Aliʻi & Maggie Come to Visit

The plan was for Bill to come by this morning with Aliʻi & Maggie; with Aliʻi marking his territory along the fence lines & Maggie staying for a few days to give the feral pigs something to worry about. And Aliʻi did do a good job of marking and spreading his scent around the property; Maggie did several laps around the house before she settled down and began exploring along the fence line. Then Aliʻi found another hole in the fence that the pigs were getting in from; the scent must have been strong & fresh because he took off through the opening, zoomed across Jessie's back yard, and disappeared in to the tall grass on the other side! He is mainly Catahoula which is a breed raised for hunting pigs, so that's what he did! Bill went after him.

Aliʻi.

Maggie was running back and forth near the other break in the fence that I had patched up on Monday night; it held and she kept barking. We thought she was barking at Bill & Aliʻi, but as I got close to her I saw a tiny kitten come bolting out of the grass, headed straight for me. I caught Maggie's collar as she neared me, then grabbed for the kitten to get it off of the ground. Unfortunately, I grabbed it with my non-dominant hand so my aim was not so good & I missed the nape of its neck. It turned its head & bit the tip of my index finger, hard! I dropped the kitten, it ran, Maggie lunged and broke my grip. She and Aliʻi went after the kitten; although Bill & I were able to get them off of the kitten very quickly they managed to get a couple of good chomps on her. I took her to the Kohala Vet Clinic at the bottom of the hill but they weren't able to do anything to save her. This is the 1st time that Mom Cat has hidden her litter here; all the other times she would bring them over from the tall grass on the other side of Jessie's yard.

Maggie.

The one good thing to come out of this is that I got information on the trap, neuter, release program on this island. With the discovery of this litter, that means Mom Cat has had 3 litters in 2 years! The1st was Wiley's litter from last March, then Jessie has been feeding Mom Cat & her half grown kittens that are eating solid food, and now this 4-week old kitten. (The vet tech confirmed what I suspected about its age.) I talked to Jeannette from CatSnip Hawaiʻi; we will talk more later about getting live traps, setting them up, and trapping the cats for their next neutering event on May 21st. Unfortunately, I am leaving on the 22nd. Fortunately, the event is in Kapaʻau & so is Jeannette; she said she would do the release back on to the property on the 23rd. I'll coordinate with Jessie on trapping the cats.

The Aix weather forecast showed rain all day with it being slightly heavier  before 8 in the morning.

Overcast but no precip at 7 minutes before sunrise.

Rain at 7:38 am.

Twenty minutes later the rain stopped but looked like more was coming in.

About an hour later the sun was out; it went back & forth all day.

Just before my appointment in Waimea it was looking like rain again.

When I had called the Kaiser Honolulu Clinic line, I told them I was on Hawaiʻi Island and was closest to the Waimea clinic; they forwarded my call to the Urgent Care Clinic. I was told I could walk in and that they were located across from the elementary school; since I was not familiar with the elementary school, I clarified that they were near the post office by the Parker Ranch Center; the woman on the other end of the line said yes. But when I got to the Waimea Clinic, they said they did not have walk-in hours! Auē! But she checked with their administration and they said they could see me for a 1:15 pm appointment.

Another Ricardo look alike!

It was about 11:30, the clinic closed at 12 for lunch and reopened at 1pm; so I also took a lunch break since it would be a 1&1/2 hour round trip if I went home. I had lunch at Village Burger; I ordered a Big Island Beef Burger with Truffle Fries. The burger was great, the truffle fries are not worth the extra cost. The House Sparrows tried to convince me to feed them but were unsuccessful.

My lunch time view.

An unsuccessful begging attempt.

I still had half an hour to kill so I walked around the Parker Ranch Center food court to find a place for lunch with Sarah & Kaia on Saturday. It looks like Racha Thai is the best option; it has several different protein options including tofu.

It turns out since my type of Kaiser coverage is not accepted on Hawaiʻi Island, my call was actually transferred by Kaiser Honolulu to the Urgent Care Clinic; that's the name of the business, not the designation of a department within Kaiser like on Oʻahu. they apparently have a contract on Hawaiʻi Island to provide services to Kaiser members with my type of membership. Since I had more time to kill, I decided to see exactly where the Urgent Care Clinic was since it wasn't near the post office as I had been led to believe. I found out it was not "across from the elementary school" like I had been told; there was only an empty pasture across from the elementary school. It was a little ways down the road from the elementary school and not anywhere near the post office! Auē! No wonder I ended up at the wrong place.

By the time I returned from finding the Urgent Care Clinic it was time for my appointment at the Kaiser Waimea Clinic. On the way in I spotted a flattened gecko; I'm not sure how it got flattened since it was on the ramp to the clinic and not the road. I made a quick stop in the bathroom since I had not had access to one for a couple of hours; the decor was in Kaiser blue & white. I was seen by Physician's Assistant David; he said all the MDs were only doing video consultations and the PAs were doing all the in-person visits. He thought they had moved to that model since all the MDs were in a higher risk category than the PAs due to their age.

My vitals today.

PA David wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic since cat bites are notorious for becoming infected. He said I could wait on taking the antibiotic to see if the wound became infected. I decided to use the antibiotic preemptively so that I did not have to deal with an infected finger when Sarah & Kaia are here. I picked my prescription up at Kamehameha Pharmacy in Kapaʻau; I now have my information on file for the next time I need a prescription filled.

While I was doing all that I got a text from Sarah; she sent me a photo of Kaia petting a dolphin! That had been one of Kaia's requests before she got here. They were at Sea Life Park.

Dolphin, Kaia, & Sarah. (Photo by Lori)

Yesterday Sarah had texted that she was having a box of bathing suits & other clothing sent to the house. While I was in Waimea, Sarah's box arrived; it was unceremoniously chucked over the fence. I might have to have a box or something built for deliveries in order to keep them dry as well as hidden from view.

At least they wrapped it in a plastic bag.

Wiley heard me returning from Waimea and was waiting to be fed. Because the dogs were going to be here in the morning I did not put any food out so Wiley would not be around when they arrived; I'm glad I did that. The gray mackerel tabby and white cat also came to eat. Mom Cat just stayed under the mock orange at the fence line watching, she did not come in to eat.

The gray mackerel tabby & white cat comes in for some food.

He heard a noise but didn't flee.

Mom Cat stayed very far away from everything.

I had changed my haircut appointment with Petra from 1:30 to 4:30 when I needed to go to Waimea to get my finger looked at. While she was cutting my hair, Petra talked about a trip to Oʻahu that she and her husband will be taking next month to celebrate their anniversary which was a couple days ago. He arranged it so they would be returning after June 11th, when the proof of full vaccination will be allowed as an exemption. So that guy at the car rental on Monday was clearly lying!

Door on left to Petra's; door on right to vet I took kitten to this morning.

The exact words from the website.

The reason I had the dogs come over was to make the pigs think twice before coming on to the property. Besides totally uprooting and eating all the heliconia tubers, they knocked over an old hāpuʻu stump that some anthuriums and Easter cactus were growing on and uprooted a bunch of Grandma's old anthuriums. They also dug up the front yard under the puakenikeni; I think they were probably rooting around for the old puakenikeni fruitor perhaps earthworms and other insects feasting on the undersides of the downed fruit (which is not edible by humans).

The pigs knocked over this old hāpuʻu; a kalo is now coming up there.

They uprooted all the anthuriums in this section.

They were also rooting around the hāpuʻu on the background.

The Dwarf Samoan niu is full of fruit! I will have to learn how to most easily harvest them and open up the fruit.

About 5:30 in the evening I saw Wiley, Mom Cat, and the gray mackerel tabby & white cat at the end of the ramp. So I went in the house so I could feed them. As usual, Wiley came in first, followed by the gray mackerel tabby & white cat; Mom Cat never came up to eat.

L to R: Wiley, gray mackerel tabby & white cat (back end only), & Mom Cat at 5:32 pm.

Wiley comes in at 5:39 pm.

Five minutes later the other cat comes to eat.

He hears a noise but stays.

Five minutes later Wiley is cat loafing while the other cat finishes the food.

There were 64 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 32,894. There was 1 new death reported today making the death toll 485; currently there are 1191 cases considered active. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 65.1.

Hau'oli lā Hānau e Keith! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo e Helen & Sergio!