Painters and pills and cats, oh my!

The painters FINALLY showed up, for about 4 hours, yesterday.  

They didn't come Wednesday because the job before ours wasn't finished.

They didn't come Thursday because their truck broke down.

They came unannounced on Friday, and left a note to say they were here, but they didn't DO anything.

They were afraid it might rain yesterday, so they only did a little work.  It stayed bright and sunny until sunset.  No sign of rain.

But whatever.  At least they got a little bit done.  They're SUPPOSED to come tomorrow, but there's a 20% chance of rain, so we'll see.

You all will just have to wait for your before and after pictures.  *wink*

I had my check up, port flush, and bone shot on Thursday.

My blood counts looked good

The doc was completely open to my request to get off of the Neurontin and replace it with supplements.  He reviewed my list of supplements, and okay'd all of them.

I started that day with taking one less pill.  I will do that for a while, then call his nurse and tell her when I step it down by another, leaving me on one a day until I see him again in early June.

I am not sure why it has to be weaned down like that, but there must be a reason.  It IS an anti-seizure drug, so maybe if you stop, you could have a seizure.

Do. Not. Want.

Hopefully, I will start to see a decrease in fatigue and dizziness soon.

It was a good week this past week for getting outside to walk (would have been great for painting, too, but I digress).  

I didn't feel very well back on Monday, so I skipped dance class.  The pollen counts have been really high, and I have been dealing with increased allergy symptoms.

Mostly, though, it was a good week for fitness.

Something really bizarre happened yesterday.  I was home alone (while the painters were here), and someone knocked on the door.

I don't usually answer the door if Dave isn't here, but since the painters were here, I answered it.

It was NOT one of the painters.  It was an inspector from OKC Animal Welfare.  

Someone had called in a complaint about us having wild cats in our back yard, saying that we are baiting the feral cats, and holding them captive.

Really???

The first thing out of my mouth was "we do TNR"  (We trap them, get them fixed, release them back into their environment, and feed and water them so they can live out their lives).  

He recognized the name of the place where we take them to get them fixed.  He didn't know they do free spay/neuter for TNR on Saturdays, or that they do $5 rabies shots and ear tips.

The inspector smiled, and nodded, and took down my name.  We chatted about what we do; that we're trying to HELP our neighborhood.  

He asked how many cats we have, on average, in our yard.  When I said "three or four," he rolled his eyes.  WE are clearly NOT the problem.

He asked to inspect our messy back yard (there's a pile of brush that needs to get dragged out to the street for pick up, and all of our plant pots and patio stuff is out in the middle, so it's away from the house and shed for the painters), where we supposedly trap and abuse the cats.

He saw the feeding boxes (we got plastic tubs, cut holes in them to keep the rain and birds off of the food), and he saw that there's no way we can "hold" the cats captive in the yard!

I explained to him that we improved our shed so that they can't get under it anymore, and we blocked their access to the space under the house and the HVAC unit.

I told him where the cats COME FROM, under (or over) the fence in the back corner.  They come from that house on the other side of the block, where there are 20 or so of them.

I told him we've gone over and talked to the lady over there.  I asked if anyone called in a complaint about her, and he didn't know.  

SHE is the problem, not us.  Her neighbor has TNR'd a few of the cats that mostly stay on that side.  We've seen the trap, and have seen the snipped ear tips, on some of our occasional back yard visitors.

The inspector said that people don't understand what TNR is, and they don't understand how bad the feral cat situation is.

He recorded the complaint against us as UNFOUNDED, but he couldn't tell me who called us in.  He said if he knew, he would tell me.

I hope they called the complainer back and explained that we are doing this FOR THE BENEFIT of our neighborhood.

Okay, we are getting too late of a start on our day.  I made a yummy breakfast, but now I really need to get showered and figure out what I NEED to get done today, and what I will have TIME TO ENJOY today.

Oh, and happy Mother's Day to anyone out there who celebrates it.