house window, bashing his wings against the glass and sliding down to the ground. This was repeated for days on end. Our very upset cat kept hurling herself at the inside of the window and the dogs were barking at all the axcitement. As this started with the light of dawn, the human occupants of the house were less than thrilled with this exhibition of nature at it's nuttiest!
Dave, (another nut) has a dried up dead owl in the garage, his miserable wife won't permit the fleabitten carcass in the house. Anyway, he fastened the talons of said owl to the windshield wipers of our van and the breeze ruffled it's feathers, giving it a rather bizzarre zombie effect. This startled the robin, but once it decided that the owl wasn't about to take flight, it resumed it's batty behaviour.
Susan has been visiting for the past couple of days, she came staggering out of the spare room yesterday, complaining that the phone kept ringing and every time she got up to answer it, it stopped ringing. The ringing she had heard was a woodpecker who had been hammering away at a powerpole since daybreak. In her room, she got the sound of it, but every time she came into the living room, she couldn't hear it and thought that the 'ringing phone' had stopped. With the nutty robin and the noisy woodpecker, I think Susan thought that the country wasn't as peaceful as she had supposed, she went back to the city for some peace and quiet!
have a good rest before you continue to put your new nest to order. Pat
Hi Deb,
I hope you guys are settling in to your new home. I had spent a few hours with Cathy and James one day. After a while I got my coat on and announced that I was going to pop by and have a little visit with you. She told me you had already headed off, to my surprize!
Sorry we didnt get a chance to have that tea together after all.
Like my mom, I too will be glad to stay in touch via the blog and look forward to your first post from your new post.
Sad news about the little cat.
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