Tuesday
Dear Elsie
Today was the day I needed to put Bravecto on the cats again. With the mountain behind, they pick up ticks so easily. My strategy today was to put it on first thing in the morning. I usually take their collars off at night and put them back in the morning before they go out, so I did that. They went outside but instead of spending 5 or 10 minutes out, Claw’d spent about an hour. He finally came back in and by then David was down for coffee. With David holding him, I parted his fur and poured the vial onto his skin. It smells like superglue so within seconds he was seriously unhappy but the job was done. He jumped off staring back us with daggers and betrayal in his eyes. Blinking at the smell, he tried to go outside, but I had shut him in, preferring him to hang around inside for a while. Some time passed and soon there was a truce.
Raiku soon appeared. I grabbed him, got his vial and the job was done in a few seconds. I think I managed to get more of the muti under his collar. Today’s experience has been much better than 3 months ago on 12th September. They had only been with us for 2 months and they were still settling. Now they trust us more. Bravecto is so expensive and lasts 3 months. After I bought it the other day, I wondered to myself what others do. Then I remembered the day we got them, Sean, the previous owner had just given them a bath. Ah, that’s the cheap option. Sean also packed the shampoo as part of their belongings & I read the instructions to Mike. We had a good laugh as we imagined us trying to bath Claw’d and Raiku. They would both be in a temper for sure. The instructions say to bath weekly! The baths would be cheap but traumatic. The Bravecto costs just over R700 for both. The other option, I concluded is to put flea/tick collars on them over the winter season when there are less ticks. Otherwise, I’m paying close to R3000 a year just to keep ticks off them. I should have asked Jess. She’s a Cat Mom of note and has many years experience in the ways of our feline fur babies. She’s coming for Christmas. 
Claw’d had enough of my lap and I needed to start work. Comfortable in my rocking chair, I moved my laptop there for a while & this became my early morning work view.
The other thing I am working on is this puzzle. Christmas time is the one time of the year, as work tails off, I love to do a puzzle and this is one of my favourites – it’s of Cape Town. Long way to go.
David came down for dinner & spoke cheerful words! He said, “I felt really good when I woke up this morning.” It’s one of the things we purposefully do not do – keep on asking him, “How are you feeling?” He said he felt good until about 12 when he started feeling tired. He had come down early, so it would have been about 5 hours of feeling good, which is great. We’ll take that. What we have learnt is this horrible disorder is not predictable. A sign of improvement can’t be seen as permanent. It’s good for today. When he had a few really good days (way back in April when Julian and I were on St. Helena Island), we thought he was on the mend; that he would get better and we would move on. But no. Long Covid doesn’t work like that. It’s 2 steps forward and often 5 or 10 steps back. Then another month to get your 2 steps forward again. But even in this erratic, unpredictable, dreadful, debilitating illness, God is over all. I refuse to believe anything else.
And David is not depressed. Oh how grateful I am for that.
We have learned to lower our expectations.
Also today someone phoned David & offered to pay for him to see a haematologist. David was so touched.
It was a good day.
Isaiah 45:18
For this is what the Lord says— He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— He says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx