Flood Warning, Canadian County

I am in Fly Creek NY with my daughter who is due to bear her first child any day now. We know with 70% certainty, thanks to modern ultrasound, that it's a girl. Her name will be Mira. Don't know what name may be on standby if Mira happens to fall into that 30% category and emerge with a stem, but should that happen, he'll only have to wear pink for about the first year or so.

While I'm out of pocket my Dear Husband Steve stayed in Oklahoma to hold the fort down in my absence, and Holy Cow, he has his work cut out for him today - I just received this post from him via Facebook: 

     

     "Raining like a heifer pissing on a flat rock here. The BX (Broadway Extension) and Turner Turnpike are CLOSED. TV telling everybody to stay put. Mike DiGacomo (street super, OKC) has his barricades and storm sewer covers floating away. The 10" tree log path has floated past the sweetbush....pans and bowls all over the trailer. Upstairs bedroom in the house tarped and running into 5 gal buckets. must empty every 5 minutes. Muffin inside and pissed off. Cookie? well, good stealth to you! No cell phone signal, but we got internet antenna. Thunder in the distance (NW of Mustang) but none locally. leak in the studio under the East wall and door threshold. bear gonow.......an intense event."

KFOR weather has an interactive radar where you can enter an address and pinpoint your actual location. It keeps looking like the rain is going to let up, but it just keeps raining, and heavily.  Reminds me of a weather joke we have in Oklahoma - "Last time it rained forty days and forty nights, they got a trace in Guymon." Yeah, Mustang is nowhere near Guymon.

Both cats have wanted to be nowhere but outside since early Spring but Muffin ran inside this morning to escape another block-headed yellow lab who came around barking at Steve. It was a different dog from the one I described in my "Not All Who Wander" blog entry last month because today's dog was uncut, as compared to the old neutered male of previous mention.  So Muffin is inside, where he does not like to be, but which he finds less distasteful than going out in the pouring rain. Cats are so funny.  Cookie can usually find a discreet place to hole up and usually stays quite dry, thank you very much, but I bet she's wet today! I hope she's okay. 

The tree log path Steve mentions - we had done some clearing and reserved a couple of tree trunks for Truth, Beauty and Goodness projects. These trunks are actually 10 to 16 inches across, and we had cut one of them into 2 to 3 inch slabs to use as stepping stones in paths where the grass hasn't taken hold yet. One set of steps was about 12 to 20 feet from the sweetbush, the next one was about 50 to 75 feet from it, and the other path about 100+ feet from the sweetbush, so any one of those would be a significant washout!

Speaking of turnpikes being closed, before I left, I promised without fail that I would keep an eye ahead on the weather when I'm traveling, and if it looked very bad, I would hold my position rather than risk harm due to a weather disaster. This situation reaffirms that determination. That interactive map on KFOR will show current weather radar for any address you plug into it, so that promises to be an extremely handy tool in addition to local forecasts along the way.

Meanwhile, here in Fly Creek, it's only overcast. Cool central NY summer day. Misty's dog, Potato, rests at my feet, while we wait for labor to begin.

Stay dry and safe, everyone!

Vermiculture!

GUESS WHAT?! Today I found my old original worm bin! I can't believe it's still there!

It is a plastic under-bed type plastic storage box that I had drilled holes in the bottom for drainage and around along the sides under the rim for ventilation. I place either nylon screening or some of that garden mulch fabric against the holes to help keep my little darlings from escaping through the holes.

I'd kept it out back under some trees where it had shade during the day to help keep it cool enough to keep from baking my little wormies, and close enough to the house to make it easy to carry kitchen scraps out to the bin.

One of our cats, Cookie (aka "The Mistress of Stealth"), liked to perch on a limb, we're guessing to watch for any small critters that may have been interested in the worm bin.

Scared Steve out of ten years' growth one evening about dusk when he was out there piddling around and saw this pair of eyes about waist high. We had seen larger wild cats before, like a bobcat as big as a medium sized dog, so his first thought was what does that pair of eyes belong to and how big must it be if its head is at waist height? But it was just Cookie, perched on a tree limb, watching the worm bin.

If you're interested in or curious about keeping earthworms, check out the The Worm Bin. It's a Yahoo Group all about earthworms, castings, and wormbins.

Abandoned

We recently moved back to - well, are in the process of moving back to- an old family place, which has been rented out to various different people over the last seven years.

The most recent renter may be a few marbles short of a bag. He left the most incredible mess I have ever seen in my life, I kid you not.

The #@^&@*# also left his cats behind.

