Tag Archives: Cats

One of Those Days

November 16, 2016Country Life, Dogs & Other AnimalsCats, Country Life, Dogscindyhazelett

Dog, Cat, Sleeping — Lacey & Cassius the Greyhound

Did you ever have one of those days that did not get off to an auspicious start? Yesterday was such a day for me. One of those days where you think, I should have stayed in bed.

I got up yesterday morning and the house was cold. We finally got fuel oil on Friday but then the boiler would not start. Not quite as dire as it sounds. We also heat with wood and had been doing so throughout the fall. However, on Tuesday morning the fire had gone out overnight because no one got up in the middle of the night to add wood. Also not the worst thing in the world because it’s still warm enough that the house doesn’t cool off very fast.

So I got up, put the dogs out for their morning constitutional, and set about laying the wood and kindling for a new fire. I let the dogs back inside. The new greyhound Cassius came from a racing track in Palm Beach, Florida. He thinks any temperatures below 70 degrees are unbearable and that we are abusive. Never mind the fact that he has a sweatshirt and we cover him with blankets.

I went back to light the aforementioned fire. I was crouched down arranging the kindling and lighting the fire. The end of my robe was trailing on the floor as I worked. Apparently, unbeknownst to me at the time, our senile, 16 year old cat Lacey came along behind me, saw the end of my robe lying on the floor and decided that it was a good place to pee. Lacey does tend to pee in creative places these days because she cannot remember where the litter box is, but this is a first.

I must be making progress in goal of becoming a more calm and peaceful person because I did not even get mad at Lacey at the time. I realized that she is old and senile and we are just happy to still have her with us. However that did not stop me from jumping up to clean up the mess! Now when you stand up after having your garment peed on, the voice of experience here, gravity tends to take effect and you end up with cat urine running on the floor. So… After getting the robe out of the picture, I got paper towels to clean up the mess. I was in the other room disposing of the towels when I heard the smoke alarm going off. We always leave the door on the wood burner open for a bit so the fire can get enough oxygen to get burning good. Then we close the door on the wood burner and the fire starts the fan and the heating process. Well, with running around taking care of “the pee incident” I never got back to close the door and too much smoke came out into the room.

So I grabbed a chair, jumped up, and removed the smoke detector so as not to awaken my sleeping husband. I really did NOT want any witnesses to this whole fiasco. Did I mention that I start work at 6:30 in the morning? So it was quite early when I was having all this fun. In the end, no harm was done. I got the wood burner heating again, the smoke dissipated, and I put the smoke detector back up before I left for work. My robe got washed when I came home from work and we were status quo again.

By the way, the repair company is coming to get our boiler furnace running again today, and I am still glad that we have Lacey to share our lives with. All is right with the world.

“I Try to Be Good! “

September 12, 2016Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue HappeningsCats, Dogs, Learning the Ropescindyhazelett

Day 3. “I try to be good.”

Cassius was fascinated by the cat running through the living room this morning. He never touched the cat and I was there in seconds. He seemed surprised. “Oh, you want to chase the cat too? What? Oh, I’m not supposed to chase the cat? You guys are weird.”

So on went the muzzle until he was suitably calm. We had one more time where he got up from his bed to look at a cat. I told him no and said “no cats”. He looked at me in puzzlement and laid back down. There were several more instances where he looked at the cats as they went through the room. I calmly told him no cats and as he continued laying on the bed told him “good no cats”. He still thinks I’m weird but I could see the process of working things out in his head. I’m glad I the day off from work so we can start dealing with these things now.

Never fear. Cassius will not be unsupervised with cats anytime soon. If we must step outside or go in the basement he will wear a muzzle if no one else is home. And he will definitely be crated when we go away for the forsee able future.

Hair!

April 12, 2016Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On LifeCats, Haircindyhazelett

Hair! My hair is a thing unto itself. As you can see there’s a lot of it. This is after being in a pony tail for two days. Of course it has been raining for those two days. That makes it at least twice its normal size. I’ve been accused of it crawling across the pillow and attacking. This may be true. I’ve been sleeping with it in a ponytail lately so there are less knots and rat’s nests to brush out in the morning.

As I was brushing it out this morning, I made a surprising discovery. I found a cat toenail stuck in there. How does this happen? It couldn’t have happened while I was sleeping. Our cats don’t even go upstairs, they are not allowed. Between family allergies and the fact they think the upstairs is a super highway/jungle gym at night, it just doesn’t work out. So how could this even happen? See photos of criminal suspects above.

Of course there are benefits to having this much hair. It keeps you warm in the winter time. With exorbitant amounts of styling gel/calming serum it can look not too bad. Husbands like it. Also, between the amount of it and the slight curls, I can cut it myself. If it’s not exactly even or straight, no one is the wiser. In fact I have not had a professional haircut since my brother’s wedding nearly nine years ago. If I think it gets too long or it annoys me, I get the scissors out and get rid of some of it. It comes out looking at least presentable.

