Crazy - but that's how it goes

[lizblackdog]

Mum's gained enough strength from the electrolyte drip to start being irritating. That has to be good news, doesn't it?

She woke me up this morning phoning from the hospital. She wanted me to spend the afternoon at Grimmauld Place waiting for the NTL people to come and take away the cable/broadband box. If I'd had a bit more than half an hour's notice (Mum was quite sure she'd told me, but she was wrong there) and if it hadn't been brutally hot* I might have agreed to do it. As it is - sod them. I already have to go shopping for her and bring her more things and feed the cat, but I can do all that this evening. I felt guilty even as I was saying it, but fuck them. They'll just have to turn up some other time.

Took the dogs for their morning walk and ran into Spike's girlfriend Ella and her mum out in their front garden. She's tried to register at LJ but hasn't yet found a username she likes that someone doesn't already have - I hope she does, it'd be way cool to have a dog person here that I see in Real Life. Her evil cat, beautiful yellow-eyed Rio, teased my dogs by popping in and out of the bushes at the side of the house**, and he and the dogs caught me at a bad moment and pulled me over... I didn't let go of the leashes (I never do) but I have a lovely bleeding scrape all down my left arm. We told dog-related injury stories and bitched about flexi-leads and yucca plants. I love Ella, she and Spike are two of a kind and I can't wait to show pictures.

it's way too fucking hot today. I've decided to do the hospital-Grimmauld Place run in the easiest way possible, which is from here to the hospital by bus, back to Grimmauld Place to feed and pet Maisie and walk home from there. This means leaving my dogs alone here for longer than I ever have before, and I already feel guilty as hell about it, but I don't have the harness yet, Mum's doctor said this morning that she'll likely be in for several weeks. That means I need to save my strength.

just had a long phone call with sister T. she's not in a happy place. her sprog is due in a week and could appear any day now. she isn't allowed to visit the hospital, she's having trouble driving and she's in the middle of moving house.

We've decided that Maisie needs to be temporarily rehomed while Mum's in hospital. I don't think it's fair to her to be alone so much for so long - she's an affectionate cat used to lots of attention and she misses Mum terribly when she's gone. Also T. says the extra effort walking there every day is too much for me. I'm quite prepared to do it but I have to say I'll be a great deal happier if I don't have to. It'll make it easier to burn Grimmauld Place to the ground do a serious spring clean and de-junking anyway.

We've elected our sister E. to be the cat surrogate. She has a nice place in London and she quite wants a cat (she's been considering having one of our kittens) and her partner works from home and although Maisie'll have to get used to living somewhere new, at least it'll be with familiar people. This is important. Maisie's a shy cat and takes a long time to trust new people. T considered asking her in-laws to take her, but Maisie's never met them and they already have cats - Maisie's a small wussy cat and her relationships with other cats usually consist of being bullied by them.

T. asked me if I'd looked up Mum's symptoms on the 'net yet. I haven't. At the moment I'm scared of what I might find out. It's not like I can do anything about it anyway.

*anyone who tells me I don't know what hot is and it's much hotter where they are will be slapped with a wet fish and possibly defriended. I'm REALLY not in the mood.


**yes, they are indoor/outdoor cats. I don't believe that necessarily makes someone a stupid pet owner, depending on the cat and where you live - and she lives at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac where the cats are on a first-name basis with all the dogs and people who live there and the only road nearby is a dead end where nothing goes faster than 5mph. Would I let my cat out if I lived there? I don't know. I do know that she generally knows where they all are. It's another argument I'm not prepared to have in my journal today, in any case.

Comments

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a good sign that she's well enough to be cranky!! :)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

not so much cranky as just blonde. I love my Mum!

[wychwood]

Are indoor/outdoor cats supposed to be a bad thing? All of ours always have been...

I hope your mother feels better soon! And that it cools down. It's properly warm here, today, about 16C, and my temper is already fraying around the edges.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

There are often raging debates on the LJ pet communities about it, because most of the people there are American, and over most of America it really is deeply irresponsible to let your cat out. There are a lot of hazards there that we don't have here.

I think whether it's irresponsible or not depends heavily on the particular living situation and the personality of the cat (i.e. how much ground it claims as its territory and how cautious it is).

That said, I'm actually relieved that my flat makes it impossible for Cassie to have access to outdoors anyway. I didn't have to make the decision. I do live in a pretty safe area, but I'm the type who'd panic whenever I couldn't see her...

[wychwood]

OK, that does make sense. It just struck me as odd, because I don't think I'd ever really heard the idea questioned before. It just seems a perfectly normal thing to do :)

[grave-medicine.livejournal.com]

I had an indoor/outdoor cat for eighteen years, but I can blame that on my family being immigrants. Ha! Personally, provided you're not just tossing the damn thing out and leaving it there for weeks on end, I don't see anything wrong with it. Morna had all her routine shots and physicals, was only allowed outdoors when we were actually home and was well known by all our neighbours*. She also had a collar and tag for emergencies.

