Moving away, briefly, from cat related news, today has been a busy one.
Four new tyres on the car (thank you blackcircles.com for screwing up the original order), and… yeah ok, I think everything else is cat related.
Booked Ollie into the vet to get jagged, snipped and chipped. Bought some “cat grass” and a fab new toy, a little laser pointer which kept him amused for about 30 minutes until, eventually, I got bored. Then headed to IKEA to buy a HOL unit in which he’ll have a nice secluded place for his litter tray (see the second part of this post for my inspiration).
A quick visit to Aldi scored me a nice cheap thin ski jacket, just in time for all the snow outside, and I’ve finally, after playing several different games over the past few nights at different houses, succumbed and ordered a Wii. Should arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed. Will need an extra controller and I already have Mario Strikers, still to get Mario Olympics and then some others before I splurge for Guitar Hero. I played that for the first time on Hogamany and got 93% in my first go (helps when you know the tune, Sunshine of your Love by Eric Clapton).
Also managed to get a little work done, and have started picking photos to put up on the wall once the Christmas decorations have come down (on Sunday). I’ll pull together a longlist which Louise will narrow down to the final 12 (9? How many frames did we buy?).
That aside, the past few days have been largely focussed on the new addition to our home. It’s been a learning experience, which is still continuing, but we are loving every second. Ollie is settling in well, and aside from the odd scratch on a wall here and there, he’s been good as gold. We’ve just started worming treatment though, as he’s “dragging” across the carpet. Still, it’ll take a little time but we’ll get him in tip-top condition soon.
I am NOT looking forward to work on Monday, but I’ll worry about that, on Monday!
Haing made a claim today, let me say two words: PET INSURANCE. Much as I hate to say so, Tesco have been good. Pat the little bit extra for the superior version, not the basic insurance.
John Lewis (via their Greenbee website) also offer pet insurance if you want your cat to have a thing for labels.
At the vet today, nursing a wounded wallet, a lady told me how her cat was injured in a road accident and it cost her £1100. Suddenly, that six quid per month per cat seemed small change.
Pat the extra bit? D’oh! PAY the extra bit.
(Friday? Beer? Gin? Me?!)
Looks like you’re doing all the right things – vet, wormed, chipped, snipped and PLAY! Do you like having a cat?
graybo – yes, looking at Sainsburys one too, 10% at the moment. M&S isn’t too bad (according to the forums at Martins Money Tips).
Peggy – loving it! A couple of scars around the house, nicks in wallpaper but he’s still young and we’re scolding him when we catch him. He can still be a little bit ‘bitey’ when playing but, again, we’re dealing with that.
And whilst I remember, many thanks to you all for the helpful comments. What a wonderful group of readers!
I have found that Oust is best at removing the heinous odour of cat poo from the air.
I really need to get me a new cat. I’m cat-starved apart from the neighbors ones and the odd visit to my old pairs’.
Oh, and congrats on the Wii purchase. Maybe I can challenge you to a game of Mario Strikers sometime.
Oh, and you have to buy Super Mario Galaxy. HAVE TO. Even if you play it for a while and find it’s not for you, you have to try it. It’s officially the second-best game ever.
Matt – Challenge accepted, once I get some practise in! And yes, Super Mario Galaxy is on my list.. not seen a copy in the shops yet though.. maybe today..
Ohh and Oust is already top of our shopping list for today!
Seconded graybo, pet insurance is very well worth the money. Mine was in a road traffic accident in September, and I was around £700 out of pocket when his treatment finished (broken leg, vet visits every two days to get his cast changed and the wounds under it dressed).
Thankfully, the insurance sent me a nice cheque about six weeks before Christmas 🙂
We took our cat to the ‘animal clinic’ in Glasgow and got someone who was ‘Unemployed’ to say it was his cat, cost £10.
Is your pet insurance call centre in the UK?, if not then dont bother, my BIGGEST gripe these days is the twunts on the phone..
‘Hello who is to be saying’……
F*CK off you bunch of A*ses!!!!!
Luckily the first time I hear that I cancel the service, as usually its as bad as no service, and no-service is free.
Tangent….I behave now…
Mew?
I don’t want to be overly critical of your nephew, but shouldn’t all the things you mentioned (such as the inoculations and neutering) have already been done, for a cat that’s already a year old?
Hans, yeah we could get my sister-in-law to take him to the PDSA for the same deal but that will take a few weeks and, as Richard points out, it all should’ve been done ages ago.
Although he’s only just coming up for 6 months, as it turns out. So not that bad, but yes, he should have been vaccinated by now.
And have you seen http://www.flippyscatpage.com/preparenewcat.html contains some very useful advice.
Hans – Tesco, perhaps surprisingly, had a very English call centre (sorry, not a Scottish one) when I called earlier this week. There was no queue and only two options to go through on the phone system before I spoke to a real person.
Looking at my comment at the top of this thread, I’m amazed at how many typos I got into so few sentences.