Mr. Blue was always the care taker of the Kitties. He was the fearless leader who made sure to divide his time among laps in the room. He kept his brother’s ruckus nature in line and encouraged Mo to be part of the family. When I think of the gentleman kitty it shall always be of my Mr. Blue. (more…)
Yesterday was a bad day. Like all bad days it didn’t start out that way. The morning had thunderstorms. I like lying in bed listening to storms so I slept in some. Then when I went out after the storm to run errands I noticed a HUGE limb on the roof. I sent a picture to Mike and went on about my day.
Scientists can be dumb sometimes. We’ve all read headlines like scientists finally prove water is wet and think well DUH! That’s how I felt about animals having thoughts and feelings. Honestly unless you’ve NEVER in your life been around animals, watched animals, seen an animal documentary I don’t see how you could doubt such things exist. However that was the prevalent view of science until about the mid-1990s that animals were composed of instinctual and stimulus reactions incapable of emotion or thought but capable of imitation for reward (stimulus response). Like me Virginia Morrell was insulted by this too. She knew her dog played, planned playing, picking just the right toy for it. She’d been around animals in her assignments for National Geographic. So she set out to write a book about the people who were scientifically proving what those of us who have looked into an animal’s eyes or watched an ant hill already knew. Then she wrote a book about what these people saw and are proving. (more…)
Last week I introduced you to Happy the outgoing cross dressing yellow tabby. Well this week it’s his dignified loving bigger brother Secret. (more…)
I’m a cat lady and I came by it honestly. I’ve always loved animals. However, I have always had a special connection with cats. I’ve been the proud caretaker or play-with-er for many great felines. I have very fond memories of all of them. This one was a Tom named Happy. He came to live with us on Jennifer Street in Greeneville Tennessee bringing along his less gregarious brother Secret. (more…)
This is the first year of gardening without having a dog. What do the two have to do with one another? Well, read on and learn how a dog lazing in the yard helped the garden’s yield.
It all started this spring when Mike was ranting that the rabbits were eating the peas down to the dirt. (Yes my husband does a great Mr. McGregor of Peter Rabbit fame impression.) However one day when I was going to the garage I spotted the real culprits – not rabbits but baby squirrels.
Cut to earlier this week. I was sitting here at my desk working. My office window was wide open as it was a warm day. Outside I hear messy eating sounds, slurping, smacking… I look and on the end of our fence near my window sat a large squirrel holding one of our good big red tomatoes just eating away. He’d hit a seed pocket and SLURP it up then look up with seeds on his cheeks and a pink tongue darting about to clean his whiskers.
Then yesterday again heading to the garage I scared a passel (yes you fellow Southerners know how many I mean, the rest of you it’s kinda like bunch) of squirrels from the garden. Some chomping roma tomatoes, others nibbling peppers – heck one had the guts to take a whole big bell with him while his compatriot ran off with a green beefsteak tomato!
It’s bad enough that they are raiding us blind of veggies and our rabbit fence does nothing to stop this climbing buggers – but now they are waking me at three am with their arguments, drunken singing or whatever in the hell it is that possesses squirrels to scream and chitter amongest themselves at that hour! I kid you not! I can set my clock by it. There’s barking like calls, then chirping, then screams followed by barking again. Mike says Mr. Squirrel comes home drunk and Mrs. Squirrel is giving him what for. It reminds me of the BBC ad where the ground squirrel keeps barking “Allen, Allen” then he says “That’s not Allen that’s Jack! Jack, Jack, Jack…”
We’ve had issues before with them. One year when our apple tree had hard knotting apples due to the drought, they threw the apples at us. No, really I’m serious. They would sit on the awning over the back door and when we opened the door drop the apple that would roll down and hit us in the head or shoulders. We learned that season to just wait a moment for the apple to fall before proceeding out the door.
Now back to the dog and the garden, you see when we had a dog the squirrel raids were limited to the apple tree. The doggie scent about the yard kept them from dining upon the produce. Now dear Belle is long gone and this is the first summer without Rappy… and the squirrels are taking over.
As I’m typing this I see one run the phone line with a small pepper in his mouth. I hope it’s a ghost pepper and it burns his mouth and gives him heart burn all night long – as long as he doesn’t shout about it at midnight to wake me twice tonight…
**Blows the dust away and gets out broom**
Why hello there! It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Lots has happened and not so much has happened. I do have a good excuse as to why I’ve been gone.
First off Miss Mo my female kitty got worse. It was very sad. She died and we did discover that the issue was a fast developing spinal cancer. I still miss her very much. She was a very special girl.
Next Mike graduated another post-grad program in Norfolk. It was another trip there for a few days. I was very proud of him. While there we went to Colonial Williamsburg. I made lots of great picture. Yes I’ll do a very belated post about them.
Then there’s work. A few times we’ve had short staff for medical reasons, people moving, etc. At times I’ve work full time rather than part time to help out. I love what I do so I don’t mind. BUT for me it’s a side thing.
