1st February

So today February threw its hat into the ring - it came in the form of a sou'wester because it was a truly vile start to the month.  Rolling mists, thunder, huge hail storms, torrential rain and temperatures in single figures.

Minnie is still causing us grave concerns.  She did come and sleep on the bed with us but had two massive retching/coughing fits which obviously weaken her and don't help her sore throat - we can see she has a sore throat because when she swallows she winces plus her voice has gone.  Dr Google indicates that these are all symptoms of an Upper Respiratory Tract infection.  John decided Mins should go down to the vet in Polis this morning because we just didn't know what we could do for her for the best.  Dr Bambos confirmed our suspicions.  He didn't seem at all happy with her overall condition and to be fair she is looking thin and unkempt even though she is still cleaning herself.  There has never been much to her and now there is even less.  She has eaten some Lick-e-Lix, a little chicken liver and, surprisingly, some biscuits.  John shot into Paps to get whatever chickens livers he could find as these seem to be the only thing that all three cats are craving.  We are keeping an eye on Charlie, he too has a sore throat and lost his voice but is much more robust than Mins and so apart from being quieter than usual (which could be said to be no bad thing) is much the same as normal.  We will pop him down if he shows any signs of the retching/coughing or discomfort which the other two showed.

Mins perked up a little on her return.  She seemed none the worse for her trip out and injection.  We are pleased that Bambos administers long lasting drugs (2 weeks +) as this means we don't have to expose the cats to that stressful journey on a daily basis.  Having said that Bambos did let us administer Minnie's injections ourselves when she had pancreatitis.  Obviously if there is a downward shift in her we will take her back immediately.  Fingers crossed this stuff does its magic and soon as both John and I absolutely hate it when one or other of the cats is poorly and at the moment they all seem to be.

If the weather had been bad when John did the trip to the vets it was nothing compared to what it turned into an hour or so later.  It was miserable and it was cold and so we were glad to be indoors and in the warm.  The woodburner is a godsend and this year we had a good stock of wood and didn't start burning until mid December.   Checking on previous PV production we have, previously, managed an average of 10kW a day in February - mmmm nowhere near that today!