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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Jul 27, 2016 10:39:38 GMT -6
What! Is ranger ok? I love that cat!
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Post by Spock on Jul 27, 2016 11:04:53 GMT -6
Fascinating. Were they able to recover your cat without harming it?
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Post by stepper on Jul 27, 2016 18:13:29 GMT -6
And?? Chapter two please!! It was totally inappropriate to stop there....unless this is going to last a few more days and you have a great adventure story about saving the mighty Ranger from imprisonment and blown foam insulation.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 27, 2016 23:23:24 GMT -6
He is a very lovable furball....and he seems none the worse for wear. I guess it wasn't the best place to stop, but I ran out of time. BP saved him, actually. The insulation guys finished around noon, and she called me at work around 1pm to say she couldn't find the cat anywhere and was worried he was stuck between the walls (because where else would he be?). She'd covered the house multiple times, calling for him and checking every place he normally hangs out, and got no "meow" in response. She even shook his bag of treats which always brings him running, and still no Ranger. I asked if the guys left the door open to bring in their equipment; she said they had. I thought he might have gotten outside to escape the noise and workers, and told her to check around the house; he's strictly an inside cat, and the few times in his life he's been outside, he's always stuck next to the house. She called me back about 15 minutes later, and she couldn't find him either inside or outside. She was very upset by this time, and she had to leave for work soon. I told her to set water bowls on both the front and back porch, I was sure he'd be there waiting when Hubs and I got home from work. About an hour later, she texted both Hubs and I; she was so upset at work, worrying about him in the heat, that her boss let her come home. He's oldish, he's not an outdoor cat, and it was sweltering hot outside. She posted his picture on all her social media sites, and went to all the neighbors, asking if they'd seen him. Then she scoured the house again...and saw eyes peeking out from the walls. This is going to be hard to explain so that it makes sense, but he'd gotten in what I guess would be called a bulkhead on the staircase landing; I don't even think a picture would actually explain it, but here is the the hole in the wall that Hubs made to get him out. The "outside" wall on the landing is actually only 2/3 outside; the bottom third is where a ski-slope type roof line meets the downstairs mudroom/kitchen roofline, so there is dead space behind the wall. When the contractors ripped out all the plaster and lathe and took everything down to the studs, they left the lathe covering the dead space so it wouldn't be completely open; the insulation guys covered the entire wall in foam, including the part that still had lathe. Next to the landing, behind the studs are the pipes from the upstairs bathroom; the bathroom floor is about three or four feet above the landing. So Ranger got into the bulkhead, it got sealed up, and he couldn't squeeze between the studs and pipes on the open inside wall. Technically, I suppose he was trapped between floors, behind the walls. Hubs rushed home from work, about 45 minutes away, and hammered and chiseled through the new foam insulation, and old lathe. It was sweltering outside, but upstairs inside has been unbearable because the attic is exposed, and who knows how hot in was where Ranger was trapped, or if he was hurt. Ranger was obviously scared, first by being trapped, then by all the hammering Hubs had to do to get through the foam and lathe. He went further back into the walls, and it took a lot of coaxing, about an hour, and a few handfuls of treats to get him out. All is well. He's a little dusty, but not going to torture him with a bath for a least a few days.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 28, 2016 18:21:12 GMT -6
OMG! I'm so glad I didn't log in yesterday. Just the few minutes it took to read these last few posts had me distraught.
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Post by stepper on Jul 28, 2016 21:06:30 GMT -6
Steppet was that way with ours - even though they HAD to be inside if she couldn't find them it became a crisis. One time Precious hid under the bottom drawer of an end table that you could only find if you looked from behind or pulled the bottom drawer all the way out. That's how I found her - but it took hours to pull out that drawer. Yeah Hubs! Well, that completely makes sense. After all he'd been through some treats are justified. Very considerate and wise. Cats and baths don't always get along. Giving one to a cat still recovering from a strange prison might be dangerous. Are you going to call back the insulation people and ask for an explanation since you warned them? And are they going to repair for free the part hubs had to bang his way through?
