Since I was a teenager and got interested in sex, I have fantasized about being in bed with two girls. I really wanted it to happen. I dreamed about what it would be like. Once, in mid 2005, it almost did. But it didn't.
But now it has. For the first time in my entire life, I have slept between two females. I was between them, and they both cuddled up with me all night when not sleeping. And we all slept very well, too.
On my right side--my wife of so many years.
On my left side--my cat of the last five days.
Yes, I suppose you could call it a menage a trois, the three of us all cuddled together. Maybe you could even call it a menage a quatre ("quatre," pronounced like "cat" in English, is the French word for "four"). Because there was another quatre on the bed--Maggie, who still sleeps next to my wife's pillow.
Life has changed a lot since the new kitty (still unnamed) joined our household last weekend. It's best summarized by the old saying "Never a dull moment."
It could cut into my nighttime writing at home, which is done upstairs, at the desktop computer. I do a lot of my computer work after my wife goes to bed, checking on websites, researching this and that, playing games, catching up on your blogs or working on mine.
Now, when it's "time to go upstairs," the kitty comes up to join me. Sometimes she sits on the folding chair next to me. That's OK for a couple minutes. But then I hear a "Mrow?" and she steps over onto my lap. Sometimes she lies down. But then she looks up and reaches toward my head with her paws and stretches up into my chest. So I hold her with one arm while piloting the mouse with the other hand.
I can navigate websites pretty well with one hand. But it really crimps your style when you're trying to write something.
Finally it gets late, and I shut off the computer. "Time to get some sleep," I tell her, and I put her on the chair, while I take my pills. Then we head off to bed. I usually place her on that blue thermal blanket next to my side of the bed, and she stays there for a while. Then, there's a little bump next to me, and kitty is settling down by my side. Sometimes she's by my hip. Other times, by my feet.
For all her qualities, Frisky didn't like to be held and cuddled. This one loves it. She rubs up against us and purrs loudly. That's one difference. Another is that this cat has a more extensive vocabulary. She can meow and purr and mrow? and urrrk! and a few other noises that are harder to write. Frisky had a quieter voice and didn't say as many different things.
One more thing about this cat that's odd is her coloration. As you have seen from the photos, she's mostly gray. Her feet and tummy are white, and she has a patch of white at her throat. Meanwhile, her tail is nearly black. Her nose is black. One cheek is gray, and the other is white.
During the day, she has mostly been camping out on the couch, but she has also been spotted next to my wife's sewing machine--just below an old, old photo of Frisky and Maggie posing on a wooden ladder ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/SewingCat-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Maggie is still hissing at her at times. An occasional growl. So far, they have not had a physical scrap (at least not that we are aware of).
Today is the day we load her back into the cat carrier and take her to the vet, to get the stitches on her tummy removed. She probably won't enjoy that, but hopefully if we hold her maybe she will understand that we won't let anything bad happen to her.
****
My winter sports season has come to a rather abrupt end. The girls basketball district tournaments were last week, and both our teams lost, one in the first round and one in the championship game. The boys district tourneys were this week, and the same thing--both lost, one in the semis and one in the finals.
Last week, I had four games in four days. Next week, I won't have a thing, and it's going to stay that way for quite a while. The high school spring season (track, golf, tennis) doesn't start until late April. Considering that it was -8F on my way home Wednesday night and that we received another inch or so of snow overnight, it tells me that spring won't be here for a while.
So what am I going to do with all [I][/I]my free time? Last night, I worked on taxes--both my son's and my mom's. David made out like a bandit--he was eligible for the earned income credit this year.
My mom doesn't have to file and hasn't for years--but if she files a tax return and her Social Security payments for the year were $3,000 or more (they were), she is eligible for that $300 rebate.
If any of you are handling business matters for an elderly mom or dad, that's something you may want to keep in mind. Tax tip from Dr. Dog.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
New feline in the family
On Saturday, when we took the new member of our family home, she cried all the way.
But it's turning out all right. She's not crying any more.
Last Saturday, we selected our new cat at the local shelter. You saw her picture from the paper last time, and you'll see some better pictures soon. On Wednesday, she had her spaying and declawing operation. The declawing does cause some pain to the kitty (as does the spaying, I'm sure), so the shelter wanted to keep her until Saturday. We were disappointed, but the shelter said we could come over to visit. That sounded fine with us.
So we drove over after lunch Friday, and here is the kitty in her little cubicle, which is a lot smaller than a three-foot cube. She's licking her paw, post-declawing ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Closedcage-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
We took her into the visiting room, where we held and petted her for about a half hour ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-closeup-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Then we had to go, and I put her back into her cage. She had been there for two months. This was the final night, and the card on the cage had a happy message as she went back to licking her paw ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Opencage-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Saturday, I worked at the office until about noon. Then, I walked home, we grabbed the "pet taxi," got in the car and made our trip to the shelter. I filled out the last of the paperwork and the instructions--the pink stuff on her cage is medication we have to give her three times a day until it's gone. We also got some samples and things we have to send in.
Finally, it was time to get the kitty and put her into the pet taxi. But she didn't want to go in. We finally got her in there, but she started meowing. And as we carried her to the car, she kept meowing. All through the trip home, she kept crying. We tried to reassure her that this time she isn't going back to the vet's office.
Instead, we parked behind the house, took her and the pet taxi inside, took off our coats and got ready to let her out. But Maggie saw us arrive and seemed to immediately suspect something. She walked right over to the (closed) pet taxi, looked through the grate and started hissing. Then, a growl. We decided it would be a good idea to take the pet taxi into the living room. There, we opened the door, and the kitty walked out into her new home. She walked around, her nose working like mad.
We let her do that for a few minutes. Then we decided it was time to start reassuring her that it was nothing to cry about. So I petted her. Then my wife petted her. Then I petted her. Then she did. And I got the camera out. Say cheese, kittycat ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-SnugglingMom-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Andmom-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
There was a little more hissing and growling between the cats (the new kitty did some growling and hissing, too), but that's as far as it has gone. Sunday, there was less of it. At least until 9 p.m. when they got their dander up. Just hissing and growling. They have to work through it.
Meanwhile, the kitty spent a lot of quality time with the two of us, getting petted and loved up. For her part, she did a lot of purring. And her rough little tongue made sure we had nice, clean fingers ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Fingerwash-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
David came over during the day to meet the new kitty, and he stayed around for most of the day. He got his chance to pet her. After supper, we decided among several movies he brought and opted for "The Simpsons."
