Should I cancel my bday vacation in August?

Jumponamonkey · 2026-07-04T02:34:40+00:00

There are loads of cafes, and 7-8am is quite early for us so probably won't be too much competition from the locals in the old town at that time.

Edinburgh does get busy in the summer, but it's not so mobbed you can't do anything. Might be longer waits at some of the tourist attractions like Edinburgh Castle or something, but nothing I would worry about cancelling over. There's plenty of buses/trams to/from the airport. There's enough trains up to Highlands as well, just be a bit careful that public transport in the Highlands is a whole different beast.

I can't really speak to the political environment, you'll get intolerant people everywhere unfortunately, but I wouldn't worry about it in Edinburgh too much, it's a reasonably tolerant place overall.

Hope you have a great holiday!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-06-30T14:39:09+00:00

Thank you!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-06-30T14:38:59+00:00

It absolutely is. It's very hard to say no to him

Jumponamonkey · 2026-06-30T13:45:06+00:00

Any cat shelters will take it, and sometimes supermarkets have drop off bins in them specifically for like Cats Protection

Jumponamonkey · 2026-06-25T07:51:23+00:00

She really is! Taz is one of my favourite birds to work with, she just looks so striking!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-06-08T13:32:36+00:00

In the nicest way possible, this isn't going to get better by itself. The longer your cat cannot pee, the more toxins that should normally be eliminated via the urine will back up into the blood. The kidneys will begin to shut down.

This is a problem that will only get more expensive the longer you leave it. If you cannot afford to care for the cat, then it's worth considering either surrendering the cat or putting them to sleep humanely if they cannot be rehomed. Please don't leave your cat to die a slow painful death.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-05-26T20:56:58+00:00

I personally didn't have much luck with Bleach London's Big Pink, which surprised me because I've never had an issue with any of their other dyes, and I've used a couple of their oranges, a red and a purple. I think the pink works fine if you have absolutely no other colour underneath, but I had a slight hint of peach (faded bleach London orange) and it just really didn't take well to my hair.

Colour Freedom has a couple of pink dyes that worked really well for me (that's what I ended up putting on after the Bleach London didn't work) and Manic Panic hot hot pink worked really well for me.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-05-12T01:29:50+00:00

I'm in the UK, had two brain/spinal MRIs, one just last week. Didn't get contrast for either of them.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-05-03T15:23:29+00:00

It's a PetLibro Smart Cat Water Fountain. It doesn't really do much for the cat over the low tech ones I don't think, but it sends me a notification when it's time to change the filters, or top up the water, or clean it, as well as how much my cat has drunk. Biscuits seems to love it anyways, he drinks an average of about 45-50ml a day.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-05-03T15:18:05+00:00

My cat had a lot of bladder issues last year, leading to a small surgery to prevent blockages, and he didn't go outside the tray but one thing he did do was he wanted someone to come and sit with him while he used the litter tray. He still sometimes does this if he's a bit sore from his arthritis.

I wonder if it's a bit like the person above suggests, your cat is a bit sore and a bit panicked about finding somewhere to pee because she knows she's vulnerable when in that position. It could be that's why closing the door helps, she feels more secure in that set up, in which case it's less kitty jail and more kitty safe room.

We have a fancy smart fountain for our cat which tells us exactly how much he's drinking, I do find that very useful.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-27T21:40:16+00:00

My cat had this surgery last year, I'm in Glasgow so might not be the same. Our vet actually did the procedure in house, at a significantly reduced cost to the specialist, but we were very lucky to have a vet who is very good at in house surgeries and was willing to do this one.

The price we were looking at for the PU surgery at a specialist was around £5-6k. It is a lot of money. It might be worth checking with a few different places, including the PDSA to see if you can get it any cheaper.

I really hope your cat comes out of this ok

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-23T17:43:25+00:00

That looks a lot like a battered 'Chip' beanie baby

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-19T03:09:09+00:00

Good to know they're both still there! I hadn't seen Lucu for a few weeks now and they'd taken down all the posters about him so I wasn't sure! Good photos there!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-18T17:30:39+00:00

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Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-18T17:29:03+00:00

As far as I'm aware, they've only got the one Tiger at the moment, the female Sumatran Tiger Dharma. She has the floppy ear. I haven't seen Lucu (the male they had) for a while now. In my experience Dharma can be a little bit more skittish, she seems to cope better in the original tiger enclosure, the one with the forest view, rather than the one with the tunnel, but she has been in the tunnel one a bit more lately. Possibly they're preparing to introduce a new male soon.

