Garbo's Better, Sort Of

Garbo's Elizabethan collar was finally off for good by November 1.

She had figured out how to get it off once about a week after she first got it, early October. I cleaned the e-collar of dried Garbo snot and saw that she wouldn't leave her back alone so the e-collar went back on, this time with a real collar with clasp, bell removed, instead of the gauze pseudo-collar.


A week later her wound was healing enough that hair was starting to grow again. I took the e-collar off for observation; Garb just went right back to licking her wound like crazy. After cleaning the e-collar again, I put the e-collar back on Garb. Week three, I took the e-collar off and Garb groomed herself all over, essentially treating her old wound like a regular dirty spot that needed cleaning instead of something that needed to be chewed off.

You can still see where the spot is on her back but instead of chawing on it, Garbo nudged Spook for comfort and, like the good man he is, he always complied. I'm not sure, but I think he was dead-asleep when he put an arm around her this particular time. Garb and Spook, Jenny and Forrest, peas and carrots.


Thinking Garbo's runny nose was due to a food allergy, the vet had given me a Ziploc baggy of some hypoallergenic food to see if the cats would like it. That food was like cat crack and I used the dry morsels like treats. For a while Spooky sat on command in anticipate of a hypoallergenic triangular bit of ecstasy. I'm pretty sure he'd have jumped through hoops of fire while riding a tricycle and juggling bowling pins for them.

I bought a bag. This stuff goes for about SEVEN BUCKS and change A POUND; the cats practically inhale it before their food bowls hit the floor.


I got a letter from the IRS early October saying I owed them a bunch of loot from a mistake I made on my 2012 taxes. My immediate reaction was "screw you" and then "okay, I see the mistake you painstakingly described to me in every possible way, but if I'm going to give you any money I'm going to spend that much on me (my Harley) too". I got the Harley rocker box gaskets - front, the leaky one, and back - replaced, new grips put on, full service, and detailing, something I never thought I'd pay labor for, particularly the detailing. (Shout out to Cycle Doctor! They're awesome!) My point is that if my kidlets, Baby Girl Garbo and Spooky-Dook, aka Booger, can eat meals of $7/lb, I should too. As soon as the vet bill is paid off, it's on. Don't be surprised if none of us can fit out the front door in a year.

Conehead

Garbo's sporting an Elizabethan collar; her head just pokes out of it like a little scoop of pointy-eared, whiskery ice cream.


We went to the vet because she was doing this to herself:


It doesn't look nearly as gnarly as yesterday when the visible skin was all red and oozy, the fur around it wet and matted with Garbo spit. The vet tech cringed and said it looked "angry". I agreed. The vet cleaned the wound up with an antimicrobial and gave Garb an antibiotic pill plus a little shot of steroid to help boost her healing. And then the cone went on, putting Garbo on grooming hiatus.


With her whiskers in the cone Garbo can't walk in a straight line and her head, essentially twice as big as normal, makes her bump into everything scaring the crap out of her. That makes Garbo pretty much stationary and sad.

Trust

Nate was down Thursday and asked about Spooky. Yep, Spook's still around. I dug up some photos I'd recently described to Chuck. About a year ago, Spook was laid out in his customary September 10 a.m. heat-disperson/absorption pose. I took the opportunity to demonstrate via photos how much Spook trusts me. Or how he's way into bathing. Or is so lazy he appears dead. If I took the same photos today, you'd see the results are the same except Spooky's lunch box is bigger and my shoes are more raggedy.

Photos as taken from my view:


Did Spook move at all? I rotated the same pics above so that Spooky was essentially in the same direction (no, I didn't break out a scale/ruler for precision) but cropped them so there wouldn't be tons of blank field.


 

That cat's got major trust. He didn't even blink, switch an ear, or twitch his tail as I moved around him, closer each time. I love this animal and swear he wasn't drugged at the time.

Meanwhile, Garbo was all "I'll throw up $5/lb food all over the kitchen floor before I chillax in the 5 cent paper bag I'll shred Spooky's face over if he gets too close".


It's all about trust.

All Green Recycling

By recycling my old electronics:

I saved46lbs of carbon emissions

From entering the atmosphere!

What's this equal to?

= 8

= 2

= 67

= 307

Powered by All Green Electronics Recycling

I found a place that recycles e-waste right here in the good ol' US for free. There are drop-off locations all over (I used one today) - and coolest is they'll pick your junk up if you want! So no more complaining about what a hassle recycling is, man. Check 'em out.

Testimonial by Text

So Hadley got his worm pooh, used it, and has reported back just now:
Amazing, simply amazing! My tomatoes that have the most tomatoes are the plants treated with your magical Jack and the Beanstalk wonder dirt. I want to report 80% growth over the $8.00 bag of treated soil I purchased at Flowerland. Thank you (and your wiggly friends) for the prestige of having my neighbor scratching his head in amazement as to why my plants are 50% larger and sturdier than his.

My response:
Bad ass!

And he goes on:
The strawberries are very red and firm. As are the peppers. I also laid some out on my grape bush and for the first time in six years, I have GRAPES. That one plant is 300% larger than last year.

Let's See...

I need to get me a short hairdo, some fine cat-eye frames, and a sweater-with-pleated-plaid skirt outfit!

Photo Source: Whorange

Growing Celery from Celery, Week 4

The celery leaves were lookin' good, the stalks were still stalky, but there wasn't any extreme growth happening.

Apparently, all of the plant energy was going into the roots. What looked like a nubbin of a baby tooth the week before was really long and even had a sister root. Both of them were smooshed against the cut bottom of the celery as they'd been pinned between it and the container.

It was time to let the roots grown like they were meant to, downward in some dirt. I had purchased some Miracle Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix for another something and used some on the celery.

I dumped some of the mix into a pot, made a little well in the mix, plunked the celery in there, mooshed some more mix around the celery so just the new green growth was sticking out, put the pot in the old Glad container, and watered the celery.

Spooky conveyed to me, "I'm concerned about the quantity of attention you pay this simple plant. I feel neglected. It seems you love this green inedible thing, I can't believe I'm saying this, but that you love it more than me." And I was all, "Dude, c'mon! Get out of the friggidy frackin' light!" I think I hurt his feelings.

Because I went to work and came home and found this horror!*

*Ok, not exactly, but very close. I started cleaning up the mess, realized how wet the dirt was and that sucking it up in my Bissell immediately probably wouldn't be the brightest thing to do. I see I neglected to return the celery to the scene of the crime.

 

Thankfully I'd purchased Chobani yogurt to make dumb, gross lemon muffins and saved the container for recycling and was too lazy to take it to the recycling center promptly.

 

Some of the broken clay pot went into the bottom of the container (for weight and to prevent celery drowning) before fresh wet dirt from the floor was used to repot the once-potted celery.