Feb 22, 2017
The day got away from us
The plan for today was relax and even more relaxation. The girls have had a bit of a rash for close to two weeks. I noticed it because they were itchy and there were some rough patches on their chest. Some hair had fallen away in each area. I started to use an antifungal and antibacterial creme that I had. The affected area would start to heal but then a new area would appear every now and then. This morning we noticed that Carmeh had 3 areas on her tail where the hair had fallen off, each about 1/4 inch in diameter. It was definitely time for a visit to the vet.
By the time we finished feeding them and got ourselves ready we were off. It is a good 50 minute drive from here, fortunately there was little traffic. The vet did a quick exam and put some of the hair and scabby material on a slide and checked it under a microscope. He said that the hair was healthy and that it appeared to him that it was a bacterial skin infection. I asked how it could have happened and he said “cats”. We do have feral cats here and they do have fleas which could have led to the problem. The cats wander about our site at night.
Why oh why is there invariably something like this happening in our lives? Always has been and I guess it will continue ad infinitum. The suggested solution was a bath in a special antibacterial soap, Vetriderm. The girls were due for their K9 advantix II today which is their protection for fleas and ticks. Now we have to wait a full five days before we can administer the repellent as the bath will have stripped all of the oils from their coats. The flea/tick repellent sticks to the oil on their coats so we have to wait for it to come back after the bath.
What a long morning with a further stop at a plant nursery.
The cruise ship sitting at the end of the road as we return to the Isla. It is actually docked on the other side of the shipping channel.
Once back home we took the girls for their daily beach walk. Two miles later they were getting ‘the bath’. They have never ever been so squeaky clean. Fortunately the soap smells nice enough. They finally got a late lunch but not us.
Ishmael just happened to show up and he planted Colin’s third papaya tree, the replacement for the one that was destroyed in the storm. It is much smaller and we hope that it will grow into a large fruit bearing tree.
I had decided to pull out one of my hibiscus. It was one from last year or the year previous. It has only had one flower since we arrived in November. The white spots show some sort of disease.
This is the plant that I had pulled out. There was a lot of yellow on many of the leaves.
I replaced it with a brightly colored bougainvillea. It will grow with time and always be in bloom. This is a special shorter bougainvillea that won’t grow as tall as the ones at the back of my garden. I should be able to keep it in a hedge like shape.
We finally were able to get our own lunch and then a few hours to ourselves. Can you believe that I actually turned down a margarita at the neighbors? I just needed to sit and relax with my book. Colin of course was off in his world of music.
We were rewarded by some lovely color by Mother Nature.
Almost 8PM here and time for dinner. Tomorrow promises to be a new day of adventure for us.
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The days do have a habit of doing that, and soon you will back to work again .. shudder…..
I love bougainvillea, just reminds me of wonderful places like Mexico and Portugal. I wish we could grow it here. Pets are just like kids, if there is trouble they will find it. So nice of the cats to share their issues 🙁 Buddy ate something in the yard (he often does that) and threw up for 2 days and had it coming out the other end too. I fed him broth and chicken and slowly he came around. He was drinking water though so he was not dehydrated, we checked. All better now, silly dog.
Maybe homegrown papayas just aren’t in Colin’s future. 🙂