more rain and cats and bits

 

 

bit of here and there hobby farm rant - some day I will want to come back and read it all, I know

 

Our elderly tortoiseshell, Minion, does not like the rainy weather at all - and the chill that comes with it.  She also will not stay inside for long unless she is bundled up on top of someone, one of us, or the big Manx boy, Loki.  They curled in the carrier tray for my mail truck today, that I need to get out there - but I also feel it would be good to vacuum the truck or at least clean it a little before I go to the work of carrying this back out there (sans cat) and putting it back in.

I am still hoping to return to the book I was reading - after finishing some Romanian, Czech and a good swath of the remaining Welsh lessons on Duolingo.  We do need to go get some groceries though - and everything has gotten so expensive - this is an example of how a former programmer, who is not that good at calculation, does the shopping list.  Of course, Mark doesn't like it when I do this - because we always spend more than the allotted amounts, but I do it anyway, because I need to feel I have a handle on what the costs are and what we are using.. and then I see how much above that we tend to spend on snacks et al...

Heh, and there is 'American Cheese' and there is 'cheese' .. the type we cut up and add to the pizzas to make them actually stretch out to be a full meal.  

 

budget geekery post trip breakdown by cost 

the meat in that trip will probably last for a long time, as we freeze it and then parcel it out as needed until it is gone - and today, it was fairly gone, one third of the meat was regular price, and the rest of the 2/3 of it was clearance meat that we will freeze and make multiple meals out of

 

When I cook for myself it uses up things that are already in the cupboard not on this list - that only get replenished once in a while, like canned beans, dry split peas, rice, oatmeal etc.. and garden greens and peppers and zucchini (some from garden, some from farmer's market) that I freeze and should use more of but sometimes it sits there forever.  A really common meal for Esme and I is a rice dish, peppers and onions and 'other veg' and a few eggs.  Sometimes I buy a kielbasa and cut it up in the freezer and add it to those meals.  She has gotten to liking a salad of lettuce, tomatoes and black olives with a rice dish on the side maybe in a tortilla.  We were making ramen bowls with soft boiled eggs and extra veg in it for a bit but for summer now we haven't done that in a little while.

We also all eat eggs from our chickens several times a week and I use them for baking, and give extras to dogs, which they enjoy immensely.  We will get a slab of bacon once in a while and cook that up with eggs, or make toasted egg sandwiches for everyone.  Sometimes, I will make pancakes from scratch to go with scrambled eggs.  Pancakes are one thing I have always done well but it takes time to go about it properly.

 

Charlotte

Sweetie

(and Minerva, and Daphne dog, as well...)

The chicken feed is about 15.00 per week or so -we get it from an Amish store now because the goat feed we got from the co-op was bad once, solidified and the goat would not eat it, and then we gave it to the chickens with their chicken feed (which was co-op and seemed okay) but one of them died.. and we couldn't tell if it was the bad feed or what... so we started getting it from this other place, and it smells fresher and everybody eats it with gusto compared to 'oh, yay.... food' from the other supplier.  We supplement the chicken feed with lots of weeds, lespedeza, chickweed, lambs-quarters, clover, dandelion and whatever those huge nettle-looking things are that don't have any spikes... and a bit of the goat's hay (her other food is pellets of alfalfa'/oats which are 10.00 about every two weeks or more.. the dogs have a bag of food that is 35.00 every three weeks or so, but they eat eggs and whatever we happen to be eating they get whatever we don't put up for leftovers).   

blind goat, Melody - with Loki cat, outside beneath a tree in the fenced yard

(we adopted her from a farm because she had gone blind and needed bottle feeding.  The owner could not care for her with all the other animals to take care of, and now she lives here with our dogs and cats and comes inside for pellets and a brush down, sleep on the floor with the dogs a bit, and then go back out to the yard - she has a dog igloo she sleeps in and sometimes the cats join her there for company)

I feed the cats dry food (about 15.00 every three weeks) but they also go through one stack of tuna (1 can every 2 days) because the dry food alone was causing skin problems for our elderly cat.  The 'for cats' wet foods they don't like much, so it isn't worth it to buy it when we can buy a cheap brand of tuna and also have that for our own food if we don't use it for them.  I was feeding them a bit of egg every night as well (Cooked) but the elderly cat got where she left it every time so I make sure she gets the wettest bits of the tuna can and her dry food and that has done much better for her.  I should still make the egg for the two younger kittens though, as they ate it and had no issue.  

