Category Archives: Two Big Cats

Kittens underย theย porch!

The story begins here…

Followed by the first night report as a rescue-dood.

Dang, they might be staying with us!!!

Kittens like formula!

C’mon – you know they’re cute!

The kitten’s mother last December, just outside my office window.

The Pack feeds on fresh kill… grrrr.

Friday night ramblings of a first-time cat rescue dood.

Mother and Child Reunion

Our thanks to each of you animal rescue people!

Mom-cat update: Spayed and Rehomed

Kittens and Mom-cat update (Includes a cute kitty pic!)

Fresh honey harvest Trinity’s 3 Amigos

Over the past few days, I’ve put out a bit of food where I found and released Mom-cat. I put it out during the day and bring in an empty dish in the early evening… since the food is disappearing, I’m hopeful she’s the one who is eating it.

What a great adventure it was finding, rescuing and getting the kittens to a good foster home, and also capturing / spaying Mom-cat and returning her to the property. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for her and let you know if / when I see her again.

Overnout.

So how is “the pack” doing, you ask?

Several of you have asked how our “pack” is holding up with Dee’s multiple illnesses and, sadly, loss.

Grandma Cat is struggling – Dee and Joanne had a wonderfully close relationship, usually ending most evenings with Dee laying in Joanne’s lap, having her ears scritched and shoulders deeply rubbed. It was Joanne and Scott who got to know Dee when she was just six weeks old and eventually chose her to come home. Though I’m the house-dude and spent far more time with Dee on a day-to-day basis, Joanne and Dee were very, very close. Dee’s loss easily impacts Joanne as much – or more – as it does me.

As for the animals, Penny continues to sleep on her own blanket in the den (as always) so “moping” would be hard to detect in any event ๐Ÿ˜‰ Pandora is somewhat lower-key than normal. Pepper-Do-You-Want-Her seems lethargic and (we believe) misses Dee the most of the animal population of our house. Pep and Dee had a very close relationship… and I will post pictures that prove it ๐Ÿ˜‰

Delilah Visits Paris…


When we lost Sis a few years back, we brought her Eiffel Tower home with us as a reminder of the visit she made to London and Paris with us back in ’04. It seemed only natural to place her tower next to the antique French poster on the wall in the sunroom.

A couple of months back when Dee had her operation and was so limited in her ability to move around the house, we took this basket from my office and placed it in the sunniest place we could find in the house… under the skylights and right next to Sis’ Eiffel Tower.

Now, you and I know that cats don’t really have dreams of traveling the world, right?

Well, in my world – and The Legend Of The Two Big Cats In The House On Walnut Drive – they do travel the world and have adventures, so for now, let’s just think of this photo as “Delilah Visits Paris” and leave it at that.

Au revoir.

Coming back to life…

A week home and I’m feelin’ pretty good, thanks for asking.

Visited the surgeon on Tuesday and had the staples removed… now my gut looks like either railroad tracks winding their way through the mountains or Frankenstein’s neck / head area – your call.

All systems are normal and I’m groovin’ along pretty well, though there seems to be a conspiracy by the Doc and Joanne to keep me from using my Dyson
I know Incline Mike is feeling my pain on this one ๐Ÿ™‚

Miscellaneous updates:

Figs are ripening at a prodigious rate… Joanne’s been processing by the bucket lately and made 3 cases of jam on Monday night. She harvested the Pears while I was in the hospital and will use some of them in various jams / fruitneys over the next few days.

Last night I put ~20 pears to two gallons of 80 Proof Vodka and tucked them away – those will be ready for syrup (by my standards) in the Spring. Come holiday season this year, if you’re local you’ll likely see a variety pack of liqueurs… I’ve got ~7-8 gallons in syrup that will be ready to go – I need some cupboard space back.

Request for your assistance:
As a result of my surgery / recovery, I am unable to climb the pomegranate trees I usually harvest. I have a work around (long harvesting pole) but I’m not sure how using it will impact me… if you’re reading this and have some time to lend a hand, I’d appreciate your backing me up for a few hours so we can get the juice to make your goodies. No juice, no goodies.

We’ve got a handful of Quinces (our first harvest after 3 years of growing the tree) and will likely make jelly from those. Lots of tomatoes and lettuce coming in now but, alas, as noted earlier – no honey from our lazy bees.

All of the an-gi-muls are doing well: Dee loves the carpeted areas of the kitchen but still struggles with footing on non-carpeted areas… likely we’ll carpet the remaining areas for Dee’s sake. Pan seems to be completely recovered from her surgeries, gaining weight and returning to normal. Knothead and Penny remain unchanged.

I’ll post some new photos in a few moments. Until then, as always, thanks for visiting, be well and write when you get work.
hal

Dee comes home

I brought Dee home about an hour ago. I’d like to tell you otherwise, but it’s heartbreaking to see her shaved and stitched so heavily… and with her leg no longer there.

The good news? She’s here, healthy and still our Delilah.

Al was right – no major butt-chewing for me – but lots of I’m home again loud meowing when we pulled in to the driveway. Her first efforts at walking were horribly painful to witness. But Dr. Ueno and Dr. Okimura were spot on when they said she’ll adapt quickly… she’s already bracing her rear legs wider apart and putting more weight on her left front leg, both to compensate for the missing front leg. Her brain hasn’t yet adapted to the missing limb in her efforts to walk so she’s falling on her right front side, but we’re sure it will soon.