Because of her paws, we were very careful so she would not have to jump down anywhere, and we carried her a lot on Saturday. Sunday, not so much. She was climbing the stairs all right and jumping up onto the couch. Usually, it was when I was sitting there. We still place her on the floor. But her paws seem to be getting better.
Yes, I got a chance to spoil the new kitty, too ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Andme-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
See her tummy? That's where she had the operation. Late this week, we have to take her to the vet, to have her stitches removed. That ought to be fun.
And so that's how it's been this weekend. I didn't have a lot of writing to do, and that's a good thing because it would have gotten put off. I had other priorities, like getting to know the new kitty a little better.
Last night, my wife and Maggie went to bed early, Maggie taking residence on her normal corner of the bed, next to my wife's pillow. I was up for a while, trying to get caught up on blog entries at efx2, with the kitty curled up by my feet. Earlier, my wife found a blue thermal blanket we had gotten from my mom's house, and I laid it out under the window, next to my side of the bed. I placed the kitty there when I went to bed.
She stayed for a while. Then she hopped down. During the night, she was up and down a few times. I heard Maggie hissing once or twice. Then it was quiet again. In the morning, she was back on the thermal blanket. She jumped on the bed for a while just before I got up.
I adjusted the thermal blanket tonight, moving it about a foot closer to my head, so I can reach out during the night and pet her head if she is there.
Right now, it's about 9:30 p.m. and time for the kitty's final dose of medicine for today. I hold the kitty, while my wife uses the eyedropper. She squirms, but she's pretty good about it.
We were just saying tonight that those two months in that little cage at the shelter must seem a long time ago now for the newest member of our household.
By the way, we aren't referring to her as "Sparkle," her shelter name. No name has been selected yet. We'll come up with something, I'm sure. So far I have referred to her as Invisicat, for her obvious skill in hiding in shadows, but I need something catchier and more clever than that.
But it's turning out all right. She's not crying any more.
Last Saturday, we selected our new cat at the local shelter. You saw her picture from the paper last time, and you'll see some better pictures soon. On Wednesday, she had her spaying and declawing operation. The declawing does cause some pain to the kitty (as does the spaying, I'm sure), so the shelter wanted to keep her until Saturday. We were disappointed, but the shelter said we could come over to visit. That sounded fine with us.
So we drove over after lunch Friday, and here is the kitty in her little cubicle, which is a lot smaller than a three-foot cube. She's licking her paw, post-declawing ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Closedcage-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
We took her into the visiting room, where we held and petted her for about a half hour ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-closeup-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Then we had to go, and I put her back into her cage. She had been there for two months. This was the final night, and the card on the cage had a happy message as she went back to licking her paw ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Opencage-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Saturday, I worked at the office until about noon. Then, I walked home, we grabbed the "pet taxi," got in the car and made our trip to the shelter. I filled out the last of the paperwork and the instructions--the pink stuff on her cage is medication we have to give her three times a day until it's gone. We also got some samples and things we have to send in.
Finally, it was time to get the kitty and put her into the pet taxi. But she didn't want to go in. We finally got her in there, but she started meowing. And as we carried her to the car, she kept meowing. All through the trip home, she kept crying. We tried to reassure her that this time she isn't going back to the vet's office.
Instead, we parked behind the house, took her and the pet taxi inside, took off our coats and got ready to let her out. But Maggie saw us arrive and seemed to immediately suspect something. She walked right over to the (closed) pet taxi, looked through the grate and started hissing. Then, a growl. We decided it would be a good idea to take the pet taxi into the living room. There, we opened the door, and the kitty walked out into her new home. She walked around, her nose working like mad.
We let her do that for a few minutes. Then we decided it was time to start reassuring her that it was nothing to cry about. So I petted her. Then my wife petted her. Then I petted her. Then she did. And I got the camera out. Say cheese, kittycat ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-SnugglingMom-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Andmom-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
There was a little more hissing and growling between the cats (the new kitty did some growling and hissing, too), but that's as far as it has gone. Sunday, there was less of it. At least until 9 p.m. when they got their dander up. Just hissing and growling. They have to work through it.
Meanwhile, the kitty spent a lot of quality time with the two of us, getting petted and loved up. For her part, she did a lot of purring. And her rough little tongue made sure we had nice, clean fingers ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Fingerwash-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
David came over during the day to meet the new kitty, and he stayed around for most of the day. He got his chance to pet her. After supper, we decided among several movies he brought and opted for "The Simpsons."
Because of her paws, we were very careful so she would not have to jump down anywhere, and we carried her a lot on Saturday. Sunday, not so much. She was climbing the stairs all right and jumping up onto the couch. Usually, it was when I was sitting there. We still place her on the floor. But her paws seem to be getting better.
Yes, I got a chance to spoil the new kitty, too ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Andme-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
See her tummy? That's where she had the operation. Late this week, we have to take her to the vet, to have her stitches removed. That ought to be fun.
And so that's how it's been this weekend. I didn't have a lot of writing to do, and that's a good thing because it would have gotten put off. I had other priorities, like getting to know the new kitty a little better.
Last night, my wife and Maggie went to bed early, Maggie taking residence on her normal corner of the bed, next to my wife's pillow. I was up for a while, trying to get caught up on blog entries at efx2, with the kitty curled up by my feet. Earlier, my wife found a blue thermal blanket we had gotten from my mom's house, and I laid it out under the window, next to my side of the bed. I placed the kitty there when I went to bed.
She stayed for a while. Then she hopped down. During the night, she was up and down a few times. I heard Maggie hissing once or twice. Then it was quiet again. In the morning, she was back on the thermal blanket. She jumped on the bed for a while just before I got up.
I adjusted the thermal blanket tonight, moving it about a foot closer to my head, so I can reach out during the night and pet her head if she is there.
Right now, it's about 9:30 p.m. and time for the kitty's final dose of medicine for today. I hold the kitty, while my wife uses the eyedropper. She squirms, but she's pretty good about it.
We were just saying tonight that those two months in that little cage at the shelter must seem a long time ago now for the newest member of our household.
By the way, we aren't referring to her as "Sparkle," her shelter name. No name has been selected yet. We'll come up with something, I'm sure. So far I have referred to her as Invisicat, for her obvious skill in hiding in shadows, but I need something catchier and more clever than that.
