Thanksgiving

We came and went at a furious pace this past week. Off to St. Louis for Thanksgiving dinner with 23 at the table of our daughter, Sarah's, in-laws. We feel like we know the family now, this being our second Thanksgiving with Dan and Cassie and having partied at the wedding with all the Marshs.

Then home again to work on Friday, then cook another Thanksgiving for 11 at our house on Saturday. Great fun--for us anyway. Different story for the cats.

I couldn't make my bed all weekend because the cats took to our bed as a reasonable alternative to getting stomped on under all the feet in the house. They came down when the coast cleared to triptophan out on leftover turkey. Then back upstairs or outside, avoiding the humans at all cost.

Our son, Ben, seemed to be the best one to hit up for turkey treats, especially when he cooked a leftover smoked turkey pasta dish last night. Oh my! That was good! Miss Ellie slept last night, I can tell you. Hamilton hung around long after the spreading darkness called for him to vacate the premises.

No pictures--too busy having fun or cleaning kitchens to snap any shots. Will have to get on that, I guess.

Meet H & J

Meet H and J:

Henry and Jackson are my daughter's spectacular cats. Case in point: See how much fun they have with this toy.

This is my favorite photo of Jackson:



This is my favorite photo of Henry:



Or maybe this one is:



These guys have been buddies of Sarah's for several years now. They came to live with Sarah while she was still in college. So at least 8 or 9 years, I think. They're good buds. Loyal through and through. Right now, they are still adjusting to sharing Sarah with her new husband.



Henry LOVES Dan. They go on walks in the yard and Henry never strays too far from Dan.

So far Jackson is still skittish. I keep reminding Dan that when Jackson lived with us for a while it took several months until Jackson would warm up to us. Just give him some time. Eventually, he'll come down out of "The Stacks" and be friends.



I got to loving them quite completely when they lived with us. Still miss them. Hamilton misses Jackson A LOT. they used to play together, wrestling and running all over the house. Now Hammy tries to interest Miss Ellie is playing rough-and-tumble, but--you guessed it--she won't have anything to do with this kind of play!

Miss Ellie's Nightly Routine

Miss Ellie has her own nighttime routine. Warren goes to bed much earlier than I do usually because he gets up at 3 am for his morning radio show here in town. So Miss Ellie and Warren have a little snuggle time each night. She lives for the moment that they get to climb upstairs together.

She sometimes even has to wait at the bottom of the stairs for Warren, if he forgot it's time to "Climb the Golden Stairs." Sometimes she will even come looking for him. Quite the sight to see.

Then--and this is something Warren knows NOTHING about, since he is already asleep--Miss Ellie and I have a similar routine. When she hears me about to come upstairs, she comes down the stairs and then goes back up to the top with me. Then we have our own little cuddle time.

This is why we have cats, you see.

A Neighborhood Rescue

As you can see, this is not a cat story! It's a dog story. I hope the Two Cats who own this blog forgive me! I think Hamilton will understand.

My friend, N, who lives across the street, has adopted a little poodle. His name is Rudy. She got him from a Poodle Rescue Group near St. Louis. He spoke to her heart because the photo online looked so pitiful. He's an older dog, with several issues, but none of this stopped N from saving this little fellow. You can tell by the way he stands close to her, that even after just a few days, he is devoted to her. Her kids love him already and are gentle with him. They all try to hold him as much as possible. He is settling in nicely.

I'm so proud of this family for saving such a beautiful little guy! You're the best!

Mr. Hamilton Defends His Home

The Morning Growl - Sorry it's sideways!

Hammy has an arch nemesis. Her name is Diamond. She is a semi-feral cat who lives next door. She's their Outdoor Cat. She's quite wild and has, in fact, taken a swipe at me on occasion.

She has this fascination with our Indoor Cats and visits our back deck every morning. This sends both our cats into apoplexy on a regular basis. I used to try and chase her off--hence the Diamond "swipes" at me--but now we just let the whole daily escapade play itself out. We figure since cats count on routine, it would be cruel to take this "favorite" routine away from them.

Here you hear Hammy's famous cat growl, letting Diamond know she is not welcome. Notice the way Diamond cavalierly ignores the fierce warnings of my Hammer-Man and gracefully hops up on our deck chair in disdain of Hammy's loud Caterwauling.

Moments later, Diamond has left the deck. The Morning Growling is over, and Hammy has settled down on one of his favorite Morning Spots for a long nap.

