Jass likes her dry food and not wet foreign muck (Who gets the Alf Garnett reference). She took a small taste and decided to not eat that night. 

I don't blame her really. 

Brand name Cachet. Mousse with lamb, spinach and feta. It sounds ghastly.

After the new lounge chairs arrived, access to sit under the old chairs for Jass was blocked. It was her safe space, and her behaviour changed. Kosov Googled and came up with this result that perfectly describes Jass. Substitute under chairs for cushions. Her behaviour is returning to normal.

[3:26 pm, 01/03/2026] : Kosov:She is a "Bush Dweller"

Some cats are "Tree Dwellers" (they like high places), and some are "Bush Dwellers" (they like low, enclosed spaces). Your cat is a confirmed Bush Dweller.

The Fix: She isn't "being difficult"—she’s just looking for a "box." As soon as you provide a "better" box/cave in your vicinity, she will likely trade the  room she is in for it.

[3:29 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: I would classify her as "The Secure Loner." She loves you, she knows she’s home, but she deeply values her autonomy. She is the type of cat that will eventually sit near you on the couch, but maybe not on you. She will show love through "slow blinks" from across the room rather than constant meowing.

How to work with this personality:

Respect the "Greeting": When she meets you at the door, give her 2–3 minutes of high-intensity focus (treats, soft talking, gentle pets). Then, let her go. If she feels she "checked in" successfully, she’ll feel more secure.

Quiet the Path: See if you can make the "path" from her room to yours more appealing. A rug or a small "stepping stone" (like a stool or a box) can make a sensitive cat feel safer moving through open spaces.

[3:29 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: The "Sentinel" (The Observer)

Her choice to sleep in the hallway and foyer early on is the biggest clue. In a cat’s mind, the hallway is the "hub" of the house. By sleeping there, she was positioning herself as the Manager of Traffic. * The Logic: She wants to know where everyone is and what everyone is doing, but she doesn't necessarily want to be part of the action. She is a "passive participant" in your life.

2. Low-Stimulus Preference

She is likely an Internalizer. When she feels overwhelmed—whether by noise, a change in furniture, or just the "energy" of a room—she doesn't hiss or scratch; she simply withdraws. * The landlord's (that's me) room is her "Sensory Deprivation Tank." It allows her to lower her heart rate and feel completely invisible, which to a cat like her, is the ultimate form of relaxation.

[3:30 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: She is a cat that loves you from a distance of about six feet. Her personality traits include:

Discriminating: She chooses her moments of affection carefully.

Environmentally Driven: Her mood is 90% dictated by how "safe" her physical surroundings feel.

Self-Sufficient: She doesn't look to you to "entertain" her; she looks to you to "provide" a stable, safe territory.

Will she change?

She won't suddenly become a lap cat who never leaves your side, but she will become more visible again. Right now, she is in a "withdrawal phase" because her favorite safety anchors (the cushions) were removed. She is essentially "pouting" in a feline way—retreating until she feels the house is predictable again.

[3:32 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: This changes the diagnostic picture significantly. If she has stopped the greeting ritual—which was her last remaining "social bridge" to you—it means she has moved from "Seeking Privacy" to "Active Withdrawal."

In feline behavioral terms, your cat is currently experiencing a Security Crisis. When those cushions (her "safe base") were removed without an immediate, identical replacement, her world became unpredictable. To a highly sensitive cat, unpredictability equals danger.

[3:33 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: Why the Greeting Stopped

For a cat, greeting someone at the door requires confidence. You have to leave your "safe zone," walk through "open territory" (the hallway), and expose yourself to the noise and energy of people arriving.

The Loss of the "Safety Anchor": When she had her cushion "cave," she knew she had a place to retreat to if the greeting got too overwhelming.

The "Invisible" Strategy: Without her cave, she feels exposed. Her brain has switched to Survival Mode. In this mode, the safest thing to do is stay in the one room that never changes (the landlord's room) and stay there until the world feels "fixed."

She isn't "mad" at you: She is simply "shutting down" socially because her stress bucket is full.

[3:34 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: Behavioral Insight: The "Internalizer"

Your cat is an Internalizer. When some cats are stressed, they might hiss or knock things over (Externalizers). Your cat does the opposite: she becomes "smaller." She is trying to become invisible to lower her anxiety.

The hard truth: She likely feels that her "territory" (the cushions) was taken away by the giants she lives with (you), and she doesn't understand why. She’s currently "sheltering in place."

[3:34 pm, 01/03/2026] Kosov: My Recommendation

Stop trying to coax her out with your voice or by picking her up. For the next 48 hours, treat her like a "ghost." Provide the new "cave," drop the treats, and let her realize that the pressure is off. When a sensitive cat feels no "pressure" to interact, they usually start to peek out within 3 to 5 days.

River and others participate in Sunday Selections, as I do but not every Sunday.

