Pests, Mentors, TNRing, Roof Coating...

Last week was mostly marred by pests...I will get to that shortly...

Antonio, the electrician, found an uncapped, live wire in our septic pump's circuit, floating around in wet dirt - he removed it, and not to jinx anything, but so far, the new breaker has not tripped. 

Tuesday, I found that something had chewed holes in several one-gallon-sized ziplock bags of Kitten Food in our pantry. A quick Google search reported back Nathan's favorite: COCKROACHES. They seek out pet food for its fat content and strong smell, and can easily breach pet food bags - thus contaminating the food, so it's best to throw it out so your pets don't get ill. 

Adding insult to injury, I also had to toss about eight pounds of Iams Senior kibble; our cats had lost interest, and I thought they just preferred the new RX Kidney diet food I had added to their diet. When the outside, stray, and hungry cats wouldn't touch it, I knew something was up. Google again taught me that kibble has a shelf life of only 4-6 weeks once the container is open, and less time in humidity, before it starts to turn. Fantastic. We have two automatic feeders that were full of kibble.

Roaches chewed circular holes in multiple bags of kitten food I brought from the US

I then disinfected EVERYTHING in our pantry, Kitchen, and the floors....gross.

Mosquitoes have also returned; we had grown complacent and enjoyed the months-long reprieve from the mossies. With just a touch of rain, they are back with a vengeance. May as well have the trifecta - the rains seem to have reactivated the ants, too.

We saw a few-day dry spell and pounced at the opportunity to try out our new roof sealant - I coated the stairs to our roof on Wednesday, and then on Thursday we were both on the roof by 5:45 am to tape off the sides and coat the roof. It took about three hours, then Nathan cleaned up and started his work day. The coating is fabulous - elastomeric, so it flexes like rubber - and takes 3-5 hours to dry to the touch, and 24 hours to fully cure. Clear skies at dawn gave way to a lunchtime downpour, soaking the surface of our roof. I put on socks and went upstairs - it wasn't tacky, so I squeegeed the roof deck to remove puddles and hand-mopped with towels to remove as much rain as possible. It's lighter in some areas, and we aren't supposed to apply a second coat; just one, thick coat - but we're going to have to reinforce some areas and hope for the best.

 
We didn't even have time to pull the tape before rain fell and pooled on the fresh coating :( 

Thursday afternoon, I took my cat trap down to Kit's house - she bought one at Castillo's so we had two - but know that they are $160US+ down here! She was involved with TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) in Maryland and was on a board for a rescue for 35 years, she knows what she's doing and I was afraid to try trapping on my own. She baited the traps with beef chunks and within minutes, we captured two of the kittens! No sign of the mom cat, though. We took them to SAGA to be spayed/neutered that day, recover, and be picked up on Saturday. 

Kit decided to try her luck when she got back home and re-baited the traps, catching the other two kittens in one trap! Mom was back and she was ANGRY, but we took her kittens to join the others. 

Kit was finally able to trap the mom cat on Friday - she kept going around the trap's trigger, Kit had to "Wile E. Coyote" trap-door-on-a-string to finally get her. I'm so grateful to have Kit here, my TNR Mentor!

The spiciest of kittens - a tortie, of course!

Saturday, the kittens were ready for pickup so we could "R" (Release) them - Kit and I picked them up and brought them back to her and Brian's house. Here is a video on that: TNRing kittens in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize

The skies broke on our way home, but there was a Farmer's Market at The Truck Stop and we wanted to go, so we grabbed our husbands, umbrellas, and headed that way. Unfortunately, the reason for my visit, a lady who sells plants, didn't attend as planned, but we did see our friends Mandy and Kevin from Fresh N Go, and Mandy introduced me to my writing mentor, Rebecca from SanPedroScoop.com!

I nervously giggled for most of our conversation, but I was so excited to meet someone instrumental in teaching us about the island, what to expect, how to survive, and kept us updated on goings-on before we could move down. Rebecca is an island legend!

With unstable skies, we opted to go to Kit and Brian's pool and have food delivered - I need to buy stock in SandBar, I'm keeping them busy!

Sunday/Father's Day was much like Mother's Day - intermittently rainy. Nathan had all of his calls and received some great news - his dad has penciled in a trip to come down! His dad is his BFF and will bring Zach back with him so he doesn't have to travel alone.

We went to Vibez for their Pink Lemonade Buckets (strongly suggest! $15BZ frozen pink lemonade cocktails in a bucket) and snacks, then walked to Hurricane's. Before long, the skies broke again, and we met a lovely family that had just purchased a diving company and was learning how to navigate life here. 

The Patty Flipper was open on our way home! We placed a to-go order, gorged on the best burgers on the island, and went to bed early.

My slumber was disturbed a little after one; there was some commotion outside, I thought maybe the wind had picked up. The noises continued, so I grabbed a flashlight and found....TWO raccoons on the patio outside our room, wrestling like they were in WWF. Not mating - wrestling, biting, but not growling. One was close to 30 pounds, the biggest raccoon I have personally seen, and dominating the smaller one, so I flashed his eyes and he walked down the side of our home. The smaller one was flat on the ground, splooted out, looking dazed - and I realized she was IN LABOR. On our patio. For the next 3 hours, she was delivering, and the male came back to check on her, jump on our patio furniture, groom himself...so no sleep was had. 

When I peeked outside at daybreak, the raccoons and their kits were gone - but they left behind a ton of afterbirth and mess. Fantastic.

Google said to bleach it all - I checked with ACES Wildlife Rescue and they confirmed - raccoons carry many nasty diseases and parasites, we have to protect ourselves and bleach everything, even adjacent to the lagoon. Sigh....

Kit picked up the mom cat this morning and said they are all happily reunited. SAGA runs solely on donations, so while they offer free TNR surgery, please make a donation to help them out! They are always looking for dog walkers, cat cuddlers, help with fundraising, and education...if you have time, money, or both, they can always use your assistance!