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Post by Phalon on Jul 28, 2016 22:31:57 GMT -6
Since they're subcontractors, we let the contractors know, and they are taking care of it. To be fair, I honestly don't think it was the insulation guys' fault - although I told them to be mindful, I was half-joking, because I really didn't think Ranger would have been up there with all the commotion.
Funny thing is, when LX was home this weekend, I told her not to bring her new kitten because with the construction, there were too many places he could get into - and not get out.
Never did I think it would be my own cat that would be the one to get stuck. Sigh. There is a reason we call him the Lovable Idiot.
Sorry, Joxie.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 29, 2016 1:50:22 GMT -6
No worries. I didn't think you'd leave it hanging if he hadn't been found, or made it out alive.
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Post by stepper on Jul 29, 2016 17:52:21 GMT -6
It'll get fixed, and come winter, you guys are gonna save a bundle on heating bills. Speaking of winter, I was expecting to see some different stuff in the attic or on the inside of the roof because you do something to keep the roof from icing. Are you installing something new to heat the attic or did I just miss it?
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Post by Phalon on Jul 30, 2016 20:42:00 GMT -6
Hmmm..different stuff in the attic to keep the ice from forming? Oh. Do you mean the heater cables? They go on the outside, on the bottom two to three feet just above the eaves, and in the deepest valleys.
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Post by stepper on Jul 30, 2016 22:38:08 GMT -6
I don't know - but that could be it. I only remember you mentioned doing something about preventing ice on the roof. I thought you were talking about something on the inside that kept ice from forming, but heater cables on the outside could be it.
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Post by Spock on Jul 31, 2016 20:42:29 GMT -6
Seems to me that insulation on the inside to keep the heat in and the cold out would be a lot cheaper than running power to heaters to melt snow which causes water which freezes which causes more possible ice ...
Just sayin'
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Post by Phalon on Jul 31, 2016 22:50:56 GMT -6
Heater cables aren't used to melt snow and have little to nothing to do with insulation. They are used to prevent ice dams from forming in gutters, and building up under the shingles at the roof's edge, or in deep valleys. They run in a zigzag pattern, and dip into the gutters. You only turn them on when the the temperatures rise and fall; they don't run constantly, and the electricity used is minimal. From a website explaining heater cables: "Air sealing of bypasses and adequate insulation are valuable tools in combating ice damming and can save you money in the long run. However, these techniques can’t prevent temperatures from fluctuating above and below freezing resulting in melting and freezing cycles. The sun also plays a large part. Snow fall is usually less higher on roofs. This melts and clears sooner and starts to absorb heat energy from the sun warming the surrounding roof surface melting additional snow which runs down the roof under the snow pack and can freeze at the eave or in the gutter. It builds until an ice dam has formed." www.wi-icedamsolutions.com/1faq.aspxWe have them along the porch roof and the valley in the front where the highest pitched roof meets a curved sloping roof, and in a similar situation in the back (the roof on this house actually has 5 or 6 different pitches).
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Post by Spock on Aug 1, 2016 19:52:48 GMT -6
... (the roof on this house actually has 5 or 6 different pitches). Sounds like a short baseball game!
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Post by Phalon on Aug 1, 2016 21:45:46 GMT -6
Or a nearly complete musical scale.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 9, 2017 21:40:56 GMT -6
So. Sigh. Whew.
I ran a couple of errands today, and was just pulling in the drive back home when my cell phone rings. It's Xena Sis. "Can you come over here, please?" She doesn't sound quite right; I say I'll be right over.
No one answers the door, so I walk in the kitchen, and immediately think some intruder has been there before me, and there was some kind of fight. A chair is overturned, a piece of pottery is shattered on the floor, the shards laying in a pool of blood. A big pool of blood. The phone is laying on the floor a few feet away. I start yelling for Xena Sis, and can hear her, muffled sounding, but can't figure out where her voice is coming from.