Jass showed great interest when this toy arrived in the post from Temu. Lordy, the rubbish P&K order at Temu. She was never inclined to pursue it, but from a raised position, she liked to monitor it carefully. Today, she just ignored it and went off to another room.

The problem with it is it stops after five minutes when it could be under furniture. There is a second one but it is under a bed somewhere, and I ain't gettin' down to find it. A phone charger gives it too much current so I charge it via the desktops USB outlet. This is on its slow setting. 

It is always exciting to see balloons fire up their gas burners.



Can you work out what this map shows? New Zealand is the only yellow country, and Australia and England have something in common, and I think Ireland should probably be green too, or do you disagree with that from your Irish people experiences. Later edit: Think of a swear word.

And as Sandra Cox says each Wednesday, I didn't know that; in Australia men's shoe measurements are in UK sizes, as is New Zealand's, but women's shoes in Australia use American sizes. Why? I am a 9, which I guess is nine inches, a very satisfying number.

The new lounge chairs were scheduled for delivery late Friday afternoon. I received a call that they would be here in twenty minutes. I was in the lane waiting for them and they soon arrived but just before, Phyllis called. I had said he could take the car to a job interview and Kosov was with him.

"Andrew, Pearl won't start. What should I do?"

I was puzzled. By this time the delivery had arrived. I said, remember I told you to put the phone number of the Royal Australian Automobile Association into your phone? Yes Andrew. Well call the number to get help. 

The boxes would not fit through the door from the carpark into the building, so the men had to open the boxes to bring the furniture up. No big deal, but Phyllis called again. He needed my RACV membership number and my registration number. He didn't realise that was the car plate number. The rego number should have been enough but I could not drop what I was doing with the delivery. When I had a chance, I found the number and called him, and explained the registration number and gave him my membership number. 

He soon called back and said the RACV would be there in less than an hour, and it wasn't too long before he called back and said the man had arrived, and as I had guessed, Pearl needed a new battery. $400, ka-ching. Phyllis paid for it and I reimbursed him. 

As I was letting the delivery men out, they must have taken a little pity on this old man, and asked if there was somewhere where they could put the boxes. Not removing the packaging was clearly noted on the contract. They squashed the boxes through a door, down stairs and through two more doors and put them in the recycling room in the basement. 

Phyllis called again, the car is fine now and we are just leaving. 

Meanwhile I had to turn huge sturdy boxes into flattened cardboard to go into the cardboard recycling skip bin. I took down a cutting knife but it was too weak. Back upstairs, I found the Stanley knife with a blunt blade and used that. Over thirty minutes later, I had cut up all the boxes and stacked what wouldn't fit into the skip, next to it. This is a proper cutting knife, and I was only slightly tempted to use to cut a vein in my own arm. 

And wow, did I have sweat up. I try to avoid anything that makes me sweat. I also have purple bruises on my arm of the type that anyone who takes blood thinners will know about.

 

Jass' hiding spaces since she arrived:

Under my doona/duvet.

In my wardrobe, after she learnt to slide the door open. Ditton the spare room wardrobe door.

Under the spare bedroom bed.

The linen press, after she learnt to put her paw under the doors to pull them open.

But now her firm place is under the lounge room chairs, where she runs to when she sees Phyllis, or even hears him moving around in his bedroom. This will  change in a week or so after the new lounge room chairs arrive, well, after the old ones are disposed of.

Jass did not take to me initially but to Phyllis and Kosov. But my quiet daily presence when they were at work won her over. I don't spoil her, rarely giving her treats, but I do feed her most of her meals. I am now a bit harder on her when I think it is necessary. 

I think she grew to dislike Phyllis because he is loud and full on. Kosov it gentler with her, sits with her on the floor and talks to her, strokes her cheeks and lets her sniff his fingers. I'm sure she'll get over her hate on Phyllis in time. She doesn't hate him when he feeds her treats. We should be grateful she isn't as bad as John Gray of Wales cat, Weaver, but even he is making progress with his enemy.  

As I type, the full extent of the destruction caused by bushfires in my state is not known. Many houses have been destroyed, including that of my neighbour HH's daughter. It is her second home, mostly used by her husband when teaching in the area, and not their principal residence now. 

Ironically, for her work during the 2009 fires that affected the same area, along with with her volunteer lifesaver work, the daughter was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia) , well deserved in her case, going far beyond her hospital job description; just napping in her office for two weeks straight without stopping her help to victims of the 2009 fires. Now her house in the same area has been burnt to cinders. 

The full extent of the destruction will become apparent in the days to come, but we already know many animals, pets, livestock and native animals were killed. There hasn't been any confirmation of lives lost, yet.

A man visited this morning to quote for new lounge room venetian blinds. I went across the road after he left for coffee and it was quite cool. Maybe 20/68 degrees. I then caught a 58 tram for two stops to the local Woolworths Metro supermarket. I bought a sandwich and a pastry. I forgot about the pastry, and it is still on the kitchen bench. By the time I reached home, the temperature had risen by over 10 degrees. 

