What more can we do to test the cat...?

Whiskas is 11 years old. She behaves like any normal cat.

So last year we introduced a hamster to the house.

The cat is curious and often sits and watches the hamster in its cage, although she doesn't stay around when he is in his hamster ball, as he rolls at her like a bowling ball attempting a strike. I have found her sitting on top of his cage a couple of times, but neither the cat or the hamster seem stressed by this, just curious.

We have made the garden a haven for small birds. This year we had a nesting pair of robins. Not the most sensible place for robins to be, considering the cat.

She is more curious than over the hamster, and may have frightened them away, although we did see one back in the garden yesterday.

And now we have a new test for the cat... fish. We have a new garden pond which is now home to 6 goldfish. Time will tell whether the dislike of water or the curiosity of the fish will win through.

We do love the cat, honestly... but it does seem we are acquiring anything we can to test her patience.

Trust me, we do not have plans to get a dog!

A Little Bit of Time travel

They say that time flies when you're having fun. Well actually, time also flies when you're not having such fun times, but only when it;s over and done and you can look back.

Scroll back to February 2014, (edges go blurry, and wobbly, as indicates travelling back in time), I am sitting in the conservatory tapping away at my laptop, dogs laying close by. Chapter 21 is complete.

Fast forward to September 2014, I have been struggling to be creative but have finally completed chapter 22.There is no longer a conservatory or dogs in the image.

Another jump forward to November 2014 and another chapter complete. 

Major changes have rocked my life and darker times are looming ahead.

The book remains untouched, my world falls apart...

Time travel forward to February 2016, almost 2 years on from my last truly creative spell, and suddenly the story is progressing. Living through the last 2 years has been difficult, but I'm settled again, content with my life and the muse appears to be back. I have begun writing before, only for it to come to an abrupt halt, so this time, I keep my own council. I am near the end, I struggle with a section then decide it works as well without it, so I leave it out. I want a good ending, it needs to work...

Suddenly, I am there. 25 chapters, done, finished, my first book complete.

Well, ok, it needs editing, proofreading, sending out for beta reading. But in essence, I have completed the task, the excitement I had for this project is back, I enthuse when I speak to people of what I am working on.

Suddenly, the last 2 years have disappeared. I focus on a phrase that works for me:

When one door closes another one opens. The thing is we are normally so focused on the door that closed, we forget to look through the door that has opened, and that is usually where our focus needs to be, that is where the new opportunities are. Forget the regret and recriminations that belong to the closed door, it is pointless. 

So now, it's April. The edit process if halfway done, I have feedback from new readers, and it is still good feedback. I am encouraged to continue to my goal of publishing my first novel. It feels so close, I can almost see it on the bookshelf in Waterstones.

A little flat footed

When I wake in a morning I don't assess whether I have any pain or not, I assess how much pain I have and where it is. It's rarely in just one place as it does like to move around my body. Recent months has seen an increase in the pain levels and it is now noticeably affecting my day to day life.

OK, time to see what can be done. I have read copious amounts of info on the internet, but maybe the doctors have some other advice that I can use. I asked my GP to refer me to the rheumatology department and my first appointment was yesterday.

The outcome of a long consultation is I have osteoarthritis in hands, neck and feet. The index finger on my right hand is showing signs of bone deposits and  slight deformity, the pain being manageable most days. 

I have cervical spondylosis in my neck, supported by my MRI scan of several years ago, which is getting worse, but I manage this as best I can as there is little I can do other than take painkillers and rest it.

None of this was new or a surprise to me.

What was a surprise to me is that I have flat feet.

Flat feet, fallen arches, whatever you want to call it... that's me, and this is contributing massively to the pain from the arthritis in my feet, from my toes, all across the balls of my feet making and distance walks very painful, (and sometimes some not so long walks are almost impossible). So, I am now waiting for a referral to a podiatrist, who no doubt will advise me I can no longer wear cheap, fashionable shoes, (something I am already well aware of) and need clumpy, sensible shoes with supportive insoles. 

While I wait for the appointment to come through, back on to the internet to research flat feet. I find these may be hereditary or it may be something I have acquired. Either way, this is news to me and so I am curious to know whether there is anything I can do to help control the pain while I wait for the appointment to come through, after all, I could be waiting upto 12 weeks.

So, apart from increasing the price I pay for good, sensible shoes, what else can I do?

