Sasha was our family cat, she was a ragdoll breed and very cuddly and good natured.

She was missing for a few days and we were starting to get a bit worried and also looking for her in the mornings and at night as our house backs onto a reserve and sports fields.

My first thoughts were that she either was out on and adventure or she had somehow got stuck in the many storm water drains around here.

We had a big storm on Saturday night and then also through Sunday morning, I went looking for her again on Sunday morning, I looked out the gate and wandered up onto the fields first keeping an eye out for a big ball of fluff that stands out amongst the landscape as it was wet and she is a very light brown colour as rag dolls are.

I walked for about 30m and then decided I would have a look back down the storm drains that lead to the lake and in the distance I saw a light coloured mass that looked like a plastic bag, as I walked closer I realized it was our cat and I started to run, I’ll never forget the way she looked at me when I found her and picked her up, her breathing was labored and she looked like a drowned rat, I quickly ran her back to the house to comfort and warm her up.

She was very distressed, not eating or drinking and barely moving, we thought it was just from the trauma of being stuck and getting washed out or similar.

We decided that we would put her in the wash house overnight as she was improving a little and then if needed take her to the vet in the morning on Monday.

Sad to say she didn’t improve over night and her breathing and movement were getting worse, but she did have a little heat in her body.

We took her to the vet and found out she had a paralysis tick on her, which would explain the lack of movement and the inability to eat or drink, they removed the paralysis tick off her, gave her injections and put her on oxygen.

Sadly she passed away before lunch.

The sad thing about the whole situation is we didn’t even think it was a tick and so we are left with a lot of what ifs about the whole ordeal.

We buried her in our garden in front of the swing set so she can hear the kids playing and the birds chirping around her, she will be a sadly missed pet as she was great with the kids and had a great nature about her.

R.I.P Sasha.

The age old great nappy debate of Cloth vs Disposable and which is the cheapest option for family’s rages on, but not in our household.

As a dad and a husband I always listen and generally obey my wife to her views regarding the kids, so in saying that we have found a happy medium between the both that sits nicely between cost, efficiency and workload in washing, which nine times out of ten is the wife’s dept.

And yes, I am a dad that is not afraid to roll up the sleeves and change nappies, there are a lot out there that don’t I have found.

What we do is use cloth reusable nappies during the day and around home and we use the disposables at night before bed (So use the disposable through the night) and also if we are going out of the house for a while or travelling with baby.

We find this a great happy medium for us but it may not work for everyone either and of note, nappy rash is kept and has been pretty nonexistent in both the cloth nappy and the disposable nappy too.

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