Skipper and Tigress. the Two Dreamers

Skipper and Tigress. the Two Dreamers Skipper and Tigress were littermates of the Dreamwork Kittens which were born to SupermamaTip at TinyKittens.com born on August 5th, 2015

These lovely darlings .. Skipper and Tigress were born at TinyKittens.com... their Supermama Tip was an abandoned cat taken in by LAPS (Langley Animal Protection Society) and then moved to the Tiny Kittens Society in Fort Langley BC Canada so she could have her kittens in safety ... I was lucky enough to adopt these two special scampers from the Tiny Kitten's Society! Please remember to spay or neuter your pets people! So every kitten is wanted and has a home to go to :)

12/10/2024

Hello everyone. I know it has been some time since we posted. We have been busy as hell. At the beginning of November the restoration company showed up with a 5 ton truck of alot of our stuff. We had to go thru the boxes to see what we could salvage. Trust me 80 percent of it was not worth keeping. Everything was mixed up and I suspect some stuff was tossed that was important Once everything was unloaded we then discovered that NOTHING has been cleaned from the fire. So we had to clean everything ourselves, our washer, dishwasher and dryer were going to two weeks straight 24 hours a day to accomplish this. We washed everything by had first in TSP (went thru several containers of the stuff. Then we had to wash it again in the machines Even then several things went into the garbage because the smoke had been on it too long and the smell would not come out. We noticed that some of our furniture never arrived and it was the custom furniture that Neil had built himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!They had photo's of it but claim they never got these items???????????????????? The silverware that I inherited from my mother? Half of the pieces are missing. These items were pure silverware, not silverplate. We had a real persian rug from the middle east. We insisted that it was to be professional cleaned. That arrived today... it is still black from smoke, damaged with threads missing in a few spots and basically destoyed. :( At first they claimed there was no rug but we went thru THEIR photos of our apartment and showed it to them. Also we are missing closets full of stuff that we never got back. My mother has made handmade quilts that I had stored in our back closet. they are gone. So all and all I would say that about 90 percent of our stuff was destoyed and/or missing. I am sure that our insurance company is not going to pay for all of this. Both Neil and I are doing ok. The kids are in good spirits and playing all the time and cuddle with us on the sofa. Health wise well Neil's doing just ok, and me? well one of my doctors called me the other day after some bloodwork and was surprised I was not in a coma. Seems my thyroid medication isn't doing it's job and we had to quaduple my dosage so you can imagine how I am feeling these days. I don't think at this point that we will be having a very merry xmas.

10/25/2024

Greetings to all of you :)

Well it is certainly feeling like Fall around here. The leaves are falling and our usual fog fest is starting. It is common for us to get a week of fog not stop where you have to climb the local mountains to actually see sunlight. The kids are totally into it, and since we are living on the main floor now they can see how it affects people and they are very interested in seeing how it affects everyone around then. Their lives are so different now and they are playing alot more these days. Also they are doing zoomies multiple times each day. It is common for both Neil and I to be woken up very early e.g. 3 or 4 am by being run over in our bed with the kids doing massive zoomies early in the morning. Suddenly we are being woken up with kittens running us over in our sleep. Skipper loves to run across the backs of our couches in the living room with his sister in hot pursuit behind him. We have wood floors in our new apartment. So we had to buy a small area rug to keep our feet warm. The kids love this new area rug and they walk up to it and then PLUNK they drop and roll. I am now realizing that perhaps we should have tried to buy one with a slightly darker colour. Right now we don't have a vacuum cleaner until we get out old one back next week and with this lighter colour and darker cats welllllll we need a vacuum cleaner :) think you get the idea :) When we got this new couch I also picked up a new throw for it. Our old ones were starting to look a tad tatty. Tigress loves it and how soft it is and she does not like to share with me. (chuckles) She is such a diva :)

10/13/2024

Greetings everyone :)