Miss Ellie and Her Morning Spot

First off, you have to know that Princess that she is, Miss Ellie is very high-maintenance. Of course, we wouldn't expect anything less, would we? Miss Ellie is a long-haired cat, which means she sheds more than you can imagine a little thing like that could produce. When she starts shedding hair in the spring, in some curious biological clock thing that knows when spring is coming, I can have a spic-and-span house in the morning, and when I get home at night, there is HAIR EVERYWHERE! Great globs and clumps all over the place. Even in the fall when her shedding slows down, bits and pieces of black hair gather where ever Miss Ellie spends her time that day.

Example: Our living room couch. It regularly needs cleaning because for some reason, unbenownst to me until this week, she loves to hang out there for a part of every day.

Yes, I figured it out, finally. And the above photo has the clue that got me thinking. The dining room window faces east. Can you see how it hits the chair and then the couch at the other end of the room? And if you look really close, you can see a little dark long-haired kitty-cat all curled up for a nice morning nap. Ah-ha! This is why I'm always cleaning my couch! Of course, I have been a cat-person all my life, so I know you can't ban a cat from anything in your house unless you have closed the door. Cats have minds of their own, especially Princesses.

So Miss Ellie will continue to nap in the morning sunlight and I will continue to clean up after her. All is right in the Two Cat House today.

Choices, Choices

So, it was 5:30 am this morning. I was trying to make up my mind. Do I blog about Miss Ellie's favorite morning nap spot or do I yoga?

Now, you might think that I would choose to blog, but actually, I chose to yoga.

Not that Miss Ellie isn't just about the cutest kitty to ever want to blog about, and not that I didn't have a great couple of shots in the camera, ready to make the blog more interesting...

It's just that my new job puts me at the computer for more hours than teaching ever did, and my shoulders and back needed the exercise and stretching that only a good half hour of yoga can deliver. So I unfurled my purple yoga mat on the den rug and worked through a great Veria yoga session and felt much better for the choice I made. I've been missing sun salutation and warrior and triangle poses for some time now. Felt good to get back on the mat. Good way to start a Friday!

Sorry, Miss Ellie! I'll post the cute photos and I'll talk about your favorite little snooze-spot--ASAP.

8 Things...

Laurie has memed me. So here goes...will try to relate these to the cats...

8 Things I'm Passionate About:

1. Hamilton, my cat
2. Miss Ellie, my husband's cat
3. Henry, my daughter's cat
4. Jackson, my daughter's other cat - she's got 2, too!
5. Lucky, my son's cat - he's only got one but he's huge, rescued from a shelter in D.C.
6. Snugball, my daughter's childhood cat - gone by not forgotten
7. Eclipse, my son's childhood cat - gone by not forgotten
8. Peaches and Popcorn - our cats when first married in Minneapolis - gone but not forgotten

(You are maybe beginning to see the 2-Cat Pattern here?)

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:

(I made this list out about 10 years ago and one by one, they get done!)

These are done:
1. Have an English Garden - multi-leveled
2. Have a Family Home - big enough for family members to come back to and visit and hang out and celebrate holidays in
3. Put in Hardwood Floors
4. Retire from Teaching (after 30+ years)
5. Get something published - several Americana articles in Country Decorating Magazine - this was several years ago so hardly counts anymore

These are not done:
6. Sing in Rockin' Gospel Choir - I'm still hoping for this one!
7. Own a summer home on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan - would have to win the lottery for this one!
8. Erect a Family Vacation Lodge on Warren's Family Land in South Dakota - ditto #7

Hamilton's Checkered Past

When we brought Hamilton home a few years ago, the animal shelter could tell us very little about the guy. He had been picked up by the shelter, a stray in horrible condition: skin and bones, declawed at some point in the past, but obviously running wild for a long time. They knew this by his low weight, but also because he had worms, ear mites, fleas, you name it. It took them several weeks of tender care before they could put him up for adoption.

We had just lost Eclipse, Ben's cat of many years. He had sort of become my cat after Ben left home, so I was missing his nightly visits under my legs as I sat at my computer. Soon after Eclipse's death, Warren gently nudged me to the shelter to meet a new cat.

We walked into the shelter's "Visitation Room." Bare room, windows out into the hall, shiny gray-painted concrete floor. Nothing else. An attendant brought this cat into the room. I sat down on the cold concrete and took at look at him. He was a beautiful tri-color, mostly brown and gold, very tiger-like, if you know that black and gold are Mizzou's colors. (At this time we lived in Columbia, MO--home of the Missouri Tigers.) The attendant closed the door. Warren stood off at the side of the room and let us get acquainted.

