Multiskilled
Well, I may have been offered to be employed as a spy, but sometimes I think life at home is much more fun - and calls for a lot more talents!
As you know Little Flower and her baby are visiting us. I've been watching this kitten as he seemed pretty small for a six week old and his eyes were showing signs of that dreaded bug that we have had so much trouble with going through both our and R's cats. I decided a few days ago that Bigfoot was actually getting worse and as he was so young it was time to take action. Little kittens are the most vulnerable to this virus.
So, he has been on antibiotics twice a day - just a drop as he is so small - as well as rehydration fluids and also solid foods. I had been watching him with his mama and he was old enough to begin weaning and I suspected mother was also losing her milk. He was definitely not as hydrated as he should be, either from being too unwell to suckle long enough, or from not enough in mama to suckle out.
So my day has been a series of feeding, dosing and hydrating the kitten - and keeping him warm. Now this is a bit of a challenge as Autumn has been creeping up on us and the house tends to stay quite cool during the day. Also, mama has been leaving him for longer and longer periods as she weans him (as she should), but of course this means no body warmth to keep warm. The solution?
He needs body warmth, right?
So he now spends a LOT of his daytime hours tucked down my cleavage. He has gotten so used to sleeping there that now as soon as I tuck him in, he's off to sleep! And is as warm as toast..:)
I am glad to say that the nursing is definitely doing him good. He's much stronger, heavier and more lively than he's been. He's actually getting the knack of eating his meat - I give him little balls of minced beef - and tonight actually picked some up and ate it himself for the first time.
His mama has figured out that we are sharing the task of caring for him and comes and supervises what I do. After he's dosed, fed and hydrated she will bath him and trill at him while I clean up before returning him to his 'pouch'. Then she will either toddle off to do her own thing or sometimes come and sit with us on the desk. He spends all night with her though in their 'nursery' which is now in the bathroom as he has begun toilet training and that is far better done in the bathroom than on my bed! We have a heater in there to keep the room warm so he doesn't get a chill.
While carrying out my nursing duties I also decided this week to give my communications systems a bit of an overhaul. I find that after a year or two it's sometimes good to check the financing of it all to see if there might be a dollar or two saved. Our mobiles phones were coming to the end of their plan contracts too, and as they are the most unreliable pieces of gadgetry every owned by us, we are eager to replace them.
So, this week I have changed our internet provider plan so we get the same speed and half the download limit (but still well within what we use) for $10 a month less than I had been paying. We also are now on a different landline plan which is saving us $20 a month. Yes, the call costs are slightly higher, but honestly, when you only make 24 local calls in a quarter, that really isn't the issue. I need the landline for the type of broadband we have, so what I wanted was the cheapest way of having the service possible, and that's what I've got.
As for our mobiles, most of our call and text costs are actually with us calling or texting each other - yes I know, we live a sad secluded life. So I've switched mobile provider to one that will let us call anyone on the same provider for free. And, we get new phones. I'm also going to switch troll to a prepaid account with the same provider, which means we can call her for free, and it will only cost her 10C a minute to call us (or anyone else, same provider or not), or 10c to text us (or anyone else, same provider or not). She gets to keep her nice new phone she got for Christmas from Grandma, but we get new phones.
Really interesting new phones - the Samsung x830
And yes, they are swivel, or twist phones. What's more, they have an mp3 player built in, and come with 1gig in internal memory, built in! Pretty swank.
There 'might' be a small problem with the coverage of this provider int his area, so they have suggested that when the phones and sim card for the prepaid arrive, we don't open the phones until we have put the sim card in the prepaid and gone for a drive around our area and made sure the coverage is good. If it is, we open our phones and all is fine. If not, we simply return the phones unopened and find a different provider. From what their map of coverage shows, we 'should' be fine, but we want to make sure.
Even if the home coverage is not good and tygrr and I change our provider and get different phones from elsewhere, she will remain with this company as she doesn't need reception in our house really, but DOES need it in the city, and cheap calls in the city and that is where the company excels.
So, I've managed to save us $30 a month on our isp and landline, and get us brand new phones with a new provider for the same cost per month as our current phones - but with free calls and texts between tygrr and I and also free for us to call troll. I expect that shall reduce our call costs dramatically.
All in all, it was a bit torrid researching all the available providers plans and phones, but I think it's been well worth it and it's part of MY job in this relationship - managing the money and making sure it is not being wasted.
Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed when the phones are delivered next wednesday that the coverage is good! But I am sure I can find plenty to occupy me while I wait. Like patting a kitten or six...
Kitten Couch anyone?
Six siamese on a sofa - and there are three missing from that picture - Zeus, Jasmine and Stardust. So we definitely have a few siamese in the house at the moment, but then, they are so cute, who could possibly mind!
