blah...blah...blah... Ginger! » the ‘kids’

Perro Palooza

Jonna — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:23:38 +0000

Saturday we went to a party for dogs! It was fabulous. It was actually the opening of a new boarding space for dogs just outside of Mérida owned by friends Chris and Jesus and called Perro Paraiso.

It’s a huge lot with some kennels and lots of space for dogs to run and play and even lay in the water – there are two shallow ponds for cooling off. Cuba was the only dog I saw actually go into one of them but they got a lot of attention around the edges by the rest of the canine guests. The Dog Whisperer would have been proud, this huge pack of dogs got along pretty well with only a couple of ‘time outs’ needed.

There was food and drinks and dog treats, lots of convivial dog people and their pets hanging out and talking. It was one of the best parties I’ve been to in a long time. We took Cuba and Hombre with us, Chica ran and hid when we were ready to go, she’s not fond of riding in the car. Hombre seemed kind of subdued, I think he was a bit overwhelmed by all the dogs. Cuba had a blast, she was running and playing and slobbering and panting the whole time. We had a good time too although we tried to tone it down a bit from Cuba’s reaction.

Happy, happy Cuba!

Lighting the Hall Pond

Jonna — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:11:56 +0000

I’ve gone through several lighting solutions for the hall pond. This time I think I have it. I had a normal rope light in there for awhile, I liked the light and ignored the fact that it wasn’t quite the right length. I didn’t like it as much when I figured out it used more electricity than the pump. It got water in it and died.

I bought a fairly expensive LED rope light, at the after Xmas sales last year. It was pretty good, still not the right length and that meant that the plug end was delicately balanced out of the water… for awhile. Then water got into it and the bulbs died one by one from that spot.

I decided that I needed to use LED rope light and that it needed to be the correct length. Off I went to Light Vent on Prolongación to order it. I had the length and they sent me a bid to make one. It seemed a bit expensive but worth it if it were done right and waterproof. I ordered it.

A week later they called and I went to pick it up. Um, not exactly what I had had in mind. No plug for one thing, just a couple open wires. I persevered. Didn’t I have an electrician to install it they asked? Uh no, I have the brackets for it to fit in and a plug. They offered to come and install it for $400 pesos. I declined. I want a plug, I want the cord to be the length I specified and I want all connections to be waterproof. The girl I was dealing with got on the phone and talked to someone and then told me I could buy a plug at Home Depot. No, I said, I want it to be complete before I accept it. She said something on the phone and then asked me to return in an hour to talk to the technician.

I returned, he arrived only a little late, and again I explained what I wanted in my rapidly growing vocabulary of electrical terms. Oh, he says, OK. We can do that. We thought you wanted it to be in a circle. Come back in a week. I told him I was having a party and wanted the lights in before the party, I lied and said the party was a few days before its actual date. I’m learning. Don’t worry he said, it will be done.

See my pleco eating a zucchini slice?

They called, I returned and it was almost what I wanted. I was a little concerned about this big silver box that the wires went into. The technician returned and he explained that it was a converter thing that was waterproof and outdoor ready. I didn’t tell them the pond was inside because it is open to the sky above and it does rain on it. I try really hard to keep my explanations simple and not confuse people but it seems to happen anyway. My option was a much smaller, kind of cheap looking converter thingy and I decided I liked the silver box much better. There was a plug and everything was sealed up and looked waterproof. They again offered to come and install it but I graciously advised them that I could plug it in and I already had the brackets in place. Just to be safe, they gave me a box of brackets.

I kind of love it. The fish were a bit confused at first and hid under the rocks when I turned it on but now they ignore it. All I need to do now is get a box built to put the silver box and the air pump and the plugs in so you can’t see it. I think I’ll wait awhile before I tackle that, I am retired.

greetings from the cat house

Jonna — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:43:08 +0000

Ocho, Tope and Raui

So, yeah, Mimi and I definitely flunk foster parenting. The two kittens from the school are still here. We actually had a call interested in one of them the other day and said no. She’s too shy, just beginning to feel safe and we couldn’t separate her from her brother who is her security blanket. That’s all a bunch of excuses for the fact that we are hooked on them now and don’t want them to leave. We’ve given the black one with the white spot the name of Ocho, we’re still not sure what to call the shy calico.

Itty Bitty 3 legged kitty

The little 3 legged kitten is developing wonderfully, it’s amazing what nutrition will do. Her eyes are no longer bulging and they seem the right size for her face, I guess her face grew. She can see normally now, the vets originally thought she was mostly blind. She’s active and playful and gets around fine on 3 legs and a stump. She is still destined (we hope) for our friend Leann, for now we mostly call her itty-bitty.

