Zombie Cats Rule

It's hard to photograph anything at
our place without a trusty Photographer's
Assistant helping out. 
This is a moveable chopping block on a
slatted rack & with castors on two legs.
$135.  It has been excavated from the
depths of our shed & will be offered for
the first time at Collectorama on Saturday.

Here is a heads-up about Collectorama, the biggest antiques fair in south-east Queensland.  It is being held this coming Saturday 31 May at the Nambour Fairground.  It will be great, as usual, and we hope to see you there.  We have unearthed a few more never-before-seen treasures from our shed – even we are amazed at what we are finding in the depths of the shed.

Meanwhile, it was back to the Caloundra Street Fair for us last Sunday.  Yet more new things came out, and they are being well received.  This Fair is working out very well for us, and we have a good time each time we attend.

Still, I can’t talk about the Caloundra Street Fair and not mention buskers.  Don’t moan, I’ll be brief.

You may very well think that I can’t be pleased by buskers.  But you’d be wrong.  I just want them to be remotely melodious.

On our last two occasions at the Street Fair, Banjo Busker (my musical nemesis) has been nowhere to be seen.  His place has been usurped by a cute little Australian version of the Von Trapp Family Singers.  Only without Julie Andrews.  Or any harmony.

Nice glass and ceramics at the Caloundra Fair.

Yes, yes, now I’m being mean to children.  But really, isn’t keeping in tune with each other a kind of prerequisite for singing groups?  And what is it with bad buskers only knowing six songs? 

This little group does get points for only singing their six songs three times each, then going home.  So they only invade our ear-space for a short while, whereas most buskers at the Street Fair wail on, and on.  And on.

You can imagine our dismay, then, when we discovered that Peregian Beach Market had decided to host buskers as well.  Even worse, when we saw that the Busker du Jour was setting up exactly opposite us.  I was already planning my blog rant in my head.

These blue pots have a wonderful, thick blue
glaze that looks almost Ruskin-esque.  They are
actually floor polish bottles, salvaged from 
landfill near London.  Florists love them
because they look striking with small posies.

But hey, this guy was great.  He’s from Argentina and had a great selection of toe-tapping, hip-swaying Latin numbers.  You know a busker is doing well when people shimmy their bosoms to the beat as they pass by.  So Doug enjoyed it as well.

But oh no!  The best busker I have ever heard in a Market, and the only one I would happily have as a neighbor, has gone back to South America.  Of all the buskers I have ever wished away, the good one was the only one who left.

So now we await Peregian’s next selection this coming Sunday (1 June).  At least the management there seems to actually audition the buskers – a fine approach.

Good quality pieces always sell well.
Lucky we have 600kg more on the way.

 

Meanwhile, we’ve had total drama with Calypso in the past few weeks.  Facebook Friends have heard the blow-by-blow account of what happened – if you’re a Facebook user do you want to be Friends?  Aw, that would be nice.  You can find my personal page at Debra Palmen, or our business page at Continuum Antiques.



Anyway, suffice to say here that while sedated to give blood for yet another test, Calypso had a heart attack and died.  But!  She was resuscitated by the vet who moved incredibly fast to intubate her and give her mouth-to-mouth through the tube.  It took a little while, but eventually she regained a pulse and came back to life.



Our little Zombie Cat Calypso is already looking much better.
 

So now we live with a lovely little Zombie Cat – she was dead but now lives and walks among us.  And let’s not forget that through it all she’s most definitely still a Ratbag Cat. 

Now I can review what happened a little more dispassionately than when I was standing there watching her be dead but brought back to life.  It’s interesting to note just how rough medical personnel are when your heart has stopped and they’re working to get it going again.  Really, really rough.  But if she’s a little bruised, at least she’s alive.

Our non-Zombie boys.  Caleb turns 2 today.

And now we have a diagnosis for her, which is hypothyroidism (an under-active thyroid), which is incredibly rare in cats.  It’s so rare she appears to be the youngest ever recorded moggie with this condition. 

The good news is that it can be readily treated through medication.  The bad news is the idea of having to give her two pills a day, every day, for the next 20 years because she’s a real devil to give pills to. 

So I had to get creative.  And sneaky.

Fortunately, my skills as a Sneak are world class.  Beyond compare.  Unparalleled.  Sneak Masters around the world try to emulate my Utter Sneakabilty and fall down, exhausted and confounded at just how sneaky I am.  Any day now I shall be appointed Professor of Sneakiness at the Sneaksville Institute of Sneakism. 

So, as a result of my ability to outwit a cat, Calypso’s now had a week of medication and hasn’t suspected a thing.  Hypothyroidism would have eventually killed her, but we can already see an improvement and at last she seems to be on her way back to good health.

 

Even though she's the walking dead, Calypso isn't yet a Creature of the Night - she enjoys sitting on the couch next to me, snoozing in the sunshine too much.



In Breaking News, our new stock has now arrived in Australia and appears to have already received Customs clearance.  That’s record time, and after dealing with Customs and Quarantine for so long I’m naturally suspicious when everything seems to go without a hitch. 

But we are yet to deal with Quarantine – who are always the ones to give us the most grief - so I’m practicing my best left eyebrow raising technique in preparation for the coming battle with them.

As soon as we have our mitts on our new stock, it will be announced here straight away.  We’re close!  Can’t wait.