Now I know we've been a bit quiet lately. Both Neil and I had a cold a while back and we've also been trying to develop new habits in our new apartment. We are slowly getting there, meeting new neighbours ect. The kids are loving our new apartment and have been doing zoomies every morning and play fighting with each other. Fun to watch them beating each other up every morning. Sometimes Skipper get's into it a bit heavy but he straightens out quick enough. We just clear our throats, he looks over and backs off Sometimes we have to do that to Tigress as well.,... she has been known to throw her weight around as well. At the end of the month they will be exchanging the rental stuff for our stuff. They sent us pictures of our old sofa. It looked like crap and had bleach stains all over it. We told them don't deliver it and went shopping. We went to a few places and lucky for us we have an Urban Barn outlet store a block away. We found a lovely well built sofa there on sale for 800 bucks and it's really solid. Way cheaper than other places for what we felt was junk. No matching chair but perhaps we may find something there later, they get stuff there twice a week so it is close enough we can visit until we find something suitable.

We sit on our patio in our new apartment every day. There are alot of dogs that live here. Neil picked up some dried liver treats for all the puppies in the building. It helps us get to know the neighbours. We are slowly getting to know people here. The other day a couple knocked on our patio door (we are on the main floor) and gave us two bags of liver treats., They and their puppy drop by every day to chat and we enjoy the puppy therapy. When we were chatting they asked us about Canadian thanksgiving. I told them that I think this year we will give it a pass since our kitchen only has bare bones stuff it in. e.g. no roaster to cook a turkey, not even a potato masher. I did not want to replace all what was needed at walmart since we are getting our own stuff back at the end of the month They had their Thanksgiving last night and dropped by today with a complete Thanksgiving meal for Neil and I to enjoy tonight, and perhaps a few more nights even gravy and cranberry sauce!!!!!!!! Over the past few weeks they have come to understand how rough of a year we've had and wanted to spread some kindness to us. They can see thru our living room window how bare bones we are living and we were were blown away by their thoughtfulness. I thought oh well, I'll just do Christmas a bit more than usual. But now we will have Thanksgiving after all. :)

09/12/2024

Greetings to everyone

Things are slowly returning to normal. The kids are finding their "grove" and so are Mom and Dad. Both of the kids sleep their days away, mainly because they stay up late. We moved further into a more rural area so there is more "wildlife" to watch including little field mice that apparently love to play on our patio in the wee hours of the morning.. Skippy's catbed is in the bedroom and I wake up in the wee hours of the morning and he is wide awake and sitting there making ping pong moves watching the mice playing on the patio. Yesterday afternoon I was watching a movie and noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye and it was a raccoon kit crossing the flower bed in our front patio (we are living in a main floor apartment now) Previously we had seen mommy raccoon and this kits sibling in our flower bed. The mommy raccoon had been hit by a car and was limping badly they travelled down the street where they are building another apartment building and it's all blocked off. I am hoping that mommy raccoon is doing ok and has not left her two kits on their own. Neil is doing good, me not so much, had blood work for my kidney's the other day and my kidney's are not very happy right now so feeling a bit under the weather these days. Hoping the change in "home" will improve things as things stabilize.

08/29/2024

From Mommy

We've heard back from the vet. Initially he was a bit worried that Skipper may have developed Diabetes. Now bear in mind that Skipper is not the best traveller by the time we got to Mountain View he was foaming at the mouth and drooling all over his poor sister, they had to share the cat carrier on the way there and was extremely vocal. So the vet had extra urine and blood to he ran additional tests to determine if he had developed diabetes. The test results came in this morning and his high blood sugars were from the driver over to the vets and the stress he encountered and he is not Diabetic. So both of the kids are very healthy and in good spirits now that they are both at home. HOORAY!

08/27/2024

From Mommy:

Just got back from Mountain View Vet Hospital. Both of the kids had a checkup and Skipper had some follow up tests since his last blood work was abnormal. The doctor told us that both of their x-rays are perfect and we will find out the lab work results tomorrow but he does not expect any surprises. Of course our little girl was adoring the attention. Skipper wasn't so cooperative as per usual. being the shy soul that he is. We got them home and he immediately dived under my blanket on the bed and he's pouting. Tigress is in the living room hogging our chair and sleeping off the treats that the vet tech gave her and Skipper. She of course ate them all while Skipper sat in my lap huddled against me waiting for his exam. He is not big with vets, his sister just loves the attention and came back to us purring her head off as per usual. Our kids may be siblings but their personalities are complete opposite :)

The family as a whole are slowly regaining our daily routines. Also we are getting confusing messages from our strata council. Today they sent us an email to give to the people getting our stuff out of our condo saying that full PPE must be used and employees must take a shower that they are setting up there after leaving our condo. Our strata president is trying to get the fire report from the fire department to find out what started the fire. She requested the report and was refused that information, now she is trying again thru the freedom of information act but it may take 8 weeks for that to happen. All of us agree we are not being told everything we need to know.

