Of Cats, Builders and A Cloud Burst

Today’s blog, ‘Of Cats, Builders and A Cloud Burst’, is a little break in my series about areas of London. I have had an eventful few days and some days a girl needs to write down her thoughts in her blog!

Of Cats, Builders and A Cloud Burst

Of Cats

Cats rule my world. Anyone who has read my blog regularly will not have missed that I love cats. I have rescued many and currently have a large troop living with me and Barnet Boy here in Italy.

The queen of these is of course the superb Stevie Mouse. And ironically last night I had a nice sale of a picture of her which she seemed very pleased about.

But there is of course Emmy who doesn’t go outside because of her epilepsy. She is Stevie’s little buddy in crime. And Lucy and Malteser who were abandoned at the house years ago and now live in and outside, coming and going as they please.

I wrote about Malteser recently and his near death caused by a blockage in his bladder. Little did I know this subject would raise its head again so soon. But more of that later.

Then there is my little outside cat family which is where this story comes from.

Scrappy and Her Kittens

So here is the cat story of the week. Stevie’s Aunt Scrappy had five kittens nearly six weeks ago and was raising them underneath the outside stairs. There is a five star hotel cat home complex down there you understand. Scrappy looked off colour and seemed to have a runny eye.

The Grass Seed

For a few days I treated Scrappy’s eye with the usual ointment recommended by the vet but it wasn’t having any effect. Yesterday Barnet Boy said to me that she looked really poorly and I agreed. Straight to the vet for a check up leaving the kittens under the watchful eye of Barnet Boy and the builders who have been doing work at the house (of which more later).  The eye was a simple thing really, a grass seed that you couldn’t see but a trained professional eye immediately saw the problem and removed it.

A Hidden Problem

But that wasn’t the end of the problem. On the way to the vet another car cut a corner and I had to do an emergency stop. Luckily we didn’t actually hit, but Scrappy’s cat carrier fell over. When I picked it up to straighten it I saw there was quite a lot of blood. Eeek! So, drove quite fast for the last part of the journey.

It turns out that poor Scrappy has three stones in her bladder, each one over 1cm in size. With an associated infection she must have been in agony poor thing. But I ask you, if a cat urinates outside the house at what point would you notice a problem? I hardly ever saw Scrappy pee and I had no reason to think there was a problem. We were lucky the near accident happened and she had urinated in fear which alerted us to the problem.

Coping With What is Needed Now

Scrappy needs surgery but of course we have five, nearly six week old kittens that have to cared for. To give the kittens as long as possible with Scrappy’s milk she and her brood have been moved in to the house, into a spare living room.  She has been given a long acting antibiotic that is safe for the kittens. The family will stay there for another week as I gradually get them fully weaned and then Scrappy will go and have her surgery (and be spayed which was already planned). Then there will be ten days when she is recovering in the company of her kits with me as nursemaid.

Wasn’t expecting that when I got out of bed yesterday but it is good to face challenges as they arise. I think…

Herding Cats Is Easy

Herding cats is easy, honestly. Teaching an adult cat and five kittens to use litter boxes not so much. The sofa was the preferred soiling area (luckily it has a throw so I put plastic sheeting under the throw). Last night you couldn’t walk easily in the room for all the little piles of poop and puddles. Move forward 24 hours and while I am still having to clear up a few accidents I now have four strategically placed litter boxes that are being well used. One little soul still prefers the sofa but I haven’t figured out which one it is yet in order to show them the error of their ways.

I am gradually naming them. I gave Treacle, a pale grey friendly little thing, a lesson in using the litter box this morning. He kept trying to climb out but I persisted and scrabbled his little paws in the litter. Eventually he realized the plan and started scrabbling earnestly. He squatted, his little face went into a frown and he started grunting. Then his poop shot out and he was so surprised he fell over!

I will write a blog about Scrappy’s surgery and her recovery complete with photos in a few week’s time.

Of Builders

The Builders Love The Kittens

We have had builders working on some things around the house since the kittens were born. The kittens were quite used to them and used to play around their feet when they went in the cat garden (a fenced area) to fill up with buckets of water.  I am very pleased with the work they have done and can highly recommend them to anyone who lives in the Lago Trasimeno area (just ask me for their details). But I digress.

Having bitten their nails down at the story with Scrappy yesterday and constant kitten updates, they actually got to the last bit of their work today, just replacing six tiles in the floor of the office.

Another Hidden Problem

Only it turns out the problem with the six tiles was caused by a problem in the room underneath… and we need to have the floor completely replaced. But because we have Scrappy and the kittens in the room next door we can’t have them disturbed with what would be very noisy work. So the builders have put safety props in the room below to ensure the floor we are walking on is safe and they will be back as soon as Scrappy and the kittens go back outside. Sigh… Oh yeah, cloud burst.

Of A Cloud Burst

What is a cloud burst?

Well in Italy a cloud burst is called a nubifragio. To the uninitiated a cloud burst is when you have a massive amount of water fall from the sky in a very short space of time. There is even a classification of when a cloud burst is a cloud burst (you can read it here).

When was I last in a disco???

Last night I couldn’t sleep. The realization had hit me that I was facing anything up to four weeks with Scrappy and the kittens in a room in the house and all that entailed. None of which was planned for of course. About 11.30pm I got up and went and unplugged the phones and the computers as there was an incredible electrical storm going on outside. Recently a lightning strike took out the phone so we don’t take any chances. By midnight the lightning was just like strobe lighting at a disco (showing my age here). Not long after the thunder started.

Coping with a cloud burst

Switch to 1.30am and me running around the house like a fruit loop closing windows because of the wind and rain. You should have heard the water falling! Going upstairs we had water coming through the roof in two places and it was being forced under the windows and doors. I ran through to Scrappy and the kittens but they were fine – unless you count running around madly in the shadows of the lightning.

We put buckets under the drips and towels under the windows and doors and went back to bed – what else could you do? Couldn’t sleep of course but eventually the rain stopped though the lightning continued for some time. Not too much damage when we got up this morning and all the animals were safe which is the main thing when all is said and done.

The Aftermath

I went to the animal feed shop today to buy kitten food. All I wanted to talk about was kittens. All everyone else wanted to talk about was the cloud burst! Our two main local supermarkets were flooded out.

So I feel a bit tired. Grateful that everyone has come through the last few days safely, particularly Scrappy who could have died if this problem was not discovered. Even grateful that the builders found the problem with the floor as if one of us had fallen through it would have been not good at all. Even more grateful there are now proportionately more little kitty poops in the litter boxes than on the sofa.

There I feel better for sharing that with you!

Cat Art Images

Check out my cat art images at my Art Heroes (Europe), Pictorem (USA and Canada) and RedBubble (worldwide) stores.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Thank you for reading!