Hombre shares his bed

She’s made herself right at home even though she is still very, very small. I’m not sure she is getting any larger, perhaps a bit heavier. No doubt malnutrition as a baby has stunted her growth, we’re just happy that her eyes and brain seem to have continued developing once she had some food.

Itty Bitty couch kitty

She loves to be held, she purrs like a freight train, she rolls around and play fights with the teenagers, she eats like a miniature horse, and she is incredibly cute.

There are other things going on but they pale in comparison to the fun of kitty watching. It’s raining, it’s cool, the garden is green and lovely and I am spending too much time laying on the couch playing with the kittens and watching HGTV.

Can you help find a forever home for these kittens?

Jonna — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:32:40 +0000

We are fostering 3 kittens, I know, I know… it’s dangerous for me. I can’t keep any more animals and I am teetering on the brink of cat lady right now.

Two of them, including the daring and fearless black one above, are from the same litter. They were trapped at our language school, Habla!, after the feral mom began catching them live food. They are still a little leery of people but are becoming more comfortable every day. The black one, a boy, is more comfortable than his sister, he will purr and eat in your lap.

The calico girl is still a bit scared but I have gotten her to eat from my hand and she eventually falls asleep in my lap. They are both already neutered and wormed and are about 9 weeks old.

They are beyond cute, playful and curious and healthy.

The third kitten is still very young and we are feeding him/her with a bottle. We will keep her until she is old enough to eat on her own. She has another problem, she is missing the bottom of one leg. We don’t know how it got smashed but it had to be amputated. She was found in a ditch, clinging to life. She has such a strong will to live that we will do anything we can to see that she has a chance at a happy life.

She has another month at least before she can be adopted, and we have someone who is considering taking her. I will post more about her later, she is alert and curious and brave – a real survivor.

I really need to find homes as soon as possible for the older two kitties. They are so beautiful and healthy that I really hope someone out there can help find them a home. It’s hard for me to foster animals and I want to do more but it won’t help anyone if they all stay here. Mimi and I have a deal, they have to find homes or we can’t do this anymore. It’s too hard.

baby’s got a brand new name

Jonna — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:53:45 +0000

The new kitten once known as Milagro has a new name. It’s funny about animal names, if they have more than a couple of syllables or if they are not easily said in both languages they never seem to stick. That could be true of human’s names too. Luckily I’m past the age of naming humans but I think my son can attest that the first name he got didn’t follow that rule. He seems to be happy with the second attempt so it all worked out.

Anyway, we weren’t calling the kitten Milagro regularly, we had half a dozen cute nicknames for him instead. Poor kitty, it’s confusing not to know your name. One of Mimi’s nicknames for him was ‘speedbump’. This was partly because of how she found him but also because he eats so much that he gets this big belly bulge in the middle. Speedbump is too long as well but then we had the brilliant idea (to us, but then we are easily dazzled) to change his name to Tope.

We think this name will stick. Welcome to the family Tope.

gimp in the animal house

Jonna — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:36:46 +0000

One more pic from our deck in Akumal

I’ve been grouchy and a gimp this last week. A week ago Wednesday night I was walking barefoot across the terrace, I was really careful at first because I know how slippery polished concrete is and that I had just watered the plants there. When I got to dry floor, I resumed a normal walk and then I hit a forgotten spot of water and down I went… hard. My left arm hit the door and I had a wrap around bruise that included the key hole of the handle. Worse though, it tweaked my lower back. I’ve had problems with it for the last 11 or so years since an injury. This really put me in pain. I made the drive to and from Akumal and I kept on with what I had to do but I was not cheery about it. It would get a little better and I’d think ‘yay!’ it’s going away and then it would come back as bad as before. For a few nights I could not get out of bed without sliding to the floor or turn over without waking up completely and contemplating how to do it.

I’ve been really taking care of it since I got back and trying to get better before this weekend. It’s a lot better, I can bend over and I can get in and out of the jeep without making stupid sounds. I slept better than I have in a week last night and got up fairly easily. So, I think I’m ready for the blogger’s conference this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to it and want to be in a good mood, not all grumpy from pain.

Since I’ve been mostly at home and mostly on the couch, I have really enjoyed the constant show that having a small kitten in the house brings. Little Milagro is a very brave, aggressive little cat. He has won Raui over completely. He stalks her and attacks her and they roll around fighting and then chase each other the length of the house. I sometimes think it is too rough because she is 5x his size but when I separate them, he immediately runs back and jumps her again.

Last night I got this picture of them sleeping together. How cute is that? It is all I can do not to fill this post with cute kitten pictures.

Tita is not as friendly but she is endlessly fascinated watching Raui and the kitten, she no longer hisses at him unless he gets too close. I think sometimes he doesn’t realize she is not his friend Raui. I think she will be fine with him. The dogs are interested but wary of yet another cat and one that is so small that they get in trouble if they get too close.

