Epiphany

I realised the other night, as I was awoken by an over-excited feline, that we aren't ready for parenthood yet.

I need sleep!

Anyway Oreo has behaved a bit better recently and not taken to waking us up in the night too often. She's becoming a lap cat slowly and enjoys the odd cuddle with me, inbetween savaging my arm and destroying Tom's pens for college.

Furball

Our main household change (despite me being at home more) is Oreo settling into the flat. She's blossomed and is turning from timid kitten to thundering-down-the-hallway-at-top-speed whirl of fur. We've had to try and train, teach and clean up between us; arguing and co-operating like parents whilst we gag de-crapping the litter tray.

But she's actually lovely and is a very good cat. Tom's main issue with her is when he does homework there is a cat sitting/ laying on all his notes, stealing his pen/ pencil/ ruler, playing with them, then accidentally sweeping them under the sofa.

I'm currently reading a book called Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, which is about a boy who has lost his father in the 9/11 attack. It got me wondering the other night; in a few decades will there be nutters who try to deny the event happened, like those who deny the Holocaust?

Let's hope not.

So we now have a cat!

Let me start about two weeks ago before Oreo the cat arrived on the scene...

Tom and I were walking home one evening from the bus stop, when we heard a cat call out to us. Not unusual around here, but as I bent down to give this one a bit of a fuss, I realised how painfully thin and bony she was. Disturbed by this, I scooped her up and brought her to our flat down the road - she had no collar and we later learned no chip, so we don't know about her owner. I wanted to at least give her some food, but in the light we saw how messy she was: all skin and bones, dirty, limp.

So the next two days we kept her warm, gave her plenty of attention, offered her food, wiped her down as best as I could, cleaned her up when she got messy, just made her as comfortable as we could. The day after we found her we took her to a vet. He guessed she was very old, over 16 years, and advised me to just nurse her and see how she went.

Sadly that day she just got weaker and weaker, and the next morning she had lost consciousness and was shutting down. I held her in my lap as her body spasammed until her heart stopped. We took her back to the vet for cremation and returned home to disinfect the flat and wash the sofa cushions. Obviously we were pretty devastated, but it was all inevitable and at least we kept her warm and gave her some love in her final hours.

And thus, Tom, our host/ landlady and her brother all started a mission for us to obtain a kitten...

For those who don't know, we moved to this new flat about 7 weeks ago across town, and it's lovely but a bit of a downsize.

Anyway, Tom, who adores cats and has been winding me up for the last 3 years about bringing home a kitten, took this mission on and kitten-hunt commenced.

Anyway, some searching later and a few phone calls later, we got in touch with a charity called HEART who had a young cat in Bristol who needed a home. She'd been abandoned at 3 weeks old with her mother, and needed a lot of love.

Well, we've had her since Sunday and she's already developed into a proper kitten from a scared shadow hiding in the shelving unit. And we're named her Oreo (Tom didn't like Guinness):

She's still a bit nervous, but has decided she loves us completely and utterly, to the extent that we now cannot yet go to bed without her feeling lonely; on Night #1 we got woken up at 4am by her crying. She had food, water, the above box, litter tray... what the hell did she want? Company apparently. And also to show me she figured out how to climb into the washing machine.

So now we've had plenty of playing, snuggling, stroking, (and a couple of piddles by the TV, grrr) and I think we're on the way to having a healthy, happy animal who has been given a second chance.

Where is she now? Uh, still in the shelving unit. But I think she's finally fallen asleep after bloody keeping us up all night exploring the bedroom. At least someone is getting some sleep.

When did it become November?!

Yeah so I've been really lazy about this place. The last entry is dated July. It's now November! Shocking.

So a few things have happened since the last post:

We got married in August, on the best day of the year at possibly the best wedding ever! My mother-in-law and her husband did a stunning job with all the decorating and sparkly touches. No one fainted, I didn't trip over on the way up the aisle, and everyone had a fabulous time. Perfect!

We've since moved into an annex flat on the side of Tom's Stepfather's Mother's house (phew) and had to downsize spectacularly. It's a lot smaller, but really nice and warm and clean. There's still some boxes of stuff everywhere but we're slowly getting there.

Tom has gone to college to do an access course in science and maths because he is a glutton for punishment. His hope is to pass this year and go to university to study something in the field of astrophysics.

I hope to update again before next year...!

Rusty and wedding

I've not updated in a while because I haven't been sure how to say some things.

Most readers will probably already know that Rusty died 2 weeks ago. It was devastating for Tom and I, and to me rather unexpected (Tom had a feeling she was going downhill) so we were upset for a good while as we came to terms with it and sorted out burying her and getting rid of the tank. It felt like one of the last parts of our pre-marriage lives has come to an end, and not in a good way. But oddly her death means that at least we had her until her demise and we didn't have to actually go through with passing her onto someone else when we move in September.

