|
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was nice... firmly stomped our carbon footprint on the Earth though, as we drove here there and everywhere to see everyone, with only a few hours, or a day snatched at home inbetween. But overall it went down very nicely. Gifts given seem to be well loved:  Which is also good for us, seeing her settle herself on her new lounge at the end of a hard day's preening in the sunshine is just about the cutest thing we've got 'round here! And gifts received are certainly well loved too:  A bright little tea set with yummy tea from my Sister Sparkle.  A gorgeous salad/fruit bowl "handmade in Mexico" from Mum.  And my beloved new pillowcases from Mr You, via my visit to the Finders Keepers Market in Sydney last month, after a momentary hyperventilation when I first saw them. These made by Sunday Morning Designs. All things with drawing/painting on them. Just the way I likes it. How 'bout you? Tell me about your hot item! :D
This is: what I'm surprised I like. Okay so it's been a little while now, but I really was surprised at how much I like being a cat owner. Beforehand I would have called myself a "dog person", I had never had a cat. In the lead up to adopting Tilli I was still asking Mr You the cliched anti-cat questions like; "Will it scratch the furniture?", "Will it know right from wrong?", "Will it walk on the table?", "Will it climb the curtains?"... And I'm ashamed to admit, but to be honest, I just didn't know cats had personalities like dogs do. So now, as I hug and kiss Tilli 6 billion times a day, talk to her constantly, and dream about her almost every night, it still surprises me how much I love having her around. Huh. Who knew? :)
 Just as I was starting to umm and ahh about what to post today, Nomes has saved the day by coming up with a topic. So here's "something that I look at everyday that makes me smile". Firstly it's the kangaroos that hang about on the grassy patch over the other side of our back fence. I love seeing them there, especially this time of year when it's usually a little nuclear family, complete with joey! Most days they just lie around, munch on the grass, and scratch. One day a few months back I was in the kitchen, looked up through the window and saw a whole bunch (anyone know the collective noun for kangaroo's?) of young males. At first they were play-boxing, and chasing each other around, then I looked up again a few moments later and they were in a conga line! Weirdest thing I've seen in ages. It definitely made me smile.  Of course the other thing that makes me smile everyday is this little bunch'o'fluff. She's taken to wedging herself into this little box, you can't see very well in this shot, but looking from front on she looks like a muffin or hearty loaf of bread in a loaf tin; packed tightly in the bottom and all spilling out over the top. I keep meaning to paint that little box to look like a car. hehehehe... Just the thought of that makes me giggle. Pimp my ride! Thanks Nomes, I needed a good smile today.
 This is: my pet. (relaxing on a warm Summers afternoon) ....beam! It's been just over a year since we rescued Tilli from the shelter. She was about 5 months old when we got her, and in the past year she has grown at least twice the size. When she sits with all her feet tucked up underneath her she looks like a roosting hen, so we used to call her "Chook-Chook" (one of her bazillion nicknames), but now she's so big we've had to abandoned that in favour of "Goosey". She's super playful, everything is a game, everything is a toy, and every moment is an opportunity to play. She's so much fun. I've never had a cat before, but I'm a convert; I freakin' adore her... so much that sometimes it hurts. Thanks to Kyla from Two Peas in a Pod for this week's "This Is" theme.
Mr You has been away since last week, and he gets back tomorrow. He’s been to Melbourne to see a band and visit a friend, and today he’s in Sydney visiting our friends (and picking up art supplies for me). I’m soooooooooooooo envious. Every evening he’s been calling me with news of his day…St Kilda markets, The designer market, the “best Japanese food ever”, Indonesian food, shopping on Chapel St. Arhhhhh I’m dying here. Kicking myself for not going with him… Trying to console myself with the fact that at least we do have a sushi shop here, but sadly, in my book, smoked salmon doesn’t really pass as sushi though folks!!! So while he’s been frolicking in my 2 favourite Australian cities, I’ve been here…  …tucked up at my table drawing, painting and generally catching up on finishing “half-way-through” projects. I’ve taken his absence as an opportunity to go hard and get stuff done. It’s been pretty successful, but I’m soo tired today, after not noticing it was getting late and staying up until 2am three nights in a row. But it was good. Here’s a little sneak peak at one of the illo’s…  Thankfully my “to-do-queue” is starting to level out a bit. I still have some people waiting ever so patiently though, so hopefully I can do some “efficient” Christmas shopping this week and then plough through the rest while I’m on a roll. Tilli has been keeping me company. She’s good at that. And although she has hidden my little porcelain pot and refuses to give it back, we remain bosom buddies. (Seriously, she’s never done anything naughty before, but this is one of my favourite little items, up on a shelf… I’ve found the lid, but despite crawling under furniture with a torch for about an hour, I still can’t find any trace of the pot… alive and well or otherwise). Something I forgot to tell you about Tilli was her discovery of toes. Because we got her at the beginning of Winter, our feet were pretty much always inside socks. Now that the weather is warming up our feet have been freed, and she has discovered our toes. She’s absolutely fascinated by them… it’s highly amusing. Anyway, that’s all, I’m off to chillax for a bit.
