rats

Cat and computer

/ Loony Feminist / 1 Comment

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my cat (!) but she is now an indoor/house cat. Two new cats have moved into the area, and are intent on taking over her territory (basically our back garden). So she has ended up at the vet, needing anaesthesia and stitches in her leg, antibiotics and pain relief. Fortunately the vet is so skilled with the stitches that she hasn’t needed one of those cone collars. She really doesn’t cope with those. Anyhow, the wound is healing well, but she’s not terribly happy that she’s not allowed outside. So I bought a Feliway diffuser, which is supposed to replicate happy pheromones which calm upset cats, and a couple of new toys. She has of course ignored the toys so far, and is currently sulking under my bed. Ho hum. The vet agreed that she will be safer inside. And she’s 13, so an older cat. Hmph. As you can see from the photo, however, she doesn’t seem to be in any pain, and is quite relaxed. You can just about see a small “hole” in her fur – it’s her left back leg which was bitten – so she was actually running away.

And I got very cross indeed with Windows 11 when it stopped printing. Hubby was able to print from his pc with Windows 10 on it, so it wasn’t the printer or any connections. I have installed Linux 22.04 and all is working fine, except for my favourite suite of card games (Pysol fc). After much research, and discovering that Pysol just doesn’t work in Ubuntu 22.04, I’ve installed wine, which is an emulator, and installed Pysol inside that. It basically means that Pysol thinks it’s working in Windows. Phew.

Meanwhile I’ve been selling stuff on ebay and having such trouble with the couriers! Royal Mail took almost a week to deliver when I’d paid for a 48 hour delivery, despite delivering a parcel collected at the same time within two days. Then Evri didn’t pick up a parcel, I rebooked it, and only managed to get it collected because their courier happened to be delivering to us that day, but wasn’t expecting to collect. Jeez. Also, a winning bidder decided to cancel their bid, which means I have to re-list (but can’t do that for a few days). I’m trying not to be too cross about the inconvenience – anything could have happened in their life – but my first reaction was, to be honest, to be irritated. So I won’t put any feedback, because it might be totally inappropriate.

And last of all, we have another damn blasted rat in the garden. We think they are attracted by the bird food which gets dropped by the birds. So. Hubby has blocked off access to under the shed, and when he did that he found that the rat/s have gnawed their way through the wood so that they can get in the shed. Now I’m a bit worried (terrified) that next time I go in the shed there will be a rat/some rats in there. We shall see. If we see another rat, the next option is to call out the rat catchers (£144!) who will lecture hubby (again) about the bird feeders.

It is another reason, though, to be relieved that the cat is now an inside cat. Two aggressive new cats and a rat does not make for a safe outside environment. Hmph.

And I’m back!

/ Loony Feminist / 1 Comment

It’s almost 9 weeks since the surgery. I’ve managed to regain half of the 14 lbs/6 kilos I lost, so I’m a bit thin but not too bad. Appetite still not great though. The hand is still painful and very stiff, but I’m doing my exercises. Physio on Wednesday so we shall see. I can drive – although it’s uncomfortable it’s so much more convenient.

Managed to do a little bit of gardening – planting mostly. Some alliums – I love those, they look like fireworks when they bloom – and some pretty tulips (Carnaval de Nice). Will have to wait for next year for those to grow though. So today I planted some winter pansies and a white heather in a pot each. Lovely.

One of the things I did each day while I was feeling so poorly was sit outside in the garden for at least half an hour, just sitting. It was lovely. So good for the soul.

The plumber is currently here. I’ve been able to hear a dripping noise for a couple of weeks now. Hubby’s standard reaction to anything like that is 1) it’s not happening. 2) well, it is happening, but it doesn’t matter.

It’s not until we get to stage 3 (damp carpets) that he finally agrees we need to do something. So now the plumber has found at least two leaks, and may have to knock a hole in a wall. We have water dripping through a ceiling, a very wet carpet in the study, and a big old mess behind the washing machine. The water is turned off, so no hand washing or going to the loo. We shall see what develops.

Ooh. Another plumber has arrived. So we have two here, making plumber-type noises. I expect we’ll need some repairs and redecorating done. Hmm.

