Cats and Dogs

 

Tiffy ~ American Bobtail

Lately, I’ve been working like a dog, which is no surprise because I’m sure at times we all feel that way.  It’s the dog-days of summer so the heat affects us as well.  We’ve had bouts of raining cats and dogs too.  Are you following my animal analogies?

Dogs are people too, have you heard that phrase?  Dog is man’s best friend.  You call a dog and he comes (usually).  But call a cat?  Not such great odds that the cat will even hear you let alone think about moving out of his warm spot in the sunshine.  Have you ever attempted to corral a bunch of cats into one area?  If you have, then you know how anxious it can make you.  Just as you think they are all herded into one single area, one hops the fence, another squeezes through a crack, while the others walk around, tails high in the air, not a care in the world.  Grab the escapees and the ones who you were sure were just lazing around and grooming themselves, but have now decided to take off and explore on their own, regardless that you are calling their names.  For a moment, all is well.

Does this sound familiar to you?  Metaphorically of course, because unless you are a crazy cat lady, you don’t have so many cats in one area.  We have two ~ Tiffy is a little diva, a snuggle kitty, my constant companion, a chatterbox and the winner of the best fur therapy giver award.  It is to Tiffy whom we whisper our frustrations, snuggling into her fluffy, soft fur, burying our faces streamed with tears when nobody else is home.  The holder of secrets and yet she is a demanding and independent thinker who just lives by her own clock, her own mind and her own needs.  And yet, we adore her!  Our younger family member is Tigger who is still a little sprite of energy, even after being with us for four years.  She quite literally runs our household now, including running Tiffy who is not used to anything more than a sedentary lifestyle.  It’s been an adjustment for sure, for us all, but mostly for Tiffy who welcomed a friend, but on her terms.  Tigger brings vitality to our home.  Her shenanigans amuse us and her willingness to play with anything and everything keeps us on our toes.  Her nickname is the hooligan!

So how are cats like people?  Well, dogs are what we people would like to be, what we would like to have as our comrades, those with whom we come into constant contact.  To me, a dog is mostly friendly, happy, without secrets.  A dog needs water, food, a bit of playtime with a ball and is simply happy to be here with you.  Canines notoriously make excellent pets because they are reliable and their mood shows directly in their posture, on their face and mostly, they are happy to see you.  They are without cares, do not hold grudges and you can easily read them by their stance.  In other words, they are what we would like the people in our lives to be.

Cats, who get a bad rap for being more independent, are more like people.  They rock their own tune in their head and don’t rely on being told what to do like dogs.  They have their own agenda and aren’t afraid to hiss when things don’t go their way.  They build trust slowly, but surely.  They have 9 lives and like to nestle in the most obscure places, like the linen closet.  Rarely do they come when called unless it suits them.  Most of the time, you can’t read their minds (unless I put out the tuna treat and then I know that I am number one in their book for awhile).

While we don’t have a dog in our home, we love them and would have one if we could.  But for now, it would upset the feline energy here at the moment.  Friends of ours just had a litter of black lab pups that are calling my name.  I can’t upset the household with a new puppy, but it sure would make for some crazy future posts!

Shine On!

xo

A Giggle Before Thanksgiving

If you’re anything like me, you’re stressed out now with the start of the holiday season.  Thanksgiving is a tough holiday to prepare for and even though this year, I’m not cooking the bird, I have a few dishes to prepare for the meal at my sister’s house.  It should be fun this year as our Mom is going to be with us too which just makes me smile.  I want to take lots of photos and videos of her with all of us.  As our parents get older, it’s important to do that you know.  Every single moment and memory is precious and sometimes it’s only after, in hindsight, that we regret we didn’t do more.  So, I’m working hard to live with no regrets!

Anyway, I was thinking about decorating for Christmas because I always began after the Thanksgiving dinner was put away.  I started slowly at first, but often, I was well on my way by Sunday.  I can’t help myself!  I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

I came across the clever video below and laughed my way through it.  What a great stress reliever and giggle maker!  If you like animals, please click below and get into the Christmas mood.  You know, it’s almost time to Deck The Halls!

Shine On!

xo

 

Autumn Winds

Autumn winds are beginning to blow here and the seasons are changing.  It’s dark and dreary outside with grey, rainy weather.  As I sit quietly in the house, I can hear the winds howling outside and through the fireplace in my family room.

At first, I questioned the noise as I haven’t previously had a real fireplace in my home.  But as the cats and I listened intently, I realized what the noise was.  You know how it is when you live in a new home.  Every season comes with nuances that are particular to that home.  The farm house has a bunch of them!  Also because I heard that the home wasn’t inhabited for a bit, I guess we are both getting used to each other.

I believe that places have energy too and I have done my best to inhabit this dwelling with love and kindness in my heart.  In turn, I think she (dare I pin a gender on a home?) is welcoming me too – even going so far as to keep me safe (see the post here).  Because it was the propane tank which smelled, urging me to call the gas company when there was no sign of a gas leak in the home and yet there were 3!  I feel like I was saved by the home.  Does that sound crazy?  Because really, there’s a comfort in that thought for me – although I will say that I think the Divine had a lot to do with it as well!

