The Kwagga and the Snake

There is only one poisonous snake in Sweden. It is the common European viper (Vipera berus) and it is not really very poisonous. It is quite wide spread through Sweden and there are approximately 1300 reported bites (on humans) per year. There is however almost no human fatalities from this snake and we can consider Sweden a safe country with regards to snake human interactions.

European viper

Our cat Kwagga is a very active hunter. She is also known to live dangerously and "died" in December only to return 2 weeks later starved and close to being really dead (read the tale here). We were not surprised to find her with a non-poisonous grass-snake  (Natrix natrix) a while ago. We tried to discourage her to catch snakes and took the snake away from her (releasing it into the fields while keeping her indoors for a while).

Grass snake in our garden.

This did not work.

On a Saturday (when the vet is closed), she went out hunting and came back mid morning. Carina saw that she was sitting a bit strange and on closer inspection Kwagga informed us, with unhappy growling, that she was not feeling well. At this stage we did not know what was wrong but after approximately 30 minutes it was clear from her swollen foot that something bit her on the leg. We phoned the vet (the emergency vet), and after describing all the symptoms she told us that it is likely that it was a snake and that we should bring Kwagga for some treatment.

The main treatment for cats is fluid and Kwagga got a drip to increase her fluid intake and painkillers. Some tests for liver and kidney damage were performed and everything seemed to be fine (follow-up tests will be done in a few weeks).

Kwagga resting after treatment

After  a few days kept indoors Kwagga seemed fully recovered and are out and about again searching for the next adrenaline rush - a patch of missing fur, where the blood was drawn, the only reminder of her adventure with a snake.

Right foot - shaved patch for drawing blood, left foot - completely healed after snakebite. 

  
R&C

Kameel - our new cat.

This blog seems to be turning into a thorough description of the antics of our cats. Since it is suppose to reflect our adventures in Sweden, it should be clear that what we have mostly done during the last 2 months were cat related (also worked a bit on wooden items, now exclusively posted here). However, once it becomes a bit warmer we will possibly spend less time indoors like hibernating bears and have more to write about.

With that said, I introduce the newest cat in our collection (I recently discovered the word for a group of cats is a clowder): Kameel

Kameel, our new cat

We got Kameel a week after Kwagga went missing (read here if you need an update). Donkie was quite depressed (as were we). He did not go out for long and stopped playing with us after 2 days. He just slept or walked aimlessly through the house.  We thought that, in time, we would get another cat and started to look at advertisements for new kittens and cat shelter websites. The idea was that we would spend a month or so looking for a cat and see in the meantime if any is available, not thinking we would get one too soon (the last time we looked for cats for almost 8 months before we got Donkie and Kwagga). We were in no rush and we did not think that there would be many people actively advertising during this season (there is an active decline of advertisements around the Christmas season - the reason: most people do not want their kittens bought and given as Christmas gifts).

Then very suddenly we got Kameel. On Sunday night after Christmas, I saw some kittens on the adoption website Livbojen and sent an email to merely inquire about the procedure. I got an answer in less than 30 minutes and after a few more emails we have arranged to get a kitten the following day.

Image of the available kittens sent by Livbojen

In less than 12 hours we started a 400 km round trip to get a kitten aged 12 weeks. She was one of a litter of 4 kittens, by a female too young to have offspring. The four were found on a farm and placed in a home where people help raise orphaned kittens. At 12 weeks they are advertised for adoption. At this stage they have had all their vaccinations. We signed the agreement that has several clauses to ensure the owners take care of their cats (this is not done when purchasing a cat from a private person). We got the kitten into the cat transportation cage and were on our way back.

Kameel's first experience of our home

From the beginning Kameel was more vocal than our other cats. She was also quite bold. Once home, we were worried about the interaction that she and Donkie would have. It turned out that Donkie seemed more afraid of this new weird animal than she was of him but soon he got used to her and started to cautiously play with her. Within 2 days they were good friends and running through the house chasing each other. Things seemed to become better.

Kameel and Donkie

Kameel and Donkie - again sleeping

A few nights later we heard a strange meowing in the washing room. Kwagga was back. She was gone for a total of 11 days, we think she was locked in somewhere. She clearly had not eaten for the whole time and lost more than half her body weight. When I picked her up I could feel only ribs and spine. Here eyes were foggy and her voice was hoarse and faint. We fed her and she went to sleep. For the next few days she did not move much, except to eat. When she walked somewhere it seemed extremely laborious and she was very stiff. We of course took her to the vet and they gave us some advice on what to do to get her better. There was thus not much interaction between Kameel and Kwagga for a few days. Slowly Kwagga got better, but she did not like the new small animal running around. For a week Kwagga merely hissed at Kameel. However, Kameel being bold, kept on going to Kwagga and after a while Kwagga gave up hissing and started to play with her. Currently all three cats get along very well and both Kwagga and Kameel spend a lot of time in the shop with me (cats in the shop).

