Category Archives: Our cat, Jet

6th September picture of the day…

06 Monday Sep 2021

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Please excuse the lack of blogs these past few days but to be frank, we’ve had one of the shittiest weekends ever and writing was the last thing I had time for.

Late last week we found out that a dear friend who had cancer only had a few weeks (or days) left to live. With the pair of us having been away in Surrey it hadn’t been possible to arrange to see them for one last time and the previous time we’d tried they’d been too ill. So, as soon as we returned we arranged to visit Tony at 11:00 on Saturday morning. But then the fates conspired.

Regular readers will know that I’ve often blogged about the trials and tribulations of having a venerable moggie. Jet, our beautiful boy, had reached the grand old age of 20 last month. Despite his advancing years, his deafness and his lack of teeth, he was still soldiering on and a loveable and affectionate as ever.

Then, in the early hours of Saturday morning, around 04:00, suddenly, and without any warning, he had a fit. He was sleeping on the bed with us at the time and the first warning we had was when he shot up (waking Dawn) and peed on the bed. Leaping off the bed he then went into spasms on the carpet. It was awful to watch, especially as we were so powerless. All we could do was hold him to stop him doing himself any damage.

As soon as we could we rang the vets to get an appointment and take Jet to be checked out, meaning we couldn’t make our 11:00 appointment to see Tony, it was an awful choice, but we knew Tony was in safe hands whilst the only hands Jet was in were ours. After an anxious hour at the vets they suggested that the fit may have been down to blood pressure as that was the only thing tests showed as unusual. Somewhat reassured we returned home, stressed and tired and readied to visit Tony. First, we had to complete Lateral Flow Tests which the nursing home (not unreasonably) insisted on people taking before visiting. By now it was around 13:00. Then we received a phone call from a mutual friend. Tony had passed away at 11:15…

We felt both upset and awful because we’d missed our chance to say goodbye, but what else could we have done? Our friend reassured us that we’d done the right thing, but even so, we felt pretty low. Our only consolation was that we could concentrate on Jet’s wellbeing and monitor him throughout the day, hoping that the problem really was his blood pressure. The tablets didn’t stop him having another fit later that day which was just as awful to experience as the first. And yet – he seemed to make a pretty good recovery, or so we thought (or maybe hoped). The pair of us discussed what to do with the vets and the advice was to monitor his wellbeing, give the tablets time to (hopefully) work and keep them informed.

Saturday night was awful, neither of us had got much sleep, we were both feeling low as it was and then Jet had another fit in the early hours. As was the pattern, he lost control of his bladder as he threshed around yowling in an awful way. It was so distressing to watch. Once again we held him, looked after him and vowed that we couldn’t keep this up, both for his sake and ours. We’d decided that if the fits hadn’t passed by Monday, medication or not, the kindest thing to do was to have him put to sleep. It’s an awful decision to have to make, but we couldn’t bear to see him suffering like this. He came around enough that we took the risk to have him on the bed one last time. He was a gorgeous and affectionate as ever, if a little dozy.

Put slightly more at our ease, we both rose and set about things we needed to do, leaving the boy dozing on his heated mat where he stayed for a couple of hours. Then, we heard the awful yowl that heralded yet another fit. Rushing upstairs we found him rigid and panting on the bedroom floor. It was at that point we both looked at each other and agreed that we couldn’t put off the inevitable any more. It was heartbreaking, but we couldn’t watch him suffer anymore, the fits were becoming too frequent and too severe. Poor Jet never really recovered from the final fit, he was so spacy when we got him to the vets and they knew what we’d requested, it was time to let the boy go. Despite Covid, the vets were brilliant, they let us both be with him as we went through the inevitable. We held him and stoked him as the vets administered the injection that would see him finally at peace. To say the pair of us were in bits is an understatement. I know people who don’t have pets will probably find this hard to understand, but they really do become part of your family, especially ones who are so loving and affectionate as Jet – and who’ve been with you so long. Dawn has had him since he was a kitten. He’s been part of my life for 12 years. They have a massive impact on you. He was 20, so you know he won’t live forever. You think you’re prepared. The reality – when it arrives- is rather different. Coming home to an empty house afterwards is really hard. They’re not around to greet you anymore. They never will be again. The emotions you go through are so difficult. But, they’re just a pet, right?