Red
As you know Little Flower and her baby are visiting us. I've been watching this kitten as he seemed pretty small for a six week old and his eyes were showing signs of that dreaded bug that we have had so much trouble with going through both our and R's cats. I decided a few days ago that Bigfoot was actually getting worse and as he was so young it was time to take action. Little kittens are the most vulnerable to this virus.
So, he has been on antibiotics twice a day - just a drop as he is so small - as well as rehydration fluids and also solid foods. I had been watching him with his mama and he was old enough to begin weaning and I suspected mother was also losing her milk. He was definitely not as hydrated as he should be, either from being too unwell to suckle long enough, or from not enough in mama to suckle out.
So my day has been a series of feeding, dosing and hydrating the kitten - and keeping him warm. Now this is a bit of a challenge as Autumn has been creeping up on us and the house tends to stay quite cool during the day. Also, mama has been leaving him for longer and longer periods as she weans him (as she should), but of course this means no body warmth to keep warm. The solution?
He needs body warmth, right?
So he now spends a LOT of his daytime hours tucked down my cleavage. He has gotten so used to sleeping there that now as soon as I tuck him in, he's off to sleep! And is as warm as toast..:)
I am glad to say that the nursing is definitely doing him good. He's much stronger, heavier and more lively than he's been. He's actually getting the knack of eating his meat - I give him little balls of minced beef - and tonight actually picked some up and ate it himself for the first time.
His mama has figured out that we are sharing the task of caring for him and comes and supervises what I do. After he's dosed, fed and hydrated she will bath him and trill at him while I clean up before returning him to his 'pouch'. Then she will either toddle off to do her own thing or sometimes come and sit with us on the desk. He spends all night with her though in their 'nursery' which is now in the bathroom as he has begun toilet training and that is far better done in the bathroom than on my bed! We have a heater in there to keep the room warm so he doesn't get a chill.
While carrying out my nursing duties I also decided this week to give my communications systems a bit of an overhaul. I find that after a year or two it's sometimes good to check the financing of it all to see if there might be a dollar or two saved. Our mobiles phones were coming to the end of their plan contracts too, and as they are the most unreliable pieces of gadgetry every owned by us, we are eager to replace them.
So, this week I have changed our internet provider plan so we get the same speed and half the download limit (but still well within what we use) for $10 a month less than I had been paying. We also are now on a different landline plan which is saving us $20 a month. Yes, the call costs are slightly higher, but honestly, when you only make 24 local calls in a quarter, that really isn't the issue. I need the landline for the type of broadband we have, so what I wanted was the cheapest way of having the service possible, and that's what I've got.
As for our mobiles, most of our call and text costs are actually with us calling or texting each other - yes I know, we live a sad secluded life. So I've switched mobile provider to one that will let us call anyone on the same provider for free. And, we get new phones. I'm also going to switch troll to a prepaid account with the same provider, which means we can call her for free, and it will only cost her 10C a minute to call us (or anyone else, same provider or not), or 10c to text us (or anyone else, same provider or not). She gets to keep her nice new phone she got for Christmas from Grandma, but we get new phones.
Really interesting new phones - the Samsung x830
And yes, they are swivel, or twist phones. What's more, they have an mp3 player built in, and come with 1gig in internal memory, built in! Pretty swank.
There 'might' be a small problem with the coverage of this provider int his area, so they have suggested that when the phones and sim card for the prepaid arrive, we don't open the phones until we have put the sim card in the prepaid and gone for a drive around our area and made sure the coverage is good. If it is, we open our phones and all is fine. If not, we simply return the phones unopened and find a different provider. From what their map of coverage shows, we 'should' be fine, but we want to make sure.
Even if the home coverage is not good and tygrr and I change our provider and get different phones from elsewhere, she will remain with this company as she doesn't need reception in our house really, but DOES need it in the city, and cheap calls in the city and that is where the company excels.
So, I've managed to save us $30 a month on our isp and landline, and get us brand new phones with a new provider for the same cost per month as our current phones - but with free calls and texts between tygrr and I and also free for us to call troll. I expect that shall reduce our call costs dramatically.
All in all, it was a bit torrid researching all the available providers plans and phones, but I think it's been well worth it and it's part of MY job in this relationship - managing the money and making sure it is not being wasted.
Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed when the phones are delivered next wednesday that the coverage is good! But I am sure I can find plenty to occupy me while I wait. Like patting a kitten or six...
Kitten Couch anyone?
Six siamese on a sofa - and there are three missing from that picture - Zeus, Jasmine and Stardust. So we definitely have a few siamese in the house at the moment, but then, they are so cute, who could possibly mind!
Red