Good Boy update

Some of you may remember Good Boy, the neighborhood feral I TNR'd last year.

Good Boy kept coming around, off and on, and then, around Christmas time, he started coming around all the time.  He'd hang out in my backyard shed during the day and in the my garage at night, and he'd meow loudly and scratch at the kitchen door when he wanted me to bring him some food. (Typical male, ha.)  I worried about him being out in the cold and snow.

But my permacat Tinks was NOT having it. It was okay when Good Boy only came around once in a while, but when it became every day, Tinks became aggressive toward him, and I was afraid somebody was going to get hurt.

A farmer I TNR for offered to give Good Boy a farm home.  And that was the plan, until ... Good Boy started rubbing against my legs when I took his food out.  And rolling on the floor, showing me his tummy. And PURRING.

I called the rescue I volunteer for.   Would they be willing to work with Good Boy?

The answer was yes!

So a couple of weeks ago, when Good Boy meowed for his breakfast, I went out in the garage, scooped him up, popped him in a crate, and took him to the adoption center.

Why yes, yes I AM a Judas.

I'm sorry, Good Boy!  It's for the best!

The center volunteers are patiently working with Good Boy.  I stop by often, as do my friends, to give him some loving.

He is fussed over and has a warm, safe place to sleep with no Tinks to attack him.   He even entertains guests from time to time at his new place:

Most importantly, he'll finally have a family to love him, once the perfect people come along.  No more living in sheds and garages and having other cats beat up on him.  He'll finally be able to have a home. 

Good Boy!

Lumpy Space Princess

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that one of my current crop of fosters had to have hernia surgery.

So I wasn't really surprised when I felt lumps in the belly of one of his siblings.  It seems Camper Rainbow had developed the same condition that her brother came in with.

Arrangements were made for her hernia/spay surgery, and I dropped her off that morning and picked her up that evening, still hilariously loopy from the anesthetic and the pain meds. (her, not me.)

But ... when I got her home and went to take a look at her belly, it was still all lumpy!  What the -

Mammary hyperplasia.  It wasn't hernias, it turns out it was something called mammary hyperplasia, which thankfully is a fairly minor diagnosis as far as diagnoses go.  (Just when you think you've seen it all as far as kitten problems!) The lumps should go away now that she's been spayed, and the condition should not recur.

And while I had jokingly starting referring to her as Lil Lumpy, one of my coworkers said I should call her Lumpy Space Princess (which is, it turns out, a cartoon character).

LSP it is!  At least here in Foster Camp.  haha.

Game Cam Pics

I stuck a game cam on the ground below the birdfeeder the other day, to see what showed up.

There were lots of the usual suspects:

And even what is evidently the world's largest bird:

Oh wait it's just a deer.  Whew!

Speaking of deer:

And of coursel, there were plenty of THESE:

*SIGH*  Squirrels are the gluttons of the feeder.

Oh, look!  Here's a bird!  Being elbowed out of the way by a squirrel:

Of course, Ponyboy had to swing by to see what was going on:

Hopefully, Spring is on the way.

Because I'm sick of shoveling!  Yeesh.

Cheep cheep cheep

I am ... cheap.  I have always been cheap, because I've always HAD to be cheap.  But I'm trying to get over it, now that things have changed.

The other weekend, instead of buying a burger from the dollar menu at the drive-thru for lunch, I ordered a regular-menu burger!  and fries!  and a soda! although I was still able to bundle them together for a value meal, so there.

And I went to the Thrifty Shopper and bought eighteen dollars worth of clothes, but then realized afterward that I actually had been overcharged because they used my birthday week discount instead of the color-tag discount that would have been cheaper, but instead of beating myself up over it for the next week, I had pretty much excused myself by the following day.

I opened up a brand-new can of reddi-whip the other night, instead of going without because I only want reddi-whip on my dessert once in a while, and god knows when the next time will be, and reddi-whip doesn't last forever once opened, so I pretty much just threw a two-dollar can of reddi-whip away for one use.  But I DID use it on a fifty-cent Walmart snack pie that expired a month ago, because I couldn't bear to toss a still-good fifty-cent pie.

I bought a new living room recliner!  on Thanksgiving day, because that's when Big Lots was having their big sale.  AND I splurged and had it delivered to the house.  AND THEN I actually paid my garbage service an extra fee to have my old recliner hauled away, instead of trying to manhandle it into the car and haul it to the dump myself.  Although I DID leave it out to the curb for a week, just to see if there were any takers, before calling the garbage service.  :) 

This year, instead of buying a 5 to 6 foot Christmas tree ($30.00), I bought a 6 to 7 foot tree ($40.00).  And that extra ten bucks is WORTH it.

I ... I am just not good at spending money.  I think I spent so many years scrimping and saving that it's now ingrained in me.    But there's nothing wrong with being thrifty, is there?  I mean, it's not like I'm reusing aluminum foil or something.  (No judgment here if you reuse aluminum foil, haha.)  I tell myself that I'm saving up for that house in Florida.  That I might be able to actually BUY, now!  Holy cow.  :)

So tell me:  Are you good at spending money? Is there, like, a secret to it?  Is it a skill?   Enquiring minds want to know. :)