So, that’s why I’ve not been blogging these past few days.

I’ll talk more about our friend Tony another time when I have more time. Right now I’ve got to finish packing as I’m away all week at a trade fair and then helping the Railway Children charity on their ‘3 Peaks by Rail’ event. Expect more blogs soon…

In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which (of course) is of our gorgeous boy. Farewell Jet…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid, and vets bills), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

18th August picture of the day…

18 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by in Musings, Our cat, Jet, Picture of the day

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After the long, complicated blogs I’ve been posting about railways and stuff the past couple of days I can promise you something a little more light-hearted and unusual – and it’s going to be short too!

I’ve been working from home, trying to juggle various tasks and managing to keep most of the balls in the air, most of the time – ish… The old Mars Bar slogan of ‘work rest and play’ springs to mind. Well, apart from the fact I never liked Mars Bars as they were far too gooey and sickly for my liking. Give me a Twix any day – even if they never had catchy adverts. But I digress..

Today’s blog will be short because I’ve got to be up at sparrowfart to do a job in Wakefield. It’s not that it’s far away, merely that the place I’m going to isn’t central and I have plans for the rest of the day afterwards, so expect a rolling blog to commence at some point tomorrow once the caffeine kicks in and if the rain holds off who knows what I’ll get up to. Until then, here’s the picture of the day, which has nothing to do with any of my usual photographic subjects.

Today, our cat hit the amazing age of 20. Anyone who’s followed my blog for a while will know of the ups and downs we’ve had with the old boy over the past year, but Jet always bounces back! So, happy 20th birthday Jet! Long may you be with us…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

18th August picture of the day…

18 Tuesday Aug 2020

Posted by in Musings, Our cat, Jet, Picture of the day

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Today didn’t quite turn out as I was expecting, for reasons I’ll be blogging about tomorrow. I seems my first public appearance post lockdown is going to be on Thursday, at the funeral of someone whom I shared a lot of of fun and laughter with back in the late 1970s – early 1980s. Not that it’s going to be a big event by all accounts…

I only found out this afternoon and it’s put me in a retrospective and pensive mood. It’s funny how stuff that happened 40 odd years ago can suddenly come flooding back isn’t it? I’ve spent a few hours searching for old photos which will appear soon.

But today’s picture of the day is about something entirely different. Today, Jet – our cat had his 19th birthday. To be honest it’s been a bit touch and go this year as he had pancreatitis and at one point we thought we’d lose the old boy. But, he’s pulled through and keeps going. OK, he’s like a bloody limpet nowadays and insists on sleeping on the bed, but he’s so loveable we really can’t kick him off.

So, happy birthday Jet. May you stay this side of the rainbow bridge for some time yet….

Lockdown-ish. Day 70 (Monday).

02 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Our cat, Jet, Photography, Railways

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In light of recent events I debated whether to change the title of these daily blogs but decided against it as Dawn and I are following the original advice for the foreseeable future. Certainly for the next couple of weeks minimum until we see what unfolds now that the English Government’s kicked the arse out of its own advice!

The pair of us have plenty to get on with for the forseeable future. We were both up early this morning so whilst Dawn did her training before work I headed into the office to set up the next batch of slides from 1999 ready for scanning. I’ve only a dozen pages to do, so I’m hopful I can have them finished by next week.

Whilst the scanner worked its (slow) magic I managed to catch up on some blogging too, so the day certainly started productively. I even managed to fit in a meditation. The weather was as stunning as ever, which made me want reticent to stay cooped up in the office but there was no other option. Slide scanning’s not exactly a mobile process! My compromise was not to go for a long walk but break the day into two sections. I’d spend a couple of house scanning, then go far a fast, 15 minute power walk up through the woods along our road before holing up in the office for another couple of hours. This, combined with getting up early, meant that I ploughed through the pictures I’d planned in good time. So much so that I had time to grab some cheeky time in the garden catching up on emails and blogging via my smartphone. I’ve been so grateful that we’ve had so much sunshine this year. I don’t know how I’d have coped otherwise as I miss not being able to get away for my annual Asia fix. Of course, sitting in the garden means I’m surrounded by all the wonderful birdsong and activity as well as being able to enjoy watching the garden break out into its summer finery. The Lupins are especially rampant this year and have survived the recent high winds unscathed. 

