Wistful Wednesday: Chaucer 2002-2018

Chaucer was born sometime in 2002.  He had a best friend named Keats.   They were a rambunctious pair…they technically belonged to our Grandsons…Keats belonged to Adam and Chaucer to Noah.  The kittens spent some time with us here when the family moved from Mapleton to Hawley.  They were balls of energy and explorers…our house was not finished yet and they thought it was great fun to walk around in the heat ducts and race around like they were being chased by the devil himself.  Unfortunately Keats met an early death so Chaucer became an only cat.  Keats is buried on our property along side Keshia Grey another good kitty.

Chaucer our Grandcat

Chaucer loved us and would come running when he heard our voices…he liked to be scratched under his chin.

He was a guest blogger for me one time.  What does the cat say.

He was a good kitty.  A good friend to both of our Grandsons.  They learned all about pet ownership and repsonsibility with the kitty. Yesterday they learned all about the sad part of pet ownership. Chaucer had quit eating and drinking, at the Vets he was xrayed and they found a huge mass in his abdomen….so they said their goodbyes.

Nearly everytime we would visit I took a photo of Chaucer thinking it might be the last one…

Here he was getting some lovin from Far Guy.

Rest in peace Chaucer…we will miss you….you had a good family and a good life.

A Mystery

When I packed to go up North, I grabbed my vitamin container and my pill container...I only take two pills one for high blood pressure and Potassium tablets because the blood pressure pill robs me most of my potassium.  I put the two weekly pill/vitamin containers, my tooth brush, my tooth paste and my eye drops in a small storage bag...bigger than a sandwich bag.  It is easier to just grab the bag in the morning that way I don't forget the pills when I brush my teeth.

Chaucer

Tuesday night when I knew a hospital stay was eminent I took my toothbrush out of the bag and put it in my purse/backpack, I also took my vitamins,   I either left the bag with the pills, toothpaste and eye drops on the counter in the kitchen (I went there to get a glass of water so I could take the vitamins.) OR I threw them back in my suitcase and didn't shut the lid.

I knew I could borrow Jens toothpaste, and once we got home I would take my meds for the day.  I forgot, so I asked Noah to remind me...he did and low and behold the bag of medication was missing.

It wasn't on the counter in the kitchen and it wasn't in my suitcase...Noah and I went through my suitcase piece by piece.  We looked everywhere including the garbage and the refrigerator.  The bag was missing...we retraced all my steps, and asked all family members.  I mentioned to Andy that Little Elvis was digging a hole in the yard that afternoon, he said "Oh when I cleaned out the smoker I left some meat drippings out there."  Silly dog.

Little Elvis

I thought about where the bag could be, in fact every time I awakened during the night I tried to visualize exactly where I left that bag.  In the morning we talked about it again and looked some more. I thought perhaps I was going nuts.

Miney

Then it was time for Andy to leave for work.  A minute or two later he came in and asked "Is this what you have been looking for?"

Yes that was it, with a hole chewed in the bag, luckily no pills were missing.   Someone ...I won't say who knocked them off the counter, or stole them out of my suitcase and took them out the doggie door and tried to bury them in the snow.  Andy noticed them in the back yard. 

It could have been anyone or a team of anyones who are able to leap onto counters to bat stuff onto the floor...just saying...it might have been a very agile tiny black dog...who might have been digging them up or trying to cover up the evidence in the back yard...only the animals know for sure...and for now the pills and the bag are safely tucked into my suitcase in a zippered compartment. 

I was relieved to know that I am not nuts...and that all pills were accounted for.  Someone said "Maybe they thought Chance would deliver new pills."  

I did not head home yesterday, there was a band of snow that dropped 13 inches of snow between me and home so it was safer to stay put.  Perhaps I will have better luck today.  Jen is recovering a little at a time and can probably survive without her Mother now.  Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers.

What does the cat say?

You again…weren’t you just here a couple of weeks ago?  You and that black and white thing that you bring along with you.  I like you but couldn’t you just leave him at home?

Whatever are you doing on the floor anyway?  You didn’t fall did you?

Oh you gotta camera too just like my lady that shakes the treat can.  Take some pictures of me instead of that mutt. I’ll get real close so you can’t miss.

I am getting old, I have tumors…they come and go and I heard you say one of these days it will be a big one that gets me.  Was that a nice thing to say?

Well just for that comment you get the stink eye.  I suppose you are going to clean out my ears too…you do that every time you come to visit.

I’ll letcha do it this time…after all you have been doing it for 12 years…nothing has stopped you yet.  Not meowing or scratching…I am getting too old to protest too much.  Besides that I will lay in your laptop case and get it all hairy just to get even…unless of course you care to vacuum me a few dozen times…you know how much I love that vacuum cleaner.

