All About Glass (Day 17)

I reserve the right for a re-do. I struggled with today’s assignment, mainly because I do my assignments after I get off work or in the early evening,  and I had little to work with (including imagination). I added a few old photos just because. Let’s start with wild and crazy.

Last mother’s day I received a beautiful hummingbird feeder with a colorful swirled glass bulb for the nectar.  As an experiment, I held it in front of a few different objects. The top one is in front of one of our apple tree blossoms. Sort of reminds me of over-exposed film.

This is the same hummingbird feeder, looking through the apple tree limbs. Sort of creepy, like maybe it should be the poster of a horror movie

My beautiful kitten Siggy watched me from the front window, so I decided to capture photo of her. I wanted a reflection of the yard but the ugly red drapes made it difficult to see much.

Now for the oldies.

This one was taken at a lighthouse in Maine. Can’t say much, except there is a window involved.

Last but not least, a view of the setting sun outside my car window. Pleasant dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Herding Cats – Mickey Goes Missing

Pets can be a wonderful source of comfort but they come with a price. In a previous blog, I posted that  I was the proud human of four cats. Now it is three.  Our female, Reinette, managed to lose her way home a few weeks ago. She came to us as a stray and spent quite a bit of time outdoors so I don’t want to believe something bad happened. She wasn’t overly attached to us. Mostly we were a place to eat and sleep, so  believing she simply wandered off eases my mind. But not all cats are quite so outdoor savvy and when Mickey went missing, I imagined the worse.

Mickey is a young tuxedo cat, one of Reinette’s kittens. He’s a real character, with a distinct meow. Many times I come into the room and he is laying on his back, his white underside exposed. Like all cats, Mickey is  nocturnal and once the sun starts sets, he wants to go outside.  Mickey does not wander from the fenced-in front yard. I don’t know if he doesn’t know he could jump the fence or is just to lazy. Mickey is also a bit of a fraidy-cat who races back to the front porch when something scares him.

My husband and I are on vacation and my daughter is taking care of the cats. When she texted me that Mickey had not come home the night before, I was worried. I think my fear was worse because I was away from home and couldn’t do anything to help find him. I thought if I were home, he  would come when I called or I could go back into the woods and see if he was stuck in a tree. As the day progressed, I imagined the worse: what if the coyote that roams our area got him? What if he was hit by a car? Instead of enjoying my vacation, I worried, not only for my cat but also for my daughter who doesn’t deal with the death of a pet well.  I tried to cut-off the bad feelings by just admitting that he was gone and wasn’t coming back. That’s what happens when you own a pet, especially one that goes outdoors.

But this story does have a happy ending. While my husband and I were at dinner, I got a text from my daughter, asking if it was OK to take in a stray that came to the house. Attached was a picture of my Mickey. We think something scared him and he had been hiding under the tractor in the back yard all day. Knowing that something, or someone, you love is safe is the best feeling in the world. I could feel the transition from blah to jubilation.

Being a human to a pet, or even being a parent, a spouse, or a friend, means accepting that bad things eventually happen. That’s why we need to enjoy the time we  have and live each day to the fullest. When I get home, Mickey gets a great big hug.

Herding Cats (part 1)

An attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors.

I never gave much thought to this phrase. At least not until I actually tried to herd cats. I live with four felines that keep me on my toes. Each one of them is special in his or her own way.  And in no way controllable!  Over the next few blogs  I would like to introduce you to my wonderful cats as I am sure they will be fodder for future blogs.

Poe, named for the poet Edgar Allen Poe, joined our family in October 2013.  Black as a raven, we adopted Poe from the Human Society when he was about 8 weeks old. What made Poe stand out in the crowd was how he carried his toy in his mouth. I know this is not uncommon with some cats but I had never seen a cat do that before and I fell in love. As a kitten, Poe loved those wands with the feathers and he would vault like an acrobat to grab it. Once it was his, off he to the bedroom. I guess he wanted to make sure it was safe. If he thought I was ignoring him too much, he would bring the wand to me so we could play.

Poe

 

Reinette, our  “little queen”, wandered to our  house only a few weeks after adopting Poe. She is also black as a raven, which we thought rather odd since stray black cats were uncommon in our area. We could not find her owner so we decided she could stay. Reinette is more of an outdoor cat and not overly affectionate. She doesn’t demand much and isn’t much of a bother. Unfortunately Reinette had not been ‘fixed’ when we found her and before we could take care of her, she ended up pregnant.  My daughter was thrilled but she didn’t understand that it meant we had to find homes for kittens. I think I fretted over Reinette’s  pregnancy as much as my own. I kept looking for signs that she was ready. I made her a birthing bed, which she ignored. The night of the birth she didn’t show a lot of signs. It was only when I woke up to a tiny mew that I realized she was giving birth – on my bed! All you can do is sit back and be glad that she decided to let us be a part of it. Reinette gave birth to three males and a female.

We gave two away. The other two are for another day.

Reinette