The pest control people have managed to get rid of the rat who was living under the shed. Ewww. We have some special wire mesh which we are going to fix to the shed supports so that nothing else can move in there. The squirrel has been exercising us too, damn thing wants to eat all the bird food. But he can’t get at it now. Hubby has devised a rather Heath-Robinson but very effective system which stops the squirrel, but allows the birds to get in to the bird feeder. In fact, the pest control guy said feeding the birds was a sure way to attract rats. Mm. So we moved the bird-feeder further away from the shed.

No knitting or crochet yet. I did pick up some stitches for a friend the other day, which was quite complicated, but I managed it ok. Paid for it later though! thank goodness for ice-packs and Co-codamol . . .

Some ups, some downs.

What a day.

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My friend from school, eons ago, came for coffee today. We’ve kept in touch since school (1965 – 1972!) and see each other approximately every 2 months or so. Love her to bits. Always jolly, always elegant and fab, always fun.

Anyway, today was a bit different. Hubby had spotted our cat spending a lot of time waiting, absolutely still, by the shed. Something was moving under there, and it was bigger than a mouse. We were very worried it might be a rat, or even a nest of rats (ewwwwww!), but couldn’t really see.

While Cas and I were drinking our coffee outside, as it’s been such a beautiful sunny day, we saw what it was. It had come out from under the shed and was sitting boldly eating my plants. A very small baby rabbit. The cat was most surprised, and decided not to attack it, just to watch it. So cat and rabbit watched each other.

I wasn’t terribly impressed that it was eating my plants ravenously. Even the flowers, not just the leaves.

So I spent most of our coffee morning on my knees, in case I frightened it, catching it. I fetched the carrier for when we take the cat to the vet. I fetched a carrot and a couple of cabbage leaves, ripped them into small pieces, and left a sort of trail.

Eventually, after a couple of hours, I actually managed to catch it. It screeched like a baby and wriggled like billyo, but stopped when it was inside the carrier. There were two small bits of cabbage leaf in there and a stump of carrot.  Turned its nose up at the carrot, but ate all the cabbage leaf!

Then I schlepped round all the neighbours from whose houses a baby rabbit could possibly escape and asked them if they’d lost one. No joy. Then I phoned the vet, who said to bring it straight round and they’d scan it to see if it was chipped.

So I did. It’s a wild baby rabbit, probably a female, and very healthy.

No sign of any mother rabbit, or any other baby rabbits. The vets had given me the phone number of a small animal sanctuary, and to cut a long story short, that’s where the baby rabbit is now. Any more that appear, and that I can catch, will go straight there. No more schlepping round the neighbours.

Wild rabbits are a sort of grey/brown colour, like hedgehogs. Tame rabbits are usually, I have discovered today, white, or black, or grey. The vet did suggest we could keep it – no thank you!

So that was that sorted.

When I woke from my afternoon ziz, I decided to have a go at installing Windows XP on my laptop. I’d put a 500 Gb drive in it, which worked (sort of) in the RipNAS. Well, it didn’t work in my laptop. So I put the old 160 Gb drive back in the laptop, which has Lubuntu installed on it. Well, Windows XP wouldn’t install on that, either. So I have bought a copy of Windows XP for no discernible reason. Grrr. However, the upside is that the laptop is still quite happy running Lubuntu. I suppose that’s ok.

The reason I need access to Windows XP is that I have knitting software called Knitware, which I need to design myself a top to knit in Bergere de France Coton 50. And you can’t install this program in Windows 7 (which is what I have now on my main pc). You have to faff about installing it in XP, then copy the installed files into a particular folder in Windows 7, get a Borland Database Engine file, and generally fiddle and faff.

In the end I booted hubby’s pc into Windows XP and sorted it all out in there. Now it’s working fine in Windows 7 and I’ve designed the top, worked out roughly how much yarn I’ll need, and will get it tomorrow. I will definitely need to do a tension sample though. Further exciting instalments as the project unfolds . . . .

And for now, I think, that’s it. So many adventures in one day. Let’s hope tomorrow is calmer, and I don’t find more baby rabbits eating my plants. Cute as they are, they can ruin your garden.