  Just a few pictures from my weekend I thought I'd share. The top two are a small tree over our neighbour's fence. It is so full of berries, blossoms and bees at the moment that it's seriously listing under it's own weight. It normally stands upright. This other little one is in my front room/office/studio. I've never caught this before. The morning sun coming through the window at such an angle to create a perfectly crisp photogram of the trees and ferns outside, projected on my wall; but with motion, like the delicate image cast from a camera obscura. If you look closely you can even catch an elongated version of Tilli staring out into the front garden. One of her favourite spots.
 I felt bad leaving this space for a week on such a wingy whiney way (see previous post), so here's some cute and pretty to brighten up the void while I'm gone. (Also so Mr You and I can look at her while we're away). 1. Doing her best to look innocent and as sweet as pie 2. Showing off the name tag I made for her out of fimo. I made a whole batch actually. It sews on like a giant button, has her name and our phone number etched in. It's great because nothing that dangles stays put, so at least this one she can't grab and pull off. Plus it's light-weight and easy to spot. (And, yes that is a pot of stones. It used to have a plant, but she "removed" that. Now there are just stones that heat up in the sun, which she likes to sit on, and then flick about. In this pic she's just warming up to catapult one across the room). 3. "I is in your greenery impersonating your bloom!" Enjoy your week. I intend to return with more time, good news and photo's.
So we survived another inspection last night (much less busy, thank-god), and are bracing ourselves for another one again on Saturday. Last night was much better managed, after we sent a "debrief" email with some "firm suggestions" to the agent on Monday. They were very apologetic for what happened at the last inspection, and brought big rugs and signs telling people not to sit on our stuff. In the meantime we're getting on with it. We're both so busy with work and various projects, so we've got plenty to get on with. Thought I'd share some happy thoughts, and boy do I need them right now... This amazing necklace I saw in a store:  Finding beautiful houses for rent on various websites that look like this:  With amazing rooms that look like this:  In locations like this!  Oh, and the happiest of all the thoughts is our helpful little companion:  And see that flat patch across the top of her head inbetween her ears; yes, well that'd be the helipad for the kissicopters, of course. And let me tell you, it's a busy flight path. :D
 Dear Tilli, It’s hard for us to say how long you’ve been home with us now, as there were so many hiccups at the start, but I can tell you it feels as though you’ve been part of our lives for much much longer. It’s pretty clear that Mr You thinks you are the BEST birthday present he has ever been given! We still remember the first day we saw you, sitting high up on a shelf on your own, away from all the little kittens inside your enclosure below. Back then they called you Tilliana, and you wore a diamond encrusted pink leather collar. Both Mr You and I commented on you right away, saying how pretty you looked. (You’ve grown so much since then). What followed were weeks of bad fortune for both you (as you suffered a terrible eye infection, then a flu) and for us waiting to know if we could have you, then worrying for your health, and not being able to have you at home with us. We eventually got to bring you home for good, and you settled in right away. You spent the first few days in one part of the house as you got used to the layout, then as we introduced you to the other rooms and the hallway your spirits seemed to rise even further. The hallway is your dream come true as you bolt from one end of the house to the next You also love playing under the bed, under the wardrobe and under the lounge. You adore playing with your ball, so much so that you have discovered new superballs around the house that we completely forgot that we had. You love your scratching post and also the play box I made for you. We always knew you were a sweetheart, but I never anticipated how playful you would turn out to be. You and I have the best fun together playing peek-a-boo and hide and seek! You’re very clever when you play these games, it’s great fun and I laugh so much, I thank-you for introducing playtime back into my day.  