Friday, February 22, 2008
The dark side of the moon
[I](Put on some early Pink Floyd music if you like.)[/I]
The lunar eclipse took place Wednesday night here in the States. But I had to cover basketball games on four consecutive nights this week, so this is my first free time to do my show and tell.
I was reminded of the eclipse as I was driving east to my game and saw the moon rising over the trees ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-sunset-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Yes, the sky was purplish-pink--it was just after sunset.
I covered my game and went home. I knew what I wanted to do once I got back--get out my tripod and take some pictures from the back porch. As I neared home, I noted the temperature: -8F (-22C).
Well, that's pretty cold, all right, but look: This will be the last lunar eclipse visible here until late 2010. And it wasn't cloudy. I decided I wasn't going to let a little cold get in the way of some pictures.
It took some time to get the tripod and camera set up and to remember how to use a remote shutter release. By the time I got my first picture, the eclipse was already well under way. 8:33 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2033-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
8:47 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2047-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I had adjusted the shutter speed (faster) to get some of the detail of the moon's surface. Now I adjusted it back (slower speed) to get the orange color of the shadowed lunar surface. 8:53 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2053-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I was using a 55-200mm zoom lens. Even so, the moon was just a tiny part of the frame. It would have been nice to have a bigger zoom so the moon would really fill up the camera frame, and I wouldn't have to do a lot of enlarging. But that wasn't in the cards. This is the gear I have, so this is what I used. 8:56 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2056-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Now the lighted part of the moon was really slipping away quickly. 9:01 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2101-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
And by 9:12 p.m., the total phase of the eclipse was under way ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2112-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I was also looking around at the stars. Right to my south was Orion, the hunter. Could I get a picture of the constellation? I set the exposure for 20 seconds, pointed the camera in the right direction and pressed the shutter release. The result ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-Orion-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Look at the middle of Orion's "sword," which hangs from his "belt." Those three nearly vertical stars. Right in the middle is the Orion Nebula. I enlarged the picture some more, adjusted the light, and I think I got the nebula ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-Orionclose-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
And if you want to see what the nebula really looks like, [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula"]check this out[/URL]. Please take a look. It is really beautiful. The Hubbell space telescope has taken some incredible images.
Anyway, by now I was freezing! My hands had gotten really cold, because I had to slip off my gloves from time to time to adjust the camera. Also, my tripod is good--but it's old. I got it about the time I got married. That's a few years ago. So it's hard to adjust the controls, which are a little wonky. Especially when your fingers are getting numb.
So after the total eclipse started, I went back inside for a while and warmed up. By the time I went back outside, it was 9:47 p.m., and the total eclipse was nearly over ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2147-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I went back inside. I next went out at 10:15 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2215-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
And before taking the final picture at 10:32 p.m., I went to a faster shutter speed to get the moon's surface details again ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2232-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
So if you missed the eclipse, if you were working, if it was cloudy, if you live on the wrong side of the earth or if you just plain forgot, that's what the eclipse was like. You will be happy, I'm sure, to hear that my hands defrosted nicely.
The lunar eclipse took place Wednesday night here in the States. But I had to cover basketball games on four consecutive nights this week, so this is my first free time to do my show and tell.
I was reminded of the eclipse as I was driving east to my game and saw the moon rising over the trees ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-sunset-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Yes, the sky was purplish-pink--it was just after sunset.
I covered my game and went home. I knew what I wanted to do once I got back--get out my tripod and take some pictures from the back porch. As I neared home, I noted the temperature: -8F (-22C).
Well, that's pretty cold, all right, but look: This will be the last lunar eclipse visible here until late 2010. And it wasn't cloudy. I decided I wasn't going to let a little cold get in the way of some pictures.
It took some time to get the tripod and camera set up and to remember how to use a remote shutter release. By the time I got my first picture, the eclipse was already well under way. 8:33 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2033-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
8:47 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2047-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I had adjusted the shutter speed (faster) to get some of the detail of the moon's surface. Now I adjusted it back (slower speed) to get the orange color of the shadowed lunar surface. 8:53 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2053-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I was using a 55-200mm zoom lens. Even so, the moon was just a tiny part of the frame. It would have been nice to have a bigger zoom so the moon would really fill up the camera frame, and I wouldn't have to do a lot of enlarging. But that wasn't in the cards. This is the gear I have, so this is what I used. 8:56 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2056-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Now the lighted part of the moon was really slipping away quickly. 9:01 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2101-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
And by 9:12 p.m., the total phase of the eclipse was under way ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2112-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I was also looking around at the stars. Right to my south was Orion, the hunter. Could I get a picture of the constellation? I set the exposure for 20 seconds, pointed the camera in the right direction and pressed the shutter release. The result ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-Orion-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Look at the middle of Orion's "sword," which hangs from his "belt." Those three nearly vertical stars. Right in the middle is the Orion Nebula. I enlarged the picture some more, adjusted the light, and I think I got the nebula ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-Orionclose-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
And if you want to see what the nebula really looks like, [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula"]check this out[/URL]. Please take a look. It is really beautiful. The Hubbell space telescope has taken some incredible images.
Anyway, by now I was freezing! My hands had gotten really cold, because I had to slip off my gloves from time to time to adjust the camera. Also, my tripod is good--but it's old. I got it about the time I got married. That's a few years ago. So it's hard to adjust the controls, which are a little wonky. Especially when your fingers are getting numb.
So after the total eclipse started, I went back inside for a while and warmed up. By the time I went back outside, it was 9:47 p.m., and the total eclipse was nearly over ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2147-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
I went back inside. I next went out at 10:15 p.m. ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2215-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
And before taking the final picture at 10:32 p.m., I went to a faster shutter speed to get the moon's surface details again ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Lunar-2232-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
So if you missed the eclipse, if you were working, if it was cloudy, if you live on the wrong side of the earth or if you just plain forgot, that's what the eclipse was like. You will be happy, I'm sure, to hear that my hands defrosted nicely.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Just before Christmas
Despite what you may think from reading my last few posts, we are not completely cat-challenged now. For one thing, we still have Maggie with us.
Maggie does just a few things, but she does them very well: eats, sleeps and meows loudly whenever she feels she isn't loved enough or wants to be spoiled some more. Fortunately for her, my wife is always willing to oblige.