Things could be worse than carrying around a hidden cat nail. I guess the hair stays.

More Pictures My peaceable kingdom

February 5, 2016Dogs & Other AnimalsCats, Dogs, Peacecindyhazelett

Morty, the black and white cat, ran from Stitch, the orange tabby, for the longest time and hissed at him too. I think they’re over it. We often find them curled up in a chair together while Morty grooms his new friend. Now if they would just become mouse hunting buddies, we would be all set.

Nikki and Phoebe hanging out together on the good couch at grandma’s house. Phoebe puts her head on Nikki and uses her as a pillow. Neither of them minded. This is obviously not at our house because no way would we have white furniture!

And here is Baxter sleeping with his head on a pillow. Because what’s more peaceful than that?

Cats vs. Mice

January 31, 2016Country Life, Dogs & Other AnimalsCats, Country Life, Micecindyhazelett

These are our four cats, Harley, Lacey, Stitch aka Chester, and Morty.

This is one of our six new mouse traps. Hmmm! Why should we need mouse traps? We are over run with mice. I have seen evidence of them in multiple areas of the house. Infact I have actually seen mice in our house. I was having conversations with one while in the basement doing laundry. He sat on the stones of the wall and appeared to listen while I spoke. Once they began getting in my baking supplies, this was no longer acceptable.

I’ve never had need of mouse traps before. Harley used to be a world class mouser. He’s around 15 now and appears to have retired since we got the younger cats. He taught Morty how to hunt and that was the end of his career. Lacey is nearing 16 and not in the best of health, so although she used to catch mice, those days are over. Stitch is a young cat and new here. He acts like he has never seen a mouse before. He doesn’t appear to recognize them. Morty does catch some mice but he is a small cat and not able to keep up with the current mouse population. We hope he will be able to show Stitch the ropes. We begged Harley to come out of retirement but so far, no luck.

So although I am generally against killing things on principal, I must concede that in this case it may be necessary. Mice can carry disease. They can chew insulation from electrical wires. Both bad things. So far we have caught three large mice in 24 hours. Maybe the cats are on strike.

Stitch (errr…Chester) is Free

January 22, 2016Dogs & Other AnimalsCats, Freedom, Health dilemascindyhazelett

Stitch came to us in early December. His owners lost their home so we agreed to take him in. We would keep him for a couple months. At that time, if his owners could not take him back, we would be free to keep him or find him a new home. So far it’s been about six weeks. It doesn’t appear as if he will have a home to go back to within the next two weeks. Our gain. Stitch is a great cat.

When he got here he was not neutered, was peeing blood, and had worms which meant diarrhea too. He had been peeing and pooping all over his last home. Not surprising. This did mean however, that he stayed in a crate when he got here. Staying in the crate also helped him and our other cats and dogs acclimate to each other. You can see that was successful. This is not all of our animals but you get the idea.

Within his first week he got neutered at a low cost clinic. I’m sure this was not on his bucket list. Next he got antibiotics. Between the two, his urinary issues cleared up. Then he got medicine for two different types of worms. The loose stool went away almost immediately.

Stitch did get time out of the crate every day to stretch his legs and have snuggle time but only when he was monitored. We frown on uncontrolled bodily functions taking place at random in our home. Not that it never happens with this many animals but we do what we can to prevent it. Especially since when one does it, the rest seem to want to join in like high girls following the cool kids lead.

Well, now that Stitch has his medical issues under control and is familiar with the other animals, he is free. The crate came down last weekend and Stitch is a free kitty again. He is doing great. No accidents and what a nice cat he is. We knew that he loved people and was a snuggler and a purr box. Well, he is also one of the most laid back cats I have ever seen. He wants to be friends with our other cats, although they aren’t so sure yet. And his reaction, or should I say nonreaction, to the dogs is amazing. The dogs played their indoor, bad weather games, which involve lots of running and leaping at toys plus lots of barking, and Stitch doesn’t bother to get up. He may lift his head if they are within a foot of him. But then again, he may not. Little Nikki even ran over top of him one evening and he didn’t get up.

I guess you could say we have a new cat. I think a new name might be in order for his new life. I am leaning toward Chester, as in Chester Cheetah, since he is orange. We will see. So once again, life is good.

My Peaceable Kingdom

January 15, 2016Country Life, Dogs & Other AnimalsCats, Dogs, Harmonycindyhazelett

Our home and animals have been called The Peaceable Kingdom. For the most part this is true. This makes me happy. The orange cat on the left is the newest addition to our crew. His name is Stitch and he seems to be a tolerant and laid back cat so far. Stitch was laying in the chair when Baxter Pup came along and decided he wanted to sit there. Baxter sniffed Stitch a few times, looked at him and then put one paw on the chair. Stitch calmly got up, moved to the arm of the chair and sat down. Baxter got up on the chair, laid down, and curled into a ball. Harley, the black and white cat, took in the whole proceeding without reaction. They all seem to know how things work around here.

