Random Bits

Mom: "Whichever girl's turn it is to scoop the litter box, needs to do it."

Dancer: "I can't remember whose turn it is. It's hard to keep track."

Mom: "That's why I put up the chore chart months ago, with all the days and the chores."

Dancer: "But we never use it."

Mom: face-palm

That look a cat gives you when she is rolling around in some sort of almost-catnip-fueled type abandon and sees you watching her. "Oh. Hai. Didn't see you there."

You know your best friend is your best friend when you give each other the same Christmas gift. And when you can't actually wait until Christmas to exchange gifts.

I'm really tired of having to put paragraph breaks in by hand because Blogger doesn't seem to recognize the return key anymore. Especially when I forget and then go to look at my blog post actually on my blog.

Enjoy the Silence

For me, one of the best things about being a stay-at-home mom is the deep silence that can be found when the kids are at school. The only noises I can hear right now are birds singing outside, the snoring of one of our cats soundly asleep on the couch, and the hum of some sort of motor outside. It sounds like someone is getting carpets cleaned or something similar. I suspect only an introvert can enjoy so much quiet on a daily basis, but I think we all need a little peace and quiet at times, to think our own thoughts, make plans and dream dreams.

It's All Relative

I'm getting so tired of the idea that I must somehow be able to "relate" to people who are running for office. Especially since, who could I probably be able to relate to best? Bipolar people! Let's run somebody who's mentally ill for president -- that's a GREAT idea!

I also like pets. We've always had cats as they fit our lifestyle better. Hmmmm. The last president to have a cat as a pet was Clinton. And the cat got dumped on someone else as soon as they left the White House. So, scratch that.

I'm a mom, but I don't want to see a president wearing mom jeans ever again!

I'm terrible at sports, but I would like to have a president who doesn't totally embarrass himself throwing out a first pitch. On the other hand, I really don't care what the president's ESPN basketball picks are.

Which reminds me, I also do not want to see any more presidents or first ladies on any reality shows, awards shows or sports shows. You know what's reality? Unemployment, high gas prices, massive inflation.

Tired Out

The main living area of our home is being thoroughly cleaned this weekend, and it's been very stressful and tiring. Mr. BTEG has been doing most of the work, with the Dancer as his right-hand helper, and the Equestrienne and I have pitched in some. Three of us also managed to ding ourselves up a little in the process. I tripped over some boxes and scraped and bruised my right wrist. I'll be glad to get things back in order.

I think our 16-year-old cat Cedric is showing his age. He's becoming more insistent about being around me, and about fresh clean water always being in his water dish. However, physically he's still in great shape, taking on the young cat in our house, Sabrina, and winning. I will be sad when he eventually joins our other cats who have passed on, but at 16 he has lived a long life for a cat.

Nothing too deep this weekend due to the aforementioned housecleaning. Hoping to have a nice and not too stressful day tomorrow. I may end up going to the doctor for an ear infection, though.

Together Again

Our cat Callie and her son Champ are reunited. I never thought she would leave us so soon after her son. I'm typing this through tears. I can't believe she's gone.

Downers

I was feeling awfully blue yesterday. So much so that I burst into tears last night. I think only having one car is really wearing on me. We were going to take Mr. BTEG's car in to be repaired, but would you believe that a place with "Auto Body and Frame" in its title doesn't, actually, work on frames? Now we have to find someplace else who will take on the job.

We're hoping to move in late spring, but I don't know where we're going to move, and that wears on me also. Of course there's still a lot of time ahead, but I like having things planned and settled out. Also, it may not be practical to stay in this area, and I love it here. I've lived most of my life on the west side of Cleveland, and I'm very attached to it. I'm sure if we move, we'll find someplace nice, but I don't enjoy the uncertainty of having nothing specific to plan for and look forward to.

The Dancer, especially, misses our cat, Champ. She had more of a bond to him than any other cat in our household. He had a special bond with the rest of us as well. Losing a pet is always hard, but we didn't expect to lose him at such a relatively young age.

I'm trying to soak up as much sunlight as I can. I think it's been an unusually sunny winter, albeit also unusually cold and snowy. I'm trying anything I can to keep my spirits up.

