| Antrim Marina - Wednesday 11th March 2026 |
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With poor weather forecasted for Tuesday and Thursday this week, Wednesday was to be the best day for this week's weekly visit to Antrim Marina. Due to a problem at home on Tuesday, I ended up cancelling the visit altogether.
Recently, I have mentioned our cat appears to be suffering from the feline version of old age dementia. The result of this, someone needs to be at home at all times. With three of us living in the house, the task is quite simple. Lorraine's cat is called 'Rusty' for obvious reasons - mostly sort of orange above and white underneath. With Lorraine at work on Tuesday, around 9am, Rusty wanted to go out into our back yard. It rained all day on Tuesday, but Rusty went missing. I went out the back several times and there was no sign of the cat. In the car-port, there is a recycling box with a blanket on it, sheltered by my car. Rusty would quite happily lay for hours at a time on it, but by 5pm, there was still no sign of him and it was still raining.
At 5:45pm, what appeared to be a giant black hedgehog appeared on the dining room window ledge - of course it was Rusty. I went out and lifted him and set him down on a towel on the kitchen bench. His fur was so wet, it looked like spikes and rubbing him down with another towel, he was plastered with what looked like a fine silt. I then realised his right paw was injured.
A good feed and a drink of milk was quickly devoured, then I set him onto a covered kitchen chair where he started to lick himself clean. As the evening wore on, his pawed swelled up and he could not put any pressure on it. We decided that he had to be kept in that night, and I sorted out a 'cat litter' tray from the shed.
Come Wednesday morning, after a phone call to the vet, an appointment was made for 12:45. On car duty for the run, my trip to the Marina was cancelled. I received the call from Lorraine to collect them. Lorraine was £167 lighter, no broken leg, a double dose of antibiotics and a pain killer - quite a costly visit. As forecasted, Thursday was indeed on the wet side and with Lorraine back at work, the weekend was ruled out.
As I write (Monday 16th March), Rusty is now walking again, and is now spending a lot of time resting in the house. We still have no idea what happened to him, but it seems as if he fell into a drain or something similar. Rusty was a 'blow in' having settled with us five or six years ago. The vet has aged him as 12 to 13 years old - no wonder he's showing signs of dementia - walking about without a clue what he wants to do. Animals, sometimes they can be a pain in the a***.
I should get to the Marina tomorrow or on Wednesday.
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