I find in her in her husband's home office in the next room, laying face down on a little bed they keep in there for when their young grandson visits. The collar of her shirt is soaked in blood, and her hair is matted with it. I run and grab a couple of hand towels, try to find the wound under the mess of her bloody matted hair, and start applying pressure. I know that head wounds bleed a lot, and all that blood is often worse looking than the wound; the problem was, I couldn't really see from where all the blood was coming, and the room isn't well lit.
I got her on her feet, and helped her to the kitchen; she's wobbly, but coherent, and I sit her at the kitchen table, have her lay her face in a pillow I put on the table, so I can better see what's going on with the back of her head. I finally find it - a 1/2 long cut, not a gaping gash, and not deep. It doesn't look like she needs stitches, she doesn't want to go to the emergency room anyway, and I'm thinking she doesn't need to go for the wound itself, except perhaps she might have a concussion. I make an ice pack, get more towels, and keep applying pressure - and warn her if it doesn't stop bleeding 'like real soon', I'm taking her to the hospital. Call her husband's office, and leave a message.
She doesn't remember the fall, but thinks she must have slipped coming inside with wet boots, fell backwards over the chair, hitting her head on the metal baker's cabinet on the way down. She thinks she laid there for a bit, before coming to and then calling me. The bleeding has stopped except for tiny dots on a clean towel (we've been through three of them now), so I lean her over the tub in the bathroom and wash the blood out of her hair, telling her not to freak out at the water turning red. Get her cleaned up, back to the kitchen, fresh towel, fresh ice-pack, and her husband comes home. Once I fill him in on what happened, I leave him to take over. She seems fine, except for she's gonna have a nice big goose egg on the back of her head.
Get home, and the waves of queasiness hit.
I can't stand the sight of blood.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 9, 2017 22:46:28 GMT -6
Yikes! At least you're good under such circumstances. Wouldn't do XS any good if you passed out when you saw the blood in the kitchen. What would her hubby have thought when he came home and you were both a bloody mess?
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Post by Phalon on Jan 10, 2017 6:29:13 GMT -6
Yes, I'm good at remaining calm during such things....because I've had plenty of practice in the 30 years I've been married to Hubs the Accident Prone!
It's never stopped my stomach from doing flippity-flops afterward though. I'd never be able to work in any type of capacity in the medical field (I still can't watch anyone, including myself, get their blood drawn or get an injection - not even on T.V.).
Just got off the phone with her - fine, except as I expected, one helluva knot at the back of her head.
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Post by Scrappy Amazon on Jan 10, 2017 9:18:02 GMT -6
Holy cow. I wonder why she thought to call you instead of say an ambulance?
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 10, 2017 18:54:07 GMT -6
Yeah. I'm usually good in a crisis, but fall apart when it's all over. If I'm going to fall apart, I'd prefer it if it was after everything is calm.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 11, 2017 23:11:49 GMT -6
A logical reason might have been that I'm just a block and a half away, and the hospital another block and a half from there. Our 911 dispatch has been moved to the county seat instead of here in town, and although the ambulances are here in town, since the move there has been concerns of an increased response time. It's very likely I could have gotten her to the hospital before the ambulance would have arrived at her house.
But that would be the logical reason. The real reason was that she was worried they'd shave the back of her head.
Hubs is scheduled to have his tonsils removed next week. The older a person is, the riskier the procedure gets. He was told by the doctor there is a good chance of excessive bleeding for up to two weeks afterward, and if such a thing happens, he is to get to the emergency immediately. I am the calm one (he's actually thinking of backing out now; the closer the date gets, the more nervous he's becoming), and will have to be the calm one following the surgery, hopefully not to the extent of anything going awry during his recovery. Ya do what ya gotta do when you gotta do it.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 12, 2017 17:04:54 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Jan 13, 2017 6:43:31 GMT -6
Thanks, Joxie. He'll be okay as long as he listens to the doctor's orders....and me enforcing the doctor's orders.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 14, 2017 0:12:34 GMT -6
You are most welcome.
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