Category Archives: Cats

Mockingbird, Mockingbird

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Yesterday evening I went outside to see what there was to see. The temperature had gone down and it was rather lovely in the backyard. Our outdoor cats followed me from the front steps to the side and backyard.

I sat on the picnic table and noticed a pair of Norther Mockingbirds actively doing something. For awhile they would fly to the back of the fence, sit there, fly to the front of the fence, near where I was, chirp, fly to the roof of the house next door, back to my fence, to that tree, to another tree, to the fence, flying to the ground here and there to peck, on and on. Early on the one Mockingbird was holding something in it’s beak, grub like. Fat. Didn’t keep it from chirping away, it was funny watching it, never eating it, never dropping it, never going into a tree to a nest to feed young, just flying around with it.

My children streamed out eventually and I was sharing my watchings with my daughter mostly. We dubbed the grub Mockingbird the female, and the other one the Male. The male Mockingbird would root around on the ground and find something small, fly around with it, then go over that routine again and again, seemingly he lost it, or ate it, as he was never out of full view, never went to a nest.

After a bit it was obvious that they wanted something to change. We were sitting there, many feet away from where ever their desire was. Eventually though, the male Mockingbird lived up to his name and started chastising a cat nearby. Chatter, scolding, then every so oven, swooping down … fly by’s, really close. Really close.

Different cats were around, and they mostly all got into the fun. (well, not fun, more for us that them) One cat was happy to partake in the affair. Spooky, the cat that showed up last year, tried to make him a house cat. He’s so cool, calm, big, handsome, truly a panther at heart. House living wasn’t his thing, so we let him back out to his preference. So he would sit over where the Mockingbird was patrolling, get the Mockingbird really upset. Time and again it’d swoop down, nipping the cat on the tail, back, etc.

Sometimes the cat, in fine form, would spring up swipe a paw at the bird, always catching just air. Most of the time he was cool and collected. His swiping moves, were more of the same.

He was under some old dead brush for awhile, depending on where in that stuff he was, he got Mockingbird attention or not. Other cats walked around and got the Mockingbird overexited and when they got the fly-by’s they ran for the hills. Only Spooky stayed firm.

It’s a mystery if he ever catches any. Somebody does, every once in a while. We have a great mass of Mockingbirds here. I don’t want our cats to eat them all, a few is ok, I’ve learned to live with it.

They get mice and rats too. THAT is awesome. So some Mockingbird fun. Just that, fun, training. Enjoyable to the audience.

In Honor of Our Dear Princess Sonia

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Our beautiful 16-year old cat Princess Sonia just died. She’d become lighter in weight this last year as well as older looking. Yesterday I felt bad for her when I saw her and realize she wasn’t doing good, but she did rally quite a bit and looked like she might just be dehydrated … but that was only the rally before death. This morning she had eaten and drank water, my 10-year old daughter said, then later she checked up on her and found her not able to move, and from there it all when downhill until finally around 1pm she started having difficulty breathing in a different sort of way from before and slowed down from there and was dead around 1:10pm to 1:15pm.

She wasn’t conscious much since my daughter brought her to me later this morning. But we did have some eye connecting moments, and some purring here and there as she and we waited for the last to come.

She was my dear kitty. In 1992 we saw a litter of about 4-week old kittens near our apartment in S. Florida. She was part of that litter that had been born of a mother cat under the pool deck of our neighbors. No one could catch those kittens, so wild, until finally in March 1993 this cute bi-color black and white girl kitten was caught by someone else and we said we’d take her.

We got her inside and after some days she calmed down and became our 3rd cat. Bleu and Samantha were 1 & 2 cats. Bubba being what we called Bleu a lot, was about 4, and Sammy as we called Samantha a lot, was a kitten born in April 1992. I got her as a wild little thing who took to me like nothing ever before or since. Bubba I had since he was born in our house from a stray I picked up who just happened to have a litter of kittens 9 weeks later, and he was a big blue gray kitten, first born. He was mine from that instant.

I love all cats and these three were our cats for the first several years of our marriage. We were married in August of 1992, and Bubba and Sammy came to live with us right away, from where I lived with them, my parents house, they were mine though.

Princess was added then in 1993 and they all loved each other, and me them.

