Coffee Break #874

It's been a little hectic around the house lately. Hubby has several projects on the go as well as being sound tech for the latest production. The house is in a pickle because I haven't had the wear-with-all to get my butt in gear and pick up after the dogs. Mainly two of them. The two Beagles.

Yes I said two. We had one and then came Buster Brown. He had a very traumatic twenty-four hours before coming to us. He was dumped on a co-worker's property (of Hubby) and went through another two homes before we got to him. Hubby was adamant that this dog needed us. And after forty-eight hours in our home, after watching Buster's reactions to a few things we decided to stop the search for his owners in his best interest.

So the house is much livelier than before. Buster and GiGi are bonding which is good. The old dogs just clear the path when the Beagles get rampaging. I guess Bullet figured one wasn't enough to fill the void and sent another just in case.

Change seems to be all about. Daught and Artist are talking of moving by Summer's end. It will seem empty by the fish pond without them. Its hard some days to hear them talk or encourage the choices but then without change we cannot grow and then we become stagnant. Both of them would become stagnant in this little pond we live in. Its the end of a chapter for the both of them and they need a clean page for a new adventure. I, apparently am content enough to stick with the Road to Solar Hell as my adventure. The nice thing though about the two of them moving is, in following years, we have another destination other than North to visit.

Don't get me wrong, I love it up North but when it's the only place you go, you get a little tired of the scenery. At this moment with all the snow surrounding us, the last place I want to go is North. I'm really hoping one of them might consider going tropical South. Hubby would have to get on a plane then. (He hates flying and especially over water. I think he was a WW2 pilot in a past life and died in an ocean crash or something) At least then the scenery would be different.

Everything seems to be going up in price. No matter what I go to get its been upped by thirty to forty cents minimum. That really adds up. And trying to compensate for it means more work for me. Bread used to be under a dollar. I checked prices the other day, for the same loaf that once cost seventy-nine cents, now is a dollar and twenty-nine cents. That's a fifty cent hike. The pasta I buy went up forty cents in the last two months. And the cheaper stores carry nothing and cost more for the products I do buy. It's getting absolutely insane. I went twenty dollars over-budget again because I didn't allow for another increase in our food prices.

I understand that the global economy is causing prices to go up for Corporate Canada/______(insert your country here) to meet their agenda's. But when we are growing corn that could not only be engineered into foods that people to buy, but also help feed not only our own poverty stricken but twenty-five thousand poor of another nation; instead of that we are putting it towards bio-fuel. A so-called greener alternative for those eco-conscious yuppies out there. Not only is it taking away farm land needed for food, but it is having a direct effect on the economy.

To make matters worse, all these hybrid cars/trucks are now robbing us of precious earth minerals that cannot be replicated or replaced. The quest for a greener earth is only making the cause worse unless these corporations start thinking with their brains and not the wallet. Argh!!! Nobody is using common sense. Its so frustrating and it honestly feels like I am the only voice out there.

Okay, off the soap box now. Thanks for letting me borrow it Scribble. I need a coffee after that. I think I'll add soap box to Hubby's list of things to build with his shop.

Smudge

This is Smudge. She is all white with a smudge of grey on the top of her head. It looks like she got in the way of Artist while working on a canvas. She is very sweet, purring when you pick her up and once she stops hissing at the dogs, things will be even better. She adores Hubby and has him wound around her paw already. Its his shoulder she is sitting on in the picture.

She is not from the litter we helped save. The little one that I thought was meant for us, turned out to be Smudge. She was laying in the cage without so much as a peep. When I looked at her the image flashed again and I knew she was the one. Hubby wanted to know how I knew there was a white kitten at the pound and I could honestly say I didn't know, I just knew our cat was there. And she had been there since the beginning of December.

Smudge spent the night above our heads despite the run of the entire house. She seems to be moving in and find her niche. I'll just be happy when she stops growling at the dogs. GiGi is determined to make friends with the new kitty. I'm hoping within the week. (Its more like praying)

Things have definitely livened up with Smudge and GiGi in the house. It's been a good shake up for us all including the four old boys.

Update!

Hubby is not a happy hubby. He is...but he isn't. You see, we had to make a very hard desicion regarding our old cat. I have been fighting for months to get weight on him, so much so Hubby was getting upset with me for stressing about it.

