Well, The Invalid is still seeing his Personal Doctor, but things are - hopefully - moving in the right direction now. He had to go down again this morning for, ahem, one of those "bend over" moments, but this time no enema necessary. I am trying to get liquids down him (I am not his favourite person when he sees me arriving armed with a small syringe). He ate a very good breakfast though, and LOVED his cream and egg yolk. Tomorrow there will be fresh ox heart for supper. (Thank you Susan for your advice, which has been taken on board). In fact, many thanks to all of you who have been so helpful and supportive during the last couple of weeks. Your thoughts are much appreciated, I can tell you.
Now I have the weekend ahead of me. The usual routine is grocery shopping on a Saturday morning, when we have dropped D off at work. Meals will be loosely based around what is available in the "reduced" area! We are having a frugal week this week, to try and put money aside for bills (including the vet's bill, although they have been VERY good about what they have charged for - only one enema when he had 3 . . .) I want to try and clear that as soon as I can. So it will be an "eat from the freezer" week, and we will only buy essentials.
Of course, one person's essentials differ from someone else's. One of this week's "essentials" in our house is (ground) Cinnamon. We use this a lot. My husband has it sprinkled on his home-made muesli each morning and says it helps ward off colds. I use it for baking too. Anyway, we have nearly run out.
Bread flour and fresh yeast are more essentials. I am back to trying to bake fresh bread every other day. It has gone by the board recently because of nursing Tippy, but tonight I made two pizza bases and with the 1/3 of dough left over, I baked a small crusty white loaf. After years of me telling him - but him not REALLY listening - we saw a programme this week about bread making where they showed the ingredients in the average loaf, one being derived from animal hair . . . OH was suitably horrified and said he is never going to eat Supermarket bread again. Well, the occasional best quality loaf won't hurt, but I agree with him, home made is best and only has 4 ingredients - flour, water, a little salt and fresh yeast. It takes very little time to make - perhaps 20 minutes from start to finish - and is so much more filling than the rubbish bread . . .
Cheese bread . . .Saturday afternoon will be spent watching the horse racing, whilst I work on another Christmas gift for my daughters. One piece of knitting is now finished, so I need to crack on with the other. There is a half-done piece of x-stitch needing to be finished as well.
Sunday morning rain is forecast, which bodes ill for the Car Boot Sale, but there are always some stalls under cover, and you never know what turns up. Sometimes there are more stalls than you can shake a stick at, but nothing worth buying. Other times, there are only a handful of stalls but something just up your street is on offer. You never know.
I had hoped to go to the local auction tomorrow, but finances are tight. I will be listing more belongings on e-bay instead, as this is really helping our tight finances at present, and we have far too many things we don't need so we may as well get some money for them.
Sunday afternoon is "free" - I'd like a walk, weather permitting. So much to try and cram in though, during the short hours of winter daylight.
What are your plans for the weekend?
I'm a little concerned that Tippy's problem may have been caused by a 'bone' bait - cooked bone splintered up, intended to kill in the cruelest way. Cats and dogs can digest raw bone and in fact it should form part of a healthy diet, they cannot digest cooked bone, hence it becomes a time-bomb of little knives that cause blockage and internal bleeding.
ReplyDeleteI would have made this comment privately but don't see any way of doing so, please feel free to delete my comment as soon as you've read it, too much information for certain types if you get my drift.
That's OK Susan. We have a shoot on the farm next door, but they are tidy blokes - not "agin" our cats. From what the vet said, Tippy ate a really big rat - there were whole rat bones being voided.
ReplyDeleteHad he eaten any cooked bones, they are most likely to have come from neighbour's rubbish sacks, which are put out early to make sure the bin men collect them. Birds (corvids) always attack the bags and go through them for anything edible and foxes too of course. Cats are the "followers".
I am hopeful that the fact that the vet definitely identified WHOLE rat leg bones means that he has just been a REALLY greedy little cat . . . and hopefully has learned his lesson.
Meanwhile, the cream and egg is a BIG HIT with him! And the others, come to that. Thank you.
That cheese loaf looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteHoping that the rest of Dem Bones soon reach the outside world and without too much more discomfort for poor Tippy. You are being the most amazing and devoted Cat`s Mother BB.xx
I have been so worried also about Tippy. I had issues with the sweet little kitten I lost last year to blockages, but she was deformed but still this has given me nightmares about this and I know exactly what you are going through. My cats RUN when they see mom running around the house putting out the radar for someone to doctor, I even get a hiss or two.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your little man doesn't eat any more rats, good grief, I know I sure wouldn't.
Your cheese bread in the photo looks delicious. How talented you are to bake bread and pizza dough too. I hope your Christmas season is cheery and that you receive a great price for what you sell on ebay.
ReplyDeleteTerra - well it TASTES darn good, but whether mine would stand comparison with ARTISAN bread is another matter! Bread-making isn't that difficult - if yeast bothers you, make Irish Soda bread, which just mixes together and relies on the soda to raise it.
ReplyDeleteDenim - I am sorry if I have distressed you. I remember your sweet little kitty and how hard to worked to try and save it. Sorry to make you relive it all. He is hopefully on the mend now, though still pretty constipated and the litter tray has some "sausage bricks" in it this morning! But he's tucking in to breakfast and had his Metacam without too much of a struggle.
DW - I think I have always been programmed to be a carer, and Tam, it would seem, is exactly the same (she used to look after J like he was about 5 years old!!!) Try the cheese loaf yourself - I'll put up a recipe.
Glad he is on the mend Jennie and that you are getting to the root of the problem with him. Its worrying when the animals are unwell. Here's hoping he will make a full recovery and keep away from rats.
ReplyDeleteYour cheese bread looks delicious. Anything home made is made from the heart - made with love - is Artisan bread and there is no comparison with the bought stuff.
Just look after yourself and I hope you get your needlework completed (can you take photos and post them after they have been given to the recipient so the surprise is not spoilt)
Take care
Pattypan
xx
Glad your kitty is getting better, it's so hard when one of the family is ill. Your bread looks delicious and I make all of our bread, just the 2 of us so every 4 or 5 days keeps us going. I like being in control of what's in my food.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad Tippy is recovering,I've never encountered this particular problem with my cats over the forty odd years I've been a cat owner.At times in the past I had as many as eleven,but now just have three plus three dogs and twelve chickens !!
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be packing in a lot. I'd love to have time to make bread every day. Though it would be expensive for me to put the oven on too often.
ReplyDeleteWe have a bread maker and K makes an occasional loaf for me. Over the holidays there will be fresh bread.
I've made bread once a week for most of my married life, the exception being when we are in the middle of a moving upheaval or in very hot weather when running the oven is too much. I make 4 loaves at a time and freeze 3 immediately. With only two of us I too often lose the last quarter of a loaf to mold.
ReplyDeleteAs J. likes to point out, the longevity of the occasional store-bought loaf testifies to some less than wholesome ingredients.
Having a cup of hot coffee and trying to catch up on a few of my favorite blogs (including yours!). The cheese bread looks delicious...I think I need to start baking more! Hope Tippy is feeling better!
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