Why don’t you hide more treats over here so you look like a multi talented animal photographer?

Signed,

Chaucer the GRAND Cat

Wistful Wednesday: Shadow

Only the Shadow knows..

…why he loved to sleep in the bathroom sink.

He would lay there half the day until someone ran cold water for him to drink out of the faucet.

He was a weird cat.  He was trained to go potty outside and would wait to be let out the door.   He would use the cat box only in a true emergency.

Shadow was a replacement kitten.  He replaced Midnight who was a gift to Trica from Jason.  When Midnight died of Feline Leukemia..Shadow was the replacement. 

Like I said he was a weird cat.  He bit my father in law..who promptly got cat scratch fever and required a hospital stay and a surgery.

When the dogs..we had four..would get into a fight..Shadow would leap into the fray and land on one or another of the dogs and the fight would be forgotten..after all a kamikaze kitten was not to be trusted.

Shadow lived with us for a long, long time.  He finally moved in with Trica..and was euthanized because he could not be trusted around Savannah when she was a newborn. He was very jealous..and the day that he peed in Savannah’s car seat was the last straw.

There was always something a bit weird about that cat named Shadow…but only the Shadow knows why:(

Creature of Habit

I am a creature of habit.  I leave the house every morning and say the same thing “ Bye sweetie see ya later, have a good day.”  I let Chance in the house and he moves over by the step and lays down.   “Bye Chance see ya later, be a good boy.”  I drive the same road, I turn on the same street.  I open the museum and I have a routine I follow to unlock the  nine doors…at night it is the reverse.  I leave the parking lot the same way and I go down a block and see if the white cat is in the yard.

He must be a creature of habit also.  In the spring and early summer he was sitting on a car, now he enjoys the grass in the yard.  Sometimes he is scruffy and dirty looking like he just had a bath in the alley. He is usually in the yard everyday at 4:33.  I look for him, I wonder if he looks for me? 

I am not crazy about people who let their house cats out of the house.  Sooner of later, they will get hit by a car, or maimed in a fight with a bigger tougher cat, or get picked up by an Eagle or at night by an Owl…or by a coyote.  Don’t get your panties in a bunch if you have a cat and let him/her outdoors.  We have had both extremes ..Keshia who would cry mournfully if we took her out of the house, and Shadow who used the outdoors as his sandbox and had to be let out of the house just like one of the dogs, and Dawn who took off one time and was gone for 30 days..but returned thin and meowing like we were the ones that were missing, she was content to stay home for awhile after that big adventure. ( I was sure an Eagle or an Owl had gotten her.)  Cats are safer living their lives as “IN” the house pets. 

Barn cats are another story..they are used to being outdoors and usually have all their claws and hunt their own food, a necessity on a farm.

I stopped yesterday and took this photo, the white cat has one blue eye and one green eye.  He stared at me…what a grump.   I took his photo! If he was my cat I would clean out his ears..and take him into the house.  But he isn’t my cat, and no I am not getting a cat..I am way over having a cat in the house:)

Wistful Wednesday: Me!

I have decided to call my Old Photograph Wednesday..Wistful Wednesday starting now! Thank you to Roxane for the idea for it's new name! Wednesdays will continue to be the day I pop in with an old photo. Miss Kate I liked your idea of Black and White Wednesday..however I wanted to leave the option for showing some colorful old photos also.



This photo was taken by my Mother in 1952. I was about 10 months old. It was taken on the farm I grew up on, the pasture is in the background. Note the old hay wagon with the high sides, and the steel wheels. I loved kittens and enjoyed chasing them around, they were barn cats and caught mice and dumb birds. My Mother never ever allowed cats or dogs into the house when I was growing up. I always thought it was a stupid rule, but followed it most of the time ..sneaking them into the house only when she wasn't looking.

My parents were a united front on this rule..with my Father saying "If you have a cat in the house it will crap all over, cats belong in the barn, that's where the cats job is." Then I would be treated to the very old story of how when you have a cat and a baby in the house..the cat might lay right on the baby, and steal the baby's breath away. How many of you were treated to that pleasant thought growing up? Far Guys Mom had a cat in the house when he was a baby..it did get in his crib..and it was thrown out of the house. Well maybe not thrown out, sent to a farm more than likely.

The neighbor kids had a very liberal Mother and they had a cat in their house. No babies just a cat. I loved that cat too. This was before commercial cat litter was available. They had a cat box behind the couch filled with sand. Sand is a unavailable resource in Minnesota in the wintertime, so they thought ahead and would keep buckets of sand in their cellar for use throughout the winter.

Far Guy and I are pretty much dog people, our girls always wanted a cat, we always told them when they got their own house they could do whatever they wanted. However one Autumn night that changed. More on that tomorrow:)