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Thank you all for your love and kindness after the sudden passing of my sweet girl Murli
Everything · Murli the cat · Our friends · Pictures · Ralph and I · The Cats

Thank you all for your love and kindness after the sudden passing of my sweet girl Murli

Natascha and the Cats14 Comments

You all have been so sweet and your many comments all over WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and the Emails mean so much, I can’t even describe how much. It helped my broken heart to keep going.

Internet problems since last Wednesday – I just want you to know that we’ve been having really bad trouble with our internet since last Wednesday. It got so incredibly slow, that no site would load properly, or time out altogether. Trying to comment failed mostly and the few replies I got out took multiple tries. Due to my phone internet running on the same network, it had the same issues. Many people in Austria had the same problems with the same provider these days, which is probably due to the big changes they are working on. Thankfully it seems to be working again today and hopefully, it stays that way.

I will reply to all your kind comments as soon as I can, starting tomorrow and during the next days.

Thank you so much for creating this beautiful card for Murli, Sherri-Ellen and BellaDharma and for your thoughts in your blog post. You’re purrfect friends and fur family and we love you both!

BellaDharma LadyMew for Murli
BellaDharma and LadyMew’s card in remembrance of sweet girl Murli

Many of you knew Murli and me for years. I shared so many posts and photos about our everyday lives and what we’re up to, way back before I even knew Ralph. Murli and I made so many wonderful friends, who became really close friends. It does not matter how far apart some of us are living, we feel close to each other and due to how we share our lives with each other. We all had our hearts stolen by each other’s furbabies and feel real heartbreak if one of them passes on. You all know very well about how I feel, so I don’t even need to describe the deep pain I feel in my heart.

It really is thanks to the love and friendship that I keep going. It’s all of it… My love for and from my other sweet furbabies Samantha, Sonic, Hero and Lisa, and of course the love for my wonderful caring and loving husband Ralph, and the love and support of all of you kind friends. Otherwise, I think I would have just lied down in bed and give up for a while.

But I keep my head up for my other kitties and Ralph. It’s not good for the kitties if I cry constantly and give into my heartbreak. I keep busy by caring for everyone and pouring my love on all of them.

It was difficult when everyone slept and I could not go online in any way to reach out or reply to any of you, due to the internet problems. It’s the quiet hours that are the most difficult, which is why I still can not sleep well. It’s only once I become so exhausted from lack of sleep, that I can get some hours in. Eating is another challenge.

I did not expect it to happen so soon. In fact, I was sure we would have a decade or even more left with Murli. I was hoping she will reach her 20s at least.

The only thing that is a slight comfort, is to know that Murli just slept away. She simply laid down to sleep and passed away. Her body had no signs of distress or pain, she was just like she always liked to sleep when she lied down by a heater.

And so I keep on living, carrying the love for Murli in my heart for the rest of my life, together with my beloved family, Ralph, Samantha, Sonic, Hero and Lisa.

The last couple of days

I have candles burning in between the window panes for Murli and I will keep having candles burning for her at the least until the new year. Sonic also loves watching them, as he absolutely loves lights.

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In our home, it’s not just Ralph and me who have been sad and missing Murli. Murli was loved by Sonic, Samantha and also the babies Hero and Lisa. There was something special about her, something that made other cats feel comfortable around her. Everyone wanted her friendship. Sonic especially loved Murli, he really did. It was obvious that he felt very sad for the first couple of days.

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Sonic watches the candles I put in between the window. I put them there for Murli. As a sign for her that we’re thinking of her, that we keep a light going for her. The candles will be burning all the way until the new year at least.

Sonic, who is a pretty vocal kitty boy normally, was very quiet, hardly a peep from him and he kept to himself, just sleeping mostly. Though he did eat and drink properly thankfully. But anytime he did get up from sleep, he would walk around the apartment, looking everywhere for Murli. Sniffing at everything that had her scent, trying to follow it, hoping he would find her. He kept that going for a few days but has given up now. Though I am sure he is still missing her. He is thankfully though much more himself again. Sonic bonded with Hero and Lisa as soon as he met them. I think the friendship he has with the siblings is doing him well now.