You also like to sleep. Your favourite spots are on the brown cushion on the lounge, and also on the office chair in the sunny doorway, gazing into the back garden. (You haven’t been outside yet, but in a few weeks we intend to introduce you to the back garden. I suspect you will love it more than anywhere else). At night you sleep in your little room, in your little fleece lined nest bed. You didn’t take to it at first, but once we started putting a hot water bottle in the bottom of it, you LOVED it. Each night we lay you in your bed, put your eye drops in and both pat you until you’re nice and relaxed and ready to go to sleep. We have other routines too, each morning after breakfast you sit in my lap and purr loudly as I brush your coat. You’ve gotten so used to it now that you even stretch out each of your legs one at a time so they can get a good brush too. Your lips quiver with satisfaction as I brush under your chin and down your chest. You LOVE FOOD! It’s incredible really, you’re so desperate to get at it that for a while we were concerned that you were pregnant. Sadly, last week we took you in for your desexing operation, they cut you open and discovered that you had already been desexed. So now you are shaved bare in strange places, have a big nasty scar, and are once again in recovery. We felt so sorry for you, but at least we now know that you are not pregnant, you just LOVE food. Actually your love for food makes it easy for us to train you, as we use small snacks as motivation. The only time you make a noise is when you’re getting worked up about a mealtime. You don’t know how to meow yet, instead you make a funny little squeaking sound. Because of this one of your nicknames is Squeakor. I say “one of” because you have many: Tilli-Milli, Till-Till, Tilli-bits, Tilli-biscuit, Possum, Bunny, Chook-Chook (because of the way you look like a roosting chicken when you lie with all your legs tucked up underneath you) and others. We also sing songs to you, actually Mr You does that more than I do. I mentioned before that you are a sweetheart; you’re gentle and affectionate, and it melts my heart in the morning when Mr You lets you into the bedroom, you jump up onto the bed run right up to my face, give me a kiss, and bounce back off the bed to go and start playing. Your way of kissing is touching your little pink nose to the tip of our nose. It’s soooo cute. Sometimes if you’re feeling extra loving you’ll smooch your nose up and down ours, and sometimes you even reach out and rest your little hand on mine for a while. You haven’t been too naughty yet, you’re just curious really. You haven’t climbed any curtains, or clawed any furniture; your main vice is food. You don’t try to get to our meals (you’re a good girl), but one morning after we ate scrambled eggs for breakfast we came back into the kitchen to find you, all four paws and tongue, knee deep in oily egg water in the frypan we had left soaking in the sink. You got in trouble for that, but we still love you. To this day we still find you searching for egg-water now and then.  There was also the incident with the pot plant. It’s a strange little plant that Mr You bought as a bit of a joke for me for my birthday last year. Anyway as you like to sit in the sunshine, and this particular pot plant was in a good sunny spot, you decided that you would prefer it if you could sit on the sunny pot instead of the plant. You didn’t get in trouble for that, as I thought it showed good problem solving skills, (and you haven’t bothered any other plants at all). Mr You said to me “My birthday present can beat your birthday present”, and we both laughed. We laugh a lot actually, you’ve brought great joy into our lives, and so so much love. We love you enormously, and we think about you when we are away from you. Even when we went out for a nice meal last night to celebrate our anniversary, we couldn’t wait to get back home and see you. I think it’s safe to say we are completely besotted. All my love, flossy-p-mammor (hehehehehe – don’t worry I won’t be doing this each month, I just love the mamma-baby newsletters that people get to write and thought I’d try one too. I know, Tilli is a cat and the love I’m sure doesn’t compare to that which you have for your own baby. But it’s as close as I can get for the time being, and anyway, have you seen her? She’s seriously cute!)