The new aircon unit coped very well, and next to the external part of it, the hot air blasting out felt like it was burning my skin as the temperature reached 43/110. Inside, thermometers said 23/73.

Another blind man visited in the afternoon to give his quote. As he was here, the quote from the morning man arrived to my desktop email and he noticed it was from another company. What fun!

The hard sell from the second bloke began. Pay a 50% deposit today, and that will be $100 less. I did not as I await another quote. The two quotes I received are the same in dollars, but I know I can beat them down. 

Jass found it too hot outside on the balcony, but at carpet level, I think she found it cold.

When the new lounge chairs arrive in March, Jass will lose her refuge under the chairs and no longer will be able to show her pink bits.

I went to bed early last night, and consequently I woke early. Not a sleepy wake where I could go back to sleep, but wide awake. At 6.03 just as the sun was rising, fourteen balloons arose at the same time. I think the most I've seen in the past were seven. Quite wondrous and they floated in my direction, but not too close by.

I was out early to meet my friend, formerly of Japan, for breakfast. Yes, too early to call it brunch. I was hungering for bacon and eggs, and that is what I had, on sourdough toast, that I am not so fond of. But our meals were nice.

Phyllis and Kosov had invited two lady friends to lunch at home, with Phyllis cooking. Phyllis was out early too, to Victoria Market to buy fresh food. I'll give them some space. I used the Franklin Street entrance to State Library Station, far simpler than the Latrobe Street entrance, and the train, a couple of minutes late, shot off like scalded cat towards Footscray Station where I alighted to catch a train to Altona. The Werribee bound train was travelling via the Altona Loop! If the trains are running the same way back, that could be interesting ona single track. The screens at Altona Station were only showing Werribee bound trains, not city bound trains for me to return to the city.

We are told to use Journey Planner in case of disruptions. It was effing useless. I drilled down and down and finally found there was a bus replacement back to Newport Station. There was signage to direct passengers to a bus stop at the northern side on the roadway but I was still unsure until I arrived at the bus replacement stop. It took forever for the bus to reach Newport Station, where I could catch a train to the city. But the train with passengers onboard had come from the Werribee direction. I just gave up trying to understand at that point. Apparently these shenanigans will continue until April. 

I left the train at Footscray to catch a Metro train home. 

At home the lady guests were still here, one obviously Indian and the other seemed to be a blonde Anglo. I tried to hear her voice, and I thought it sounded Indian. A game of Uno was underway at the lounge room coffee table. There was food aplenty, and enough for my dinner later. I retired to my quarters to eat my discounted near use by date supermarket sandwich until they departed. 

Once the mynah chicks were born on the balcony below, I ceased harassing the parents, but Jass hasn't. She and the parents are at war with each other. I saw the chicks today, and they are just on ready to fledge, so for Jass, the bird excitement will end.  

Meanwhile back in the real world, I correctly guessed that Janice at Jabblog would win the annual Laughing Horse best blog award, at a terrific ceremony on Little St James resort island, just off the US coast. It is well deserved award and congratulations to JB. 

Aside from my step mother dying in September, it wasn't a bad year for me. A family outing was organised for the first anniversary of Ray's death in April where we all met at Werribee Plains Open Range Zoo, and that was a good and distracting outing.

The attempt to avoid any celebration for my birthday by visiting Sydney was a failure, with just delaying the inevitable. 

December 2024 was a couple nights at Sister's on the Bellarine for Christmas and Boxing Day taking the car on the ferry to the other side of the bay for more family celebrations.

January I picked up Sister's cats from a cattery and took them to her home and stayed several days to look after them.

In April I took Phyllis and Kesav for an overnight stay in Daylesford, with separate cabins. 

Come May it was an overnight stay in Ballarat with my age closest ABI brother for a family get together and see the Sound and Light Show at Sovereign Hill.

I was back on the Bellarine to look after Sister's cats again in July.

As I mentioned, I was in Sydney for two weeks in October, the highlight being my return journey by sleeper train. I so enjoyed that, even though much of the time was spent asleep.

More recently in November were two nights away in Marysville, sharing a two bedroom cabin with Phyllis and Kosov.

Other outings with Phyllis and Kosov were day trips to, one to Mount Macedon with a stop off at the Organ Pipes National Park, a trip to the Bellarine for Jo's 18th where Phyllis and Kosov met most of the family, the trip to Geelong to see Jo slay them is the aisles in Anything Goes. There was also the surprise for Kosov with a trip to the Dinosaur Park, and a trip to travel on The Eagle chairlift at Arthur's Seat. I may well remember something else later. I did, a family trip to Funky Farm.

I was spoilt for my birthday once I returned, especially by being taken out for a surprise lunch by Phyllis and Kosov where we ate at a cafe in a train carriage (I want to say teetering, but that would be a lie) atop a three story building.

And who could forget the arrival into my home of Jass.

