October 20, 2017 RIP Patches

Such a sad day!  I had to have my lovely little Patches put down today.

She fell of the roof next door in heavy rain last Saturday night. I rescued her on Sunday morning from a puddle of mud, soaking wet from having been stranded in the pouring rain all night. Her hind end was paralyzed making her incontinent and unable to move her bowels. I tried everything, but in the end, she would not eat or even barely drink.  It was a hard decision as she seemed perky and even dragged herself by her front legs out into the gutter to catch a bit of sun.  But not eating and drinking is a sure sign.  The vet said her bowels were impacted and the only way to remove the stool was to operate.  How ridiculous is that?  You can't be cutting the poor thing open every time she needs to poop.  So in the end, I had no other choice.  

My last view of my poor little girl.  I did not take the picture.  My Tuktuk man, Risvi did.  He was excellent.  Seeing how upset I was, he told me to stay in the vehicle and he went with the man to do the necessary.

She is waiting at the rainbow bridge with all the others now.  

I made 3 trips to the vet, the last of which was to have her euthanized only to discover that the vet wouldn't do it.  Most Buddhist vets won't euthanize which is incredibly hypocritical of them as almost all of them eat meat which requires killing. Duh!  Anyway, he gave me the name of man who would do it.  Turns out he works at the Government Veterinary Hospital in Peradeniya.  Risvi took care of everything.  Most helpful given my emotional state and the fact that Yasu could not speak English.  Apparently, the procedure is illegal.  Who knows?  Could be given the stupid Buddhist laws here.  Yasu did know what to do though.  He gave her a sedative first and then the lethal dose and disposed of the body.  Cost me LKR.4000, but it was worth it to know she would not suffer any more.

The Universe sent me two new cats a couple of months ago somehow in anticipation of this unhappy event. The really snuggly one is Buddy Boy and the other is Aya (Older Brother in Sinhala), as they are from the same litter. The dog, Sweetie, rounds out the mix.  Nevertheless, Patches leaves a hole in my heart.

All I wanted to do after I got home was curl up in a ball and have another little cry, but no rest for the wicked.  I spent the day cooking with Veenitha.  

October 21, 2017

No rest today either as I had the plumber and electrician around.  Both toilets had crapped (pardon the pun) out so thankfully, the plumber came first thing to fix them.  Of course, he was supposed to come at 1500 the previous day.  When I asked him what happened to him, he said he had gone to a wedding.  Then why did he say would come in the first place?  He did my work and then left without doing the work for my landlady.  She didn't seem bothered.  

The electrician was here by appointment.  He put in the new plug for the relocation of the refrigerator.  I will have to move it when I get my new cooker.  He installed another plug point in the living room giving a very dark corner much needed light and he put a ceiling fan on the veranda.  Now having breakfast will be an even more pleasant experience. The hot water heater in the spare bathroom had also given up the ghost putting me in dread of having to buy a new one.  They are about LKR.16,500 (C$150) now.  Thankfully, Nandasiri fixed it so I saved a bunch of money.

All the work was done by about 1400, but then I had to clean up after them.  Hosing down both bathrooms, sweeping and dusting the kitchen, living room, office and veranda.  In the process, I discovered that no sweeping or dusting had taken place in the living room for about 3 months.  I will have to have a chat with Veenitha.

That done, I had a lovely shower in my now functioning bathroom complete with new shower curtain and collapsed into bed.