Tolstoy is sick

This week has been quite sad at our house. Our beloved cat Tolstoy, is sick. Late on Monday night my son discovered a lump on one of Tolly's hind legs. He woke me up to tell me. So I came through to the kitchen to have a look. Poor Tolly was in pain hissing and growling. When I looked at the lump, it was quite big. I thought I shall need to get him to the vet first thing in the morning. I was due to drive up to visit my sick Parents in Law. Hubby had to go on his own in the end.

Any how, I took Tolly into my bed and he slept on my pillow. The next morning when we woke up I looked at his leg. The whole leg was swollen up. So at 8am sharp I was at the vet. Long story short, it turns out to be a tumor in his leg. We are waiting for the biopsy report  which will be back in a day or so. From that the vet will know what to do next.

We are devastated at our Angel cat having a tumour. Quite a lot of fluid came out of his leg when they drained his leg. He is now sporting a bright red bandage all the way up his leg. Poor little soul, he has been in so much pain. On Monday night I gave him some spiritual healing, as strong as he could take it. He was hissing and growling at the time. Then he went to sleep, he slept all night on my bed and in the morning he woke up and was purring. It is still early days yet and we don't know what will happen next. Fingers crossed that it is a benign tumour. We can't bear anything to happen to our beloved Angel cat, or any of our fury children.

Last month It was Slinky my youngest son's cat that had surgery, to remove two Thyroid tumours. poor little thing. Slinky is an 11 year old, huge Tabby cat. He is so loving and gentle we had many friends emailing us and visiting us to see Slinky after his surgery. I expect the same will happen with Tolstoy. It is rather distressing waiting to see what will happen next. It is in the hands of God at present it could go either way. I prefer to think positively on the outcome.

Every day with all my fury children is a blessing, just like with my Human children. My youngest son usually chases Tolly for fun, which annoys me, however he was the one that noticed the lump on Tolly's leg and insisted on being with me to pick Tolly up from the vet. So even though he can upset or frighten poor Tolly, he still loves him. It has been a wake up call to my son. He is showing more love and affection to Tolly now.

Don't get me wrong, my son loves animals, he just gets a bit silly sometimes. Now he is watching Tolly like a hawk making sure that the cat is ok.
Our dog, Gromit is an old dog, but still quite able to have a set to with the cats, is giving Tolly a wide birth. Tolly would give him what for normally. So for once Gromit is staying away from him. The other cats are also being careful and respectful at present. Garfield and Tolstoy can go toe to toe normally and I have to sort them out. But over the past couple of days Garfield has had the smarts to leave his brother alone.

I will post an update when I have more news. For any of you out there that are healers can you please send some distant healing to him please, Thank you.

Tolstoy update

Well Tolstoy did stay in the vet's over night. God, we all missed him so much. I got to pick him up at 10am the next morning. What a shock it was seeing my Angel Cat, so much fur had to be shaved off,
for the surgery. Tolly has a double coat being a Norwegian Forrest cat. The back of him looks like a plucked chook. Poor little man , he is very aware of how he looks.

He has been in a state of shock , after discovering his leg is gone. It was taken from the hip. So this is a learning curve on getting his balance, so that he can move about freely. Yesterday he went to the litterbox all by himself, twice. I had been holding him for him to  do his wee ect. But now he is showing us that he can do it. He is a strong little man.

Last night he wanted to sleep on the bed with mummy and daddy, so I lifted him up onto the bed. he got into a cosy spot and had a good big sleep. This morning he has been purring a lot, so that is a good sign. He is slowly starting to eat too. Just prior to bed time last night he ate some Crab, one of my sons was tucking into Crab, and gave a bit to Tolly. Well Tolly just loved it so, he got more and more, lol.

This morning he ate a little morning tea, just like the other kitties. Daisy, his sister was keeping an eye on his dish. The look on her face was, "hey, you gonna eat that?"  Well Duh! said Tolly.

It is now lunch time and he is still resting on mummy's bed and can watch the birds outside. I think he will be back to normal very soon. All the bleeding has stopped too, which is a good sign.
I shall post news updated on Tolstoy, the Angel Cat as I get time. I am also nursing a sick chicken at present. Every thing happens at once in our family. Usually 3 or 4 things go wrong at  once. That is when I say, "HEY, God cut me some slack will ya?"  What is with the Universe throwing so much at me in one go?

Birds visiting my garden

  The white throater gerygone

   

I love being surrounded in nature, and living in Canberra is the best of both worlds. We are a country town and a capital city, with a difference. We have a wonderful abundance of nature all around us. Even in the average suburban garden if one has sufficient plants and trees to attract birds and wildlife there is a joy in seeing our nature up close. Canberrans are very proud of their bush capital, and rightly so. 

I love waking up each morning with the sound of birds singing. I am not able to name very many bird types, but that doesn’t matter to me. I just love them coming into my garden every day. Today was a warm and humid day, so I had the front door open all day. I heard an amazing bird song near the front door and went to investigate. The bird was hard to see at first, but as I  scanned the garden from my front fly-screen door I noticed a tiny yellow bird up in the ornamental plumb tree. I stood listening to him for a while enchanted by the sound. 

I scurried off to find my pocket book of Canberra birds to see what it was. This little book is like gold (Field guide to the birds of the ACT  by McComas Taylor and Nicholas Day) to bird lovers and very popular. I found out this lovely little bird was a White Throated Gerygone. I shall be on the lookout for him again. All day long there are so many different birds visiting either the back garden or my front garden. I have a lot of small trees in my front yard, and a huge box elder tree, a Crab apple tree and an ornamental flowering apricot tree in my back yard, so the birds just flock to my garden.