The Manxes are siblings, from barn-cat lines, and fixed at a young age, and are inside-outside cats catching mice on the property.  We had hoped that Minion, the elderly tortoiseshell cat (she's 15 now!) would teach them 'the ropes' and she has.  She has a touchy relationship with Lyffan, the female cat, but they do sometimes lick each other's head.. it just ends in hissing and 'go to your side of the room'.. but Minion and Loki (the boy cat) are often curled up together - she uses him as a hot water bottle.

They love to present mice, moles, voles, even grasshoppers to us, and spend a lot of time sitting watching holes or even under the doorway of the garage etc.. I saw Lyffan catching small frogs yesterday, which is funny because her name means 'toad' in Welsh (lyffant, actually).  They are doing well and Loki especially doesn't seem to be lacking for any calories at all.. most often you can find him lying on some patch of floor holding it down, in between mouse hunts outside.  Lyffan goes in her spats, between not wanting to come in except for meals and then running right back outside, to parking herself on Esme's dresser like the Queen of Sheba and spending half the night with her, or with me, as a blanket on my feet..  Esme can pick Lyffan up and walk around with her, something she doesn't like anyone else to do.  She will go from running a little skinny to looking like a round poofball, which follows suit with all the other Manxes we've had before.  The vet said she had an extremely short spine, no tail AT ALL, and sometimes we know that can give them digestive problems, so we keep an eye on that.

Life With Catahoulas #4 original webcomic

 

They think he is cooking something huge, maybe a T-bone steak, when it's just a hamburger.

And Rex, the German Shepherd puppy, really was holding his bone in line the other day while everyone sat around smelling the food cooking.  

Life with Catahoulas is a weekly webcomic of the antics of four Catahoula Leopard dogs, a bluetick, a German Shepherd puppy, four cats and a goat, on a farm in Tennessee.  It is drawn by Marie Lamb, an author and artist, wife, mother and plumber.

Come see us every week for a new comic, 'around Monday', between Sunday night and Tuesday, depending on what's happening in this busy life!

Life With Catahoulas number 3 webcomic

Honey?  I think it's really cold outside.
How can you tell?
It's just a hunch.....

Life with Catahoulas.. and a German Shepherd puppy, and cats.... everyone on the couch!

Help support our dog crew by investing in some of their favorite toys for yours!

The Kong toys are the best thing ever, they bounce and you can put treats inside to keep your dog occupied.  You can even put frozen ice cubes in them in the summer for a very special treat!

Life with Catahoulas web comic #2

Life with Catahoulas can be exhausting! 

  

Rex, our German Shepherd puppy, wants to play with all the toys. 

 Everyone else says its time to sleep.

Help support our dog crew by investing in some of their favorite toys for yours!

The Kong toys are the best thing ever, they bounce and you can put treats inside to keep your dog occupied.  You can even put frozen ice cubes in them in the summer for a very special treat!

Rex and his adopted mom and aunt

Can you tell that Minerva is his adopted Mom?  They have been chewing up the blankets this winter and Rex seems to think that all the toys belong right next to Mom's butt.  I have a cartoon almost ready for Monday for the comic strip - tune back then and see it :)

Rex loves! He ate several of the pretzels as a puppy and now carries his dumb-bell toy everywhere as his 'happy thing'. The Kongs are the very best - they bounce and can be carried and dropped down the stairs to great effect. If you have an aggressive nervous chewer the Kongs are really the best thing ever!

Our family zoo portrait

From left (clockwise) Minion, Freckles, Minerva, Lucy, Nova, Sweetie, Spud, Kitty (the goat), Dox, Daphne, Pumpkin, Callie.

