it's a fuzzy fuzzy world…

posts from the heartland, about dogs, cats, fire departments, and gaming

Nick, Debbie and Pete

Posts Tagged ‘daily life’

Damp house… confused critters…

Since I moved into this house, back in July, my primary living space has been the huge walk-out basement. My bedroom is down there, and my big-screen TV and comfy squishy sofas, perfect for lounging on with dogs and cats while working (or playing) on the laptop. There’s easy access to the backyard, by way of the screened porch, and it’s just an altogether more convenient and pleasant “critter space” than the upstairs. (It also allows me to keep the upstairs relatively cat-free, since I have friends and family who are allergic to the feline members of the Reddogs clan.)

Last night, having spent most of the day upstairs doing laundry and unpacking books and generally doing rainy-day chores, I headed down the stairs to grab a laundry basket and realized that the carpet looked funny. Then I got closer and realized the carpet was drenched. Oops! The basement was flooding

As I started the process of contacting the insurance company (who ultimately didn’t cover it because it was a “groundwater incursion” for which I’m not covered) and moving furniture to the dry side of the basement, I also relocated all the animals to upstairs. The cats all got caught and stashed in the small bedroom, where they’re safe from the possibility of escaping while workers are in and out of the house. Conveniently, that room opens onto the main upstairs bathroom, so I can go into the bathroom, close the hall door, then open the bedroom door to go in and feed/water/snuggle cats, letting the bathroom act as a kind of “airlock” to keep kitties from escaping.

Then I drug all the dog crates upstairs and stashed them in the master bedroom, which is my temporary sleeping space (on a twin futon… bleah) until the Big Noisy Fans are gone from downstairs and I can have my room back. The dogs have taken this in stride, ’cause they’re pretty much just happy to be wherever I am, and they can still hang out in the living room with me (Thunder the English Setter looks very elegant sprawled on the leather sofa). The cats, however, are extremely unhappy about this turn of affairs. They’re used to being able to sleep with me, and to snuggle against me while I’m working on the laptop. They do not like being banished to a single room, but we’ve got at least three more days of contractors being in and out of the house to finish drying out the basement and I can run the risk of freaked-out kittie escaping through an open door. 🙁

I want my bed back… and my DVR (it’s hooked up to the big TV downstairs)… and I want my house to not sound like I live in a wind-tunnel. But we can all survive a few more days of this, and the good news is that the water was limited to the floor… the walls aren’t wet, and the carpet is probably okay (yay for really good water abatement crews!), and in a few days life will be back to normal.

trying something different…

In an effort to start using the blog on my website, I’m going to start cross-posting from reddogs.com to LJ. With luck, this will all just work. Of course, that would be somebody else’s luck. With _my_ luck, smoke will start billowing from the laptop at any moment!

[lj-cut text=”testing the cut-tag, and a gratuitous cat photo”]If this all works, this bit, including this lovely picture of Gorby, will be safely hidden behind a cut tag.

Gorby peruses the laptop and wonders why it's in her way.

[/lj-cut]

Comments will be enabled in both places, so you can comment at reddogs.com or on LJ… whichever makes you happy! 🙂

soon… a fence!

Having recently moved to a new house in TinyLittleTown, IN, the dogs and I have been anxiously awaiting the day that they can actually enjoy the two-acre yard.

Well, that day is getting closer. Over the last week, corner posts were set, then everything was trenched (I’m having the bottom six inches of chain link buried to discourage digging) and the rest of the fence posts went in. Today, they started pulling chain link, and it’s looking great! With luck, they’ll be finished by the weekend and Drummer, Thunder, Snickers (my sister’s Shiba) and Secret (niece’s Shiba) will finally be able to run and play to their hearts’ content. I guess it’s time for me to either find the Flying Squirrel or buy a new one, so I’ll have something to throw for Drummy!