Night Retreats

   Just over a year ago (April 28/17 to be exact..It's Getting Light Earlier) I blogged about the change of seasons, and the fact that, yes, it was getting lighter earlier. I mentioned in that blog about living in part of the world where you could still see the "line of darkness" between day and night.
   It's not easy to see, probably because I was a few minutes too late taking it, but this picture shows that. True, it's very near the horizon, but there is a definite line between the retreat of night, and the advance of day. Again, I took the picture a little too late, and with a crappy cell phone camera.
   But it points out once more the fact that I'm fortunate enough to live in part of the world where light pollution doesn't spoil such events, even though they do happened each and every day.

TTFN

A Tough Decision

   We love pets. We love them so much, my wife and I decided it was time to fill the void left when one of our boy-cats had to be put to sleep due to illness. So, cat-carrier in hand., I went to our local animal shelter this weekend, looking to add to our furry family. And I found one. A (large) male cat about 5 or 6 years old. He's neutered, and had his shots before I picked him up.
   We got home Saturday afternoon. And that's when the trouble started. At first, our newest addition seemed okay. We are very well aware there's a period of time when the animal gets used to us and vice-versa. And we would have been fine with that. But things took a few turns for the worse.
   Our budding new cat started scrapping with our 15 or 16 year old boy-cat several times. The worst was Sunday night when they got locked into each other. We finally had to use pillows, and literally beat them apart. Our elder cat may have come off the worse, and I'll be keeping a very close eye on him. I just shudder to think what would've happened if the "new guy" had gotten hold of our little girl. She's literally half his size, and I fear the outcome would've been an awful lot worse. We've seen, and broken up, cat fights in the past, but the level and intensity of violence in that one was frightening.
   The other major problem was the cat also had a go at my wife. We don't believe it was intentional, but when she picked him up to move him, he rounded on her, and bit and clawed her left hand to the extent that she was bleeding. We think he was just reacting to a new environment, and it was a defensive thing. Nevertheless, I had to take my wife to hospital for treatment, and a tetanus shot.
   The upshot of all this is the cat will be going back to the animal shelter. It's something neither of us want to have happen, but it has to be. If for nothing else than the safety of our other 2 cats. But it's still a hard decision to take.
   Despite all this, we feel he's basically a good cat at heart, and would be a perfect fit in a home with no other animals. And we both hope he finds a loving, caring home soon. Sadly, it just can't be ours.

TTFN

Back!

   And it was a great 2 weeks away. I didn't even mind the long 10 hour drive between Yorkton and Calgary each way. As mentioned in my post below, we caught up with family and friends and generally had a good time. Traffic wasn't even that bad leaving on the Saturday morning of the May long weekend. In fact, I never saw 1 RCMP car the entire trip out.
   One thing I am glad I bought was a portable GPS for the car. I would've been completely lost within minutes of hitting Calgary city limits, not to mention heading out for visits. My old neighbourhoods I could have navigated around, but after 32 years of not living there, anything else would have been a nightmare.
   We also did a quick run to Regina days after we got back from the big trip so my wife could hit her favourite greenhouses and get her plants for the season.
   Next up, trip-wise, is the annual trek to Regina for the annual Secret Garden's Tour in July. Meantime, it's good to be "back in the saddle" again, and back at work.

TTFN

Gone!

   And it starts as soon as I've done the 12:00 Noon major newscast. For the first time in quite a while, my wife and I have actually managed to coordinate our time off, and we'll be hitting the road. We'll be driving to Calgary tomorrow to visit our few remaining family members, and I'm going to get together with some high school buddies I haven't seen in 40+ years. It'll be interesting to compare notes, along with medical conditions. I admit I'm not exactly looking forward to the trek. It's about 10 hours between here and Calgary, and it's the long holiday weekend, so there will be more idiots on the road aside from me.
   I'll be back working, and blogging, June 5th.

TTFN

He Gave Us Quite A Scare

   This little guy gave us quite a scare this past weekend. Friday, he started vomiting bile or some kind of liquid. My wife says he did it about 15 times. No food, just liquid. Then, he started hunching over like he's trying to go poo. Which he did. On the kitchen floor. Twice. Saturday, he was almost back to normal, but Sunday, more vomit. He also passed what my wife described as a rock-hard almost rectangular shaped mass along with some poo. He was fine again yesterday.
   Needless to say, we took him to the vet, who gave him a good going over, palpitated his abdomen, and found nothing extraordinary. Figures the little guy must've had an almost petrified fur-ball he finally got rid of. Gave us some medicine to help him pass anything left.
   Still, quite a scare. Especially after losing our other boy cat last month. And the fact he's "getting on in age", at about 14 or 15.
   Quit scaring us kitty!

TTFN

There's A First Time For Everything

   And last night was one of those "firsts". Regular viewers will know our radio station runs a promotion called "Supper in the Field", where we take dinner to an area farmer who is picked at random from a weekly submission.
   Last night was the 1st for the spring series of 6, and we ended up on the Kitz farm near Langenburg. After making the presentations to the winner, his son asked if the 6 members of our staff who attended would mind autographing the flag we hand out as part of the prize pack.

   Needless to say, we were more than happy to oblige. They made us all feel like stars, even if we don't consider ourselves that.

TTFN

Happy Star Wars Day

   It is May 4th, and fans of the franchise will be rolling out their light sabres and Darth Vader masks. I am not one of them. This may be heresy, but I'm not a fan of the franchise. True, I did go see the very first one when it came out in 1977. My only thought was: Meh. It's nothing more than a bad Western set in outer space. I did go to the 2nd movie, but walked out about half-way through, and I haven't seen any of the seemingly endless parade of sequel/prequels since.
   So, for me at least, today's a washout. But I am looking forward to tomorrow. May the 5th be with me

TTFN