I can't take any pride in Phyllis graduating with a Master's degree in Food Science and Technology, but I sure as hell will take pride in teaching him to drive and obtaining his driving license. Once I realised he was at a level to pass a test, I worked hard on making him a better driver, smoother, more economical with fuel and reading other motorists' actions in advance. 

There was great sadness when the lovely Sue in Canberra unexpectedly died. She will be remembered by many of us forever. At times I return to her last blogpost, a Sunday Selections, which if her numbering is correct, they were over sixteen years. Just a week or so before, while weakened by treatment, she made the Out of the Shadows walk for suicide prevention. She has been posthumously honoured for her service at Lifeline over many years.

The world has seemed like a terribly messy place the year past, certainly not helped by the instability in the US and discontent in the UK. The year ended so badly in Australia with a horrific mass shooting, killing 15 people. We can make our own small efforts to make the world a better place, but we can't take the weight of world issues on our shoulders.

My evening was spent at home, declining an invitation from HH to watch the fireworks from her apartment with her city views. Instead being antisocial, I will watch the 9.30 fireworks from the tramstop below. By midnight I will be sound I was almost asleep, as Sister and her family prepare to party on for Hogmanay in Edinburgh. I warned Phyllis that I would probably drink too much and cry at some point, but he wasn't around to see that. Kosov was at work.

All in all, not a bad year for me. To all my blogmates, those of you who I know personally, and readers, my sincere best wishes for 2026. 

Happy New Year.

I leave the home for five minutes, and chaos ensues. Well, I was away for a few hours.

With my able assistant Jass, we have been fighting against the Mynah birds nesting on the balcony below. I shoot at them with a great atomiser bottle, and Jass makes her low growl bird noises at them. While they are a terrible bird, attacking other birds twice their size to defend their territories, and while keep their distance from humans, they have no issue at all with attacking Jass with flying near her as if to attack. She crouches down lower. 

Given one bird is now bringing food for the other bird who must be sitting on eggs, I have ceased my failed deterrence. I wrote a note to the apartment dwellers but I sat on it for a couple of days. Then I saw a bagel sitting near their nest, far too big for the birds to bring up, so I guess the birds are welcome to rear their young on their balcony. 

Friday night I went to a pub for dinner with two friends, a couple, another couple of friends who are partners who I haven't seen for a few years, and three people who I didn't know. I suspect one in his fifties had been clued up that I was 'rich' old widower and was quite forcefully and overtly friendly towards me. He was nice enough, but no. I don't want any kind of personal and proper relationship. 

Not long after I devoured my delicious pork chop with vegetables, I felt social overload and made my apologies and left, to tram home. I'd been there for two hours.

"Annedrew," said Phyllis, once I was home, "we had the balcony door open and a Mynah bird came inside to attack Jass". "Jass cowered while we chased the bird around and eventually it flew outside."

JFC, can't I leave home without a disaster happening. Jass has developed post traumatic stress disorder, not eating properly and will have nothing to do with Phyllis and is spending most of her time in the linen press. She'll get over it. I noticed when she transports a toy around, she has her front legs wide apart, space for a kitten dangling from her mouth. She may be desexed, but I am sure her hormones are still partly working. 

I have ten great nieces and nephews and for Christmas I am giving them a miserly $20 each. Ray's ghost was in my ear telling me to not be so mean, but hey, that is $200. When I was but a lad, I would be grateful for a sixpence.

Today I will have lunch with my neighbour HH, except many cafes around here have closed for Christmas. I will be adventurous and suggest Republic Econmica.  We will need to catch a 58 tram to South Yarra Station.

By the time this is published, Sister, Bone Doctor and Jo will be in York, after spending time in Germany and London. They had one day in London where they all felt unwell, but rallied themselves to see Starlight Express. What they have seen in London in a short time amazes me. My sister is a busy go go person. Fom York they will travel to Newcastle to spend Christmas with Ray's family, visit Glasgow and then Edinburgh for Hogmanay, New Year's Eve. At the age of 18, Jo has already seen so much of the world. I was about 25 before I first went overseas, to New Zealand. 

It is hard to believe that in 2023, we were in England, catching up with Fun60 in York, seeing Ray's family and thinking this will a be final overseas journey. But never say no. My mother died later that year, Ray in 2024 and my stepmother in 2025. By age, Step Mother's 97 year old partner will be next, then my surviving uncle, and next will be me. Cheery thoughts. 

But as I recently remarked on a post by Wise Web Woman, which I did partly hear elsewhere, I am a lucky person to be born white in Australia, had a long and loving relationship with Ray, I'm financially secure and live in a great city, I have a great and large family and some really good friends. And I'm now with the company of Phyllis and Kosov. I really am one of the luckiest people in the world, but why don't I feel like that at times?

There was a pesky mynah bird nearby, out of the reach of Jass and she did not like its presence. I've never heard a cat make this kind of noise before but have you?

