It’s melting but too slow.

January 16, 2026

The photos today are old because I didn’t take especially many today since it was slippery and wet everywhere.

I think that the interview went well yesterday so now I’m waiting for an answer that I’ll get on e-mail. If I then would come to the department where the one talking to me work at there’ll be lots of heavy lifting so I hope it helped that I once walked up ladders with 25Kg (55,1pound) boxes filled with powder paint 🙂

This morning however I realised that I must have Malkolm neutered before I start to work so that I can stay at home while he’s healing. I guess that if I get a job I won’t start working next week but the week after, so I called the vet as soon as they were going to open. Naturally they were closed today (could have been a longer time because they didn’t even have the emergency vet at the moment, So I had to call another vet in Falköping. They have good reviews but it always feel better to go to the usual one. Anyway it’ll happen on Tuesday morning.

This place was cheaper and that doesn’t hurt. I’ll ask what they charge for Alma, my usual wet takes over $ 2700 US and that is at the moment way too much and even if I do get the job it’ll take some time before I dare paying that much money, I really want to have some savings if there’s an emergency of any kind. Perhaps Alma would calm down some when that surgery is done, it can happen but it’s no guarantee that happens.

It is warmer here now and the snow is melting but not fast enough for my liking 🙂 The problem is that the ground is frozen so the water has nowhere to go. I now have a little lake growing on both sides of my gate 🙂 🙂 It will start to get colder again this weekend and on Monday we’ll have below 0C (32F) both day and night again. I do hope it won’t get as cold as last week but February is usually our coldest month. I have at least started to notice that we do have longer days now even though it perhaps is just half an hour or so.

Have a great day!

8 responses to “It’s melting but too slow.”

Goodport

January 16, 2026

I’m rooting for your job chances, Christer. Any place would be fortunate to have you. Are you sure it’s that expensive to have Alma spayed? That seems like a lot of money. Here in the US it’s much less expensive, because society wants fewer puppies and kittens.

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1. Christer.
  
  January 16, 2026
  
  Hi Goodport!
  
  Thank You!
  I still hope for the big winning on Eurojackpot tonight though 🙂 🙂 🙂
  
  Yes it is that expensive because venture capitalists have taken over the vet clinics and everything about vet care is now stupidly expensive. The few small that still exists follows but are just marginally cheaper. Also this would not be helped with an insurance, they took that away long ago, not even if it is an emergency.
  As long as the insurance companies allows this it will just continue to get more expensive. The price for spaying the monsterkitten was just above $ 200 US
  
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catsworking

January 17, 2026

If dogs are anything like cats, neutering a boy is much easier on him than spaying a girl. And maybe Alma will calm down once Malkolm is no longer a “threat” to her. I remember you got some shots or something before for birth control, but spaying and neutering is really best.

Vets are becoming obscenely expensive here, too, and for the same reason. They are being bought out by conglomerates.

A vet I no longer use once quoted $2,100 to clean my cat Max’s teeth, which I didn’t do. Then I switched vets to a smaller practice, and the new vet said Max’s teeth look remarkably good for his age and really don’t need cleaning. But he just did clean my cat Tony’s teeth and it cost around $600 or $700, with no pulling teeth needed.

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1. Christer.
  
  January 17, 2026
  
  Hi catsworking!
  
  It is easier but what I can’t understand is why it is more expensive to do it on a big dog than a small one, surely it must be much easier to do it on a big dog where they can see everything clearly than on a Chihuahua where everything is tiny 🙂 🙂 It is the same on female dogs, the bigger the more expensive.
  
  I doubt that Alma see Malkolm as anything else than her son, she behaved like his mom the second he came here 🙂 She has been like this since she arrived 4.5 years ago and I guess this comes from her mother who also whined a lot and from what I understand now was aa really stressed dog. My guess is that she was a Rumanian street dog and had had a tough life.
  
  They do what they can to rob us of our money some vets.
  
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  1. catsworking
    
    January 18, 2026
    
    My cat Tater Tot, who my sister rescued off the streets when she was pregnant and kept her until she had 4 kittens, still eats like she’s never going to eat again. She taught all the kittens to eat the same way, and they still gobble six years later. So there’s truth in you saying Alma’s mother passed her stress to her puppy.
    
    I don’t know if they charge differently here for size of animal. Maybe the bigger the dog, the more incision and stitches needed?
    
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  2. Christer.
    
    January 18, 2026
    
    Hi catsworking!
    
    I think that’s why Alma is like she is. Still she was the calmest of them all so I do wonder how the other puppies are like now 🙂 🙂
    
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Carol

January 19, 2026

Hi! Read two of your posts today, and I am glad you got a couple of warmer days! I hope you get the job! And I am interested in a breadvrecipe that makes something more like a spongecake. That sounds weird. It sounds a bit like Ethiopian flat bread!

I noticed the days getting just a bit longer here too, so maybe it will be spring soon.

I uusually get my pets from the animal shelter, and the shelters always neuter animals before they leave. We do pay an adoption fee, which I guess covers the basic cost. In some areas the animal shelters also have low cost vet care for pets if you are willing to wait long enough. I was lucky for a long time to have affordable vets, but here in Seattle they are very expensive!

Good luck with everything.

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1. Christer.
  
  January 19, 2026
  
  Hi Carol!
  
  Yes a couple of warm days but now they’re over, too bad.
  I can see if I find that recipe again if You want to and my guess is that it should be a wide and rather flat bread instead of pouring it in to a normal bread tin 🙂 It had a nice taste though 🙂
  Long time till spring here if it follows how it used to be but these last years winter has come later and later with the exception of this year when it turned up like in the old days. I so wish spring arrives early 🙂
  
  We really don’t have shelters like You have over here. We have a couple of big places and it’s so difficult to get an animal from them that I’ve never tried (and almost as expensive as buying a dog) . Old Nova however came from an organisation that have the animals in foster care until they get new homes. Cats however have more like shelters though but I found the monster here instead 🙂 🙂
  
  Thank You 🙂
  
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