PLAYING CATCH-UP- a Beginning and an End

 

Yes, I have been in absentia for a while. I was asked if I might be following the trend of a number of other bloggers, several of them favorites of mine for years, and just hanging it up. Funny how that works – folks get busy, get bored, find other interests… I dunno… but their blogs sit there, unposted, and they fade off into never-never land. Sometimes there are sad stories behind their disappearance, and sometimes, as I said, just boredom or a new interest has taken hold. So, what has been my excuse? I guess my story is a bit sad… for some time I have been pre-occupied with my little buddy, Hadji. It has been a bad year for kitty cats around here. We lost Punkin, my shadow out in the yard, then  Rascal, my shadow in the house, and then it was Hadji’s turn. He was an old fellow. 17 for a cat is pretty ancient. And so, quite honestly, I spent quite a bit of time sitting on his sofa with him, keeping him comfortable. Hadj was never a lap-kitty, but he definitely wanted someone to sit beside him on the sofa. He was a great talker and expected to be answered. Sometimes I read to him – now how dumb is that? So, in the last several months, I read an entire series of books – junk books I call them- nothing intellectual, nothing that required a brain to read (the Victoria Thompson gaslight series), in fact a series I would probably never bother with otherwise, but someone gave me the first 2 or 3 so I just worked my way thru them. I will admit, it is not a period in time that interests me at all – NY City in the late 1800s – Teddy Roosevelt was the police commissioner in the City when the series starts, but it was interesting to see how we have changed our values according to class from then to now. Anyway, the point is, Hadji was more important than blogging, so there it is.

So with Hadj gone, it seemed so strange… my house has never been cat-less for more than a couple nights when work was being done or we had to flea-bomb the place and then scrub it down so they did not walk in dried flea spray. Everyone wanted to get me a new kitten… but I had agreed with Charlie that when the time came, Rusty and Dusty would come here to live. Rusty is not real healthy, a little guy with an upper respiratory condition just like Snuffy had. Rusty is a love-bug and loves to cuddle. Dusty can be a lap-kitty when the mood strikes him, but Rusty has to be peeled off. So, after a week of house cleaning and furiously trying to get caught up on chores in and out, Rusty came for a visit. He settled in like he had always owned the place. Dusty, not so much. He ran for the windows, crashed into things, and in general was one scared little guy. He even growled at Rusty. So, he is back at Charlie’s for now. We will try again, short visits, until he can handle it.

So, meanwhile, I have pictures going back for months that I just never got around to even putting on the computer until the other day. And I am so far behind in getting things done I fear I will never get caught up. We have not even taken a vacation for 3 years because Hadj could not be left in a kennel anymore and the only friend I trusted to keep him has a wife who rules and she said NO cats in HER house. So, that ended our going anywhere. They have dogs that rule their lives and they can’t go anywhere either, not even out to dinner together. Amazing, isn’t it? The last time Hadj was left in a kennel for 4 nights he lost 2 lbs. But, it was the last time I got to see my Aunt Kathryn, so it was the chance we took – driving up, visiting, and driving back home.

Anyway, I will try harder to keep up – I have a ton of pictures to share… they may be badly out of date by the time I get them on here. I even have snow pictures I never even got downloaded until yesterday. Imagine that! But I promised a friend a picture of the little visitor we had the other evening. I have seen him a couple times since. He is just so cute- not even a half a brick in size!! And he seems to like hanging around Kwan Yin and her geraniums.

           

The Buddha that used to reside here had to be moved as his stump was disintegrating. He is now out in the meditation garden. For those of you who keep score, we still have Spook who still patrols the yard and gardens and keeps the Buddha of the Back 40 company. And even tho he is still well, Spooked easily, he hangs around when I am gardening – from a distance.