The Bluestocking Women’s Pub: Where Clever Women Sit and Think, While Gerbils Run the Bar.

[MyrtleLion]

Come in. Yes, you’re in the right place. No, you don’t need to explain yourself.

Coats will be drycleaned before you depart. Bags won't be stolen because Gubbins will play her triangle. And you really don't want to hear it.

The gerbils run the bar.
They are small, brisk, and unionised.
One is polishing a glass with unnecessary seriousness.
Another is keeping the tab and will remember what you ordered last time.
There is a triangle involved. No one knows why. It keeps Gubbins happy.

Sit. Think. Drink. Join in.

The gerbils have it from here.

Previous thread...
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5481554-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-definitely-full-of-ludicrous-halfwits-who-refuse-to-get-a-grip-with-unionised-gerbils

Good luck, Cake.

Best wishes Cake. Also best wishes to other stricken bluestockings.

It rained again overnight but we're promised it will get dryer when the arctic air mass moves south. I do hope the boiler repair man shows up soon!

Hope all goes smoothly today cake.

Hope it all goes well, Cake.

Hope everything goes well today Cake!

Good luck cake

I'm off to a hospital again later today, but only for a 'consultation', so I've got off lucky today, compared with Cake.
If you look around quickly enough, Cake, you might just catch a glimpse of the team of support-gerbils who are accompanying you everywhere today, doing their important job of bringing you our good wishes💙

The complicated bit maybe over now, Cake, but good luck from me, and I hope all is going well. Fingers crossed you get to be at home this evening.

Wishing only good news for today, Marie.

I’m hoping for good news from all hospital-encountering Bluestockingers

Hospital-encountering Bluestockinger today #1 reporting back:
Lots of prodding and stretching and wiggling foot backwards and forwards, ouch, but the good news is that they are holding off on the surgery for now, and seeing how other stuff works out first
Feeling relieved but v tired..

Hospital-encountering Bluestockinger today #2 is having a much more challenging day than mine - sending hugs, Cake, hoping you are doing OK and will be able to report back positively when you get a chance.

Thank you for all your good wishes, much appreciated. 💙 I still don't feel up to immersing myself fully in all the Bluey fun and games et al., but I'm still around.
'al.' is short for Alison BTW, not Albert or Alfred so she's allowed in

I'm sorry I can't remember who recommended Jenny Diski's book on Marie de Gournay - was it you, Edith? - if the threads were searchable it would be easy to check😠 Well it arrived this morning and I'm really looking forward to reading it, thank you very much for recommending it to me.

Fingers crossed everything goes well, @lcakethereforeIam, and I’m glad your consultation went well, @MarieDeGournay.

Are there any Bluestockingers who are knowledgeable about the care of elderly cats? We have CatBastard, who was a rescue kitten and is about 19 years old. He isn’t a long haired cat, but his fur is quite long, and as he’s got older, he’s started getting matted lumps in his fur. I try to brush or comb them out, and have even resorted to cutting out some really bad ones, but he absolutely hates me grooming him, and I’m worried about hurting him - but I don’t feel I can leave the mats in his fur, because I’ve read that it can cause them skin irritation and other problems.

If you were me, would you carry on trying to brush or comb out the matted bits, or could I use some sort of detangling spray, or would it be kinder to cut out the bad ones?

He is sleeping next to me, on the arm of the chair, so he has clearly forgiven me for the earlier grooming session.

Not knowledgeable about very elderly cats, as sadly none of our cats ever proved to be very long-lived, but I did have a longhaired cat for a while, who also hated being groomed. I found the only way to get her to accept grooming was to cut out any tangles before starting to get her used to being brushed and/or combed. I really can't blame her as no-one likes their hair being pulled. I hope you can persuade him to allow some gentle grooming for his own sake.

