Hank and Merlin, my first two cats.

Hank was my first cat.

He was an orange tabby people lover.

He was gregarious and a talker. I was still going to school

and working, so I thought I would get another cat to keep him company.

For his one year birthday.

I went back and got his sister, same momma, next litter.

Merlin was a beautiful dilute tortoiseshell.

Hank was horrified! Hissed at me, hissed at her, was totally obnoxious.

I put Merlin in the bathroom to keep her safe, and

I called my baby sister to come down and

be Merlin's mommy, so that Hank would calm down. This was my

first kitty integration and I wasn't sure what I was doing.

After several days she called me at

work to let me know that they were cuddled up together on the

papason chair, sleeping. It Worked! He was always MY cat,

and Merlin was HIS

(Hank's) cat. It wasn't till 11 or 12 years later,

after he died, that Merlin became MY cat.

She was such a snuggler.

I still miss them both.

stuffed up head

Last night I realized I had a sore throat, and that was followed by sneezes and a stuffed up head.  Sinuses are really acting up.  I wonder what is in the air, other than dust and humidity!

It's raining!

I have locked my cats up in the bedroom with the air conditioner, and have opened all the windows and doors to get some airflow through this poor old house.  It feels wonderful.  I really do need to fix the screens.  I don't think my current cats would go through them like ones in the past.

Greta for the Week-end

I took care of Greta the great dane while her folks were gone for two days.  She is a real sweet dog, and doesn't like this 100 degree weather any more than the rest of us, so we just lounged around the house.  She has this really big sigh, exhale, humph, whatever, it just cracks me up.

Trumpet vine, honeysuckle, walnut and cedar trees.

I pulled another two loads of vines and trees out of the front border today, and cleared around my Crape Myrtle and my Mungo pine is almost vine free.  I can see the Peonies!  I will get a picture tomorrow before and after!

My wooden Tiger

 I found this today at Goodwill, my favorite place to shop.  They had just wheeled out a new cart and this was on it.  It is wood marquetry and I love it.  It is unframed and on a plywood base.  There are some spots in the stream, down by the left hand ferny area.  I don't know how to fix this without damaging the glue that holds all the pieces together.  I will figure it out though.  It is approx 20 x30 inches, and I took it to a framing place.  $300-400, depending on the frame.  I think I will do it myself.  I do have a miter box!  There is some brush work in the chin and whisker area and on the leaves and trunks of the trees.  I am very happy with this $10 find!

Sloppy Joes For A Crowd Or OAMC Recipe - Food.com - 262648

Sloppy Joes For A Crowd Or OAMC Recipe - Food.com - 262648

Looks good for a Saturday lunch menu!

Heaps of books.

I have been going through boxes and boxes and more boxes of  books, and pulling out some to take to trade in at the used book store, some for the yard sale and still way too many that I think I want to keep.  I sold a couple of boxes tonight on Ebay, but that doesn't make a dent in what I have.  This is truly my addiction.  I could never read all of them, even at a book a day and reading till I hit 100 years old.  I will keep most of the resource material, but the fiction needs draconian measures.  Too bad I am such a pussycat.  Meow.

Mowed down the cherry trees.

I had posted them on freecycle and had a couple of takers, but just mowed down the rest of them.  Baby trees, murdered.  I managed to get almost the whole yard mowed, and just in time, because I am planning on going to Mom's for most of the week.  Leaving Monday morn and coming back on Thursday.  I am sure it will all need mowing again, with all the rain we have had.  Photographed a bunch of clothes today and will get them cropped and uploaded tonight, so I can list away tomorrow.  I had a bunch of little ants in the house this past week, so finally went and got some Terro traps and bait.  Can't hardly find an ant right now.  I am sure the water drove them inside.  I get spiders all the time, but rarely ants in the house.  They are a problem in the shed though.

Still Raining

and I am ohhhhh so tired of it!

Amen.