08/13/2024

Hello everyone

Neil and I have had some time to decompress and so have the kids. The kids are really enjoying the open spaces in our new home, every night when Neil heads to bed it suddenly becomes "playtime" the tails get fluffy as hell and there is major zoomies all over the apartment. They both race from room to room and pull halloween kittie moves and go nuts. It is great to see this interaction, then when that is finished they both cuddle on the couch and do a mutual cleaning. It is obvious that things are back to normal for them and both Neil and I really love to see everyone is enjoying the new apartment and the space it provides for all of us. One thing that both Neil and I have noticed about Skipper's behaviour is that he really really enjoys diving under the covers of our bed, we both think this is how he survived all that smoke during the fire. He must have climbed under our covers on our bed which served as a buffer from all that smoke. Our sheets and blankets filtered the smoke from him. Thank goodness it was not hotter and we had not taken our blanket off the bed. We are slowly getting into a routine, even the kids are developing a napping schedule. Everyone is happy except when Simon our adjustor calls. We are getting another break from his "annoying behaviour" he is on vacation again. The one thing we wish we had right now was a decent coffee maker, the coffee maker from the rental company is a Mr Coffee 4 cup which as most of you know makes a horrible cup of coffee,. When it get's bad and we need a decent cuppa we walk across the street to Walmart which has a Timmie's outlet inside. Thank god for Timmies's All and all we are slowly gaining our normal lives back :)

08/07/2024

Thanks for hanging in there folks, my computer died completely. I managed to find a second hand one and it just arrived. We got moved in, the kids are realllllly enjoying the space in our new home and enjoying hiding in the stranges places. i.e. behind the toilet????We have received food, new dishes for their din din and some gift certificates. Some which will be used to get that spray to keep them from destroying this rented furniture. Neil and I have been getting more sleep and feeling a bit better. Simon is being simon ICK but we hired that reclaimation company and Simon called us today when we sent him an email that he is keeping our belongings hostage. So he told us "we were in charge" so we told him to get the reclaimation company into our home and stop procastinating on us. We told him to pay for our beds and he HAD to give us a lump sum to pay for more clothes for us (been living in the 150 bucks worth of clothes each from Welfare since we left our home in our housecoats). Also he had to pay us 1000 bucks to replace all the food we lost in the fire. We told him that he had to pay all this before the weekend because we need all that NOW so no more crap get it done. We did some research and discovered that the total value in a fire for a 2 bed condo is 70K so his offer of 30K is not going to do it. Also that anything that is reclaimed from our home has to be 1000 safe to be returned to us since I am immune compromised So the ball is in his court now, let's see what he pulls next.

Please note this wish list is listed on Amazon in Canada, so Americans will be getting a great exchange rate. Your amer...
07/31/2024

Please note this wish list is listed on Amazon in Canada, so Americans will be getting a great exchange rate. Your american dollars go a long way in Canada :)

07/28/2024

As most of you know we were in a massive fire and lost everything and our insurance company to say the least is NOT being helpful.

So if you are in a position to help here are a few ways.

Money Donations:

In canada we have e-transfer set up to our bank using the email [email protected]

Other countries we have a paypal account to my name Louise (Michelle) Struik with my email [email protected]

Those of you asking about Amazon wish list: I am making a wish list and will have it turned on around August 1st after we move into our new more perm. accomodation.

Thank you all for supporting us.... you all have helped us retain our sanity during all of this You have no idea how much it has helped us thank you thank you thank you

07/28/2024

Greetings everyone, it is the weekend so nothing happens then, so it is our time to recharge and relax in anticipation of what's next to come. So here is your kitten update.

