See ya, September

Fall, glorious early Fall, has finally arrived in this part of the world. We will, of course, still have the occasional hot early afternoon here and there, but summer is definitely done. These past couple of weeks temperatures dropped into the high 50s at night, and going to work in the slightly chilly pre-dawn has been heavenly, especially after the summer we just had. Afternoon highs have been in the 80s. Wonderful weather.

Gregg is doing much better. Today he went back to work (he does all his aquarium jobs on Wednesdays) after a two-week absence. He wasn't supposed to lift anything heavy until he got the dentist's approval, but now he's cleared for it. He still hates the temporary dentures, but the pain is mostly gone and he's adjusting to them. The first of the year can't get here soon enough, though. Once the healing is complete and he can get the implants, things will be so much better. (Or better be, considering how much money we've spent).

Speaking of the dentist, last week I had to have a filling and a crown prep on one of my back molars. The cavity ended up being much deeper than it looked on the x-ray, and it took two hours to finish the work. Since then, I've had some harsh nerve pain on that side of my jaw, bad enough that Dr. Thomas called in a very low dose of a steroid for me to tame the inflammation. It's a little better, thank goodness, because if it doesn't resolve soon they'll start talking about a root canal. The dental practice has been making bank on us this month! Oh, well. I remind myself regularly how fortunate we are that we can afford all this expensive care. 

In other news, George and Poppy were both having terrible skin allergy flares and nothing seemed to be helping. Then the other day, I finally figured out why. Fleas!!! I couldn't believe it! I was horrified. We've never had a flea issue before. Since the dogs live inside and don't go out in the yard all that much, it just never occurred to me to look for them. * Now that I think about it, I'll bet I know where the problem comes from:

Yes, we're still feeding two of the (almost grown up) wild kittens that the mama cat left behind.  And look up in the right-hand corner of that photo: they've started bringing a friend. The orange tabby wasn't in the original litter, but he knows a good thing when he sees it. Sigh.

We were dumb to ever start feeding stray cats. Sooner or later we're going to have to do something before they start to multiply. And now they're probably bringing in fleas, too! We knew better but couldn't stand to see them without food or fresh water, and now they show up twice a day like clockwork for their Meow Mix. Gregg and I are such suckers, I swear. 

I have to admit that I really like them, though. This little girl is my favorite. She's the bravest of the three and when I walk out with food she rolls around on the ground in front of me and tries to look as cute as possible.

  I wish I could find someone great to take her. **

My plans for a fall garden haven't come to anything. September has ended up being so busy with all the dental drama that I just haven't had any motivation. Here's one thing my garden did produce last week, though:

My David Austin roses have proven to be troopers, even in terribly hot, dry summers. I've been so pleased with them! And isn't this Eustacia Vye blossom a beauty? There are several more buds about to pop that I'll be cutting and bringing indoors over the next couple of weeks. I may not have gotten many tomatoes this summer, but I'm still cutting roses into the beginning of October and that's something, at least.

*I hightailed it straight to the vet and bought expensive flea medicine that killed all the wee bastards within twelve hours. I don't mess around when it comes to fleas. Nope, nope, nope.

** Between our dogs (who want to chase and eat cats), our bird, and my allergies, there's no way we can really adopt her or any of the others. I need to start actively looking for homes for them. At this point I'd even pay for the spaying/neutering if someone decent would adopt them and take them off our hands.