Mark says my style isn't cubist, it's trapezoidal.  Ha.  I wasn't sure I was going to get everyone in there- started with the dogs and Esme said I had to add the goat, and then I had to find places to put the cats.

Our Catahoula Schedule Keepers : Lucy

click this link below to read on Niume
Niume Post : Lucy and her schedule keeping 

Article:

Living with Catahoulas, you quickly learn they are timekeepers without watches.  They know your schedule better than you do, and many of them are apt to keep you to it.  This story is mostly about Lucy, one of our youngest Catahoulas.  We have six Catahoulas (and a bluetick coonhound), and each person in the household has their own personal timekeeper (my husband has two!).  

This is a wonderful trait for herding dogs that were meant to bring in the cows and pigs at night, and bring them back out to the fields in the morning.  They understand when something is 'wrong', and alert their people to things that are not following schedule.  When things break tradition or schedule, they are genuinely worried and show their distress by nudging, whining and trying to tug or push their people into understanding what needs to happen that hasn't yet.

This is Lucy, one of our youngest pair of Catahoulas, sitting at storytime with our daughter.

But, in a household environment, large or small, a Catahoula timekeeper will be just as insistent.  This is something to be highly aware of when you are training them - or else, they will 'train' you.  There may be no 'livestock' to tend - but they will still insist that their people be up at a regular time, to bed at a regular time and if mealtimes stop happening at a regular time, they will make their thoughts known.  Their aim is to keep everything running smoothly, as much as possible.

Lucy is my daughter's dog.  She assigned herself to that a young age, knowing that our poor Loula (who was hit by a car) had vacated the position and none of the elder dogs had filled the place.  Catahoulas do this, too - in our experience.  They fill niches and assign themselves responsibilities if their trainer has not laid out a specific set for them to learn.  A Catahoula should not be left without guidance, either by an aware and observant trainer or at the very least, a stable environment and an elder dog that has been trained well.

Once a Catahoula thinks you need something (which you may not), getting that out of their mind can be difficult!  Best to train them up well and be aware that you are setting an example and training habits much like you would if a human toddler was watching your every move.  Catahoulas are pretty high on the dog intelligence scale - they learn by watching us, and show great surprise when something goes against the habits they have learned.

Lucy on her way to growing up.  She has two blue eyes and a white with blue merle pattern.  She is one of the more naturally shy Catahoulas we have, although she has had more success to leash training and dog park visits than her sister Freckles has.

Lucy's self-assignment was endearing and simple.  She would make sure our daughter went to bed on time, by escorting her every night along her routine and seeing her to her door.  At that point she was not yet sleeping at her bedside.  We encouraged this by making a large fluffy dog bed for her to sleep on in the bedroom.  Esme, our daughter, encouraged this by reading a short bedtime story to Lucy every night after the rest of the routine, with her invited to sleep upon the pillow.  And now, Lucy goes to sleep there at night, and rises with her every morning. 

Two sisters and a niece.  Lucy is in the middle here, a puppy learning how to do things from her aunts.

Lucy LOVES bedtime.  That is said often in our house.  She will come upstairs to us parents and poke our knees with her nose and turn in a circle - indicating something must be done.  She will do this with increasing frequency as the actual hour of bedtime approaches (daylight savings time messed her up, as she is sort of sunset-based).  She will continue to pace and bob between our daughter and us every fifteen minutes or so.  When ignored she will sigh and curl up in a ball or place her nose on her paws at the exact place between us, ready to spring to action when we do.  She puts on a very good 'depressed' attitude when bedtime is being later than she thinks, like on school breaks.  When the routine does begin she guides our daughter through each step, pointing to the next thing and sitting in the hallway outside the bathroom.

But Catahoulas follow our habits, as well as our schedule.

This morning, even I was surprised.