In recent weeks--by some odd coincidence, it seems to start about the time Frisky died--she has been sleeping next to my wife's pillow each night. It's a queen-size bed, and the pillows are "full" size, so there is room. During the day, she sleeps a lot on the glider rocker in the living room. She's about 15 years old, so she isn't that active. But she is doing OK.
Then there are the resident cats in our neighborhood. The feral cats. You don't see them very often. But, especially, in winter, you can see they have been around ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Catprints-Frontwalk-1-08.jpg[/IMG]
On many winter days, you see a fresh set of prints leading around the back of the house ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Catprints-Backhouse-1-08.jpg[/IMG]
Our front porch is missing one of the vertical wooden slats between steps, and there is reason to believe the cats sometimes go there (under the front porch) for shelter from wet or wintry weather. That's my guess. Here are what the front steps looked like one morning last week. I think it speaks for itself ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Catprints-frontsteps-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
As for us ... a week ago on Saturday, we visited the local animal shelter and looked over some of the residents. One week later (yesterday), we returned and looked at them again.
The cats were divided over two rooms, and we decided to select two cats from each room (finalists), learn more about them, take them into a play room at the shelter ... and then do some serious thinking.
One of the cats (the only male in the final four) was eliminated quickly--he has a brother, and the shelter wants them both to go to the same home. Understandable. Another one was a grey longhair named Anastasia. She had a couple things going for her--she had been spayed and front-declawed. Anastasia has lots of fur. Lots of it. And she is even a bigger cat than Maggie! When she rolled over (being playful), her fur immediately picked up whatever dirt there was on the floor. It quickly became apparent that grooming Anastasia would be a frequent, lengthy task. The third cat was named Daphne, a brown and white cat, a female. She was nice. About four years old.
But the fourth cat won our hearts. Her shelter name is "Sparkle," and she's a gray and white female with a black nose, about one year old. Very affectionate. She purred right away when we picked her up. She walked back and forth between us, rubbing against us. When I picked her up, she snuggled against my chest and purred.
The search was over. We looked at one more cat after that (Anastasia), but we both agreed Sparkle is the one we wanted to take home.
But we couldn't. The shelter won't release cats until after they have been spayed. Disappointing but understandable. That will be done this week. And, late this week, Sparkle will be coming home with us.
I didn't take my camera along to the shelter Saturday ... but I have a picture anyway. Sparkle was one of the cats featured in the shelter's newspaper ad two weeks ago. And here it is ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/SparkleAd-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Say hello to our new kitty. We both are so excited! We may both be in our late 50s, but we feel like little kids just before Christmas ... just can't wait until the big day!
Maggie does just a few things, but she does them very well: eats, sleeps and meows loudly whenever she feels she isn't loved enough or wants to be spoiled some more. Fortunately for her, my wife is always willing to oblige.
In recent weeks--by some odd coincidence, it seems to start about the time Frisky died--she has been sleeping next to my wife's pillow each night. It's a queen-size bed, and the pillows are "full" size, so there is room. During the day, she sleeps a lot on the glider rocker in the living room. She's about 15 years old, so she isn't that active. But she is doing OK.
Then there are the resident cats in our neighborhood. The feral cats. You don't see them very often. But, especially, in winter, you can see they have been around ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Catprints-Frontwalk-1-08.jpg[/IMG]
On many winter days, you see a fresh set of prints leading around the back of the house ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Catprints-Backhouse-1-08.jpg[/IMG]
Our front porch is missing one of the vertical wooden slats between steps, and there is reason to believe the cats sometimes go there (under the front porch) for shelter from wet or wintry weather. That's my guess. Here are what the front steps looked like one morning last week. I think it speaks for itself ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Catprints-frontsteps-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
As for us ... a week ago on Saturday, we visited the local animal shelter and looked over some of the residents. One week later (yesterday), we returned and looked at them again.
The cats were divided over two rooms, and we decided to select two cats from each room (finalists), learn more about them, take them into a play room at the shelter ... and then do some serious thinking.
One of the cats (the only male in the final four) was eliminated quickly--he has a brother, and the shelter wants them both to go to the same home. Understandable. Another one was a grey longhair named Anastasia. She had a couple things going for her--she had been spayed and front-declawed. Anastasia has lots of fur. Lots of it. And she is even a bigger cat than Maggie! When she rolled over (being playful), her fur immediately picked up whatever dirt there was on the floor. It quickly became apparent that grooming Anastasia would be a frequent, lengthy task. The third cat was named Daphne, a brown and white cat, a female. She was nice. About four years old.
But the fourth cat won our hearts. Her shelter name is "Sparkle," and she's a gray and white female with a black nose, about one year old. Very affectionate. She purred right away when we picked her up. She walked back and forth between us, rubbing against us. When I picked her up, she snuggled against my chest and purred.
The search was over. We looked at one more cat after that (Anastasia), but we both agreed Sparkle is the one we wanted to take home.
But we couldn't. The shelter won't release cats until after they have been spayed. Disappointing but understandable. That will be done this week. And, late this week, Sparkle will be coming home with us.
I didn't take my camera along to the shelter Saturday ... but I have a picture anyway. Sparkle was one of the cats featured in the shelter's newspaper ad two weeks ago. And here it is ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/SparkleAd-2-08.jpg[/IMG]
Say hello to our new kitty. We both are so excited! We may both be in our late 50s, but we feel like little kids just before Christmas ... just can't wait until the big day!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
V Day over here
To one and to all, I hope you had a happy Valentine's Day. I wish you all happiness and good times.
Here, it was just another day at the office. My wife and I did our celebrating last night: I had to cover a district wrestling tournament tonight, so my wife and I went out Wednesday night, to the restaurant where we usually go for fish fries. This time, we both ordered angus burgers with swiss cheese and big portobello mushrooms. Yum!
Then we went back home. We finished a DVD ("Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures") and then watched two episodes of "One Step Beyond," a supernatural/paranormal TV program from the late 1950s, similar to the much better known "Twilight Zone."
I posted something different at [URL="http://drdog.vox.com"]my Vox blog[/URL] yesterday, about a trip I wanted to make Friday but just couldn't do. So I was disappointed ... but as it turns out, it's OK now. Because we expect to make a very important trip of our own either on Friday or Saturday. Stay tuned!