The next few weeks will be challenging for our entire pack, but thanks to the support we’re receiving from everyone, we’ll make it just fine. Life, huh?

You’re welcome to stop by any time and visit – I’m sure Dee would love the company.

hal

Lettuce harvest time…


Watering the Phantom Pergola Pharm last night, I couldn’t help but notice some of the lettuce plants (discussed here) were looking a little full around the edges. In fact, some of them were so full and heavy they were drooping to the ground.

Time to harvest, I suppose.

This morning I dressed in my Pharming clothes (shorts, t-shirt, bare feet) and headed out with a large bowl and pair of The Missus’ scissors in hand. (Speaking of scissors, please don’t tell her I use her scissors to harvest vegetables… she’s a little sensitive about my misuse of her sharp-pointy tools and accuses me of trying to emulate Edward Scissorhands.)

When I was done, 9 of them were looking an awful lot like the newly-inducted recruits I mentioned in the I am a dumb-ass post back in July – but they’ll grow a new crop in – all the way over (3′, I believe) to the Cherokee Purple Heritage Tomato and grabbed our first from this new (to us) plant.

It’s looking like salad night @ our place tonight.

Here’s to Delilah!


Am I tan yet?

I caught this nice pic of Delilah laying in the sunlight in the foyer… when I first saw her there, she was curled up, asleep. By the time I got back with my camera, she was wondering what I was up to.


A little help with the handle, please – my thumb’s haven’t grown in.

Because Dee was heading off to Kirkwood Animal Hospital today for her surgical procedure, she spent the night isolated and sleeping in the dining room. She ate a couple of cans of food before 10, then was restricted to water-only until surgery late this morning.

When I came out to the kitchen to make coffee this morning, the instant I turned on the kitchen light, I heard her loud meoowwww coming from the dining room. Hey, old guy, somehow I got left in the dining room without any food – lemme out, wouldya anyway? Because I’d placed all the pet-reachable pet food around the house, I let her out of the dining room and caught a 2nd, much more vocal and, dare I say – personal – round of ass-chewing for leaving her in the dining room.

Since the rest of the pack was getting hungry – 2 dogs and 1 still-fairly-big-but-scrawny-looking cat (Pandora) were pimping me pretty hard for food – we put the dogs and their food outside on the deck and Pan’s food up on her feeding area. Then we isolated Dee in the front section of the house.

She whined loudly.

She stared intently.

She cleaned her fur while waiting for the doorman to realize his mistake.

Then in a moment of clarity, she got it: He’s really being a d**k (dork ๐Ÿ˜‰ today.

Just a few minutes after this pic, I scooped her up and off we went to Dr. Ueno and Kirkwood. When I dropped her off, they said, Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.

After 23+ years of looking after Amber, Lucy, Daphne, Penny, Pepper-Do-You-Want-Her?, Pandora and Delilah, herself, we know they will.

Lettuce alone…

A couple of months ago we decided to put in a couple of tomato and lettuce plants.

Now, “a couple” usually means “two”… and in the case of our tomato plants, that was appropriate: we bought and planted two tomato plants – one roma and one ace. easy peasy.

But when it came to buying lettuce, as a form of insurance (against doody-thumb disease, I suppose), we thought “the more the better”. So we bought, um, a couple of flats. If I recall correctly, we ended up with 11 or 12 plants in the ground.

Good so far, right?
Well, this first bunch you’re seeing ^^^ did pretty well right from the start. (They’re currently looking a little scraggly because the two on the right have been harvested a bit already. Yep, you heard me – harvested – I’ve got the farmer-lingo down pat.)


And this bunch in the center of the lettuce corral ^^^ did pretty well, too… except for the ones that died from over / under watering. (If you look closely, you’ll notice some of the corrals have two plants growing in them.)

And finally we come to the right-wingers – the corrals on the right-hand side of the lettuce farm. They’re doing pretty good, considering we let them bake in the hot sun without shade material for two weeks as part of our How much direct sunlight and heat can leafy green lettuce take before it dies? test-period. Turns out this particular type of lettuce wilts in the direct sunlight of the Phantom Pergola Pharm. Finally realizing we were killing the little buggers, we put up screen and watered them back to health.

Now, looking at these pictures you may find yourself wondering Exactly how many lettuce plants does it take to provide salad lettuce to twice-weekly dinnertime salad eaters? Good question – and one that I now know the answer to: It takes one – maybe two – leafy green lettuce plants to provide enough lettuce to twice-weekly salad eaters.

A couple of years ago when Incline Mike and Mimi were frequent guests @ our house, I’d often buy rib eye steaks for dinner. I come from the more is better school of steak-eaters, so the steaks I bought started at 1 lb. When he would see the steaks being prepared, Mike would say, So how many people are you going to feed with those steaks? (sarcasm dripping from his tongue)

Now, when I look at the lettuce growing out in the Phantom Pergola area, I keep hearing Mike say, So, how many people are you going to feed with all that lettuce?

Oh, the neighborhood ๐Ÿ™‚

My message to you: If you want some Campbell Farmer lettuce, stop by the house and pick yourself a salad.

Every cat has a dream…


And Delilah’s is to catch the bird that visits the camelia bush next to the back door. Of course, she doesn’t have a clue what to do with it so she’d probably just tickle the darned thing until they both got too tired to move… but a cat’s gotta have dreams if they’re going to make it in this world, yes?