Cats, Dogs, and Christmas Knitting

Our Pets

Yes, our pets.
What a topic.

We've had Chelsea the longest...going on 12 years now.  She was a "gift" from our son.  Chelsea was about to be taken to the pound in Utah where our son was visiting.  He phoned us and asked us if we would like a dog, as this little dog was so nice.  We had recently had Kim's cocker spaniel, Buffy, put to sleep after his long life of 16 years.  But how could we say no?  Besides, we had a safety net; Casey's friend's mother said she would take Chelsea if we didn't like her.

And just look what we ended up with....half husky, half corgi is what we were told.  And she was adorable.

Chelsea has been a great addition to our lives.  We estimate her to be around 14 years old so we don't expect many more years from her.  But she's been great.
She's mostly deaf now, and likes to sleep, a lot.  But she's been tolerant of our chickens and many cats. She's been a sweetheart.

Then there's Jessie.

Jessie was a stray kitten from next door.  He came to us three years ago.
Jessie is a large cat, but a big scaredy cat.  He's a lover, not a fighter.  And he's also a drooler.  Pet him and you'll get wet.  He is by far the shiest of our cats.

The cats next door just wouldn't stop making babies.
Felix was our next adoptee.
How could we resist???
Just look at this guy.

But, I'm sorry to say, I probably pulled Felix away from his mother too soon.  And I don't recommend it.  But the result was a sort of bond between he and I.  Felix was quite needy when I brought him home and he got into the habit of sleeping across my neck at night.  Which he does to this day.  I have to admit I love it, as it feels like a warm scarf across my neck at night and is very comforting.

He also enjoys rides on my back/shoulder through the garden.  (Not sure why, he's just weird I guess.)

Felix is a smaller sized cat but he has the cajones of a much larger cat.  He stood up to Scarface upon his arrival to our household.  Something none of the other pets have EVER matched.  So never doubt Felix's courage.


And then there's Frankie.

I never should have adopted Frankie. (The clipped ear is a consequence of neutering at the pound for a feral cat/mother combo.)
But just look at those eyes!  Those beautiful blue eyes.
Frankie was one of the seven kittens we rescued, along with their parents, and had spayed/neutered and adopted out.
Just look at him as a kitten and tell me you could have resisted him.

My first mistake was in naming him.  Don't ever, ever, ever, name a kitten you intend to give up for adoption.  Because if you do, you're dead.  Well, not dead, but you're not going to give that kitten away are you?

And why "Frankie" you ask? (If you have to ask you've probably never heard of Frank Sinatra.)

Give me a little credit for not also keeping his cousin, "Francine".  There was never such a beautiful pair.
But I sucked it up and adopted her out. (I know, it wasn't easy.)

Frankie was a spit fire when we caught him as a kitten.  No longer.  He is a WHINER, all caps intended.
Frankie will wake you up in the middle of the night, not with a love pat, but with claws out, crying. And what does he want, you ask?  He wants you to PET him as he EATS.  Yes, you read that correctly.

And finally, Scarface.

Yes, SCARFACE.  We did not name him.
Our son did.
Scarface is now ten years old.  He was on his way to the pound when I told my son to bring him over.
This is a dog who doesn't like other dogs.  Or strangers.  Or children.  Or cats.
A dog who will bite, and has bitten.
A grouchy dog.
A dog with problems.
He was supposed to have had a home but it didn't pan out.  Our son needed to move on with his life;  I get it.
I just couldn't get Scarface ending up at the pound.  So he ended up at our house.  (How many parents out there end up with their children's pets????)

And he has managed to fit in somehow.  Now he is "my dog" and Chelsea is "Kim's dog".  Scarface has managed somehow to fit into our lives and into our hearts.
He tolerates the chickens and has learned to tolerate the cats, exception being scaredy cat Jessie.
Kim and I are accustomed to his peculiarities as he had lived with us prior to his arrival ten months ago.
We don't expect many more years from this grey boy, but we intend to make his final years comfortable.

Look how brave Felix is.
He enjoys playing with Scarface's tennis balls.

Check out our pet chickens in the sidebar to the right.
How many pets do you have?  How many stories do you have?

Spring, Still

I was out in the garden this week and these tiny tulips were just about gone already.

Professor de Monserri tulips...

The red marks on the tips are very pretty.

Hen and chicks are perking up.

This time of year the changes happen quickly.
This ground cover has some great color going on.

