Some small relief

[rebeccmeister]

When I was in Arizona, I learned from Tempe Feed & Tack that in the U.S., there is currently a shortage of either the tins or the raw materials used to produce them, for wet cat/pet foods.

As you may know, Emma's diet has gotten to be increasingly restricted over the past year due to her emergent chicken allergy; in the recent past she has basically been toggling back and forth between 1 or 2 kinds of cow-based foods, and a lamb-based diet. She doesn't seem to care for pork. At this point, we've run low on the lamb and it looks like production has halted, either temporarily or permanently. As she has been coming out of her recent health crisis, she's only been nibbling at the edge of the cow foods, either because she's still feeling on edge or because she now associates the cow foods with her malaise.

But the good news is, when we offered her some of the remaining precious lamb stockpile last night, she ate it all right up. And she's also more than happy to gobble up any scraps of cheese we give her. So at this point it looks like we'll be able to at least tide her over until we can make it in to see her regular vet next Monday.

Cats!

In the meantime, she continues to sleep in ridiculous positions.





How that is comfortable, I don't even know.

-

With the rowing club it seems like there's a neverending list of things to keep me up at night. Recently most of those things have had to do with the club's annual regatta, coming up on September 18. Perhaps we shall call September 18 DoomsDay. Yes.

There are just a billion little moving pieces for a regatta, and I'll sleep better and better as more of them get pinned down.

One of the big ones has been our regatta timing systems. From the previous Regatta Director I inherited a couple of well-organized boxes of supplies, which included a pair of rather expensive race stopwatches. Upon initial inspection, they were dead. Changing out the AA batteries had little to no impact. Eventually I figured out to open one up, whereupon I discovered they also have internal calculator batteries. On Sunday, while we waited for Emma to be seen at the emergency vet, I took one apart and put in a fresh calculator battery, but to no avail. Drat. That always leaves the question of whether the thing is DEAD-dead, or whether there's continued user error.

So this morning, I dug out the other one and tried the same surgery on it. This time, a successful outcome:



So now, if nothing else, if we have to get new ones at least we'll only have to get ONE new expensive stopwatch rather than two. Plus I now know that I am indeed doing the battery update correctly.

Onward.

Comments

[bluepapercup]

poor lil Emma. She's doing her best and is lucky to have you folks feeding her cheese bits!

Cobweb sleeps with his head tucked under like that sometimes, except he loafs up first, so he looks like a headless lump! it's so strange and I must always photograph it.

[rebeccmeister]

Ahahaha, that's a brilliant sleeping position! Silly kitties. :^)

I can't overemphasize how good miss Emma is as a kitty. She has her moments but hey, we all do. On the whole I feel lucky to be able to feed the cheese bits to her.

[twoeleven]

That's a stopwatch? It looks like an old-fashioned printing calculator.

If you didn't check/clean the battery contacts in the unresponsive stopwatch, try that. I spent a while cleaning contacts in a good flashlight, and it went from dead to feeble to blinding over the course of an hour or so.

[rebeccmeister]

Pretty amazing-looking, isn't it? It prints the time. An extra level of analog security because a regatta race finish can quickly turn into a zoo. Just picture 4 boats all finishing within a 4-second timeframe. One person can track the finish order while another person pushes the timing button. Then they can go back to match boat numbers with times after the fact. You could do the same with a computer, but that involves having a computer with a reliable power source and a backup computer, too, out in a rainstorm. And probably a third backup, just in case. And here's hoping no software wedges up at any point.

On the unresponsive one, the internal battery contacts looked clean. But worth considering. That one is currently at home, so I'll have to check it this evening. Gonna keep my fingers and toes crossed it works after some additional poking.

[twoeleven]

Just picture 4 boats all finishing within a 4-second timeframe.
Indeed, I figured pictures were how the winners were determined, or rather video was. Silly me. :)

[rebeccmeister]

Ah! Video does also get deployed in a lot of cases, but is generally more expensive to set up and orchestrate, and also needs a fallback. A lot also depends on whether what we're talking about is a sprint race (all boats start at a starting line at the same time) or a head race (timed/staggered starts). And on how many people we have at our disposal to run a finish line. (in the present case, not many!)

[ihavenoarms]

cute cat

[rebeccmeister]

Thanks! She's a real sweetheart and I'm lucky to have her. She's 17!!

[ihavenoarms]

im a cat over i had a big orange tabby cat for 15 years but had to have her put to sleep a few years a go she stopped eating and lost her eye sight

[threemeninaboat]

I snorted at your cat.

[rebeccmeister]

Such a goofball!

[moodyduck]

I never understand how they can breathe like that.

[moodyduck]

What brand of food does she eat?

[rebeccmeister]

The lamb is Instinct by Nature. Aside from that, like 20 other different kinds of foods. Too many.

[moodyduck]

Was just going to suggest Weruva if you haven't tried it. I don't think it has supply problems, they have a lot of protein options and combinations, and even Mr. Picky Butt here will usually consent to eat it. (He really just wants a giant vat of tuna gravy available on demand...I can't convince him that he needs to eat the solid bits too. I can't figure out how my 15 lb cat eats so little.)