From Skippy:

Life was very wild there for a bit until Stephanie from PoCo Animal bylaws and shelly managed to trap me. When they got me back to mommy and daddy I was so happy until sissy spat and slapped me across the face. We've made up now but our dynamics are very different now. She hoggs the bed and won't let me sleep where I use to against mommy's leg. Now I sleep on mommy's pillow and wap her on the head while she sleeps. We play more now and sissy is no longer passive with me.... now she fights back. I never realized how good I had it before, she can and does play rough sometime. I still sing the song of my people, tho sissy now tends to tell me to "put a sock in it"

From Tigress:

Had it great until Skippy showed up again, was lovely having mommy and daddy to myself... But no, he had to show up again, but I have learned that everything is not all Skippy, I have become a new woman and now I stand up to his singing voice and I am not afraid to say something. I have also discovered how nice it is to sleep with mommy and daddy and I am willing to stand my ground and not give up MY spot on the bed, so Skippy is not getting the choice spots anymore and he is pouting alot. We still play fight alot but now when Skippy get's rough I stand up for myself and it is a bit more even hence the pouting on my brother's part.

All and all I think the dynamics between the kids has been a heathy change and everyone is adapting to it and both of the kids seem happy and purring up a storm. It is "different" but in a good way.

07/23/2024

Morning everyone

ok, small update. Those of you who are local know how hot and humid it has been lately. So the following should not be a surprise to you but those of you further afield should find this interesting.

So our adjustor told us to hire a reclamation company so we did some research and found one over the weekend. Monday we met with the supervisor to be and we entered our damaged apartment one again. Now I've mentioned how most of the apartments have been robbed. We were not the exception. When we entered the suite and reclamation supervisor whent WOW we have a ton of mold. You could see it and smell it. Gee I wonder why, they left all the work for over a month and in this heat and humidity it shouldn't be a surprise. He implied that all of our contents except metal i.e. pots and pans are now toast. Gee Mr. (no damage whatsover) Adjustor. Now who created this problem? YOu sent the email to the wrong person 3 weeks ago and now almost everything is junk now We also found that our entire apartment had been rifiled thru. i.e. drawers open and searched, furniture moved, bathroom searched for drugs. Even found blanket that didn't belong to us ready to "pad" items to hawl out. They only stole one thing tho, I very expensive red coral neaklace I bought when it was legal to do so that is now illegal to buy. So we reported that to the police because it is unique and if they attempt to pawn it it is do unique that it would certainly get them charged. There is a world wide ban on red coral jewerly now. Legally i can own it I can just never sell it. I am just very thankful that I managed to grab my wedding ring before our place got robbed. We spoke to the police and filed a report.

Now I wonder what our adjustor from hell is going to say when he get's the reclamation supervisor's report that now we have major damage. I suspect it will be our fault in some way. Not making any bets on that one because I am sure he will find some way that it's our fault, and not his for taking a 2 week vacation and leaving our claim to solve itself while he was away.

Oh and I am still phoning that Ombudsman daily and he has still not responded.

Again, if any of you are in the position to help, please consider in Canada a e-transfer to our bank using the bakerbuns@ telus.net

or

via Paypal using the [email protected] under my name Louise (Michelle) Struik

Oh and we still have not heard anything from Global tv (sigh)

07/20/2024

Back to square one

Well I spoke tooo soon. Our adjuster came back with another deal, one problem he want's us to pay for all of OUR damages, and be left with all of our damaged items. (SIGH! OH and we have to do all the work and pay for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I just emailed him back and told him NO DEAL and told him to send us the rental furniture on the 1st which we will have for 3 months . I am SO SICK of this man. I will call his company ombudsman again on monday and every day after that until he connects with me. Also if I don't get any results I will then go to the federal ombudsman.

Please grant me the strength to get thru this! We are still looking into the possibility of hiring a lawyer as well.

PS Something that might help..... locals please go to the global tv website and look up Anne Drewa. she is the consumer affairs reporter. Fill out the form on her page and tell her about my adjustor from hell.... perhaps if she see's many people supporting us that will help her realize it's an important story that needs to be told and put pressure on this insurance company which is by the way operating across canada but I can't tell you their name because that could be slander. Tell her Michelle Struik in Port Coquitlam suffered a massive fire and this company is not honouring her condo insurance.

