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Three days in, I’ve already gone off the new year.
Perhaps I should give it time, or maybe I should just stop collecting mail from the post office.
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My property and school taxes usually come separately, but somehow the school’s must have been misdirected last year so here they were all rolled into one nice big bill.
Of course, I understand that we must all pay school tax, but 5 grand when you have no kids is a bit steep on a fixed income.
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In the same mail, I got a letter from Medicare that indicates they are trying to wriggle out of paying for my pain management treatments which, if they do, I shall simply have to abandon.
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But we must be grateful for other things.
On New Year’s Eve it became obvious that Lily was suffering with a urinary tract infection. Apart from the great discomfort of such an affliction, untreated it can become fatal.
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Having experienced this sort of problem many times and almost always on a weekend or holiday, we managed to have medication on hand that would tide our ailing cat over.
So, first thing yesterday it was off to the vet for Lily and there she stayed all day being monitored.
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We were a little concerned because whereas that medication is usually effective very quickly, this time it had not been.
However the vet reported that during the day Lily had provided a gusher. Such things are we grateful for.
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“Are you really telling people that?”
This is one of the first photos I took of Lily when she came to join my foster gang in 2008.
She was a “foster” for about five minutes.
While I would happily have kept all my fosters, I obviously could not, yet Lily and Lucy soon came upstairs.
They had seemed so vulnerable.
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It was good to be out early yesterday.
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By the veterinary clinic, an oak tree still holding on to its leaves caught the sun.
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We took an alternate route to Greenwich.
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Past Lake Lauderdale.
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Past shag barks on Scotch Hill Road.
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Even without snow, winter can be attractive.
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With the right sky and the right light.
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A single pine tree caught the sun while the rest remained shrouded in shadow.
My version of a light in the dark.
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Grant drew us bumping to a halt so I could capture some turkeys on the far side of a field.
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There are lots of shag barks here!
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The driver deviated…
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…taking us the wrong way
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But we soon came to something we recognised.
Lily was discharged at 3 pm and today she seems on the road to recovery.
Nothing else matters.
So happy to hear that Lilly is on the mend. 😺
Such an uneasy time, when our kitties are ill!
Health is the most precious thing we have, and this applies to everyone, humans and animals alike.
The sentiment just has to have a musical accompaniment.
https://youtu.be/tAGnKpE4NCI
Yes, I like the song!
$5,000 seems excessive for school tax. We pay less than that each year for our entire Council Tax, which includes waste removal, police, schools, libraries, road repairs, and social services. (Here it is based on the estimated value of your property.)
Glad the UTI worked out okay.
Best wishes, Pete.
Carolyn, are you sure that you have filed for all the exemptions that you are entitled to? Here in Texas, we get a homestead exemption plus an over-65 exemption which helps out a great deal. In fact, with the cap in place, we paid no school tax at all this year. Our city taxes are high, though.
I get a senior tax rebate which pays just over $1,000 but it comes to me as a cheque and has to be declared on my tax return. 🙁
I’m glad Lilly is on the mend, but don’t you hate giving money to the tax man when big corps pay little or no tax? Well, it works this way in Australia anyway and for me, is salt to the wounds.