We took Ichabod to the vet this morning to see if he’s doing okay. For a while now we’ve noticed that he’s lost a lot of weight but he’d otherwise been fine up until about a week ago when he had a hard time keeping his dry food down. Ichabod has always been a large cat! Last year when he got his vaccination done he weighed in at 7.1kg, and today when we took him in he weighed in at 5.2kg. It’s shocking to see him so much skinnier when we’ve always known him to be a chunky boy, so obviously we’re concerned. The vet said that he’s actually at a healthy weight for an adult cat but we went ahead and did a blood test to see if there’s something else going on like diabetes etc. We’ll get the blood test results tomorrow so fingers crossed we’ll get an answer! Luckily the vet said his organs and hydration levels are all good, and for the most part he seems like his usual happy self.

Trips to the vet are quite expensive, although of course we will do anything for our cats. Today’s trip came out to be a little over £160 for the consultation and the standard blood test. We may need to do another blood test if Ichabod’s glucose levels are off, and that’ll tell us if he’s diabetic. I think the second blood test is another £50 or so, and then on top of all of that: Ichabod and Dolores are both due for the booster shots (£57.10 each)!! And Margot and Rosemary need a full course of vaccinations as well (last year we couldn’t get them in their carriers and they were growling at us so we just gave up). Really wishing we had a few extra hundred quid so we could nip all of this in the bud.

Anyway, it rained really hard today and I just know the garden was drinking it all up. I had a little look around the back garden after the rain stopped and was delighted to see quite a few new blackberries ripening, and my pumpkin seedlings seem to be flourishing nicely, too. I cut up some of the marrow (basically a supersized courgette) we had in the fridge and added it to my terrarium for the roly-polies and snails to enjoy, and then I buried an apple core in my worm tank to keep the worms happy.

I started working on the second mushroom head today, too. Carving seemed to go even better with this second mushroom than the first one, although I still have the issue of lots of gaps in the foam. I used a hot glue gun to try and fill the deeper ones and I think that turned out okay, although I might feel differently after I use the surform to shave it. Oh well! I also added a second layer of the watery white paint to the first mushroom head and I think I’ll start painting it red tomorrow.

It’s been kind of a long and boring day! For most of the day I actually thought it was Wednesday. Right, that’s enough waffling. See you tomorrow!