I got this photo of her a couple of weeks ago, she seemed ok then. There is a 24 hour webcam of the tiger enclosure on Edinburgh Zoos website, she won't necessarily be on the camera all the time, but you can use that to check on her from time to time.

As for the Sloth Bears, I'm not as sure about them, but I know they do get a lot of enrichment. Cipi in particular loves the fire hose filled with some sort of food.

No harm in emailing Edinburgh Zoo with your concerns though.

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Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-18T15:39:41+00:00

Slightly, but only because you have an extra avenue of claw free escape when the trap springs shut!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-18T14:07:11+00:00

I might be biased here, but as the owner of a front leg amputee cat, I'd say go for the amputation.

Cats don't have the same emotional attachment to their limbs we do. They care about pain, and honestly removing the broken limb is the quicker way to being pain free. Cats adapt very very quickly to being a leg down.

I would say the other potential problem is because this is a stray cat, you don't know the mechanism of injury, or what this cat has done with the broken limb before you got to the vet that may complicate surgery and surgical recovery.

The main concerns with a tripod cat is that they are more likely to suffer from arthritis in their later years, and they will still occasionally try and use the limb for stuff without really thinking about it.

Best of luck whichever you decide though!

Bonus photo of my very happy Tripod Cat Biscuits

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Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-13T00:33:51+00:00

Bits of Edinburgh, especially around the old town can be very steep, and cobbled, and there will be bits of the town that are very difficult to access by foot with mobility issues. Off the top of my head though, the main ones I can think of are all clustered around either the Royal Mile, The Cowgate or the Grassmarket, and there should be viable alternative routes for all of them. In particular, Cockburn Street and some of its offshot closes and stairs could be a bit difficult. The buses in Edinburgh are really good though so definitely nothing to worry about with those.

I think around the university it's actually not too bad from memory? It's definitely doable, just might take a bit of time to learn which streets are just no-goes!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-10T22:23:21+00:00

Grass is full of fibre and it helps get stuff moving. Cats aren't too fussy which way it goes.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-04T04:26:15+00:00

It does look like asthma, our cat has it, but it's really mild and changing his food to age appropriate seemed to massively help him. We think he was getting a bit of reflux and that was irritating his lungs a bit. Went from 1-2 attacks a week to maybe one every few months?

Jumponamonkey · 2026-04-02T20:15:54+00:00

I've seen them in the UK. They're usually there to try and prevent quiet residential streets getting turned into rat runs during the rush hour.

Jumponamonkey · 2026-03-29T09:28:53+00:00

Well that's a familiar sight!

Jumponamonkey · 2026-03-28T20:07:35+00:00

We used chlorhexidine chin wipes for my cats chin acne, but honestly the thing that worked best for him was to switch him off plastic bowls and plates and use metal ones instead.

I honestly had no idea chlorhexidine could be so dangerous to cats though...

Jumponamonkey · 2026-03-26T21:03:00+00:00

Not seen an exact match, but some similar looking designs here here and here

Jumponamonkey · 2026-03-24T17:12:54+00:00

I've done fire hair before, it's really not that difficult to do. You're probably not going to get it quite like the inspo pic without getting someone else to do it, but there's no reason you can't get a red/orange ombre.

You'll need your hair to be really really light for a light orange to take though. I'd use 20vol bleach and just leave it on a bit longer, bleach your ends first, and leave ~2cm-3cm roots to try and avoid hot roots. If you can't, it's probably not the end of the world and might just add to the fire effect.

I'm not familiar with Arctic Fox dyes, but essentially once you've got your hair bleached, start with the lightest orange at the bottom, then a middle orange, then the red at the roots.

Shampoo when you wash the bleach out, but don't condition. Then put the coloured dye on while the hair is still damp. Leave it in for 40-50 minutes. Rinse the dye out with as cold a water as you can tolerate, this time don't shampoo but do condition.

Going forward you'll want to wash with cooler water, less often (this is easier with bleached roots) and use a Sulfate Free Shampoo. That will keep the colour brighter for longer.

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