The saga continues..

Monty is still around and Bebe is still running around. Hopefully the latter will be sorted out shortly with a visit to the vet. I had dished up for the other cats this morning and put down a small bowl for Monty, which I left him eating. About 10 minutes later, from the kitchen, I could hear a cat fight break out. "Quick Brad, Go see! Cats fighting!" He ran out to see and when he came back, said it must have been Monty fighting with someone because he was walking down the driveway shaking his head. As I was warming up the car later to leave for work, Bradley rapped on my window and pointed to Mischief, the alpha male who was limping (hopping) on one front paw and holding the other one up in the air dramatically. I checked it out and it looked like a claw may have broken off but no blood. Or else he's twisted it somehow during the fight. I'll check it out later.

I wasn't at work for very long when Bradley came on line on mxit (illegally as he was in class), spitting mad. His little English teacher had apparently told the class after a spelling test that for every wrong answer, the correction for that wrong answer would have to be written out 1000 times. He had 8 wrong. So needless to say Bradley hadn't done his 8000 corrections. The little teacher handed out break detention until the end of the year. "Mom, I'm bigger than her. She must watch out! I'll hit her" Another child with anger management problems! But the teachers do seem to be extremely aggravating at the moment. The kids start exams next week. Really don't know why there is this strange battle of wills taking place at the moment between the teachers and the kids just before the year end tests?

Robynne's car has experienced some problems after the long trip from Cape Town to Gauteng. She drove it around fine for a week but on Wednesday evening, it started cutting out. Then on Thursday morning it wouldn't start at all. Her dad had a look but doesn't really know the Chevy engine that well and they towed it to a local garage in the area - people that have just opened their business. They apparently had diagnostic equipment and came back with a diagnosis. The fuel pump packed up. She was really hoping that she would have it back today but they have phoned her. No, its not the fuel pump, its now some other pipe which they have to get from the agent and its going to cost R2,000. She is very upset as she doesn't have that money now and doesn't even understand what the mechanic was saying to her. On a positive note, she is going away for the weekend with her friend, Terri and some other 20 somethings to a self catering unit at a resort in Warmbaths. She needs a relaxing weekend away to restore her equilibrium and to have a bit of fun.

Everything will turn out all right but sometimes when things go wrong, it seems like the end of the world and we think we can't carry on. If we really think about it, the things that go wrong are maybe a dent to our self-esteem, or a temporary halt to our independence but that which money can fix is not something that is truly important at the end of the day. Its our relationships with people, our family and people we come into contact with that truly enrich us and empower us to carry on. I have met some truly wonderful and caring people on the internet and in real life. I appreciate my family and I try to be a person who can be relied on by friends and family alike. All these little things like broken cars, neverending bills, stolen handbags, head colds, rude people, burnt suppers are just so unimportant when measured against the yardstick of human relationships.

And now to practice what I preach!

A cry in the night!

One of my 11 month old kittens, Bebe, the grey calico, was missing yesterday. She is on heat and is doing a bit of unauthorised wandering. She usually just pops over the wall into my neighbour's yard which is fairly safe as they have no animals of their own and sits calling for any willing male. As soon as I call for her, she jumps back over and comes home.

I called her yesterday morning and there was no sign of her. It's not like her to miss meals and I was stressing by the time I left the house for work. When her brother disappeared, he never returned and I thought that I had lost another baby!

I tried calling her last night when I got home and still no sign of her. As darkness fell, I went outside with the pot of food to dish up a portion for Pup who eats outside on his own due to antisocial doggy behaviour and the evening was quiet. I banged the pot and called loudly for Bebe, alternating her name with my distinctive 'cat-cat-cat' call! After a while of doing this calling which was echoing around the neighbourhood (poor neighbours!) and stirring up the dogs, I heard a tiny meow in the distance. Oh no! Don't tell me Bebe is caught up a tree in someone's yard. I called to Bradley to walk down the road and see if he could tell where the sound was coming from. I carried on calling and eventually the sound came closer. I was really excited and went to the wall. Bradley had returned and was helping me look for Bebe in the bushes. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Mom, its Monty!" Now Monty is one of our foster cats who became our cat when he was returned by his adoptive parents for not being friendly enough. He lived with us for many years and has always been very loving but has also always been a wanderer. He would disappear for days at a time and we came to realise that he must have another 'home' in the area. He hasn't (to the best of my knowledge) been back to my place in more than a year but because he heard my extended calling, he came to visit! He was born in February 2002 and is a black tabby with grey markings. On his sides his markings form a circle like a bullseye! It was a bittersweet moment because now I knew that he was still fine but he wasn't Bebe! The other cats were a bit wary of him but he ended up spending the night on a folding chair just outside my front door. He was still in the garden this morning when I went to call for Bebe again. After a couple of calls, I gave up and went in to carry on with my chores.

