Meet Butch & Monty.

It's a bit of a story of course how these two became part of the Wright family (that's Monty on the left, Butch on the right - photo taken 18/1/07 ) so I'll attempt to be brief. It started when Cat became a volunteer for the R.S.P.C.A. working in the admissions department with all types of animals from your usual dogs, cats, guinea pigs etc as well as ducks, pigs, goats, baby possums, even pigeons.
November is the beginning of kitten season and the centre is inundated with masses of the little blighters, most of which end up being euthanased. The chances of them making it through to adoption are much improved if they can be fostered to a certain weight which will then enable them to be de-sexed and vaccinated etc. So, Cat bought these 2 incredibly small and cute babies (much smaller & cuter than the above photo!) home for us to do our part to help the cause.
I headed off to Japan mid November, comfortable with the concept that soon after I returned "Boodge & Woodge" (from "aren't you cute!? boodgey woodgey woodgey!") would be heading back to the centre, having gained enough weight for the snip and the needle and then into the pens for the chance to brighten up some kid's life for Christmas. "What happened?" I hear you ask, dear reader. RINGWORM, that's what!
Apparently, it's very unusual for animals to contract it at the R.S.P.C.A. centre. We just happened to be the lucky ones! Cat took them back there to be treated and was met with the stark reality of life in the world of stray animal management - "we'll have to put them down". The alternative? Take them back home and treat them (daily applications of ointment, bathing every couple of days, tablets and quarantining them from the rest of the house) for 28 days and if they recover, then they can be put back into the system for adoption.
I arrived back from my trip to discover the lounge room had given birth to a makeshift kitten house approx. 6 ft long by 3 ft high constructed of numerous cardboard cartons and 2 rolls of packing tape! Contained therein the two patients one of which had virtually no hair on his face and looked in a pretty bad way. We then discovered that ringworm has a 2 week incubation period before it shows up as a rash - basically, you've had it for 2 weeks by the time you know you've got it! Of course, leading up to this, the boys had been running around the house, climbing all over the dog and been in constant contact with Cat. So now she and the dog had a couple of suspect skin irritations!
The long and the short of it is that the boys recovered and after this extended period of treatment, we succumbed and weren't able to let them go back for adoption. So we did what any self respecting animal lovers (read "suckers") would do and adopted them ourselves!
You'll be pleased to know that both Cat and Max the dog also made full recoveries, however we now have Patch the 21 year old blind, deaf geriatric cat permanently quarantined in the laundry with a pretty severe case of ringworm - but that's another story........

By crikey! What have we done?

I think the best thing about Christmas is when it's over! I'm sure plenty agree with me too. The rush leading up to it seems full of stuff that needs to be done and not enough time to be doing it - and that's not just the buying pressies thing.
It's this holiday season when heaps of friends and family who over the years have scattered themselves to the four winds, miraculously "come home" for a few days. This of course means we all have to try and get together for that once a year lunch, drink at the pub, bbq dinner or day at the cricket type arrangement. Fabulous to see everybody but it's odd isn't it that it can quite easily become a drag as it eats into the time you have to get the other stuff done!
I sound so positive don't I?! But it's the same for them too. They're here for a bit of a holiday, a bit of a relax with a good book, maybe spend a little time with Mum & Dad and they've got to worry about squeezing you into their already tight social calender! Why do we do it to ourselves? Of course, there is the up side and that will be what it is to each of you my learned readers, so I won't go into it here. But, what I will say is - Hey! isn't it great how little traffic there is on the roads in during those couple of weeks after Christmas!
Anyway, back to the title of this post. The last couple of weeks have been spent shopping; and I mean serious shopping! If I thought the build up to Christmas was expensive enough, that's nothing compared to preparing for the arrival of Little Wrightie!
It's not just a few items of baby clothing - oh no - (I've been assured we'll get plenty of that stuff given to us anyway!) It's all the stuff that needs to be done around the house that were just harmless items on a list which would get looked at but never really taken seriously. Well nothing like the impending arrival of the first kid to cattle prod one into action. We have bought oven, cooktop, rangehood, freezer, 4 ceiling fans, 3 light fittings, a large rug for the lounge room (as seen above - quite "Jetsons" like really), various items of baby apparel and I managed to score 3 pairs of new jeans in there somehow as well. We are now oficially broke! What the hell's going to happen when we have to feed the little blighter!?