A sad day

I was mainly going to use this my project blog, but it's a sad day and I have to share.

When I bought my house back in January, I had made the decision to rescue two cats from the shelter. I picked up Charlie and Jasmine, two black cats and about as opposite from each other as you could think. Jasmine is a 11 lbs eight year old bossy beech who's loud and proud, Charlie is a 8 lb three year old who's kind and gentle to everyone and everything he meets. He would frequently walk around the house and getting into everything at all hours of the night and day. When he set his mind to something, he'd do it, whether it was trying to sneak outside, get in your lap, eat your chili or sleep next to you in bed. You'd shoo him away and he'd just come right back, over and over.

He always was a clumsy cat, jumping onto window sills (and missing) and sometimes falling out of them at random. He had chronic problems with gingivitis, and was taking antibiotics to treat it all the time. Reading up on his condition later, that was a foreshadowing I could not have anticipated.

Things changed about two months ago. His clumsiness started getting a little worse, and he obviously hadn't been bathing himself. His gums had started getting red again and he wasn't eating much. He was also running a fever. Back to the vet, more antibiotics and some worming medication because they said he had worms. He seemed to get better for awhile, then it was back to the way it was before.

Eventually his back legs kept slipping ALL the time. Stairs he used to run up and down with impunity he'd walk up slowly, if at all. Instead of jumping into window sills, he'd try to climb up instead. He ran a mild fever for weeks.

I took him to the vet again. They said he could have FeHIV, Feline Leukemia, FIP, or diabetes. The glucosamine and fructosamine tests were the cheapest, I started with those. I waited a few days for the test results.

His conditioned worsened. He wasn't even be able to make it up the stairs. He'd try, slip, try again, slip and fall down all the stairs he'd climbed before giving up and going back to the sickbed, aka the couch. Watching him walk was like watching someone with polio walking on ice. He lost continence and was peeing and pooping where ever he happened to be(thank god for cover slips and hardwood floors!). I've washed so many towels....

The blood test results came back on Friday. His sugar levels are fine, but his protein is way too high. Because of his condition and symptoms the vet said its highly likely that it's [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis"]FIP[/URL]. There's no cure, and no palliative care. That was the last day he could walk up to the upstairs bedroom unassisted.

This weekend has been his swan song. I let him go outside a few times, and let him harass and try to chase the chickens like he used to. He meowed at the swallows that live in the neighbor's tree, never to chase after them again. He lounged in the sunlight out on the deck, happy as can be. I gave him some chili and he loved it, even though I myself had little appetite. He feasted on wet cat food and kitty treats for as much as he could stomach for the weekend. I gave him a little tuna can water earlier and he just threw it up. Last night I carried him upstairs to sleep with me, one last time. Jasmine doesn't even recognize him anymore, she hisses at him like she does any other strange cat.

The vets were super professional. I paid in advance so I could leave right after. I dug a plot for him on the side of the house where he always hid to catch those damned swallows.

I ask all of you to have your own version of a wake, whether it's just having a beer for me, hugging your pet, or just reading this for me.

I will miss you Charlie. You were, and always shall be, my friend. Hopefully the swallows wherever you are now are unladen.

Finally, we have eggs!! It's about time those featherdusters earned their keep. It's two little mint green eggs about 3/4 the size of regular 'medium' sized eggs. It's definitely Noodle or Patty since they're the Americaunas. We still have yet to get rid of Henry. That little bugger is a rapist! He's given up trying to woo the ladies and just grabs them by the scruff of the neck and tries to mount them. I say 'try' because he's usually not successful, and the two Standard size New Hampshire's just attack him back.

Here's a store-bought egg for size reference.

Anyways, there's a farm that's going to take him and Nugget, and we'll get two pullets in trade. Nugget and Henry are just in luv with each other, even though Henry's a dirty bastard. We named him after Henry the VIII but I guess it works out he was SUPPOSED to be a hen. The problem is the farm's way the heck out near Hillsboro, and that's quite a drive! I may be taking him(them) out there on Monday. Here's new photos of the chickens! They're all grown up at 4 months old and will start laying more eggs soon.

That's Nugget, General Tso and Raptor Red

That's Patty and Nugget. Hiding in the back is Noodle.

This is Nugget and Henry. Look at the plumage!

The grey Americauna is gone, which I had named Peckerhead(it was a tie between that and Asshole). I named him that because he would crow at all daylight hours. Loudly. Constantly. It was awful. You realize we get 16 hours of sun a day now. Yea it sucked.

I have more cedar shakes for the coop! Mom and Bob brought some down from their BOL out in Granite from the roof of their shack... I mean LUXURY HUNTING CABIN. They've replaced the roof with tar shingles and didn't need these anymore. I'll be cutting em down and fitting em to the chicken coop so it's well protected from the rain.

A small update

Just where have I been? Well, there's been money problems, so renovations have been on the back burner while monies have been getting caught up. That will be remedied soon, and projects will start aflowing once again.

MORE birds? Geez

So lately I've been noticing all kinds of sticks and crap in my driveway. I've also noticed that lately a couple of pigeons seem to be hanging out on my house and the neighbor's house. Hmmmm...


I look up into my eaves and what do you know? Pigeons! It looks like when they redid the roof they built right over the cedar roof, and left a deadspace just above the kitchen. You can't tell in the pics, but it goes up to a wedge where nothing can get up to. However, it's not stopping this young couple from trying to raise a family upstairs from me. I don't recall them ever asking me, or even offering to pay rent, but such is the times we live in.

Just LOOK at the freakin squatters! Moving in like they own the place, without a care to the world!


I was going to board up the hole, but I took pity on them (since they're pleasant to have around, and they haven't crapped on my car or anything) and I made them a ledge to put their faggots in. I cut a piece of OBF to 20"x4" and hammered it up into the space. Doing this 18 feet off the ground can be a tad harrowing.