We had three cats, Millie, a rather wild and free spirited cat who only saw us as a source of food. She was rarely inside and was hit by a car one night, and fixed up by a vet, but shortly later hit by another car and deaded. A neighbour found her body beside the road. I would imagine Jass might be like her if she was an outside cat. 

We inherited Thomas and Scruffy, both boys. Scruffy could be affectionate but not as much as the beautiful gentleman Thomas. We loved him and he loved us. He was a large black and white pussy.

None were hard work like Jass. Perhaps it is because she is not out in a garden roaming. She took a hate on Phyllis for a while, because he was too loud and noisy, and he picked her up, which she does not like. She would hide away when he was around. She seems to be over that since he has stopped picking her up. Because I am home more often with Jass, slowly I have earned her trust. I never forced things, but let her get used to me.

I introduced her to the balcony, which I was quite fearful about, mostly because there is a gap below the balcony glass wide enough for her to fit her body under if she flattened out, but she has been good, just sticking her neck out. I must say, she is a very 'interesting' cat with a strong mind of her own. I expect she would be an excellent hunter and a good mother. 

Rub her belly, and her claws will come out. 

She will sleep an awful lot during the day, if it just me and her here.

My dishwasher is eight years old and if it washed every day since it was bought, it could have washed a load of dishes nearly 3,000 times. Obviously when we were away from home, it wasn't used. Occasionally it missed a day because we had dined out, and rarely, it did two loads a day. Since Phyllis and Kosov moved in and I insisted they use the dishwasher rather than washing dishes under running water, it was probably averaging three loads every two days. 

It was a Bosch (note past tense, I'm building momentum) and one morning I rose to unusual pumping noises and displaying an E15 fault on the display panel. Google quickly told me it was water present in the base tray under the unit and a float mechanism, like one in your toilet cistern or horse trough, for reasons to prevent an overflow of water, had caused the fault. 

Turning it off and on again at the powerpoint did not help. Kosov emptied the dishwasher and washed its contents by hand. Next morning I arose and pressed the on switch, and thank goodness it switched on like normal. Just a minor glitch, and now fixed. 

About two weeks later, the day after I bought Rover, the iRobot, the same thing happened, but it didn't fix itself the following morning. We learnt it would work if we turned the inlet tap off it had finished washing, it would work again. That is clearly not going to work long term. I called an appliance repairer we had used before, a long time ago though, and no, they won't service Bosch appliances. 

I called Bosch, and arranged for a bloke repair technician to visit and repair. The cost was $200 for half an hour, plus parts, plus more if it took longer than half a hour. After pondering for a few hours and looking at prices for new dishwashers online, I decided to cancel the appointment and buy a new one. This is a rather unexpected expense, but what else can I do. 

The Good Guys had a cheap price for a replacement, also a Bosch and much the same as the old one, I was prepared to pay for delivery, removal of the old unit and installation, until I was told the delivery company would no longer take away old dishwashers as they leaked water on to the floor of their precious vans. I paid just for delivery. 

What I also learnt, which both the old and new dishwasher have, is the as I described float to cut water off if the float rises, but also that there is an electric wire running up the inside the outer casing of the inlet hose, to a cut off valve where the hose connects to the tap.

The machine was delivered around 5pm last Sunday. I was is no mood at that hour to deal with it so, it messily sat in the 'eatery' until the next day when Kosov installed it under my instruction. 

It is not an exciting appliance, just doing the job the old did. But it has completed the transformation of the kitchen from white goods to stainless steel; fridge, microwave and now dishwasher, all in twelve months. 

Jass helps to remove the plastic wrapping on the new dishwasher.

Off and on Ray and I used to talk about the merits of robot vacuum cleaners and buying one. We could never justify the expenditure when we had a perfectly good stick vacuum cleaner to clean not such a large area. Unlike getting out the old barrel model, unwinding the extension cord and putting the hose into the vacuum shaft and head, the stick vacuum cleaner was simply taken off its wall mounted charging stand and it was ready to go. For here, with just the two of us, it was perfectly adequate.

The lads will vacuum whenever I ask them but they are rarely proactive about doing so. At times they have a cleaning burst and it will be done.

I confess, me getting one though would be nothing but a toy to play with, however with two people and them cooking a lot, along with Jass' fur, I was thinking about it. Then a blogger mentioned she had one, and although there is just the two of them, a lot of fur will be shed in their abode.

The straw that broke the camelus back was when Ex Sis in Law mentioned she had bought one. Now she doesn't have money, but maybe there is some kind of cause and effect thing happening there. Right, I want one.

I researched and found the one I wanted for a good price, so meet what Phyllis named, Rover. 

We firstly sent it off on a mapping run, which it did successfully, and has been continually adjusting the map since. Kesav worked on putting names to the rooms. 

My room is Andrew's Chambers, with my ensuite called Andrew's Retreat. Their room is simply PK and the spare room is called Rover's Room, where the robot's base station is located.

