Friday, September 3, 2004 Little Bit’s kittens are a month old today. And right on schedule, the four week mark, she brought them up from her last nest (under the downhill neighbor’s front window, behind the jade plants) and now they’re under the car. Yesterday morning, I heard kittens crying, went through the gate to see them in the next door yard and didn’t. I walked behind the car to get the newspaper and when I went back to the gate, I saw two little black kittens next to the car, looking up at me in horror. *grin* Then they skittered under the car, where Little Bit was doing her part in hissing me away.
I left them a plate of Sheba, which got eaten quickly. This morning when I went out, I sat next to the car and two kittens were under the Escape. I don’t know if they’d been playing, or mom was showing them where food was. I did grab one and held it. These kittens aren’t as socialized (yet) as the others were (of course, this is only the second day they’ve seen me, the other kittens saw and heard me the entire first weeks of their lives since Little Bit kept her nests on our property), but hopefully, a week of bringing out yummy food and interacting with them should help.
As for the neighbors and the fence, here’s a post I made last Saturday (the 28th) over at Benny’s Cat Fights.
So, Brian is going to do the fence today. He got all of the wood earlier this week. He goes out there and starts attaching wood to the existing chain link.
Now, a little background for those of you who don’t follow my diary. We’ve got some really tall pine trees. They’ve been here since before we moved in. The woman next door hates them. She’s obsessed with hatred for these trees. She’s been known to go out there with the blower a couple of times a day and blow the needles onto our property. We used to be on pretty good terms until she started in about the trees. I told her flat out that there was nothing I could do about them. If she had a problem with them, talk to Brian. He loves those trees. And for those of you who are into astrology, Brian is a true Taurus. The more you push him on a point, the firmer he will stand his ground. Pushing Brian gets you nowhere. It will make things worse.
Well, she kept at me and finally, I’d had enough. I told her I had to go (we were on the phone) and I haven’t really said too much to her since. It’s been a while now, but I just don’t feel comfortable speaking with her because I just know she’s going to start nagging me about the trees and there’s not a darned thing I can do about them.
I put up with her blowing the needles off of her driveway and dirt(!) (sometimes I turn the sprinklers on when she’s doing it; our house is downhill from their’s and I hate getting the dust on everything in the bedroom when I’ve just cleaned) and her childishness in picking up the needles and throwing them onto our bank. Brian goes out about once a week with his yard vacuum and vacuums the street and their driveway. He does make an effort, but that doesn’t count for anything with her. She wants the trees gone.
Now, last week, after Marco fell, Brian was off helping his brother get moved (more on that drama on the Friends and Family board). The damn dogs were still next door, going at the fence when they’d see a cat. I ended up going back to Brian’s shop and finding this huge, long piece of cardboard, which I attached to the worst part of the fence with clothespins. I had to do something. It looked like crap, but it helped keep the dogs from running up to the fence. I kept it up almost all week, until I was certain the dogs were gone. One night, when I went out, she was out there with some people, laughing at my handiwork. I kept quiet. I didn’t dare say anything, because I’ve been building it up all week (I’m sure some of you know what that’s like). Some things are just best left unsaid.
This year they’ve done quite a bit to their house. New roof, new windows, new paint job. They had a new garage door put in yesterday. It looks nice. They’re cleaning it up. They’ve spent more time in their hot tub this year than all the years we’ve lived here. A person should be able to enjoy their home.
So, back to this morning, enough with the history lesson.
Brian’s out there, drilling into the existing poles for the chain link. The neighbor (the husband) comes out and tells Brian that it’s not really a good idea, that the poles aren’t meant for the weight of a wooden fence. And then there was a little discussion about who actually owned the fence. Brian told him that the reason he was putting up the fence is because of what happened last week to Marco. He said “now, I don’t blame you for what happened. But it cost $2000.00 in vet bills and that’s not something I want to have to pay out again.”
Well, as stubborn as Brian can be, if he’s not 100% sure he’s right, he’ll back off. He can’t prove the fence is ours. After his discussion with the neighbor, he got his pink tape and marked off where he’d need to dig post holes. He dug the holes, now he’s off to Home Depot to get concrete and posts. He’s also going to redo all of the barrier at the top. This way, the neighbors can’t do a darned thing about the fence and the barrier.
Well, when Brian was initially speaking the the husband, the wife came out. Oh, lordy, is she pissed off. See, she’ll be losing her view once we put up the wood. When she sits in her living room, she’ll see wooden fence, not our lovely backyard with its green lawn. She won’t be able to see into the valley past our house. I stayed in the house during this entire exchange. In the exercise (ha!) room, where I could see and hear everything. She almost sounded like she was going to cry. She said “well, are you going to take down the trees?” Huh? Put up a fence and take down the trees? What sense does that make? She was getting wound up and her husband told her to calm down. I guess she huffed off into her house. I did hear him tell Brian he didn’t really care what Brian does about the fence, just don’t attach it to the chain link poles.
Funny, she’s not laughing now like she did at my pathetic cardboard.
If she hadn’t been so nasty these past few years, I could almost feel sorry for her.
I also took many pictures of the progress of the fence, which you can see over on the Family Album site. I think we’ll like having the new fence up. The privacy has been nice (since my twenties, I’ve sunbathed topless, just so I didn’t have to mess with moving straps and with the fence up, I don’t have to hug the wall by the pool and be careful where I walk when I’m in the pool). The cats were a little disconcerted at first, but they’ve adjusted well. I think, too, they won’t be as frustrated now, since they won’t be able to see birds and other critters that they can’t get to in the other yard.
Marco is doing well. He started laying on the side with the broken leg earlier this week. And he’s starting to want out of that crate. It’s going to be hard dealing with this for another six and a half weeks. But that’s how long it will take for the bone to fuse back together. Sometimes Ross wants in to visit with him, which we gladly let happen. Marco likes the company. Of course, when Marco gets too affectionate, if you know what I mean, and Ross starts crying, Ross gets to come out.
I guess the stress of the past couple of weeks finally got to me. I think what I got was constipation. And with it, gas. I was in so much pain I couldn’t even walk. A couple of days worth of Correctol seemed to do the trick. This has happened before and I’ve always tried to figure out exactly what I’ve done that brings it on. This last time, it wasn’t diet, so the only thing I could narrow it down to was the situation with the neighbors and Marco. It really sucks, that’s for sure. We didn’t walk all week long. And because I was so uncomfortable, tossing and turning instead of sleeping, I slept on the sofa most of the week. Last night was my first night back in bed. It was wonderful.
Oh, I’d like to thank whoever it was who left the nice donation with Amazon. What a surprise! I wish you’d left your name so I could thank you privately.
Well, I’m having a hard time concentrating on making this entry right now, so maybe I’ll get back to it later today. Too many distractions at this time. *sigh*
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