What is strange to say is that it was the worst thing that could have happened with her, but not in the worst way. By that I mean that her death was a horrible thing for us, but she went peacefully and not in pain or discomfort; she just slipped away. As always with death it's the ones who remain behind who feel the misery.

But life goes on...

I'm writing about her today because it's the first weekend that I've had the flat to myself, with Tom being in Wales for a history event. Usually even if I have a chore day (oh man I hate cleaning and tidying) then I have a lazy/ scrabbling critter keeping me company and this weekend I didn't. I just didn't like how it felt. I'll get over it.

In more positive news, wedding plans are going rather well, with there being only a month to go until our big day! Our guest list is finalised, I fit in my dress again, my two bridesmaids are sorted (from 5 to 2! It all works out in the end...!) and I have a pair of shoes. ***EDIT - Chloe is also a bridesmaid/ groomsmaid! So three '-maids' in total!*** We just have to finish the big things like reception and service bits but that will all go alright.

God is good.

He-She-It?

Our plumbing has ballsed up this last week, with the drainage system for the kitchen sink and washing machine somehow going wrong. The landlord is popping in and out of the flat today in an attempt to fix it after the plumber somehow didn't manage it. So we're massively behind on the laundry and have been washing up in the bath! The shower hose is nicely effective, I must say, but bending over and trying to wash dishes and carry them between rooms isn't much fun.

Jo has been looking for a new job for the past few weeks and is also preparing to move into her mum's place in Gloucester once a few things that end are sorted out. She's been with us for about fifteen months now so to have her gone will be a bit odd but also nice to have it back to Tom and myself for a little while, until we join his parents in their place after the wedding. It's kind of the wrong way round for married life; going from living together to moving in with mum after becoming husband and wife! I'm sure it'll be fine, if different.

We've also had an interesting surprise with the lizards. We gave Bruce to a sanctuary in Swindon because we won't have room for HER when we move in Sept. The guy, Adam, was lovely and very knowledgeable and explained how Bruce was definitely a female, how most of her quirks were results of birth defects and she was otherwise very healthy and alert.

The other surprise is that Rusty the bearded dragon has laid a couple of eggs this week! So Rusty is also a girl. The eggs are sterile and they sometimes lay them for no real reason than just the systems do it.

So at least someone's plumbing works.

Prayer

My God, please make this week a bit more gentle.

Life is usually good but a few things are getting me a bit low this week. On Friday we are giving Bruce the water dragon up to a reptile shelter in Swindon because we won't have room for him when we move into Tom's parents' house in September. Although it's the best thing to do and they seem a genuinely wonderful and caring place, it's still sad to have to let him go.

Tom's parents are currently on holiday but have had a bit of an accident, though his stepdad is in hospital he's doing ok but they need some time before being able to fly home. We're keeping half an eye on his sister and making sure she has supplies whilst she looks after the house and cats.

Speaking of which I'm not sure my parents are thrilled with me because I cannot do the favour they wanted. I feel like a teenager again.

So please make this week a bit smoother for us. I'm always grateful for what is there but will always have to ask for more. Amen.

Mini post

After that last soppy post I have kept a firmer grip on my Tom who misses me too much to keave me for very long. Aww, someone has to! Other than my mum of course...

Summer seems to be here, ish. So wonderful to be able to wander about the town and village in sunshine without needing snow boots to keep warm. We've been keeping track of Springwatch on the BBC and so far I've not cried at anything. So far so good!

Lonely!

Tom has been away in Eastbourne this weekend and I have come to the realisation that I don't cope very well without him. How tragic.

As it's a Bank Holiday many other people have got their own plans and gone away or seeing family so I have been on my own a lot of the time. Tom is away with the history group so he can't keep his phone on him much so contact has been a bit more limited than usual.

And it's horrible! I want him home!

From what he's said he seems to be feeling the same so I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels highly dependent on the other.

He'll be home tonight, I can't wait.

Bloody electronics

At the moment, we are having problems with our [less than two years old] laptop, with the fan experiencing problems and letting the unit overheat. Tom and friend Roland have been trying to fix this, with the latest attempt involving cutting a hole roughly 1 inch squared through the plastic casing over the fan so it can be more easily cleared and aired. I think. I only understand so much...

At this moment I am waiting for a man named Rob whose advert we saw online to drop an Xbox here for us. The current console we have was second hand when we got it (as is this 'new' one!) and despite having been pulled apart and cleaned and reassembled, the laser still seems to be struggling. At the moment trying to get a disc read takes at least ten mins of opening and shutting the tray to convince the machine that it knows what to do. But I justify this extravagant purchase because we do use the Xbox a lot - for games, for playing DVDs and we also have Netflix on it. And especially as the much more expensive laptop is currently being problematic, it makes sense to replace the cheaper option for now.

We're still waiting for the agency to come and look at our lights too; since our housemate had to replace her light fitting and we turned the power off then back on, only half of the lights in the flat work. Which gets a little difficult sometimes.

I do appreciate electricity, I just wish the devices we use so much actually lasted a decent amount of time.