Power Outage
15 degrees
Have you ever noticed that when the power goes out, you are hurled right back into the nineteenth century?
I was just about to start the morning medications when the power went out. As usual, for no good reason--calm winds, no snow falling, just a calm, clear Saturday so what the hey, let's kill the lights...
Homer Electric Association is so lame...
So, unwilling to try to give Frieda her B-12 shot by flashlight, I tried to think of something else to do with the time before I had to go to work. Vacuum? Nope, need power. Laundry? Ditto. I *could* clean cat boxes by the light of a headlamp but why do it if it's not necessary? I mean, maybe if the lights were out for a day or so, I would get down to it, but not after just an hour...
Or I could take Tommy to the vet (see below.)
But when I called the clinic, they had no power either, so that option was no good. I set about using my unexpectedly free time to hang little flashlights in the back rooms and the shop and house so that if the power hadn't returned by dusk, the cats would still be able to see well enough to navigate the jumps and cat trees. Just as I was finishing that chore--the power came back on.
At least it came back up before I had to leave for work, so I didn't have that worry.
Our old Tom cat had a better day today. I suspected he might be improving when I went out in the shop at four am to check on him. He had moved from the nest box I made him and was lying curled beside it, in the perpetual left turn he keeps wanting to make. The bedding in the box was damp--from the location, it appeared as if some of the sub-Q fluids I had given him had leaked out. Can't blame him for wanting to lie someplace drier but the concrete slab looked so hard, I brought out an old sheet and covered it with a towel for him to lie on.
He kept trying to get up and walk--so I helped him over to the litte box and stood him there for a couple minutes. No, that wasn't what he wanted. I steadied him as he got out and walked a few feet to the water dish. After he had drank a bit, I carried him back to his bed and brought him a small dish of his own for water. Then, I figured while I was at it--I opened a can of cat food for him. He was definitely interested in that. He hadn't really eaten since Thursday morning. We gave him honey and Nutri-Cal Thursday afternoon and again yesterday but I'm sure it didn't make his tummy feel full.
I sat with him for about ten minutes while he ate and drank, then put him back to bed before retiring again myself. I figured he had either decided to live or this was the last hurrah before his final crash. What was significant was that he was moving off the steady state he had held for the last thirty-six hours, and that meant something was changing.
By the time I got up this morning, he was looking better and even trying to move around the shop a bit--unsteady but looking stronger
Have you ever noticed that when the power goes out, you are hurled right back into the nineteenth century?
I was just about to start the morning medications when the power went out. As usual, for no good reason--calm winds, no snow falling, just a calm, clear Saturday so what the hey, let's kill the lights...
Homer Electric Association is so lame...
So, unwilling to try to give Frieda her B-12 shot by flashlight, I tried to think of something else to do with the time before I had to go to work. Vacuum? Nope, need power. Laundry? Ditto. I *could* clean cat boxes by the light of a headlamp but why do it if it's not necessary? I mean, maybe if the lights were out for a day or so, I would get down to it, but not after just an hour...
Or I could take Tommy to the vet (see below.)
But when I called the clinic, they had no power either, so that option was no good. I set about using my unexpectedly free time to hang little flashlights in the back rooms and the shop and house so that if the power hadn't returned by dusk, the cats would still be able to see well enough to navigate the jumps and cat trees. Just as I was finishing that chore--the power came back on.
At least it came back up before I had to leave for work, so I didn't have that worry.
Our old Tom cat had a better day today. I suspected he might be improving when I went out in the shop at four am to check on him. He had moved from the nest box I made him and was lying curled beside it, in the perpetual left turn he keeps wanting to make. The bedding in the box was damp--from the location, it appeared as if some of the sub-Q fluids I had given him had leaked out. Can't blame him for wanting to lie someplace drier but the concrete slab looked so hard, I brought out an old sheet and covered it with a towel for him to lie on.
He kept trying to get up and walk--so I helped him over to the litte box and stood him there for a couple minutes. No, that wasn't what he wanted. I steadied him as he got out and walked a few feet to the water dish. After he had drank a bit, I carried him back to his bed and brought him a small dish of his own for water. Then, I figured while I was at it--I opened a can of cat food for him. He was definitely interested in that. He hadn't really eaten since Thursday morning. We gave him honey and Nutri-Cal Thursday afternoon and again yesterday but I'm sure it didn't make his tummy feel full.
I sat with him for about ten minutes while he ate and drank, then put him back to bed before retiring again myself. I figured he had either decided to live or this was the last hurrah before his final crash. What was significant was that he was moving off the steady state he had held for the last thirty-six hours, and that meant something was changing.
By the time I got up this morning, he was looking better and even trying to move around the shop a bit--unsteady but looking stronger
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