Kameel and Kwagga together.

Things are now more normal again (given that we have 3 cats now). Kwagga and Donkie go out during the day as before but we will wait a few months (until it is a bit warmer) before we let Kameel roam the country side (she is still quite small and also has much shorter hair than the others).

Donkie - current weather outside

Kameel at the computer - a bit in the way

Kameel in the documents - sometimes we find her there 

Food time!

We are happy to have them and they are very entertaining. We will however refrain from adding to our clowder for a while.

R&C

Goodbye Kwagga - Update - Welcome back!

Kwagga came back today, extremely thin and very hungry but otherwise OK. She has not yet divulged where she has been but we are very happy. The few days where we thought she was dead was depressing for us and Donkie. Next time we will be more patient, but not necessarily less worried before we assume the worst.

By the way, we now have a total of 3 cats :)

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We lost Kwagga and it is clear now that she is not coming back. This is incredibly sad and the impact that she had in our lives is much bigger than we ever expected. This small black slightly crazy animal with intelligent eyes that we will never see again. We miss her a lot.

It all stared mid 2014 when we decided to move into a house. One of the things that we were very eager to to do is have some pets. I remember talking to everyone about our plans to get cats. Everyone at work knew and several people kept an eye on the online advertisements. For several months we read about cats, watched videos about cats, spoke to people who had cats and made plans on what we would do when we had cats. I never had cats as pets while Carina did and both of us discussed the idea of cats quite thoroughly. Several times we were tempted to get one that was advertised but stuck to our plan to wait until we moved into the house.

During December 2014 we moved into our house and within the first week I found a nice looking pair of cats online. I contacted the seller and informed Carina when she got home that evening that we can get them over the following weekend. I think she was a bit surprised that it happened  so quickly. We were still in the process of unpacking and the day we arranged to collect them was on the same day we needed to clean the apartment that we just moved out of. The day was one of the most exhausting days we had. We left our house very early in the morning and drove to Uppsala in snowy weather, spent the whole day cleaning, drove another 40 minutes south to pick up the two small balls of fur and drove almost 2 hours back home. The kittens did not seem to like the driving that much and complained a bit on the way. But we got home finally and released them into their and our new home.

Kwagga on the left

From the start it was clear that Kwagga was more bold than Donkie. She was the first out of the travel cage and started to explore immediately. Donkie, her brother, was a bit smaller and followed her everywhere she went. This was how they lived for one year with Kwagga leading exploring, playing and Donkie following learning and joining in. Their galloping through the house like small horses chasing each other has stopped and the absence of this sound is very sad.

Kwagga yawning at the back.

When we got them it was mid winter and cold outside. We debated a lot about making them indoor cats and decided we would gradually let them out as it got warmer and see if this works. It was clear from talking to many other people but even more from their behavior that they would be much happier cats by venturing out. We installed a door to only let them out during the day to try and keep them a bit safer. This is of course the reason that Kwagga is gone but I am sure that she was her happiest when running outside chasing leaves and insects (and catching several mice).

In one year they permeated through everything in our lives. This can be seen in the hair all over the place but also in the way we live. We spend a lot of time at home and there, one of the best feelings were being home after a workday, sitting on the couch after dinner and relaxing a bit with everyone back from their day's adventures. We talked about this feeling a while ago, looking at Donkie laying at our feet and Kwagga next to the heater, and mentioned that this is what makes life feel good.

Kwagga did not need to do much to make me life seem better. She was very fond of one chair in my workshop and always slept there while I spent hours making things. Often something would not work or something would go wrong and I just needed to look at her contentment to feel better.

One of the things that I will miss is opening mail. Most of the mail we get is junk, but the sound of paper being crumpled into a ball, immediately got Kwagga's attention. She would play quite happily with any ball of paper.

Something that was a bit odd was Kwagga's like of the small boat we have. She often sat on the edge while it was moored and a few times came along when we rowed downstream to do a bit of fishing. She was also very fond of sitting in a Willow tree above the small river or on the rocks staring out over the water.

Something else that Kwagga was very fond of was when we were outside working in the garden. She and Donkie ran around and chased each other through the garden and into trees. Kwagga specifically liked to stalk and surprise everybody (including us and Donkie) by hiding around corners and jumping out. She also liked "helping" Carina with weeding by attacking the weeds vigorously (sometimes mistaking a useful plant for a weed...).

We think Kwagga enjoyed her last few days with us (during the start of our winter vacation). She did not leave the house until we got up. She galloped in and around the house until we came to walk with her and Donkie in the fields next to the house. They loved the walks and it became a holiday routine. They would chase each other through the wet and frozen grass and were very wet and muddy when we got back home.