07/19/2024

A long few days

ok it has been a few days and most of them were horrible and depressing. However we may have turned a corner today.

Starting with Friday at which time I spoke to who I thought was our adjustor's supervisor, (he wasn't) initially he was just as a dip as our adjustor but by the end of the call I think he was beginning to come to my side. Then on monday I did call my adjustor's supervisor and only got her voice mail. Then on tuesday with no return phone call I did some research and found out there was an Ombudsman on a federal level, called them, they called back wednesday and told me I had not climbed the chain to their level yet, seems our insurance company has their OWN Ombudsman and I had to speak to them first then I can go to her if I did not yet action. To which I replied... "ahhh why do they need to have their own Ombudsman and how can they be impartial" SIGH So I tried calling him phoned 3 times and left my name, phone number and policy number. Now remember it has been almost 2 weeks since I'd had any contact with OUR adjustor, found out he's on holidays.... oh dear must suck for him. Seems my climb up the chain of command did something. Our adjustor called us a while ago, he was sickly sweeet to us and was talking about all the ways he was going to help us.... so we suggested that he check his numbers and see if he can give us a lump sum payment for everything in our apartment and we would sign off on that portion of the insurance claim. He would still pay for our new condo for 2 years as agreed, we would just take a lump sum and write off everything. We also told him that oh and our home was burgled so is that in this fire claim or another claim. He told us it would be another claim but that he would probably handle that as well. We told him that would be outside this possible deal for the fire damage. Oh and also Tiny Kittens called us, they received lab work for Skippy that proves he had smoke inhalation and that he needs to have follow up vet appointments i.e. chest x-ray to ensure there is not perm. damage. I told the adjustor "guess what simon I have PROOF of smoke damage, lab work for our baby boy that prooves he has smoke damage. Our adjust suddenly turned super nice. Will keep you all updated.. patience is finally paying off but what a ride.

07/12/2024

I hope this works

Yesterday we ran into one of our neighbours who had the same insurance adjustor. She got him fired from her claim. So she told me how she did it.

Today I did the first step and spoke to Jeffrey who she thought was his supervisor, turns out he isn't but he still spoke to me. Initially he wasn't very sympathic but by the end of the phone call he seemed to be in agreement that things are NOT being handled very well at all. I also found out from my neighbour that Simon has left on holidays so nothing would even be resolved by the time we moved into the new apartment. To which I said to Jeff ... well we have purchased a new bed, but have no sheets, towels to bathe with, a glass to even drink out of and no where to even sit and if you think that two disabled seniors can sit on the floor are you going to pay the fire department to rescue us from the floor?!?!?!

I also told him that this stress of limbo will probably put me in hospital before I move into our new apartment. Also that the kidney center has put me back on a prescription diet (fluid only) and that I am one step from dyalisis and if that happened I would sue them. He is going to talk to the "powers that be" and get back to me.

I told him ...yes I have 190K replacement costs and no I do not expect that much but I do expect responsible accomodation and would like to see that so I move into an apartment that I can sleep, sit and eat in, is that too much of an expection????

Apparently Shannon our strata president has been having an email war with Simon, telling him that people two apartment blocks away are getting replacement on beds and sofa's with no hassles so why is he treating his clients in our building like crap. She said he did not cc those "fighting emails" with us so she is going to forward copies to us as well for more ammo. Crossing our fingers that Monday will bring better news with information on a possible settlement/cheque from the insurance company,

PS. I have nausea all the time and now throwing up all the time. Plus my diabetes is out of control and I am having hypo's on a regular basis.

07/10/2024

ok, the latest on the continuing saga

First we were told that yes our home had abestos contamination, then it wasn't then it was. We finally got the final answer, no contamination. However our adjuster still feel that we have no smoke or water damage. After our building was fed with 4 hydrants and a water cannon for 14 hours *SIGH*

Our strata president emailed him and told him that people living two apartment blocks away are getting replacement furniture but he still gives both her and us ... excuses. *SIGH*

The stress is really really getting to me. I spoke to my Kidney Center yesterday and they sent me my liquid diet replacement and have moved up my blood work to next week because they are worried that my kidneys may be crashing :( I am literally not hungry and have nausea all the time... gee I wonder why. So basically I am not mostly on a liquid diet to save my kidneys.

