/facepalm

Val checks in today and I have it all wrong. Well, I spelled things phonetically and I really didn't know.

It's Pilchard and Mija.

But, in reality, any way it's spelled they are my cats, my fuzzballs, my friends. And since they don't read, they won't be offended if I spell their names wrong until I unlearn it, which will probably be some time in 2010.

Beverage: Dr. Pepper

Deb

Hello there!

Another milestone this morning.

I had been warned that Meeha and Pilcher would follow me into the bathroom. But that is a cat's nature. Closed door? Must be something good behind it.

But the door knob on my bathroom door broke and the one I got to replace it is not the right size and I've never really searched for another. It was just Carole and I and we were very used to cats following us into the bathroom. Heck, Shakespeare used to come running from wherever he was in the house when he heard the water running in the bathroom sink. Now that it's just me, I sometimes partially close the bathroom door.

Meeha and Pilcher have come into the bathroom in the morning, when I get up, to get morning ear scratches, but generally don't follow me into that room. There is a water dish in the bathroom which I know Pilcher uses. But they get their ears scratched and then wander out.

This morning, I was showering, washing my hair. I turned to rinse out the back and there was a little face peering into the shower from the end of the tub. "Oh hi, Meeha!" I heard her run out of the bathroom. "Drat, she saw me!"

I'm guessing they have settled in.

Beverage: Dr. Pepper

Deb

Staking Space

It's been an extraordinary cat weekend. As the post below mentions, I finally reorganized to put all cat ashes together. So painful. I held each one and remembered something about them.

Shakespeare loved to play fetch with these rubber balls we used to get at a local drug store.

Penney loved to come up next to me when I was sitting on the bed getting dressed and rub her face against my shoulder.

Half-Pint loved to jump up your body to get to your shoulders where she would sit down.

Betsy loved to sit in my lap any time I sat down.

Rascal loved to catch anything and everything and bring it in the house to play with.

Now new personalities have taken up residence. Meeha has claimed the hallway. This means you must walk around or step over her. It is written that one does not move a cat.

Both have vied for my attentions over the weekend. They squabbled this morning as I made breakfast; growling, hissing, spitting. I sent Meeha to the bedroom. Meeha claims my bed and my affections when I'm there. She curled up with me under the covers for a time this morning. Betsy used to do that but Betsy would go to sleep. Meeha just sat there purring. She also came into the office and sat in my lap, purring loudly, while I played the game.

Pilcher claims the living room and the table with my craft project on it. She's going to be horribly confused when I take that table down when the project is finished. She spends all her time on that table, sitting and sleeping. Maybe, eventually, I'll get them both in bed with me with no hissing and growling.

They now come into the kitchen when I go in there. They have figured out the kitty treats are there. I don't give them treats as Val did and they seem fine with that.

Hence, although there was sadness and much tears as I put the others' ashes in the secretary, there is joy. I am a cat person and being without was like a hole in the universe. That is filled and they are the most wonderful cats I could have gotten. I guess Val knew they would take to me quickly. I am thrilled that they have.

Beverage: Assam tea

Deb

Galatians 6:7b

Perry turned 40 on Thursday, September 17th. Forty can be referred to as the "peak birthday". Once you reach 40, it's all downhill from here.

Of course, there are quotes about turning this age:

"I'm very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled. me. 'Don't complain about growing old - many, many people do not have that privilege.'" -- Earl Warren

"Be wise with speed. A fool at forty is a fool indeed." -- Edward Young

"Every man over forty is a scoundrel." -- George Bernard Shaw

I have always said that no important birthday should go unpunished, as it were, and this one was no different. Although presents were not requested, I am different and will try to find something cheap that represents some item of the recipient's personality or life I have discovered. Perry is no different.

Both he and his wife, April, have a wonderful sense of humor, on par with my own. Everyone should get a balloon on their birthday. I taped the card to the string.

And the pretzels? Well, that is a very bad, but rather funny, inside joke.