The day flew and before we both knew it we were due back at the vets with Jet, who was due a check-up. The poor boy’s still struggling a bit, so we were pleased when the evrt gave him a thorough examination and told us that, apart from a couple of minor things to do with his recent ailments (like the stitches where he’d had teeth out) he was doing well. His medication was changed and he was given an injection to ease his bowels as we’ve gone from a shitty cat to a constipated one! Jet seemed quite happy on the way home. He sits on my knee in his cage and I normally open the lid as he’s a curious cat and like to watch the world go by. Today we opened the window for him and he leaned out like a dog! 

Back home I managed to grab the last rays of the sun as I watered the garden before retreating back to the office to upload the pictures I edited to my Zenfolio website. There’s a real mixture, so they’re in several different galleries. You can find them all by following this link, but I’ll add a couple here as a taster. Here’s the first, which has a bit of a story…

07122. 33103. 3TC No 417. 15.38 Barking - Gospel Oak. South Tottenham. 18.08.1999crop

Back in 1999 I was living in Crouch End in North London and this was one of my local railways. It’s the Gospel Oak to Barking line, known affectionately as the ‘GOBLIN’. It was always a Cinderella line and I’m going to do a separate blog about the line as it was then because it finally got to go to the ball in the past few years.

Back in 1999 the train service was appalling. It was operated by ‘Silverlink’ who only had some clapped out ex-BR old diesel units to work it and they were permenantly breaking down. ‘New’ trains were due to be cascaded from the Birmingham area but things got so bad that for a few days this combination was hired in to provide a stop-gap. Here we have a former Southern Region Class 33/1 number 33103 and an unpowered former Southern trailer set (known as TC sets) No 417 calling at South Tottenham with the 15.38 Barking to Gospel Oak service on the 18th August 1999. As you can see from the colour of the skies, it was a stormy August!

The Silverlink network also encompassed regional and suburban services out of Euston and also covered the Bedford to Bletchley line, which shared the same fleet of clapped-out diesel units as the GOBLIN. A different solution was found for that line by hiring in a couple of locomotives and a pair of coaches from a company called Fragonset. 

07231. 31601. 31452. Working to Bedford. Bletchley. 22.09.1999crop

On the 22nd September 1999 Class 31 No 31452 brings up the rear of a service to Bedford as it leaves Bletchley. Eventually, they too were replaced by Class 150 DMU’s cascaded from the Midlands. 

Tomorrow the weather here is finally meant to turn and bring some much needed rain, so I expect to be kept busy indoors editing and catching up with more blogging. Watch this space…

 

I’ve a favour to ask.


If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…


Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown. Day 61 (Saturday).

24 Sunday May 2020

Posted by in Calder Valley, Coronavirus, Lockdown, Our cat, Jet, Politics

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This morning we woke to the sound of the wind unabated. For the second day running it battered the trees and homes around us. In fact, it seemed to have increased in intensity, so my first job after breakfast was to strategically position bamboo stakes in the front garden to support the Irises and Lupins which were in danger of being beaten into submission. Even the two-stage aluminium ladder I keep chained up at the back of the house had shifted and needed re-securing which was a tribute to the strength of the wind as this is a sheltered space .

None of this could dim our happiness that we’d be getting our cat back today, although an early phone call from the vets was a concern. Whilst Jet had responded well to the opiates overnight the vet was a little concerned about his demeaner and the fact he was drooling so wanted to keep him under observation for a bit longer. Out of deference to their expertise we acquiesced but both of us suspected we knew what the problem was. After two nights, Jet was getting ratty with being stuck at the vets!