Hamilton, who had no name at the time, climbed right into my lap. I fell in love. It was that quick. Eclipse had been a rather stand-offish type of cat. Never sat in any one's lap, ever. So when this brown and orange cat with a thinnish, striped tail, climbed right into my stranger's lap, I was pretty much a "goner."

We paid the fees and took him home. Within a few minutes of his arrival, I "knew" his name was Hamilton.

Before long, we felt we had pieced together Hamilton's past. This is all imaginary, mind you, because we have very little to go on, but I'm pretty sure we've got the main details spot-on.

He was declawed when we got him. And very affectionate. Climbed right up on my chest the first night and sat down and accepted my petting. So I think he was once very loved by someone. Declawing is tough on a cat but costs money, which implies somebody cared. His loving nature implies that he was well-treated.

BUT he was found emaciated, wormy, flea-ridden, mite-ridden... So something BAD must have happened. He got out and didn't come back, but that doesn't seem right, because he is so loving, so I think he got lost. Or maybe his person was an older, retired type who died or was moved into a nursing home and Hamilton somehow got separated and was out on his own with nowhere to go. You are welcome to think up your own scenario, but I like my old lady story the best.

When we got Hamilton, I didn't want him to EVER go outside again. It's a big, bad world out there, and with his being out for so long, I worried he would never come home to me and couldn't bear that thought. So Hammy stayed in for many months. And we got to be the best of friends.

But come spring, Hammy got insistent that we let him out, so eventually we did. And his favorite routine, still is, actually, was to leave after dark, run and hide somewhere, and come home before dawn, let in by Warren, who gets up early so he can get to his Morning Drive Radio Show.

If Warren missed letting him in, which happened on weekends sometime, Hammy would not come in if it was light out, still won't. It's as if he is frighted by the sunlight. This makes me think he hid a lot after he was abandoned. We found his favorite place up in Columbia was in the sewer down the street. Well, not really a sewer, more like a storm drain. Once we knew where he hid, we could coax him out of there with a can of messy, smelly cat food if we were very patient.

So I think he was very traumatized by being lost and alone in the big, bad world. And very happy to finally find a family that would take him in and love him. And the reason I know this is because Hamilton never purred when he first joined our house. It was as if the purr was scared right out of him by his experiences in the cruel world. It took a couple of years for him to find his purr again. It was quite the moment when I first heard that purr, I can tell you. Quite the day.

Now, Hammy is giving me the "signal" that it is time for his nightly routine. He hasn't started talking to me yet, but he's winding up for quite the performance. So, it's off to the door for "The Goodbye Song and Dance." My favorite time of the day!

The Grateful Day Challenge

While surfing around my daughter Sarah's blog, I discovered a neat idea, called the Grateful Days Challenge from a website called my little life:

"So I am issuing a challenge for the next 18 days leading up to Thanksgiving - the Supreme Holiday of Gratefulness - The Grateful Day Challenge. Blogging about the things we are grateful for - no matter how small, odd, random, or big they may be. TOPICS: Family, Friends, Nature, Art you Make (hobbies), Home, Learning/Imagination, Art you Enjoy, Food (Cooking/Eating), Health/Body."

I will start by being grateful for my two cats, even though one really belongs to Warren (Miss Ellie) and one to me (Hr. Hamilton). Both cats chose one person to be their "primary" but the "secondary" person in the household is still okay, especially if the "primary" is not in the house at the moment.

One of the things I'm most grateful about is the Loyalty of Our Two Cats. A cat will sit on your bed all day long if you are sick. Not even a mother does this, if you think about it; although my mother was the best sickroom attendant ever: tapioca pudding, icey cold Vernor's Ginger Ale, cool forehead cloths, you get the picture. But a cat will figure out with their special "cat-radar" that you are under the weather, hop up on the bed, and cuddle up real close to your legs or head. (Miss Ellie is a leg-cuddler, Mr. Hamilton has claimed my pillow for his cuddle place.)

My pillow was where HammerMan hung out while he tried to tell me he wasn't feeling good. Took me a day or two to figure it out. He didn't start by limping, just didn't want to go outside. He cuddled on my pillow all night, which is always welcomed, but stood out since I wasn't sick and needing any tending. He was.

He's better today. And I'm grateful for him, my Friend, my Pal; we are Buds-For-Life, for sure!

Miss Ellie, the Princess

We discovered, quite soon after Hamilton joined our home, that he was quite different from our Miss Ellie.