I crammed that balloon into the box, the same box that Perry brought his homemade mead in back in August. I even sent back the inserts so he could refill the box. The balloon was so crammed that when he opened it, and he was warned NOT to use a sharp object, the balloon would pop out. That is the key. The box has to be just big enough for the balloon but not quite big enough that it sits comfortably.

I am given to understand he enjoyed it immensely. Pilcher liked the balloon, too.

As to the biblical reference above, look it up. April turns 40 in November. I have 2 months to plan an "appropriate" gift for her. I turn an older age at the end of November. I'm thinking of hiring someone to open my gifts.

And yet, what would life be like if you did not have friends with whom you could exchange gifts like this? A $4 balloon, a $3 card and a couple bags of pretzels. I can hear Perry's laughter as he opened the box.

With friends like them, well, life is more fun.

Happy Birthday, Perry.

Beverage: Dr. Pepper

Deb

I hope this works.

I'm all settled in bed last night drifting off to sleep. I am pulled back awake by the sound of scratching. It appears to be coming from my bedroom.

I'm thinking the cats have become acclimated enough to use the box springs as a scratching pad. So, in turn, I called out their names. When the scratching didn't stop, I flipped on the light. No cats in my bedroom. The noise was coming from the attic.

My heart sank. I got a broom and banged on the ceiling in my closet. The scratching stopped but resumed after about 10 seconds. A second banging did nothing.

I tossed on a jacket, shorts and shoes and stepped outside. There, on the south end of the house was a juvenile raccoon trying to dig up the shingles surrounding the south air vent. After trying to hit him with rocks from the drive, I found a rubber ball and then a croquet ball. He fled but didn't leave the roof. In fact, for the croquet ball, he simply curled up on the north side of the house and pretended to sleep.

In the dark, I could not get the hose attached to the exterior spigot. I'm not sure a stream of water would deter him, actually. I hit on the idea of getting a 25 foot extension cord to toss over the roof. I would gather it up and then hurl a free end onto the roof in the direction of the raccoon.

He was defying my attempts to shake him loose by going to the other side of the roof where I couldn't see him and then, when I tossed the cord over from the east side of the house, he would amble over to the west and continue trying to dig a hole. I was getting so frustrated.

I don't know if I was supremely tired or angry or what but I hurled the cord onto the roof and the end with the prongs hit him squarely on the forehead. He looked at me quite startled and left the roof. It does not appear he came back after I collapsed.

This is not good. I can't do this every night. On the Internet, I came across a spray repellent. Mix one bottle of hot sauce with one teaspoon of dish detergent and mix with one gallon of water. spray the affected area. Raccoons don't like the smell of hot sauce. You can use a container of cayenne pepper, too. So, tonight, I need to run over to the grocery and get hot sauce or cayenne pepper, mix this up and then spray both of my vents. As we are not to get rain until Sunday, this could linger enough that he would find it several days running.

I hope this works. I would like uninterrupted sleep. Pilcher sat in a chair in the office and watched me climb onto the deck rails to toss the electrical cord. Meeha feld for the safety and comfort of the closet. After I came in, they accepted ear scratches and Meeha came to sleep with me.

I can feel the tired setting in now. It's nearly time to leave and I can go early. I don't have to win this war. I just have to win this battle. Go bother someone else.

Beverage: Water

Deb

Found you!

Now tell me, isn't that a cute face?

This is her hiding place, on top of a pillow in the closet where my sweaters hang. I come home, poke my head in and say, "Hi, I'm home." Meeha will come out of the closet in about a half hour. Meanwhile, Pilcher is out and wanting ear scratches. Meeha will stay out now the rest of the night and into morning until I get ready for work, then she goes back into the closet. Someone does come out during the day because, as Betsy and Rascal used to do, the rugs have been "attacked" and wadded into a ball. You know that is the main purpose of floor rugs, right? They exist to be attacked by cats.