As there was nothing we could do but wait we did the best we could to pass the day, filling our time with stocking up on some shopping and pottering around at home. I scanned a few pictures but neither of us could give anything our full attention. It was that sort of a day.

What made it more awkward was the vets were only offering an emergency service so their normal number wasn’t being answered. Essentially, we had to wait for them to ring us. Finally, late afternoon they did. We had a chat about Jet’s progress and demeanour and the vets agreed – it was time he came home!

The surgery is only a 15 minute drive away so I wasn’t long before we picked him up. He was totally placid and disinterested in the world when we did. The vet said he was like a different cat to the one the day before, when he’d been growling at them. But we knew this was because he’d been fed up!

When we got him home the ooor boy was rather comical. He was obviously still off his head on the painkillers he’d been given! He staggered and bumbled his way around the house like a drunk, but the first thing he did was make a bee-line for his litter tray, which seemed like a good sign! The vet had left a catheter in his front left leg (just in case) and it was both comical and sad to watch him trying to shake it off as he walked. Eventually, he settled on his heated mat and we managed to get some food and water into him. Despite rhe poor old boy being off his head he was still as affectionate as he’s always been and we were so glad to have him home. We took turns in keeping an eye on him whilst I worked in the office and Dawn cooked up another chicken Madras. Dee had liked the one I did the other night so much she decided to have a go herself and cook up a big batch to eat now with more for the freezer.

Whilst domestic life was improving now the band’s back together the UK political world continues to fall apart with the revelations that Johnson’s PR polecat – sorry, Special Advisor Dominic Cummings has shown his contempt for the Covid-19 lockdown by taking a few trips to Durham from London. I suspect this story is going to run for sometime as it looks like the journalists who broke it are letting it out but by bit, which is making the Tories flounder as they don’t really know what the full story is. Meanwhile, the Labour party who at long last have a Leader who knows what he’s doing are going to make the most of this shambles to expose what a useless and dishonest bunch we have in control. I think this from Twitter pretty much sums up how many people view the situation right now. 

cummings 2

After the sacrifices millions have people have made over the past few months to keep themselves, their families and everyone else safe from Covid-19, to see the Government endorse ‘one rule for us, one rule for you’ is sticking in an awful lot of people’s throats – on every side of the political divide. I wonder what the next series of revelations and the Government’s response to them will reveal? 

 

 

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…


Thank you!

 

Lockdown. Day 60 (Friday).

24 Sunday May 2020

Posted by in Calder Valley, Coronavirus, Lockdown, Our cat, Jet, Weather

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And then the gales arrived…

This morning we awoke to the sound of high winds whipping though the trees outside and battering the house as they rampaged across the valley. It was impressive, but also rather disturbing as life’s not exactly normal at the moment so the last thing you need is to worry about storm damage!

The irony for me was that I was sitting in the garden the other day, looking at the Lupins, which are about to flower, and thinking “I wonder if I need to stake them yet as they do get battered in high winds”. My subconscious obviously knew more than my conscious mind!

Today was another that didn’t really catch fire as the both of us were still concerned about Jet (our cat) and how he was getting on at the vets. I know that the old adage ‘no news is good news’ is true, but that doesn’t make the lack of news any easier sometime. With so many vets in the area closed down due to Covid-19 the one’s that remain open are obviously having to deal with a vastly increased workload and I can understand the pressure they must be under, but it does make you anxious, not knowing when they’ll get chance to find time to ring us as we don’t want to be bugging them.

So, the morning passed with a meditation and an easy breakfast before we both knuckled down to try and do some work. I’ve only managed to get a handful of old slides scanned this week so I was anxious to try and pick up the pace a little and crack-on with finishing the album I’ve been scanning for a few weeks. I’d hoped to have had it finished by now!

As always when scanning pictures, the time flew. After sitting for a few hours I took a break by getting out for a stroll along our tree-lined road, which was a bit like taking your hands due to the gusting winds. There was debris everywhere as the trees had taken a real battering. There were so many leaves on the road it was like autumn, only this was a sea of green.

