Kittens Day 2

The kittens were weighed this morning and 2 were 4 ounces each while the other 2 were 5 ounces each. That seems large for newborns but that was the weight. I dare say they are more now after a day of feeding.

As you can see from the pictures, they are big. A while ago they had decided that Mom had only one source of food and they all wanted the same spot. There was quite a cat fight over that one spot but they finally sorted it out.

Birthing kittens

Well the day started as it normally does, Patches wants in or out and today we had a bit of a thunderstorm but not a real bad one. Patches had disappeared last night in the rain and about 5 AM she finally showed up. Martha let her in, but about 8 she wanted out. I let her go after telling her that she would get wet. About 10 she came back in and wanted attention, a lot of it. After a bit it became obvious that today might be the day for kittens. We have been trying to estimate how far she is along and I think today is 62 or 63 days. About 11 o'clock I decided that she should be in a box or on some towels and went to find one. She tagged along and she went straight to the one that has been there for over a month. First she got under the chair but then got in the box. After a while she came out and I put some towels down for her as best I could with her laying on it. The first kitten was born at 11:30 AM and the 4th one at 12:45. Patches handled it great and the kittens look quite healthy. The third one is black and the others appear to be yellow. I will post more pictures as they grow.

Sticks and Storms

Last night we had a storm come through about 10 PM and it had a lot of wind as well as a little rain, almost an inch, and a few chunks of hail which didn't damage anything here Our Pecan trees lost a goodly bunch of dead branches (sticks) and the front yard was littered with them. I spent a couple of hours putting them in a pile and scheduling the city to "pick up sticks" which they are very good at. You can schedule the pickup on-line and they send you an email about the work order.

Rain and Growth

 The rose is one of the prettiest flowers I know of. When I was growing up we had many rose bushes and my job, well one of them, was to dig around them so they could breathe. That was my dad's description. He maintained that you had to keep the grass and weeds out in order for them to flourish, they couldn't grow if they were surrounded by the choking weeds. Now that I am older I see his point but I have to admit that I am not as vigilant as I should be to keep the weeds out of the roses. This sample is from a bush in our yard along Ave N.  Recent rains have really helped the roses.

Pecan tassels! We have 5 pecan trees in the front yard and soon most of these tassels will be in the yard or on the street or sidewalk. We must take note though that each one represents a nut that will be delicious in the late fall when they begin to come down. We have had a lot of rain in the last week and more to come this week. Pecan trees love water and the rain will make for a great crop.

Our garden is planted with Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, and Squash. We have a drip irrigation system that keeps it watered for us and the fresh food that comes from it is really great.

We are in the process of painting the bricks on our house. They were painted when we bought it and we always wished they were not. Getting the paint off however was too much work so we are just changing the color and freshening it up. We think it will look really good when we are finished. This shows the color that it will be when we are done.

Another Cat

This cat has been hanging around since well before Thanksgiving and since early February she has been pregnant from one of the feral males who frequent our area. We had built her a box and tried to make it so she would stay and have her babies here but that did not work. On Thursday of last week she hung around all day wanting to be held and petted, she was ready to have her kittens. By Friday morning she was nowhere to be found and has not shown up for food or water since. We assumed the kittens had come and she could not leave them. Today about 11 AM she made an appearance and sure enough the kittens had come. She didn't bring them with her of course but they were not inside her either. I fed her and she had some water but had apparently been getting food and water elsewhere. I followed her to where I think the kittens are and we will try to verify that today. If that is really her home then that is fine but if not I hope to reclaim her and make her mine. 

Spring Break at the Creek 2016

We returned last Sunday from a nice trip to the Creek for Spring Break. Martha worked mostly on painting the house and we now have that finished for the house itself. We still want to paint the poles and decks but there wasn't time to accomplish all of that. Below is a picture of the house all painted.

I worked on several things including the kitchen stove. I set out to restore it so it would be something that stayed from my parents time. First I tried to replace a couple of defective burners (heating elements since it is Electric). They didn't work at first but I discovered a loose neutral and that seemed to fix it. Later we discovered that the oven would not heat correctly and the burners were not consistent. We so far have been unable to isolate these problems and will eventually have to replace the stove if we can't find the problem. I also worked on a live well on the pier and some wiring for the lights. That part of the project is not finished and I will work some more when I go down again.

We took lots of pictures and I have included a few of some of the birds. There are numerous birds in the area and these are just some of them. The woodpecker above lives with his mate in one of the semi-dead trees in the yard. The trees were damaged by a freeze a few years ago and have never recovered.

 Seagulls are everywhere  and are the messiest bird there I think.

Not sure exactly which bird this is but there are a few of them along with many Great Blue Herons.

This one is a Brown Pelican and there are many of these. With a wing span that approaches 6 feet they soar just above the water getting small fish and other creatures.

We had a good week and a half but were interrupted by rain several times. It almost always rains there and we got between 2 and 3 inches while we were there. We had 5 inches at home while we were gone.

It's hard to say goodbye

 

Last Tuesday we had to say goodbye to our little furry friend, Maui.  Actually, she was more than just a friend, she was family.  We invited her to come and live with us in April 19, 2012 when her previous “family” could no longer keep her.  We thought her name quite exotic until we learned that it was just a backward version of ‘meow’, but she wore it with pride anyway.

 Maui had us smiling from the very start.  She wanted to be with us, but didn’t necessarily want attention, she just wanted to be close.  She would follow us all over the house, back and forth down the hall, not really on our heels like a dog might be but when we would turn around to go back the way we had come, there she was.  We would tell her we were coming right back and she could just wait, but she rarely did.  I guess she didn’t want to miss anything important.

Maui took us through some really weird stages – like when for some reason she thought she shouldn’t touch the carpet and avoided it with her whole being for about a week. One day her food would be the best thing we had ever given her, and the next day she would turn up her nose at the "junk" we had served and strut away.  Maui would also come if we sang. It didn’t have to be good singing (and usually wasn’t), there was just something about the changing tones that she couldn’t resist. 

Then came the day her health started failing, we began cleaning up after her, taking trips to the vet, trying everything we could think of to make her well, then finally having to let her go.   Now that she is gone the house seems strangely quiet.  There’s no greeting at the door when we come home, no nudges to obtain scratches and pets, no little presence following us around. No need for water or food bowls, litter box or cat toys and they have all been picked up.  The strangest things will bring on memories and start the tears flowing – like when I cleaned out the litter box to put it away and found myself crying because I was wishing she were there to make it dirty again.

 
Life goes on, and we move on, and we hang onto the little memories.

Though pets are very special, there’s no comparison to losing a person whom you love.  Both Clarence and I have said goodbye to our parents, and many friends as well.  We know others who have lost a sibling, or a child, and I can’t even imagine how much that would hurt.  I know many of you who are reading this have also lost someone.  It can be very hard to enter back into the world and it seems life goes on without you.  So many things trigger memories and you hurt all over again.

Isn’t it wonderful to know our tears don’t go unnoticed?  Even if we hide them from the world, God knows about them and He cares.  Actually, God goes beyond caring, He understands.  Long before you and I were born God allowed His son to take on our sin and die for us.  It may be that there are no tears in Heaven now, but I think there might have been then.  If you are hurting today, tell God about it.  Let Him hold you in His arms while you weep, you might discover that His tears are mixed with yours.