CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

The addition is finally going up! We will soon have a RugRat Room and an ADA compliant bathroom. Can you imagine not having to drive home when you, um, ya know… Here are the beginning shots. I just could not wait until it was finished… so stay tuned!

Day 1 

 

 

Stay tuned!

WHO WOULD YOU INVITE?

Years ago we used to play a party game where everyone had to think of 12 people, dead or alive, that they would invite to a dinner party. It was always an interesting question to ask people, “Who would you invite?”

I had a set answer for a number of my imaginary guests… people I would love to question about things that puzzled me the most in my life. I mention this because I just read a blog post that was about Steve Allen. He was always on my guest list. So was Mark Twain sitting right there with Jesus and Buddha, maybe Ben Franklin. After that, my list might vary from time to time. Usually I had either Justinian or Theodora – I had some serious questions for them. And maybe Cheops or Khufu or Akhenaton would be there.

Who would you invite?

RUSTY IS THINKING…

ABOUT STARTING HIS OWN BLOG. But he still needs help with the typing part. Have I mentioned he is a Klutz? We told him being a Klutz is a very special Kitty thing. Well, it is!

Anyway, the point is, he often sits on my lap and reacts to things I find on the web… so I will share some of them with you… and maybe set up his own blog. Stay Tuned!

DUSTY GOT A JOB!

  Well, I am glad to report that brother Dusty got a job and it is a perfect fit for him. Being a house kitty is wonderful for Rusty,  but not so great for Dusty. Having to wash the bathroom rug on a daily basis was getting old, if you know what I mean, and then he decided to see how absorbent the big Karastan was… and that is not something that can be tossed in the washer. So… we needed to find a new home for him. It was a shame because he is a very lovable cat… BUT… Anyway, he has the perfect home, and job… he is a barn kitty a few miles from here. High class horses, too, so the stable is air conditioned – great for these 90+ days. And, to replace his brother, he has a little boy who loves him to pieces. Best of all, he can pee anyplace he wants and no body will even notice! YEA! Here, we noticed.

So we are back to just Rusty inside and Spook outside… and to be honest, that is enough. The clerk at Wal-Mart asked me if something had happened, then apologized as she realized she might have spoken out of place. But I have gone from buying food for 6 cats to buying for only 2. The stacks of cat food I used to buy – well, it is down to only one box a week.

Best wishes to Dusty and his new family, 2 and 4 legged!

I FINALLY SHOT MY ELUSIVE FOX!

NO, NOT WITH A GUN… geez. Really. And it is not a great shot as it is out the kitchen window which was washed a year or 3 ago… hey, you wanna come wash windows here? I will show you where the ladder is and hand you the Windex  and a roll of paper towels. Have at it! Anyway, the point of this post is, several people have heard about the gray fox family that lives in our woods, somewhere between Frank’s and my properties… and many of you have said you have never seen a gray fox. Well, we have had them living here ever since I have lived here, and I must admit I did not know what it was the first time I saw it either OR the first time I heard it bark!

See him in front of the mower barn right next to a peony, in front of the trash cans? Compost pile is to the left of him… that is where he is headed.

Gray foxes are good tree climbers, but not great jumpers. I can usually tell when one is prowling around, generally checking the compost pile. Spook jumps up on the shed then the mower barn roof and keeps an eye out from up there. Safe decision.

 

I found a video that has the sound of these foxes… it is very distinctive, and can scare the crap out of you when this starts out under your bedroom window in the middle of the night!  OK, truth… it scares me anytime I hear it, just because it is so unearthly and loud. I have heard it for years yet it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Picture and sounds are from http://retrieverman.net/2012/03/27/gray-fox-screeching-and-barking/

DAY LILIES

NO LILIES in the fields here… instead they are here and there, in various corners and places, wherever there was an empty space, and some spaces were not so empty! Anyway, I was asked by a couple people about my lilies… so here they are.

     

Some are tiny, some huge

 

The Calla Lilies are my favorites. They have just started to bloom this year. Funny, I can’t find the pictures of the rest of them. Strange.

 

I don’t think I ever picked any of them out. They were mostly gifts. To be honest, there are a few I would gladly share… So, unless you are in the neighborhood with your own trowel and a bucket, we will just share them this way. Enjoy!

DUSTY (the guilty) IS HERE

Rusty’s brother arrived Wednesday afternoon. It was NOT a joyous reunion.  There was much growling, hissing, a spit or two, and running and hiding. I have been demoted to Rusty’s ‘you know what’ list since I spent most of the afternoon and evening holding a shivering little gray cat with his nose buried in the crook of my arm.

