Category: Animals

Fee Writes

Back At Papamoa

Same suburb, different street.

Straight off the plane from Sydney and onto the next house-sit. This time I’m back in Papamoa, but now I have the added delight of only an 8-minute walk to the beach.

Have been for a few walks around the blocks, as I do because I’m nosey, and the development is still in full swing here – sections sold, buildings being built and I’m only at the beginning of this area. I have a notion that Papamoa is one of the fastest-growing areas in N.Z. (could be wrong).

Ahhhhh, it’s good to be back on this side of the bridge. It’s good to walk the beach and see the Mount and it just confirms my desire of making Mount Maunganui where I finally will settle … well for now – you know me, can change my mind – might end up living in Timbuktu – who knows what the West Wind will bring.

Now let me introduce you to a really corker cat. This is Quinn.

She’s absolutely adorable. One of those cats who rub against your legs and wants to be around (when it’s convenient for her), and generally a pretty smoochie kitty. However, she does have one slightly off-putting habit. When she’s over your patting or cuddling she’ll tell you by giving you a nip. And you can’t really tell what her mood is because her tail is constantly in motion. Even when she’s lying in the sun, her tail is twitching.

She’s taken to sleeping with me from about 5 a.m. onwards. I know the image depicting this is dark and grainy, but, hey, what do you expect when it’s the wee hours of the morning and the sun isn’t up yet!!!

I’m in such a loving home filled with a warm feeling. It’s a home that’s easy to keep tidy, perfect position to expressway and beach. Quinn’s mum and dad are beautiful people and her dad has a wonderful hobby – growing bonsai trees.

Apparently, he hasn’t been doing it for long, but wow, take a look at these – (and the photo doesn’t do them justice).

I’m here till early November, then have a big gap till the next one in late December – Know anyone going away???? I come with references.

Fee Writes

Don’t Wear Black

I am now safely ensconced in the new house-sit with Miss Lily.

And the title of this post really says it all. Beautiful white, long-haired cat – the stuff nightmares are made of for those of us who wear black.

So the black clothes (other than the work trousers) are packed away, not giving me much to pick on a day to day basis. But, she’s worth it. What a corker cat. She’s wonderfully nosey, not overly cuddly (good because of the white fur), a little talkative and easy to understand.

She has a couple of quirks – one being that her water bowl is in the bath. Her mum did tell me that Lily herself wanted it in there simply by jumping in the tub and trying to get water. Once mum put a bowl of water in there, Lily was happy.

The second – maybe not a “quirk” but quite delightful. I hang my bag on the kitchen door and Lily has discovered it. She rubs up against it, licks it and generally just hangs out by it. When she first started doing it I must admit I was a bit puzzled. Now I think I’ve got the answer. I have a small bottle of peppermint essence in there (wonderful for headaches) and I believe Lily can smell it. I’ve yet to have a headache, rub a dot on the temples and then get near her to test my theory.

She does demand her food especially at around 6.30 a.m. Then on the second morning it was waaaaay earlier when she started meowing and jumped on the bed. I staggered out, thinking it was for food, but, instead, Lily led me to the bathroom and there I saw that she’d tipped her water bowl over. I filled it up, went back to bed, Lily drank and went back to bed …. or where-ever she went and the house settled back down to more zzzzzzzzs

It’s either been raining or I’ve been out so haven’t really had the chance to explore the neighbourhood, but I do have some interesting neighbours so look out for that post when the sun shines and I can take camera with me.

I’ll leave you with a couple more photos of Lily when she went to ‘meet Olly’, (never fear, won’t be any more unless I can’t resist captioning one).

Fee Writes

Animals | Random

Getting Ready To Leave

Wow! – 5 weeks goes by so fast. Now there’s a bit of a countdown going on here at the moment as I move out tomorrow.

The kitty cat is, I’m sure, looking forward to “mum” coming home – hahaha, just kidding….little kitty cat has no idea at all. I thought she would suspect when brought out the suitcase for the clothes and start dismantling the gear in the kitchen and bathroom, but she just went off to her favourite chair, curled up and has been asleep most of the day. She did wake up and lift her head for about 30 seconds when I got the vacuum cleaner close to her, but didn’t see it as a threat so just went back to sleep.

“Dismantling the kitchen…” Now that sounds like I have a lot of stuff. I really don’t. Although, living at Pyes Pa with Greerton so close and all those Op Shops, I have to admit it’s been difficult to stay away from them. So there has been occasions that I have relented and spent a few hours mooching about and trying to ferret out the good stuff.
Found an excellent winter coat – excellent winter shoes and a pretty decent jersey.

Now let me tell you a little story ….