However, back then our neighbourhood was much safer for animals and there was little chance of a sleek black cat with attitude getting struck by a car. If I were to get a cat now, I'd have to make a few adjustments: backyard time only and neighbourhood roaming on a cat harness with me right behind. There couldn't be anymore spending two or three hours inspecting every single yard on the block and bullying the much larger dogs that live here.

* Morna knew our next door neighbour and my aunt across the street best of all. One day the neighbour had bought a nice big fish in anticipation of her daughter coming for a visit and left it on the counter to marinate while she worked in her backyard. Unfortunately for her, she left the kitchen door open. When her daughter came home, she was in the shower and called out for her to go to the kitchen for a surprise. Needless to say, our very upset neighbour came over with a platter full of fish skeleton and glared at Morna, who was still licking her lips.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

heh heh! cheeky cat! love it.

that's it. there are too many people in comms like stupidpetowners that take a completely black/white attitiude to it. a responsible person makes the decision after weighing up the risks and benefits of their particular situation, and I believe there ARE places and cats where the risk is low enough to be acceptable.

it's not like, say, declawing, which is just plain wrong and barbaric for any cat in any country. I can't believe it's even still legal in the US.

[grave-medicine.livejournal.com]

My cousin once adopted a declawed cat. Apparently it was done because she had a very high prey drive and they wanted her to live in peace with the family's other animals, like birds and rodents. When it didn't stop her, they got rid of her. Enter my cousin, who introduced her to the joys of a wrap-around fenced in yard and let her have fun. Later, her vet said he didn't expect her to live as long as she did. She must have been a very happy cat.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

she was lucky to meet your cousin after being owned by asshats who expected a cat to behave like a stuffed toy. GRRRRRRR.

[mencc1701.livejournal.com]

Hehe... that story reminds me of one I heard about a dog my dad had while he was a kid. He was a Border Collie, I believe, and got loose on day. Sometime in the afternoon, he came back with a half-eaten cooked ham in his mouth. To this day, the precise origin of the ham is unknown.

And I'll agree with you on finding nothing wrong with indoor\outdoor cats. I've known lots, and I think it's good for cats to be allowed to roam.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

MWAHAHAAA!!!! I love smart evil dogs :-D

[mencc1701.livejournal.com]

Haha, and it makes for a great story!

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Bollocks to anyone who says you should keep cats indoors. Cats need access to the outdoors, and keeping one indoors all the time is cruel to them. Personally I feel that if you don't feel you can give your cat adequate outdoors access, maybe you should reconsider getting one. You wouldn't keep a dog entirely indoors; why should you do the same to a cat? Cats are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves; they're far more independant than dogs and should be treated accordingly. Hell, my cat chases foxes on a regular basis just for fun.

My cats are all indoor/outdoor cats, and I intend to keep them that way.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I think that over most of England (as long as you're not on top of a fast busy road) the risks to the cat are low enough that the benefits outweigh it. That's not the case in a lot of the US though, so most of the American cat-owners believe that cats shouldn't ever be let outdoors.

...if I lived in a place with coyotes, raccoons and bears I might agree with them.

[bites-the-sun.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. In the UK, as long as you're not somewhere very, very urbanised, bang next to a main road or in an area full of psychos, it's pretty safe for your cat to be outdoors. Our family has had cats that lived to 22 years old. VCats are territorial anyway, and mostly never stray from a set route of a few gardens.

Plus, I've known cats so eager to putdoors they literally tried to jam themselves through open upstairs windows half their size.

In areas full of predators, I agree it's stupid, but I kind of feel sorry for UK who are kept indoors all day on their own.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

exactly, about the territory. Mum's Maisie goes outdoors, and she basically stays in Mum's back garden, one of the next door gardens or the little courtyard where the garages are at the back of that. She's never gone further because she'd be in some other cat's patch if she did. She can be seen out of the bedroom window and she also comes when called.

Some cats need outdoors more than others. Maisie's kept indoors through the winter and she's never been unhappy about it. She'd actually be fine as a purely indoor cat if she had to be - it all depends on the individual cat.

[hellfire82.livejournal.com]

don't forget the snakes, possums, armadilloes (those things are MEAN), and redneck asshats with bb guns and nothing better to do than aim at animals for fun.

[bloolark.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the last line.

There are coyotes that regularly kill cats in Vancouver itself. I'm close enough to the wilderness out in the burbs that we see black bears at our neighborhood parks. There's no WAY that I'm letting the cats out. (Plus, close to a major street and a highway.)

I do completely understand that different people live in different environments and that in many places it's completely fine to let cats out and they have no massively insane risks against them. I just haven't ever lived in those places, sadly.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

That's it, I wouldn't either with wildlife like that around. We're lucky here. Biggest predator here is a red fox and they'd have to be cornered by an attacking cat before they'd hurt one. And the only venomous snake we have is the adder (Vipera berus), and they're small, shy, non-aggressive, not very common and not very venomous.

