Really, it’s Wednesday; since Sunday we have been on the same rollercoaster as parents of a newborn, taking shifts, calming noises, cleaning accidents, having fun, bingeing Caesar shows about getting along with dogs.
Not so good pics
Category: Animals
Crunchie, whose name needs a change in this place where he’s prey size, is slowly settling in.
Every time one of us leaves and reenters the room he barks a lot. But he reaches full relaxation easily. He has claimed Chris’s chair.
Or a nice place on the floor.
Sammie and newbie, Shiloh, are staying hidden.
All fuzzies and humans except me, are male. Both cats are neutered. But Crunch still needs that. He’s only a year and will be on a leash until we feel he safely knows his boundaries, and has been fixed and completely vaxed.
We are so happy. It was wonderful to see my son. But he’s got a lot to work on at home so we only got a short visit.
Thing is… We’re “baby proofing”. 🤞🤞🤞The new fuzzy kiddos are coming up tomorrow. So we’re busy around here.😀
I’ll try to ‘stream’ the babies in if I can, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Sammie doesn’t seem very worried.
Depression has been visiting for a year due to fur-babies and then one of my best friends passed.
An issue with the elderly adopting pets had me angry. My pets grew old and died. My brother died when I was 24 and he was 21. I’ve seen so many cases where the pet saves the person and vice versa. Pets should not just be for the wealthy and young. Many of us would love to even foster pets but on our budget and with disabilities that make it difficult we have been turned down. It just seems unfair, you know?
A couple of days ago, our noon news was replaced with a widely viewed Newscast for the state instead of local counties’ usual show. These days one always holds their breath when news changes or interrupts suddenly. My husband got on the web to find out why.
Around the time of the pandemic, a new newscaster came on. She was young and the make-up people overdid her beautiful face. As time went on the make-up became more flattering. She became confident. We grew to love her coming into our homes every day. She was a fur-baby lover. She had the rescue of the week on Thursdays and I think I remember her adopting a couple. She loved animals.
This is what we found out:
https://www.kold.com/2024/12/16/13-news-remembers-ana-orsini/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ana-orsini-tucson-arizona-news-anchor-dies-age-28-kold-tv/
Which question shall I start with? Shall it be last night’s answer to the prompt when I read it?
We lost Kali over a year ago. Why does it seem like less than a month ago? Kali’s Death
Shortly after that, Teddy left us. Could I miss anyone as much as I missed them? (Teddy’s story is easily researched here.)
So, the third question is the one I’m answering first, and the answer is plain: Rosey outlasted the rest of the furry trio. Yikes. I already am speaking in the past tense. I hadn’t planned to do that last night.
What is Rosey’s story? Well, when we moved to Reno, we had only had Panda, a tuxedo sweetie. Then, our friend Kieu brought us a little Teddy. It wasn’t long until Panda was playing and, we think, had a heart attack as he was gone. Sadly, we were at our writers’ meeting, so we didn’t get to say goodbye. My brother and Son-in-Love were home to take care of the felines.
Teddy and Chris were heartbroken, so we didn’t wait long to grieve. As much as we needed a new friend, we also realized that there had to be furry friends looking for us, so we went to the shelter. Chris, my brother, and I wandered the shelter for a couple hours. As many animals were adorable, nothing seemed to call out for us. Then, just as we were leaving, I felt something off to the other side of the call to me. I walked over, and there was this black cat wanting all my attention. Without waiting, I reached into her cage and picked her up. The attendant was surprised at how easily I held her. She asked us to a visiting room to see how we all got along. David and I sat on the floor, expecting the kitty to come right to us. Nope. She walked right by us straight up to Chris on the bench at the back of the room. She jumped in his lap and started licking his face. He giggled like a little kid. His face was red with happiness. And so it was when Rosey was 12 years old she adopted my husband. I sometimes felt a slight jealousy of the way they clicked together. But I was happy they were both happy.
Teddy seemed to like Rosey, so we had a good thing. Teddy would choose me, so we each had a cat on our laps. They loved riding in the car.
But when Kali came into the picture, Teddy divorced me. I tried to let him know I still loved him, but it took him a while to get over feeling replaced. Towards his end, he chose me again and Kali.
When Kali joined us, Rosey was already 14 years old or older. She already felt like a bit of a grump around the more energetic Teddy and Kali, but we could tell she missed them when they were gone.
As of last night, we had been on a bit of a vigil for about a week. She refused food and soon refused drink. Again, the horrid choice, take the hour-and-a-half drive or just try to make her as comfortable as we could. She was 22. We dosed her with bone broth and water as that was all she’d tolerate. Although alert and loving, we knew it wasn’t long for her. Every night, we wondered if she’d be with us in the morning. Even on her last days, she walked/crawled the hallway to our room, looking for Chris to hold her.
This morning, we woke early. David found her in the livingroom end of the hallway. She was still breathing. He lifted her up, and within a few moments, she stopped breathing. After our goodbyes, David buried her with her special bed. She loved it so much we couldn’t think of her without it, or it without her.
How quiet can a house get? She wasn’t noisy but… How lonely are we going to be without her?
Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: What’s that Smell?