Thank you, Woley
I hope knowledgeable cat-Stockingers can help with how to deal with CatBastard's coat. He is obviously such a dear companion of so many years, and he's probably thinking the same of you as he snoozes by your side🐱

I have some experience with very elderly cats, but it's really just keeping an eye on their ailments while their energy runs down.

I remember an old one we used to have who was diabetic, and it always took me to the fair watching my dad haul the cat onto his knee, give it its injection, then do his own injection. Joe Orton could have got a whole play out of that.

Best wishes to dear Cake: hope it's all going well. If you think your room & staff actually look like this (that's a 'cake-inspired quilt'), you're probably still woozy from the anaesthetic, so take it easy for a bit. 💙

Well, my dear @MarieDeGournay , this is AI's version of your husky rat (that IS what it's called, isn't it?). Rest your ankle & enjoy a tiny afternoon tea!

If you can think of a better AI prompt, post it & we can all try it out on our various versions for you.

Much love to CatBastard. We had one old lady who got to 19 but she was a DSH so it wasn't a problem. But her arthritis & returning diabetes was 😿& eventually it was time to let her go. Hardest decision ever - she was gorgeous & we'd had her from a tiny kitten. We loved her so much we wanted to have her forever, but she just wore out. ❤

Having said that, I was out for a walk last night, and there weren't many people around for English people have a very wimpish attitude to weather that most Irish people would feel to be a mild drizzle, but I did meet two cats and two foxes.

The ginger cat was a new acquaintance and nervous, but the wee tortie is an old friend who always has a long story to tell about what her day has been like.

It wasn't me who recommended the book, Marie - I know nothing about that end of history. Anyway, fingers crossed for the ankle. Physio can sometimes work wonders.

I walked Brains and Batshit in actual SUNSHINE this afternoon. I got home, realising I needed to put the bins out, so fed the duo, and got on with bins. In the few minutes that took me, a howling gale had got up, the sort that presages the sort of rain that is thrown about sideways. So I rushed about to get the bins out and dashed back in - only for the gale to gradually die down and no rain to fall.

@SionnachRuadh according to a friend of mine who grew up in Cornwall, East Anglians are particularly pathetic about the rain, coming out with excuses like, 'I'll just wait for this [gentle drizzle] to ease off a bit before I go out'.

We're still living in a swamp. Every dirt path is a mess of puddles and mud; every grassy path looks chewed up and feels squishy and spongy underfoot. Some of the ditches are full to the brim. We're all bored now.

I'm home, still feeling woozy either from the after effects of the GA, the long day or a combination. I've not had to have a drain in the wound 🎊 so no visits needed from the District nurse. I'm hoping they got it all and it's all what they thought it was. I didn't go into surgery until 11 am. I spent part of the morning wandering around the hospital with my notes between the Breast Clinic and the Day Surgery ward. It seemed a big hospital to me, I was seriously worried about getting lost. I had to keep getting into a hospital gown, then having to get dressed to cross the car park.

Glad you’re home Cake, and not lost in the maze of a hospital. Rest and heal now.

Glad you didn't have to stay over, Cake. From the sound of it you might have discovered the overnight stay ward was in fact IN the car park!

I've been doing training today.

Woley, one of my (late) cats when she got older also started getting mats in her fur, even though she wasn't particularly long-haired. With her it turned out to be dental issues so maybe have CatBastard's teeth checked? Also if they are arthritic, they sometimes can't turn their bodies well enough to groom in some areas. At 19 I don't suppose you have more than a year or so left of CatBastard's company, but the vet can at least check those things. Our Snowball (a black cat) made it to 20. Our tabby girls are 18 ½ now and we won't get any more cats when they pass on, but we will miss them.

I had a very elderly cat who lived to the age of 22. She was short haired so matting not so much of a problem but she got to the stage of being unable to groom her fur so I used a soft cloth dampened with warm water which she tolerated quite well as long as she got a warming cuddle afterwards. RIP PoppyCat 💔

Sorry, not been around.
Life.

Love to all those in the wars, and here's hoping for speedy healing.