All I know is that it’s getting time to put the heat on as it’s slowly getting chilly here although sweatshirts and socks have done a fine job in the mornings.  (We don’t wear shoes in our home).  But soon it will be sweater weather!  I’m hoping that even though we have a fireplace which doesn’t seem to work, the heat will be enough to keep us warm.

And for the record, this morning, when I walked out to the family room, I noticed the battery operated candle behind the fireplace screen was lit.  There are two of them there and they are those remote controlled ones.  The right one was lit, the left one not.  I did not click the remote, nor was it moved.  I tried to turn the candle off via the remote, but it didn’t work.  The remote still worked with the other candle, but not this one, so I ended up manually turning it off.  But how in the world it was lit, I’ll never know.  Just another quirk to this house.

Candle lit by magic?

As I look out the windows to the farm across the street, I excitedly imagine how the snow will blow and cover the fields.  I think about all the shoveling I will be doing (ugh) and how I will miss my old neighborhood where we all took care of each other.  Out here, I have only met the neighbors briefly and have yet to meet the farmer.  But I have watched his big black and white dog (looks like an Australian shepherd) joyfully run across the now barren fields.  One of these days I want to play with that dog!  Did I ever mention how even though I am a cat owner, I LOVE big dogs?

I hope you have a lovely hump day…gosh I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday!

Shine On!

xo

 

 

 

Fur Therapy Gratitude

purrrfect…fur therapy

Gratitude to Chessie and Tiffany!

Thanksgiving is a day about giving thanks for everything and everyone…but I believe we can continue that gratitude all year long.  So for today, I have to take a moment to give thanks for my sons (this is an old picture of them) and my ‘daughters’ who give us amazing comfort that we call fur therapy in our home.

My ‘girls’ are 2 cats who freely give such amazing blessings simply by being present for me, day in and day out.  My elder daughter is Francesca Maria but we call her Chessie.  Originally she was named Mary and was a stray found in a field 16 years ago when we adopted her.  Chessie was COVERED in fleas at 3 months old and very skittish.  My husband had finally agreed that we could get a pet, but he conceded  with the caveat that he really wanted the cat to be white.  I went to the cat adoption agency and looked at the white cat that they had advertised…but as I walked past the cages of cats, this one little one meeped (my word for a small meow) and it caught my ear.  I turned to see our darling Chessie in a cage with many cats.  She pushed her head against the cage so that I could put my fingers in to pet her head.  Just then, the woman in charge asked if I wanted to hold her…my sister had come with me and we laughed knowing that this kitten only had a small spot of white on her chin ~ the rest of her was pure tabby colored!

Well, so the story goes, when I held her for the first time, our hearts beat together, she purred into my shoulder and chest and I knew I was her Mommy.  My sister then held her and the same happened…when my hubby arrived, I was holding her and he asked where the white cat was ~ to which in my infinite charming way I answered that she was indeed white…on her chin!  I passed her onto to him and as he held her, she purred into his shoulder as well and home she came with us!

Chessie and ‘Daddy’ are best pals and have been since she came home with us 16 years ago.  She’s been Daddy’s girl since the first day when they played ‘tag’ on the stairs in our first home.  We found out that she was part Maine Coon and part Tabby which explains why she topped the scales at 15 lbs at one point.  She adores ice cubes, hopping in the shower after my hubby and sleeping on us at night.  She became Mama’s Girl when I endured breast cancer and napped my way through chemo.  She stayed by my side as I slept away the hours, her trusty purr rumbling in my heart as she slept on top of me, keeping me warm and comforted.  I was never alone ~ she made sure.  Now at age 16, she is slower these days, but still enjoys the water, sleeping on all of us (boys included) and has lost most of her weight as she’s aged.  She’s now everyone’s girl, enjoying being pet by whomever wants a snuggle.

Almost 5 years ago, the white cat finally made it to our home and with her entrance, our cat family was complete.  Tiffany is an American Bobtail whose enthusiasm for anything ribbon or shoelace has made our home cat proofed.  No longer do ribbons adorn presents in our home as Tiffany has a sweet tooth for them ~ certain types of shoelaces also are a kitty treat which has disgruntled hubby a few times when his dress shoe laces disappeared as we realized they were chewed down to the actual shoes.  But barring her puppy chewing tendencies (I think she may be a bit confused), she has brought joy to our family in her own right.  She is very vocal, calling “Mama” from the other side of the house when I’ve dared to go into another room while she was sleeping.  She can do tricks as taught by my younger son.  She can sit, stand, beg and stay.  She’s very food motivated and she’s topped the scales at 15 lbs as well.  I guess you could say we like our cats stocky! 🙂

Tiffy, breeder born, is more wild-cat than Chessie who was actually born in a field.  Tiffy scratches by her food everyday, burying it instinctively so that nobody else will find and eat her portion.  In fact, I believe she thinks I’m foolish when I leave my cup of coffee unattended on the coffee table in the living room as everyday, she will jump on the table and ‘bury’ my coffee cup so that nobody else can sip it!  Because it makes me giggle, sometimes I do it to see if she will ‘take care of my coffee’ and she never lets me down!