Here, it was just another day at the office. My wife and I did our celebrating last night: I had to cover a district wrestling tournament tonight, so my wife and I went out Wednesday night, to the restaurant where we usually go for fish fries. This time, we both ordered angus burgers with swiss cheese and big portobello mushrooms. Yum!
Then we went back home. We finished a DVD ("Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures") and then watched two episodes of "One Step Beyond," a supernatural/paranormal TV program from the late 1950s, similar to the much better known "Twilight Zone."
I posted something different at [URL="http://drdog.vox.com"]my Vox blog[/URL] yesterday, about a trip I wanted to make Friday but just couldn't do. So I was disappointed ... but as it turns out, it's OK now. Because we expect to make a very important trip of our own either on Friday or Saturday. Stay tuned!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A cold, lonely season
This just in, everyone: I am getting really tired of winter.
Remember the good old days of summer? This weekend's weather made it seem like a thousand years ago. You've read it all here before: subzero cold, high winds, wind chill readings you normally associate with the Canadian arctic. In fact, that's where all this stuff came from.
The cold front blew through here Saturday evening, and temperatures plummeted. It got all the way up to -5F (-21C) for a high today, and the wind chill is dying down. Right now, it's "up" to -28F (-33F). Earlier today, it was at -40F (-40C). We didn't get much snow from it, but the snow that came got whipped up into big drifts--they had blizzard conditions in parts of the U.P. along Lake Superior, and some roads were shut down, as was the Mackinac Bridge. I had to climb over several big snowdrifts to get to the office today.
It's Feb. 10, so I think/pray this is the worst of it and that the weather will get better from here. I'm no big fan of winter, anyway.
About as brutal is the pace of high school sports this winter. Somehow, the season got condensed by one week--same number of games, but less time to play them all. And the weather has been rough, knocking the stuffing out of schedules. I've been out as much as four nights a week to cover high school basketball.
Fortunately, there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. The tournament season is coming quickly. While one or two of the teams I cover may advance, most won't, and my workload will start falling off quickly by the end of February. At last, I'll be able to spend some time at home! By mid-March, everything wil be over.
Then it goes from one extreme to the other--no high school sports for a month and a half, or whenever the snow melts and the grass grows enough to allow track, tennis and golf. We're up north, remember, and spring gets here late--track and golf won't get going until late April, if then.
Haven't heard from S for a while. She said she was suffering from dizzy spells after her operation and was going to check with her doctor about it.
The Wisconsin primary is coming up next week, and my mom is interested in voting. I called the city clerk where the nursing home is located, to make sure she will be on the list when they go to the nursing home to help the residents vote. She really likes Hillary Clinton; I'm not so wild about her, but it will make her feel happy to cast a vote for her.
The last bit of news is about the search for a new cat. I've been getting antsy to get another one; I miss having one I can play with and pet. Late last week, I was looking at a local daily paper while waiting for a basketball game to start, and I saw the ad from the local shelter, with pictures of the cats they currently have. They also have a website that shows the kitties.
I took that paper home and showed it to my wife. That particular shelter is about an hour away, but we have a shelter in town, and we agreed to visit it Saturday afternoon, before the wind changed and the arctic barged in.
We agreed beforehand that we wouldn't take any of them home with us--we have some clean-up work associated with the old cat that needs to be done before introducing a new cat. So this was a scouting trip.
We looked the cats and kitties over, made a few mental notes, took a couple pictures and talked about it all later. I think my wife wants to see the cats in the shelter north of Iron Mountain, the ones in the paper.
It was a little sad--going to the local shelter, seeing all the cats meowing and trying to get your attention, reaching out with their paws, rubbing themselves against your fingers, licking your fingers ... and then not leaving with one. (We did not dare pick any of them up; it would have been impossible to tear ourselves away after the initial stages of bonding.)
Of course, I would have been quite happy to take about a half dozen of them home. I like cats.
We didn't get one on Saturday. Next time, though, may be the big day. I'm really looking forward to that. It's the day when spring arrives in my heart.
Because it's really cold and lonely now. I'm missing Frisky a lot.
Remember the good old days of summer? This weekend's weather made it seem like a thousand years ago. You've read it all here before: subzero cold, high winds, wind chill readings you normally associate with the Canadian arctic. In fact, that's where all this stuff came from.
The cold front blew through here Saturday evening, and temperatures plummeted. It got all the way up to -5F (-21C) for a high today, and the wind chill is dying down. Right now, it's "up" to -28F (-33F). Earlier today, it was at -40F (-40C). We didn't get much snow from it, but the snow that came got whipped up into big drifts--they had blizzard conditions in parts of the U.P. along Lake Superior, and some roads were shut down, as was the Mackinac Bridge. I had to climb over several big snowdrifts to get to the office today.
It's Feb. 10, so I think/pray this is the worst of it and that the weather will get better from here. I'm no big fan of winter, anyway.
About as brutal is the pace of high school sports this winter. Somehow, the season got condensed by one week--same number of games, but less time to play them all. And the weather has been rough, knocking the stuffing out of schedules. I've been out as much as four nights a week to cover high school basketball.
Fortunately, there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. The tournament season is coming quickly. While one or two of the teams I cover may advance, most won't, and my workload will start falling off quickly by the end of February. At last, I'll be able to spend some time at home! By mid-March, everything wil be over.
Then it goes from one extreme to the other--no high school sports for a month and a half, or whenever the snow melts and the grass grows enough to allow track, tennis and golf. We're up north, remember, and spring gets here late--track and golf won't get going until late April, if then.
Haven't heard from S for a while. She said she was suffering from dizzy spells after her operation and was going to check with her doctor about it.
The Wisconsin primary is coming up next week, and my mom is interested in voting. I called the city clerk where the nursing home is located, to make sure she will be on the list when they go to the nursing home to help the residents vote. She really likes Hillary Clinton; I'm not so wild about her, but it will make her feel happy to cast a vote for her.
The last bit of news is about the search for a new cat. I've been getting antsy to get another one; I miss having one I can play with and pet. Late last week, I was looking at a local daily paper while waiting for a basketball game to start, and I saw the ad from the local shelter, with pictures of the cats they currently have. They also have a website that shows the kitties.
I took that paper home and showed it to my wife. That particular shelter is about an hour away, but we have a shelter in town, and we agreed to visit it Saturday afternoon, before the wind changed and the arctic barged in.
