Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

Gasp - the day after.

I've had to segment up the house the last two days. The dogs and me are mostly in the carpeted area, with the door betwen the lounge and kitchen shut, unless I have to use the bathroom/toilet or kitchen. Gabby was hiding under the kitchen cupboards but I have her in back of the house at the moment, with the door between the laundry and sun rooms shut (the curtains are halfway up with furniture blocking the ground between Kitchen and Sun rooms).

I can feed Gabby there and she was water and a litter tray as well. But that has to be a temporary thing.Not sure how to sort this. Xena's been hiding in the work shed behind the house and I can feed her there when she comes. But I don't want a repeat of Hallie when Xena stayed next door for 3 years.

Bentley may have to be returned if I can't figure this out or cope, but that's a last resort.

There's a cat that comes across the road and likes to sit in the tree outside of my study and try and catch birds. It's mostly black with white socks. I've seen Ebony playing with it, so they seem to get on quite well.

Just saw a segment on this on the ABC news, so I couldn't resist quoting it. From Yahoo News:

Fire-fighters in Victoria have rescued a family, their dog and four kittens from a house fire in Melbourne's west overnight.

A 37-year-old woman and her two daughters aged five and 11, and her 18-year-old son were helped from the burning home at Seddon, just before nine last night.

But what the fire-fighters found when they returned inside the house could see one k-9 nominated for a bravery award.

When Mick and Craig - the fire-fighters interviewed on Sunrise today - re-entered the burning house, they found a dog lying on a bed beside a box of kittens.

The dog was unconscious and had to be revived with oxygen.

It appeared to the fire-fighters that the dog had refused to leave the kittens and would rather perish with them than save himself.

The family agreed, saying there was no way the dog would leave the week-old kittens.

Remarkably, this isn't Leo's first brush with death - he was once run over by a car but managed to pull through.

The incident is being used a reminder for families to ensure smoke alarms are working, as fire-fighters could not find any working alarms in the house.

Ken now wants to nominate the dog for a bravery award.

All together now -   "Awwwwwwwwww...."

Ebony has taken to pooing in the bath tub.

Not sure why, but often late at night she ends up at the other end of the house. Her litter tray's down my end, but Kevin has asked me to close the connecting door between the lounge and the kitchen. That means often she's trapped down the other end. Not that she seems to mind much. Anyway, sometimes Kevin discovers that she's pooped in the bathtub!

Now last night, I went to bed at 10pm, and made sure that Ebony was down my end. This morning before I went out I made sure she was down my end, and that there were no poops in the tub, before closing the connecting door (the front door gets left open for Peggy and Bobby to use). However when Kevin got home tonight he complained about find a cat poo in the bath tub!

I left about 10am, and Kevin left about about 11:10am, so sometime between then after the connecting door was opened (mostly so that Hallie can be let out) she snuck down there and did it. I'm going to clean out the litter tray tomorrow, but that can't be the only cause, surely? If she doesn't want to use it at my end, she can just pop out the window and go outside. Pretty hard to do that up the other end. The laundry window was left slightly open earlier this year, but it's just too cold to do that right now.

Suggestions?

I haven't seen Tabby for over a week.

He may still be there, and eating Xena's food when I'm not looking. I'm not worried though. Last time I saw "Mr under-the-house" cat, he came over to my house from a house across the road, and then turned his nose up at the dry food I gave him. That implies that he's being fed elsewhere, and probably at the house across the road.

Maybe they should have called that cat Garfield, though he'd never turn away food!

I had to copy this from nematoddity's post (and for those who don't know who Athena is, here's the Wikipedia page):

see more crazy cat pics

Funny thing happened yesterday - woman came to my house and wanted to know if I wanted a cat.

Now the funny part about this is that several years ago she'd come over demanding that I removed the same cat from under her house. She'd been told that the cat (a Tom) lived under my house and assumed that it was mine. No, it wasn't - I'll only have girl cats and it wasn't, and at the time I could see both of my cats inside as she called.

I told her it wasn't mine, and she went back to see about it. What she did apparently was adopt it (and call it Tabby). In the mean time I moved my fencing so that under the house was accessible for my ducks - they used to sit under there in hot weather. It was rather strange seeing them all trot around the house and under it in a procession. In any case, it was unlikely to back under there while I had the Muscovies - at least during the day.

Now apparently her family was moving to where they can't have pets, and she wanted to know if I wanted it "back".

Well, I'd only ever seen it jumping a fence to get away from me, or in next doors being stalked by Xena. I can't really afford to have another cat, and even if I did it would be difficult to get near it with three cats and Hallie about (Pegasus might chase it but he mostly wouldn't bother) - especially as Hallie's chased Ebs under the house already.

She said they'd probably "knock it on the head" when they left to save it from starving. They're also having to find a home for their 10 year old dog. Part of me wishes they'd just leave it and see if who ever moves in would adopt it, but that would probably not be the best thing either.

Poor Tabby!