Sorrow and Loss

Today we had to say goodbye to a dear friend, our beloved cat Champ. The initial problem was a sore in the mouth caused by decaying teeth. Today it was discovered that there was a cancerous tumor in the jaw that is almost impossible to treat longterm and might have taken most of his jaw to get out. On top of this, we also discovered he had diabetes, which further worsened his health prognosis. We decided the best thing to do was to end his life peacefully. Still, it broke our hearts to let him go.

He had been a member of our family longer than the Dancer. We brought his mother home when she was pregnant with him. We had him with us from before he was born until the day of his death. We were with him when he died. He was eleven years old. Now he can be with his brother and sisters, who died at birth.

Home Doings

Well, most of the cookies are out of the house, hooray! I knew how big a job being a cookie mom was going to be, so it wasn't surprising, but I'm still glad it's pretty much over with. I do have to collect the money, and there's a little bit of paperwork still to do, but at least the heavy lifting is over. The Scientist was kind enough to come to Wildchild's Brownie meeting with me yesterday and truck boxes out to people's cars with our dolly. I'm sure she'll do something in 4-H that Wildchild can help her with.

Doesn't it seem like cats always jump up on your lap just when you're about to get up?

Decorating with Cat Hair

With the cold weather, the cats love to snuggle with me in my recliner. At times, I can have three cats perched on and around me when I am sitting. However, it's annoying to be picking cat hair out of my cross-stitch work. And, like Lutheran Lucciola, I am trying to learn how to knit, and it's annoying while winding my ball of yarn to be picking cat hairs out of that as well. I'm using a Klutz book to attempt to learn how to knit. I don't know if I ever want to do anything fancy like Marie or LotzaStitches. I would just like to be able to knit scarves, hats, dishcloths, things like that. Without cat hair as an added decoration! Today I may whip myself out a hat sewn out of fleece, however. Did I mention the weather is cold? At least the sun is out. And cats are not allowed in the sewing room!

Cat Magnet

How many of you out there have that big cat magnet attached to you, the one that draws all the hard luck feline cases your way? The biggest cat rescue we ever pulled off was when a feral cat gave birth to four kittens in our back yard. We managed to snag Mama Cat in a humane trap, got her spayed and got her a round of shots, and let her loose at the local grain elevator, with the blessing of the owners there. Two of the kittens went to a good home, and the other two went to a shelter where presumably they found good homes as well.

We've been living where we're at for about four months, and I guess it's taken that long for the "Cat Signal" to come on, because tonight a beautiful black cat showed up at our door. Using our extensive cat knowledge, we discovered that a)it's a girl and b)she's in heat. So she's spending the night in our garage, safe from any boy kitties that might happen to be around, and away from our four kitties in case she has any sicknesses, or fleas, for that matter. We figure she's about seven months or so, and this is probably her first heat. We're also guessing that her owners got tired of her caterwauling, and dumped her. Those kind of people disgust me. Hopefully we can get her to the local no-kill shelter tomorrow.

Why I Haven't Been Blogging

I've Become a Cat

At least temporarily, with this cold. I get bouts of energy for fifteen minutes or so, then decide it's time for another short nap. Meanwhile, nothing much is catching my interest. I'm glad the weather is pleasant, not too hot, and sunny to keep my spirits up.

The above pic is a little old, from last year, but it seemed suitable. I was sleeping on the recliner overnight for some reason, I think because I was sick (!), and one of our cats decided to take up residence near my head. A cat we used to have, named Hobbes, would progressively push mine or DH's head off the pillow as we slept, and we'd wake up with a paw in our faces.

More Cat Blogging

While I'm on the subject of cats, let me introduce you to Callie and Champ, mother and son. Callie loves to drink out of the faucet in the tub, and whenever one of us humans heads upstairs, she vocalizes that she would like a drink. And since I'm guessing that she has some Siamese in her, based on her body type and the fact that she has calico coloring just where a Siamese would have "points", she can vocalize with the best of them.

Here's a picture of Champ's adorable face.

Next, we have Molly, who knows how pretty she is. Unfortunately, she is very high-strung, probably as a result of bad experiences we don't know about from her previous home. We got her as an adult.

Our last cat is Cedric, who not only knows how pretty he is, he likes to pose and have you tell him that he is pretty. He is the old man of the house, 14 years old.

And here is Tabitha, a cat we took in for a short period of time many years ago. This picture is soooo cute I had to throw it in. She got onto the porch of my daughter's dollhouse all by herself.

