Tag Archives: cat

From vets to vines – its a roundup of our week

Posted on by Richard
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Happy February everyone!

It’s been another busy week work-wise, with not a lot going on elsewhere, so here’s a round-up of the happenings from the last 7 days.

Lola loses one of her 9 lives


The biggest news of the week was on Friday. The cats had been out and about in the morning, as usual, and returned at lunchtime for their usual afternoon sleep. By 5pm we thought they’d had long enough and Joe woke them up to send them outside for a breath of fresh air. Charlie went charging off, but Lola showed no interest. In fact she looked very unwell – lifeless and struggling to breathe. We couldn’t tempt her with food or drink and we started to get really rather worried for her.

So I took her straight down to the vets for a check up, but the vets in the village was closed. So, Lisa rang Judith and she gave us the number for the one they use in Coulonges. I placed a quick call to them and they confirmed I could bring Lola in straight away. So I set off, picking Judith up so she could show me the way. When we arrived at the vets we were greeted by a sign that they had moved! Argh! So we jumped back in the car and headed off to find the new location, not far from the Super U in Coulonges and quite a bit more conveniently placed.

The vet turned out to be a very nice chap and the building was a modern, spacious one which made me feel confident from the off. He gave Lola a thorough examination and concluded that she must have had some kind of trauma. This didn’t surprise me, given how adventurous Lola is. She could well have been hit by a car, fallen from a tree of been struck by a falling log. Goodness only knows really, but at least she didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger.

The vet said to let her rest and come back on Monday if she didn’t improve. So, relieved, we took her home where she slept all night. In the morning she seemed a bit brighter, managing to get up and walk around and even eating a bit of breakfast. Very good to see!

And today, thankfully, she has been out and about, running around and generally looking a lot more like normal. And Charlie is certainly happy to have her back – he had seemed very sad that she wasn’t up to playing for the last couple of days. So fingers crossed she is on the mend and will soon be back to her usual tricks. Birds and mice beware!

Getting in touch

This week we have spoken to regular readers Lynne and Alan, who are having a new house built in the village (as is Curtis, another reader). It was great to get in touch via skype and we were more than happy to help out with answering questions about the area and giving them the benefit of our experiences of setting up home in Foussais. They are a lovely couple and we look forward to having them just round the corner soon!

Superstar Joe

Joe had more handball matches on Saturday. Once again we had an hour’s drive to get there, though Joe has promised that next time he will go with the rest of the team in one car to save us the treck. The results were not so good this week as Foussais lost 2 and won 1, but Joe played really well and scored most of the goals, which was great to see. He used to play football back in England, but never really got on too well with it as the focus was always on those that could play really well and score goals. This meant that Joe usually got looked over and this really knocked his confidence. Now with handball he is playing well and scoring goals and getting lots of encouragement. The whole ethos seems to be far more on playing well as a team and everyone gets a fair share of time on the pitch, which works really well. Joe is loving it and its doing his confidence the world of good.

Fun on the field


Today we decided to finally tackle some jobs on the field. First there was the task of trying to fix the trampoline that had rather unceremoniously been dumped upside down on one of the pear trees during the storm the other night. With a bit of hammering and twisting and a bit of string, I managed to put it back together again – lets hope it holds until the summer at least!

There are miles and miles of brambles winding through our trees, plus we have a great vine that twists its way through the fence and trees at the back of the field. All needed cutting back and sorting out, so today we started hacking.

While I attacked the vine, Lisa plowed though the brambles. After 3 hours of solid hard work, we didn’t seem to have a lot to show for our efforts – Lisa had cleared about 2m of hedgerow and I had chopped back a similar length of vine. A lot of effort for a rather disappointing result, but at least it’s a start, and we did end up with a big pile of branches for a bonfire!.

Hopefully the vine will once again produce lots of lovely grapes but this time they’ll be rather more accessible.

Getting in a (cat) flap

Posted on by Richard
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Charlie and Lola, our 2 kittens, are growing up pretty fast. it only seems like yesterday that we were bringing them home in a little cardboard box for the first time and now they are roaming the garden.

With this new-found freedom came some inconvenience for us humans, as they need to get in and out at regular intervals. As is is now well and truly autumn, leaving a door open for them was certainly not an option and getting up and down to let them in and out was way too much like hard work.

So, we finally relented and bought a cat-flap.

For me, nine times out of ten DIY is not a straight-forward job. What should be a 10-minute task generally turns into a full day of cutting, sawing, sticking, drilling, cursing and swearing, punctuated by several trips to the DIY shop to buy the vital tools, screws, sticking plasters etc that turn out to be essential for the job. So I was hoping for a change in fortunes with this one…

First task of the day was to draw round the template provided.

This revealed the first fatal flaw in the plan…the door has panels, and the cat-flap was just too wide to fit inside one of the panels. So I was going to have to cut out some of the panel surround to fit it in, Now it was starting to feel like one of my normal DIY jobs…

Unperturbed, I carried on with the job in hand, drilling the holes and cutting out the space for the flap to fit into. This bit went ok thanks to the trusty jig-saw, although from now on the pressure was on to complete the job before night-fall!

Next came the cutting and chopping to make the frame fit. Generally I hate working with wood as i always seem to lose control of it and end up cutting too much off, or splitting the wood in the wrong place, or cutting at the reverse angle and wrecking the only materials I have. However, with hammer and chisel, this time i managed to avoid all the usual pitfalls and actually cut out a good snugly-fitting hole for the frame to fit into.

