Our strange pastime

 On many people’s calendars, there are four seasons noted, spring, summer, fall and winter. There are also people out there who skew those seasons into things like football season, baseball season and chores around the house season, or winter and road construction season, etc. Well, we also have two seasons at our house. They are: “it’s warm enough for the cats to stay outside season” and “don’t you feel sorry for the cats, let’s just bring them inside for a few hours in the evening season”.

 

Apparently we have reached the second season of the year. The hubby is always willing to let this season slip, but I pretty much think that seasons should be split evenly, so that if we have only two of them, they should each be six months long. In hopes of warm weather arriving early next year, I am willing to begin the “let the cats in the house season”.

You have hopefully seen the movie “The Christmas Story”. Being as it is on TV every year from mid to late December, I hope that you have caught it. If not, go find it somewhere right now and watch it, coz it is great. In one of the scenes the dogs from next door break into the house and steal the Christmas turkey off of the kitchen table.

Picture if you will the Bumpus dogs careening through the front door and tromping through the house. That is exactly what it looks like in my house every cold-weather evening when we let Betty, Fred and Ches in the back door. The three cats are beside themselves with glee. They don’t know if they should first run down the basement stairs to see what food awaits them there or if they should stake their claim to a living room chair or the pillow on my bed. They scurry everywhere. The whole time Dino the dog and Alice the inside cat are wondering what the panic is all about. Then because Alice is so stupid, she goes outside by herself.

Eventually though they all settle in to several hours of peace and warmth. Then before they know it, it is time for round two.

I truly don’t know what my hubby and I do for entertainment during the warm months. TV? Read a book? Write a book? Don’t know, coz the most entertainment we have is rounding up the cats when it is bedtime and we deem it necessary for them to be eradicated to the great outdoors, or if they were smart, the snug garage.

Ches is the easiest to find, either because he truly likes to be out in the cold or because he hasn’t figured out what is happening when hubby and I start moving cautiously around the house, talking in whispers and using sign language. We used to be able to count on Betty to curl up on someone’s bed, but lately she has taken to the basement when it is time to go out.

Fred, dear Fred. Do any of you readers know Fred? If you do, please share your impressions. He is – something. Fred used to be an inside cat until he decided it was fun to do that thing which boy cats do which leaves a disgusting odor on your shoes and upholstery. So he got banished to the outdoors, where he still manages to leave that odor on my basement windows. Anyway, he has issues. So the nightly eradication of cats is where he truly shines, hiding in some of the darnedest places. We almost always find him though.

When people ask what hobbies the hubby and I have, we tell them cat eradication is our favorite. Very few people get it. But now at least you do

Hello, it's me!

Hello, it's me, Betty. I don't know what's up with Mom tonight. I can't tell if she is lazy or has a headache or is just bummed out about something. All of her four-legged kids know how important her blog is to her, though, so we thought we should write something. And since I have been the one cuddling up to her the most lately, the others elected me to post something. As if I have anything to say?

I was born in an old pig barn in Minnesota. Isn't that fascinating? But the pigs had been gone for at least ten years and miniature horses live there now, so at least it didn't smell TOO bad. My Minnesota mom gave me and my brother Barney to my adopted mom. Unfortunately, Val lost Barney but that is a long story. And sad, coz Val cried alot, but Mom was almost like - he was just a cat. Really? Would she say that about me? I think she just wanted Val to feel better.

Anyway, so I am currently the "middle child" in the house. Fred and Dino are older and Ches and Alice are the babies. And I don't even want to count Brewster. He is supposed to just be a guest, but we all have this sinking feeling that he is never going home.

Oh, oh, Mom seems to be rousing and it's getting late, which means she is going to start rounding up me, Ches and Fred. It is pretty funny at this time of night. Mom and Dad stalk us and herd us and do all kinds of weird things to catch us and put us out for the night. Mom keeps saying that she's going to blog about that, but she needs pictures first - coz you know how she is about pictures on her blog - and we just can never get together for a picture. Mom's so funny.

My Very Last Distraction

Ok, now, honest to goodness, this is my last distraction.

Last night about an hour after the rat terriers we had for the weekend went home with their mom, this little love bucket came to live with us. His name is Brewster and I fell in love with him a month ago when I met him at a friend's house. I told her that if she ever needed to leave him with some one, I would take him in a heartbeat. She called me a week ago to say she is leaving for a three month stint in Long Island - she just started working as a travelling surgical tech and this will be her first gig. And she couldn't take Brewster with.

Oh, yes and he is a manx, which means he doesn't have a tail - the poor thing. But he is softer than fleece and a purring machine. So far he is getting along ok with Dino - as you can see, and the other cats will adjust I am sure.

So, tonight was my last free night to bond and goof off. Tomorrow it is back to the book - and tomorrow is also the last day of NaNoWriMo, so I will have to come up with a final word count by then. Yikes! And if nothing else Brewster will give me more to write about. After all, writers never have crises - it is all just material.

Cat-titude

When I was putting things on one of my new bookshelves, I spied Betty sleeping innocently on the dog’s bed. She is the most laid back of our cats, so I couldn’t resist putting her on the shelf to see what she thought. In typical cat-titude she looked around and didn’t do much. “Hmm?” she said to herself. “This is ok, gives me a nice view of the room. I think I’ll stay.”

I confess that I am a cat lover. I admire their independence, but still each of our four cats has its own personality, its own way of thinking about us people and each other. I also am a dog lover, as you probably guessed just by the name of this blog.

What a great thing that we have our pets, whether cats, dogs, horses or rabbits. Or even birds. What a wonderful God we have to give us all the different animals just for our enjoyment.

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. Genesis 2:19 New International Version