The little kitty cat that I’m looking after is now 18. Her mum had told me that if anything went wrong to take her to the vet and he would make the call.
Well – it happened. Little miss stopped eating and just spent the entire time on the bed sleeping. She managed to drink a wee bit of water, but that was all. So worried was I that at one stage during the night I kept waking up and checking to see if she was still alive. By morning the decision was made that we were off to the vet.

The vet turned out to be a locum (temp) – a lovely lady locum vet and both she and the nurse decided that it wasn’t too cool an idea for me to have to take on such a responsibility.

The upshot was that the vet thought the kitty cat’s kidneys were probably packing in and that other organs were slowly shutting down, however, without taking blood tests she wouldn’t know for sure. Puddy was pretty dehydrated as well which was what I had thought, so… in went a couple of liquid, slow release patches, a shot of anit-biotics (or something like that), a bit of cleaning of the teeth which could have started the whole thing and to top it off, a shot of steroid (which the vet reckoned would give her a new lease of life and should last for about four weeks, plenty of time till mum came home).

Back into the car cage, into the car and a quick 10 minute trip home …. out of the car, out of the cage and guess what the little princess did? Yup, straight to the food bowl and into the tucker. From then on there’s been no looking back.

Moral of the story is: When I’ve gone out to pasture, remind me to get into the steroids so that I can see out the end of my days full of beans, eating well and sleeping when I want.

I still have about 24 hours to go before I leave, but I’m hoping nothing will happen on my watch!

Fee Writes

Animals | Random

The Latest Residence.

I have been in this home for exactly one week and four days … bit remiss of me not to let you all know.

So what’s it like? Let me first introduce you to Puddy Girl (pronunciation as in pudding).

Puddy Girl is a Burma.
Puddy Girl is very little.
Puddy Girl is very fluffy.
Puddy Girl is very old.
Puddy Girl rules the house.

O.k. enough of the “See Spot Run” type of writing, I know you’re a well educated and intelligent reader.

She was fine the first day, then, once she realised that mum was not home, she got a bit huffy. Of course, not when the food was about….oh no, that’s when she really cozied up. But once the tummy was full, she would just give me the evil stare and be very stand-offish until it was time to eat again.

This little kitty has her own cat door, which she is perfectly capable of using. However, it seemed to tickle her sense of power to go and sit by the sliding door, start meowing and turn and stare at me. Softy that I am when it comes to cats, I’d jump to attention and go open the door. With that she’d saunter out about three steps (well, let’s say four to cover all of her paws), stop, sit for few seconds with her tail across the slide rail, then get up and come back inside.

Just over a week later and at night there was a break through. She jumped up on my knee, settled down and went to sleep while I watched TV. Score one for the cat sitter!

So I’m back in the Pyes Pa area of Tauranga city. It is the older part, rather than the newer sub-division of the last home in the same suburb. The streets are tree-lined, the property has a well established garden, wonderful herbs, even veggies that I’m able to harvest along with a very old apple tree. I think I may have to make an apple crumble one night!!!! I’ve discovered an awesome ice-cream made from coconut milk rather than dairy. It’s called Little Island and it’s the best dairy alternative yet. As you can see, there’s a nice selection

And speaking of all things yum. Our own N.Z. company, Whittakers, has brought out the most delish chocolate ever!!!!! This is the Doris Plum and Almond one that Nigella has been advertising on TV – and, I’ll admit, she’s spot on with how yum it is. Good on Whittakers AND… it’s vegan!

Only one other change to report. I’ve picked up the reins as co-ordinator for SAFE again, only this time I have a lovely lady sharing the role. This is making it a whole lot easier and already we’re booked to have a stall at one of the Saturday markets.

As we all know, it’s now winter. Damn!

Oh, and Puddy Girl has decided not to set the china dog onto me after all … we’re quite good friends now.

Fee Writes

Animals | Random

It’s Over ….

My life without Ginge won’t be the same.

Well, of course it won’t – duh. But have to admit here is another cat who stole my heart. I left the burbs yesterday and returned to my digs to wait it out for 5 days before heading off into the sunset for another house-sitting stint.

So here’s what happened when I left. Of course, Ginge knew that I was going, he’d known the night before when I had started to pack up. That’s when he disappeared. Oh, he did wind me up something bad. I called and called, went outside in the dark and looked up and down the street …. nothing.

It was then I had a flashback to when my oldest was a toddler and went missing – the absolute dread of any parent. We had the packhouse staff out looking all over the orchard. Found him – under his bed asleep!

So, Ginge wasn’t flat on the road, wasn’t around the property that I could see, he must be in the house. And it’s not the biggest house on the block, so not a lot of places to hide. Found him – behind the T.V. asleep!

The morning dawned and I began the final push towards departure time. House was clean, car was packed, check was done …. wait, better check again. All boxes ticked except for Ginge. As I came out the door I spotted him – I thought cats were discreet at where they pooped …. this is a fine example of Ginge and his attitude. I’ll let the photos tell the rest.