Furry Friends

I'm saddened by the loss of pet animals, and the almost absolute certainty that more will be lost. I'm very disturbed by the fact that the pet food that is killing animals appears to have had rat poison in it. I'd like to make my animals' own pet food, but I don't always have the time or energy to make home-cooked meals from scratch for my own human family. Still, does anyone know a good recipe for home-made cat food?

In memory of my dear Hobbes, who we euthanized at age 7 due to kidney failure, seven years ago.

Poking My Head Out

Yes, I'm still alive. No, I'm not doing my best, but I'm trying to pick myself up and dust myself off and start over again. Not much exciting going on here, mostly because I haven't been doing very well. My new medicine is knocking me out too much; I took a quarter of a pill last night and was drowsy for fifteen hours. Enough of that nonsense! I don't want to be a blog about depression or mental illnesses; I'll leave that to blogs like I Trust When Dark My Road. But when aspects of my mental state are affecting my life so much, I have to bring it up. Hope ya'll hang with me.

All is pretty mellow here at the moment. Even our cats, who don't all get along with each other, are all content and happy at the moment, because their bellies are full of tuna. My husband had some tuna and mayonnaise, and of course at the first whiff of tuna, the cats demanded their share. So now five members of my household have tuna breath. Oy.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Like Emily, I thought I might have to put off the decorating to start building an ark! Fortunately, the rain stopped, although a strong wind replaced it. But I'm attempting to create some cheer inside. I bought a wreath at the store to give off that nice pine scent, since we have an artificial tree.

I strung some colored lights on the bannisters. I will probably hang lights other places as well, and maybe decorate the bannisters more. I just like the colored lights, and our tree has white ones (pre-strung tree).

These stockings are pictured especially for the Presbytera, and any other kitty lovers. :)


These little singers are special to me. I bought them in East Germany, right after the Berlin Wall fell. It is apparently a tradition for children to dress so, and go around singing carols at Christmas time. We saw some children like this in Leipzig, but I don't think I got a picture, because we were on a moving bus. :( I have two more singers, but they need a little repair. The Scientist was examining them down the basement before she brought them up, and she dropped the box. I'm glad I noticed now, as the girls didn't notice that pieces had fallen off, and the pieces were still on the basement floor. They might have become cat toys. :0

We might not put up the actual tree until after the Scientist's birthday, but at least my dolls are starting to decorate theirs!

Feline Frolics

After reading Marie's post about Christmas, and noticing her cat investigating the tree, I happened upon this adorable site where two cats really go at a Christmas tree. Some of the best pics of our cats and our Christmas trees are not online, but here are two:

Champ reclining after a hectic day.

Champ giving the Christmas tree "love."

Fortunately, our cats have never tried to climb the tree. We did have one that chewed through several strings of lights, however. And we are always careful to put all the breakable ornaments near the top of the tree, plus no hooks and no tinsel. It's fun to share the holiday with our little furbabies!

Unexpected Reward

Lutheran Lucy recently blogged about unexpected rewards. Well, nine years ago today this little ball of black and white fur was an unexpected reward in our life. We found his mother wandering the garden center of a home improvement store, and I was too soft-hearted to leave her there where she could be run over by a car or who knows what else, so she came home with us. I honestly planned to find a home for her, until we found out...she was pregnant! Not a big suprise for a stray female cat, really. Too bad you can't tell whether they are spayed or unspayed just by looking.

The poor little guy ended up being an only child. His brother and two sisters (I guessed this based on their coloring) did not survive birth. He received his name at the vet's office that night, where after 8 hours or so after the birth of the first kitten, Mama still had two kittens to deliver. We had to take Baby with us, of course. Our beloved vet took one look at our little guy and said, "Hey there, Champ!"

Since the Scientist was only a year old at the time of Champ's birth, you might say the two of them were babies together.

However, being a cat, Champ of course reached adulthood far sooner. He even learned to drive a car. From the look in his eyes, I'd say he's facing rush hour traffic. In Chicago.

Not only is Champ a valued addition to our feline household, being affectionate and loving and a buddy to our other cats, he helped us deal with the passing of another cat, my beloved Hobbes. However, I'll discuss Hobbes another time, as he deserves his own post. Catblogging is a time-honored tradition, and I'm surprised I'm just starting it now! :) Anyway, Champ can be goofy at times, but we still love him!