I would love to say that my girls get along fabulously, but alas, that’s not truly the case.  While Chessie tolerates the little upstart in our home, Tiffy tries to get Chessie to play and keep her young.  At least, that’s my take on the situation.  Occasionally we’ll have a little ‘cat fight’ where the girls bat at eachother and then chase eachother with a little hiss here and there, but for the most part, they are friendly.  As the weather cools, most likely you’ll find them up on our bed, each on a side, curled up warm and happy.  Because you know, we are only their servants here!

Fur therapy is that special happiness we get when we hug our pets…their unconditional love and happiness upon greeting us when we enter our home everyday makes their cat brand of love special.  I know people talk about how wonderful dogs are, but cats have it going as well.  Yes, they are independent, but they are also comforting.  As I walk into the house, I always call for my girls and they come to greet me ~ unless of course, they are cat napping on my bed and are dreaming of catnip and laces!

Do you have a pet?  Have you gotten any fur therapy lately?  I highly recommend it!

xo

Storm’s a brewin’

Lightning, Thunder, Stormy Seas…

The last few days I’ve been suffering from a migraine which usually means the barometer is changing and it has been.  We’ve been having some thunderstorms, rain, sun and unusual weather.  As I sit here writing this post, it’s intermittently been raining cats and dogs one minute, with thunderous clouds and loud, rolling thunder and then suddenly the sky switches to bright sunshine with the quiet roll of thunder in the background.  In fact, I feel like it’s like me these days…sunshine with a touch of raincloud followed by a bit of thunder.

But I digress because I wanted to post about change and how difficult it can be on the body, the mind and others around us.  I think this is where my inner and outer thunderclouds have originated.  I’m on a changing cycle I think and it’s a bit stormy here for me as I go through the changes.  I’m a bit daunted to be honest by the unknown ahead, but having delved into the unknown before, I am shoring up my courage to keep taking baby steps.

The outer thunder is just the careless roar of others which I can deal with although I’d prefer calm, sun-filled moments.  But that’s ok for me.  I’ve been through far worse.  The inner thunder is more treacherous to me and having experienced it before, it leaves me a little shaky these days.  Nothing like a touch of the unknown to scare me a bit.

I remember when I was first diagnosed, I was afraid to cry.  Imagine being afraid to cry!?  But I was afraid that if I started to cry, I’d never stop.  Now I know that sounds silly, but to me, it was perfectly logical.  I was unable to mourn the loss of my breasts because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop crying about it.  So I held the pain inside until I almost burst.  Then a very dear friend told me not to be afraid to cry because eventually I’d stop…and those simple words, ‘eventually you’ll stop’ made all the difference in the world to me.  And the shift happened.

I cried for the loss of my breasts, for the time I spent in chemo, radiation, in hospitals, alone…I cried for the time I worried that I wouldn’t see my boys become teenagers.  I cried through sad movies, silly commercials and any true life story article or movie or book I could put my hands on.  It was like I needed that reason to cry and not the reason that I had in my own life and heart.  But through allowing those tears to escape me, I felt the weight of the sadness lifting from my soul and my heart.  It was when I allowed myself to cry, I was able to heal my heart and begin to take baby steps again.

It’s been a busy 8 weeks since my Dad passed and I’ve not had a lot of time to mourn the loss.  I know all about the grieving process having endured it when I had breast cancer 10 years ago.  I’ve been moving along through the 7 steps, only to stagger now.  But in the thundercloud where I am presently, it’s only fitting that a storm’s a brewin’ because I think many changes have occurred in the last 8 weeks of my life…and I just have to keep my thoughts on the prize of a sparkling rainbow!

Cheers to fears, tears and thunderclouds…

for they make the Rainbows that much sweeter!

xo

Gratitude Day 16 ~ The Pursuit of Happiness!

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Today’s gratefulness goes to the many men, women and canines who have heroically helped to keep our flag proudly raised high in honor of our beautiful country the United States of America.

Flag Day – the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916.  While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson’s proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

Our flag, is also referred to as “Old Glory,” represents all people of America. We, the people, are America.  We are a part of this great land and as the flag passes by, many are moved to saluting our flag.  We are “one nation under God.”

Old Glory symbolizes the love and pride that we have as a nation and is a poignant reminder of America’s greatness.  We are fortunate to live in a country which values freedom above all else. Our flag signifies the commitment made by our fallen brethren who battled bravely to defend the honor of our American unity, our power, and our purpose as a nation.  It signifies the dedication of our leaders to continue to strive to uphold its promise of liberty, justice and freedom for all.

Seeing our American Flag brings such strong emotion to many ~  either at a ceremony honoring a great event or draped over the coffin of a military veteran as a sign of mourning for a hero and a loved one.

So in honor of our flag on Flag Day 2012,

I give thanks for all who have helped to keep her waving proudly everyday.

xo