Beverage: Robert the Bruce Scottish Style Ale

Deb

Awwwwwww

The obligatory cute cat photo. In case you can't tell, she's sleeping with her forehead on the table and her left front paw over her face. I think it's safe to say she feels comfortable here now. I'm working on the cute cat photo of Meeha. She sleeps with me now and, today, has been out all day and not in the closet. They aren't real sure about playing with me. I gave them catnip yesterday and that was amusing. I must get scratching pads.

Beverage: Huckleberry tea

Deb

I could use some Osage oranges.

While fall is my favorite season, one part I supremely dislike is the migration indoors of any and all spiders.

Tonight, I decided to do laundry. I'm not out of anything but why wait until I desperately dry jeans with a hairdryer after washing them at 6 a.m.

I have the basement door closed as I don't want Pilcher or Meeha down there yet. When they consistently come when called, then the door gets opened and we gradually move the litter boxes to the basement. (I apologize in advance for, upon your visit in early November, finding three litter boxes in my living room as I slowly move them downstairs.)

This means that the basement is dark. The light by the washing machine has never consistently worked. Some days it comes on. Most of the time, it does not. In order to not fall down the stairs, I leave one of the incandescent lights burning all the time. Yes, that's inefficient and, at some point, I'm going to open the door to a dark basement because the light's burned out. But this is something I'm willing to suffer through for an eventual greater good.

You know I don't own a dryer so my laundry is hung on lines to dry. I had done a load of whites last Friday, when I knew I could leave the door open because they were scared of me and wouldn't come out of their hiding places for all the kitty treats in Target. I had not been back down there to retrieve the dry clothing. First thing to do is take down enough that I can get to the darks on the floor. It was at this point that I noticed the very, very fine spider webs between the lines.

I looked more closely at the light bulb and saw it was festooned with webs as very, very tiny spiders, probably newly hatched from some inconspicuous egg sac, rappelled and climbed up their very first webs. Normally, I leave spiders alone. They do a great job of eating the insects we don't like. If possible, I'll shoo them onto a piece of paper or something else and cart them outside. But these, the size of a pencil point, were in the way. With a shrug, I flattened a half dozen between my hands and wiped them off on my jeans.

I started to put clean laundry in the basket that sat on the floor and noticed at least a dozen spiders of differing types and sizes had made webs around the inside of the basket. I sighed, dropped the clean clothes, picked up the basket, turned it over and banged it on the ground. Spiders fled in all directions. The ones that made the mistake of coming towards me were flattened with a quick step. I still wound up using my slipper to harass spiders out of the basket and onto the floor. And the ones who had set up housekeeping under the lip of the basket dropped quickly to the floor when the basket was moved. It took probably a good 10-15 minutes to make sure there were no spiders in the basket before I deposited the clean clothes to bring upstairs.

I could use some Osage oranges. A green, pleasant smelling fruit discovered by a Scotsman in the south central US, anecdotal stories are that if you place one or two of these softball-size fruits in the lowest level of your house, in my case, the basement, it will repel spiders, cockroaches, fleas and other arthropods. Many, many years ago, I did try it but I don't remember if their smell worked wonders or if it was an old wives' tale. I've never seen roaches in the house and fleas won't be a problem unless the ladies overcome their fear of the outdoors. I would be willing to conduct trials using the oranges for the simple reason that I'd rather not walk into a web of a dozen spiders no matter how small.

I will keep my eye out for them. They ripen around this time and there are a few trees on the way to work. I'm a timid sort so the prospect of knocking on the door of someone I don't know and inquiring if I can remove the detritus of the tree in their front yard makes me a bit queasy. But, the first time I see one of the quarter-size garden spiders scuttle across the bathroom floor, you can be sure, I'll be thinking, "Out! Out! Damn spider!"

Beverage: Water

Deb

Yes, there are 2 of them.

It took until Saturday evening, but I finally found Meeha. After deciding I wasn't as bad as initially thought, Pilcher wandered about the house in small steps. She's still not fond of the kitchen and I do want them NOT eating the back room.