Finally my writer’s block broke. Yes I furiously wrote 41 chapters of a whole new story, 21 chapters on my Urban-fantasy with a rural setting, and about 12 on my steampunk novel. The muses were so demanding I’ve been cramming in writing where ever I could. Now my goal is to go to an event in Madison by their continuing education branch where I can do pitches to publishers and agents. Oh to get an agent! My focus will be on the whole new story and getting it prepped as that muse is the most demanding.
Aaron is doing well in college and in ROTC. He got a full scholarship in bio-chem from them. He loves having his own small apartment. No roommate problems that way. Being one who has to report to PT at 5:45 am with roommates who think 10:45 am classes are early can be difficult.
The holidays were nice. Our big present this year was a new furnace and boiler. Our 30+ year old one finally gave up the ghost. Heat is a must in Wisconsin and a new system isn’t free. So each time the radiators bang with a surge of new heat we wished each other a very Merry Christmas.
Did craft fairs again this fall and winter. They went very well. Now maybe I’ll make time to get an on-line shop up in 2014 along with a book agent and a few novels sold! Eh? why not dream big!
Mike and I took a vacation to Florida in the fall. Again we enjoyed an airboat tour. Also we managed to not go to a single amusement park. Did hit the beach though!
Health wise 2013 was one of improvement. My 2012 surgery seems to have helped many issues. It’s a slow and gradual process getting healed and stabilized but well worth it. Sadly as you get older bouncing back from such things goes slower than I’d like.
Finally for Mike – he’s nearing the end of his Navy career and retire looms on the horizon. I don’t know what we’ll do with ourselves. We’ve spent all our relationship with our lives accommodating the Needs of the Navy first and foremost. Now, there will be no monthly drills, no 2 weeks or more of active duty, no call ups – just waiting until we need to collect retirement. However that might be pushed off another year or two if he can. Captain Mike loves his Navy.
Our remaining pets the two Furry Boys – Red and Blue are facing problems of aging cats. Red has chronic kidney insufficiency. Blue had hyper thyroid. They both take medication regularly. They are healthy and happy but aging like the rest of us.
As for comics… Yes I’m still into them. Saw Thor The Dark World and enjoyed it. However I do agree Tom Hiddleston’s Loki got the best lines. Then again I’ve always enjoyed snark (sarcastic humor). As for reading – I am behind. As in a few short boxes behind not counting those I only get in digital form. So be patient with me, I’ve been writing more than reading. However if there’s an issue you really want to chat about – shout out to me and I’ll be sure to move that title to the top of the catch-up list.
I guess that gets everything caught up about me and mine. Hope you and yours are doing well, had a great holiday season and are looking forward to 2014.
Miss Mo is getting to be an old kitty. She has trouble with her hips from the arthritis that developed there. Doesn’t help she was hit by a car when a wee thing and has lived with the crippling injury of that all her life. (I found her injured and adopted her.)
So she has her good days and bad days like all of us with arthritis and some decades on the chassis. We do meds, supplements, and even acupuncture when needed to help her manage it. Yesterday was a bad day, a really bad day. I gave her the reserve pain meds and she slept most of the day.
This morning she couldn’t walk so it was off to the vet. She’d injured her hip, rolled it out of socket. So they got it in did some anti-inflammatory, Vit b-12 to help with the palsy, acupuncture since that helps her manage pain, and sent me home with hopes for the best. She’s back on the infirmary in my office with fav bed, litter box, and all close so not a lot of walking.
This took a good part of the morning. I wasn’t feeling so grand myself after settling Mo in at home I gave up being productive today and took a nice long nap. Then I got up and did what needs to be done. So that is why this post is late… and not the scheduled post. I blew off post writing to sleep after the vet run.
Until next time!
I can’t write much now. Rappy’s spine injury was too much for her age. She was released from her pain this morning.
It’s been over a month of careening from one family crisis to the next. Things are finally starting to settle down. Mo is doing much better and can even jump up on the bed and chairs without assistance. Her back left foot is finally correcting itself.
Rappy has improved leaps and bounds. She can go potty by herself now and walk about on flat ground. Stairs we still have to lift her up and down most the time. However a few times when she is well rested she has taken them down without help and up with us steadying her back end.
I am slowly recovering from my back injury. It’s set back by the lifting of the dog but whatcha gonna do but deal with it.
Mike’s black eye from the doggie slinging her head in pain as he carried her to the car for the initial vet visit is healing. His back is fine but now he has a bad head cold. Poor man, he kept quiet this weekend while I worked Saturday and we both rested Sunday.
Aaron is doing well in his AIT school. He actually called this week and we got to hear his voice. He’s making arrangements for his classes in the Fall.
That’s it in a nutshell. We’re still the family with half of the members in physical therapy but we’re healing as best as aging cat, dog, and woman can.
Until Next Time.
Mary Louise Eklund 