Melvin Crossed Rainbow Bridge Today

 

Welp, it was sooner than later. My boy, my fur baby, my cat cuddling buddy, crossed the Rainbow Bridge this afternoon.  From birth to death, Melvin has blessed our life with so much joy and unconditional love. Will really miss him.

Bookish Notes - More Nora

I've finished my reread of Nora Roberts McGregor series and diving back into Charles and Anna in the Alpha and Omega series with Wild Signs. Enjoying finding out more about Bran and Leah's history. 

For our writers onboard I discovered Natural Readers, a great text to speech online program which is helping me edit my current wip. Between Grammarly and Natural Readers, spending a lot of time revising and editing.  

Poor Melvin, we're taking it one day at a time. The compounded medication is working well ,although we're having good days and bad days and he's still feisty . He's very persnickety about his food and what works one day doesn't work the next.  But he is getting weaker and I have a feeling he won't be sticking around for much longer. 

BW25: Sunday's Book Babble - Summertime

 It's week 25 in our 52 Books Quest and Summer is officially here. Happy Father's day to all our dads! It's officially Summer in our neck of the woods and we are a hot 105 degrees at the moment.  Thank goodness for air conditioning!

We are free at last, at last, and can ditch our masks if we choose. I felt slightly naked as I went grocery shopping Saturday as if I were forgetting something. Little did I realize the mask had also been effective at masking odors as well. Perfume, chicken cooking in the deli, something slightly burnt at the hot wok, disinfectant. Hmm? Although it’s nice to see all the smiles as well as grumpy faces, I still felt the need to check my pocket for my mask. It’s become a security blanket. I may need it a bit longer. 

Melvin is a bit thinner but feisty as ever, and it's been a battle of wits deciding who is going to give first every time I drop a pill down his throat.  I really need to trim his nails. Ouch. He faked me out this morning and spit the pill out after about five minutes. Little devil!  Our vet finally saved the day and my hands and I picked up compounded medication today.  As long as he's eating and feisty and not in pain, we'll keep plugging away until he tells us when.

It's crazy hot out so we are curled up cozy and cool with hubby reading Unsettled about climate science, kiddo is reading Ghostbusters, and I’m reading Devon Monk’s Wayward Souls (#1 Souls of the Road) about a couple, one slightly more than human, the other a spirit, stuck on route 66 searching for a magical journal. I’m hoping Monk will write a sequel at some point because I really like these characters. 

Writerly Wednesday: Creativity and Cats!

Poor melvin broke his paw!

Thursday evening, Melvin came into the living room and he's favoring one leg, hopping on three.  We check out his leg and he has a deep cut on one paw.   We're thinking maybe he and one of the other cats got into something.  We hadn't heard anything so he could have been tussling with the persistent neighborhood cat who keeps coming in the yard.  Since he's not walking on it, decided to take him into the vet on Friday.   She said it's not a bite but looks like it got caught on something.  One of his toes could be broken, so decided to have x-rays done.  Turns out the bone behind his big toe is broken.   They splinted and wrapped it and now he's housebound for the next 6 weeks.  Poor Melvin!  He's our talkative cat so we've been getting an earful. 

Birds and cats

Our whole week has been thrown completely off kilter by this little guy

Northern Mockingbird

While I was at work on Tuesday, I received a series of phone calls from Father and James about this baby bird they discovered in the back yard. During the day Father dug up some worms and puts them and the baby on the patio table where the parents proceeded to come and feed it. For a few days now, every time the cats went out into the front yard, they were being dive bombed by a couple mockingbirds. Now we know why. When I returned home that evening, lying in the curb was another baby mockingbird. I went into the house and kinda blew the guys thunder by saying "look what I found."



Now we had two baby birds who were too young to fly or protect themselves and 4 cats - what do you do? Let nature take its course or help it along a bit. Come 10:30 pm, we have 4 very anxious cats who want to do their nocturnal wanderings, two chirping baby birds and the momma and daddy squawking from the rooftop. Father mounted the bird house (that James made for cub scouts and never got around to putting up) on the patio wall and we placed the babies inside for the night. One was plump, very vocal and healthy, the other a bit thin, very quiet and had a hurt eye. The parents calmed down and disappeared into the trees to sleep.

Next morning, I hear squawking and thumping noises and go outside. One of the babies has been jumping out of the hole in the bird house and basically plummeting to the ground. James had already put it back twice when I came out. I put it back again and out it came. Okie doke. Now we know why it was no longer in the nest, it had jumped out and was ready to roam. Of course, last year we didn't have 4 cats attacking birds, so we never noticed baby mockingbirds running around. Rounded up the cats, with the help of the parent birds who didn't want the cats anywhere near their kids and set the baby down in the planter area. The thin one had made it through the night, but just barely. So I sat there on the patio holding it till it passed, while mom and dad flew back and forth feeding the other one sitting in the grass.