Imagine my surprise when I turned around from washing dishes to spot Bebe sitting on the kitchen counter, casually grooming herself. She had arrived from her razzlings without announcement. She accepted my cuddlings reluctantly. She absolutely has a bee in her bonnet at the moment and kept running in and out of the house while waiting for food. I'm just so relieved that she hasn't met with any harm.

I stood over Monty while he ate because Mischief, our one alpha male didn't want to let him have his bowl of food. We left Monty on the driveway as we went off for the day. Not sure how long he'll stay but it was great to see him again, looking healthy and well-fed.

Seen on the streets - Taxi!

On Tuesday, I had just collected my new drivers licence card from the vehicle testing grounds in Mariannhill and was driving along behind a slow delivery van on my way back to town. As the truck and I were preparing to proceed through a set of traffic lights, a pedestrian who had been standing on the side of the road suddenly lunged forward with his arm and his finger stuck straight up in the air, as if he was hailing a taxi! He was almost insisting that I stopped. It gave me a bit of a start, him appearing so suddenly as he had been obscured from view by the delivery van right in front of me. I veered toward the centre line of the road and avoided him. But I thought - how strange! Talk about proactive liftseeking. Usually people just stick up their thumb to indicate that they want a lift.

Driving down my own road this morning, one of the crowd that searches for valuables in the rubbish bags on collection day, waved wildly in greeting at me, with a big grin on his face, as I passed on my way to drop Bradley at school. Bradley and I looked at each other in surprise. Do we know him? Don't think so. Maybe he was just thanking me for putting out my rubbish. Good luck buddy. Nothing of value in there! We joked with each other. Maybe he's just thanking us for leaving the house so he can go break in! Joke - no joke. I do feel somewhat uneasy leaving my house in full view of people who don't really belong in our area. Its a good excuse for anyone up to no good. And that's the time we have had at least two attempted break-ins. In the early morning when we have just left for the day. The criminals know that if you've just left you are not likely to return immediately. Anyway I had to return to fetch my petrol tank key so I could fill up and the house was fine just filled with sleepy cats who had already settled down for their morning nap!

Stress Level Overload!

I last posted about the long trip up to Gauteng from Cape Town and since then it feels like I've been climbing Mt. Everest, stress level wise.

Robynne worked hard last week, the whole day and into the night, coming home late every night from Tuesday until Friday, from the exhibition where her company had a stall. She lifted, carried and slogged and enjoyed the experience thoroughly but still the week took its toll and her resistance took a pounding. By Thursday afternoon, she had picked up the same bug that Dael had been suffering from for the whole week. The kids still had to work and me trying to direct medical care from hundreds of kilometres away was no joke! They felt better by Saturday evening and went out to a friends Halloween party. They had a grand time and even getting lost on the way home because the GPS battery went flat was handled with good humour. On Sunday, the whole family went through to a weekly market in Pretoria but by the evening Robynne was down again with the stomach flu. She is still ill and Dael seems to be relapsing with it. Dael and his dad also have issues to resolve with regard to working together, expectations, understanding and payment for work done but I cannot get involved in this as any direct intervention by myself seems to make matters worse. Obviously this is also stressful to me as a parent because I cannot just switch off my protective mother instincts because my kids are out of sight. I still know they're suffering. I have to back off though and let matters resolve themselves without my input here.

On the local front, the following is happening:

My poor unfortunate cat had kittens again - 3 this time. I would have had her fixed earlier in the year but my neighbours dog very kindly wandered into my yard and bit my dog on the mouth which required a procedure under anaesthesia and she fixed him at the same time. Vet budget for the year gone in one fell swoop!

Bradley seems to be getting higher marks for work completed and getting work finished without too much prompting. The Ritalin seems to have kicked in. Thank goodness but I hope not too late to turn his year's marks around.

My mom had a birthday last weekend and Brad and I went with Mom, Dad and my brother, Greg out to a local coffee shop for tea. Everybody ordered waffles but Brad wanted a full breakfast as he had slept late and hadn't eaten breakfast. I said no and Brad had a little tantrum. I was irritated because although he is officially a teen he likes to resort to toddler behaviour every now and then. Mom turned 67 and today was the parents 46th wedding anniversary. Mom's parents wouldn't let her get married before she turned 21 so she did and then waited a week before tying the knot! And the rest as they say is history!

Oh and my car broke down last week again. The oil clogging its system story again and I had to ask dad for a loan of R1700 to get it out of the garage. I'm still not too happy with it. Just observing it at the moment!

Now if I can just get my stress levels down to a manageable level! When I've been too stressed, I get weird pains in my chest, my breathing rhythm gets messed up and I feel breathless and I feel like my overactive thyroid problem is playing up. Its all a mind game - mind over matter. Think I just need to stare at some scenery or stroke some cats or something!