[hellfire82.livejournal.com]

liz is right; here in the states, people keep their cats inside, for their own safety. i do know people who have kept their cats outside; most of them don't live very long, and they don't stay uninjured very long, either. even in town there are kids with bb guns who will shoot at them, or torment them some other way. cars smoosh them, they can get into trouble with snakes (which are common in town as well as out in the boonies), raccoons, possums, and all other sorts of wildlife, as well as other cats and dogs as well. not to mention most of the people around here believe it's good to let any animal breed at least once to "settle" them, so they're usually unfixed as they wander about, and then they breed.

i would much rather everyone kept their pets (both cats and dogs) indoors, or at least in their own yard; i hate driving home and seeing tons of roadkill every day. it's bad enough when it's wildlife, but it's even worse when it's someone's pet. it may be cruel to keep them inside all the time (my dogs are housedogs who only go outside to potty), but having them inside and wanting to go out is better, to me, than having them outside and getting flattened by some asshat driving 20 miles over the speed limit just because we're in the country and there aren't any cops about and he can.

[silverblaidd.livejournal.com]

Cats need access to the outdoors, and keeping one indoors all the time is cruel to them.

Mine do just fine. Happy, healthy and playful. I'll keep them, and keep them indoors too, thanks.

[gordynate.livejournal.com]

At least waiting for NTL is probably better than waiting for BT, right? :-)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Hard to say. I do know they couldn't give a definite time they'd be there so I'd have had to slog over there and maybe wait all afternoon... I might have done it if I'd known ahead of time it needed done but at half an hour's notice? nah.

[joeljenkins.livejournal.com]

Liz - I hope your mum get's better soon. I tried to convince my mum to get a journal, but thinks she would never write in it.

It's about 10C right now. *Hugs*

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

10C would be lovely - that's about what it'll be here just after dark, and that's my ideal living temperature. I wish it were feasible to switch to being fully nocturnal for the summer, but the shops' opening hours and bus times and hospital visiting won't allow for it. Tossers.

thanks sweetheart!

[(Anonymous)]

I'll have your heat. It's still quite cold here - a little too much so!

Definitely a good sign when people start getting irritable.

Have you considered some sort of prtoective padding, similar to that used by skateboarders? :D

What's wrong with yuccas?? The name alone is brilliant.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

PLEASE take the heat. I can't stand it. You'll have to log in so I know where to send it though...

Protective padding'd just make me hotter. Though it's tempting, especially when Spike does his tugmonster thing.

The yucca in question is ratty, full of snails and covered in pointy bits that kept snagging Mo's legs. They're kind of annoying in small gardens.

[huntingdon.livejournal.com]

I wondered if you'd guess. Essex please ;)

Okay. It's not a plant you want by a path, I guess.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I should have guessed. There was such a familiar feel to the phrasing, but I couldn't put a name on it. You threw me off a bit though, because you're generally more likely to moan about heat than cold yourself.

Yuccas look great if there's room to look at them from a distance. It's not a small-garden plant at all. Mo's front garden is tiny, and at close quarters the yucca's ratty brown bits and messiness and mankiness REALLY stand out, and you wouldn't believe the number of snails living in it.

[ghost07.livejournal.com]

I don't see any reason for a cat NOT to be an indoor/outdoor cat...

The only reason mine stay indoors is that I live right next to a pet-killer road...If I ever get to that new apartment...there's a lot of fields and woods in back of it, and it's set a ways off the road...which means that once I'm sure he'll be able to find his way home, I'll let Julius go out if he wants to. After all, he's been nuetered, so it's not like he'll stray very far.

Giddy probrably won't go out...she's terrified of the outdoors...

Ever since I was small, our cats always went outside if they wanted to.

[bloolark.livejournal.com]

Hugs to your Mum and you. Get that new harness already -- good grief, they pull you over! Can't be great for your busted arm either.

(Sorry for the brief discussion of cats outside. :))

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I ordered it Sunday! I wish it'd turn up already!

They can only pull me over if they do a sudden hard jerk forwards both together when I'm leaning on a gate gossiping to a neighbour and not paying enough attention - in other words it was TOTALLY my own fault.

...no one's started a cat fight yet. if they do I'll just freeze comments and ask 'em to take it to a cat comm.

and thank you :)

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

As you can tell, I am way behind in my journal writing. :-/ I am glad your mother is doing better now. I'm glad to hear she was on an electrolyte drip.

I am of two minds about having indoor/outdoor pets. As an American, I feel squeemish about it. As you know, Arrietty was in a cat fight the other day. It really bothered me, but I know it sounded much worse than it was. We live on a very quiet cul-de-sac with a huge garden. I prefer to not let the cat out, and we only let her out when we are home to keep an eye on her. She is busy enough in our back garden and doesn't go further. Kevin has always had indoor/outdoor cats and I've always had indoor cats. I guess it depends on the cat/location/risks. At least you don't have rabies here, thank goodness.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how I feel - there's always some risk but there are some places and situations where the risk is very small. Some of the people in the pet comms don't take into account how different it is here; the wildlife, the roads, everything.