Author: Joe

Yardwork

I went out to get a better look at my fence today to try to fix it’s lean:

Actually, the high school is the building in the upper right corner of the picture, and that parking lot is where the band practices.

I knew I was like half a block from a high school, but I hadn’t considered that I’d have clear line of sight to the marching band practice parking lot. It took me a couple of minutes to place the sound, but when I got home on Friday I could very clearly hear the metronome from inside my house. They were mostly just marching around to the metronome but they did occasionally play bits of their show. They also were out bright and early this morning (Saturday). At least in general I’m not going to be home while they’re out there, but I may have to go out in my yard and watch at some point. Also, it’s quite often raining (or has just rained) when I get home during the summer, so I’m guessing I won’t be seeing too much of them except when I get home early (generally on Friday).

Anyways, from what I saw today it looks like when the fence was put in the ground on both sides of it was at the same level. Then four or five inches of gravel were put down on most of it (leaving some open dirt to grow plants). I’m guessing the point of the gravel was so they wouldn’t have to take care of a lawn. I’m also guessing that the gravel didn’t exactly deter things from growing outside the clearly marked flower beds, because large paving stones were put down on top of it (and there are still plants growing between some of them). The amount of weight added to the inside of the fence seems to have just tipped the fence out.

Given a choice I’d take out all the gravel and put the paving stones back down, but just taking out the gravel isn’t going to straighten the fence. I don’t know how much work that will take, nor do I know what to do with the gravel.

In other news, Dash and Talore are getting along very well. I had the windows open today and with the extra space between the window and the screen Dash and Talore managed to both lay down on the same windowsill. Since I had the windows open and was going in and out the sliding door I put the collars on both cats. That was the first time I put a collar on Dash, and he was not happy. I tried to get a video of the dance he was doing trying to get a paw under the collar to push at it, but he stopped and just glared at me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Talore helped him remove it (like how she used to bite and pull on my watch band), but she didn’t today.

I have two balls that Dash just loves chasing around. Unlike Talore, he’ll hit it to keep it moving so he can keep chasing it. Earlier this week I knew were both were. Yesterday I finally found one that Dash had wedged under the back corner under the couch. I didn’t find the other, and I’m wondering if I’ll be able to find the one that Dash was playing with today. All I have to do is pick up the ball and start it rolling down the stairs, and it keeps Dash entertained for minutes at a time with no more input from me. Actually, if I get close he gets distracted and stops chasing it so I usually just watch from the loft.

Also, I think I finally figured out where Dash sleeps: behind the sofa. I can only see in from one end because there’s a bookcase at the other end, though there’s enough room for Dash to squeeze in around the bookcase.

General Update

Monday they came to hook up my internet. I had an outlet that I wanted it to go to (upstairs in the corner) because it would be convenient to put the modem there, but it wasn’t hot when the technician tried it. It turned out that none of the outlets were, and even the two cables run to the back corner of my house from the utility box had no signal. Rearranging the plugs in the utility box had no effect, so the guy ran a new line to the back of my house. That one worked and even got a signal inside to the outlet that I knew was connected to the back corner of the house. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see a cable in the crawl space going to the end of the house to go upstairs, and when we checked it there was about six inches of cable on the back of that wall plate, then it was cut off. The guess was that there was a satellite mounted on the side of the house that used to go to that outlet, but the Comcast technician doesn’t run wires through walls so my modem is currently at the bottom of the stairs with my long network cable going up the stairs to the router. I’ll have to fix that some time, but this works so no idea when I’ll get to it.

I’d let the cats see each other through a partially opened door a couple times, and while Talore was quick to hiss and try to swat Dash if he made a sudden movement they seemed somewhat accepting. Last night I opened the door and let them into the same area (intentionally for the first time).

Talore wasn’t exactly happy, but she wasn’t aggressive and just growled/swatted when Dash came too close. For his part, Dash had no problem walking right up to Talore to sniff at her, and frequent swattings (I don’t think Talore was using claws, but both cats have trimmed claws anyways) completely failed to deter him. One time he walked right up to her and when Talore started swatting the top of his head he just lay down and got smacked till Talore left.

For a while Talore was trying to ignore Dash but keep track of him at the same time. She’d sit on my desk with her head hanging off the side to watch the rest of the room, but she specifically wouldn’t look at Dash or me when I was holding him. At one point Dash jumped on the desk and Talore glared at him, then turned her back. Dash then quietly walked right up behind her, but he did back off when her ears perked up and she turned to look at him. At least he didn’t pounce on her tail like he acted like he was going to do at one point. Talore also didn’t at all want to be close to Dash, so when he lay down on the top step and she wanted to be upstairs Talore ran up the stairs and jumped over him, which completely panicked Dash, but they just went different directions from there.

After letting them into the same area most of the time I’ve been home since last night (with breaks when one seems overly stressed) they’re doing better, though Dash is playful and Talore is very much not certain about Dash running at her. One of the guides I read said to distract them both with a toy, but with Dash moving around Talore was watching him and Dash completely ignored the fact that he nearly jumped on Talore; or at least he did until she hissed and smacked him a few times. This last time I let them out Talore actually tried to sniff at Dash (without hissing at him or anything), but he was surprised by her move toward him and backed off. I also did get them to both attack a toy together (from opposite sides of the bottom step so they couldn’t see each other), but when they nearly ran into each other head first Talore jumped out of the way and hid under a chair.