I took Milagro back to the vet on Tuesday because he was sneezing. He had the beginning of an upper respiratory infection so is on antibiotics. That’s kind of expected in kittens here, he didn’t seem to feel bad and Dr Nelson says he is really healthy. Amazing!

Oh, did you know that cats in Mexico are said to have 7 lives, not 9 as in the US? Manuela told me that over in Akumal. Just another of those cultural things that I find fascinating. Theresa and I were talking about it and she pointed out that life is so hard for cats here that they probably used up a couple of lives just being born in Mexico.

How to waste an hour watching your cats

Jonna — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:20:25 +0000

Bring stuff home from CostCo in a big box.

The Great Wall of Tita

Jonna — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:15:13 +0000

it came in pre-cut and shaped sections

The pieces of bamboo for the wall arrived yesterday morning, without any warning of course. I can’t hear the doorbell from the bedroom upstairs and when we didn’t answer, they called on the house phone and my cell phone. So, it’s not like they couldn’t call the day before, it just doesn’t occur to them I guess.

like putting together something from IKEA

You can’t really get scaffolding set up because of the pool and the pond so they had to balance on the wall. It went up pretty easily, they drilled the holes and tied it into the metal framework.

Jeremy

The bamboo structure came from Xixim Bambu, a bamboo farm outside of Muna here in Yucatán. The director is Jeremy Faulk, who is an American from Tennessee that has lived here for many years. He’s fluent in Spanish as he spent several years in the Peace Corp in Peru. He’s an interesting guy and his work with bamboo and other renewable resources is fascinating. Check out their web page for ideas. I want to go and see the hacienda one of these days, they have 25 hectares of bamboo. I love great groves of bamboo, the sound, the movement, the peace they invoke.

the gap is to the right of the scaffolding, over the pond

There were a couple of snags. In one corner they were lining up the bamboo by the tops and that left a cat sized gap at the bottom. I had them move it down and I don’t think the difference in height matters in the corner. Along the long wall to the right, there are places that the wall dips several inches. The wall is 100+ years old and has been repaired many times and is no way level or even. If they lowered the bamboo to cover the gap at the bottom, you could see the metal framework at the top. None of us liked that. So, they raised it to cover the metal frame and Jeremy came up with the idea of having rocks concreted in on top of the wall to fill the space. It’s the area over the pond and there isn’t anywhere for Tita to get a good stance for jumping so we’re not too worried.

the left corner completed

Alfredo came over (one of Henry’s job bosses, he is working on this project for us) and we talked about the neighbor situation. Yes, we have the official lot dimensions from the city that show the wall as either our wall or a common wall, depending on which part you measure. Remember that the wall is neither straight, square, or level. Our land according to the city map is slightly over 8 meters in width at the back of the lot. We measured from the inside of both walls and it is 7.6 meters. So, dividing in half there is at least 6″ of wall that is ours. However, to absolutely establish the facts it would be necessary to involve the city and pay for a survey. When we bought the house the city surveyed the front and found it within their range of error so they certified it. What if an exact survey showed that we owned 6″ into the neighbors yard? Or, they owned 6″ into our yard? Either of those is possible. Where is the gain in pursuing it?

Alfredo and I went next door to talk to the neighbor. I have a new situation that is coming up a lot in Spanish conversations. In situations like this, I want a native Spanish speaker to talk for me so that there are no misunderstandings. However, I find myself wanting to jump in and remind them of things or add something. Alfredo and I only speak Spanish, all our previous discussions were in that language, so I suppose the misunderstandings could already be there. Just an interesting aside, I’m not sure whether I should indulge when I get these urges because it could negate me having someone else speak.

The neighbor answered the door in his wheelchair, I still cannot believe he got up that ladder to the top of the wall the other day. He was very nice, Alfredo told him that we would be happy to have his yard cleaned out and plant the 2 cocos. We arranged that the workers would come on Monday and also that while they were in his yard they could add a couple of stones to the wall where the gap is. All good, Señor Vecino (I can’t remember his name) said some very flowery things about good neighbors and cooperation and we all smiled and shook hands and that was that.

view from above

Once the workers left, we let Tita out free in the backyard. She was so excited not to be dragging her long rope and anchor around, she covered every inch of the yard sniffing. She also spent a lot of time staring up at the new wall from every direction. She went back to her favorite jumping spot under our bamboo plants and stared up at the top. We left her there, checking every so often, and we don’t know if she tried to jump or not. I didn’t see any broken plants from a fall but there are quite a few broken stems from the workers so I’m not sure. She stayed out all evening, coming in through the new screen and going back out. This morning she walked out along the lip of the pond on the wall side and stared up at the gap. We chased her off but I still don’t think she could make that jump.

