A Daily Life

The kitten is trembling with excitement over his newest toy – what will it do?  Will it eat him?  Run away?  Fly up in the air? Note how he’s hanging onto the edge of the stair with those big claws of his as he chases after a camera battery that he dug out of my […]

When Cat #2 was dying from cancer, I worried whether I would lose Cat #1 at the same time.  Cat #1 always had an above average need for companionship and I didn’t think he’d do well as an only cat. Cat #2 was still somewhat healthy, so we brought home the kitten while there was time for […]

Did you think that swiping office supplies was done by the less-than-ethical at work?  Oh no it’s not – here’s Siamese cat #2 contemplating which push pin he’s getting ready to pull out of the bulletin board and spit on the floor.  If my favorite boy toy didn’t catch him fast enough, the push pins and papers would […]

Jean-Paul Sartre once said: I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted. Saul Bellow added to that with: When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice. I’ve been posting here every day since February.  I’ve told stories and posted photos of my own accomplices and the […]

Our miniature pinscher is so very tiny – not even seven pounds – weighing less than any of our cats and just slightly more than a bag of flour. He’s just like the big dogs, but in miniature.  He’s just as jealous of whether someone is getting some he isn’t.  He loves his treats.  He loves […]

I’ve written before about how much I loved my Siamese cats and how I missed them as each one passed away.  With the dogs, I don’t plan on getting another cat.  Actually, after the dogs, I might just go without pets for a while altogether. But before the cat, came the kitten.  Here is Siamese #1, […]

Just like we never feed the dogs at the table, we also never let the cats up on the kitchen counter.  Of course, some cats think it’s their right to go wherever they want regardless of the house rules.  Maybe doing winky blinkies will make Mom forget the rules. Word for tomorrow – QUITS.  If you […]

I’m always a little frustrated at this phase of summer.  In a few short weeks, my winter squash has gone from lush and productive to looking straggly.  Now the race is on to keep the vines alive long enough that the squash will ripen. It happens this way every summer.  One day it’s all looking […]

I’ve had a study in each house that we’ve owned.  It’s not always big, but it’s usually stuffed with my bookshelves and a pine desk that my favorite boy toy sanded and finished for me.  For nearly 15 years, it was also accompanied by my favorite cat, Siamese #1 (on the left in this picture).  […]

The kitten (Siamese #3) was always up to adventure and of course, being a cat, was incessantly curious.  On a lark, he decided to scale Mount Daddy one day.  Surprisingly, his Daddy tolerated it pretty good before removing those sharp little claws from the back of his neck. Word for tomorrow – RIBBON.  If you […]

The kitten grew into a hulking sheath of muscle from nose to tail.  Several vets checked to see if he was really neutered (he was) because he was so heavily muscled.  He also bent their needles on a fairly regular basis. I didn’t declaw him when he was a kitten.  Not every cat needs it and […]

The other day, I used the random word “intense” to describe the kitten at play. One of my fellow bloggers, Random Thoughts From Midlife, asked where the kitten went to when I said he was gone.  I realize that I was not very clear in my post. The kitten died last year, at the age of nine […]

These two pictures are sequential from when the kitten was. . . well, still a kitten.  Do you see how intense he is?  What is out of range of these two pictures (it’s in later pictures from this series) is one of the older cats was cautiously checking out why this paper kept moving, only […]

 I took nearly a dozen pictures in this series, all of the back of the head of this little booger.  He was so intent on ignoring me, he never turned around once to see what I was up to.  Cats are so good at ignoring us.  They acknowledge us when they want, even if they need […]

I seem to use the backspace key a lot when I’m typing.  The older I get, the more I need it too.  I’m not sure if I’ve gotten that much clumsier or am just rushing too much and typing faster than I’m spelling.  Sometimes I wish I had a backspace key to use on my life […]

It’s a neverending source of amusement to watch the animals interact with a sunbeam.  I think they have built-in solar panels that automatically know which way to face to maximize their usage of natural warmth for maximum doziness.  I was surprised to find out that the dogs do this also, although it is not quite as high an […]

Fool – A jester; a person whose role was to entertain a sovereign and the court. The cats were surprisingly sensitive to being laughed at.  They did not like to be the fool for us.  You can tell the kitten is still young in this one – the last of my three babies – when he got […]

Situate (from Wiktionary) – To place on or into a physical location. It is difficult to situate oneself as king of the hill when your partner in crime thinks he should have it.  Of course, when Mom starts thinking “pest control”, you simply ignore her and pretend that this is your right to take over. […]

Fortunately (from Wiktionary) –  happily, luckily, mercifully, thankfully. Fortunately God makes puppies cute and cuddly so when they screw up, they don’t die instantly.  Here is what happens when a puppy takes down the child gate and gets at the boxes of cat crunchies.  And he was a puppy – barely four months old at […]

Range (from Wiktionary) – A fireplace; a fire or other cooking apparatus; now specifically, a large cooking stove with many hotplates. Personally, I think they could have found some place more comfortable – such as my bed!  That was the only time I ever saw the cats sleeping on top of the stove, although the […]