Beasty


I’d like to introduce you to our dearest and most beloved kitty from my childhood. Laurie and I brought her home in the wagon one day. A neighbor lady from down the block saw us playing with the kitten in her yard and came out and said, “You can’t have that kitty, but…” handing us a different kitten, “you can have THIS one,” you know, like we’d won the grand prize or something. We felt pretty dang lucky–winning the kitty lottery like that, so naturally we took her and ran all the way home.

Now Laurie was a little older than me and much smarter–at the time–so she briefed me on the plan. See, Daddy didn’t particularly like cats. He liked dogs…big dogs…that don’t really get along with cats.  But mama–she liked cats, so it would be important to get to mama first, waaaay before daddy caught on. Because if we sold mama on something, then it would be so. She could talk daddy into anything. ANYthing. Trust me on this.

So, I stayed out on the side of the house while Laurie went in to see if the coast was clear. It was. No daddy in sight. We brought the kitty in and she purred right up to mama and that was that.  We gave her some warm milk and fixed her a snuggley box bed with an old towel for a blanket. By the time daddy came home that little cat was curled up fast asleep in mama’s lap and we’d already named her Beasty.

Poor Daddy never stood a chance.

Judgement Day Lightning Fest


Remember last week–when we had that eerie, yellow sky?

Wellll, just a few days after that we were landed on with a whole 2 hours of this.

No lie. It started at about 4am–and promptly woke all the grown-ups in the building.  There was absolutely no point in staying in bed–we were all awake. So when Lyndi came in my room and said, “Dude! Are you hearing this?” we all jumped up and ran out to the porch to watch the show.

Oh, it was so much more than your average thunderstorm. In fact, on the heels of the last odd weather–this one brought up the “End of the World” conversations again.

We can’t help it…we’re kinda like that.

It was loud and crashing and beautiful and wet.

But we’re sturdy mountain folk and a little rain–ok, a lot of rain–doesn’t scare us.

Not…one…little…bit.

Welllll…not most of us.

Little Miss Jiffy Chicken Liver would only watch from the window.

Shameful coward.

Beauty and the Beast

For years and years, this grumpy old thing has been terrorizing the planet. “Young children and woodland creatures beware,” we’d say. “This isn’t your average nice kitty.”

He was even known in some circles as…

The Dog Slayer.

But that was…

before.

Before this little lady came along…

who just wanted to love him…

and trust that deep, deep inside his ancient, cranky self…

that his heart was truly…

kind and good.

And now, magically…

so it has become.

 

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Dirty Dogs…

This is not a post about dogs.

See the good birdy. See her eat the seeds that we scatter for her. See her sit there pretty and let me take her picture.

Good, good birdy.

See the naughty birdy. See the fake picture of the naughty birdy. She won’t sit still for me to take a picture.

Oh, no–she’s too busy…

EATING MY STRAWBERRIES!! Apparently this birdy doesn’t know with whom she plays.

I have friends you know…

Kitty Feet

A zillion years ago, when I turned 12, my cute little daddy made me this pretty cake for my birthday.  At the time, we had just dealt with my cat stepping on one of his cakes. We had no idea how it happened, but there it was–the paw print smushing into one discreet corner of the thing. It was a fiasco and he had to make a whole new cake. Oooohh…he was mad.  I even thought that maybe…maybe, my kitty loving days were coming to an end.

A week or so later, when he’d cooled off, he made this cake for my birthday. Oh, do please note the kitty footprints all around the edges.

It was an incredibly sweet thing to do…considering.

I’ve hung on to that silly green kitten for all these millions of years because every time I put it in a giveaway box, or go to throw it out, I remember my funny dad making that cake to show that he wasn’t mad at me or my cats anymore…

and I can’t do it.

Pretty sure anything that feels like that sort of love…

is worth holding on to.

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