 

Rusty spent most of his time on the window in my bedroom, or on the bed.

He now owns the place here, you see.

 

Dusty has made progress… he stayed almost glued to me as I worked on the computer. I pulled up a dining room chair to get him off my lap. The next day he  moved to the sofa, then tried  out a chair or two, while Rusty napped on the kitchen rug.

 

 

Finally, it seems they have worked out their dispute, this little moment was brief but did not end in fur flying – for which I was most grateful. Dusty has found the hiding place all my kitties have used to store their toys.

Now I need to figure out how to keep him from wetting on the bathroom rug! I have put a rubber mat down under the rugs to keep the p from getting into the grout. My bathroom is tile. Washing a rug a day is getting old fast. sigh. I promise these are my last cats. I am too old for this.

RUSTY, THE INNOCENT

How often have you heard people say animals don’t have distinct personalities? Frankly, I worry about those people. And I feel sorry for them. Obviously they have not made space in their hearts for one of our little creatures, our little 4 legged cousins. (For the sake of brevity, I will not get into fish, birds, or reptiles as pets – since mostly I feel sorry for them trapped forever in a prison of glass or bars.)

I have been owned by numerous cats. Many of them have been seen here on this blog. Some have lived in the house exclusively, some outside… and, as most of you know, in the last year or so, the cat population has greatly decreased here… cancer, old age, kidney failure… same complaints the humans have, it seems. Most of my kitties live a pretty long time, the longest being Fino that I had from 1971 until 1992, and she was full grown when she followed me home! All have been rescued, or just simply arrived at my door. Sometimes, however, I wonder who has rescued whom, as they have always been there for me in my times of great sorry and need.

A couple years ago (well, almost) a friend, Charlie, discovered someone had left a  present on his land, 2 young kittens, about 3 months old, left on a baby sized blanket at the edge of his woods, left with a little plate of food, left to wait for the human who never came back to get them. Instead, I got a phone call, grabbed a cage, and set off for Charlie’s. At the time, I had 4 cats of my own here, 2 inside, 2 outside, and knew introducing 2 new boys to my resident boys would result in a major cat fight! That would not be fair to anyone, so we agreed they would live in Charlie’s shop until there was a vacancy here. 

And as you know if you have read much on here, I’ve lost all but Spook, so, Rusty (who needed vet care) came home first.

Rusty is not a healthy little fellow… my first words to the vet when we took them in from Charlie’s woods were, “If it looks like he might not make it, just put him down now before I get attached to him.” Barrett asked how long I had had the little guy… I answered, “15 minutes.” So, you see, I already knew this would probably be a very special (and sickly) little boy! He had a couple months of antibiotics and eye drops, and survived, somehow. He is lame, runs with an obvious limp, sometimes it seems his feet aren’t sure where they are going. He can fall trying to jump up on the sofa. It is a shame to laugh at him when he tries to run across the linoleum on the kitchen floor and he looks like those poor critters slipping and sliding as their feet go out from under them as they try to run across ice.

But Oh what a love bug! Like Rascal, his first job in the morning is to climb up into my lap, interrupt whatever I am doing, and rub his nose all over my chin, cheek, neck, and wrap his little paws around my neck. If you come to visit, I promise you he will be in your lap whether you want it or not. If you don’t, you need to say so immediately so I can lock him in the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, he curls up in the sink and takes a nap, but with one ear open to listen for that door. In the living room, he has taken over the couch, tho sometimes a chair feels good. I think we had one week of no towels covering the furniture. It just did not look like my house at all! So, back to normal. Did I mention he likes wearing his scarf?

His other favorite thing is to sit on a stool and look out the door at the birds. He is kind of clumsy getting up into the windows, so I put the stool by the storm door for him.

It’s funny the toys different cats pick as their favorites. Rusty seems to enjoy this ancient mini-basketball my god-daughter used to play with when she was in first grade. She is now quite grown and finished with school!

If I had to describe Rusty in one word, that word would be innocent. Few people can say that about their cats, they often seem to have some hidden agenda. Rusty’s agenda is to be loved, hugged, cuddled even before eating. Which reminds me, I am teaching him Turkish, just for the fun of it. When I call “Yemek hazır*,” he comes running! Now that is different! His least favorite thing is getting his pills, but in time, I am sure he will get used to it, because I have a feeling it will be a life-time ordeal for him if he doesn’t.

In another week, we will try to bring his brother Dusty here (after the painter is done in the Big bathroom.) We tried that once and he ran from window to window. I was afraid he would hurt himself. But, we will try again. Dusty likes to be held, too, but is not the love bug Rusty is. I will keep you posted!

*Dinner is ready.