On Saturday night, at the usual WOW time, Pilcher decided to sort of hang around. In comes one of those moths attracted by light bulbs; we call them 'millers' where I grew up. Oooooh, this was something completely new and the "attack cat" came out. Of course, once she caught it and it died, she looked at me as if to say, "But...but...I want to play with it. Make it better again."

In the course of chasing this bug about the office, she approached the closet that's directly behind where I sit. I heard a hiss. Pilcher stopped, looked into the closet and hissed back. Aha! Hiding place revealed. I got up and, sure enough, there was Meeha peering back at me. After finishing my game play for the evening, I reached in, pulled her out and proceeded to cuddle with her on the bed, scratching chin and ears and base of the tail. That's all it took and although she and Pilcher hissed and growled at one another, Meeha settled down on the bed until I decided it was time for me to sleep. Then she fled back to the confines of the closet.

Sunday, I hauled her out again. She does cuddle and I took her all over the house. The living room is okay as is lying on the project I have spread out on a table in the living room. Well, it's officially cat approved. Both of them love to lie on it. I don't quite get the hissing and growling at each other since they were in the same household prior to living with me, but I know it will pass. I brought a chair into the office and set it next to me. My gaming is now officially supervised and, occasionally, I have C.O.L. For the un-catted, that's "cat on lap". As this is a substantial cat, it does require some jockeying of position so the cat is comfortable in the lap up against the computer desk.

Meeha came out for most of the evening hours yesterday. I was able to get a couple of photos. She loves lying on my bed and I believe she hung around after I went to bed. Pilcher came and curled up on the pillow but didn't last very long. I think new sights and sound still attract them and they are cats. Their active time is when I want to sleep. I know today, they were out because there were footprints on the pillows and food was eaten.

I came home tonight and dragged Meeha out of her hiding place taking her with me so I could get a nap. I'm not sleeping well, which is a different blog post so I took an hour's nap. You can hear this cat purring from 5 feet away. She has a loud meow and a very loud purr.

Pilcher, on the other hand, has a soft purr and this very small meow. It's so much like Carole's Faux, it can't be mere coincidence. It's almost a squeak.

Pilcher has found a hiding place where I can't get her, back in the NE corner of the office. She has to either squeeze under the cedar chest to get there or go over the top of the table, across the chest and down. It's perfectly Pilcher-sized and I have to wait for her to decide to come out.

So, we have made very good progress in getting to know each other. Meeha is currently asleep on my bed. Pilcher is snacking in the back room. All seems much better with the world.

Beverage: China Black

Deb

Ear Scratches vs Still Scared

So today some monumental steps were taken.

Here is your first photo of Pilcher. I was told she was the most sociable of the two. To the right in the photo, are tee shirts. That side of the closet is divided in half with tees hanging on the bottom and long sleeved shirts hanging on the top. On Thursday, this is where she went. I thought it was both of them, but I was wrong. I still do not know where Meeha is. Jon and Perry have tried to comfort me by reminding me that if a cat does not want to be found, you can't find her. Yeah...but...

Last night, I heard activity in the litter box. I heard some quick crunching of food. This morning, the tee shirts I had asked Val to leave in the carriers were pulled out and it seemed as if someone slept on them. I'm going to say that was Meeha and take comfort in those little things. She's not outside or in the basement. She's just somewhere and it's best I let her come to me.

Pilcher had made her presence known by peeing on my bed. She might have been trying to get to the litter box last night and I interrupted her by moving. Oh well, I was going to strip the bed anyway. I was concerned that I hadn't seen Meeha so I had removed 80% of the tee shirts in the closet last night, thereby removing quite a bit of Pilcher's hiding screen.

This morning, after my breakfast and finishing reading all the newspapers in a pile on the living room floor (Dominick Dunne died. I didn't know that.), I went into the bedroom to get clothes to wear after a shower. A black face peered around the corner of the closet. I got hissed at, followed by a growl. But, peering at me is a start.