Here you see Phoebe the greyhound and Nikki the 20 lb. sheltie. They are the largest and smallest of our dogs. They get along just fine. I have seen Nikki crawl across Phoebe to get in my lap. Phoebe’s only reaction is to roll her eyes in my direction, as if to say “oh, the indignities I must suffer, well back to napping”. Come to think of it, I have even seen one of our cats sleeping on Phoebe. Don’t let anyone tell you that greyhounds can’t live with cats.

These are our dogs Shelby the sheltie and Baxter. Or as we like to say, Baxter and his punk sister. Shelby isn’t really a punk, just energetic as our youngest dog. She always needs a job to do and is what’s known as a busy girl. She is only a year younger than Baxter so they play lots of games together such as Frisbee tug o’ war, and squeaky toy kick the can.

We are very blessed with a well honed and agreeable bunch of animals. We make new introductions to our pack carefully, and these introductions are always monitored. Letting them get to know each other at their own pace keeps things running smoothly. One brief interaction gone bad can take much longer to overcome. I truly do believe that I live in a Peaceable Kingdom and I love it here.

An Afternoon Stroll

August 27, 2015Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, Thoughts On LifeAfternoon Walk, Cats, Daily life, Dogs, Plantscindyhazelett

I took a little walk around the property over the weekend. Started out by walking the trail in the woods so that I could get a picture of some flowers I knew were in bloom there. I’m not sure what they are. I did not plant them. Someone who lived here before me did. I find it unusual that these are blooming in the shade of the woods and others of the same kind are blooming in a flowerbed in full sun. Apparently they’re not too particular. How fortunate for me. I am also fortunate that those who lived here before me cared about plants and wildlife. It is apparent from the many plantings that grow here. It is obvious that many of them were planted to attract the birds, bees, and other animals.

We maintain a small trail so that we can walk here and get a small tractor out to a fire pit and camp site that we made. Truth be told though, we have most bonfires in the dog pasture so that the dogs can all be with us. Every day is National Dog Day at our house! In fact I think it’s safe to say that that mine could be called National Dog Life. This has been my choice and I must say, I am very happy with it.

On my way back to the rest of the property, I pass the wood crib and am thankful that we already have a good portion of the winter’s wood drying. So are the animals. They love nothing better in the winter time than to curl up in front of the wood burner and soak up as much heat as they can. When it is time to add more wood, we must forcibly move them so we can open the door to throw on another log or two.

Back to our walk. I enjoy the colors of many different plants, from the coleus, that has beautious color in its leaves, to the hydrangea with its large leaves that are stunning on their own merits and have wonderful blooms as well.

And I am getting so much joy from the verbena growing in the wall planters this year. They are a sweeping sea of blossoms with some stalks growing upright and others hanging down. When I see them all growing together, for some reason, they remind me of coral under the water in the ocean and this makes me feel that they are magical.

And so ends a brief foray into my home and mind. Both are busy places.

A Sanctuary Acres Weekend

April 20, 2015Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, Thoughts On LifeCats, Country Life, Daily life, Dogs, Gardens, Springcindyhazelett

I spent a couple of hours cleaning out the rose bed this afternoon. I foolishly thought I could get it all done in that amount of time. So far I have spent twice that working on it. One more session should finish it up. Unless you count the bulbs I want to plant next to the roses. I also have numerous punctures and scratches covering my arms that make it look like we have a kitten. These are from encounters while trimming the roses bushes, and they won. Oh well, by summer time I will have glorious pictures of flowers to show you.

After working outside I took a walk through the woods. Beautiful daffodils are in bloom. We did not plant them. Someone who came before put them there and we are reaping the benefits.

And I came upon this cross section of log that I thought was intriguing to look at. All the rings bespeak of years of life and make me ponder what happened on this property in the years before we came here.

I stumbled upon this fallen nest. The high winds we have had must have knocked it down. It is early enough in the year that it is probably a nest from last year. Of course it has copious amounts of dog fur woven into it. How soft and warm for the hatchlings.

And what first got me out in the woods today. The ground was finally thawed out enough to bury my Romeo Kitten. His grave is marked with the cross and unmarked stone. Soon it will have his name engraved on it. Beside him is dear Trevor whose stone already bears his name.

More daffodils on the way back to the house. They look so happy with their sunny faces saying “look, we survived, spring is here”.

And to complete an enjoyable weekend, hanging out with the family. Baxter puppers and Lacey cat shown, snuggling on the couch. And once again, life is good!

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