Update Snap

Bill-cat managed a particularly creative litter box incident today, actually getting some runny… “stuff” half-way up his back. While it wasn’t likely intentional, it solicited so much attention by the house-humans that he’s thinking of submitting the technique to the Pawbook authors for possible inclusion.

Thank heavens I got to him before he got to the bed, etc. Just happened to see it happen. Ieee! We’re currently in the geriatric cat grace period, nursing him along with special privileges (upstairs litter box, etc). He’s a sweet, wise old cat with thyroid issues. Through many twists of fate and other lives, we’ve ended up together for his twilight years, just a bit in love with each other. How can I begrudge him a few tolerances (and prescriptions, ahem) now at age 16? WF’s 3 cats became my first “stepcats” when we married, and I’m trying to take my new role as a cat person seriously (but not too seriously…but ach! they are members of the household!!) My parents mentioned the “grandcats” at our wedding. I’m not even going to begin to analyze THAT one, but it was sweet.

Other updates: The coop door has been carefully scraped and put back, with still a fair bit of fretting on my part. It’s the best we can do for now, with plans to replace the entire door and frame as soon as possible. We can’t paint due to cold temps. A few eggs were shipped off to Washington state for testing, and we’ll find out about levels in a week or so. Fingers crossed!! I did some testing of other paint chips around here (old garage door, etc) and think they are lead free. Such a crazy thing. I am commiserating with friends right now about their current old house renovations/lead scare involving their 2-yr-old, and encouraging others to think about it. Don’t know why the lead story had slipped by me like that, but I now feel it’s worse that the whole mercury-in-fish issue, which is also serious. Low income and old housing with lead paint is much less sexy than the sport fishing/tourism or gourmet dining restrictions due to mercury. Pshaw. Moving on…(for now!)

We’ve finally had some cold weather!! The chickens got through the –20 F cold snap just fine, with only one night of a supplemental heat lamp. These days are the classic crystal-clear blue sky February days I was missing, so the sun has been great for the passive solar (and active solar!) idea. The coop really warms up during the day with the big south window. There’s still no camera charger, so you’ll just have to imagine the welcome blue/white cold. Pictures again someday soon!