Just now they were both lying on one end of my desk facing each other, but when I went to take a picture Talore jumped off the desk.

I took a picture out my bedroom window today:

Talore of course stuck her head in the frame, but she didn’t block much. It’s hard to judge scale in that picture, partly because my fence is short, so I took a picture from a living room window to show that the neighborhood I’m looking down on isn’t too close:

The fence on the near side of the ditch is maintained by the HOA of the neighborhood I live in, but the close fence is mine (and it’s leaning badly). I looked at townhouses in the neighborhood across the ditch, but they were smaller and the garages aren’t attached (or 2-car) like mine. Off along the right of the HOA fence is the common area, where there are a few small trees and stuff. I still haven’t been over there and I haven’t seen anybody out there, but the HOA pays to maintain it.

Dash just wandered around on my desk for a bit (both cats left when I went downstairs for food) and lay down almost next to Talore:

Earlier they were facing each other, but facing opposite directions just now let Talore turn and sniff at Dash without disturbing him. She probably bothered with it because he kept flicking her back with his tail, but there was no growling or hissing involved and neither cat left in a rush, so more progress!

I wanted to turn in the keys to my apartment today, but cleaning was taking forever so I finished the bedroom, closet, and bathroom and called it a day. I had planned to go clean last night, but I had to work late and by the time I got off it was raining and I just wanted to go home. Now the plan is to go finish cleaning tomorrow afternoon (including the floors behind appliances, that won’t be fun) and leave the keys in the drop box.

New Cat

Moving went pretty well. A couple pieces of furniture didn’t arrive in the same condition they started in, but the most significant of those is the short bookcase on wheels that I had under my desk which is now short by a wheel (largely because I didn’t unload the books from it, just shut the cover, so it was quite heavy). I’m hoping that I can just get some wood glue and stick it back on since it was the particle board coming apart that let the wheel fall off. I’m still far from having everything set up, and I haven’t finished moving my closet or kitchen from my apartment. At least now I’m down to a load or two of miscellany, though I may have to take emptied boxes back to make it reasonable.

My one problem so far with the house was that my shower was only warm on Saturday, then it was actually cold today, so I was worried about the hot water heater. It turns out it was just set on “vacation,” which apparently means it’s got warm water but isn’t really working hard to maintain that. I need to check the temperature the hot water heater in my apartment was set on, but I turned it up a good bit and it’s much better now.

Anyways, one of the things I was planning to do when I got a house was get another cat to keep Talore company, and this was the best picture of him that I’ve managed to take (the only way to get him to sit still while not rubbing against me is to be moving the toy, and moving that and taking the picture at the same time didn’t come out very well):

He’s 11 months old (not a kitten based on size, but still playful). He was listed as a lynx point Siamese mix, but the adoption people figured he was part Maine Coon (and having looked up Maine Coons he fits the description pretty well). He’s still a little bit smaller than Talore and a good bit lighter, but Maine Coons can keep growing till age four so he’s expected to be big eventually. I haven’t decided if I’m going to rename him yet, so for now I’m not including his name in this post.

The first rule of introducing a new cat to a home that already has a cat is to control first impressions. Unfortunately the new cat escaped from the bedroom I had him in within the first hour of being in my house (after I’d initially carefully shut Talore away so she wouldn’t even see me carrying the cat carrier). Talore was lying on my desk across the room and only caught a glimpse of him, so I figured I’d pen her in a closet for a couple minutes and go catch the new cat and return him to the bedroom without a confrontation. That probably would have worked well, except when I shut one side of the closet door with Talore inside the pole used to adjust the cover on the skylight fell, Talore got spooked, and she jumped past me and ran down the stairs. Of course she was already startled when she ran right into the new cat, and she hissed at him and kept running. I got him back in the bedroom right after that, but I’m worried that they’ll remember that encounter too well.

I was supposed to keep the new cat quarantined in his own room for about a week to let him get used to me, the smell of the house, and make sure he’s not sick. The experience of his escape means he’s not too keen on leaving the room now (though he’ll go to the door and look around when I have Talore shut in my bedroom and let him out). On the other hand, he’s been willing to come rub on me since I got him home, he’s very playful, and I suspect that if Talore hadn’t hissed at him he’d have no problem approaching her since he came from a large group of cats/kittens that the adoption place had. Talore hasn’t exactly been welcoming, considering she hisses at him under the door (both their food/water bowls are at the door that separates them so they’ll get used to each other), but once she accepts his presence hopefully they’ll be able to get along.

One suggestion for speeding the introduction of a new cat is to give both cats a bath with the same shampoo. The tub in my bathroom has a sliding door instead of a shower curtain so I figured that would be easy. Unfortunately I didn’t count on the new cat having quite such a strong aversion to water. He started struggling as soon as he saw me carrying him towards the tub (and the water in it), and unlike Talore he doesn’t like being held anyways and couldn’t be coaxed to stop yowling while in the water. He also nearly managed to start opening the door in his frantic attempt to find purchase on something and pull himself out. At that point I just let him out even though only his tail and legs were wet. I did dry him off and apply a little shampoo to give him that scent, but after thinking about it I wasn’t sure that I wanted to remind Talore of the smell of bathtime so Talore didn’t get a bath.

Talore is adapting pretty well to being in the new house, though she has been following me around pretty much all the time. As I typed that I realized that she’d gone upstairs while I was downstairs on my laptop, but it turns out she’s still keeping me in sight: