Johnblog

Lovely winter’s day today – 24 degrees. The forecast was good so we headed off to Palm beach in the sports car. We started off in jeans, but when we got there we changed into shorts – very brave. There were plenty of people in the sea (mostly wearing wetsuits) but we weren’t that brave.

Wandering dolphins

Not a dolphin

We had a coffee from a kiosk outside the boathouse cafe on Pittwater. The cafe used to be a lovely slightly daggy old place but has now gone upmarket. Lots more tables, lots of young waitresses dashing about and a longish queue – it was packed to the rafters. We’ll have to try it on a weekday.

We took a stroll along the beach and watched the surfers make the best of some small waves. A pod of dolphins made an appearance.

Lunch was flathead and chips from our favourite Palm Beach chippery, eaten sitting on the grass watching the boats go up and down Pittwater. On the way back we stopped for another beach stroll at Bilgola, then home with the top down on the car. Good day.

Sad news, I’m afraid. Ripley has gone. He was fine until a few days ago when he started going off his food. Then he was breathing very heavily. I took him to the vet who did some X-rays and said he had pleural effusion – lots of fluid in his chest. It could be caused by an infection, a cancer, or his heart (Maine Coons are known to be prone to Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.) 

The vet suggested more tests at the local animal hospital. I took him along and they found some lumps in his abdomen. After some ultrasounds the hospital vet diagnosed lymphoma. The cancer was advanced and had spread. The prognosis was not good, so we said goodbye to the boy. He’d lasted 10 years, not too bad for a Maine.

He was a great cat and very handsome. We’ll miss him. Sooty now has the house to herself and seems to be enjoying it.