Okay so it may be a little rough round the edges, but aren’t we all? :)

As you can see, it was well and truly dark outside by the time I finished, but finish I did!

So now we just have the somewhat-more-taxing job of trying to persuade the kittens to use their nice new private entrance, rather than whining at the window.

At the moment, we have to come to the door to hold the flap open as they haven’t yet figured out that they can open it themselves. And the noise it makes as it swings shut tends to scare them off…but they are starting to get the hang of it. Hopefully they will soon be coming and going without any assistance, and then we’ll never know where they are!

Getting in a (cat) flap

Posted on by Richard
Reply

Charlie and Lola, our 2 kittens, are growing up pretty fast. it only seems like yesterday that we were bringing them home in a little cardboard box for the first time and now they are roaming the garden.
Charlie and Lola
With this new-found freedom came some inconvenience for us humans, as they need to get in and out at regular intervals. As is is now well and truly autumn, leaving a door open for them was certainly not an option and getting up and down to let them in and out was way too much like hard work.

So, we finally relented and bought a cat-flap.

For me, nine times out of ten DIY is not a straight-forward job. What should be a 10-minute task generally turns into a full day of cutting, sawing, sticking, drilling, cursing and swearing, punctuated by several trips to the DIY shop to buy the vital tools, screws, sticking plasters etc that turn out to be essential for the job. So I was hoping for a change in fortunes with this one…

Cat Flap

First task of the day was to draw round the template provided.

This revealed the first fatal flaw in the plan…the door has panels, and the cat-flap was just too wide to fit inside one of the panels. So I was going to have to cut out some of the panel surround to fit it in, Now it was starting to feel like one of my normal DIY jobs…

Unperturbed, I carried on with the job in hand, drilling the holes and cutting out the space for the flap to fit into. This bit went ok thanks to the trusty jig-saw, although from now on the pressure was on to complete the job before night-fall!

Next came the cutting and chopping to make the frame fit. Generally I hate working with wood as i always seem to lose control of it and end up cutting too much off, or splitting the wood in the wrong place, or cutting at the reverse angle and wrecking the only materials I have. However, with hammer and chisel, this time i managed to avoid all the usual pitfalls and actually cut out a good snugly-fitting hole for the frame to fit into.

Cat Flap

Okay so it may be a little rough round the edges, but aren’t we all? :)

As you can see, it was well and truly dark outside by the time I finished, but finish I did!

So now we just have the somewhat-more-taxing job of trying to persuade the kittens to use their nice new private entrance, rather than whining at the window.

At the moment, we have to come to the door to hold the flap open as they haven’t yet figured out that they can open it themselves. And the noise it makes as it swings shut tends to scare them off…but they are starting to get the hang of it. Hopefully they will soon be coming and going without any assistance, and then we’ll never know where they are!Cat Flap

That’s entertainment

Posted on by Richard
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It was certainly an entertaining weekend.

On Saturday we entertained Nathalie (Joe’s teacher and the one who Lisa goes in to help with the English lessons) and her family. What a lovely family they are, and we had a really good time. We were a little concerned at our first major “night in” where we would only speak french, but I think we managed it pretty well. The dictionary was out, but we only referred to it on a couple of occasions and made ourselves understood for the rest of the night. Lisa made us all a beautiful meal and we finished the evening playing guitars and singing – something we haven’t done for ages, and we never thought we’d get chance to do again.

The kids meanwhile were off entertaining themselves with playstations and DVDs, breaking down the language barriers in the way that only kids can do. We had a wonderful night and hope to have many more. We are so lucky to count them as our friends after such a short time in the country, and especially sharing a love of music – something that has been sadly missing from our lives since we moved here.

So then we barely had had time to wash up from one evening’s entertainment (oh, to have a dishwasher) and we were preparing for our next guests on Sunday. This time it was an ex-work-colleague of Lisa’s. Helen and her family come to France every year and this year they were coming to Les Sables d’Olonne. As this is only just over an hour from us, it was great that they could come over and see us.

Once again, we had a lovely day. They have two lovely daughters who got on really well with our three – amazing as this was the first time they had met. By the end of the day they were trading MSN addresses and promising to keep in touch. I had finally got some legs for the old door that we salvaged in order to construct a big rustic table, so we set this up on the field, under the gazebo, and ate another lovely meal our there. We ended up all playing cards and taught each other new games to play – great fun.  Sadly the €3 trestle legs the table was resting on started collapsing as the games got more vigorous, so it’s back to the drawing board on that one, but luckily we had another more substantial table to work with.

It was another fantastic day, just the kind of weekend we love, surrounded by great friends. Its funny how you really get to know people so much better when you see them out of their normal environment. We have noticed this with the friends and family that have visited us here previously, but it was especially evident yesterday. Helen had worked in the same school as Lisa, but they had never really socialised before. And the rest of us barely knew the rest of the family. But by the end of the day we felt like we were old friends and hoping to meet up again soon.

And of course, we ourselves have been entertained by our two new additions. Charlie and Lola have settled in well to their new home and are really starting to feel like part of the family. Charlie is clearly the biggest trouble-maker, finding the best places to explore and hide, then calling Lola over to join in. As I write this, they have managed to find the shelf under my desk and are both asleep there cuddled up together. I have the feeling that I may have this kind of company whenever I work from now on, which is really rather nice.