The main bathroom is called Shower with the toilet called Potty. The kitchen is Cook's Area, the dining area, Eatery and the lounge area, Jass' Play Room.

The machine is great and continually refines itself, doing less strange things than it originally did. With water and a couple of drops of detergent, it also mops the tiled areas, as directed by how you set up the map.

Jass initially followed Rover around, always keeping a safe distance but its path is not always predictable. Then she started to ignore it, but once again as I made this video today, she was on watch.

Rover returns to its base after vacuuming and mopping the kitchen floor and then empties itself into a bag within the base unit, which is when it makes a loud noise. 

Phyllis went out sometime around midnight last night to 'escort' Kosov home. I was in bed at 11 and I didn't hear him leave. He said the bus didn't turn up, I expect he was late and missed it, so came back home, to Jass created havoc. He told me this morning she had knocked down a sword from their bedroom window ledge and a plate on the lounge room shelves, and when he returned she was sitting on top of  the fridge, which I've never see her do. 

What I noticed when I got up, were small clumps of her fur all over the place, evidence that she had been running around, and her being nervous. It wasn't a little fur, it was a lot. 

I do remember that when I got up in the morning, the balcony door was slightly open, not enough for her to get out. It is too heavy for her to move, but my guess is an insect or more than one came in and she had being in pursuit, and she had been very excited. She hid for most of the day under the lounge chair. 

The new mayor of New York City is very pro public transport, yet flew to meet #47 in Washington DC, when the train trip is only three hours, zooming along at 255/160. How disappointing. What could have a been a positive media story for him, was not. 

Later: My guess was correct. Jass had been chasing a bug. I don't know why he didn't tell me in the first place. There was an insect wing sticking out of her poo the next morning. 

The lads weren't working today. They had booked a ticket on a free bus to Chadstone Shopping Centre,  the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. They got up to late and missed the bus and so took a cab to meet up with Kosov's workmates to see a film at Chadstone. 

At home after going out in the car for shopping, I became increasingly cross. They had left the large bag full of recycling to be taken to the bin room sitting on the floor, two drink bottles and a pretty looking labelled empty wine bottle, a large package of various dried foods, nail polish remover and a cotton ball. I pushed it all into a corner. The kitchen floor had not been mopped since I returned from Sydney. The less used bench areas felt greasy. 

They had left at 9.00am and didn't return until after 8.00pm. I stewed about the state of the kitchen all day. I cooked myself a steak for dinner and had a nice supermarket beetroot and fetta salad, just adding some cocktail tomatoes. 

Once they were home, I told Phyllis I wasn't feeling very huggy when he tried to hug me, and I then went through the list of why I wasn't in regard to the kitchen. Within 15 minutes, the clutter had disappeared, the recycling was taken down and the floor mopped.

Their bedroom is a disaster. When you start storing things on the floor and not in cupboards or wardrobes, you are on a downhill slope. But their bedroom is their private space. The kitchen is a shared space that I use, at least to pour milk onto my breakfast cereal. 

Kosov's parents sent him a package, which turned out to be an 8kg box, that I carried upstairs from the mailroom, containing three pair of sneaker type shoes, some homemade vegetable pickle, and a cat house for Jass. Obviously at 8kg, there was some other stuffs too. Jass likes her cat house. 

Just a bit of personal stuff. I employed a window cleaner last Tuesday, to clean the lounge room and balcony glass. Superficially, his work seemed ok, but after he left, I noticed he hadn't cleaned down the outside window sills, and the next morning with the sun on the balcony glass, the window cleaning was obviously very poor.

 I explained to him that the window tinting was old and ready to decay if not treated very gently, and so to be careful. He managed to damage the window tinting. This could have well happened if I cleaned the windows, so I am not so annoyed about that, but the basics of window cleaning should have been brilliant, and it wasn't. Window tinting now costs a fortune, but I guess I will get it done. Three windows in my apartment have already been redone. 

I'm trying to live up to Ray's mantra, shrouds don't have pockets. I've spent a lot of money since Ray died and the inheritance came through from my mother and then Ray, mostly on home improvements, and I will continue to do so. I have no one to leave money to. My siblings are fine for money. Phyllis and Kosov may get some money from me, but hey are already treated generously. 

Last Friday was my neighbour HH's 80th birthday. She said she would be away and had made a plan to catch the train to Adelaide, a city she knows reasonably well, but then decided she would stay home. In conspiracy with her son, I helped him on the day to have delivered to her a bottle of Baileys, and later flowers. Her daughter surprised her by taking her to a show about Don Lane, presented by his son P. J. Lane. After the show, she got to chat to John Michael Howson and newsreader Peter Hitchener, I think. Victorians of a certain age will remember these people. 

Thinking she may be away on the day of her birthday, two days earlier the three of us trooped downstairs to give her the gift I had bought. She showed Phyllis and Kosov around her apartment and we chatted for a bit. I gave her a notebook with the cover of local silo art, as she had taken a silo tour earlier this year, and knowing she drinks peppermint tea and lemon and ginger tea, I bought her an advent calendar that has a different tea bag for each of the 24 days. She adored it and the photo doesn't do the interior of the box justice. She said she would mount the box on her wall after she finished the teas. 

