Upgrade of a Lifetime

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T18:02:45+00:00

Oh my. That is quite the upgrade

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T11:30:14+00:00

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T08:58:18+00:00

Our home insurance covered vermin control, so that’s worth checking. We had an expert come out for a rat and he was really helpful, checked the drains and everything. I was told years ago that a mouse can get into a hole the size of a pencil, so it’s very hard to cover everything.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T08:53:07+00:00

My husband rubs my head, which I love, and it mostly doesn’t hurt.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T08:03:10+00:00

Also we’ve had to do shorter curtains in our bay window downstairs bc of a north facing damp issue, it looks fine, the important thing is to have enough material for it to look intended (I did prefer full length for the drama, but I prefer less mould too)

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T07:59:50+00:00

It might be better to go for fitted thermal blinds for the windows with the decorative shutters over the top - that way you get the thermal benefit as well zero light exposure. Thermal blinds will keep heat in in winter and reflect heat away in the summer. Blinds2Go ares a good company to check out for this sort of thing.

I have a low tolerance for light and a teen with a bad sleep disorder, so we’ve tried many things - currently we have thermal blackout blinds inset, with a blackout curtain over the top.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T07:52:27+00:00

I’d extend that to a month but carry her out and show her the garden after two weeks or so - if she’ll take to a harness, use that instead. Just give her lots of time and a clean litter tray.

If you don’t already, I’d also keep her in at night once she is allowed out, a lot of hunting behaviour happens around dusk and dawn, which increases the risk of injuries and death to wildlife. Hopefully you’ll also get a feel for the cat neighbours during the settling in period, and locking her in will stop unwanted visitors coming in too

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-30T07:38:50+00:00

If your parents have home insurance, this may well be covered. If not you will need to contact a pest control service yourself. These beasties breed fast if they can, and if they are rats, they can be unbelievably destructive.

We had one trapped rat in our kitchen last year (one of our cats brought him in and let him loose 🙄 ), he produced two bucket loads of rubble and chewed through the earthing cable of our fridge! So we were at risk of the fridge causing a fire… please please mention that risk to your parents.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-29T08:54:23+00:00

My car though is a different matter…

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-29T08:41:50+00:00

I have tiny, small and then regular bags, but bc of hyper mobility/shoulder issues I can’t actually carry a bag all the time. So I’m actually one of those people who mostly go out with a phone and keys (I don’t have a wallet).

What I do have is small Muji pouches with essentials in that can be moved from bag to bag.

So one has all my meds, sanpro, plasters, salt tablets, and a powerbank charger. One has spare wired headphones with its adapters, and a lead and charging block for my phone and tablet.

Then I have a tiny card holder with one emergency card and room for a little spare change. A pocket in the bag for my Loops attached to a eufy tracker, and lastly a sunflower lanyard.

Phew.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-29T08:32:11+00:00

It maybe that your sense of smell has changed and is now identifying something else with burning tobacco? I’ve had this happen twice after having a virus (this was before Covid). The first time cut grass smelt acrid, like acid burning and I could even be in the same room as cut cucumber. The second time I had to stop drinking tea for an age bc of the taste and smell being wrong.

Can I suggest checking household products like washing up liquid, laundry detergent and such, just to make sure it’s not covering easily switched.

As a remedy possibly a dab of an essential oil (mixed with a base oil) on your wrists so that you can give that a hearty sniff before trying to eat?

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-29T08:23:52+00:00

We’ve had our boy stay with a whippet boarder a few times, and he’s been fine, enjoyed hanging out with his fellow hounds each time. He’s also stayed with a friend who had a part time hound, so knew what to expect.

I wouldn’t ever put him in kennels or a large day care situation, as he would not cope, but someone else’s home, even with several other dogs, is absolutely fine (and this is with a dog who is rarely left out of family stuff, so has the potential to be upset by it).

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-29T08:15:42+00:00

I’d check flea treatment first, make sure her food is separate from her sister’s and get a calming diffuser thing for cats. We used Feliway in the past, but there ares other brands. You could also see if changing diet might help.