The strata council has fired the reclaimation company that was in charge of the fire site. They were stealing from all the condo's, I also found out that my adjuster is buddy buddy with them. I also wonder what has been stolen from our home.

We got two cheques from the adjuster today (two dates late) oneto pay the retirement home until August 1st, the second for the new apartment we move into on August 1st. We also used your donations to buy a new bed so we won't be sleeping on the floor. the rest will have to wait until all the crap with the adjuster is fixed.

I know I sound like a broken record but I am not holding my breath that this adjustor will be fair... so if you would like to help :

In canada, you can e-transfer to our bank using the following email: [email protected]

Outside of canada you can use paypal with no fees to my account :
[email protected] under my name Louise (Michelle) Struik.

Thank you all for listening to our tale of woe, the stress is over the top and lately I'm coping minute by minute.

07/07/2024

Hope the new floor is comfortable.

Ok, here is the latest "news". Well after being homeless for a few weeks we managed to finally get a computer going and looked at our finances. We were under the illusion that our home insurance had lapsed. Well we discovered that it was on automatic payments and we had a policy. Also that it was a good one, or so we thought. Well after establishing that yes we did have insurance we had a conversation with the insurance company and therefore we were covered to find a new home and had a decent budget. So as you all know we signed a rental agreement the other day. Then the other shoe dropped, the insurance company said that in spite of the fact that the building was condemed they would pay NOTHING for replacement costs because they claim we have no water, or smoke damage?!?! So we spoke to our strata president and she has a report from the strata insurance that the entire building is contaminated with abestos and nothing can be salvaged. So as of the 1st of August we do have a roof over our heads but no money to replace anything. The strata president is going to get the strata insurance lawyer to call our insurance company and demand they give us some replacement costs since I am covered up to 190K but at this point we have no money to buy basics to get restarted. So with the donations we have received so far we should be able to get a bed or enough basics to meet our basic needs. The strata president does have a independant report that states the entire building is contaminated but how long will it take for the insurance company to see 'reason'. Time will tell. as you can imagine our stress levels are sky high. (sigh) The no knowing how things will play out makes everything to difficult. Boy do I need a vacation and knowing that is NOT even remotely possible. Just trying to keep our heads above the water is stressing us both to the max.

So again, if you feel that you can help us we really really thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Our former complex has been collecting donations. but we would like to not take anything for the people who have ZERO insurance to restart.

So,, if in Canada you can donate by e-transfer from your bank to our bank using the [email protected] address.

Or

Use paypal to the [email protected] address, under my name Louise (Michelle) Struik

SIGH we just checked our bank account and discovered that our strata fees of 414 bucks has been taken out and we don't even live there anymore and won't for the forseeable future.

Thank you all for those who have donated because those funds made it able for us to pay the deposit on the new apartment. The insurance refused to pay that :(

07/06/2024

Latest Update:

Well we signed our rental agreement today. We had to pay out of pocket for the deposit/pet deposit which cost us 3280 dollars. OUCH But we have a place to live as of August 1st. Rents in Vancouver are extremely high so we consider ourselves very lucky to find a place that accepted the kids. We had to call the Royal Bank to up our debit card limit for this transaction because we keep in low on purpose so it is harder to overspend.

Also the retirement home had rented the studio we were in so we had to move floors this morning and we are BEAT right now and ready to drop.

We spoke to our strata president and she has confirmed that our home of 35 years is a rightoff due to asbetos contamination (sigh)

The stress we are facing is extremely high and I find myself on the verge of a panic attack a few times a day but I am barely holding it together. Both of us are sooooooooooooooooooo tired and going to bed around 7 each night.

We do plan on making an amazon wishlist closer to our move date since we have no storage here so I will post about it for those who asked about it.

We are still open to any donations and if you would like to help us here are the following details:

In canada we have e-transfer thru the banks to our bank account via email address of [email protected]

In other countries you can paypal with no fees to you or us via the [email protected] under my name Louise (Michelle) Struik. Of course all donations would be deeply appreciated by us and the kiddo's. Thank you for your continued support and now I'm hitting the bed

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Port Coquitlam, BC

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