We had a baby finally in April 1996 and then in November of that year we all moved to the Atlanta area, me with the two girls Sammy & Princess in the back seat of my Honda Civic, and the baby there too, and Bleu was with Frank in the moving van.

We lived in an apartment for a year, then moved into this house and those three cats were happy here. Then we had another baby, but had added a 4th cat to the mix while I was pregnant, Cinnamon, who was nearly 2-years old, and was very high strung and didn’t last for long, dying at 7 years of age (that was awful for me) … when our second baby was about 18 months old we went out and when we came back found the back door not closed all the way, and Bubba was gone. Never saw him again. Then we had another baby and after a time added Strider and Dixie, 7-month old kitties. Later we added Scarlet as a 3-month old kitten. Then I was pregnant again, but lost the baby, and my Sammy also died. So we added two blue kittens that we found later, and they are Blueberry Bear and Bluebell Spitfire. Last year or so we found a kitten running in our yard that didn’t seem to belong to anyone and brought here in and she stayed, she is Clementine.

So we had 7 cats for awhile, if you have done the math. Now we have 6 again. Our eldest cat lived for 16+ with us, and was nearly just about 16-1/2 year old, with 15 of those years spritely and the last year or so declining. I was happy she lived as long as she did and so greived that she has gone on already. I really thought yesterday she might die then, but she didn’t and seemed alive enough, but old and declining. Good news this morning from my daughter, but then, it happened and we won’t ever have that beautiful tuxedo cat rubbing our legs like only she could do. Her distinctive meow, her majestic aura. She loved to play with the rings of plastic that come off a gallon bottle of water or milk. You could chirp to her to get her attention, and pretend to throw them into the air a few times, and she’d track and track until you’d let go and she’d jump sky high to get them. She’s play on the floor with them, put them on the rails of the bottoms of the kitchen chairs and … I could go on and on, she was so playful as a kitten and kept up with it long into adulthood. She didn’t play as much these last few years, but she did play atimes. We had 6 other much younger cats this whole time, so we didn’t try to get her to play as much as we should have probably.

Well, she’s gone now and that’s something that we have to deal with and move on. We’ll bury here in the back yard by my Sammy, and I’ll put wild flower seed there to grow over them.

My dear Princess Sonia is gone and my children are missing her as much as I am. It’s a sad day, this Mother’s Day. My dear friend of 16 years is gone.

See her photos on my Flickr account: Princess Sonia (Set). I only have four there now, I’ll be finding all my digitals and putting the best of her up soon, and then from my film collection once I get a scanner again (I don’t currently have one.)

Orlando Fl and Epcot

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We got home late last night from Florida — after midnight, actually, which is “technically” today.

DH had business there (wed, fri, sat,) and we also took a day, Thursday, to go to a Disney park, Epcot — first time for the whole family. DH and I have both been there together a few times, and I have been there a couple or more times before meeting him (in fact I was there the first day it opened, an accident really, being there with an [singing] ensamble from HS, traveling for something else, we all just “went” there that night, and it was a suprise to us, it was the FIRST opening day.)

I’ve loved Epcot and have many fond memories from being there through the years. The last time my hubby and I were there before this recent time was in Nov. 1995, when I was 3-4 months along with my first baby. So it was longer than 11 years since we were there. Many changes indeed.

The children, being 10, 8, and 6 did like it at Epcot, but not a whole bunch over all. We sort of knew that might be the case, but we had just one day to do something and we really wanted to do Epcot and it could be done in a day, a long day, yes, not seeing “EVERYTHING” but doing alot, and seeing most of the “important” things to us.

It was a hard day for me, being over 5 months along now, on my 4th baby (or 5th if counting my 4th preg. that didn’t work out.) Being a 5th pregnancy I’m fairly big already, have been for along time, and getting bigger week by week (day by day sometimes it seems.) I hadn’t walked that much since being pregant, nor had I walked that much in the past few years or more, mostly. I’m older now, I was in my 20′s when there last [nearly out, but still in my 20's.] I didn’t “feel” so bad, just had to go to the bathroom alot, and was tired and had to sit here and there. But later in the afternoon I started getting a heat rash on my inner thighs, I was wearing a skirt and no leggings of any sort, and it got quite painful and just got worse and worse. Finally we stopped for dinner around 7pm in “Morroco” and sat there awhile waiting for the food, then eating. I had wanted to see the fireworks at 9pm, but was so miserable because of the “rash” thing, by the time of eating, and I just didn’t want to walk any more or wait to walk out in the crowds after fireworks.

