MISSING IN ACTION - once again...

ANOTHER CAT HOUSE...

SEEMS LIKE I have a hard time getting anything done these days... well, in the blog department, anyway. For excuses I guess I should start with a computer that is truly on its last legs and is now so slow... I can get all kinds of things done waiting for something to come up on the screen. sigh... Unfortunately, not much of that getting things done is in the housecleaning department, either. (another sigh) I have paperwork coming out of my ears these days. No, not a pretty picture - and Board meetings "out the ying yang" as an old friend used to say. My calendar looks like a rainbow - I color code meetings - helps me grab the right notebook on the way out the door. Ya gotta do things like this when you are as disorganized as I am. As a dyslexic child (back before they had a name for it) I learned how to make cheat notes for myself in order to get myself together - one being to color code stuff so I could find the right thing at the right time. Colors don't reverse themselves like letters and numbers do... but I digress... as usual. I had planned on doing a posting on Lymes disease but have not gotten that together. Need to be better organized on that... had a couple other things I started on... started one on Haiti - but so did everyone else, and they all did such a good job, I will leave it to them.

Then the other day, well, OK, over a week ago, we had some seriously cold weather here. Someone in the neighborhood complained to someone else about my cats being OUTSIDE in this weather. Now, the complainer did not come to me - she just bit--ed to a friend who tried to reassure her, but she was ready to call in the SPCA and report me for animal cruelty. I have tried to bring Punk and Spook inside - but Spook nearly went thru the window to get out - the window was closed... and Punk spent the night crying at the back door until I gave in and let him out. They have several heated "nests" as I call them. Their favorite used to be a heated box next to the back steps. However, a coon tried to get in there with them, and that upset them mightily! A possum took over their first box with an open vent to the furnace room, so they abandoned that one. Last week I ordered an 'outdoor heated pad.' This is it - the white is a cover over the heated pad. The pale green in the back is a carpet sample... there are carpet samples on the sides, too, to help keep the cold wind from blowing thru the poorly constructed box.

On a shelf above is the thermostatically controlled outlet that turns the heat on at 35 degrees but off at 45. The cord is wrapped in wire to keep it from being chewed by an animal. I realize the box is pretty dumb looking, but it was in the 30s when the pad arrived in the mail, and too cold to mess around with setting up the horses and getting out the saw. Mostly I just grabbed whatever scraps I had handy and put it together as fast as I could before my fingers froze off! The cats, however did not care how bad it looked, it was warm to their little toes, that was all that mattered. Unfortunately I had trouble getting pictures of them inside as they came out whenever I opened the door thinking I might be bringing a snack! Their first "cat house" is the blue and white box under the "new box." Eventually the plastic will be allowed to hang free keeping it even warmer and - should we have a blowing snow - it will be dry. But for now, the plastic is tucked back until they get used to the box. Meanwhile, back in the house, Hadji has adopted a plastic bag with little toy dinosaurs in it as his new private property. See the little dinosaurs?The Rat (Rascal) is not allowed to set foot on it. Yesterday, Hadj slept on it for most of the day. How can this be comfortable? Rascal had the right idea, he was asleep on the bed.

I do hope you are staying warm and comfortable this winter's day!