The wind didn’t drop all day, it just kept coming! I was glad that I had an excuse to stay indoors. I’ll bet it wasn’t much fun if you were on a ship somewhere as from what I saw on social media pretty much the whole country was talking a battering.

Whilst I was busy upstairs Dawn was pottering around keeping herself busy downstairs, although both of us were waiting for the phone to ring and get an update from the vets. Jet was due to have some teeth out but we knew the vets were under pressure due to lockdown and a reduction in vets in the area, so we’d no idea when (or even if) they’d be able to get him seen to. To say it made for a stressful day was an understatement!

It wasn’t until the evening that the vets rang. Jet had come through the opration and the anaesthetic but now only had two teeth left. We were both hugely relieved but the vets would be keeping him in another night to monitor his progress, so we wouldn’t get him home for another night at least.

Whilst we’d waited we did have one fun diversion – the weekly ‘Big 6’ on Zoom pub quiz. Dredging the memory banks for answers to arcane questions is certainly a good way to take your mind off things! Tracey, Holly, Tony, Fran and Aubrey, Olly, Ruth, Kath, Dawn and I pitted our wits against questions asked by Mel in her own inimitable style – and Lancashire dialect!

The rest of the evening was relaxed and hassle-free. After all, it’s not like we’ve got to get dressed up to go out! Instead after eating we did what so many people across the country are doing – retreated to bed and logged on to Netflix. Goodnight!

 

 

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…
Thank you!

 

Lockdown. Day 58 (Wednesday).

21 Thursday May 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Our cat, Jet

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Today was not the day we’d hoped for. It started out in style with a brilliant weather forecast suggesting it’d be the hottest day of the year so far. The pair of us were up early, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to make the most of it. Jet, our cat had given us a break and slept in his own bed last night, he only leapt on this morning after Dawn had got up.

My plan was to eschew slide scanning for the opportunity to catch up with blogging, paperwork and reading. I was sat in the office typeswiping when Dawn told me that Jet had been sick. Nothing much – just some bile. It’s not unusual as we thought he’d probably been trying to bring up a furball. Then he was sick again. This time we could see there was something wrong. He retreated to his heated mat (we bought him one to ease his arthritis as he’s 18.5yrs old) and lay there looking very sorry for himself.

jet 2

The both of us were concerned but decided the best thing we could do was keep an eye on him. It was easy enough for me to shuttle between my office and the bedroom so I kept him under observation. He didn’t stir for several hours and was very quiet, which is very unlike him, he’s normally a very noisy cat and often wanders in to me for some attention. This wasn’t like him at all. In the afternoon Dawn looked in on him and decided to phone the vets. We managed to get the last appointment of the day at 17:50, so all we could do is look out for him until then. He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything all day, which was another concern.

With the weather being so glorious I relocated to the front garden to soak up some sun and crack on with writing as well as reading up on the current news from the rail industry. The day was a real scorcher so popping upstairs to check on Jet every so often was a useful cooling off period. Poor Dawn was stuck inside at her desk as the amount of paperwork she has to deal with makes it impossible to move outdoors in the way I can.

When it was time to take poor Jet to the vets we dug out his cage and Dawn lifted him in, which produced the only noise he’s made all day. He was clearly in pain. Normally, when we take him in the car to the vets I sit his cage on my knee and leave the top off as he’s a curious cat and he loves watching the world go by. This time he lay at the bottom of the cage without as much as a peep out of him. The vets had a system where the building was closed but one of the nurses would come and collect your pet off you before taking it inside for a check-up. We had an anxious few minutes sat in the car until the vet rang Dawn to say that Jet had Pancreatitis and was obviously in pain. They were treating him with opiates, hydrating him with a drip and would be keeping him in overnight to monitor him and do some blood tests. It was a relief to know he was in good hands, but a wrench to leave the poor little bugger…

Neither of us felt up to much after that. It was already 19:00 so we went and sat in the sun with a drink and talked about the day and our concerns for ‘the boy’. With everything going on right now we really could have done without the stress of this, but what can you do?

Let’s hope tomorrow brings some good news…