Sunday, October 03, 2010

Percy and CSN

Cyndi found an ottoman coffee table she has decided she just can't live without.  The one she likes has storage space where we could store a mountain of cat and dog treats and toys.  That would save Jan from having to dole them out, but she's not very agreeable to us taking over our own treat disbursement. She says we'd eat them all at one sitting and get sick.   Buddy and Sam say they'll agree to the ottoman coffee table only if Jan actually buys us a mountain of treats. 

For those of you who haven't heard, now that summer is over, we have a swimming pool.  We know it's here.  Our water consumption says we're filling it; however, we can't locate it.

See, Jan has been tightening our collars.  No, that's not right. She's been tightening her belt - even though we've never seen her wear one.  So when she read our utility bill Friday, she turned kind of red in the face. We use 1000 or less gallons of water per billing cycle but we were billed for 4 thousand. She grabbed a crowbar and a magnifying glass and went outside. We watched from a window as she lifted the heavy cover and wiped the dirt off the meter with her hand.  The bill reading was 072 on 9/20 and unless she was blind it was actually 060 on October 1.

She emailed the city, asking if they would send someone to do a visual reading, but she kept getting the feeling something wasn't right, so she grabbed her reading glasses this time, the crowbar, a magnifying glass and a paper towel to clean the dial better.  The correct reading was 080. She called our landlord.

He came Saturday morning with his dad who is a (retired?) plumber. They checked everywhere for leaks - in the house, under the house, walked the property.  They flushed the toilet, ran water down drains.  Nothing was leaking but the dial was spinning much faster than Friday. And it had gone from 080 to 450 (460 by the time they left). Hopefully, our landlord will be able to get a plumber out here soon to dig up the lawn between the house and the meter because the water bill is climbing. at a rapid rate.  The city manager and the billing department will work with Jan to reduce the bill when the leak is fixed but at this rate it will still be higher than we can pay.  The landlord said he'll help too.  But nothing can be worked out until the leak is fixed and the amount of the damages is known. 

Oh, and our landlord informed Jan he killed two -- yes, 2 black widow spiders in the same hole Jan was sticking her hands yesterday.  She noticed the spider webs but there are so many spider webs around the yard she didn't pay attention. We have concluded she must have a guardian angel. 

Jan locked us dogs in the bedroom so the men could walk in and out without worrying about one of us slipping out the door.  Unfortunately, when the men arrived, Jan went to unlock the back gate and they left the front screen door open behind them.  Jan ran around trying to find all of us cats.  Cotton was sleeping in her new crinkle tunnel and Cameron was on top of the fridge.  Rusty, who likes to run out the back door was missing, but after a good while he showed up at the food bowl and Cyndi was found hiding behind the fridge. Jan called Percy, slipped inside the bedroom to check, crawled around the floor, checked in, on, under ....

Percy was gone.

As soon as they men left, she did another sweep of the house and headed down the street with a jar of cat food.  Not a sign of him anywhere.  She had no idea of which direction he might have gone, so she came home to plan.  She turned on the computer, sat down, turned around and there was Percy strolling across the floor toward her. 

Jan is lying down "resting her eyes" as we type this for Sunday's post.  We don't know why she's so exhausted. She hasn't done any work today.


We did a recent post asking you to vote for Tamar's Cat Hammock in a competition.  Voting was a bit confusing. It ended Friday and winners have been chosen. Tamar's Cat Hammock was not the Readers' Choice Award but she did win the Judges' Choice Award. Congratulations, Tamar! You can read details here.

18 comments:

  1. Humans khan be SOOOOO dramatikh!

    What's up with that?

    Hugz&Khysses,
    Khyra
    PeeEssWoo: Thanks fur the update on the khontest!

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  2. Oh my what a stressful day. I hope things get worked out for you all!

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  3. Wow, I think my human's normally-normal blood pressure about DOUBLED when she read your post! That was interesting to see! I guess she stresses out easily.

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  4. Oh, Jan really has a guardian angel! In summer My female human read that someone found a black widow here in Sweden! There was even a picture of it! I hope that spider is far far away from where we live.

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  5. Oh my goodness!! Poor Jan! LOL! Me and Charlie hope you are giving tons of hugs and cuddles mainly for a) getting her bill corrected and sorted!! b) surviving the black widow attack!!!!! good grief!

    What a weekend!!! LOL!!

    Oh it's much better to look at that fab ottoman coffee table!!!

    We are so happy for Tamar!!! The judges' comments on this cat hammock design were just lovely to read! Yay!!!

    Take care
    x

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  6. So glad Tamar's Cat Hammock won an award.

    Hope the leaking water is fixed soon. Luckily we are on well water as we have had several leaks here. Usually because the Dad ran over a faucet, with the lawn mower. That is why he built the nice rocks around them, even though he sold the idea to Mommy as I know you like stuff to look pretty, so I'll rock the faucets up for you.

    Mommy says Jan is exhausted because she was worried about the cats getting out. (Sigh) Mommy knows all about that. ~AFSS

    PS: Mommy was signed in so we are going to use her account instead of redoing all of this.

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  7. Jan - we don't think Saturday was very restful for you - mum cringed when she read about the black widow spider down the hole where you stuck your hand.
    It sounds as if your water meter may be faulty if the reading goes down and then up again - can you try to arrange to pay the least amount if it's not calibrated correctly?

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  8. Mom almost fainted when she saw the Black Widow spider part!!

    We hope today is better than yesterday was.

    The Florida Furkids and Angel Sniffie

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  9. OK gang, who is drinking all of that water? That is awful, I sure hope all gets settled out! Black Widows are evil!!!

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  10. Gosh that is scary about your water bill. We sure hope you can get that fixed. I would be stressing out too. Glad that silly cat came home. Have a great Sunday.

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  11. Hee hee, we LOVE Khyra's comment. Still laffing about that one.
    Seriously, what a day!
    There's always so much excitement over at Jan's house, we kitties want to move in there wif hers.
    Never a dull moment.
    Love & Purrs,
    KC

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  12. Wow, what a day! I know whenever strangers are in and out around here, it makes for heart-stopping!
    I hid one time and saw how frantic everyone was and felt really, really bad about it.

    Take care and I hope things have settled down now!

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  13. 4,000??? My mom would die if she get a bill for that amount! It represents around 5 months of her salary!
    I hope you can find the leack soon!
    Take care
    Kisses and hugs
    Lorenza

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  14. Gosh - am not surprised Jan had to lie down after THAT kind of day!!

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  15. Oh, my! I hope that leak gets fixed soon. Sure glad Percy showed up, my heart sank when I read he was missing. Glad to hear everyone is accounted for. Hugs and nose kisses

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  16. My goodness that sounds like a lousy weekend. But at least you didn't get chomped by spiders.

    We find your blog interesting and we're Following you. Meow from Malaysia!

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  17. I do not envy you - we had a similar mystery leak hit us with a big water bill ten years ago. Just frustrating - and we had to pay the entire thing, glad to hear they are willing to work with you on this. Hang in there! ♥

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  18. Geeze.....what a stressful weekend! We are so glad that Percy is okay! We hope that your water situation gets fixed soon!!!

    Poor Jan, you need a rest!

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