One night, after we were done with our chocolate pudding, Warren offered a little dab of the treat to Miss Ellie. She daintily licked away at the spoon. When Hamilton's turn came, which, by the way he waited quite patiently for, he slobbered away at that spoon like it was the last meal he would ever have. We knew that night that we had two distinct personalities in our home. Hamilton, the boisterous young male, and Miss Ellie, the princess, royal born and bred.

Below is a series of pictures showing how Miss Ellie, the Princess, enjoys the sunshine in our den. We were out front doing yard work this weekend and when we came in, Miss Ellie was luxuriantly stretching in the sunlight. Couldn't resist snapping a few snapshots.

The Nightly Routine

Ode to Laurie's Three Dog Blog and Amy's Blog to the Bone

She doesn't know it but I'm a lurker on Laurie's wonderful Three Dog Blog. I am not a dog-person at all, but reading her blog makes me realize I might have been in another life. I love her adventures that aren't dog related, too: the Russian Series, the Birth of a Hack Series, her Family Photos Stories, and yes, I even love her Walks with the Dogs Stories.

I found her blog by skipping off a link on Amy's Blog to the Bone. I am in a new phase of my life, having just retired from over 30 years of teaching high school science. Now I work for a Paramedic-EMT Association called Memsa and I actually get breaks and a lunch hour in this job. I usually read, but one day I didn't have a book and since I've read ALL of Amy's Blog, I skipped over to Three Dog Blog and printed it out, all 136 pages of it. And I read it all, and by the time I'd reached the end, there was more up on the site to read!

So you could say I was hooked. Of course, the BIG difference between Amy and Laurie and me if they are Real Writers, and I'm a Hobby Writer. Which means I know good writing when I read it.

And Laurie got me thinking how interesting reading about three dogs and two people taking walks in the rain can be. I wondered if my very different life with one husband and two cats could be at all interesting. Not that I can compare my writing to Laurie's or Amy's. But at least I feel emboldened to try.

I have a connection to Amy because she's married to my brother, and I love her and her wonderful family. She's been a blessing for my brother and all of us in our family. She devoted her life to the girls and is just now back into a more personal adventure. I'm proud of her--to the end of time.

And I have a connection to Laurie, however tenuous, because Warren and I started out in the grand city of Minneapolis over 33 years ago. I can relate to the places in her blog, Duluth--I used to take my Hopkin's 6th grade students to a camp north of Duluth, the bridge that came down--I drove over it one month earlier while driving from my Dad's place in St. Paul to my girlfriend, Carol's, house in Richfield. She is living that alter-life I might have had, if we had stayed in Minneapolis instead of heading south in search of radio jobs for Warren.

So thank you, Laurie and Amy. I'm gonna give it a try!

Hamilton is MAADD!!!!!!!

We are a two-cat house. But it didn't start out that way.

I married into a one-cat family. Warren and I met in Minneapolis in 1974. He had an orange cat named Buffy. But Buffy died--more on that another time--and we became a two-cat house shortly after that.

We've been a two-cat house ever since.

Today, Hamilton and Miss Ellie live in our house in Missouri. Or maybe we live in their house. It's a toss-up some days.

Hamilton joined our house a few days after Eclipse, our son Ben's cat, died. Ben had grown up and moved to New York City. Eclipse died while Ben was away. Warren dragged me over to the city animal shelter a few days later to introduce me to Hamilton. It was love at first site.

More about Hamilton's early years another day. I have more important things to talk about right now.

Hamilton is MAD because he's injured. He doesn't like to hurt. He's hurting, and of course, I'm hurting, too. I'm hurting because I let him go out at night and he got hurt on one of his midnight adventures. I want Hamilton to be himself, who came to me with a past--more on that later-- but I don't want to lose him, either.

I love this cat. He is the first and only cat who has claimed me as his person.

And tonight he is hurting because he got into it with some critter outside a few days ago and hurt his back right paw.

He's MAD because we forced him to visit his enemy, the Vet, who is actually a good guy who understands Hamilton, but he gave Hamilton a shot in the BUTT, for heaven's sake. And tonight I gave Hamilton an eyedropper full of an antibiotic. Good grief, folks, leave me alone!

So Hammy's quite put-out by the PAIN, which is mild, according to the Vet, and the INDIGNITY of the forced feeding of yucky stuff.

He won't be happy with me when he figures out I won't let him go out tonight. But he loves me, so I know he will forgive me, when he gets done letting me know how MAD he is.