Living the Good Life - mortgage free and living in line with our values

beanielou

What about these squeezy rhings that some cats love ? Trying to think of the name.
Or similar.

catclaires

Just delurking to mention 'pill pockets' - I've not used them myself, but I'm in a lovely, helpful F*book group for cats with hyperthyroidism, and lots of people in that group have mentioned them as being really good for administering pills (I'd never heard of them before). The Lick-e-lix could also be a good shout - although my B&W boy has randomly gone off them, which is a pain as we now can't use them to guarantee he takes his liquid medication. Sending best wishes for your horrible work and cat stress, and of course lots of cat cuddles too!

themadvix

Thanks all! RT and Greenbee, yes, this is the same rubbish that’s been hanging over us since October! 🙄 None of the minions in the department (which is how we all feel) has any faith thatwe’ll ever find out anymore and we’re all just totally demotivated. I was saying to a colleague today how I’d feel quite relieved if I was told I wasn’t needed anymore, and she was was saying she felt the same - and she’s a ft employee. It’s a really ridiculous situation to be in. With the exception of my boss-who-was-on-mat-leave, the new boss has managed to ‘get rid’ of all the rest of the middle management, leaving no one with any authority who knows how things actually happen… 🙄

Beanie, he had flea tablets in a lick-e-lid once and now refuses them - he really is the most suspicious cat in the world 🙄 And he’s rejected one type of pill putty already just because he didn’t like the taste, but I’ve just opened the RC ones and the smell appealed, so we’ll see in half an hour… and then probably have to give the rest of thepouch away 😏 Fingers crossed that won’t be the case 🤞🏻

themadvix

Reporting back in to whisper that the pill pocket worked…. Reserving judgement on how long that will work for, but celebrating a tiny win that cat dinner time was stress free! He really likes the taste of the pill pockets, it seems, so 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Greying_Pilgrim

Whispers…… yay! for small wins, when they're so important. Fingers-crossed for continuation….. 🤞

Greying X

beanielou

Great news on pill pockets. I’ve not heard of them ‘til today!

themadvix

Morning all,

Continues to whisper pill no. 2 went down a treat again this morning (albeit we're getting through 2 pockets each time as B&W cat manages to drop the pill out of them the first time - but at least interest in the tasty snack seems to be outweighing suspicion of what's included in them). Beanie, I hadn't heard of them until a few years ago when I was cat sitting for someone whose Maine Coone had to have pill every day - you just mould the putty around the pill and (in theory) it goes down a treat. They aren't cheap, but if they work, they're definitely worth it!

Feeling calmer today - a day at home, with 'proper' work was desperately needed. Mr MV has gone into the office for a meeting this morning, but will be home for lunch. One of my Cambridge meetings was moved to yesterday, so we could do it in person, so I've only got one this afternoon. Work has been intellectually challenging this morning, but I think (hope) I've resolved the issue now (am waiting for confirmation from main client that he likes my solution). If the weather stays dry, I'm going to go and plant some stuff at the allotment this afternoon - squash, courgettes, maybe an achocha or two; if I can persuade Mr MV to come and put my raised bed together, then I'll be able to get some tomatoes in too.

Mr MV has taken Friday off. I think I'll probably have work to do, but it'll be nice to not feel guilty about enjoying the sunshine if not! We only have plans for Saturday at the weekend - a BBQ with some friends at their new house. I think the rest of the weekend will involve teardrop building (the wet and windy weather has held up progress as varnishing requires no wind and space in the garage that involves putting the trailer outside), allotmenting and chilling in the garden with the cats. Very unusually for us, we will be indulging in the Coop offer in this week's email from Martin - pizzas can go in the pizza oven and we might invite BIL and SIL, although we're seeing them on Saturday (and Friday… hmm, maybe they'll have had enough of us!). A low-key and stress-free weekend is needed.

GillyLucy

Delurking to say my (late) cheese mad cat would happily take pills which I had wrapped in Baby bell cheese. I took it out of the fridge 30 mins before to let it soften then you can mould it round the pills easily. 🐱

themadvix

Thanks GillyLucy. Cheese has been tried in the past, accepted once and then rejected the next time (just when we thought we'd cracked it). I'll admit, we've not tried Babybel, but I suspect the stronger flavour of mature cheddar would be better at masking any suspicious odours. I might try it for his flea tablet though next time around (no way am I risking him going off the pill pockets by using them for flea tablets!). I asked his consultant (I'm not sure the vet would recognise this as the correct term, but it definitely seems to be right to me!) a question earlier (B&W cat is on an immunosuppressant dose of steroids - should I be cat sitting) and he seemed pleased that B&W cat is doing well - so 🤞🏼that this continues and he proves consultant wrong.

Today seems to have rushed past, with little evidence of progress work-wise. The intellectually challenging work continued to be so, so I am finishing off with something much easier (but still for main client). My Cambridge meeting reminded me that while it's great to have mat-leave boss back, she treats me like part of her team, not a freelancer, which means I have to do more than write reports! Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it does require more time. It's still windy here at the moment, although warmer than it has been, so I've decided to push on with work so as to have more time when it's sunny and warm to get planting.

Mr MV is disgruntled - the aluminium for the teardrop finally arrived (the first lot having disappeared in transit) only to have been damaged en route (a ding right in the middle of the sheet) - it's poorly wrapped which doesn't help. So we're no further ahead there (although he's still got lots of varnishing he can get on with). Not sure what to do really - we might have to hire another van and collect it (too big for our car - it's a sheet that wraps around to form the roof of the caravan) if he can't find someone who can deliver it reliably. 🙄