It is Pajama Day at school today.  And our daughter was wearing her Pajama outfit to go to her class party.  Lucy was confused.  Normally Lucy has a morning routine she follows to the letter.  She will get up, wait for our daughter to get dressed, and then she will be let outside the room and collect her sister to stand together and ask to go outside the house to the yard.  Then they both return to the house and go upstairs to curl up with their mother on the couch.  It happens this way so much I barely notice it anymore.

But this morning, Lucy saw something that made her wonder, and she did not return upstairs.  Instead, she came back and sat outside the bathroom in the hallway pointing at our daughter's room.  Our daughter had eaten her breakfast and was brushing her teeth.  Lucy walked up to her and traced her nose on the back of her knee, inspecting the pajama outfit.  She then returned to her place in the hallway and sat.  After a few moments I realized there were gears turning in that furry head.

Lucy thought our daughter was going back to bed, and she was waiting for her duty.  In her mind, she was still needed.  

I tried not to laugh when it dawned on me. (Catahoulas get quite embarrassed when they are laughed at, a little like cats.)

Lucy (right) and her sister Freckles (above) with their brother Hunter.  Freckles has assigned herself as 'Timekeeper in training for house activities' to my husband, understudy to her uncle Spud.

Even funnier, was when I told her that no, in fact, she was not going 'bedtime', but to the school bus.  Lucy pointed again - nose to girl - nose to bed, sit square on her haunches.  I said it again, so she was certain, and asked my daughter to tell her as well.  No Bedtime, School Bus.  Lucy whined and turned in a circle.  Then she went upstairs, but not to lay down.  A moment later two noses poked around the bathroom door edge.  She had gotten her sister Freckles to come see.  I told them both - with more whining and doubletakes.  Finally, they both went upstairs.  I'm sure they were shaking their heads in dog language.

We all had a good laugh about it - except the dogs, of course.

So, Catahoulas are the timekeepers.  But sometimes, humans do the strangest things, and even they don't know what to make of it at all.  It's another reason I am so enamored of these dogs we have bred and come to know over the many years here in Tennessee.

If you haven't had a pair of Catahoulas - (and one just isn't enough to see it all) - it really is a whole different kind of experience.

Daphne, a Niume post

Our Daphne deserves some love, too - I wrote a Niume post about her heroism :)

Da[hne, our Catahoula leopard dog

Article:

I realized, in my post about Sweetie, that I really don't give Daphne as much credit as she deserves.  She has a different kind of quiet intelligence and a deep loyalty above all else.  She is always happy and sweet, but not always understanding the breadth of the situation.  Several times, though, when it got down to brass tacks, our Daphne has helped save the day.

She was born in the Summer of 2012.  She was so beautiful - with more white on her than we thought was possible in a Catahoula Leopard Dog.  In fact, we read up on it and found that we should worry about her hearing, as part of her ears were white.  In Catahoulas, the merle gene (blue eyes, 'blue' spotted coat) can cause deafness in some dogs.  We knew we were going to keep Daphne, because we worried she might have a hearing problem and/or pass it on in her genes.

Also, she was incredibly sweet.  A ball of chunky puppy with one blue eye and one brown.

She was 'White Ears' for about a month, until her name struck me.  She was a little like Daphne, from the Scooby Doo gang.  So, she has been Daphne or 'Daffy' (to my husband) ever since.

Here she is one of several puppies playing tug of war with a rope with our daughter.  The light just shined on her in this picture and she was looking at our daughter with adoration.  One of our cats, a Manx calico, tried to adopt her at this time.  She would stomp around with the puppy at her side leading her up and down our road.  We called 'Mouse' the general and she was training Daphne up to follow her.

She grew, and became longer and lankier, as Catahoulas do.  This picture is her at about a year old, snuggled up against the cold weather on a beanbag.  We were glad to find out she did not have a hearing problem, she just had a different personality than many of our other dogs.  She likes to sit back and watch, and ask the other dogs what she should do next.  She was Loula's right-hand dog, for the longest time.  Sweetie and Spud were born about this time, and she was a loving big sister to them.