 Tilli is home! I can't believe it. I went to visit her yesterday and they gave her to me to bring home. I was so shocked and completely unprepared. I went along thinking she was going to be there for at least another week or two, but her eye had improved so much that the vet said I could bring her home. He said they were going to keep her for another week, but there's nothing that they are doing there that we couldn't do for her at home. So here she is. Her eye isn't completely better yet, but it's vastly improved. They still don't know what the problem was, they suspect a scratch that developed into a deep tissue infection. I have to take her back for a checkup at the end of the week. All her eyelids are opened, and her eye looks okay, it's bit cloudy and a bit crooked, but it's there and that's excellent (especially because there were concerns that she may have lost it altogether). She still has some healing to do, but it's all going well. I've noticed that she still closes that eye quite alot, but I guess that's part of the healing, and also because it's been closed over for the past 10 days anyway. She is so happy to be home, you could tell she was dying to get out, have a stretch and a good run around. WE are so happy that she's home, she's grown so much in the month since we first saw her. As you can see she has already chosen her favourite cushion, one that she can camoflage herself against. I didn't realise until I took this photo, how well she goes with our stuff. How fashionable (hehehe). She hasn't been home for 24hrs yet, (that's how long she was here the first time), but this time I feel hopeful. :D
 Thank-you all for your concern for Tilli. We visited her a few times this week, and each time she seemed a bit better. She's eating very well, her spirits seem good, and her eye is slowly improving thanks to some very hard-core antibiotics. It is still mostly closed over but the swelling is so much better than before, mind you it's still a fair way from being better. I rang today to get an update and they said there's been a 50% improvement, but they will be keeping her until it has reached 100%. So we just need to be patient and wait. (I must say hearing the 50% improvement bit made me very happy). They still haven't been able to get in to see her eye and work out what the actual problem is, so there's still that step to go. I'm hoping that by the time she is diagnosed, whatever it is will have run its course and there'll be no further problem. I'm not sure that's how it will work out though, and we need to remain realistic... But... Hopefully when her eye opens back up, there's still a healthy little eyeball inside, waiting to peep out. In the meantime, we're just exercising our zen like patience. In other furry news: The last few weeks there's been loud galloping over the top of our roof at night. At first we thought it must have been a big old, ungraceful tom cat, chasing the sleeping birds. But the gallop is so loud that the cat would need to be wearing clogs to make that much noise. Last night when it happened Mr You and I launched a covert operation. He snuck outside, I counted to 10, then I flicked on the outside lights and ran out. It's a possum! A big old possum! We were so surprised. What's a possum doing this far into the city, and where on earth does it live? I've seen loads of possums, just never in the city. Anyway, he didn't seem at all bothered by us, he just had a look and went back to feasting on the olives in our neighbour's big olive tree. I'm not sure what to do. Should I call someone to let them know he's here? I don't really mind him being there. So far he hasn't moved into our roof, so it's okay I guess. BUT the moment he does, he's out of here. I still harbour harsh feelings towards the possum that lived in our roof when I was 10. The obnoxious beast peed so much it ran down the wall, all over my Duran Duran and a-Ha posters. They were streaky, stained, smelly and that old possum was never forgiven... Nope. Never!
 This is a still from a little video we took of Tilli a week before we bought her home, on one of the days we went to visit her at the shelter. I dare you to look into that cute little face and not get mushy. This is when she had two good eyes. I went to visit her in hospital today, just to remind her that she still has a lovely new home to come to when she gets better. I sat patting her for an hour, and telling her about all the good things in life she has to look forward to. One of the vets told me I could go and buy her some Red Rooster from up the road. I'm not sure that's one of the good things I was referring to. But next time I visit I'll take some home cooked chicken. That's bound to cheer her up.
I seem to have established a manic post pattern lately, which swings from the exciting heights of illustrations, down to the tumultuous depths of our search for a kitty cat. All aboard! Next stop Kitty Sorrow. So last stop we had fallen in love again, had put a deposit on Tilli, and were waiting out the mandatory time for her previous owners to track her down (if that was ever their intention). It was a loooong week, let me tell you, but it all ended very happily when we finally bought her home on Friday. Hoooray! However, when we picked her up she had a very mild case of flu, and a very sore eye. They gave us some medicines and told us that the bad eye was just part of the flu. We had her here at home for less than 24hrs before we realised that this eye was in no way a side effect of a flu, it got really bad, and we took her back. She stayed in kitty hospital overnight, and we’re now waiting on the phone call from the vet to tell us what’s happened. We hardly slept last night worrying about how she is. It’s so awful. I didn’t believe we actually had her until we got her in our house. She fit in right away and after 2 hours was so happy and excited she was dashing from one end of the house to the other, stopping for a cuddle inbetween each lap. She had already had human visitors and also already established her favourite spots to sit. So it broke our heart to wake up the next morning to find her in such pain, and to have to take her back yesterday. I’m so worried that she thinks we don’t want her anymore. Tilli, WE DO! We’re dying here. Mr You’s favourite cat (when he was growing up) got an eye scratch which ended up getting so bad that the eye had to be removed. So he is understandably fearing the worst. I don’t know what to think. This whole process has just been the most depressing experience. Damn it. I can’t wait. I’m going to go and call the vet now. Wish us luck (again). UPDATE: They said it's not good. She's staying in hospital for now, and they assure me they're being super careful and doing all they can to save her cute little eye. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.