I know he knows he left them - we talked to him on Sunday on his cell phone. He said he'd be finished moving on Monday and told us where he would leave the key for us to pick up on Tuesday. It appears that the last thing he did before he left for the last time was to bring in a twenty five pound bag of cat food, lay it on the floor and cut it open so the kitties would be well fed until we arrived, and left the front window open about ten inches so the kitties could come and go at will.

Two of the cats were at least acquainted with people and were clearly lonely for human companionship. One would come right up to us, talking, rubbing against our legs. The other one was slightly less friendly but not unfriendly - was a little more cautious, but was talkative and almost approachable.

The third one was talkative, but would not let anyone near him/her. He/she would talk to us, but if we talked back, he/she would give us that "Oh, no you don't!" look and run away.

Given that my own cats are aging, and judging by the MESS this guy left (I am not kidding, I have NEVER seen anything like it), even though I saw evidence of things like flea treatment, litter buckets, and cat food, I could not say with any certainty that these kitties have ever had any veterinary attention, in terms of being current with shots and whatnot. In addition, there is that whole thing of the cats using the entire house as a catbox. These factors, plus more I haven't mentioned, led me to the decision to call Animal Control.

Fortunately, the woman in charge of Animal Control in Mustang has a good working relationship with the local vets and tries very hard to find homes for animals that come under her care.

She came out and easily caught the two "people cats," who are now in quarantine at the shelter as I write. They really tugged at my heartstrings, these two, but I have no doubt that they are quite adoptable and will find good homes as soon as it is feasible to release them.

We made a plan about the third kitty and set about, then, to clean the place up. We also have some serious renovation to do there, and once we got all the garbage cleaned out, we began demolition on the parts that have to be rebuilt and replaced, noise of which has further convinced the third kitty not to come near any of us.

So we took up the food for twenty four hours, then set a live trap with food and water in it and were immediately successful in capturing the third kitty, who now awaits transport to the shelter first thing in the morning.

However - now that the house is empty, we have discovered TWO MORE kitties that we hadn't seen before! They were hiding under the dumpster (crying) when we finished work today. I don't know how successful we will be at capturing them since they might associate "food" with "cage," but if they're hungry enough a cage with food in it might be attractive to the poor little things. Since we never saw these last two until we got the house empty, it makes me wonder if there are yet more kitties. These wild ones are the ones whose outcome I worry about. If they can get their shots and be neutered or spayed they could make decent barn cats. They certainly aren't interested in being people kitties right now, that's for sure.

Since all these kitties have had free run of the house for who knows how long, and have done their business in every nook and cranny, it seriously smells like urine and poo in there, even with all the furniture, carpet and trash out of the house. Steve found a super concentrated odor eliminator on the Internet, which we have ordered. It should arrive sometime next week. I'll be sure to post an entry on its efficacy.

Meanwhile, my kitties Muffin and Cookie are sequestered here at our little one bedroom extended stay apartment...where they LOVE it! Nice and cool, all they have to do is sleep all day,thank you very much, and eat once in a while, and if they feel like it, allow us to brush them - the life of Riley, as my mother would say.

Tuesday April 21, 2009

This mini suite we're in here at the residential hotel has a main living area with a television and a kitchenette, a good-sized bathroom and a bedroom. Like a teen-inesy apartment. Carpet everywhere except in the bathroom, so that is where the catbox is.

Muffin totally loves being this close to "Mom" all the time, but I am also seeing that I may be able to socialize Cookie a little more in this small space. She still spends most of her time hiding under the bed, but she is coming out a little more - every once in a while I enjoy the pleasant surprise of velvet against my ankles, and even more rarely she will join me on the bed at night or let me pull her into my lap for an ever-so-brief love-fest.

There is a lot of debate among cat owners as to whether cats should ever be let outside or not, but I do let mine out under certain conditions...one being that I can get them back in at night! So over the years we have formed the practice of taking up the food dishes in the morning and feeding in the evening so I can get everybody to come when I call. With a cat who may or may not answer when you call, feeding time can be an excellent motivator. Another plus for me with once-a-day feeding is that I can see who is eating what (yes, I watch them eat).

We started this feeding-at-night thing when we first lived on the acreage, and then more consciously when we lived in Cooperstown - if one, some or all the cats happen to go outside during the day, it's my way of making sure they all come in at night. Believe it or not, even in Cooperstown there are scary, dangerous things about at night - raccoons, skunks, dogs, foxes, and the like. In the hills around the village they also have bears, but those guys rarely enter the village. (Notice I did NOT say they "never" enter the village!)