I'll relate the tale of the goat again - because Daphne showed her true colors that day.  We had a goat that had died of old age.  We went to our local family that raises goats with Pyrennes and they recommended one to us that knew dogs and would live with them.  'Kitty' was well taken-care of by the elderly lady and adapted to our pack quite well, dancing and trotting along with the dogs up and down our road.  For several months they treated her like a younger dog, taking her a bit further the longer she kept with them.  We tried to keep her to a leash, but she often found a way out of it.  Chewed collars and busted carabiner clips were a usual sight.  One day, she went running up the road with the dogs and out of sight.

Our daughter and the 'kitty' goat, a Nubian dwarf cross

Several of our dogs came back without the goat, but Daphne and her sister Loula stayed with her.  We called and waited and even went through the woods, not sure where on our property they might be.  Then, about eight o clock that night, as the sun was starting to set... here comes Daphne and Loula, one on either side of a seriously muddy goat, herding her along the road until we could come out and click a leash on her.  She had obviously been stuck in mud up to her armpits, and they had somehow (we'll never know) lead her out and forced her to come home.  It was quite a sight.  And we were so relieved.  They were both heroes that day - and the goat went on a lead after that when she wasn't in her pen.

Daphne in the back, Lucy in the middle, Sweetie at the front.

(oh, and a cat)

In the Fall of 2015, Daphne and Sweetie and Spud all chased the UPS truck.  They escaped through the door before I could stop them - and they were off running.  Spud came back that night.. but Sweetie and Daphne did not.  We were very worried.  We sent out calls to all of our neighbors and Facebook trying to see if anyone had seen them.  We called the shelters and the sheriff, too.  Sweetie came back on her own two days later - much to my relief.  Daphne, though, was still missing.  I gave up hope, until one day after Christmas - a very very cold day, a thin Daphne appeared on our road.

 Everyone was so happy to see her, they crowded around her, licking her face and welcoming her 

back.   She had been being kept on a leash somewhere - and her neck was a bit raw from straining against it to escape.  My husband was very angry at this but we didn't know where she had been.  We never found exactly who had tried to keep her ... she is a very pretty dog but they must have known someone was looking for her!  We were so happy to have her home.  I am so glad she didn't give up and found her way home.

There's still one more 'hero' episode about our sweet Daphne - but I'll save that for when I tell about her younger sister Minerva, as she was the one saved.  As I said, Daphne shows great loyalty and perseverance, and doesn't give up on her family.  She definitely is a treasure.

Sweetie - a Niume post

Meet Sweetie : Our Catahoula Leopard Dogs

I found this cute picture of Sweetie as a baby when I was looking for when they were born :)  

Sweetie is one of our set of 'twin' Catahoula leopard dogs, from the line we bred for four generations.  Sweetie and Spud were born in the early Spring of 2013, so they are now coming on four years old. 

Catahoulas are pack animals, herding dogs meant for controlling cattle and pigs in the swampy woods of Louisiana.  You might find them listed in some places as 'Louisiana Leopard Dog', or 'Catahoula Cur.'  And they are a registered working class breed with the American Kennel Club.

Having just one Catahoula you would miss out.  They build on each other and cooperate in a way I have seen from no other dog breed.    They are protective especially of other animals and children, and ours are only aggressive when they believe there is really a threat.  It saddens me to see their aggression listed on the higher end of breeds... perhaps due more to their crowding of people and pushing them.  

Perhaps, being 'pushy' scares some people?  Ours are very 'pushy.'  Our newly moved-in neighbor once complained because four of our dogs surrounded their out-of-state relative and 'herded' them all the way back to their property line, then took off for home!

In our experience each new member of the pack is trained by the elders and finds their 'niche' to living with their people.  If not given one, they will find their own "job"and take their self-assigned tasks seriously.  It would be hard to keep one in an apartment, especially alone.  They are exuberant, and need lots of space, exercise and time with their people.

This was Sweetie, as a baby.  She has one blue eye, and one brown.  Besides looking the most like her brother, she was also the smallest in the litter of ten puppies.  She had a very sweet and 'dainty' nature, right from the start.  She was 'the sweet one'.  I couldn't think of any better name for her.  It just stuck.