Catnip

I have to separate Mica and Jean-Claude when I bring in the catnip because my greedy little boy eats, inhales it.  Then he goes after hers.  She has to chew the leaf all around the edges, tasting it thoroughly before she actually swallows it, and he will steal it right out of her mouth.  I only find one plant growing right now, hidden amid the lemon balm.  They look quite abit alike, so I am hoping there is more out there.  The irises are blooming, and getting ready to get beat up tonight in the storm that's coming.  Maybe I should go cut some down.

Vintage clothing and ETSY

I finally made the move to ETSY with my Vintage clothing.  I will put them up at auction on EBAY once, and if they don't go I am moving them to ETSY and raising the price.  It costs .20 for a 3 month listing.  Now to wait and see how much traffic I can generate.  They are already getting more hits than they did on Ebay.  There should be a gallery at the bottom of the page on the left that shows some of my listings.  If I did it right!

Home again.

Just got home last night from Springfield, Mo.  Looked at some more houses and talked about the Reunion in June.  Had Jeff and Vicki over for dinner and pinochle one night and Denise and James over the next night for dinner and dummy rummy!  My cats continue to stalk Mom's Honey, and she finally started to defend her space.  Not that it made any difference.  Sorted through another bunch of bins of clothes and I had young Matthew's wife Angie model some clothes that I was putting up on EBAY.  She made everything look good!
There is so much that needs to be done here at my house to get it ready to put on the market and I have been procrastinating, blaming it on the winter.  Time to get in gear, here.

Sassy wasn't okay.

I have avoided writing this for awhile.  I took Sassy in for her annual check up in late January, and Dr. Parton found a lump in her tummy.  We did exploratory surgery and there was an ugly mass coming from her pancreas and traveling up the the blood flow outside of her intestine.  It was about 6 inches long and alien looking.  He called me while she was still on the table. At the time he said he was 90% sure that it was cancer and if I wanted, he would euthanize her on the table.  We talked, and he said the only thing that had him puzzled was the fact that she had gained weight in the last few months.  We decided to go ahead and send it off and give her a chance.  Of course, it was cancer and the week before the results came back was miserable for both of us.  She wouldn't eat, and had to be syringe fed.  She wouldn't drink.  She didn't want to be cuddled.  In hindsight, I wish she hadn't had to live through the last week. 

Below, pictures of Sassy and Shadow, and Sassy and Mica.

Sassy back to normal, Mica has an accident.

Sassy has done her course of prednisdone and is back to a healthy weight and behaving normally, for her!  I took all three cats to my Mom's for two weeks at Thanksgiving, and again at Christmas.  At Thanksgiving Mica and Jean-Claude were all over the place and adapted well.  Sassy never left the bedroom.  We lost Mica a few times because it turns out that she is an investigator.  Open a door and she has to check it out.  I found her several times locked up in the linen closet.  No one remembered when they opened the door last, but she just slept and never made a sound, even when I called for her repeatedly.  Brat.  We also had to pull the dryer out once because she ended up behind it somehow.  At Christmas Sassy would come out when it was just Mom and I at home.  She even jumped up on Mom's lap a couple of times.

Mica was up to her old tricks, ducking into closets.  Mom and I were getting ready to go look at some open houses, and she opened the hall closet to get her coat.  As she was closing the door I saw Mica dart in.  She opened it back up and Mica came charging out.  I looked down and saw some fur on the floor and asked Mom what it was.  She said she didn't know, and I said I though it looked like part of Mica's tail.  She said "No." and bent down to pick it up.  Then she screamed "It is!" and I went after Mica.  She never cried, and there was no blood, but she hid under the bed and I had to fish her out.   The skin had retracted and left the bone hanging out, so off we went to the Emergency Vet.  It had missed the bone, but because of the exposure they went ahead and took off several inches of her tail.  Stitches came out yesterday and she seems fine, just looking a little funny.  We will all get used to it soon.