I had lunch with HH yesterday and caught up on her news. She is very social and outgoing. We walked to the lunch venue and on the way back she chatted to a postman, who I can't remember but he used to deliver to our building. They each asked other about respective families, and one day when all her dividend letters arrived and nearly filled her letter box, he called her on the intercom to tell her. There is much kindness in the building where I live, and I know people who I can trust. HH is going to feed Jass while we are away at the end of the month. 

Anyway, here are some pics of the T2 gift. It is quite large.

You may wonder why I would ever feel stressed, but today I did. The appointment for Jass' FV vaccination was at 12.10 on the other side of the city, in North Melbourne, but not much more than a twenty minute drive. 

But Thursday is my shopping day. I can do both. I will leave early for shopping and neglect the world of blog, which I did. It took forever to reach South Melbourne in the car. Every light just turned red as I arrived. The idiot car drivers were at their worst. If I ask you to give me a character reference for a gun licence, do not comply with my request, or you will be complicit in possible murders.

To save $12 I had ordered my wine at Dan's for pick up. Why can't I just get the discount at the register in person? That went ok, although I would have liked a list on the outside of the box to check what I ordered was correct. Aldi was fine. I'm now back on track and going well, until it didn't. I went to my usual place for coffee and there was a queue. There is never a queue, but five people were in front of me to order, and five people waiting in a group for there coffee. I think I waited fifteen minutes for the coffee. 

Meanwhile, Neighbour HH's son was trying to get a bottle of cheer delivered to his mother's door, but had forgotten her apartment number. There were five text messages between us, and three phone calls to Kosov. The bottle was delivered to her doorstep, then late in the day she texted me to ask if I knew anything about it. No HH, nothing to do with me.

 Stay calm Andrew. You have allowed enough time, and theory told me I had, but practically I felt like I was late. Woolworths was so busy but I smartly moved through the store, buying what I needed, including frozen broccoli and frozen peas, that Aldi didn't have. Then there was the checkout incident, that I won't elaborate on, but delayed me further. 

The traffic on the way home wasn't any better. 

Kosov was coming with me to the vet, and he was dilly dallying but we only left five minutes late. I saw online that the vet has a free carpark. I wish I had known the last time we were there. To save three minutes for the drive to and from the veterinary practice, I could have spent $7 on road tolls each way. Instead with my vague knowledge and watching the car sat nav list of streets, I worked my way there well enough, and we were there ten minutes early. 

We entered five minutes early and were seen five minutes late. The vet was pleasant, very knowledgeable, but slightly strange. I described some of Jass' behaviour and he looked at her notes. Apparently she was quite pregnant when she was found. I assume her kittens were aborted before she was desexed. He went on. I can feel a good amount of nipple development, so perhaps that explains her nesting behaviour. It will take time for the hormones to leave her, but they will. 

As an old age pensioner, I received an about 15% discount for the cost of the visit to the non profit Lost Dogs Home veterinary practice. While I wasn't worried about anything, Kosov was, and he was reassured. Her weight matter was cleared up. She was 3.9kg when checked in, very pregnant. When we returned a couple of weeks after we first picked her up, she was 3.2 kg, and we were quite concerned at her weight loss. We didn't know she was carrying kittens when she was originally weighed. As the vet said, she is a small cat and her current weight of 3.7 kg is good. 

With more crazy driving by others on the way home, it was only a bit after 1.00 when we arrived home. Jass was very unsettled and sought refuge under the lounge room chair until Phyllis arrived home at around 4.00.

I too was unsettled and sat in the lounge room chair watching YouTube videos on tv for an hour to relax. There is a new train/tram/light rail line in Ottawa, ON, CA. That is kind of great. 

I expect Jass will return to her normal, mostly relaxed, state tomorrow. I may go for a nice relaxing train ride somewhere tomorrow, with a day free to myself. 

I suppose Jass has been a resident here for two months. She has trained Phyllis and Kosov very well as her servants. Not so much the grumpy uncle, yours truly.

She visited the big wide world once, and was overloaded with information, scents and instincts, and so ended up in Kosov's arms. He is number 1 in her life, Phyllis number 2, and I am third. 

She likes going out on the balcony and her breathing becomes very rapid. She ignores my treaties to come back inside, and I've nudged her inside so many times, I only need to put a guiding hand near her now. The same goes for the landing. At times she will scratch at the door to out onto the landing. She has a bit of a sniff around, there are dogs and a cat next door, but mostly she sits and listens. She knows people appear from the lift, and is always hopeful when she hears it, that it will be Phyllis or Kosov. She is very adept at opening doors, and though she doesn't have a chance of opening a door with a door handle, she does know that the handles are related to door opening, and tries to reach for them.

