Threes
Three cats keeping me company while reading the other day.
Decorated my winter tree (of of the two we’re putting up, Nienke does the other one) yesterday.
And today, Eva, Jarig and Julius came to drop off three cabinets. When they moved into their farm, the previous owners left a lot of stuff behind for them, including a bunch of cabinets, standing in one of the barns.
When I first saw these, I already liked them. At first, since not everything was in place yet, they were using some of them, but Eva mentioned not really liking them. So I asked, if neither Anneke nor Julius wanted them, if I could possibly have them.
A while later, it turned out that (fortunately for me) they didn’t want them either, so I could have them. I am, unfortunately, not in the possession of a driver’s licence or a car big enough to take them, so that was the end of it for a while.
Then Eva called this morning, would it be okay if they came by? Which they then did early afternoon. We carried the cabinets into the garage, where they are to be placed while we live here. They are made of massive wood, and metal shelf-bearers, so they were quite heavy.
I left them there for now, I’ll be cleaning and putting them in place over the weekend.
Since I now live in this town, and am free on the day, I figured I should attend the Baaistemaart (lit. Animal Market). It’s a fairly regular annual market, but it specialises in animals. The main street was set apart for the horses, both bigger ponies as well as this collection of Shetlands. Beyond that were normal stands with the usual market stuff both edible and not. On the town square was a tent displaying livestock (sheep, goats, alpacas, rabbits, various forms of guinea pigs, and a collection of birds) and having stands of various organisations, the local vet clinic and so on.
I went with Kim, at first, and later did another round with Mom.
It’s been six months since Murphy died, and I started missing a third cat in this big house. Nienke herself doesn’t (yet) want a new cat, so a little while ago she asked what I thought of a cat for my birthday. Needless to say, I was rather happy 🙂 We then involved my Mom to join in, as sheltercats are still fairly pricey. Since I have a week off now, we decided to go to the shelter on Monday. We could pick out a cat, and he could get used to stuff with me being around for those first few days.
I had in mind a young cat, two or younger. Figured it would be easier to introduce that into the pack.
One of them was still young, about three, and had just come back from fostering. The worker released that one from the cage so I could watch and interact. I liked her a lot, she was a slinky thing, and seemed interested in the room. She didn’t mind the other cat, the black one, walking around and being interested in her. She didn’t really seem interested in the people, though.
After she was put back in her cage, I checked out the others in the cages. All the while, the black one was calmly moving about, eating, or asking for attention. The red one was sleeping on top of a cat tree and didn’t really seem to care we were there. While checking out the cats, I kept going back to the black one. He was quite calm and loved the attention. His behaviour while the slinky cat was out seemed to indicate he was fine with other cats. He had a bit of a hissy when red cat came down from the tree and got too close (by then it also wanted attention) but otherwise was fine.
We took him home, and I put him up in my bedroom. I’d put a litter box there and some food and water, so he had a private place to get used to things. He first spent some time under the bed. I installed myself on the bed to read and get him used to my sounds. He came out for a wee bit to eat and sniff things, then went back under. Later he moved to on top of the bed and he checked out the view from the window sill.
At night, he slept on my bed mostly. In the morning, he let me know quite clearly that he was awake, and that he was hungy, and that I should feed him like NOW. Then, I opened the door again, and this time he went out to check on his own.
I bought this stuffed reindeer head the other day, part of the early get-ready-for-christmas display in the store. I have to keep it somewhere in the mean-time, though, so I hung it from my clothes hook. It fits the room a lot better than I thought it would, I might keep it there instead of moving it downstairs when the holidays are upon us.
The chain lock on my bike is going to hell on the fast track. I’ve already had a couple times I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get it to unlock. So this morning I borrowed Mom’s bike. I then, a little later in the morning, texted her to ask if she could go to the store for me and buy me a new one of the same type as my old one which I left in the shed as an example. She said ok.
I came home Tuesday to a new edition of Flow on the door mat as well as next season’s theater catalog. After the first run through, I was on 9 shows I wanted to see.
Then Thursday I had planned to go see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared after work, but it rained so much I decided against it. Instead I went to the Bruna at the train station and bought books (including The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman). Once home, I watched The Normal Heart (I had recorded it when it premiered on HBO Sunday).