So the past couple days we have been keeping the cats in all day, then in the evening time, putting the baby in bird house (now with the hole covered so he wouldn't jump out) and letting the cats out for the night. Come morning, the parent birds help round the cats up to come into the house and we let the baby out. Really! They've been dive bombing them and chasing them which makes them run quicker than quick for the door. Maybe they'll quit attacking the birds now. Father called the Audubon society and a local nature center to find out info about the birds and hopefully within the next week, the baby will be flying and can get itself safely into the trees. This morning the gardener came and he didn't blink much when I told him to skip mowing and blowing the backyard due to our little resident. He just laughed, tipped his hat and took care of the front yard.

A bird in the hand

4 cats sitting and waiting

Checking each other out

Curiousity

An educational experience

Trusting little soul!

Now...ask me if we've gotten anything done this week.

Wordless Wednesday -- Kitty Love

Gracie and Melvin

The babies are One!!!!

One year ago, We watched them come into the world

Today

Herbie the Bear - "Yes?"


Melvin - "Rub my Belly"


Gracie - "Play with me - now!"

and


Momma Luna - Who just turned 2 last month
"They've invaded my space."

Christmas - Trees and Ornaments

It's beginning to look like Christmas!

James and I went out last weekend and picked out the tree. One of our wonderful neighbors came over and helped me get it down from the top of the SUV. I decorated the tree while we watched my favorite tree decorating movie "White Christmas." It's been a tradition with me for years now to watch the movie while doing the tree. James and Father supervised and watched the movie too as I decorated the tree. Why are only two packages under the tree? Because the cats have been going crazy since I put up the tree.

The first night they were fascinated by the tree and just couldn't get enough of playing with and hearing the ornaments tinkling. So ornaments were moved up and I had to dig out some plastic ball ornaments and give them to the cats to play with. They had a wonderful time playing soccer with the balls and finally left my tree alone. We placed a couple packages received from family under the tree and that created another fascination. Hopefully, that will wear off by this weekend. The cats have been yelled at, chased, drenched with Dr. No, and put on time out in the bathroom for a night.

Now lets see if I can manage to give you a montage of ornaments without messing up the whole post.


From Father on our first christmas together


Because we are!



Ornament from the year James was into Nascar. We try to get him an ornament each year that represents what he is into that year.


Yep!


Just one of many.



Of course, we couldn't do without the Nativity. We have another larger version but Father cleaned up the garage and moved all my christmas stuff around. Now I can't find it.



Aren't they cute?

We've had daily deliveries from UPS with gifts ordered from Amazon and the rest should be here on Monday. James and I will be making one more foray to Borders just because. I will spend the weekend wrapping the presents received so far and put them under the tree. We are foregoing the train set up this year. There just isn't enough room for the train and Father's crutches. I will be working Monday and Tuesday, then we will be closing up the shop for the rest of the week. I gave my technicians their Christmas Bonus last Wednesday which made them quite happy.

Wonder

There is faint music in the night,
And pale wings fanned by silver flight;
A frosty hill with tender glow
Of countless stars that shine on snow.
A shelter from the winter storm,
A straw-lined manger, safe and warm,
And Mary crooning lullabies,
To hush her Baby's sleepy sighs.
Her eyes are rapt upon His Face,
Unheeded here is time and space;
Her heart filled with blinding joy,
For God's own Son--her little Boy!

Wordless Wednesday

Father reads in Bed while recovering from broken ankle and James keeps him company, along with two of the cats. I decided to fool around with my new camera and figure out all the settings. So took some black and whites and various other shots of them and around the neighborhood of our neighbors christmas decorations.




I know it's blurry, but thought it was interesting. During Christmas we have a steady stream of cars driving around our court to look at decorations. This car actually had christmas lights and teddy bears on top of it, but they moved too fast for me to get a normal picture.

Wordless Wednesday - twice

While we put up Christmas lights this weekend

and neighbors too

Luna And Melvin were entertaining

With their antics

Wordless Wednesday - once

Weekly Report #11

Weekly Wrap Up

We had a very light week lesson wise. James worked on his cursive and Math, adding three's while I worked on my story. I was bound and determined the reach the 50,000 goal which I did on Wednesday, despite multiple distractions. Now I am bound and determined to finish the book. Unless I manage to write 10,000 words tomorrow, probably not going to happen. But since I get up a couple hours earlier than every one else in the household, we'll see how far I get and leave the rest for the edit process. I'm going to make sure I incorporate writing time in my schedule everyday from now on. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve when I'm done with this one.

We took Gracie in on Tuesday to be spayed and she stayed over night. The boys, herbie and melvin wandered the house for a good long time, missing her. We picked her up Wednesday morning and she was feeling fine.

We didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Luna when we brought her home after an overnight stay at the vet. All the cats went crazy, because she smelled so different, they thought I had let a strange cat into the house.

So, we brought her in and set the cat carrier down, let them smell it and her. Then took her in the bedroom and she rubbed all over me and James giving us loves. After a few minutes, we brought in the boys and they smelled around, about, up and down. Within a few minutes they were all ready to play.

However Doctor's orders, restrict her activity and no jumping. Right, how do you keep a cat from jumping around or chasing and racing about. The pain medicine they gave her made her totally loopy and she was practically jumping up the walls. She also had the munchies big time. So Wednesday I spent trying to keep her calm and quiet, in the midst of trying to work on Nanowrimo story. Do you know how hard it is to type one handed with a squirmy, love me, rub me, giddy cat. It's fun!