She is certainly not a lap cat, but she does sleep on top of  Phyllis or Kosov at times. I keep my bedroom door closed when I am sleeping. She has stopped using my wardrobe and under my bed or doona as a safe space, but she does still at times hide away under a lounge room chair. 

Her litter tray has been moved from their wardrobe to the toilet, large enough for a wheelchair. She's perfectly toilet trained, although something got stuck a day or so ago, which she removed by scooting across the carpet. 

She has no interest in human food, and oddly doesn't like wet food, although we mix it in with her dry and she has to eat it. She likes her dental treats and tubes of paste. Given she has her own water fountain, she is no longer interested in water from the kitchen tap. The filter in the fountain needs to replaced regularly. After a couple of weeks, it had become slimy and I removed it. On one visit to a pet shop, I bought a new filter, but it was the wrong one. The lads cut it to make it fit, but it still didn't. $10 wasted. We tried again at the same pet shop, and Phyllis was convinced we now had the right one, at $17. I told Phyllis to open the box carefully, and he did. Just as well, as it was too big. I returned it, and bought the flea/worm treatment. On the receipt, the credit was for a 'water softening filter'. For fucks goodness sake, Melbourne has the softest water in the world. Filter not needed. 

She is certainly a cat with a lot of character and is very smart. Today we gave her the multi treatment at the back of her head for worms, fleas, heartworm. The week after next she is booked in for an FV vaccination.

She is very active in the morning after breakfast with a lot of chat, which becomes quite annoying. I sometimes amuse her with toys or red dot pointer. About 11am, it is time for her to curl up in an armchair and sleep into the afternoon. Her ears become tuned at about 4pm when Phyllis or Kosov might arrive home. There is more I could write, but I have bored myself, let alone you. 

I hoped to include a photo but as I write this, Phyllis is flaked out after a rough couple of working days, and a job interview. Hopefully he will send me a Jass photo when he wakes. 

Ondreeeewwww, can we get a mat for the kitchen floor.

No Kosov, and you spend little time on the kitchen floor. Phyllis asked you to ask me, and the answer is no. Mats for old people like me are trip hazards. 

Ok Ondreeewww, I understand.

Also Kosov, do not put bags on the floor at the end of the bench that I could trip over as I walk past. That's an old person trip hazard. 

There has been a lot of joking about what may or may not be old person trip hazards.

Nevertheless, trip hazards a real thing for people my age.

But the newest member of the household has become a serious old person trip hazard. Jass loves to lie in the main walkway between the living area and the bedrooms, like right in the middle. 

As Marcellous mentioned, longer haired cats have a lot of hair, and I've found it floats around and can be found everywhere. This is extra work for me. Soon after Jass arrived, the vacuum cleaner started to fail, so I had to replace the battery, and fast. Ka-ching!

The a/c installation went without a problem. They weren't the best tradies at cleaning up, but not bad. I am happy. Big ka-ching. Jass was locked in with Kesav in their bedroom. There was an attempt at some lamp rearranging, but today I said it needed to return to how is was. While I was out, Kosov sorted it, but there was a spider on the interior part of the aircon! "Kosov, that will scare visitors and they won't return. Ah Kosov, this is your anti social disorder coming to the fore. You want to scare people away." I told him the spider must disappear by the time I return from holidays. 

The harvest moon was big, and it isn't a good photo. 


A dagger sits upon the top of this book.

Phyllis, do you intend stabbing someone in self defence? No Andrew, it is for opening boxes at work. I worry about them being out and about at night, just like a father would, except they are grown men. 

I won't be posting a Feline Friday every week but as Jass is still quite new to us, her progress may be interesting to you. 

She has had the halter on and although it doesn't worry her, she doesn't like the process of having it put on. She hasn't been outside, unless it has been after I've gone to bed. She continues to settle in and is more and more relaxed. She does not like the vacuum cleaner. Even without the stick attached and the unit turned off, she gives the head a good hiss. But as long as she is not on the floor, we can still vacuum and she doesn't move. 

Last week I bought an assortment of toys and she has been playing with them. Her favourite is a life sized soft mouse, which she tortures as she would a real mouse. She chases a ball, and then stands over it. She has occasional zoomies. I told the lads to not overuse the laser pointer I bought, but of course they did, so she lost interest in chasing the red dot. Boy, did she have initial fun with it though. Maybe after a break, it will again have some appeal to her.

All in all, she has adjusted well. She hasn't visibly put on weight, and I keep meaning to check, but she eats well enough, which she wasn't initially. 

A most unlady like pose. 

See that looseish piece of leather hanging at the back of the chair. I saw she moved it accidently while she was running around. I wondered if she had noticed it.
Sure enough. Soon after she stuck her head in the cavity. Not too long after she decided under the chair was going to be a good place to quietly repose. As long as no one sits in the chair and operates the footrest or reclines, all will be well. Actually, the mechanism on that chair is broken. I will be replacing the two chairs probably in November.