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Post by tod2 on May 27, 2021 7:39:18 GMT
Kimby we have a huge store outlet called MAKRO which is owned by Walmart.
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Post by Kimby on May 27, 2021 12:24:46 GMT
Maybe they will be able to sell you a bee-resistant hummer feeder.
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Post by Kimby on May 27, 2021 16:29:49 GMT
Latest petty trauma.
The tour operator for the Iceland trip, in response to Iceland's current policy requiring newly arrived passengers to get a COVID test and quarantine in their hotel room until the results are in, means that they have to reschedule the Blue Lagoon Spa visit till the last afternoon, when our flights depart the last morning.
Iceland could possibly change their policy for vaccinated travelers before we depart, but the tour details will be finalized June 7, so it may not matter.
Guess I will have to choose between cancelling my visit to the Blue Lagoon or arguing with United about changing my departure.... I'll see what my travel pals want to do.
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Post by casimira on May 27, 2021 18:37:36 GMT
Although we knew that this was a distinct possibility and likely bound to happen, sure enough it did. After the fire we stayed at two different locations, all on the same block where we lived. The 2 animals, (one aging dog and one young cat) in tow, it wasn't much of a challenge for them or us. The new apartment we relocated to is about 6 or 7 blocks from our original location. We knew it was going pose a problem for our cat being in a whole new territory than he had thus far grown up in after we adopted him 3 years ago. The first week or so, he spent the majority of the time curled up under the bed clothes (doing exactly what I wanted to do). We would coerce him out and he was eating and doing seemingly okay. He then would venture outside but sticking very close to where one of us happened to be sitting outdoors. At night he would sleep with us in the bed. More and more he would venture outside exploring his new environs. Then, this morning we could not find him and looked everywhere nearby. Finally, T went over to the old house and at the sound of the keys opening the front gate, there he was. I went over there with some cat food and a large towel and after some gentle coercing was able to get him in the car and bring him back to the new place. One nearby neighbor said she could have sworn she saw him over there last week as he is buddies with her cat. So, that meant he was able to navigate over there in the night and make his way back here without our even knowing. And so, I am sure he will do it again and have alerted the former neighbors. Some of them had already suggested that we leave him there as we were moving and they would take care of him but we decided to give it a try moving him. He made his own decision. I still can't figure out what route he took as it entails crossing a light commercial corridor. He's not saying.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 27, 2021 20:05:10 GMT
Over the big street and through the backyards to my old house I go. My human knows the way, but won't let me stay, though she gets my sense of woe.
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Post by casimira on May 28, 2021 15:09:51 GMT
Brilliant Bixa!!! That pretty much covers it. Last night or early this a.m. he stayed here where we are, I think. Unless he made a quick trip over and back without our knowing it. There is currently some construction going on at the house adjacent to ours where the neighbors are replacing the vinyl siding that melted from the heat of the fire but did not cause any damage to the original siding underneath. That amount of activity would most assuredly keep him away.
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Post by tod2 on May 28, 2021 15:48:07 GMT
Casimira, I am not sure if you know about the "Buttered Paws" recipe for helping cats adjust to a new enviroment and dwelling. I have tried it on our pussycat. You smear thickish butter all over the underneath of the paws. I'm thinking its a ploy to make him lick his paws instead of heading off...?
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Post by casimira on May 28, 2021 16:18:03 GMT
Tod, I cannot fathom how this would work. So, the cat has butter on his paws and then can proceed to either jump on my lap, go onto the bed etc. leaving greasy stains all over various surfaces and fabrics? It doesn't make sense to me at all.
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Post by lagatta on May 28, 2021 17:49:36 GMT
I think it would be better to give him treats, pets, brushings and love, and hope he realises he's better off with his humans.
When Renzo went missing for five weeks, I'm sure he went no farther away than yours.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 28, 2021 18:20:44 GMT
Tod, I cannot fathom how this would work. So, the cat has butter on his paws and then can proceed to either jump on my lap, go onto the bed etc. leaving greasy stains all over various surfaces and fabrics? It doesn't make sense to me at all. Maybe it's because when he would try to run, he couldn't get any traction?
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Post by questa on May 28, 2021 22:43:44 GMT
NO, no, no. You have to rub a small amount of butter on to the furry top of the wrist with a tiny bit between the toes on 4 paws. The science (?) is that the cat will spend more time licking himself clean and associate being in the new house with nice reward of butter. The pads of the paws don't get butter om them.
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Post by whatagain on May 29, 2021 7:23:17 GMT
My understanding is that it works outdoors. The cat being buttered 😇 leaves traces the way it goes, and it is easier for it to find its way back, thanks to the smell of butter deposited all along the way.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 29, 2021 7:34:47 GMT
It would be even more fun if every cat in the neighbourhood followed the buttered cat home.
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Post by casimira on May 29, 2021 13:26:08 GMT
Well, he did it again. There were some assholes letting off fireworks nearby and both animals were freaking out. I don't see how using butter is going to help out with this situation.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 29, 2021 14:05:01 GMT
That is frustrating & the addition of the fireworks into the mix is infuriating. I hope the little guy decides soon that it would be nicer to be where his humans are.