So we finally decided to, after 8pm, just haul ourselves back to the lockers, and get our stuff and get to the vehicle. Before we left “Morocco” I put Neosporin on the rash and also took Tylenol (quick release sort) — and the  ointment really made everything burn badly, it hurt to walk in the first place, and that made it THAT much MORE horrid. But as we were going out of the park, I didn’t feel as badly, the pain really went down to a small level and it didn’t “hurt” to walk, thanks to the Neosporin finally “killing the pain” some, as well as the Tylenol taking effect, no doubt. But I was more than ready to just take leave and just come back another time for the fireworks, later in the year when we want to go back to Disney for 3 or so days, maybe, and will do Park Hopping and be able to see Epcot fireworks with little problem, hoping to be staying on the Disney property and able to go in and out at will to parks and our hotel room.

I got to enjoy one of my favorite rides though, in Norway, I love that ride. It’s sort, but really good. My fav every since my first ride, whenever that was, so long ago. Mexico’s ride wasn’t open, being refurbished.

Everyone but me did the Test Track and really liked it. Being preggo, I couldn’t ride it. Tomorrow Land was quite different from last time we were there, many things the same, but other things changed. We did the new Nemo ride, cute for little ones. We did The Land, one of my favorites, and Space ship Earth. We ate in The Land area, the lesser eating place, but it was really a good lunch.

We stayed with the “$” places for food on this trip to Epcot. We had a snack from France later in the afternoon, and as I said above, Morocco for dinner later.

Hubby had appointments in FL on Friday (as well as the day we got there, Wed. and we “rested” then too,) so we rested in the hotel that day, me and the children. I was really into resting, sleeping often through the day.  I did get a migraine that afternoon that I had trouble with until finally it left me the next day, and felt it was coming back in the afternoon, but didn’t after all.

Anyhow, on Saturday DH had an appoitment on the East Coast of FL near where a family we are very good friends with lives, so we left the hotel that morning, drove over and me and the children waited in the vehichle during the appointment, then we drove to our friends house. We had a short vistit, we hadn’t seen them in awhile, and it was nice to see them all — they are a very large family, our children and theirs are in the same age ranges, only we have three, currently, while they have quite a few more. We’ve been friends since before we all had children, known each other before getting married, better friends after my hubby and I were married in 1992 (they got married in 1994.)

We had a decent time, but I was feeling spacey –needing to eat and generally just sort of “out of my element” from the Epcot day, the migraine the next day, and recovering energy still, and not having much sleep because of that migraine too. We had lunch with them and I began feeling better but the time with them was so very short it wasn’t as fun as other visits with them have been in the past, and will be in the future. :)

We stayed at the Old Town area in the Orlando vacinity to Disney-ish area. It was an OK place with a “kitchen” which was big, with two burner stove top, but only one burner worked. They provided no kitchen items, but you could rent them per day, but we brought some things ourselves since we drove down. A full size fridge was there too, but no regular oven, and yes, there was a microwave, but I don’t use microwaves. I made breakfast items, and a quesadilla sort of thing another time, and that was it, but it gave us breakfast and lunch when we wouldn’t have had them due to hubbies business otherwise. It was a suite place, so it had the kitchen in-between two areas, the front had a murphy bed and also a couch and regular tv. The back room was the ‘bedroom” and had a door to shut, two beds, a sink, a small tv. Bathroom next to the kitchen. Not huge, not small, but I didn’t like it much, the children went nuts in it worse than they do in a regular hotel room with two double or queen beds and one tv and a couch and bathroom. Since I didn’t feel good at all the full day, Friday, that we were there, I didn’t like the place at all. FWIW. Also, the “wi-fi” was a problem, we were in one room at first when we got there, but there was NO wi-fi avail, when we made sure over the phone that there would be access to it in our room, when making the reservation. So after hubbies appointments that first day (we checked in early) we swapped out rooms to another building that they said did have wi-fi, but they gave us trouble about it, as if we were weird to need or want wi-fi in our room, :rolleyes: so in the end we could only have 1mbp connection in the back room, and it wasn’t aiding me to use my laptop when DH and I used to front room, murphy bed to sleep, and I spent most of my time there on Friday … so anyhow … I’d rather not ever stay there again. We’ve stayed in two different places there in Orlando recently, all due to DH’s business, and both I’d not ever use again. The other was a Travelodge suite place. Ick. Worse even, but both bad enough to avoid completely, in my very pointed opinion.

