Black cat

Not the best of photos, agreed. But oh my, that expression says it all…  One totally pissed off puss.  This is Missy when she was in our local cat’s home and really rather miserable.  She had been dumped in a cardboard box in the driveway overnight.  The first member of staff to arrive the following morning found her running round the front garden – next to a busy main road. Shows what her previous owners thought of her.
It took a while for them to catch Missy and get her into a pen.  With no idea of her background or history, she was checked over by the vets and eventually moved into the compound area with a view to finding her a new home.  Missy was not impressed by any of this and met all attempts at meeting potential new owners with an angry hiss and a swipe of viciously sharp claws.  To say she was tetchy is an understatement.  She had been at the home for quite a while when I began volunteering as a befriended, and had settled nicely into a routine of fending off all attempts to touch her. Missy was one of the few cats who did not have a collar  because none of the staff could get close enough to put one on her.  

My twice weekly visits gave me the chance to get to know the cats and I worked at socialising and playing with some of the more nervous ones to the point that they would go up to visitors instead of running away to hide.  Some of them went to new homes which was rewarding.  Unfortunately one of the rehoming officers would send the less socialable cats off to become farm cats, living in barns and keeping the rodent population down.  I had started tentative negotiations with Missy and was almost able to stroke her ears when I learnt that this was the fate she was destined for.  Despite her extreme tetchiness I knew there was a friendly cat in there and was devastated at this prospect.  Missy did not like other cats any more than she liked people but she began to trust me and when she felt threatened would come to sit behind where I was sitting.

My daughter’s cat lives with us and is very attached to my daughter, and also very territorial.  After speaking to her vet, who recommended introducing a new cat very slowly, we hatched a rescue plan for Missy.  The cats home agreed to book her to us and we made preparations to turn our spare bedroom into Missy’s room.  This included shifting my hoarded clutter into my bedroom and buying litter trays, food and a cat igloo, Missy’s preferred style of bed (well, it makes a good hidyhole).  A few weeks later and everything was in place.  Missy had a lovely new cat carrier – all I had to do was get her into it!  

Still Thriving …

My very first post was created in July of last year and here I am, nearly 8 months on from there and still attempting to become a thriving blogger.  I have completed most of the Thrive Programme and sometimes feel as though I am thriving, and then again sometimes feel like I’ve fallen back into a bog of depression.

I have not worked for the last two years after landing up in hospital for a leg infection and then having a breakdown after coming home because I was so exhausted and feeling useless.  I have good days when I think I could cope in the workplace and not so good days when the thought of even applying for another job is enough to make me want to hide under the bed and not come out.  Ever.   And I have a divan bed with drawers and only the height of the wheels gap, so hiding under it would be a challenge…

My last manager was a misogynistic bully who thought it was okay to fly into a tantrum worthy of a stroppy toddler at the slightest provocation and this is, in part, why I feel panicked at the idea of applying for another job.  My advisor at the Job Centre suggested maybe I should consider becoming self employed… um, nice idea but I have no idea what I could do.  I celebrated my 60th birthday last summer and most of my working life has been office based.  I understand wordprocessing, spreadsheets and databases; I can create PowerPoint presentations and posters using Publisher; I can even insert a formula to add a column of figures in Access.  Yes, I am well versed in Microsoft Office.  Apple is a tasty fruit and Mac is something you wear in the rain.  But I want to do something that allows me to be outside in the fresh air.

I saw a story on Facebook about a guy who started a business as a person walker, as opposed to a dog walker, and even has the t-shirt.  I rather like this idea but I am not sure that rural East Anglia is quite ready for this concept yet, although it would be a great way to improve my own fitness levels.  I have a friend who suggested I become a home help/cleaner but this does not really involve fresh air.  Plus I think my own home could use a cleaner first.  Yes I am a stereotypical person with depression who hoards crap (and some of it truly is crap – although my daughter has pointed out that I should qualify this as crap meaning rubbish).  As part of my attempts at thriving I am slowly clearing the crap and going for a major declutter but filling your home with masses of old paperwork, magazines and stuff from your deceased parents’ home takes time.

So I shall continue with retraining my brain to think positively about things a la Thrive Programme and I shall attempt (oops, sorry, no) I will find a way to work for myself and I will also continue with my efforts to become a blogger.

Oh, and one final random thought – my daughter told me yesterday that there is going to be a third Minions film…

We will be going to see it!  Minions rule – along with fluffy unicorns of course.

Day 1 of Blogging 101

Why do I want to write a blog? It seemed like a good idea at the time…  I like words, using them, hearing them, reading them and learning new ones. I used to like writing them by hand and have dabbled in calligraphy in the past, but sadly with age come aches and pains, and these days I often find it painful to hold a pen for any length of time.

I decided I want to make use of some words without a defined parameter so my randomness may well include my depression (my very first post), cooking and recipes, gardening, books I have read or films I have seen, or just anything that comes to mind when I open a new post.  But not sport because I have never been a sport minded person.  I played on my school’s hockey team – getting a black eye in process by raising my stick at the wrong moment – and took part in PE classes, and that’s about the extent of my interest in sport.  So no, I won’t be glued to the television if this year’s Olympics go ahead, sorry.

The title of this post may not be most inspiring one you have ever come across but I couldn’t think of anything else and had a “must get this done” feeling.  Hopefully future posts will have better titles…  I have an odd sense of humour so there could indeed be some very bizarre posts and titles to come.  You have been warned.

And I do love the beep beep boop that comes up when you preview your new post!

Thriving…

Or not.  I have been living with depression for a long time with varying levels of feeling crappy.  I’m about to enter my seventh decade and, thinking back, I realise it probably started in my teens so maybe now it is time to do something about it.

My daughter recently completed Rob Kelly’s Thrive Programme and I saw such a difference in her, both as she went through the programme and since she has finished, that I am inspired to follow it myself.  I want that sparkle I can see in my daughter.  So, taking a deep breath, I booked an appointment with her consultant to discuss the programme and now here I am, with a workbook and daily journal to work through in six weeks.  Time to take control of my life.

Let the adventure begin!  I’m tempted to say wish me luck, but that is not allowed in the Thriving community because luck has nothing to do with my control so instead I will go with watch this space…