I am having a cat-related trauma right this minute. I can hear a kitten meowing very loudly & in what sounds like distress. There is a passageway outside where my kitchen annex is, with one end blocked by a junk washing machine. The kitten is under or behind it. I moved all the tools, ladder, etc. stored on either side of it, but can't move the washer. The little cat never shut up during all that noisy movement and is continuing to call out on and off.
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Post by tod2 on May 29, 2021 14:21:42 GMT
I don't see how using butter is going to help out with this situation. Casimira - As a pet owner myself, any pet from a cat to a dog who re-acts to loud bangs etc., I would think would be in touch with your veternarian constantly and have an ample ( a year at least) supply of calming tablets. I'm not critizing you in any way but I hear so often that pet owners let their pets suffer because they don't have the right medication on hand.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 29, 2021 14:30:48 GMT
My parents' dog would hide behind the toilet at even the slightest hint of thunder.
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Post by tod2 on May 29, 2021 14:34:25 GMT
This is the thing Kerouac. Their hearing as you will know, is a hundred times better than ours. I can vouch for that because Patchy starts being fidgety when the weather turns. Within 15 minutes we hear the first roll of thunder. What a clever dog. Luckily she is not at all disturbed as long as she is within the room we are in.
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Post by casimira on May 29, 2021 14:59:07 GMT
No offense taken at all Tod. Ordinarily when thunder, fireworks etc. would occur he would go and hide underneath the claw foot bathtub. Being in a new environment I guess he thought the best thing to do was go back to his comfort zone. We went over there and looked all over but there is a bunch of construction work being done at our neighbor's house next door and I am sure he left that site toute de suite and is either hanging out in another neighbors yard or making his way back here hopefully. I have alerted the neighbors where he might possibly have gone to. With no forewarning, the fireworks started and there would have been no way to have medicated him in time. After the first one went off he bolted so fast there is no way I could have grabbed him.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 29, 2021 15:09:49 GMT
On a less alarming note, when my parents were living in North Carolina, I was visiting while my grandmother was also there. The dog would sleep on her bed while my parents were out at their bowling night but would leap to the floor and run out of the bedroom to wait at the front door the minute it detected the sound of my parents' car at the far end of the street. And of course even though there wasn't all that much traffic at night, there were enough cars driving around to need to identify that car from all of the others.
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Post by casimira on May 29, 2021 15:17:23 GMT
Our dog who is deaf in one ear and maybe partially in the other. Yet, he knows the sound of our car a half a block away when T is coming home.
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Post by Kimby on May 29, 2021 15:26:34 GMT
I am having a cat-related trauma right this minute. I can hear a kitten meowing very loudly & in what sounds like distress. There is a passageway outside where my kitchen annex is, with one end blocked by a junk washing machine. The kitten is under or behind it. I moved all the tools, ladder, etc. stored on either side of it, but can't move the washer. The little cat never shut up during all that noisy movement and is continuing to call out on and off. Can you entice the little bugger out with a tempting morsel like tuna?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 29, 2021 15:35:23 GMT
Our dog who is deaf in one ear and maybe partially in the other. Yet, he knows the sound of our car a half a block away when T is coming home. Now I am imagining how traumatic it must be when pet owners buy a new car. And if they sell their old car to someone else in the neighbourhood, it must be even worse.
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Post by tod2 on May 29, 2021 15:57:09 GMT
Patchy is my number one alert that Mr. Tod is coming up the drive. Not only that - she runs off and barks a farewell to the gardener when she hears him closing the garage door on his way home. She absolutely hates him. Which makes me think he was not very nice to her when we were overseas one time. She loves every stranger that arrives but he cannot cross paths and she is onto him.
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Post by questa on May 29, 2021 23:44:27 GMT
My former husband drove an automatic V8 car. We lived on the side of a hill and he would come down the hill over a bridge and up to home about 800m away. No matter what time it was, the old cat would wake up and go to the door to greet him. We tried lots of "tests" and found it was the gear change just before the bridge that set off his behaviour. Once home both cat and driver ignored each other so it must have been the sound of the rev change that gave the reward.
Cat's name was Japhy Ryder, K2
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Post by tod2 on May 30, 2021 9:02:41 GMT
Kimby, I went on the hunt for a Hummingbird feeder. Eventually I ended up buying an identical one I had years ago but eventually all I was feeding were millions of bees. But this time the inventer has realised the fault and corrected it by making the hole tiny. A bee cannot gain entry. I don't know who makes them but he or she uses old tomato sauce bottles and Mrs. Balls chutney bottles. The garden center where I found the feeder asked me to hand over any old bottles when done with the contents.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 30, 2021 14:06:38 GMT
That is super clever and nifty looking besides!
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Post by Kimby on May 30, 2021 14:22:46 GMT
Your hummers must be lots bigger than ours, tod. No way could our little Calliope Hummingbirds reach the nectar from that distant perch.
Do Sunbirds visit hummingbird feeders in your part of the world, tod?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 30, 2021 14:40:09 GMT
Hummingbirds are native only to the Americas and the Caribbean, so I don't know what similar birds other continents have.
Edited to add that I found this:
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Post by mich64 on May 30, 2021 16:40:29 GMT
I have already seen a few hummingbirds, they are enjoying our red bloom begonias that are perched in pots secured on the deck rail. I enjoy hearing the hum of their wings. Ours are also tiny birds.
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