We live in the Oregon Outback. When most of us think of Oregon we picture GREEN. We live in the desert. Our green isn’t trees. Rather, mostly sagebrush.
Ooh, the marvelous smell of spring green sage in a breeze. It is only topped by that marvels of the alfalfa fields during watering or cutting. Wow!
If we long for the piney smells a short drive 12 miles can bring us to a campground. A little farther in another direction are the mountains that hold all kinds of wonders.
But here, in this house, we often shout that phrase. “What is that smell?”
To start out I live with three other people. Male adults. None of us are the most organized or extremely hygienic.
Back to the outside. Critters scurry everywhere. Mice are the worst. Our old lady cat no longer finds the chase worthwhile.
There are a couple strays outside. They do help. But they also caught a little rabbit who was playing lawnmower. 😥
Then there are the birds that insist on living in the eaves of our house. We’ve blocked them out. After they move out.
So that smell…
Pass the Lysol, please!
Others were about losing pets. I’m still sad, yes. But do I dare ask for prayers and blessings as on Thursday we will start visiting shelters. I’m nearly giddy with excitement. But trying to be a grownup. Haha.
Open your eyes! Oscar the Octopus is out to escape. After observing that tank full of the powerful, eight-limbed, graceful Oscar, a mollusc of the order Octopoda, figures out the escape route over and over. He outsmarts the humans. Every time. He may be too intelligent for his own good, yet he can’t pass up a challenge.
The ocean is full of outstanding animals! But the octopus is over the top!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “rhymes with ale.” Find a word that rhymes with ale, regardless of the spelling, and use it in your post. Enjoy!
It never fails to amuse me how stale everything feels in February. I long to get outside and start my daily walks. I dream of trails exploring the unknown areas.
Birds are setting up nests. We have chickadees and starlings sharing space above our front door. They take turns while standing on the porch rail. It is fun to watch them negotiate that space peacefully, it puts humans to shame!
The chickens wander out yard more freely as spring takes over winter space.
Quail run together in families. They always make me laugh. They have perfectly good wings but think they are more sophisticated than all that. February shows the beginning of new babies. Each family has structure and language. I almost think I understand. There’s a call that sounds like, ‘she’s outside!’ then ‘okay, relax’, then, ‘she’s gone now.’
February seems too early for mowing the hay. It’s interesting to watch the machines bale into cubes or cylinders. But alfalfa is getting ready to sprout.
With my diamond painting, I wonder if there could be a way to make the painting accessible to sight impaired. Might I call it Braille painting? I’ve always wanted to learn that. I can finger spell and have baby level sign language.
Oh, and here’s the finished sea turtles:
Ah, but the Flounder of the day, wouldn’t it be nice for a whale here? Aw, no worries. Please don’t all start wailing!
Streaming along. I haven’t had kale in a long time. Mmm, kale chips sound yummy. I need to make some hummus.
Many of you don’t realize how wonderful it is to have mail delivery. Once or twice a week we drive to the post office. When we didn’t have a vehicle we walked the seven mile round trip. My walking goal is to walk that for fun!
Oh, another issue of February is how pale we’ve all become. Maybe it’s good we have to start slowly. But most of the time now, we don’t have to break thick ice in the outside water pail.
No matter what time of year, but because we’re longing to be outside, we see eagles, hawks, and owls that soar and sail in the sky. They are magnificent if not deadly to outside small furry friends.
Hmm. I think this stream went to the birds. Yep, that hit it on the nail!
Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, my goodness! This book was fun from the very beginning. My eyes have difficulties tracking to read; even since cataract surgery fixed a lot of my issues, tracking remains nearly impossible. I have been an avid reader since I was little. Reading was slow going, but I got through the ten books allotted by the library every three weeks. The heft of the books was unwieldy, but I didn’t ask for help.
So, I began reading this book on my old phone using the Kindle app. It took me quite a while to get through even half the book. Finally, I caught up with the Libby audiobooks I had checked out, and Piglet became my bedtime book. Now, I could use text-to-speech and speed up the reading quite a bit. And give my eyes a rest.
Another reason I got into this book is my own dog, Kali, passed last spring after being nearly blind and having doggy dementia and bad hearing. It was so hard at the end of her life, but we had such a hard time from the beginning trying to learn from each other that the bond for her was strong in the end. I miss her so much and feel the need to help another dog as soon as I can. Meanwhile, Piglet helped me. Now I feel even stronger about getting another dog. I know there is one out there that needs me as much as I need him or her.
I think this book has a couple of other inspirational stories within. Melissa Shapiro is a veterinarian who tells her story of how she and her husband got together. Then, she shares her children’s aspirations with music. She tells of their college experiences.
By the way, one of her daughters and her husband have honest and raving reviews on the Piglet GoodReads page. I was delighted to read these as I felt I knew them from the book.
This book is full of the good feels a person needs these days. I look forward to looking all over the internet to find videos and follow the dogs, Melissa, and her family, and all the good they are doing for disabled people and animals.
When I feel I am floundering, I need to remember the floundering Ms. Shapiro and her husband went through with that one-pound blind, deaf puppy screaming his needs to them. Floundering is how one finds one’s balance. That is what February gives me. Meanwhile, today my turtles got a little more colorful.
Darswords 
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