Thursday we had a nice thanksgiving and we all fell into bed about 10:00 completely exhausted and tired.

Friday I spent the day working on my story because I would like to at least finish it. Father napped and took it easy. James played.

Today we set out to put up christmas lights outside. We got sidetracked by gardening and cleaning up the morning glory which had gone completely crazy. We end up doing this every year. Oh, it's time to put up the lights. Wait, we have to do this first. Thankfully, our neighbor, who is also our gardener, came over to help and we got it all done. I'm bushed and back to writing. Father is out putting up a couple strings of lights.

Tomorrow we will put up the net lights all over the front patio fence and put out Santa's reindeer. Plus, we are going to put up a few decorations next door because our neighbor went into foreclosure and abandoned the house. We have one of 'those' courts that goes crazy at christmas time, so we will have lots of people driving around. We didn't want the fact the house is empty to appear too obvious.

We discovered a relative (his mom - believe or not) has been taking items such as light fixtures from the house. She came by today and took the hose and hose reel which was in front of the house. Which we had been using to water his lawn to keep it from going to seed. That's when I noticed the outside light fixtures were gone. Father had mentioned a few days ago the house was unlocked. I went over and checked, sure enough. The back door was unlocked and several windows. I went through locked up everything including the garage door. I'm surprised the bank hasn't put a lock box on the house. Anyway, in discussion with other neighbors, we will be keeping a better eye on the house. If anybody wants to get into the house, they better have a key or else they will be in big trouble. Nudge, Nudge Wink Wink.

We have one more week of lessons before our three week christmas break. I am looking forward to it. We will be christmas shopping and having fun. I'll be working on finishing my current online class by the end of December. Father will be working and finished various electronic projects. James wants to learn photoshop.

And just maybe, the cats will let me sleep in past 6:30 a.m.

Whiskers on Wednesday

Kitty Love

Crazy Cats

Crazy Cats

We picked up Luna from the vet Thursday morning. She was pretty sleepy after having been spayed, plus getting her annual vaccination and they flushed her ears because of ear mites. We got her home and I took her out of the cat carrier. She walked slowly over to Melvin who just looked at her and went about his business. She wandered down the hall and ran into Gracie and suddenly all heck broke loose. Gracie suddenly arched her back and got all bristly as if she were going to attack Luna. I quickly picked up Luna and jumped out of the way as Gracie had upset Melvin who suddenly arched in hump back, fur sticking out all over the place mode. They raced every which way peeing all over my hallway and master bedroom carpet.

What the????

Father quickly call the vet to find out why our cats were suddenly going crazy, while I took Luna into James bedroom out of harms way. Evidently Gracie didn't like the way Luna smelled.. She didn't recognize her smell and thought a strange cat was in the house and scared the pee out of her. The vet said to put the kitties outside or in another room and let Luna roam the house spreading her smell again.

We sent the kitties outside on the patio with James to supervise while we cleaned up all the pee trails on the carpet. I have to say the Woolite Pet Oxygen worked quite well, since none of the kitties have gone back and done their business anywhere except the litter boxes.

After we were done cleaning up, Luna came out into the kitchen and we left the patio door open with the screen closed. The three stooges kept coming up to the screen and smelling Luna. We let Herbie in first and he sniffed Luna all over and went about his business. One down, two to go. Melvin came in and much more cautious, but eventually sniffed Luna and went off to play. Gracie was still bristling every time she came up to the door, so I went out and soothed her. Had a nice one to one girl talk with miss thing when she hissed at me. We ended up putting her in the cat carrier that Luna had been in and let her sniff that a while. Then we brought her into the kitchen. Luna and the two boys sniffed around the carrier and played. Gracie somehow got herself out of the carrier and just decided to stay away from Luna. She preferred that to getting sprayed with Dr. No.

Needless to say, after everyone calmed down and taking another shower, I was two hours late to work. Good thing I'm one of the bosses.

Luna spent the night in our room and this morning the 3 stooges have calmed down quite a bit. Gracie still won't go anywhere near Luna, but the two boys have given her a nose nuzzle or two.

It will be interesting to see what happens when we bring the 3 stooges home after being fixed.

Pensive Cat

Pensive Cat

Hey Mom! Where are you going?

Momma Luna went to the vet today to get "fixed" The 3 stooges will get their turn soon. However, I have to find a less expensive vet. Our current vet charges $130, just for the surgery but I didn't want to go to a brand new vet to get her spayed. Nothing like trial by fire and discovering an incompetent surgeon. And I didn't want to take her to one of the county's spay and neuter clinics, because I don't trust the production line surgeries. So, I'll be making a few phone calls today, checking out new vets and finding out prices.

Crazy Cats

WHY IS IT?

When I do this

They do this!

But Mom!
I'm so cute and love to nibble on your toes

Wordless Wednesday

James and his three shadows

James takes over the planter

3 stooges take over the hammock

Herbie Bear

Princess Grace

Mellow Melvin

Momma Luna Keeping Watch