.Puppies and the goat.  We used to let the goat run free with all the  dogs, but we had to put her on a long kennel run.  There was an incident where Daphne and Loula had to bring her back from the swamp, where she had been mired for hours with mud up to her armpits.  I was so proud of my girls that day, as we had no idea where she was and were growing worried as darkness fell.  They were gone so long with her - we knew they were staying by her side.  To this day, the goat has a cord she can travel along the entire length of our driveway as well as a small pen she spends the rest of her time in.  And, she still thinks she is a dog, laying on the porch with the other dogs and running back and forth with them.  The dogs know, but they don't tell her the truth.

Sweetie and Spud as babies, at about six weeks of age.  (see above and below)  Sweetie was a bit more cautious.  But together, they were brave enough to meet the goat.  Being herding dogs, it is important they grow up with livestock from a young age.  Spud (the brother)  actually got close enough to lick the goat's nose.

Sweetie and her brother, Spud, sharing secrets.

All grown up, she is still the dainty one.  One of the very 'Sweetie' things is to see her sitting somewhere, front paws crossed at the ankles, and surveying the other dogs with an air of dignified amusement.  She believes she is 'in charge'  and keeps our other dogs in line.  She is the first to groom an ear, chide a barking puppy (her young nieces who are one year old, our last generation, which included the dog our daughter is training), or raise the alarm that someone or something NEW has arrived and must be barked at.

She had decided, early on, that she was MY dog - or I was her human... either way.  She greets me on my way in from work.  She expects (with head on my knee and eyes closed) to be fed a morsel from my plate at the end of family meals.  She gets jealous of the other dogs if they think they can get in line before her for a pet or a treat.  She sleeps closest my bed curled up on my bedside rug or a small cushion in the corner of the bedroom.  

She thinks she knows what is best for me, and tries to keep me to a schedule.  Often, she pokes her cold nose under my elbow if I am sleeping in late.  Late at night when I haven't come to bed yet, and am up typing at the computer, she comes and bunts her long pointed nose under my knees to see how I am.  If I don't pay attention sometimes, she tries to get herself under my knees and roll my chair to make sure I know she means business.

Sweetie on 'alert'.  On an excursion out to our west field, she was keeping her eye on her younger sister and our daughter at the same time.

Sweetie really doesn't like the leash.  She will walk on one, but only with her head hung low.  Her brother is the 'town' dog who likes other people and being on display.  Of the nieces, we have the same thing going on - one loves to follow people and do what they do, and the other would rather stay back and rule the pack and wait for the people to settle down to the homefires. Sweetie is okay with other people, especially children, but she is going to sit right by her people and keep an eye on everything for a while, just to make sure.  She takes after her great-grandmother in that.

Both sides of the Catahoula nature are interesting to see repeated through the generations.  At times, we say the pairs we have kept are two halves of each other's brain - one outgoing and people-focused, and the other seemingly introverted, but actually the brains behind the entire operation.

Although all of our dogs are now altered and there will be no more puppies we cherish each of the ones we have gotten to meet like they are family. And our daughter has a Catahoula to raise now that is well-matched to her. That was important to us.

I'll try to introduce you to Spud, Minerva, Daphne (and her sister Loula, who was killed by a car), Lucy and Freckles as the time goes on.  Their great-grandmother was Misha, who we recently lost at the ripe age of seventeen.  They represent the last twelve years of our lives here in Tennessee, in a way.  They all have their own distinct personalities and stories.

Saying goodbye to furry friends

I hate to dole out bad news, but now two things have happened and I'll just go on and say goodbye to both of our furry friends at once.


Gypsy
It's been over a week since we saw Gypsy, the black kitten from Pogo's litter. Is it bad to say I'm glad we kept two kittens? Mitzi, the yellow striped girl kitten, is still here and bouncey as ever. They were learning how to hunt with their Mom we guess and one night something happened to our tortoiseshell kitten. Pogo didn't seem too concerned. Mitzi cried 'I'm lonely' for days. Goodbye Gypsy, sorry to see you go.