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Murli and Samantha relaxing

 

Samantha always enjoyed hanging out with Murli on the balcony in the summer, for hours and hours. I don’t think she even realises exactly what has happened yet, due to her not walking around with her cone. She hasn’t been around in the apartment except on the few cat bed spots she wants to be at.

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Samantha with her cone these days

Regarding her cone, I was not able to use anything that covers her stitches, due to them being wire stitches, as they had to be strong after she ripped out the initial ones. Anything on top of these would make it more difficult for healing, due to the wire stitches getting stuck in anything and with Samantha’s body movement, it would cause irritation. It also helped to not cover it, because it had to drain a bit.

I will use something different, like the wonderful suggestions I got, for my sweet little girl Lisa, when she gets spayed.

We’ve been to the Vet with Samantha today: Everything has healed really well! The stitches have been removed! There is only a little crust hanging on by a little corner still, which is slightly bleeding if it’s being pulled at. It’s only superficial. But she has to keep her cone until tomorrow morning, just to give it a tiny bit more time. As soon as I get up tomorrow morning, I will free her!

Hero and Lisa on Bed
Hero (left) and Lisa

The babies Hero and Lisa haven’t been here long enough yet to be impacted as heavily by Murli’s passing. But they too loved Murli right away. They enjoyed hanging out with her looking out the balcony door, or the bedroom window to watch the birds. They were not worried about her or obviously felt comfortable around her right away. It was so cute to hear them talking to Murli with friendly meows, with their tails straight up.

There was a special moment with Hero and Murli after she passed – Not long after I had found my sweet girl Murli lying on a blanket next to a heater, after she had passed away in her sleep, Hero came along and lied down beside her. Then he took one of his front paws and gently laid it on one of Murli’s front paws. It was very special and words are not doing justice to how it was in reality.

Hero and Lisa are special. They were meant to come into my life at the time they did. I’m sure an angel was looking out for us, knowing about what is going to happen. Maybe it was my beloved Mama?

These two sweet kittens went through so much already in their short lives. They almost died themselves from starvation and dehydration after being abandoned. Hero with his severely injured and infected leg was so very close to death. If they had not been found when they did and by the right person, who did everything to save them, they would not be here. But now they are, and I gained their trust with lots of patience and love. They are healthy and thriving! Happy and feeling right at home with us.

Their lives just started. Murli will always be part of our family, always present in our hearts and minds. I know we will be reunited again once I have to go, but until then, I’ll treasure every single day with the ones I love, as every moment is special and will not return and you may not get another chance.

Love to all of you.

Everything · Pictures · The Cats

A possible construction site in our bathroom, a Crochet project and happy cats

Natascha and the Cats23 Comments

We stayed at home for the past two weeks, as the weather wasn’t really predictable to go take the cable car up the mountain. They would have shut it down anyway as it was too windy. It had cooled down a lot for the first week and it rained a lot. It’s warming up now, but we still get rain every afternoon pretty much. But we always enjoy our days, no matter if we’re home or somewhere else.

I also had a lot fewer migraines! Instead, I had quite bad fatigue for some reason. I also have low energy, or rather, not enough for everything I want to do. But that fatigue was really annoying, as I felt too tired for anything. Even too tired to use the laptop, read or write much. I might have not been drinking enough… It’s better now after drinking more, but it’s not yet totally gone.

Even though it’s looking like a thunderstorm is coming right now, we finally had a lovely summer day today!

I’m using two umbrellas on the balcony to have shade on the whole balcony for the cats and us (well mainly me, as Ralph does not mind the sun).

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The cats are happy! With the bad weather, the cats stayed in for much of the day for two weeks. Inside, Samantha’s favourite spot at the moment is this carrier. This old carrier has been a bed for a long time already.

