Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Yesterday's fire burned 30 acres, but no structures were lost, no injuries. The wind sent the ash and cinders over us, but luckily they were out by the time they hit here.
Been right lively round here the last few hours. Fire two properties over; we were within five minutes of a bug out. Had Spot and Alex in their carriers, ready to load and head out if the wind changed directions. Fire's out, but we're leaving vehicles in "scat" position until tomorrow. Started in a burn pile; someone has a lot of 'splainin' to do to the authorities, since there's been a total burn ban here for months.
Bastrop fire is sending lots of smoke and ash our way. No sleeping with open windows tonight, and it's gonna be down in the 50s, perfect for sleeping with open windows. Not that we'll sleep much; we're on fire watch for serious tonight.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Czarny, black cat
Rainbow Bridge: Spotacus, Alexander the Grrreat, and so very many more
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Code2High
One hour past Nowhere, CA
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Joined: 12/21/2004
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Do you have good brush clearance?
susan
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a wabbit, Fuzzy Wuzzy had a dandelion habit! RIP little Wuz... don't go far.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Not a lot of brush in this area to begin with, as it's mostly limestone rock. What we have are yucca, prickly pear (not on our property), some native wildflowers, live oak trees, bone dry native grass, and juniper trees that explode in fire. The fires just fly across the grass at warp speed - very scary to see.
After a night on fire watch, we secured from bug out condition and are just relaxing. The cats are splayed out in the shade, zonked, and a house wren just jumped inside the front door, then back out.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Rats. Another fire on the northeast side of the lake. This time, it's very close to a whole lot of houses. We can see the flames.
Back on fire watch. Not likely it will get to us, especially since the FD is already spraying water on it, but with the wind coming from that direction, not taking any chances.
Gotta go get the boys back inside.
Later: It's under control. Whew.
Last night, we heard coyotes howling for the first time since we got here. That bodes very ill for the chances of Bobbi Socks making it back home. If they're so close we can hear them, it's because they are out of food in their normal range (partly because so much of that range has been burned).
My poor little Bobbi...
* This post was
edited 09/08/11 05:54pm by Wanderlost *
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Hawkeye02
Texas
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I started out reading your thread and could not stop...I feel like I know you and your kittys...I am a cat person (my nickname is Cat, imagine that)...I have had cats come up missing and still grieve over what might have happened. Right now we have two inside cats and one outside cat, plus the cats from my daughters house next door that come and go...haven't had any dogs in years..We carry our inside cats with us when we go camping...Hope the fires are out in your area and pray that someday Bobbi will come home.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Hey, Cat. No fires around us the last two days. I guess folks finally figured out what not to do...
Spot and Alex are good RV travelers. Our trip to a certain campground this month was cancelled, due to fires all around it, and we don't know if it's still there. But I think they would have enjoyed the trip.
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Hawkeye02
Texas
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So glad you are alright. We are in East Texas and had a lot of smoke from around the fires burning off 1-20 about an hour from us.
We are trying to find out why our female cat "Tiger" is losing her hair over her tail. Two vets first said a flea problem, but they stay indoors all the time and we put Advantage on them. She is 4 and is spayed and we have another spayed female in the house...Tiger is a bit paranoid and I am wondering if we might want to ask the vet about some medicine for her when we start our r.v. trip soon. We have never given her any before. Maybe you have some advise?
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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I've not given any meds to our cats for anxiety, but I'm told Rescue Remedy and Feliway help. Could just be general stress -- the Feliway or Rescue Remedy might help there.
As for her tail, she might have such dry skin that she has hot spots. Spot gets the creepy crawlies all over his skin when it's this dry. Since he's not losing fur, I just make sure he gets added fat to his gooshy food, and limit how we pet him to mostly jowl scratching. The static shocks along his back don't help...
One of my late inside kitties had hot spots so bad that she was pulling the fur out. I started rubbing Melaleuca's Renew lotion into that area, and within a few days, she stopped pulling out her fur, and the hair grew back. It's also one of the few lotions that keep my skin from flaking off, so it was handy and safe, in case she licked it.
Another thought: did they test for mange or other skin ailments?
When we moved back to Texas, we switched to Advantage Multi, since it also protects against heartworms. My veterinarian brother told me that once a cat gets heartworms, nothing can be done. The amount of poison needed to kill the worms will kill the cat. It's expensive, but I think my kitties are worth it, and it's just a regular part of our household budget and routine.
Yesterday, while taking our noontime swim, I saw a small bat on the side of the garage. A bat flying in daylight? Got Alex inside immediately (Spot was inside asleep) and went to check on the bat. By then, it had planted itself near the south porch ceiling, very obviously exhausted, and went right to sleep. We checked later, and it was gone. We think it got blown off course during the high night winds and couldn't get back to its lair, or the full moon confused it. No sign of it last night, so I guess it flew on.
WLToo just announced his Kindle ebook has sold 412 copies since it was published on 16 Aug. Pretty darn good for a self-published, no publicity book. I guess a good story is its own publicity. Good, that will pay for the Advantage Multi...
Back to scanning the important papers and saving them to disks.
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Hawkeye02
Texas
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Congratulations on the book sales..What is the name of the book?
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Scout Force. It's science fiction, but a real easy read.
Spot's eye was all goopy. When we cleaned it, looked like he tangled with neighbor cat and got a little scratch. I thought we had some eye medicine, but no... We'll take him to the vet tomorrow. Meanwhile, he couldn't go outside, so he's being very grumpy.
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