We had both agreed that after Cocoa Puff no more cats. We were going to take a break. But he didn't see GiGi with Artist's kitten Nelson. She was beside herself in delight that a cat paid attention to her. Cocoa ignores GiGi for the most part and when she does try with the cat, his response is less than favorable. Luckily the claw only came out once.

Hubby made the mistake of joking with me by saying if we took Cocoa in to the vets we could keep a kitten. My response was the usual no without realizing he was not serious. Unfortunately for him, I had picked up one of the kittens and put it back down because it spoke to me. The other four were the noisey cute ones clamouring everywhere in the bathroom including the sink. I left the bathroom feeling guilty for wanting her and no matter how I tried I couldn't shake the image of her all grown up jumping from the window bench to the table as an adult. I was at that point remaining firm with the fight for Cocoa.

Well... a lot can change within forty-eight hours. The kittens left and I tried to ignore the panic of her leaving the house. I found Cocoa purring by himself. I picked him up expecting the weight that wasn't there and hadn't been for months. I realized he hadn't used the litter box again and when I put him down his hind legs winced. I scooped him back up and burst into tears. I have been only fooling myself. It was his time. I took GiGi to Artist's for coffee, where she tried to get as close as she possibly could to the cats. Artist said what I have been hearing for weeks from the girls, "Gigi needs a kitty."

I came home and called the vets. In a soft voice the vet asked me if I would want his ashes. I said with a very nasty sniffle for lack of tissue, that we would be bringing home a kitten. I explained we were the ones that involved in saving them and fostered them in our bathroom over night. I described the kitten that spoke to me and it has a tag that says its coming home on Friday.

Now here is the part where Hubby got a little upset. You see I hadn't realized he was making a joke in regard to the kitten and I went ahead without discussing any of it with him. And because he had been the one to make the suggestion I thought he would think it a good plan. Which he does, he just wanted to be included on the desicion as he is the provider for the household. Understandable and he thought we had agreed on no cats for a while. I did remind him that if a little kitten came along that spoke to me it would be coming home. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. All it took was a look and I put the kitten down. I didn't cuddle it, pet it or talk to it. I just made sure it was alive under the blankets. If I had wanted one, the little black and white one was the choice. I also reminded him that GiGi was going to be alone within the next two to three years if not sooner considering the ages and medical issues our old boys have. She was going to need a companion. Now was the time while she was young and adapting into our home. I guess the way to tell him was not saying we were getting GiGi her own kitten.

Inspired by Scribble

Leading up to and during the Holidays, we were under a blanket from the Arctic. This blanket kept us in the deep freeze and only broke today. But in between Christmas and New Year's our little town looked like a Christmas card with all the hoar frost all over everthing. Our fence is made from wire in 1 1/2 inch squares. They were solid with frost. It was the first time our dogs could not see out to the street from the yard.

Walking down to Artist's house was magical. All the cars were gone, so time seemed to fade away into the backdrop of the old houses. The only sound echoing was the snow squeaking beneath my feet. The blanket of frost in the air and over everthing dampened the noise of the town and highway. It was surreal and very enchanting to walk through a winter fairyland.

We still had the frost up until two nights ago. I know because at midnight we got a call from friends. GB (short for Gamer Boy cause he kicks our ass at video games) walks back and forth from work. He was walking back to work from his lunch break at home(he works nights) when he came across a mother cat and her five kittens who had been dumped. They oringinally wanted Artist's phone number to help foster the kittens for a night. Of course Artist sleeps like a log and couldn't be roused when they called. In the mean time hubby and I started looking up numbers with animal controll and the police. Hubby answered the second call from them and took the address. When we showed up, all I saw was bright red pj's of Miss S (the young friend of our daughter who moved in when Daught moved out). GB was up the tree rescuing kittens. He shimmied up the tree a good fifteen to twenty feet up the tree, grabbing each kitten and handing them down to us to put in a warm box under a toasty blanket in the truck. His hands were the colour purple by the time we got all the kittens. Unfortunately the mother cat was up another twenty feet up and was not budging. She was frightened, cold and injured.

The rule of thumb when rescuing, is save what you can. It just really sucks when you can't communicate that you are there to help and they don't understand. How could they, another human just tossed them into a back ally. Animal Control is doing all they can to save the mother cat but...I'm all too familiar with winter rescuing and my optamism is minimal. I think she is now under the care of the Creator. And I know when Hubby and GB cross, they will be met by a little cat, thanking them for rescuing her kittens.