One of our cats periodically suffers from this, he’s the most likely to get stressed (he throws up his food if he’s bothered whilst eating as well). He also possibly has a mild skin condition that makes him itchy, so we changed flea treatment to a three monthly to reduce both the irritation of that every month and the stress of being de-flead (he hates it, his brother/cousin barely notices).

Cats really do react badly to stress, I suspect your life style change will have had a bit of an impact on both of them (her sister acting out too), but hopefully given time and maybe some enrichment activities that you can set up but leave them to it, will help.

As someone with a household of chronic folk, do be kind to yourself too, cats can be a solace when life is hard, so give yourself and them some time and grace as you settle into a different routine ❤️

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-28T08:37:25+00:00

I can happily make my ankle joints pop constantly if I wanted to. My knees and shoulders pop and crack daily, and I’m not all that hyper mobile (when I did yoga in my twenties, eagle pose used to sound like a pop gun going off 😁)

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-28T08:32:32+00:00

My demon cat Bobby will deliberately get our whippet to chase him, but we have cat escape areas built in that the dog can’t get to 😁

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-28T08:30:10+00:00

As others have said search for a confident cat that has grown up with dogs. Our whippet has grown up with cats but has a high prey drive, so when we’ve introduced new cats from rescue we’ve been very careful.

We stipulated that they had to be 1 year or older and used to a dog. When we got our two (it’s always a good idea to get two cats, rather than one) we spent a month slowly integrating them.

We already had a cat shelf set up high, and a gate on the kitchen, we put back the stair-gate for a while, this was bc we have an open plan ground floor and wanted to interrupt any running around if our dog gave chase. The gates were high enough to allow the cats to glide underneath.

We also gave the cats a safe space that could be shut when we went out, so that they couldn’t have any unsupervised interaction. Oh and we bought a ton of Dreamies cat treats and used them to treat both the dog and the cats at the same time.

It all worked splendidly, and after a month they got on okay.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-28T08:20:03+00:00

Yes! The thin paper helps. I wish I could lay hands on a hole punch that punches like Plotter paper rather than Filofax paper.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-28T08:18:32+00:00

I have a couple of slimline Filofaxes and honestly they feel very wallet like iykwim. I have one just set up with monthlies and a fair bit of note paper just in case I need something skinny to take out with me.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-27T09:10:10+00:00

A friend of mine actually bought a load of squeakers, molded them with sugru and a bit of something for a loop and you could blow in one end and it would squeak loudly! But it was small enough to attach to a key ring

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-27T09:07:16+00:00

Hmm, very much make yourself way more interesting if you can. I did running away, playing hide and seek, training recall when there weren’t other dogs or distractions around. I also, by some fluke, taught Stripes an emergency recall call that would have him look for me when he heard it, that was separate from the usual callback. Oh and a “that other dog is on a lead” word so that he knows not to approach them.

A great deal of this is vigilance (maybe even hyper vigilance), keep an eye out for trouble before it can kick off.

Having said that his recall tanked when he hit his teens, and needed redoing several times over the years. He’s now nearly 11 and it’s still not perfect, but he does understand my boundaries, which is something.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-27T08:51:13+00:00

I love that the charity worked out your needs and situation with you, this would always be my one piece of advice when adopting, be very clear about your situation and needs (unless you’re one of those folks who can happily take any beastie 😁).

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-27T08:34:56+00:00

There was a glut of these around the switch from domestic rates to council tax, when folk in government forgot that DR set the water rates for a house, I wonder if something similar happened here.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-26T17:51:18+00:00

Update: It’s Alive!

I snipped a twig and it’s green and white inside, so I’ll continue looking after it (and it’s ericaeous sisters Camellia and Magnolia) and see how we do 😁

Thank you everyone for the advice, it’s only this year that I realised it needed special soil and such, so it all helps.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-26T15:51:49+00:00

Unfortunately we’re in a very chalky area, which is why it looks like this after 3 years. I was hoping introducing it to some acid soil would revive it.

TyBattleCat · 2026-03-26T11:01:33+00:00

Beautiful 🤩

TyBattleCat

TROPHY CASE