Last month, Mom thought to try one of the lightweight cat litters on the market and while she hasn’t opened it up just yet, she reports it sure was easier to haul upstairs to the one cat box still in the cat den. The other two litter boxes are downstairs but until changing day, those heavy bags of litter have to go into some closet. Maybe we’re just odd that way, but we don’t generally leave litter bags sitting out in the open. Not since the Poop-o-looza incident of 1993 when five Colehaus cats tore open a fresh bag of litter while we were away on a day trip and well, let’s just say not a grain of litter went unscathed that day.
We’ve heard good and bad things about lightweight cat litter and things about different brands. We’ll find out soon enough if Mom chose wisely. And while waiting for judgment day to arrive, Tessa assures us this box of lightweight litter won’t be floating away anytime soon.
Back in June, Mom scheduled our fountain for cleaning and a pump maintenance check. Since our fountain pump seemed to fail every other year for a while there, and almost always on a holiday weekend, she thought to get ahead of that game. This time, that thinking paid off. The fountain guys came out last week and found the pump’s in great shape, the silt and algae biomass around the filter material has been cleaned out and later, a visiting crow gave his nod of approval. Clearly, the summer can proceed without worry.
Leaving the babies to frolic elsewhere, or perhaps taking their kindergarten late morning nap under the watchful eye of a raccoon auntie, these two mama raccoons took advantage of some alone time after hitting the spa for a hot stone massage, and then, stopped by for a snack. They’re also showing us how we might want to think about how to repair the front portion of those feeding stations. Years of someones must have thought those front wood boards were perfect for teething and gnawing.
On her day off, Mom stepped out the side garage door hoping to get more raccoon pictures (because why not?), looked down the walkway and saw . . . someone. Large mostly white cat with black splotches. Never saw a face. This someone was very, very fast.
And then he burrowed into his blanket fort so Mom was left taking photos of his tail, not exactly what she was thinking of when someone said they can take pictures of them all day.
Whew! We weren’t sure if we were going to make it to today and before we could stress ourselves out too much more, here came Friday and payday. Neighbor cat KeeKee probably wasn’t worried at all because he spends all his free time over here where the chicken catnip treats are/were plenty. Little does he know his supply has dwindled down to a single unopened bag. We’ll work on replenishing that soon, just not yet.
Two weeks ago, Mom’s car took the 2nd step toward engine failure. It has a multi-step recall that’s only good if it fails two additional times and only if the original owner (who is Mom) jumps through enough hoops. The company’s stance is, “Okay, yes these engines are crap and yes, your government made us put out a recall warning but if the car has over 150,000 miles on it, we don’t have to do a thing.” Their plan seems to be designed to make owners jump through the hoops until their car is over the 150,000 mile mark and then, they don’t have to replace the engine. Basically, just cut them owners loose.
Mom’s car only has 77,258 miles on it and is well within the “free” engine recall/replacement timeframe. But she hasn’t jumped through enough hoops. Not even close. She’s been babying it for a year and a half, faithfully checking the oil level every 4 days without fail and adding up to half a quart each time for the oil consumption problem some models are known for. She even keeps records of every one of those oil checks and additions. If you hadn’t noticed, oil is expensive now, and half a quart every 4 days? Ouch.
After the last knock sensor fail code popped up (P1326) and the dreaded catalytic converter fail warming (P0420), requiring her to have the car towed to the dealership ($249) and rent a car for a week ($642), both at her cost, she knows this will happen again within 6 months. Only she can put an end to this madness. It doesn’t help that the dealership has “lost” records of the original oil consumption problem, making it their word against Mom’s who, btw, has been a car nut since age 4 when she was accepted into her father’s metropolitan car club as their youngest member, and has known how to check, change and record oil maintenance along with a myriad of other things since age 12. She sort of knows her way around cars.
Sooooo, she’s car shopping, something she says isn’t too far removed from stabbing one’s self in the eyes repeatedly with a dull spoon. Mom’s car is slow but fun (when running) and best of all, it’s been paid off for years. She doesn’t look forward to having car payments and is losing sleep over it. In the meantime, neighbor cat visitor KeeKee might not realize it just yet, but he might come to notice his daily catnip treat has become more of a small catnip pinch. Hey, we all have to make sacrifices, right? You’ll survive, KeeKee.