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Samantha

I brought Murli’s big pillow from my Dad’s home. I forgot to bring it when I moved and then I forgot for all this time… It’s not like she was out of beds or anything. We have countless baskets of all types, sizes and shapes and countless other nice spots for the cats. But Murli was definitely happy to get this big pillow again! My beloved Mum bought it for Murli when she was a kitten. She loved it ever since. The perfect spot for the pillow was the washing machine, since Murli likes to hang out in the kitchen anyway.

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Murli

Sonic still loves the bed the most…

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Sonic

I’m starting Crochet

I always loved Crochet! And I’m going to crochet a Kitty-Curtain for the top part of our living room window.

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Living room window

This is the curtain that I’ll be doing. I bought a German book with lots of cute crochet curtains on Amazon.

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This is the curtain I’ll be doing:

CatCrochetCurtains

It’s been a long time since I did anything though and my Crochet stuff has been lost for the most part when I moved one time… Because I really wanted to start it up again, I ordered what I needed…

Like a book that teaches everything I need, as I forgot a lot and I also want to learn more.

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I also got a set of crochet needles and a bag to put the yarn in and all the tools. The bag has a pocket for the yarn that you can close. But it also has little holes so only the thread gets pulled out while you crochet. It’s helpful because if I have the yarn just out on the table, with it spinning every time I pull on it, Murli goes all silly with it. So that bag is helping a lot with that.

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I’m really going to enjoy this little project and all the ones that will follow!

Water damage in our building

A couple weeks ago, a contractor sent by the building management came to inform us that a wet stain in the stairwell has been reported to the building management. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he showed me.

June 6, 2019 - Wet stains
Yucky wet stains where the pain falls off

After he showed me that spot, I knew what he was talking about. I just never thought it was water damage. That stain was there for a very long time, maybe even since we moved in. I always thought it was damage from people bonking furniture into the wall when moving. The stain never changed and always looked the same, but looking closer it is definitely wet.

The problem is, behind this wall, which is a very thick wall (about a meter thick), is our bathroom. The back wall of our bathroom. Within that thick wall are numerous water pipes. Immediately to the right of the stain, much closer to the stairwell, is the hallway toilet that two neighbours use who live in the two one-room units on the same floor as us. The contractor had a look in that toilet and with him, I did too. The back wall of that toilet is wet with stains as well. It’s not a big leak, it must be a tiny little leak somewhere that has been going on for a while.

From our apartment and our bathroom, you can’t notice anything. It’s all perfectly nice. No mould, no bad smell, no tiles falling off the wall. It’s a nice bathroom and I love the tiles. I really hope they won’t have to rip our bathroom to bits… Our toilet is fine as well, you can’t notice anything there either.

On Monday the contractor comes again and they are going to look for a leak in the pipes. No idea how they’re going to do that. Maybe they already rip the bathroom to bits tomorrow. He said the fault search will take about two to three hours when I asked. Hopefully, they don’t find the fault within one of our pipes, so that they don’t have to make a construction site of our bathroom. Of course, everything is paid by the building management, but it’s no fun. I just have no idea how that is going to go.

The other side of the wall, in the hallway toilet and the stairwell wall need to be repaired anyway, so I would hope they would open the wall from that side and not from our perfectly fine bathroom.

Anyway, before they are coming on Monday, I’ll get both cat litters and their food and all the cats and close the door to the hallway and kitchen. That way they will be in the living room and bedroom and the hallway in between those two. But the door to the rest of the apartment will stay closed, so that they won’t have to be so afraid and are safe. Because with people going in and out of the apartment, I don’t want to risk them running out of the apartment door.

I’ll let you all know what comes out of all that on Monday.

Regarding the noisy neighbour I wrote about last time… It’s been quiet for almost two weeks now. The temperatures have been low during most of these nights, so we had the bedroom window closed and would not have heard anything. But we didn’t hear anything when out on the balcony really late either. Also, it’s been gradually warming up again these past days, and now with the bedroom window open again, we did not hear anything from that neighbour either. Maybe enough people complained or they calmed down lol.

