This is Just a Test

First post from my new iPhone. Nothing to see here (except for a sleeping Spike, and that's not news).

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

When we lived in Vancouver we kept our cats Spike and Alley strictly indoors to keep them safe from the dangers of the neighborhood (traffic, other animals, sketchy humans). During our first months at Farcical Farm we let them out during the day but we locked them in after dark. Then Alley didn't come home one night and we never saw her again. David and I adopted her from the SPCA together in April of 2000 and we lost her in April of 2007 -- a failure I still find hard to swallow.

Since then we have kept the house cats (Spike was joined by Hazel in August of 2007) strictly indoors again. Neither seems to mind, but both make the occasional bid for freedom through an unsupervised door or window.

Sometime around 0500 this morning I became aware of Hazel making a fuss in the living room. Spike was not on the bed with us, which was unusual. Sometime around 0600 this morning Hazel started yowling as if someone was peeling her alive. When David went out to investigate he found Spike out on the deck and Hazel giving him hell through the kitchen window. And ever since his return to the fold Hazel has been treating Spike like an unwanted stranger, not like her buddy of the past two years -- low growling whenever she sees him, hissy fits if he looks at her askance, and full-blown warfare should he get too close. We have no idea when or how he got out last night, but alien abduction is our working theory.

La Cuenta

Before tomorrow's x-rays Raven's vet bill comes to $1300 and change. (Only our cat Spike holds the dubious distinction of incurring an even larger bill against a more mysterious affliction.) I'm not telling you this to garner your sympathy, merely to satisfy any curiosity you may have about largish equine expenses. A couple of months of juggled finances will see this paid off, for which I consider myself truly lucky. In honour of yesterday's news I finished the last manure bin with recycled nails instead of going out to buy new ones.*

*Actually, I am just lazy.