We agreed beforehand that we wouldn't take any of them home with us--we have some clean-up work associated with the old cat that needs to be done before introducing a new cat. So this was a scouting trip.
We looked the cats and kitties over, made a few mental notes, took a couple pictures and talked about it all later. I think my wife wants to see the cats in the shelter north of Iron Mountain, the ones in the paper.
It was a little sad--going to the local shelter, seeing all the cats meowing and trying to get your attention, reaching out with their paws, rubbing themselves against your fingers, licking your fingers ... and then not leaving with one. (We did not dare pick any of them up; it would have been impossible to tear ourselves away after the initial stages of bonding.)
Of course, I would have been quite happy to take about a half dozen of them home. I like cats.
We didn't get one on Saturday. Next time, though, may be the big day. I'm really looking forward to that. It's the day when spring arrives in my heart.
Because it's really cold and lonely now. I'm missing Frisky a lot.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Film festival gets delayed
It's going to be Plan B for us this week.
Plan A was to take a mini-vacation. It involved getting out of Dodge for a day or so and driving south a couple hours to visit my friend, S, and her husband.
Not that our plan was very ambitious ... or exciting, for that matter. Once we got there, we'd visit for a while, then go out to dinner. After that, we'd go back to their place and watch a few movies. The next morning, my wife and I would do a little shopping and then drive back home.
That was the plan, anyway. In the last few weeks, S told me she needed to have gallbladder surgery. That was scheduled for last week, and since she felt she would be back on her feet pretty quickly, we didn't change or delay our plan.
Until today, that is.
S sent me a note around noon today, asking that we delay the trip for a few weeks. "I'm not recovering as speedily as I had hoped," she wrote, explaining that she can't sit for more than 15 minutes without pain--and she wanted to enjoy our time together. This morning, she woke up feeling dizzy. If that persists, she will be seeing her doctor.
I wrote her back, telling her not to worry about us. We have been talking about a visit since November, so it's been delayed before and we all survived.
In any case, I went on, this is a busy time at work because we're working on a special (annual) business section. On top of that, the local sports schedule is ridiculously crazily busy. In late March or April, things will be much quieter, so I would be able to really relax and not have a thousand things on my mind--or waiting on my desk when I return.
In fact, my wife and I are talking about taking a drive out of town, anyway. Our destination is a U.P. town that still has a fabric store, like Marquette or Escanaba. I wanted to get to an OfficeMax or a Staples store, too.
I didn't tell S, but ever since I proposed that we make our visit on Feb. 5, I had been kicking myself. It only dawned on me a few days later that Feb. 5 is "Super Tuesday" in the U.S. presidential campaign. On such occasions I'm usually watching closely as the votes are tallied.
"Damn!" (or words to that effect) I said to myself when I realized what day my visit was planned for.
But then I put it out of my mind and never mentioned it to S. After all, I reasoned, I would be missing it because of something more special. Anyway, I could catch up on things later, while we driving back to the motel, and the motel room has a TV.
Anyway, it's plan B now. I'll watch the returns tomorrow night, and then on Wednesday afternoon I can take my wife fabric shopping.
I suppose I can tell you some of the movies I was planning to take along:
--"Yellow Submarine." Because S's husband is a big Beatles fan, and that movie is so colorful and clever--a real trip.
--"The Petrified Forest." From 1936. Humphrey Bogart's first big film, opposite Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. A great story about two people falling in love at a desert gas station--and then escaped prisoners take them hostage.
--"Strange Cargo." From the 1930s, also, with Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Peter Lorre. It's about some escaped prisoners, but this time from Devil's Island off the South American coast. And one of them is a strange, spiritual presence.
--"The Razor's Edge." This is the Bill Murray version of the Somerset Maugham story from the 1980s. Murray plays it straight in this one, about a World War I veteran who goes to Tibet to look for a deeper meaning in life. It's a topic I can relate to.
--"Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Of all the Python films, this is the craziest and most surreal. Two years ago, when I visited S at "the crazy house," I took it along, and we tried to watch it. But everyone else just had too short an attention span on this night--too distracted.
--"Kundun," about the life of the current Dalai Lama, especially his younger years, how he was chosen, how and why he met the Communist Chinese government, which wanted to take over Tibet--and how he eventually fled to India.
--"Modern Times," the Charlie Chaplin film from the 1930s. A masterpiece about our modern age (as it was in the 1930s--wonder how Chaplin would do the story today).
There may be another film or two, but those are the main ones. Of course, I planned to take along more movies than we could possibly watch in two or three visits. But those are some of my favorites, and I wanted to share them.
The delay of the trip means, of course, I'll now have enough time to select a few more for my film festival! I'm still asking myself why I didn't include W.C. Fields' "It's a Gift."
Plan A was to take a mini-vacation. It involved getting out of Dodge for a day or so and driving south a couple hours to visit my friend, S, and her husband.
Not that our plan was very ambitious ... or exciting, for that matter. Once we got there, we'd visit for a while, then go out to dinner. After that, we'd go back to their place and watch a few movies. The next morning, my wife and I would do a little shopping and then drive back home.
That was the plan, anyway. In the last few weeks, S told me she needed to have gallbladder surgery. That was scheduled for last week, and since she felt she would be back on her feet pretty quickly, we didn't change or delay our plan.
Until today, that is.
S sent me a note around noon today, asking that we delay the trip for a few weeks. "I'm not recovering as speedily as I had hoped," she wrote, explaining that she can't sit for more than 15 minutes without pain--and she wanted to enjoy our time together. This morning, she woke up feeling dizzy. If that persists, she will be seeing her doctor.
I wrote her back, telling her not to worry about us. We have been talking about a visit since November, so it's been delayed before and we all survived.
In any case, I went on, this is a busy time at work because we're working on a special (annual) business section. On top of that, the local sports schedule is ridiculously crazily busy. In late March or April, things will be much quieter, so I would be able to really relax and not have a thousand things on my mind--or waiting on my desk when I return.
In fact, my wife and I are talking about taking a drive out of town, anyway. Our destination is a U.P. town that still has a fabric store, like Marquette or Escanaba. I wanted to get to an OfficeMax or a Staples store, too.
I didn't tell S, but ever since I proposed that we make our visit on Feb. 5, I had been kicking myself. It only dawned on me a few days later that Feb. 5 is "Super Tuesday" in the U.S. presidential campaign. On such occasions I'm usually watching closely as the votes are tallied.
