Take That Flies and Alfie Worries

Not writing about the band Take That, but about our quest to reduce the fly population which has been bothering us for a couple of years. We've not had a really cold winter for a couple of years now and as such the fly population has increased to an extent where it was getting rather bothersome. So we bought one of those blue light fly killers like you see in food shops and it's been amazingly successful. Either that or it was a complete coincidence that the flies disappeared when we plugged it in. It does zap the flies and mosquitoes, with an satisfying explosion each time (hence "take that, fly), but the blue light also seems to keep them at bay. There is a tray under the fly zapper which catches bits of fly debris, and it's quite gruesome. However, Petal died because of an illness transmitted by mosquitoes, so I don't feel too bad about ridding the world of a few.

The Alfie worries are because he had a seizure on Sunday. This was a complete surprise as he is otherwise totally healthy (for a one eyed, three and a half legged, previously shot elderly dog). We took him to the vet who did a blood test and x-ray, but nothing was found. Obviously it was caused by something and the vet said that it wouldn't be epilepsy as this is something that starts when a dog is young. We're hoping it was just 'one of those things', however we're keeping an eye on him.

Primrose is settling in, or more accurately has settled in. She has been remarkably easy to settle into the family. She's not playing with Pirata and the gang yet, but I am certain it is only a matter of time.

Love bird cage

Introducing primrose

This is primrose, a little cat that's just come to live with us. She came from Seville. She has two cataracts in her eyes And she Has impaired vision. We don't know how old she is, but she seems very nice natures, and is finding her way around the house. She was living with a gypsy family in Seville, and because she has bad vision, an animal welfare lady was concerned about her and was worried that she would get killed in the road. So they arranged to take the cats away from the family. This was the same lady that we were going to have a blind kitchen from last year, but she couldn't rescue the kittens. She feeds the street cats in Seville with some of her friends. She must have a work cut out for her.

We chose the name Primose, because it seemed like a nice name for a nice cat. Her other name was Nuria. Apparently she is a Moorish cats. However I think she looks pretty much the same as any other cats here, Quite dainty, with a pointy face.

I am currently looking at our lovebirds, and I think anybody who looks at the cage would say where the girl guides? Because looks just like a girl guides camp, with things knotted and tied together in their cage.

Hot!

We've had about 4 heat waves over the last couple of weeks. And it is HOT. The weather report has been showing temperatures of 39, however this is ambient temperature, not in the sun, so the heat on our patio will be much higher. Even at 8 o'clock last night the floor tiles on the patio floor were uncomfortably hot to stand on without shoes.

The dogs and cats don't like the heat and our house is full of fluffy little bodies, hugging the cool floor tiles. The water comes out so warm from the taps we don't need hot water to have a shower!

I find it difficult to get work done when it is this hot, as I have classes in the morning and then I try to get everything else done in the afternoon, which is when it is hottest. However it is so hot I find I can't concentrate. I think in other years I have done more writing and other work before classes in the morning, so maybe I need to go back to that again.

It hasn't rained for a long time too, so everything is very dusty.

I think when it rains again we'll be both outside doing a happy dance in the rain!

Tinkerbelle and Anubis

Anubis, our little siamese-type cat was poorly this week and had to go to the vet. She'd lost a lot of weight and when the weather was very hot on Monday she dehydrated. The vet put her on a drip to get some fluids into her and then it was up to us to inject her with fluids every few hours for five days. Because she wasn't eating we also had to use a syringe to feed her. She had some special high energy food, which she has now finished and she's eating normal cat food - but tinned not dry. She's eating every hour or so, and I think she may be getting used to being given special treatment. She's still very skinny, but is more lively and hopefully she's turned the corner. We have to keep an eye on them when the weather is very hot because they can overheat and die so quickly. A few times we've been at the vets in the summer when people have bought in dogs which have overheated.

And Tinkerbelle gave us a shock too. We heard some barking and Tinkerbelle came running in and I noticed she was bleeding from her mouth. She was very shaken and her tale was between her legs. It was worrying as bleeding from the mouth could be an internal injury - and that's how Billy died. However, when I looked, I could see that she's lost one of her front bottom teeth. But we have no idea how she did it. Although she is an old lady now, she is still as naughty as ever and was quite likely doing something she shouldn't have been doing and fell off something.

She remained shaken for half a day or so, however by tea time yesterday she was back to her normal self, however we're feeding her wet dog food at the moment as dry dog food might be a bit painful to crunch on with a tooth missing.