My favourite bird is the crimson rosella and I never tire of them, I only saw them on the rare occasion where I lived in Sydney even though it is a very common bird. We have an abundance of parrots  in Canberra  all year round, including Lorikeets, Cockatoos, Galahs Gangangs. Cockatoos are very destructive though as well as very intelligent. God knows how often I have to pick up tree branches they the Cockatoos rip off from my Box Elder. The Cockatoos make a terrible mess.  Magpies, Peewees, Wattle birds are quite common in Canberra gardens, we have a wonderful variety just in our area alone. The best public places to see a variety would be visiting both the national parks, Namadgi and Tidbinbilla or the Australian Botanical Gardens, all of which are not far from my house.

 

The Magpie has a nice song,  but many people don’t like them because they can attack humans in spring time, as they try to protect their babies. Thankfully I have never had a problem with them. I have one that visits every day and I talk to him when watering the garden. One of my cats had a Magpie friend in the weeks before my cat dies. The Magpie was very old too and each morning he came up to the back door and tapped on it, asking if Tolstoy was coming out. So I opened the door and Tolstoy would sit on the step with his friend each day until Tolstoy was too sick and had to be put to sleep. 

I guess having only three legs and being old , he was no threat to the Magpie. For a week or more after Tolstoy died this Magpie came to the door to see his friend. Then sadly one day younger birds attacked him as he flew over the fence into the neighbours yard. It was very distressing and sadly I never saw the Magpie ever again. But I feel there was a special bond between him and our Tolly. 

One night last summer I thought I was imagining things, lying in bed reading late at night, and suddenly hearing a Cuckoo call. I had no idea Canberra actually has Cuckoos. I got on to google and  discovered that there are actually five different types of Cuckoos in Canberra. 

The area where Canberra is built is old farming land so we are lucky to have birds that have remained in the region as housing has expanded over the decades. I am living in the Tuggeranong valley which is not far from two big national parks. So there is a lot of wildlife all around us such as Kangaroos, Wallabies, Wombats, Echidna, Possums and foxes.  I have Possums living in my garden and the surrounding area. We often have foxes in the neighbourhood too. So there is a lot right on our doorstep so to speak. 

But getting back  to birds, I often sit in a reading chair at the window in my Family Room and watch birds as they weave in and out the bushes outside the window. If I am lucky I get to see Willie Wagtails or a Superb Fairy Wren, they are a real treat to see as are the Double Barred Finch and I think I have only been lucky enough once to see that finch then  honey eaters on some occasion oh, and the Falcon that attacked my Canary on the back veranda, that I will never forget.  Tiny little Silver Eyes or nectar eaters are always lurking in the bushes, as I have Chinese Lantern or Abutilon and Choisya bush at my back window. I could sit all day and watch them if I could, lol. But as usual I have things to do every day. I just feel so content with nature and could quite easily live the rest of my life away from humans as long as I have animals and birds around me. A garden or a nature reserve is a must for me to touch base with nature. 

As I write this post the birds are still singing, it is just so nice and much better than the sound of the TV. We have a couple of resident Blackbirds that visit every day and tonight Mr Blackbird was perched on the rooftop next door singing his little heart out. It was Mrs Blackbird that had her babies on our back veranda two years ago. The family are still visiting our garden, but I have no idea who is who with them. I just enjoy seeing them in the garden. Nature is just an absolute joy to behold.

  The Crimson Rosella

2012 stinks

What a year it has been so far. Everything has been chucked at me so far this year. I am on the verge
of going up stairs with a slipper in hand, and saying enough already!

I don't believe in bad luck what so ever, however the Universe in driving me nuts. First we had to put our dog Gromit to sleep, then we had to clear out my in-laws house due to them moving into high dependency care at the nursing home complex. That has taken so much time, driving up to Sydney and back in one day. Over the space of a few weeks, sorting through all the personal stuff etc. Then on the home front, more private issues kept cropping up. Some quite serious ones at that.

Next  Tolstoy gets his leg amputated last week, and one of our chickens got sick. It was touch and go if she lived or not, she pulled through, thank God. Then the world about us fell apart, my Father-in-Law suddenly passed on early on Monday morning. My husband took ill at the same time. Trying to cope with all of this and other family problems all at once has been pure hell for our household. This is not the first time that we have had multiple things happen though. But gee, I am ready to go up stairs and lay down the law, lol.

My husband went to hospital last night, straight after we drove back to Canberra from Sydney to attend Father-in-Law's funeral. We sat there from just after 7pm until about midnight just waiting for treatment and a bed. The Canberra Hospital staff were flat out, with so many sick people and on short staff, as per usual these days. They did have a look at him when he presented to A & E, but then had to sit and wait his turn. I must say that the staff were wonderful.

They work so hard and in very bad work conditions thanks to the greedy bean counters and a lousy government that couldn't run a bath never mind a government.  The good news is that he is on the mend and after being pumped with fluids and meds, he was sent home this morning at 9.30am and off to bed to have a good sleep.  So now I just need the world around me to slow down a little and give some one else the crap for once. Arrrrgh! We still have 6 more months to go :(

Hang in there peoples, get your cosy blanky and a fave soft toy and buckle in for the next instalment.