"Damn!" (or words to that effect) I said to myself when I realized what day my visit was planned for.
But then I put it out of my mind and never mentioned it to S. After all, I reasoned, I would be missing it because of something more special. Anyway, I could catch up on things later, while we driving back to the motel, and the motel room has a TV.
Anyway, it's plan B now. I'll watch the returns tomorrow night, and then on Wednesday afternoon I can take my wife fabric shopping.
I suppose I can tell you some of the movies I was planning to take along:
--"Yellow Submarine." Because S's husband is a big Beatles fan, and that movie is so colorful and clever--a real trip.
--"The Petrified Forest." From 1936. Humphrey Bogart's first big film, opposite Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. A great story about two people falling in love at a desert gas station--and then escaped prisoners take them hostage.
--"Strange Cargo." From the 1930s, also, with Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Peter Lorre. It's about some escaped prisoners, but this time from Devil's Island off the South American coast. And one of them is a strange, spiritual presence.
--"The Razor's Edge." This is the Bill Murray version of the Somerset Maugham story from the 1980s. Murray plays it straight in this one, about a World War I veteran who goes to Tibet to look for a deeper meaning in life. It's a topic I can relate to.
--"Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Of all the Python films, this is the craziest and most surreal. Two years ago, when I visited S at "the crazy house," I took it along, and we tried to watch it. But everyone else just had too short an attention span on this night--too distracted.
--"Kundun," about the life of the current Dalai Lama, especially his younger years, how he was chosen, how and why he met the Communist Chinese government, which wanted to take over Tibet--and how he eventually fled to India.
--"Modern Times," the Charlie Chaplin film from the 1930s. A masterpiece about our modern age (as it was in the 1930s--wonder how Chaplin would do the story today).
There may be another film or two, but those are the main ones. Of course, I planned to take along more movies than we could possibly watch in two or three visits. But those are some of my favorites, and I wanted to share them.
The delay of the trip means, of course, I'll now have enough time to select a few more for my film festival! I'm still asking myself why I didn't include W.C. Fields' "It's a Gift."
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Memories of Frisky
[CENTER][B]HELP WANTED
One good kittycat. Secure, long-term position in loving home for the right applicant.[/B][/CENTER]
As you may know, we lost our cat a week ago Saturday. We were sad, of course, but we are doing a lot better. We have already decided that we will be getting another kitten/cat from our local shelter--once we get over the hurt of Frisky's death a little more.
Frisky, after all, was no ordinary cat. No indeed! She had many talents and skills, some learned, some picked up over the years. She definitely had a personality.
She liked to climb and explore. Did not like to be held. She would tolerate being held for a while, but then she would "get springs," as my wife called it. Many times I would see a little scratch on her breast, the legacy of Frisky's kicking feet when she felt she had been held too long and my wife didn't get the hint in time. Her last little scratch is fading away and getting hard to see.
I never got a picture of that. I never got a picture of her helping my wife read in bed. She would get in bed with a good book and Frisky under her arm. While she did not being held, she didn't seem to mind that, and when I came in to kiss her (my wife, that is) good-night, I would keep my distance if Frisky was there--lest she decide to run off.
The first nine or so years of Frisky's life with us were not documented, not be me, at least. But once I got my first digital camera in 2001, Frisky was a favorite subject. I used photography to document Frisky's many talents.
These photos are in approximately chronological order.
She was very good at holding down the bed. Especially stacks of freshly folded towels ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-OnTowels-10-01.jpg[/IMG]
While I never got a picture of her "helping my wife read," I did get this picture of her on the pillow ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-OnPillow-10-01.jpg[/IMG]
On Christmas Eve 2001, she posed very nicely on the post at the bottom of the staircase. That's Maggie closer to the camera ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Stairpost-12-01.jpg[/IMG]
Frisky was very good about testing the quality of the different pieces of clothing we buy. All we had to do was place it somewhere flat, and she would be quick to try it out ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-CoatNap-11-01.jpg[/IMG]
How to get Frisky to come out of hiding? Very, very easy, and it didn't involve opening tuna cans. All my wife had to do was hold up her slicker brush, and Frisky would jump up. She loved her slicker brush ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Slickerbrush-4-02.jpg[/IMG]
Whenever we had vanilla ice cream, she was very good about helping finish off the melted cream at the bottom of the bowl. Waste not, want not ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Icecream-4-02.jpg[/IMG]
I never got a picture of one of Frisky's strangest habits. Shoestrings. Honest!
When there was an discarded shoestring in the house, she would take it and carry it around in her mouth--while meowing with a closed mouth. I don't know how many times we were in bed and suddenly hear a meow, meow off in the distance. It would be Frisky, climbing the steps with a shoestring in her mouth.
After she died, my wife told me the time she was replacing zippers in my jacket and several others. Frisky claimed the old zipper from my jacket--picking it out among the others--and started carrying it.
Also, when I got home from work in the late afternoon and changed shirts or took off a sweater and left it on the bed, Frisky soon would be curled up on it. So when we went out of town for a day or two or three, we would leave an unwashed shirt or two on the bed. When we came back, we could see Frisky had been lying on it. It had our scent, you see.
Here, Frisky (and Maggie, too, for that matter) helped my wife show off some of her quilts. She was always ready to get her ears scratched ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Headscratch-11-03.jpg[/IMG]
She also helped us at Christmas time, inspecting my wife's new wreath ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Wreath-12-04.jpg[/IMG]
And when a mouse found its way into the house ... you might as well turn off the TV, because you'll never see anything more entertaining than that. It was the four C's: chase, command, conquer and consume. In this picture, we are at the conquer stage ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Mouse-4-05.jpg[/IMG]
She would come around to visit sometimes while we were watching TV, and one night she found her own special vantage point. Her skybox, you might say. We kept it up after that ... until last week, when I took it down. It was too hard to look at it...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-InBox-12-05.jpg[/IMG]
Would you believe that Frisky was able to look in two directions simultaneously? I know it sounds impossible, but you can't argue with pictures ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Doubletake-12-05.jpg[/IMG]
Here, Frisky helps my wife get a few extra winks in the morning ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Pillow-3-07.jpg[/IMG]
By now, I had a new camera, and the Frisky pictures got a little better. It helped me get a picture of her next to my wife, getting her tummy rubbed. She loved that, too ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Tummyrub-3-07.jpg[/IMG]
It was spring, and the smell of fresh, new, young grass was in the air. Frisky would put her paws on the front door screen and look outside, so we moved a kitchen chair for her convenience ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Apr07-DoorChair-4-07-1.jpg[/IMG]
That is the season for "grass parties"--when my wife would take several blades of fresh new grass inside. The cats were all excited, meowing happily. Here, Frisky is hooking down my wife's hand with her paw so the grass will be closer...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Apr07-GimmeGimme-4-07-1.jpg[/IMG]
Frisky was never interested in going outside, though. We never had to worry about that. Last April, though, a rare moment: My wife carried Frisky out onto the back porch ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-BackPorch-4-07.jpg[/IMG]
Those are all treasured memories, and we have many more. We will get another cat. That much is definite. But we are realistic. Frisky was unique, and they broke the mold with her.