Kelba, 5 years old
bluetick coonhound through-and-through
While I'm dealing out the bad news, we've also lost our Kelba just recently. For several days she was grumpy and curled up on her couch, but that wasn't entirely unlike her. She would have her bouts of grumpishness. But as long as she still got up for dinner and went outside and came back we usually didn't worry. Then one morning she didn't come back. We looked along the roads and called for her, but it isn't like her to not come back for more than one night in a row. After all, it was her job to call the morning wakeup call with a roundabout howl. Mark holds out the hope that maybe a hunter (it's rabbit hunting season here) picked her up with their dogs, or worse maybe they shot her when she was fighting with their dogs. :( We'll probably never know living out in dense woods like this.


Still with us
Pogo giving 'cat lessons' to Mitzi

Here and There

The needle for the circular shawl came in the mail. I still have a little ways to go before it will fit.

A new bird softie.
We went to the flea market and sold some things. It was a warm, busy day! There were turkeys, peacocks, puppies, goats, rabbits, chickens and even kittens! We only got to see one of the kittens, though - as they were already given away. We spent a little and made a little - to come out just about even. Then we saw a working lathe machine and had to buy that as well. Hopefully we will get to test it out soon and see what can be made with it :) The weatherman says we will be getting 20 and 30 degree temperatures this week with storms. I'm glad we didn't plant more in the garden last week!

A treasure from the past:


illustration from the book 'Three to Get Ready'
Written by Betty Boeghold and illustrated by Mary Chalmers
This was one of my favourite books as a little girl. The story is beautiful and sweet, with the pictures sticking in my head even as an adult. I found a copy of it available on Ebay and ordered it :)

Three little kittens, George, Ginger and Gigi, each get lessons about different 'growing up' things - being 'ornery', selfish, reckless etc.. and Momma cat is there to help them learn their lesson without making the world seem too big and scary. The picture above is about when all three kittens get a ball for their 'three-month birthday' and Gigi the calico takes George's ball. She won't give it back, but she can't play with two balls at once, either. She has to sit and guard both balls while the other two decide to play with Ginger's ball, which makes her very sad and sorry she was so selfish.


Momma cat comforting Gigi after she has said she is sorry.

And some real kitty antics:

Yeller, the outside boy cat.

He says he has a rough life.

Mouse doesn't agree...

Doggie Tales

We've been discussing some ways to illustrate some of the funny doggie tales around here. Yesterday we tried out a few different methods in clay and ink.



The modelling clay would work well, especially with a tripod setup and good light. Mark made the bone for the little puppy :o)




My drawing needs to get a little better - trying to get the shape of Blaze's head down is difficult, there are so many angles!

Mouse and her Puppy

Mouse has a puppy... her name is Puck. Since she is so much smaller than the other dogs here, Mouse seems to have adopted her. They go in and out the front door together, play in the woods and attack each other in 'chase' all over the house. Of course, Mouse only plays chase with the puppy when she thinks she isn't being observed.. cat dignity and all...



Way back in September, Mouse already watched over this strange, large and unmannered kitten she has acquired. You can see it on her face here -- "Hrmph. What a task this is!"



We're done playing in the yard, time to come in now!


Puck got smacked back soon after this sequence...

What's going on around these parts: A lot of camera work! That is all part of more sewing for the shop, and listing things on Ebay, and fixing of computer equipment. I am working on my mom's birthday present (which includes knit dishcloths), and sent something out in the mail for my nephew's belated birthday.

The weather has been up and down - very warm one day and bright sunlight with cold wind the next. I'm also learning to drive the stick-shift truck - very different, but so far the transmission is still in one piece! So the days are full and varied, with lots of little pieces getting done on things here and there. My dream bag has five rows left to do before I start to plan what the back will look like.. or maybe I shouldn't plan it at all?


Daffodils in the garden here


Sunset at the lake