It’s nice to be home, even though it’s still a mess here. We have the trip clothing to wash, and other clothing still that hasn’t been laundered of course, and just the basic stuff that is always needing done that doesn’t get done enough, and the mess of how things gather and collect and get dirty in this house, which  is troublesome for me. All this piled up to be done now that we are home, and the mess the cats made when we were gone.

Future times we do wish to have all things cleaned up before leaving, but it’s so hard for me to manage and DH helps alot or totally, but it’s just too much day to day for me now and he doesn’t have enough time to do it all either. The cats we’d like to seclude in one room for when we are gone, and the one good place is the laundry room, but it’s not ready for that, needing some ceiling to be put in, and the storage stuff moved out. It’ll be there “room” for litter eventually and that’ll be good for containment when we need them to stay put anytime, it’s a decent room with a window they can look out. :) Just need to clean it out and set it up properly. If that can happen, our next trip should be nicer upon return. FWIW

Vanilla and Violets

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Violets

We were at Harry’s the other day and I was looking through the plants outside the store, lingering and looking deeper than usual since Frankie was on the cellphone and I figured I’d just look for something to get, even though he doesn’t usually *let* me. I don’t usually press him to get a plant, you know how it is when you want something but are used to things being too tight to get frilly-froo-froo.

So it goes, I stumbled onto African Violets in the corner, and they were inexpensive. I grew up with them around me, my mother usually had a few, at least, on a windowsill in my childhood. They are so very Victorian too, so I bit the bullet, put three in the cart.

I haven’t had an interior plant for several years. I used to have household plants in Florida. I was good with them there. I like tropical greenage, and that hasn’t done so well for me in GA in the homes we’ve been in (all of two, mind you!)

The last inside plant I had was a hanging-something over the sink, a fern of some sort. It was lovely for a long while, over a year, then it went from green and healthy to whited out dried out in a zap-who-knows-how-long-a-time-zap, but it was zippety zap fast. So I left it there for longer than it was there green, in that dried dead state. It looked really cool, that’s why I left it there. A dead plant was my only household plant, the last one I had.

Because we have such a crazy household of people and are in the middle of re-doing everything for the last … bit of time, I haven’t had another plant. I do love plants and consider myself a plant person, gardener, and it’s discocerting everytime I realize that I haven’t really been a “good” version of what I consider myself to be, in fact find that I usually am a non-existant practitioner of said thing most every occasion that there is to discover these disconcerting sorts of things. Ah, the way of the life for the ever eratic eclectic one (me.)

I have my African Violets in the bathroom on the windowsill. That’s an East-SouthEast facing window, not the best for it, not the worst, alright considering the sun is not in Summer session now. It’s a transitional space for them, for now ;)

I need to get some African Violet food since I have none, of course, seeing as I haven’t had any plants of any sort for so long, and no AV’s at all. I think I’ll devise a bottom watering system for the plants, and then also I need a delicate little watering can for top watering every once in awhile. (Never get water on African Violet leaves!)

I’m not sure where I can put these delicate little flowery plants, but I have to devise some good place for them. They need light, but it doesn’t have to be direct and shouldn’t be much direct in any case. They can also live under regular lamp light, so I’ve read, but I don’t want to do that. The problem with plants on windowsills is “cats”, as wells as window blinds.

Vanilla

I bought 2 vanilla beans that day at Harry’s as well. Frank got me some 108+ Proof straight barrel bourbon for them … I put it together today, homemade vanilla extract, it’s in a closet, dark, warm, not hot, not cold.

I looked all over the web for ideas of what to do. So many sites say you have to have such and such type of bean, or else it’s not good. I have no idea what kind mine are, Harry’s only sells it as “vanilla bean: 2″ in a clear plastic box. The pictures I saw here and there online look like the ones I have, nice bourbon vanilla beans. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. They don’t have the “vanillin” white powdery look on them, but they were long, 8 inches, curved at the top, and plump and super fragrant.

