Story Time: Pommes the Claw 🐾, Edje in Hospital 🚐 & My Sunday "Marathon" 🪣

I actually wanted to share a post about Stolpersteine (you’ll learn what those are, promise!) but I still need to take a few photos... and for that, I’d have to leave the flat. Which I’ve only managed lately for groceries, gardening or vet visits. 😅

So instead, I got totally pulled into my current coding project called PocketGoals: a habit and mood tracker app that I’m building. Why? to structure my chaotic mind and to avoid these exact hyperfocusing phases. Ironic, huh? The funny part is that it’s actually working. It helps me keep better track of routines and moods (well, semi-daily, let’s say), and I really made some big progress on other parts of my life thanks to the app. Still... something feels a bit off in my head lately. It could also be because of 2 big tasks I always see when opening the app that are in my mind constantly anyway.

This post will cover the 2 most present todos I am currently dealing with. At the bottom of this post, I am also going to share some activity details of today as this post in reality is an @Actifit post - believe it or not ^^ I don't know how well such a cross-topic-post fits in the Actifit community guidelines, but hey: Let's give it a try ;)

🐾 The Drama of Pommes and Mayo

^Pommes

Let me introduce our little troublemaker: Pommes. She’s 4 years old, cute, proud, and has been our flatmate for nearly two years. A beautiful, clever, and very sweet cat.

But she doesn’t live here alone.

^Mayo

Meet Mayo, her sister. Or well - her enemy, roommate, victim… it depends on the day. Sadly, these two do not get along. At all.

It started right at the beginning. We adopted them from a guy via eBay. He told us, “Oh yes, they cuddle sometimes, good sisters!” Yeah. Right. Maybe in their past lives. Since day one in our flat: tension. Staring. Growling. Chasing. Pommes is more like “don’t look at me or I’ll end you,” and Mayo is like "I stare". Like a furry little ghost. So Pommes gets annoyed. And then it begins.

At first, Pommes just chased her now and then. But after a bit of time (it actually switched quickly), claws got involved. Mayo developed real fear - she started avoiding entire rooms. Ate in one spot, slept in one spot. Barely moved. And Pommes? She marked the shared spots. With pee. Yep. Welcome to Cat Cold War. And we? We cleaned with expensive emzyme soap and feared for the floorboards and furniture. The damage is emotional, financial and... scented.

🐅 When a Tiger Needs More Than 80m²

We tried everything: behavioral training, clicker training, pheromone diffusers and a 3-month-long cat psychologist consuting. Nothing helped.

Pommes still does not like her sister and she clearly needs more than our 80m² flat, even if we’ve added cat walls, tunnels, a balcony… everything. Still not enough. She needs outside. Trees, birds, wind, dirt, fresh air - not just a laser pointer. She starts prowling like a jungle cat around 10am, 2pm, 4pm, ... every day while Mayo is still recovering from the last chase by her 😵‍💫

So five months ago, we made the hard decision: We’re looking for a new home for Pommes. A place where she can roam. A person who understands her independence, her quirks, and her soft cuddly side (she does have that!) and without Mayo nearby.

It’s not easy. We tried everything: friends, friends of friends, cat groups, Facebook, eBay… This Friday I even drove through half of Lower Saxony to check supermarket bulletin boards. Visited 13 places. Found 5 boards. Left flyers. I took photos of each flyer with GPS to know where I have been already.

Note to self: Stop along the road and take photos next time. The Lüneburger Heide is beautiful!

But then — Saturday. Someone replied via eBay. A woman with experience. One of her cats even lived to 23 years! And after seeing Pommes’ photo, she said, “I think she could fit perfectly.” We had a great call. If she doesn’t change her mind, she will visit us soon. And I really hope she falls in love when they meet. Pommes is not easy, but she’s amazing and I know she will charm her. Cross your fingers for us, please. This story needs a good ending!

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🚐 Edje Is in the Hospital

Originally, we wanted to take our camper van for a late-spring trip. It’s a beautiful not-too-old Ford Transit, already converted inside like a dream. Kitchen, cozy bed, lights - all perfect. My girlfriend bought it from her 15-years savings. We called it Edje — after meeting @edje in Hamburg while the first @buzzparty! My girlfriend loves the Netherlands (she can even speak some Dutch) and was searching for a short Dutch name starting with E… boom, “Edje” it was!

But yeah. Edje isn’t doing great. On our first real road trip, the engine sometimes refused to start. Especially after parking in wet places for a few days. Classic Ford problem. So we brought it to the Ford garage to finally fix it. That was in January.

It’s June now. Guess what? Still not fixed.

They say it’s the immobilizer. We said the same already in December but all our tries to fix it ourselves have been not very successful. Now they’re in contact with the Ford Software Department, but nothing has changed until now. Every week we try to get it prioritized but yeah - we still have hope. But honestly? We’re tired of waiting.

So… Plan B!

We’re going to Rügen instead! It’s a beautiful island in the northeast of Germany. We found a cozy little apartment near the beach, and I’ll drive us in my car instead. My girlfriend’s mum will stay at home to take care of the cats (yes, both).

I’ll do my best to write at least one travel post from there. No promises, but I’ll try. 😄

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🧹 Sunday Marathon Mode: @Actifit Activated

And now to today. While I’m writing this, I finally sit down and take a break after what feels like a mini-marathon of housework.

I started the morning at the community garden, doing 2 hours of green waste duty. There's a fenced compost hill only open Saturdays and Sundays from 10–12, and someone has to guard it like a little eco hero - make sure no one throws trash in it, and keep the heap neat. That was me today.

To be honest, it’s one of the more “social” jobs in the community garden. Definetely better than pulling weeds alone or taking apart garden huts in 30°C heat. Everyone in the garden has to do 8 hours per year. Miss one? You pay a whopping 50€. That’s like a "golden hour" and no other community garden got such high fees. I learned it the hard way 2 years ago and since then, I am finally even collecting overtime!

^{I was not able to make a selfie because it was too busy...}

I already have 4 hours leftover from last year and 3 from this one. So I only need one more… but maybe I’ll do one or even two bar shift later this year to save up for next year.

After finishing the community work I planted two newcomers in my own garden. The store didn't write which plants these are but a quick Plantnet research told me Mallow and Delphinium (what a great name!):

^{Mallow (left) / Delphinium (right)}

My tomatoes have already made some good progress since my last post. They are now getting taller and taller, and I had to stabilize them with bamboo sticks. Soon they will be fit enough so I can do more care at them like cutting new branches and removing leaves from the bottom of the stem. But that will come after our holidays:

On Saturday, my girlfriend helped me add a zipper to my new garden house in the back of my garden. The zipper was needed because the greenhouse had no entry door. It is actually made out of a combination of two greenhouses because I needed more space in it. Unfortunately, the sticky tape we have used is not sticky enough, but the new greenhouse is already home for 4 new and veeeery tiny cannabis plants I put in today :D

After the garden, no break yet: the aquarium needed water change. So more buckets. More sloshing. More shoulder workout and still no relaxing:

And surprise: This week it was also my turn to clean the bathroom. Yay!!!! Done:

And later? It is also my turn to cook dinner. Because of course.

By the end of today, I’ll absolutely deserve to fall face-first into my bed. Maybe I should start doing some chores on Wednesday instead of piling everything onto Sunday. Just an idea. 😅

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Thanks for reading this chaotic combo of cat drama, broken vans, compost piles, plant updates and day stuff. Life is not boring, at least!

Wish us luck — for Pommes, for Edje, and for a bit of quiet on Rügen. Thanks! ❤️

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