Put away your purse & become debt-averse

crazy_cat_lady

Ah no - hope he's ok foxgloves. It's awful when that happens - much love xxx

Onebrokelady

Hi Foxgloves, I'm sorry to hear your cat is poorly and I hope everything went ok at the vets xx 

maryb

Oh Dear, Foxgloves, the fact you haven't posted makes me fear the worst.  I do hope it's not that

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Thanks for your kind wishes re poorly cat. I have had intermittent internet problems here........so I did sign in to do a diary update yesterday, & in the midst of a post on CCL's diary, I lost the post, my connection, then gave up & got on with something else. I have been so busy in the garden this week. 
Now, it wasn't the dreaded one-way trip to the vet at the weekend, even though that was what I feared would happen. We had a consultation in the car park as nobody is allowed into the vet practice & a lovely vet took him off inside. Cat has lost a terrific amount of weight. We put it down to age, initially (he's about 14) but over the preceding few days, this had just gone off a cliff, with him refusing food & subsisting on literally two single chunks of F*lix & a couple of licks of jelly a day. Vet said temperature normal so no infection, heart murmur no worse & breathing normal so gave him a painkilling injection & sent him home having done blood tests. The results were pretty good for his age......no diabetes, thyroid in the normal range, kidney & liver function normal. Vet reckons the food avoidance is down to his teeth which are apparently full of lesions & probably very painful. Needless to say he is booked in for a full dental this Friday & is on painkillers until then. The vet says if that doesn't fix the problem, then we'll have to think again, but he did say that the good blood test results do rule out a lot of the nasties. So it is fingers & paws crossed here. He is eating a little more now he is on painkillers so maybe it is horrible tooth pain & they are taking the edge off it. We shall soon see. He's lost a whole kilo - that is a huge amount for a cat. The thing with us cat owners.....we can generally cope better with being ill ourselves than we can when we have a poorly mog!
That is a long post & I haven't even got on to all the stuff I've been up to in the veggie garden this week. I know, I'll start another post!
See you in a minute.....
F x

foxgloves

......Actually, it is going to be quite a lot longer than a minute, but I will come back!
F x

Chrystal

I'm so pleased to hear puss is still there! 

It's awful that they are in pain and we don't know.  I had the same with one of my dogs and the difference it made when the teeth were extracted was ridiculous.... talk about going on a guilt trip!

PurpleFairy26

Appreciate there is still a way to go until he’s back round your feet and stealing the best spot by the  fire. But glad he’s back home with you and it wasn’t what you feared. Fingers and paws crossed here too for him. 

foxgloves

OK, back again to tell you what I've been getting up to in the garden. Yesterday, I separated off my rhubarb growing space from the rest of the bed with a row of old bricks, raked the rest & planted out my sweetcorn. I've put home made bottle cloches over the smallest ones to give them a bit of help to catch up and fixed canes around the edge with netting plus a dangly row of old CDs to try & keep off the Sparrow Army & their naughty beaks. Pleased to see a bit of space left at the end of that bed, so used it for a couple of squash plants - a yellow patty pan & a similar squash called 'green tint'. Fed all the fruiting veggies - even the outdoor tomatoes are just starting to get their first tiny fruits now & the greenhouse cucumbers, though a bit sulky with the ups & downs of the weather, are setting fruit.
Today was all about weeding. This is ongoing as we have quite a long garden (about 30 feet x 135 feet). I weeded the rhubarb bed & litter picked as I went too, as we are still turning up shards of old broken glass, bits of old brick & the usual plastic scraps, despite having lived here nearly 18 years. By the time I'd cleared that area & cut back some ivy, I had just about enough room to squeeze in another squash plant, so only one left to plant out now and that will have to wait until we harvest the garlic as I have run out of vegetable growing space. Then a thorough weed of the strawberry bed - it is actually an old under-bed storage drawer - I asked Mr F to punch the base out & used the rest of it as a raised bed. The strawberry plants seem to like it in there. Lots of fruits coming but still quite small & very green. I cut off all the runners, as I'd rather the plants put their energy into fruit at the moment, rather than reproducing and fed them with a can of seaweed solution. I've made a start on weeding the herb bed, which was well ready. I think that's everything. Oh no, actually, it wasn't, as I had a shopping from home opportunity & you know how pleased I am when these arise.........
Mr F has been busy clearing the area behind the shed from where we had the chance to nab a bit of extra garden. He needs a couple of hedging plants which will slowly fill a gap at the end of our existing hedge & the boundary with Victor Meldrew's garden at the back. We intended to buy a couple of pyracanthas for this as we want something with berries for wildlife. But hurrah for shopping from home! While looking at what weeds have been shooting up in our garden, I found treasure - two little hawthorns which have clearly come from birds dropping berries. I've carefully dug them out & potted them up today. We will plant them in the gap & as wildlife-friendly native hedging plants, they will hopefully slowly grow into just what we need. I did this a few years ago with another little self-seeded hawthorn & it is doing really well. I always like may blossom, because seasonal things in nature bring me joy & the birds will like the berries - actually, I've foraged haws in the past, along with blackberries, rosehips & elderberries to make hedgerow jelly.
The only veggies now waiting to go in are my celeriac plants. I have a raised bed reserved for them but it is covered in branches which Mr F is 'doing something with'. He's promised to clear it this weekend, so once they are planted out, I will have caught up with myself, at least for the time being. Am regularly snipping a few edibles now....parsley, rocket, spinach, sorrel, radishes, various herbs & the spring onions don't look far off being big enough to pull very soon.
Am achey from all the bending, so it's knitting & reading my book for me tonight.
We have managed to get tonight's dose of painkiller down Cat, but he has still only eaten a very small amount today. I think I may share a tin of tuna with him tomorrow lunchtime to see if that tempts him a bit.
In the meantime, I hope everyone's had a decent day.........these weird times just go on & on, don't they?
Hopefully talk to you tomorrow.
F xx

DawnW

So pleased to hear that it is most likely to be something that can be fixed xx

Blackcats

That's sounding more positive for your lovely cat - really pleased.  It's such a worry when they are ill.  My boy's recent trip to the vets was because of a nasty tooth and he is so much happier now that it's been dealt with.  I think lots of people who frequent your diary have been sending the cat positive thoughts and keeping our fingers crossed for him.