We are both really pleased with the new height. It gives us a real feeling of privacy, that this is our oasis in the city. It blocks our view of the pieces of tin and flattened cans that make up the roof of the sheds behind us that are rented to very poor Chiapan workers. It blocks more of the ugly hotel on the street behind us, when our bamboo plants get fuller I think we will have eliminated that eyesore. So, while the impetus for getting it put up was to try and keep Tita safe, we really like how it looks and the increased feeling of privacy.

Tita laying at her usual launch spot, "what have you done?"

kitty update

Jonna — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:22:28 +0000

I decided it is time for a slew of cute kitteh pics because I have them and they just scream out “put me on the interwebs”!

I took this one with my iPhone since it was laying next to the bed and I didn’t want any of them to wake up. I can’t believe Mimi agreed to let me put this up.

how precious is that?

Tita loved her snuggly when she was a baby

and she still does

Since I put up a pic of Mimi sleeping, here’s one she took of me taking a nap. It’s impossible to sleep around here without kittehs.

they love sleeping in the hammock with me

Tita loves the hammock when no one is in it too but she sometimes can’t get it to work just right.

OK, now go have some coffee and walk around the block so all that sweetness doesn’t overwhelm you.

I am so tired…

Jonna — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:00:05 +0000

not happy

This kitten really needs to get healthy and have some normal life, I hope that happens soon. I’m exhausted, mainly because I don’t sleep well worrying about her and then I am up at 7am. I don’t do well getting up that early, my good sleep is after that and I was missing it.

Raui wasn’t eating, or drinking. I gave her baby Ensure by syringe, several every few hours in her mouth. Then she started throwing it up. I tried just one syringe of water and chicken broth and she threw that up immediately and then had the runs. She wasn’t looking good either, her fur is dull and sticking out and her head is very drawn and thin. So, I called Dr Tony at about 10pm and he was at the AFAD dinner. I didn’t go this year, I was too tired and too worried about the kitten. He said he’d call me when he left and I could meet him at the vet hospital.

So, after 11 last night I took her over there. I helped and he got an IV going and gave her medication for her stomach and fluids. He said he was staying there anyway and would give her fluids every few hours all night. So that she wouldn’t pull out the IV, he put one of those hoods on her. Oh, she did not like that.

He said she was about 6% dehydrated, at 8% a kitten has serious problems. I was afraid I was overreacting but he said it was good I called. It’s difficult to know what to do, she is so small.

I came home and went to bed. I feel much better today, I slept until almost 10am! I called and she is still getting fluids and he will try and feed her this afternoon. Poor little thing, life has not been easy for her. Through all of this last night she would start purring as soon as I picked her up.

Oh, the funny thing in all this animal drama! Well, it’s funny now because it turned out well but if it hadn’t I’d really be a mess. I was letting the dogs pee out in front of the house around 9pm. Like I said, I’m tired and not on top of my game. The door was open a crack and it was just enough for Barney to slip through and run under the truck on the street. I ran out in the street to keep him from crossing. I’m laying on Calle 67 calling him and trying to reach him under the truck, taxis are whizzing by, luckily the bus didn’t come.

He ran down and got under the Dodwells tiny – and low – yellow car. It is parked in front of my neighbor’s house. I’m still in the street calling him and trying to reach him. The door to my house is open and my dogs are now walking around in the street. I yell at them to go inside and that lasts until I turn away. My neighbor was having some kind of religious service – she has these all the time – and she comes to her door with her dog. Her dog runs out and goes for Barney and Barney runs… INSIDE HER HOUSE!

Holy Schmolly! I run in after him. I wish I could have paid more attention to the surroundings but it was a bit odd. It was a narrow room like my hallway, with folding chairs lined up and about 4 people sitting in them holding papers. The incense was so thick that I could barely see the other end of the room and it was choking. Barney ran for the back with the dog in hot pursuit, the neighbor lady after the dog, me after them all. The people sitting in the chairs just kind of smiled politely. At the back was the kitchen and the neighbor caught her dog, I caught Barney and tried to make polite noises as I left. Laugh a minute, eh?

When I got back outside, my dogs were down at the end of the block and the door was wide open and I started worrying that Tita had run out as well. The kitten was locked in the office so she was safe. I got the dogs and Barney inside, closed the door and ran for the living room where I found Tita sound asleep on a chair. OMG! I had a glass of wine.

Actually, I had two glasses and when I decided that I needed to get the kitten all the way across the city to the vet on the north side, I was a tad concerned that I not run into any police stops on the way. It all went well, I took the truck which has Quintana Roo plates and got there and back without a checkpoint.

I need less excitement in my life. Everybody needs to slow down, stay inside, stay healthy and sleep more!