Here's one of the nervous parents now, sitting on the telephone pole wondering WTF ARE YOU DOING TO OUR NEST??? I'm fixing it, you retarded birds!


This is all the leftover sticks after I was done jamming them up into the hole. It looks like they have enough for three nests! I even saw one pick up a twig and try to make it stick up in there this afternoon, watching it fall down to the ground. You could almost hear the sadness as they thought 'awww, not again! maybe the next stick will be different!' I just had to do something for em.



Here's a closer view. For all my troubles they'd damn well better use the freakin nest or I'm pelletizing them. OK I won't really. That would be mean.



What IS it with me and birds lately?

All cooped up with nowhere to go

Hey how about an update? I finally got around to building the chicken coop. It's still not done, but it's at least livable by the chickens. We bought 4 sheets of OBF plywood at $5.67 each. Turns out I only needed three, but I use enough wood I think I'll figure a use for it, eh?


The base is 4' square, and has two pressure treated 2x4s for a foundation. The angled sides are one sheet of plywood, with one end being 3.5 feet, the other end being 4.5 feet. I figured that's a good angle to let the rain off the coop. I had to move the operation inside the garage because it started raining/hailing/sunshining too much for comfort.



The nest box is 36" long, 12" deep and 16" high where it touches the wall of the coop. I built it so it'd have a 4" lip to keep the nesting material and eggs in.


The roof cut measured 5' long, and left just over 4" hanging off each side. Perfect for the cedar shingles I want to use for roofing on the coop.


Here it is with the roof still off, and the vent open in the back. I will eventually put chicken wire up in there.


The chickens still aren't big enough to get onto the roosting beams, so I have a ramp for them for now until they decide they can fly up there. Spoiled little things, I know.

How about some more baby pictures?? Here's the little darlings in the creche we built for them. They stayed at Tamara's place until the coop was built.


And here's one of them figuring out she can flap her way on top to stare out the window. We suspect this is a rooster. You can also see why using a styrofoam creche is a bad idea. They pecked the hell out of it! There's some places they were digging their way out to freedom and we had to seal it up with tape and cardboard.


And here they are in their new digs before I seal up the roof.



It looks plenty big for them now, but they'll get about twice as big as they are now when they're adults.


The two standard New Hampshire reds will get even bigger. Well, that's all for now! I still have to shingle it and possibly paint it, and I'm in the process of building their run so they can hang out outside.

KITTEHS!!!

OK so while I wait for certain projects to near completion, here's a kitty interlude! Here's my two cats, Jasmine and Charlie. Jasmine is 8 years old, and Charlie is 3. Jasmine is a lap-addicted cat, and Charlie just HAS to get into everything. I swear Charlie thinks he's a dog. He follows you around everywhere, he doesn't meow like normal cats do he makes this... I dunno sort of a cooing sound. He's also the clumsiest damn cat I've ever seen! He will fall out of windowsills pretty consistantly, whereas Jasmine is lithe and nimble, even for her age.

Jasmine looooves this window. She watches the birdies nesting next door.


Yea catfight! The kitties love chasing each other around the house.

Her Highness demands placation.

The cats aren't spoiled at all. Not one bit.

He fell off the back of the chair shortly after this picture was taken.

Charlie you look uncomfortable.

Charlie knows what's best in life, he's guarding the beers. There's a Kona Fire Pale Ale clone on the left, and in the homemade carboy cozy is some 777 Rye PA

And here's my other babies. These are the only pictures I have of Candice and Sam in my new place. They were only here once, before being taken to Utah. At least.... at least they saw their new rooms that I got for them before

Excuse me there's something in my eye.....

Finally the rooms that we set out to paint are finally done being painted. Me and Tamara did the living room and office a few weeks ago, and while Gabe was out here visiting we put him to work painting the kitchen and bathroom. Yes, he enjoyed himself. Why yes, we have strange notions of vacationing in my family, why do you ask? He did painting for a summer and is good at it, OK? OK.

Tamara and Mom were the ones to pick out the colors, since I am aesthetically colorblind. That is, I can see colors fine, but I have no clue as to what looks good in a room or not. I'd end up painting everything black or pumpkin orange or some crap like that.
The first room to be painted was the living room.

The color on the left is the new color, the one on the right is the craptastic old beige color. Yea. I hate beige. Depending on the light, it looks grey to a light purple. I think it looks welcoming for being in the living room.

Jasmine was quite stressed during the painting ordeal. It didn't help when she wiped her tail through fresh paint, then took off and hid when I tried to grab her to get rid of the paint.... I got rid of most of it, but there's still remnants of paint in her tail. She refused to be photographed for the tail paint photo.

Here's the new office color. I really love the colors of the walls. The forest green really puts me at ease. For some reason it looks lighter in this picture, it's actually a shade darker. Yes, I did paint up near the ceiling to finish off the walls.

Here's the new kitchen color. I think it gives off almost a kind of mexican vibe, with the contrasting color with the cabinets. Gabe and Tamara did a great job at painting it while I was in the bathroom putting up a sheet of drywall that itched something awful, and patched up a bunch of holes that needed to be done.

While we were prepping and painting the bathroom, I noticed something, and now I can't unnotice it.




Wait for it....

Yes, it looks just like 7 eleven nacho cheese! Just. Like it. So I tried some.

No, there are no pics of me barfing it back up, so don't ask.

So that's all for painting for now. I'm not sure what color I'm going to paint the upstairs bedroom yet. I'm debating on using the leftover paint from the living room and lightening it up a bit to use up there, I think it may look nice. Then again painting the walls black would look OK to me too. So I will have no input as to what color the upstairs will be, I'll leave that to more capable hands.