Donkie was also very depressed when Kwagga did not show up after a day. He stalked thought the house and did not venture out for more than a few minutes. He slept much more than he usually do. They were together most of the time and he clearly misses her.

Kwagga was just over a year old and part of our new life in the house. It is with a heavy hearts that we say - goodbye Kwagga...

R&C

A year at Fors

It has been a rough and tumble year - but we made it. A year ago we've moved into our new home (our first house), close to Tierp. It took a while to settle in and make the house our home, but it was fun to experience "house living" for the first time.

It has also been a year since our two cats Kwagga and Donkie joined us. Although there have been a few mini-dramas they also survived a year at Fors and we saw them grow up from two curious fur balls of disaster into lovable (quite obedient) house companions.

We are all settled into our house now and happily call Fors our home

Kitties exploring their new home

...and how we've grown - a year at Fors

C&R

Electronic cat door and extensions.

A while ago  my dad I installed an electronic cat door in the basement (available from this company: Petsafe). The door is programmable and reads the chips implanted in our cats' necks. This means that only our cats can enter through the door. For a while we had another cat enter our house (when we kept a window open), who devoured all our cats' food and also had several fights with them. This problem is now solved.

Cat door installed into window (outside).

Exit trough the window.

A second big advantage of this door is that we can program it to keep our cats inside. We prefer to have them in when it is dark and the door lock at sunset (note: they can always enter but at night not exit). We have set the door to open only after we have left for work in the morning. The reason being: our cats like to walk with us when we are outside. We take the bus to Uppsala and the bus stop is 300 meters away, across a bridge and very busy road. The cats normally do not cross the bridge (not that we know off) and are separated from the busy road by a river - unless they are able to follow us.

Our active cats.

The one problem with the door is that it is made from a reasonably thin piece of plastic and when closed it is not airtight. In Sweden, the temperature can be quite low and openings like this tend to make the house cold. To insulate the door a bit I decided to build a box around the outside of the door on the platform from where the cats enter. This "entrance hall" will reduce the loss of temperature a lot since, it not only serves as a second insulating area but will disrupt the airflow that creates a draft into the house.

Parts used for building the entrance hall. Should provide these plans to IKEA to sell as an item :) 

Adding some decorative elements.

Small double pane window.

Construction of the box.

Note the graffiti on the inside.

Plastic flap on the outside. Similar one on the inside (quite flexible and easy for the cats to enter/exit)

Insulation material used during installation.

There is enough space inside to add another layer of insulating material if it is needed. The box is made to be removed in the summer.

Box installed on platform.

Although this is not something I can put in my ETSY shop I do mention that I make custom items. A cat door and entrance hall combination may be a bit strange as an item to sell but it is made from wood and did enjoy making and installing it - thus if you need one do not hesitate to contact me for a quote ;)

Hope everyone keeps warm this winter (or cool in summer if you are reading this in the southern hemisphere).


R&C

Scottish gifts

 Our first gift to our new house arrived yesterday. This was generously provided from Scotland by our sib in sib-in-law. It included a traditional dish and some traditional drink to wash it down.

Also provided was a gift for our kittens. They absolutely love the shaking mouse toy and have already removed an ear. 

Thanks sib and skoonsib,
Looking forward to your visit later this year.
R&C

Many many changes part 2

A month ago I wrote that we were changing a number of things in our lives. We are still in this process but seem that we are slowly finding our feet in our new environment. Below are some of the projects that we needed to do in the last few weeks:

Moving out
We of course needed to pack everything to move from our apartment. Below are pictures of this event.

Bedroom almost almost packed

Securing all doors

Bedroom packed

Fixing and cleaning
Since we drilled holes in almost all walls in the apartment we needed to fix it. Here is a before and after picture.

Before

After

Good enough to pass the inspection. We also spent one whole day cleaning the apartment - note that washing windows in the winter is not fun.

Moving in 
We had all our stuff moved by Allt i Transport. This company is excellent and we can highly recommend them. Loading took one hour, as did unloading. We had nothing damaged or lost. We did need a few days to unpack however.

Kitchen in disarray 

New bedroom

Living room

Loads of boxes

Making it habitable 
We had (and still have), lots of projects to make the house into a nice home. Here are some of the projects.

Reading the instructions of the house

Making curtains

Adding lamps and curtains to the kitchen

Hanging curtains in the bedroom

First meal in the our new house

Adding decorations

Cats
While we are changing everything in our lives we thought that we should add some animals for good measure. We decided on cats and they seem to be quite happy with us.

Donkie - the fluffy one

Kwagga in action

We also got a huge scratching post from Zheya which we assembled for them. If they are not on top of us they are usually on perched on it - thanks again Zheya.

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More posts will follow on our projects, our cats and our house...

R&C