Further to this post, we've just had several really stressful days with Aimee and I had to face the fact that it just wasn't working.

So, yesterday, we finally made the difficult decision to return Aimee to the rescue centre and I drove her up there this morning. ( Long explanation behind here... )

Anyway, that is our sad news and the reason for my silence over the past few days. For the moment, I'm not going to rush into anything, but I think we'll be looking for a kitten in a little while. I don't think I want to risk another older cat, unless it's obviously a juvenile.

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In happier news, our daughter and family are arriving in North Wales this evening and will be staying nearby for a week. It will be nice to be able to spend time with them all. I might actually manage to get out and about and take some photos.

Tags: aimee
Current Mood: sad

Today Aimee had a vet's appointment to get her teeth sorted out. I had to starve her from 8 pm last night because she was having a general anaesthetic, so she was a hungry, thirsty and wobbly cat when I collected her around 5 pm.

All went well though, her teeth have been cleaned and some dodgy ones removed, so her mouth should be more comfortable in future. She'd been very good about taking her antibiotic once I discovered that she would happily eat them if they were buried in a morsel of cheese. I'm hoping this tactic will continue to work because she has a course of antibiotic tablets as a follow up from the dental work done today.

The vet also took a blood sample to check her kidney function. It seems that she is quite a lot older than the Freshfields Rescue people thought and she is just beginning to show the first signs of kidney problems. However, the vet has recommended a new drug that we add to her food which should help keep symptoms at bay and extend her life expectancy. I do hope it works. It really is amazing how quickly we've bonded with her. She is quite a character.

Anyway, after a long drink and almost two sachets of Whiskas' best cat-food-in-a-pouch and a couple of tinned pineapple chunks^[*], she has gone to sleep off the affects of the anaesthetic on her favourite sleeping place in G's study, namely a box on top of the filing cabinet. I take it from this that I am out of favour at the moment. :(

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^[*] Yes, I did say pineapple chunks. She saw us eating them, she demanded some, I said she wouldn't like them, she said she would, I called her bluff and gave her one -- which she promptly ate!

Tags: aimee, vet visit
Current Mood: relieved

It's now sunny. Humph! And I got soaked coming back from town this morning.

I'd rushed in to catch a sunny interval because I wanted to photograph Chump the Minkie beside the Gorsedd stone circle on the town's playing fields. But the sunny interval had passed by the time I got into town, even though it's only just over 5 minutes walk. I got the photos though and, to be honest, the overcast sky is probably more typically Welsh than a blue sky and sunshine. :) By the time I'd done a few bits of shopping, including a pasty and some sausage rolls from the WI country market, it was tipping down with rain. Thankfully Chump was snug in the shopping bag, so she was none the worse for the downpour, unlike me who had to change into dry trousers!

If you're wondering who Chump the minkie is, she's a small plush monkey who is currently touring the world, being hosted by various members of a Flickr group I belong to. The idea is, people will keep her for a week or so and photograph her in various local beauty spots/interesting locations. Then she gets sent on to the next volunteer. She arrived with me earlier this week. It seems there are quite a number of soft toys who are seeing the world for free in this way. :)



While Chump stretches her legs after her long journey from Cambridge, Aimee tries out her travelling box for size.

Tags: aimee
Current Mood: cheerful

One of the Flickr groups I'm a member of is a photo-a-week project. As a spin-off, some of us are participating in enabling a small furry monkey toy to travel around the world. Chump the Minkie started in Venice, visited Holland and is now doing the UK. After starting in Hertfordshire, she then moved on to Cambridge and has now crossed the country to spend a few days with me. She arrived safely this morning.( More photos here... )

While Chump stretches her legs after the long journey from Cambridge, Aimee tries out her travelling box for size. As you can see, Chump's appetite is fine and she's indulging in her favourite snack.



( And another picture here... )

Tags: aimee, photography
Current Mood: amused

So far I've been reasonably productive. The ukulele arrived safely this morning (see icon!) and it's a dear little thing. So cute! It was even still in tune and I discovered that guitar playing skills are very much transferable to ukuleles. I can already strum a few chords, though when it comes to picking out tunes, my brain keeps thinking that the open string is D when in fact it's E. But this will come with practice. I have two books and CDs to work through, then I can explore the stuff on the Web.

After experimenting with the new toy, I was good and I swept and wiped the kitchen floor, vacuumed and dusted the hall and stairs, changed the rugs, washed the dirty rugs and put them out to dry. While I was doing this, I let Aimee out for her second serious exploration of the garden.

Here, a little belatedly, are some photos of her first expedition, which happened a few days ago.



Aimee ventures out into the garden for the first time since coming to live with us.

( More pictures behind here... )

Tags: aimee, cats, garden, music, ukulele
Current Mood: productive

Aimee thinks the mouse mat is really a cat mat!

It's just as well I know all the keyboard shortcuts. My mouse was underneath her. :)

Today, for the first time, I let her out to explore the garden. She's been out twice before, once on purpose and once when she just jumped out past me, but both times I enticed her back in right away.

This time I walked down the garden to encourage her to do the same and she also slid through the fence to briefly investigate the gardens on either side.

Tags: 365 photo project, aimee, cats, photography
Current Mood: amused

Aimee settles down to study an OU course on Discourse Analysis. :)

(Not a 365 project photo, just a bonus photo of the cat.)

Tags: aimee, books, cats, photography, reading

Aimee doing her Oliver Twist impression.

Actually, that was the bowl I'd put out for my soup, but Aimee thought she might like to eat the soup for me. :)

Tags: 365 photo project, aimee, cats, photography

Aimee loves climbing and miraculously manages to settle in the most unlikely places.

(Not part of the 365 photo project. This is a bonus photo!)

Tags: aimee, cats, photography

Today I'm wearing a new pair of cord jeans. They are a very dark brown and I noticed this morning, as Aimee snuggled on my lap while I was checking email and investigating the possibility of using some form of IM or chat with Google documents, that most of Aimee is the exact same shade as the trousers. (She isn't actually black, though she usually looks it in photos, but a very very dark seal brown.)

Unfortunately... the white bits of Aimee are, well, white and so though the dark hairs that are now sticking to the aforementioned cord jeans don't show at all, the white ones show up really well.

Tags: aimee, cats
Current Mood: cheerful