Hope everyone and their kitties are fine! Sending love from all of us and Happy Caturday! 💕

Everything · Pictures · The Cats · Videos

A rainy cold and windy spring. The cats want some sun!

Natascha and the Cats26 Comments

Like almost all over Europe, it’s been mainly cold, windy and rainy this spring. Again and again, the alps got snow, and the temperatures dropped as the ice cold wind came through. We did have a few really nice and war days, but they were usually just a day between rain and cold.

Cats all over miss the sun, as do their humans. Ralph especially does not like the cold and so we keep the heat going. It’s just that sometimes I have to turn down the heat, because I get hot so easily, but then Ralph feels a bit chilly. The heating we have is awesome and really creates a lovely warm apartment. So it’s all lovely and nice in our home. But the cats, especially Murli, would love to be able to go in and out onto the balcony as they please, but it’s too cold to leave the balcony door open. The same goes for the windows. I put a cat safety net on the windows in the summer, so I can leave them open and the cats can hang out there, enjoying the fresh air and the sun.

I always think about what else I can do to make the cats happy, so I got them a board with a cushion on it (this one), to create an even surface for them to lie on. Because the window sill on our living room window isn’t even and has different levels. This window design is typical for old buildings like ours here. This is what it looks like:

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Sonic on a photo from last spring last year

And now with the cushion board, they have a comfy little place to relax or watch what’s going on outside:

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Samantha on a sunny morning

I have to wrap a towel around it, because otherwise Samantha would rip the cushion to shreds lol.

But isn’t she a sweetheart? She loves it on there. After I took this picture, I filmed her for a bit as well:

(Excuse the dirty window. We just had a construction site creating a lot of dust, and then it rained…) She loves the soft board and now she can finally lie down at the living room window properly. it’s lovely to see that happy little girl <3 Murli and Sonic enjoy it just as much.

The other new things I got for them are two water fountains / water dispensers for cats. Because it keeps the water clean all day. The absolutely love it and drink even more than before. It’s awesome. Sonic is the one who has the longest drinks and so it was easy to take a picture with him drinking.

Murli, Samantha and Sonic are all doing really well with their medicines. They are all happy and feeling their best. Murli is back to normal now, full of life again, happy and  talkig a lot, and following me around. She is really busy watching the birds at the moment. I feed them and have two bird feeders, one in the bushes and the other on the metal pole for our washing line on the balcony, so it’s not right in or near the balcony. Murli is out there as much as possible right now with the cold. But we did have a few warm days, like when I did this video of her.

It’s purrfect kitty TV for Murli. Thankfully she does not try to jump up to get to the birds, she just likes to watch them and talks to them. Samantha and Sonic would not jump at them either.

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Murli
Sonic on the balcony Spring 2019
Sonic watching the birds on a sunny day

Today, the icy wind is still blowing, it’s cloudy and dark and it will probably rain again. We all are waiting for the summer and hope it will come eventually. It’s still spring now anyway, even if it does not seem like it with snow on the surrounding mountains… The following images are of the webcam that is located on a nearby mountain, that’s just outside of the city and about 1400m. That’s why it’s so cold.

I want to go up there with Ralph in the summer, because it’s lovely and I haven’t been up there since my childhood. There’s a restaurant up there which serves awesome sweet things as well. You get up there by cable car, which I really look forward to. The times I was up there as a kid, we walked up or we got taken up by car. So it will be my first time with that cable car, and I’m sure to film and take pictures of it all.

Hope you’re all well! Ralph, the kitties and myself wish everyone a nice day <3

Everything · Pictures · Ralph and I · Social media

June 30, 2017 Time to let all of you know more about how I found real love

Natascha and the Cats67 Comments

Hello dear friends and furpals!

Only a very few will know at least a little bit about the relationship side in my life. I won’t go into too much detail about myself in that regard, just that I simply never met anyone who accepted me just like I am as a girlfriend. Everyone I got to know, would soon talk about nothing more than the ways in which I needed to change myself and how I would need to accept things as they wanted them to be, since it’s considered the norm usually. Since I’m not the norm, I was automatically expected to be the one to change.

