Thursday, November 29, 2012

Fingers crossed I didn't kill a kitty...

Branden is starting to feel a lot better and our housemate is scratching less and less so things are looking good for our house. With me being home and taking care of things, I've been able to be quite productive this week as well. We've got a freezer in our laundry room that we all share but there has been so much frost build up over time that the top two racks were unusable...except for the package of beef mince that has been 'snowed in' to the top shelf since before we moved in back in March 2011. Over the weekend, I noticed that the ice buildup became so bad that the freezer door wouldn't shut, causing more frost build up than ever. I hacked away at it with a metal spatula until I could close the door and then plotted the demise of the rest of the ice.

Being at home, and having some men around to help, we tackled defrosting the freezer on Tuesday. Armed with a mini hammer, butter knife, and my metal spatula, the boys brought the freezer into the back garden where I hacked away and the housemate doused it in lukewarm water. It must have taken over an hour until I finally go the nasty beef package chiseled/melted out, and it was nastier than I thought. Placing it on the outside kitchen windowsill, I continued my scourge on the ice and about another hour into it, we finished the job!

It's amazing how much more room is available now, which is good since our bored but itchy housemate drove us to the big grocery store yesterday so we could stock back up on stuff. For his kindness and his time, I made a big pot of beef stew for all of us for dinner. While we were in the kitchen though, we all of a sudden noticed the neighbor's black kitten on our windowsill outside! The calico female has somehow managed to jump into our back garden (8ft walls and all!) but the black one is much more skittish and even though he purrs very loudly when I give him his cheese, he will not let me pet him at all. I couldn't figure out what he was doing and why he wasn't freaking out over 3 of us looking closely at him through the window. Then I saw him pick up a package...the nasty, who knows how old, beef mince package!

I ran outside, causing him to hide behind our shed, and grabbed the disgusting loaf of 'meat' that had fallen out of it's package then swiftly took it out front to the garbage bin. It didn't look like the kitty ate any of it, but then again, I didn't particularly want to analyze a loaf of meat that possibly had been around longer than I had!

Hopefully the kitty hasn't been poisoned by who knows what bacteria lived on that loaf, but when I got my cheese and went back out to the back garden, he and his calico sister seemed to both be fine (and wandering around on the ground which is new!). He still won't let me touch him, but for some reason if I am wearing my glasses when he's on the wall, he will try and bat at them with his paw. Maybe he doesn't thing they look so good on me, but last time he did this, I took my glasses off and let him sniff them. He was intrigued, but I just can't figure out what his deal is with them. Cats can be so weird! ...I just hope I didn't kill one!


11 comments:

  1. We use the word brindle to describe that mix of colours.
    I've discovered you can get chicken thighs at €2 a kilo. I've got some for Jess today. It'll be better for her that getting tinned dogfood.

    This year I bought a freezer. It has made weekly food buying far easier and far less dependent on the price in the supermarket as I'm not constrained by the size of the freezer atop the fridge.

    Oh, your ESB bill should see a visible drop with the ice gone. You know you can get those pads that prevent vapor forming into those icebergs at Woodies.
    And oh oh, have you thought about the Lidl satellite dish. There is one next week http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_26645.htm . You'll save a fortune on TV cable.

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    1. I've also heard people call her a tortoise shell, which we did use that in the States but they were a little different in coloration. Brindle I think we only use for dogs so I'm still getting used to things. We love to get chicken thighs, as I prefer dark meat, and get them often. We can only stock up so much in our house since our freezer isn't huge and with 5 other housemates, we only have a drawer. We also only have a shelf in the fridge so stocking up here is nothing like it was in the States! We try and work our shelf space well though so we can keep a good stock.
      Thankfully all of our utilities are included in rent so if anyone notices a price difference it will be our landlady. She also controls our TV antenna but since the digital switchover, we got all new TV's and gained 2 new channels (bringing us up to 9!). We have Netflix which helps, although we have considered switching to LoveFilm as we may have access to more things.

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    2. I was actually thinking of the thighs for the cats :-).

      Yeah, shared fridges are a flash point in any house like that. Even in the most ordered people think there is a replicator stuck in the back.

      Nine, how are you getting 9 ch's. 1,2,3,tg4,3e,rte news, rte jr and rte1+1. Ye haven't got the Queens visit to the market on a loop, 'specially for Cork :-D. Rebel County my eye, given half a chance ...

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  2. It's amazing what animals are able to eat--& LIVE THROUGH!!

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    1. This is very true! I have seen the calico kitty today but not the black one...I'm hoping all is well!! :)

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  3. There are some jobs you can only put off for so long, and I think that is one of them.

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  4. Cats eat all manner of shite, it'll be fine.

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  5. What? You took a picture of the cute kitties and not the vile bag of meat?? I feel totally jilted!!

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  6. If it was frozen that hard, then it was probably still safe. You'd be amazed at how long you can keep some frozen foods. You are not a kitty killer.

    Love,
    Janie

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  7. It can be quite a job defrosting a freezer if it isn't done regularly. My wife Jill does ours whenever it needs it. She uses a hair dryer to help melt the ice, but not too hot. The ice then just falls off in lumps. She puts the frozen food into a wash basket and covers it with towels to keep it cold while she does the job. It takes her about 1/2 hour. Just thought you might find this information helpful Maggie? - Dave

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  8. Cats are utterly adorable. Plus they are a higher form of life, so...

    I've seen a couple that had my parents as staff climb the brick walls of the house to get up to the second floor balcony.

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Does this straitjacket make my butt look big?