The Never-ending Issues of Shelter Repairs

It seems like we’ve been repairing the shelter for ages, fixing things up and making some changes, but after eight months the repairs are nowhere near completion. If we had had more money from the beginning, repairs would have probably gone better and

faster, but there’s no point in lamenting over the past. We were just trying to make the best of what we had and no one could possibly do more.

Instead of replacing the entire roof, which would have been a very costly, but only permanent solution, we managed to install additional supports and strengthen the roof of the main building. We hadn’t even touched the roof of the auxiliary rooms in the backyard. And now, when the tremendous amount of snow we recently got

started to melt, it's turned out that the roof of the food storage room has begun to leak. Some of the roof tiles have been torn off due to extremely high winds and a large puddle of water has just appeared on the floor. The ceiling was soaking wet, the walls were soaking wet and all of the bags of dry cat food and cans were covered in water droplets.

The sudden amount of water released by the melting snow was enormous and I’ve spent days sucking the water out.

Frankly, I knew something bad was going to happen, it always does, I just didn’t know what or when.. Boy, was I right! Not such a great way to start the holidays.

Construction workers who were inspecting the roof told me that

the entire structure is worn out and some of the roof rafters and beams are cracked and half-rotten. The old roof tiles, partially covered in moss, are moving and sagging. The entire roof of the auxiliary rooms is in the exact same shape the roof of the main building was in a few

months ago! It’s not really an unexpected discovery but nothing can be done now, so the roof will have to try and hold up until next spring.

And that’s not all. Just when everything was going so well, the rain started and the downpours quickly

turned the backyard into a swampy mess. Brilliant. I’m now becoming sadly aware that we still have a long way to go before the shelter is fully repaired. An old house is obviously a bottomless pit and problems appear one after the other, but rather than indulge

myself in hypothetical scenarios, I’ll think of some way to fix everything once and for all as soon as possible.

Not all of us are worried. While I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what to do, my intrigued kitties are

wandering around inside the food storage room, climbing wet carriers, ignoring puddles of water on the floor and enjoying entering the forbidden zone…