I walked around the end of the bed and sat down on the floor. Talking in very quiet tones, I called her name and held out my hand, making scratching motions with my fingers. You could see she was thinking about it. She came out from inside the closet. She hissed and growled. She stood there looking at me and then the need for ear scratching took over and she came right up to me. I've had my hand batted twice but she's not had her claws out.

She has been into the office and into the living room. She seems scared of the kitchen right now, so I've not taken her into that room. All in good time. She inspected some of the living room, finding the box of cat toys with the crackle rat that still smells a bit of catnip. She liked that but the neighbor arriving home from a jaunt on his motorcycle spooked her and she ran into the bedroom. She's not interested right now in leaving the closet.

This is good. I brushed her today while we were getting to know one another. She seemed secure enough to lie down on the bed and give herself a small bath. She climbed onto me to look into the hall, but just seems wary of the world beyond the bedroom. We spent some time cuddling on the bed today so perhaps I will have someone sleeping with me tonight. She was purring while lying next to me.

Small steps although today could be considered a huge one. Here's a better photo of Pilcher.

She seemed thrilled to be able to lie in a window and feel the breeze on her face. Well, that is why I have a bookcase there, so a cat can be comfortable.

Beverage: Assam

Deb

If I can't see you, you don't exist.

Before going to bed last night, I checked on the new family. Couldn't find them. Now the basement is closed off so there's no chance, I think, of them getting down there. And not wanting to stalk them, I thought I could just go to bed without trying too hard to find them.

But, worry got the best of me. I looked in the few crannies in Carole's old room. Nothing. I hadn't heard anyone leave that room, but these are cats and we all know cats walk so quietly they can pass by and not be heard. I wandered about, looking under things and peering into the nooks. I took a step into the closet in my bedroom and heard a hiss.

Okay, they are behind the tee shirts or at least the vocal one is. I assume, since I can't find the other that they are both there.

This morning, I did my usual routine. The litter box hasn't been used and I don't think any food has been eaten. I'm hopeful they will come out this morning and snoop around. I know it's frightening. New smells, lots of new smells. I'm sure my house is quieter than their apartment since I don't watch TV. No carpeting on the floor.

It's hard for me to be patient. I have cats in my house. I want to hold and cuddle and scratch and have someone in my lap. But I do remember that it took Rascal a good 6 years to come to me for ear scratches, 8 years before I could pick her up without snarling. I just have to trust that soft words and a safe place will win over "What are all these smells?"

Beverage: China Black

Deb

Hissssss

My new family members are here and hiding.

Pilcher is solid black with yellow eyes, long hair, just beautiful. I'm going to trip over this cat at night, for sure.

Meeha is tortoise shell with splotches that look, in certain light, almost sage green, just beautiful.

They are in Carole's old room where there are litter boxes, the cat carriers with the doors open and ample places to hide. I put water and food and treats there for them. Their toys are in the hall where I can see to avoid stepping on them.

I looked in on them before sitting down to blog and Pilcher hissed at me. They now have twice as much space as they are used to, no carpet and it's much quieter since I don't watch TV. I keep looking into the hall in the advent that Pilcher, who is the braver of the two, comes out of that room to explore.

Pilcher is named for Bob, the Builder's cat. As Carole was not that age to be interested in that PBS program, this is news to me. Meeha is a permutation of "amiga", which is of Spanish origin, meaning "friend".

I work a half-day tomorrow and am then home all weekend. I'll take bets on when one of them comes out of the room to see me or at least to see.

I promised photos. I was optimistic. Pilcher is in a back corner behind some books and Meeha is behind the large map of Scotland that I take to Highland games. I should have known better. Eventually, there will be photos just as I expect, at some point, there will be ear scratches. But knowing they are here makes my house not feel so empty. That's a good thing.

Beverage: flat 7UP

Deb