Our new cat will be unique in his/her own ways. That is as it should be. And we will love him/her. That is how it should be, also. With our history, the cat who decides to adopt us will be part of our family into the 2020s.
One good kittycat. Secure, long-term position in loving home for the right applicant.[/B][/CENTER]
As you may know, we lost our cat a week ago Saturday. We were sad, of course, but we are doing a lot better. We have already decided that we will be getting another kitten/cat from our local shelter--once we get over the hurt of Frisky's death a little more.
Frisky, after all, was no ordinary cat. No indeed! She had many talents and skills, some learned, some picked up over the years. She definitely had a personality.
She liked to climb and explore. Did not like to be held. She would tolerate being held for a while, but then she would "get springs," as my wife called it. Many times I would see a little scratch on her breast, the legacy of Frisky's kicking feet when she felt she had been held too long and my wife didn't get the hint in time. Her last little scratch is fading away and getting hard to see.
I never got a picture of that. I never got a picture of her helping my wife read in bed. She would get in bed with a good book and Frisky under her arm. While she did not being held, she didn't seem to mind that, and when I came in to kiss her (my wife, that is) good-night, I would keep my distance if Frisky was there--lest she decide to run off.
The first nine or so years of Frisky's life with us were not documented, not be me, at least. But once I got my first digital camera in 2001, Frisky was a favorite subject. I used photography to document Frisky's many talents.
These photos are in approximately chronological order.
She was very good at holding down the bed. Especially stacks of freshly folded towels ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-OnTowels-10-01.jpg[/IMG]
While I never got a picture of her "helping my wife read," I did get this picture of her on the pillow ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-OnPillow-10-01.jpg[/IMG]
On Christmas Eve 2001, she posed very nicely on the post at the bottom of the staircase. That's Maggie closer to the camera ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Stairpost-12-01.jpg[/IMG]
Frisky was very good about testing the quality of the different pieces of clothing we buy. All we had to do was place it somewhere flat, and she would be quick to try it out ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-CoatNap-11-01.jpg[/IMG]
How to get Frisky to come out of hiding? Very, very easy, and it didn't involve opening tuna cans. All my wife had to do was hold up her slicker brush, and Frisky would jump up. She loved her slicker brush ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Slickerbrush-4-02.jpg[/IMG]
Whenever we had vanilla ice cream, she was very good about helping finish off the melted cream at the bottom of the bowl. Waste not, want not ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Icecream-4-02.jpg[/IMG]
I never got a picture of one of Frisky's strangest habits. Shoestrings. Honest!
When there was an discarded shoestring in the house, she would take it and carry it around in her mouth--while meowing with a closed mouth. I don't know how many times we were in bed and suddenly hear a meow, meow off in the distance. It would be Frisky, climbing the steps with a shoestring in her mouth.
After she died, my wife told me the time she was replacing zippers in my jacket and several others. Frisky claimed the old zipper from my jacket--picking it out among the others--and started carrying it.
Also, when I got home from work in the late afternoon and changed shirts or took off a sweater and left it on the bed, Frisky soon would be curled up on it. So when we went out of town for a day or two or three, we would leave an unwashed shirt or two on the bed. When we came back, we could see Frisky had been lying on it. It had our scent, you see.
Here, Frisky (and Maggie, too, for that matter) helped my wife show off some of her quilts. She was always ready to get her ears scratched ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Headscratch-11-03.jpg[/IMG]
She also helped us at Christmas time, inspecting my wife's new wreath ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Wreath-12-04.jpg[/IMG]
And when a mouse found its way into the house ... you might as well turn off the TV, because you'll never see anything more entertaining than that. It was the four C's: chase, command, conquer and consume. In this picture, we are at the conquer stage ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Mouse-4-05.jpg[/IMG]
She would come around to visit sometimes while we were watching TV, and one night she found her own special vantage point. Her skybox, you might say. We kept it up after that ... until last week, when I took it down. It was too hard to look at it...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-InBox-12-05.jpg[/IMG]
Would you believe that Frisky was able to look in two directions simultaneously? I know it sounds impossible, but you can't argue with pictures ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Doubletake-12-05.jpg[/IMG]
Here, Frisky helps my wife get a few extra winks in the morning ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Pillow-3-07.jpg[/IMG]
By now, I had a new camera, and the Frisky pictures got a little better. It helped me get a picture of her next to my wife, getting her tummy rubbed. She loved that, too ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-Tummyrub-3-07.jpg[/IMG]
It was spring, and the smell of fresh, new, young grass was in the air. Frisky would put her paws on the front door screen and look outside, so we moved a kitchen chair for her convenience ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Apr07-DoorChair-4-07-1.jpg[/IMG]
That is the season for "grass parties"--when my wife would take several blades of fresh new grass inside. The cats were all excited, meowing happily. Here, Frisky is hooking down my wife's hand with her paw so the grass will be closer...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Apr07-GimmeGimme-4-07-1.jpg[/IMG]
Frisky was never interested in going outside, though. We never had to worry about that. Last April, though, a rare moment: My wife carried Frisky out onto the back porch ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Frsky-BackPorch-4-07.jpg[/IMG]
Those are all treasured memories, and we have many more. We will get another cat. That much is definite. But we are realistic. Frisky was unique, and they broke the mold with her.
Our new cat will be unique in his/her own ways. That is as it should be. And we will love him/her. That is how it should be, also. With our history, the cat who decides to adopt us will be part of our family into the 2020s.
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