I split the beans, but didn’t separate them. I stuffed them into the bottle of bourbon and capped it and put it in the closet after a good shaking.

I’ve read that you should have a bean per cup of alcohol. Or 2 per 3/4 cup. Or 12 per … on and on it goes.

I have a 750ml container of bourbon, with 2 vanilla beans installed. It’ll do. I’ve read that others say it’s alright to do that. But no one really gourmet-like seemed to like the idea of that. They mostly are in the “a few weeks in the mix” type to make vanilla. The longer steepers said it’s great vanilla, and they are the ones that use less bean to alcohol amount. We shall see what happens. I’m open to putting in some more vanilla beans later. But not 12!

The two v-beans I got were $3.99. Not a bad price for vanilla beans, but to get 10 more … uh, yeah. So this country girl will be pleased to see what a good 750ml of straight barrel Wild Turkey Rare Breed turns out to be like with 2 beans now, maybe adding 2 more in a few weeks, for good measure. December is the date I’m shooting for. I’ll take some off the top before that maybe. I’m not opposed to experimentation all along the way.

I’ve long wished to try making my own vanilla. It’s very expensive to buy good stuff, and expensive to make your own, so if I can make an expensive-ish bourbon into decent vanilla, I’m ahead of the game the rest of the game-length.

I’ve read people say that homemade is better than storebought. Others say homemade is nice and fun, but not the best by far.

It’s one of those objective subjects, isn’t it? No, I’d say it’s very subjective. And so I subject myself to experimentation for my own subjective view to be formed. :)

Exciting day

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Today our hens laid! As far as we know, three today. It’s raining quite heavily now, frequent lightening, so we haven’t checked the hens in awhile. :)

Hawklady, one the Leghorns, then one of the Wyandottes laid. So we have a green, white, and brown each. My favorite combination! I didn’t see who laid the brown egg. Frank did. It was a Wyandotte, but he knows not which one. (He can’t tell the difference between them, for some reason ;) I can, Trinity has a tri-topped comb, and Pointsettia has a pointy curved topped comb, distinctive, both of them, and their feather patterns are a bit different as well.)

Earlier this afternoon Frank went to the store to get a few things, as well as get some mousetraps. We found a dead baby mouse on the front walk earlier this week. So that signifies other mice around no doubt. Foster, our outside cat, might have gotten that mouse, or another cat prowling around might have. In any case, the ants ate it, not a cat.

So Frank was at the store, and there’s Scarlet in the kitchen holding a mouse in her mouth. Russell saw it first and drew my attention to it. It was a regular sized big mouse. Well I couldn’t do anything, just keep my eye on her and the mouse in her mouth. It was alive. She held onto it, growling at the other cats gathering around her, following her … she’d put the mouse down now and then, it’d sit then try to run, then Scarlet would just pounce again and grab it up in her mouth to hold it.

Frank finally got home. He picked Scarlet up and put her in the garage, with the door down. We checked her a bit later and she still was holding that poor mouse. Another time Frank went in the garage to do something and Scarlet got in the house, holding the mouse still. I got her back out. It wasn’t fun, not wanting the mouse to fall on me, or for me to really touch it. So then she was in the garage again. Later I looked and didn’t see her. She must have been hiding. But on the step there was some white thing and gooky blood-like stuff around it. Not a lot, just a small thing, um, mouse-size innerds of some sort I guess. Sometime after that Frank looked in the garage and Scarlet came out of hiding and back into the house. She was all cutesy rubbing our legs and proud of herself. :rolleyes: Doing what God intended for her to do.

We have mousetraps now then. I hate using them. I really like mice. We had pet mice when I was growing up. Wild mice are different, I know. I still think they are cute though. That poor mouse that Scarlet had in the house, it was squeeking a few times, right after she’d put it down then pick it up again. Sigh. Poor little thing.

We live out in the country but not totally, but it’s country around and our yard is big. We have gotten mice in the house a couple of times in the past. I haven’t seen any in the house, just know they might be in the garage. So Scarlet’s mouse from today shows that they can get in the house. She got one, afterall, and is an indoor (totally) cat.

So it was a big day here, three eggs! And a live cat and mouse game.