At the acreage in Oklahoma, we have all that, plus owls, coyotes and bobcats, so while I occasionally let my creatures out to enjoy the day with me, I'm nearly anal about making sure everyone is securely inside come nightfall. To this day, wherever I am, if I awaken in the night to the sound of coyotes I sit bolt upright in a panic until I have taken a mental roll call of all my pets.

This tiny room at the residential hotel is showing itself to be a good way for Cookie and I to rebond, which will be good when it's time for the cats to go to the acreage.

The former renter is all moved out, so we're going out there today to evaluate, to triage what needs to be done, and to work in the garden. Overalls, work gloves, notebook, camera, ice chest and sack lunches; I'm just sorry the cats don't get to go yet. Big job ahead, I know that, but I so love that place.

The day awaits!

How Did Your Pets Get Their Names?

Our dear old yellow and white cat Muffin was, has always been, and still is "just as sweet as a little sugar muffin."

Cookie got her name because the name Muffin was already taken.

Mimosa (who passed away a few days before this last Christmas) - I know y'all think she was named after the mixed drink called a Mimosa, but we lived on Oklahoma when she was born and there grow leguminous trees called Mimosa trees. They are fast growing and have an exotic look about them (as Mimosa did, come to think of it) and bloom out with countless flowers that look something like pom-poms or those big fluffy cosmetic blush brushes, and those flowers smell so sweet I can't even tell you. I'm sure the drink Mimosa was named after those flowers and so was our sweet little Mimosa kitty.

I had a female cat once, named Ramon. Yes I know it's a boy's name, but I'd heard a song on Prairie Home Companion one time a hundred or so years ago,
"Black, black, black is the color of my cat Ramon,
My new white couch is his home...."
sung to the tune of "Black Black Black is the color of my true love's hair." It was so cute that I said right then if I ever got another black cat I would name it Ramon, and I did, even though she was a girl. Could've named her Ramona, but Ramona is a different character all together. Ramon was definitely Ramon. If she'd been Ramona, that is what I would have named her, but.... Maybe I'll name the next qat Ramona (after Ramona Quimby - you Beverly Cleary fans will understand)

Before Ramon I had a black and white Maine Coon Cat named Valentino. Goodness gracious he was pretty. Long haired, black with a white ruff, looked like he was wearing a tuxedo. Nicknamed "Dinks," he was an escape artist who loved to chase birds and just such a bird led him into the path of an oncoming car, breaking all our hearts, may he rest in peace.

Way before that, my first cat (in my adulthood) was a one of those grey and black tabby cats named Casey after a book I'd read called "Casey" about a horse who was infatuated with cats and wanted to be a cat, but since he couldn't be a cat, he took the name Casey, which stood for K.C., which stood for Kitty Cat. My Casey was a pill. Loved to tear around (wherever we lived), climbed curtains and furniture, liked to perch on top of an open door, if you can picture that. Would fetch those cellophane wrapped cigarette packs if you wadded one into a ball and threw it. He would go get them and bring them back as long as you'd throw them. Loved that crinkly sound they made. I haven't thought of that n years, Casey playing fetch.

When Casey got old we got another black and grey tabby cat who resembled Casey (although they were actually quite different) and we named that one "Eikon" (pronounced "Icon") which means "image" since he so resembled or was, as they say in the south, "the spittin' image" of Casey. we called him Ikie for a nickname.

There was a sweet little grey kitty just the color and shading of a soft graphite pencil drawing. We tried to name her Graphite, but my daughter always called her Grake Itty (for "Gray Kitty")

Oh, when I was a toddler, we had a gray and black tabby named Butch. Butch the Cat. Dear old long-suffering Butch - I dressed him up in doll clothes, tried to roll him around in a doll stroller. I really was afraid for Butch because it was plain that he, being a striped cat, was a baby tiger and everybody knows that tigers grow very large and become dangerous and you can't keep grown tigers at home. I fretted mightily, at the tender age of three, that he would grow up and we would have to get rid of him and I hoped upon hope that the zoo would take him. I don't know how Butch got his name.

Bart the Wonder Dog came with his name - at least the "Bart" part.

Benny was named after Benny and the Jets.

Arrow was named partly for the Nilsson song and mostly for the white arrow that ran from the top of his forehead to the tip of his nose. Arrow might or might not come when you called him, but he would always if you called Mom. That dude sure loved his Mom (that would be me.) We had Arrow when Isabella was little and she called him Dojjy Ayo - Dojjy for doggy and Ayo for Arrow, so cute.

Lots more to tell about all these guys, but this is all for now.

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