A Quote

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.  

          — Colette

My couch buddies of an evening.

And my partner on the trail.

 

A Treat With A Sadness

CRASH! SCRAAAAPE DOWN A WALL! CLUNK! BANG!

What the? That’s what I woke up to a few mornings back. Waaay too early. I sat up to figure out what I heard and there was MORE crashing and banging. I lunged out of bed to see the back of my son turning the corner to the kitchen.  YIKES! It must be bad if it woke him up! BANG AND SCRAPE! And then I was in the kitchen looking at my son holding a punched out window screen.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Rose had her head stuck in the screen and was fighting to get it out,” he replied.  “She went through the screen???” “Yep.” (Thank heavens I had the windows cranked almost closed or there would have been a one story drop for her to the ground.) “Do you know why?” “Nope, maybe it has to do with that moth or something that just flew by.” My son wears glasses and without them everything is fuzzy.

We put the screen back in its frame and then back in the window.  “Well, aren’t you going to go see what it is?” he asked.  “What do you mean?” “It’s over by the kitchen window.”  I had “ass-sumed” that flying by meant the window so I walked over to look out the window and promptly got smacked in the face. By a BIRD flying around IN the house.  Not outside. CRAP. I immediately started blocking and attempting to catch the bird.  The last thing I needed was to get into a smack down with my three cats and my dog over that bird. I was successful, but that poor bird was panting and stressed to the max.  Poor thing! But I confess I was thrilled to be able to hold it.  I adore birds and it was a treat to have it nestled in my hand.

See how tiny? It’s a wren. So what happened was that the wren was scoping out the window frame for bugs and spiders. They do this all the time.  It must have come inside between the screen and window.  I have a cat perch in the window and it was evidently too much for Rose and she launched her tubby self straight at the bird and ripped the screen from its frame. What we didn’t know until later was that Rose had actually caught that poor bird and run off with it. It had managed to escape. How did I find out? Three cats and a dog sniffing the crap out of a spot in the hall. Here’s what I found:

Tiny tail feathers. They’re about two inches long. I was crushed beyond belief. I had “ass-sumed” the bird had been scared into the house when the screen went.  I didn’t look very closely at it because it was flying around and no blood was dripping. I wanted to get it out of the house as quickly as possible. Stress can literally cause a bird to have a heart attack and die. I can only hope there was no fatal damage. 😦

My son grabbed the camera as I took the bird outside. He was able to get the following shot because the wren didn’t fly away immediately when I opened my hand.

Notice how few tail feathers are hanging down from my hand. After seeing this picture it amazes me that it could fly at all. Poor, poor wren! 😦

This incident solved one problem for me.  I have been sorely missing my feathered friends in the morning since my old lady maple fell. I have been trying to figure out a way to put a feeder off the window sill (like a window flower box) that would still enable me to open the windows (crank-outs suck). But I will just have to do without. I don’t want my cat launching herself through a window one story up nor do I want her attacking the birds.  *Sigh*

And on a side note – it wasn’t the cat that woke me and my son up initially.  It was his phone falling, scraping and rattling down between the wall and the headboard of his bed. I’d have been on my own otherwise, I’m sure. 🙂

 

I Was NOT Amused!

While I love cats and have three of my own, this situation is NOT amusing!

One of our neighbors’ cats sitting one story up in our tree next to the bird feeder. Yes, I went out and chased the cat out of the tree.  It’s bad enough they poop in my yard, keeping me from letting my dog loose by himself  in his own yard because he eats the poop.  Which also makes for a lovely surprise for my hands as I’m gardening.  But they also sit by the tree and bird baths scaring the birds away.  I do not need them UP in the tree as well!  And, OH!, did I mention the dead bird bodies lying in the yard? Not good for the bird populations!  And that also means I can never go bare foot in my own back yard. Cats should be kept at home!

Chillin’ In The Window (Cato Is Sure He Lives Here Now)

Sweet kitty!

Belly up, comfortable and secure.

So Much For Morning Solitude

Sweet puppy. Ryder enjoying a spot of  morning sunshine in peace. But not for long!

Armel showed up and invited him to play.

Ryder obliged with some light play.