Do you remember the story of Mr Possum Pants from last week? Well it happened again. We looked at another 2 cat shelters this week, and then today went back to the first one where we first met Mr Possum Pants. After 2 weeks we finally both fell in love with a new kitten all over again. This one didn't have a name yet, but that didn't stop her smooching us, and after some serious bonding time we invited her to come home and live with us. The carer at the centre (who remembered us from last time) prepared her carry cage, and was about to type our details into her microchip, when suddenly there was a distraction, and scuffle and the heartbreaking news that our newly chosen kitten had been reserved by someone else. I couldn't belive it. I simply ignored her, in complete denial, thinking she couldn't possibly be talking to us. Then as it sank in, all I could say was "you're kidding...right?" She felt terrible and started passing us different kittens in a furious attempt to help transfer our attachment. But as terrible as she felt, I can assure you it was no-where near as bad we did. And you know what... we couldn't get the hell out of there fast enough. I don't know what the lesson is in all of this, but right now it sure as hell doesn't feel like a good one. It doesn't bode well. As soon as my eyes stop dripping I'm heading straight down there with a stack of sticky post-it notes to teach them that it ain't hard to write a quick note: "cutest tabby in the room, the one with the round face and white tummy, is taken" and stick it on the fricken' door! I mean how hard can it be?!!
It's been a whole week! I can't believe that time has slipped by that quickly. A whole week since I last posted. I've been extra busy; painting lots, Mr You's birthday, photographing a wedding, being a guest at another wedding, cooking for guests, and now back to painting lots. It's all been really fun (but a bit whirlwind at the same time). It WAS loads of fun, I have to remember that because right now I'm feeling a little forlorn… For Mr You’s birthday present I decided to turn Fake Casey into somebody real. I gave him a whole bag of cat things, a letter from our real estate agent giving us permission to have a kitty, and an invitation to join me at the kitty adoption place yesterday. I could hardly wait, all weekend I was jumping out of my skin at the idea of having a kitty around – a real one this time, not just Fake Casey. So yesterday we went along for our adoption date. First we went into a room of kittens, small and soft and very very cute, but also intensely hyper. Then we went upstairs to a room full of slightly older kittens all the way through to fully-grown cats. They were everywhere! In the open cages, under the cages, leaping across the tops of the cages, playing on the toys and in the tunnels, sitting on laps, bouncing up and down the stairs, sleeping in the beds… They were everywhere! At first it was really overwhelming, and difficult to get an idea what each kitty was like. Mr You found one at one stage that he liked, but then it bounded off and we couldn’t find it again. We spent about an hour there spending quality time with as many as we could, and then (as we had dreamed) one chose us. He was 6 months old, black and brown striped tabby, kinda fluffy with a very fluffy tail. He was playing with Mr You first, then he came and curled up in my lap. He was soooo sweet, his name was Mr Possum Pants, and we both loved him. BUT as we told the girls that Mr Possum Pants was the one for us, they told us that he was reserved by one of the staff, (she is just waiting on permission from her landlord). I leaked a few tears, we put our name down for him in case she couldn’t take him, and we came home with empty hands and heavy hearts. We’re hoping, unlikely as it is, that he still needs a home when we go back on Friday. Until then we’re trying to put him out of our minds and get on with all that we need to do. So for now Fake Casey has a new friend: Fake Mr Possum Pants, and they’re the best of friends! Update: We got the phone call today to tell us that Mr Possum Pants was adopted by the other girl. We are both so so sad.
|
|
