May 6, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Was not a great week for me again--body-wise.  Fibro, arthritis, IBS, allergies (but they are better now), and tired as all get out.  BUT--this is more like a normal bad week or two for me from before cancer and all that.  So--whoohoo!!  I can't complain.  I just don't get a lot extra done, but I can keep up fairly well with all the usual daily living stuff. So it was really a good week, nonetheless. :)

The week was mostly rain off and on.  Keanna came to clean on Tuesday.  Dagan quickly dropped off some foods Leah had made up for me on Wednesday.  They are still sick with the coughs, so Dagan told me to stay away and no goodbye hug.  Friday Leah dropped off a bag of cat food for Allie she picked up for me.  Again--stayed away and no hugs goodbye.  Been very much like Covid all over again for us this winter--lol!

It was a very quiet, calm week.  One of the reasons why...

...was that I left both litter boxes with the two kinds of litter in the pantry for Allie.  She is happily using her old stainless steel litter box with her old familiar litter.  Yes, I moved some poo over into the pellet box.  I am leaving her favorite box to get really dirty.  Another suggestion I read about online.  Going to try that...for as long as my OCD tendencies can stand it--lol!  I tried spraying the pellets with water.  But if I mist them they just get hard again when they dry.  If I get them too wet they do turn to sawdust and fall down between the slots into the bottom of the litter box.  Turning the box didn't make any difference, either.  (She knew what it was for--went in it at first--one time--and hated the feeling of the pellets sliding against the plastic bottom, I think.)  I plan to search a little more online for suggestions, but if it doesn't work for her...it doesn't work.

Allie went through a lot and we don't know what all happened to her.  But me just being upset with her...well, she needed reassurance like crazy for days!  She was glued to me--cried and rolled around at my feet on the floor when I was up, needed me to be petting her, talking to her, or keeping a hand resting on her at least when I was in my chair with her.  I couldn't even write letters.  It was like she was so afraid I didn't want her anymore...like I wasn't going to love her anymore...like she'd lose me and be alone again?  

Therefore, I will try what I can, but I am not taking her litter box away again.  There are no issues whatsoever if it is there for her.  Her reaction was way, way more stressful than I ever expected.  Which made it stressful on me, too.  She basically quit eating and held her poop for over a day...and the pee for like a day and a half!  

So Allie can have her familiar litter box.  She's always been a good girl.  I don't want her to be any more stressed over this move and all the changes than she needs to be.  Going to be big changes coming.  I'll try for a while to see if she will use the new box, but if she doesn't...I am not going to push it.  I remember how she was half the size and felt so boney when I got her from the rescue center.  She had completely shut down.  Wasn't eating (obviously) and they said she just sat in a corner for two weeks and then in this one cat bed for two weeks.  Which was where she was when I met her...back to the room...curled into a ball...wouldn't move even when I petted her.  Wouldn't even turn her head to look at me.  But she purred quietly...without moving.  And she had been dumped at the pound for a month before the rescue place saved her from being put down.  I don't ever want to see her shut down like that again.  Allie was so very worried.  Wanted to be assured she was back in my good graces...that we were okay.  

It's taken an entire week before she has gone to sleep in the bedroom.  But she wasn't conked out like she usually is in there.  She was on alert, as you can see.

So, if Allie needs her familiar litter box and if Blink prefers that litter to dig in, too, and it costs us more...well, that's life.  There are a lot of bigger things to worry about in this world, right?  

Vegas odds are Blink will soon get a nice new big pellet litter box (she has the smaller version) and Allie will move with her familiar stainless steel one. ;)

With all the light rain, drizzle, and steady rain popping in all week...been a lot of dark days.  Then I see more critters during the day.  Like the big cottontail (Mom or Dad?).

We've had the baby bunnies eating and playing on the patio.  They were the one thing that would get Allie away from my lap--lol!

Mourning doves are back for the summer.  Love to hear them!

The two faithful partridge visitors.  One is Limpy--who has survived the winter! :) :)

I do love seeing when a variety of critters are all out there together sharing the feast.

When the rain would stop...I do love to see the blue skies and big white clouds.

The sky looks different in the warm months than the gray of winter skies.

Oh, and I did doodle until I got tired of it.  Was a fun thing to do while watching the boob tube--lol

Like I said, I am a dabbler who just enjoys having fun.  Not a watercolor artist like one of my pen pals, Doug.  Got a surprise on the back of his envelope a couple days ago.  

I was trying to remember how long we've been pen pals.  Was before I was ever a blogger...so maybe 20 years or more.  I wonder if he remembers?  It's been so long I can't remember if we started writing before I moved up here in 1999 or after.  A long time, anyways.  He has become a wonderful landscape artist and sold his paintings.  Makes me smile.  Kudos!  

Me--I'm just so happy to play.  Used to worry about not making things well enough and all that.  Now, I am more into the process and having a good time.  It's much more a meditative process for me the past decade or two than it ever was in the past.  Even card making or whatever I decide to play with...not so much plagued by the perfectionist's critical eye, you know?  

Sunday--sunny day and 70 degrees.  My allergies are much less of a bother.  Leah sent over some of this nasal spray for allergies with Dagan.  I've been doing this morning and evening.  Works for me!  Whoohoo!  

Allie's here wanting to know we're okay and I love her.  We are and I do. :)  We are good.  She is loved and safe.  And she loves me even if she probably thinks I was being really dreadfully mean to her by taking her box away for no known reason.  Animals are more forgiving than humans, I find--lol!  

Anyways, until next week, my friends.  May you keep all your favorite things around you and have peaceful days...or as calm as life allows. ;)