Slap fight!  Ryder thinks he is part kitty.  😀

But when Ryder decided he’d rather snooze than play, Armel got up close and personal.  Poor puppy. So much for a morning snooze in the sun!

 

A Little Light Fun – Armel And Ryder

Saver of Bugs had this series of pictures on her phone of her cat Armel and my dog Ryder having a little fun together back in September.  Not bad for only knowing each other a couple of months at this point. Enjoy!  (And the white blur you see in some of the pictures is Ryder’s waving tail!)

 

All done!

Breakfast In The Morning

My daughter eating breakfast with company. Said company will often try to steal share  breakfast with her.

“Anything good happening?” Ryder checking out the day.

“I saw you taking pictures! Take one of me!”  My attention hound.

A Kitty Video Share

I would love to give credit where credit is due, but this video has been passed around.  Not to mention, I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE  to hear the back story on this!  *sigh*  Enjoy!

KITTY OPENS FREEZER!

If you know where this is from, please let me know!

Some New Residents

Playing catch up here.  Life likes to toss chaos into our world on too regular a basis.  In July, Saver had to return home.  Along with all her stuff she brought her and Trilobite’s two cats. Eventually everyone will be heading down to Texas to Trilobite.  In the meantime, they are adjusting to life here.

This is Armel.  He is helping Saver sew.  Last fall at a LARP, Armel, malnourished and loving, wandered into the campsite.  The Ranger at the park said they couldn’t keep or feed him and would love if someone took him home.  Trilobite and Saver caved.  He is a major food thief.  He even tore open a bag of uncooked rice I brought home. *UNCOOKED* rice.  *Shakes head*

Meet Cato.  He and his siblings were hand raised by Saver when a stray cat that was brought in at the house they were sharing had kittens.  Everyone found a home and, of course, Saver and Trilobite had to keep one for themselves.  He is currently 9 months old and thinks our bird feeders are awesome.  I wish he would quit climbing my screens. 😦

My old lady Espe.  She thinks kids are annoying.

How can you not love this face?  (Saver wishes he wouldn’t ‘help’ with sewing. 😀 )

Cato isn’t much for having a camera in his face.  But he does love belly rubs.

Time has passed and everyone is starting to get along.

Some of them even beg for popcorn together.

Ah, well.  It may be crazy around here, but I guess that’s better than boring! 😀

Recipes and a cat

Happy Thanksgiving!  So I found some spare time today while waiting for my turkey to cook and I figured that I would finally get around to writing up the post that I promised I would do.  I know that my mom wants some of the recipes I’ve talked about and hopefully some of you also find them appealing. (all credit goes to the people and places listed)

1) Amish White Bread.  I call this sweet bread because it is somewhere in between bread and cake in its sweetness level.  Everyone who has tried this has loved it and it makes an amazing french toast.     http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-white-bread/

2) Italian Bread.  Here is an awesome recipe that I found for Italian bread.    http://breadbaking.about.com/od/yeastbreads/r/itallybrd.htm

3)  Peasant Bread.  My aunt actually showed me this one.  It’s from Alexandra Cooks and is simply delicious.   http://www.alexandracooks.com/2012/11/07/my-mothers-peasant-bread-the-best-easiest-bread-you-will-ever-make/

4)  This is actually just a variation on my mom’s potato soup found here: https://crittersandchaos.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/delicious-berries-posting-takes-sooo-much-time-recipes-for-saver/

Here are the additions I make: 1 can of green beans and 1 shredded chicken breast.  I cook the chicken before hand, shred it and then add it when mixing everything together.

Now we got a little crazy at the house here one time and made a truly loaded potato soup.  For that we added the above ingredients and also one box of sauteed mini pierogies.  Yeah I know it’s potato in potato soup, but it was still tasty.

That’s it for my recipes, now for the more exciting news: I now have a cat! His name is Armel and he is adorable.

This is one of the few times he held still for a portrait shot.

What follows will simply be a series of adorable cat photos.

Look how adorable.

Sometimes he consents to being a lap cat.

And like all cats you must not ignore him for the computer.

The one thing he will always love to do is play.

And that is Armel.  He is adorable and troublesome, but totally worth it.