Well, apparently I can do foot exercises to rebuild my arches. OK, I can give that a go. I don't need any specialist equipment, a can of tomato soup for 1 and a towel will get me started. Well, I say tomato soup, it could be any flavour, we just happen to have a cupboard full of tomato. 

First exercise, stand on a step with the balls of my feet on the step and the rest of the foot handing off, lift myself up slightly and hold, relax down slightly and hold, making sure not to go too low or it will turn into a calf exercise. 12 times... and rest. OK, painful, but manageable.

Next, spread the towel on the floor and using first one foot then the other pull the towel towards me by scrunching in my toes. OK, not so sure about my ability to scrunch towels with my toes, but here goes.  Now, that really isn't easy so lots of practice needed... or maybe a lighter towel, maybe I should start off with a tea-towel, progress up to a hand towel and ultimately onto a bath towel. 

And so it goes on, but now that I know part of the problem is my flat feet, I can at least try and do something about it... and hopefully, by the time I see the podiatrist, I will be part way to solving the problem.

So, hands... ok, I have some stronger ibuprofen gel to use, while I see if using chilli based gel will have the long term effect of numbing the nerve ends so they don't tell my brain I'm in as much pain as I am. Known as Capsaisin, (no, I'd never heard of it either,) it is a substance found in red chilli peppers that gives them their heat. As it doesn't contain any ibuprofen it means the capsaisin cream can be used in conjunction with ibuprofen if necessary. Rather ironic that I cannot abide chillies in my food, and maybe if I had been eating hot curries my level of pain may have been reduced as a side effect. 

So far, so good. 

Of, and there are my hips too. That turns out not to be arthritis, but something called trochanteric bursitis. My right hip is much worse than my left and so I been referred for a cortisone injection into my right hip, and if my left needs one at a later date, I can ask for that to be done too.

So, I have pain in my neck, hands, hips and feet... no wonder the other bits in between sometimes feel painful too, they are getting attacked from all directions. The good news is, there are things to make life more comfortable which don't involve steroids.

Now, me and my flat feet are off to roll my soup can.

Robin Update...

No sightings all day.

Over the last week or more we have seen first one, and then two robins on a regular basis throughout the day and early evening.

Unfortunately, we have not seen them for over 24 hours. There was no sight of them yesterday evening or at any time today, and so I fear they have left the garden, feeling it is no longer safe to be here.

I have checked all around the garden, and especially around the fir tree and there are no signs of the birds being caught by the cat, but they are certainly no longer to be seen around the garden.

The cat is in the dog house, so to speak and the garden seems less bright for the lack of the little red-breasted birds.

I hope they learn from their experience and nest somewhere safer next time.

Is it the end for the robins?

We have been so happy to see a nesting pair of robins in the garden this spring, they play around the trees flying from one to another and have genuinely seemed oblivious to out presence.

BUT..., and it is a big but...

We have a cat, and more than that, we have a cat that catches birds.

I have been reading up on nesting robins, courtesy of the internet and I now know that they will nest anywhere, often quite low to the ground, and maybe these two are young, inexperienced birds who are unaware of the dangers of nesting in a garden with a resident cat.

They have chosen a dense fir tree and made their nest about three feet from the ground. There is a convenient stalk growing from another plant which allows them access and, after some patience, I managed to get this shot at the weekend.

We found half a robin's eggshell in the garden a couple of days ago, a lovely pale blue, and I was concerned that the cat had been at the nest, but then I read that female robins clear the eggshells from the nest when the chicks hatch, so I was encouraged that maybe our pair had been successful in incubating a chick or two.

So far, the cat has taken little interest in the birds... but I knew she was aware of them, but not that she knew where the nest was.

This morning I went out into the garden to see if the robins were active and, aware the cat was outside, I went to look for her. She does go out of the garden, so I was not too concerned when I didn't immediately see her. There was a movement over by the little fir tree and as I looked closer I realised what it was. The cat was threaded up the centre of the tree trying to reach the nest, all that was on show was the tip of her tiger striped tail.

Seems nature has taken over and the chase is on. If nothing else, she will have chased mom and dad away, at worst any chicks that were there possibly aren't anymore. There has certainly been no activity from the robins so far this morning, and there is no sound coming from within the tree to prove any presence, although I will continue to hope.

Meanwhile, the cat is now back indoors taking a well-earned rest after her activities of the morning.