Jessie and Felix relax indoors on a rainy day.

Hope you're able to get outside and enjoy the spring.

Gardening with Cats

Spring is making its presence known.
Our bluets (Centaurea montana) are beginning to bloom.

They are a lovely flower.
Nice spring bloom.  Good color.

Their only drawback;  the foliage gets crappy looking post bloom.
My solution:  I cut it all back after blooming is complete.  And they spread around a bit, but that's a plus as far as I'm concerned.

Of course it is difficult to do anything in our garden without Felix jumping onto my back.

He's such a handsome boy, don't you think?

He and Frankie enjoy getting some loving from Kim also.

Spring's a comin'!

I took a stroll out through the garden today.
Not much to see.  It's all still brown and unattractive.

Felix took advantage of the situation and jumped up for a ride. 

Check out the ride he took last year, you'll see an entirely different looking garden.

 

Randy and Meg are posting about their hellebore blooms.  You should check them out.

Grace also has a post including hellebore blooms. Very nice.

Here is one of ours. 

Not attractive.

Not yet anyway. 

At least a few more weeks.

I do have one bloom to show.  Our snowdrops (galanthus) are in bloom.

And Tootsie tried to chew off my wedding ring this morning.  My fault.  (I didn't let her keep up the attempt too long.)  Speaking of chickens, there was a waiting line for the nesting box today.  The extra sunshine has woken up the girls to start laying more often.  There are two nesting boxes for six hens but it seems everyone prefers the right hand box for some odd reason.

Gardening and Pets

Like everyone else we've been busy. We hosted a garden party recently at our house which kept us hopping for a few days; preparing the food and spiffing up the garden. We got lucky, the weather was perfect.

 I'm happy with the look of both the Comtesse de Bouchard and Perle d'Azur clematis in the Moongarden.




Florida Sieboldii is blooming nicely on the arbor.




Speaking of the arbor, Kim recently refinished our glider.
It was formerly purple.  (My idea.)  Kim chose the new colors which I think look great.




I'm enjoying this Lysimachia punctata, but it is supposed to be 'Alexander' - "White edged leaves........"
Which is why I bought it, for the nice foliage.  You can see it's all green now.
Oh well, the flower structure is nice too.



The back porch has shaped up nicely.  We've added the banana on the right and quite a few new container plants.
Felix is enjoying his nap time.



Our service berry tree has always been popular with the robins, and we've seen some cedar waxwings lately also.  But the funniest thing is to see the big hens jump up to snatch a berry for themselves.



Speaking of hens, we've had the little girls out in the garden lately.  Here they're charging through the back porch.



Felix shares the "watering hole" with them.



Felix attempts to play.  They're just his size after all.



More attempts at playing.
The chicks don't get it.

We have had some difficulty getting them together with the big girls.  They spent two days in the coop together before we had an injury.  So we've separated them again.  Both sets seem OK when they're together in the back yard so we'll continue to work on the integration.




And we're trying to tame down these three new ones in preparation for adoption.  A neighbor moved out a few months ago - without three of their five cats - and one of the ones they left was pregnant, of course.
We've been taming the mother down and she allows us to pet her, (but don't try picking her up), and we recently gathered up her three kittens.  They aren't happy but they're eating and using the litter box.
(We'll be having the mom kitty spayed soon.)



Hope your summer is shaping up nicely.  Happy Summer Solstice!

"Cat Walking" in our Garden

We've had two nice days of rain which have done the garden a world of good. Felix followed me as I decided to take a little stroll this afternoon to see what might be newly in bloom. Before I knew what was happening he decided he needed a ride. He jumped right up on my shoulder, wanting to peruse the garden without getting his feet wet I assume. So we continued our walk together.

Clematis 'Haku Ookan' is blooming nicely.

The right side of the garden has shaped up well. I like the path and the alliums along the right side. On the left you can see our huge Sambucus nigra 'Eva'. It's just about ready to bloom.

We saw Tanacetum cossineum 'Robinson's Giant Crimson' with saponaria ocymoides and a yellow iris in the background.

Felix continued to ride on my shoulder, purring all the time.

We noticed the 'Red Charm' peony is fading onto the path.

Some foxgloves are blooming.

And the poppies are just beginning. Not sure which this one is but it's a lovely white.

Lots of columbines blooming.

Felix and I certainly enjoyed our garden tour. We hope you did too.