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6,434 Posts
Hey everyone,
@lullabydream reached out to me on messenger - apologies for taking a bit of a sabbatical from PF! Myself and the tonks are all good! My new job has taken me a bit by surprise, but more on that later.
First up, tonk news!
Not a huge amount to say here. They are all good. We've reopened the cat garden after repairing the broken defences that CK escaped out of. It's good that they can go back out, and they love it! It's under strict supervision tho, so can keep a watchful eye on Houdini.
Some garden pics:
![Plant Vertebrate Wood Tree Grass]()
![Cat Plant Felidae Window Carnivore]()
![Cat Felidae White Comfort Carnivore]()
![Plant Felidae Carnivore Small to medium-sized cats Dog breed]()
![Cat Eye Plant Carnivore Whiskers]()
The unfortunate aspect of being outside - shrews under the bookcase...
![Vertebrate Cat Wood Mammal Flooring]()
We've been to our first cat show (Durham and Norther Counties) since the November before Covid. Only took Jammy as at that last show we went to Waffles was a bit unhappy and I think given the huge break I just wasn't confident she would like it. Jammy was a bit nervous to start with but found her cat show mojo and was quite happy and relaxed by the end. Certainly on returning home it was just a normal evening! She did quite well - 2 best of breeds, some first places in side classes and a 3rd in one of her Olympian classes. Not at all bad for her first showing at that level, especially with the long break in between shows. The class was also quite big (7 cats). We're now scouring the show calendar for some suitable future shows.
Show brag:
![Dog breed Felidae Pet supply Fence Carnivore]()
In human news we've been making a human only patio for the cooler nights and sitting outside, and my OH is building me a craft room / home office / tonk photo studio
I say building, it's literally a pile of mud right now as has required excavating a hillside to make room for it on our drive way. But I'm quite looking forward to it being built and then getting on to the interiors We live in old coal mine territory so there was a bit of a surprise when excavations uncovered an angled large empty space, but on advice we've filled that in and hopefully my new office won't sink in
Human patio:
![Plant Furniture Flower Table Property]()
Pile of mud:
![Plant Plant community Tree Natural landscape Grass]()
My new job… it's been a pretty weird 3 months, that I only figured out what was going on last week. I've essentially not been doing things like facebook, instagram or pet forums as on an evening I'm partially still doing bits and pieces of work and mostly just feeling super drained. The work isn't especially hard, but I finally figured out this is the first place I've ever worked that has a brutal probation policy. Don't pass it and you're out. I made a big career decision coming here, leaving the public sector after 22 years and I really don't want to mess up. So I think that has played hugely into me just being super focussed on that and ignoring everything else. I think also joining a company where I will work 99% remote has also been playing on my mind, as I know i'll never work in an office with most people I'm working with. Anyway, I should find out this week if I have passed, and no one has said otherwise (in fact, a more senior member of the team is going on maternity leave and it's been suggested I should go for that temporarily!). Anyway, I really hope once I'm thru next week my head returns to normal. I'm hoping doing cat shows again helps with that too!
One thing I will say is that the tonks have proved their worth while I've been going thru a bit of stressy anxious time as they have obviously been keeping me calm and relaxed by being little terrors all the time to distract me
I haven't had a chance to read through everyone's news yet so I'll have a look back through the last few pages… I hope everyone is well tho!
and finally, one of my favourite photos from the last few months
![Cat Felidae Carnivore Iris Small to medium-sized cats]()
@lullabydream reached out to me on messenger - apologies for taking a bit of a sabbatical from PF! Myself and the tonks are all good! My new job has taken me a bit by surprise, but more on that later.
First up, tonk news!
Not a huge amount to say here. They are all good. We've reopened the cat garden after repairing the broken defences that CK escaped out of. It's good that they can go back out, and they love it! It's under strict supervision tho, so can keep a watchful eye on Houdini.
Some garden pics:
The unfortunate aspect of being outside - shrews under the bookcase...
We've been to our first cat show (Durham and Norther Counties) since the November before Covid. Only took Jammy as at that last show we went to Waffles was a bit unhappy and I think given the huge break I just wasn't confident she would like it. Jammy was a bit nervous to start with but found her cat show mojo and was quite happy and relaxed by the end. Certainly on returning home it was just a normal evening! She did quite well - 2 best of breeds, some first places in side classes and a 3rd in one of her Olympian classes. Not at all bad for her first showing at that level, especially with the long break in between shows. The class was also quite big (7 cats). We're now scouring the show calendar for some suitable future shows.
Show brag:
In human news we've been making a human only patio for the cooler nights and sitting outside, and my OH is building me a craft room / home office / tonk photo studio
I say building, it's literally a pile of mud right now as has required excavating a hillside to make room for it on our drive way. But I'm quite looking forward to it being built and then getting on to the interiors We live in old coal mine territory so there was a bit of a surprise when excavations uncovered an angled large empty space, but on advice we've filled that in and hopefully my new office won't sink in Human patio:
Pile of mud:
My new job… it's been a pretty weird 3 months, that I only figured out what was going on last week. I've essentially not been doing things like facebook, instagram or pet forums as on an evening I'm partially still doing bits and pieces of work and mostly just feeling super drained. The work isn't especially hard, but I finally figured out this is the first place I've ever worked that has a brutal probation policy. Don't pass it and you're out. I made a big career decision coming here, leaving the public sector after 22 years and I really don't want to mess up. So I think that has played hugely into me just being super focussed on that and ignoring everything else. I think also joining a company where I will work 99% remote has also been playing on my mind, as I know i'll never work in an office with most people I'm working with. Anyway, I should find out this week if I have passed, and no one has said otherwise (in fact, a more senior member of the team is going on maternity leave and it's been suggested I should go for that temporarily!). Anyway, I really hope once I'm thru next week my head returns to normal. I'm hoping doing cat shows again helps with that too!
One thing I will say is that the tonks have proved their worth while I've been going thru a bit of stressy anxious time as they have obviously been keeping me calm and relaxed by being little terrors all the time to distract me
I haven't had a chance to read through everyone's news yet so I'll have a look back through the last few pages… I hope everyone is well tho!
and finally, one of my favourite photos from the last few months