To myself, I’m happy to be as I am, I like myself and am happy with myself. I just appreciate everything that I have and don’t even think about things that I don’t have.  I just concentrate on every bit of good in life, every good day, every good hour, my sweet Murli, Dad and the wonderful friends I have. All these things I am so grateful for.

I lived day-to-day, happy within myself and my life, and did not even consider that I will be in a relationship in the future. Every day, I just went about my life as it is and has been for many years. I take care of everything I can do that isn’t limited by my pain conditions. I help my Dad, and have so much fun blogging, commenting and posting everywhere my friends are. I made many wonderful friends that way and some them I consider close friends by now.

Going about my usual day, reading blogs and comments, I came across a profile picture, Ralph’s profile picture. I don’t know anymore if it was in someones Sidebar with many links to other blogs, or if it was within the comments that I came across the profile picture of Ralph. Somehow, and I still can’t even find the words for it. I was drawn to it instantly. Nothing like that had ever happened, and I saw so many pictures of others online. But with Ralph’s picture, it was more like BANG! And it drew me closer like a massive star.

So of course I went to check out his blog, read many of his blog posts, his comments, the About page. Everything I read on Ralph’s blog, just drew me in even closer. It’s a combination of so many things that are just out of this world wonderful. I commented and from then on, we were posting comments on each others blogs. Over the course of the first months, I fell in love with him and there was really nothing I could do about it, it just kept getting more and more. Though, in my mind I knew I needed to be careful, because I was thinking a relationship would just impossible with me. I also didn’t want someone so wonderful and kind as Ralph is, with so much love to give, to end up unhappy. I worried about this, despite having a very good feeling about it. So I remained quiet about it for months, as I really did not want to cause any upset and emotional turmoil within Ralphs life.

But as the time went by, with us communicating over the comments on our blogs, I just sent an email to Ralph in the beginning of June. I couldn’t take it anymore and just wanted to talk with him more. We had such wonderful and amazing conversations in our comments already, and so I wanted more communication with him. I also sent him a link to my photo album where I have 100s of pictures of Murli, weather pics and cloud formations, and of my city, as well as two pictures of myself, as I just wanted him to see more of my life.

From then on we kept emailing each other long emails, and soon we started having voice calls, a couple of hours long, and every day. In one of the first calls we had, and after a couple very long emails in which we both opened up about what we feel, we became a couple. Every day since, we’ve been messaging, emailing and having calls over the internet. It’s absolutely wonderful! There are just no words anymore to describe how amazing it all is.

I have never in my life felt anything like this. I feel so much unconditional love, and we have been so at ease with each other right from the first comments on our blogs. It just continued on like that, and whatever we did and however we communicated, we were and are always so natural, at ease and comfortable with each other. From the beginning it was and still is like we’ve known each other all our lives already. There is no worry, no barriers, no uncomfortable silence or worries about what to say and what not to say. We both just freely talk and speak our minds, and pour out our hearts. Never in my life have I met someone so similar to myself in so many ways. Our personalities, the way in which we do things, the way in which we just go about our days as well as so many interests we have in common, and the same likes and dislikes. It all feels completely natural and comfortable. My love for Ralph is unconditional, and all I want is a life with us together and the cats.

On July 12th, I will fly to Spain, and stay for a couple of weeks. A time we both await like nothing ever before. There are so many things to look forward to in regards to the future and life itself now. Ralph loves cats just as I do and has two wonderful kitties, which are Sonic and Samantha, and my future furkids and Murlis new siblings. Yaaaaaaaaay!

And as I mentioned in my previous post, a really wonderful thing happened regarding my daily migraines. Ever since we became a couple… my daily migraines have decreased massively. All the things that would normally trigger migraines, don’t cause them and that’s been like it for weeks now. The only time I seem to still get a migraine is physical exhaustion and heavy lifting. It’s absolutely amazing to me and opens up so many new possibilities in life. I can’t remember when I ever felt that good physically and it’s just stunning! It’s beautiful!

Ralph is such a wonderful, loving and kind man, and I still just can’t believe my luck. I feel like I’m the luckiest woman ever and I can not wait for us to be together in person soon!

We don’t care about our age difference, it does not matter. We fit together so perfectly, so smoothly and it could not be more wonderful and special. And it’s all very special.

There will be more updates coming, which I’ll post from Spain.

Here are two beautifully written posts Ralph wrote about us:
June 27, 2017 – How Love Found Ralph On WordPress Com
June 30, 2017 – 325 This Is LOVE

Also: yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaay! So happy!!!! 🙃🙃🙃🙃😸💕

Ralph, me and the furkids

Everything · Pictures · Social media · The Cats

June 27, 2017 Blog, keeping up and health news

Natascha and the Cats8 Comments

Good evening from Murli and I in Austria!

Wow… the time just really flew since my last post. Finally, I think I can use my eyes normally again and do everything normally. Like keeping up with you sweet friends!

I thought about a lot of things, and the way I just can’t seem to keep up with all of my accounts. I keep feeling bad and guilty for not being able to get to all of your wonderful blogs and posts, and take way too long to get back to comments at times. Therefore,  I decided that I will concentrate just on Murli’s and my blog here. My google+ and Facebook will be updated normally, because every post I publish here, is automatically posted to my Facebook for the furends I have on there, and my Facebook is just a private thing anyway and it’s not difficult to keep up with there. The google+ I update manually. I have met so many absolutely wonderful friends through all of these accounts. I just can’t seem to keep up with my Twitter anymore especially and even have difficulties to keep up on my instagram, which is sad as I have found so many wonderful cats and catfriends on there as well.

What I will do is publish a picture to instagram with a link, every time I post a new blog post here. I will also put a link with an explanation onto my Twitter profile, and probably link to this post. So that everyone wondering what’s up with me and Murli, can just come here and read about it.

I just really love love love WordPress and my blog and reading all of your wonderful blog posts. Murlis and my life really needs this outlet here, as well as the communication with all of you sweeties. I just want to be there for every one of you properly. I know many of you have so many things going on in their lives and I want to be there and offer the support of my and Murlis friendship.

As for the eyestrain I had going on…. It started after the frightening situation I wrote about in my previous post. At around that time, I typed and read a lot of text on my computer, for at least two days without proper breaks. In addition I was sleep deprived for days on end on top of it all. Then one day I noticed that I felt increasing pain behind my eyes and in the area of the brows. I never get normal headaches really, just migraines. In short, it turned out to be Eyestrain. Therefore I reduced my writing and reading on the computer.

On to a wonderful thing that is happening! As most of you will know, I have almost daily migraines normally and have had them since childhood. I just really have many triggers that cause an attack. But it’s been an amazing month! Suddenly I don’t have that many migraines anymore. Basically, I have almost none. The only one I got were caused by physical exhaustion last week on Wednesday or so. But I’ve been going weeks now without migraines for the most part. It seems to improve more and more. Usually I would have had migraines from the Foehn wind that has been going on for most days again recently, but I didn’t get them, not even one! So amazing!

I had severe and very frequent migraines ever since my early childhood. It was pretty much always the same for most of my life. But I suddenly feel better than I had felt for a long long time. Not just because the migraines have been less recently, but I feel really great generally. Much more energy, and a lot more relaxed and comfortable.

Many of the usual triggers that will usually cause migraines, aren’t causing trouble now. As if the Foehn wind doesn’t have any effect on it suddenly. Triggers like sudden pressure changes before a severe storm haven’t caused problems either. There are many more triggers that cause migraines for me, normally. I am just thankful, very thankful for every day I can live life normally.

Murli and I are doing great and we will be back to post normally again and with the change of me concentrating on our blog, we’ll be much more responsive.

I hope you are all doing fine? Murli and I send out lots of love to you all, and we say thank you for everyone’s constant patience, kindness and understanding. Have a lovely day sweet furends!

June 18 2017 7:28am