Stumpy Visits the Great Indoors

Stumpy is a sweet alley cat. He is all love and purrs. He comes and sits with Dee quite often and meets us at our cars. Occasionally he has come into the house and walked around with no harm to or from the other cats or the dog. Daisy has gotten a nice scratch out back from chasing Stumpy who has luxurious claws as weapons.

But as it has gotten colder here - in the teens and twenties, we've worried about stumpy and on the coldest nights let him sleep in the house. This is interesting, it causes Vegas and Laura Ingalls some consternation - hissing and big tails while stumpy just looks at them like, "huh? It's cool, it's cool..." Stumpy doesn't know how to use cat doors which is good really. In the early morning when we emerge from the bedroom he greets us and walks over to the door to be let out.

Last night it was quite cold and I went out to the front porch to check and see if he was in the box Dee has put out for him with an old towel. He wasn't. As I looked off across the street, here comes Stumpy - booking across the road towards me. He meowed and walked past me to the edge of the door and when I opened it, he hopped inside! I came in and he was all sweetness and affection and Laura and Vegas chewed him out and showed him their extra large tails. Margeaux just goes with the flow and doesn't seem to have a problem with the visiting gentleman. I actually held him last night in Dee's absence and he was just sweet showing me his daggers and wiggling all around.

Then, this morning - he went straight to the door. I'm sure if he had opposable thumbs he'd have let himself out - he isn't a man to stick around for breakfast and chit chat. Later he came back to the garage as I was coming and going and brought Pepperdine with him - the fluffy gray tabby who is skittish and more feral.

I looked for him outside tonight but no Stumpy. I'll peek out before going to bed but he must be out on the town.

Giving Up Dog Duty

Dog Duty is almost over - Dee is on her way home from her training camp.

She says she is happy to embrace dog duty and I am so glad. I have had a pretty successful couple of weeks with Daisy but she takes a lot of time. I got her to walk on the treadmill with no lead, she's learning "leave it" and "drop" better.

It's cold here and snowy and really a drag. When Dee's not here - certain things happen and don't happen. Making the bed does NOT happen so today - I'm changing the bed, washing the blankets, and making the bed as if this is how it has been the past two weeks.

I'm cleaning up everything. It isn't what some might call dirty but we keep a clean house... errrr.... when Dee is home it is cleaner!

I've seen most of the outdoor cats - Stumpy, Pepperdine, Berkeley, Mae West and the others who are so far not named. I stopped by a coffee hut - one of those drive through coffee kiosks with mediocre product last weekend and woman working there and I discussed the cats of Moberly (not this blog - the actual animals). She said their was a crazy old cat collecting lady who had more than 30 cats. She died. The guess was that many of the cats of Moberly just roaming the streets are hers or their offspring. I wouldn't doubt it.

I'm learning to use my camera better so there will be many more pictures of the cats of Moberly.

Enhancing Cats

I got a new camera!

I have to learn how to use it but it appears to take beautiful pictures. Here are some photos I uploaded to picasaweb - photos of cats of Moberly and more

I resized the photos on picnik.com.

It's bedtime so I have to quit with my photo romp!

The Angry Dome

I am having a stupid day. Mid-Missouri ices. I fell on the ice at the grocery this morning. And after a female store employee helped me get to my car and put the groceries in the trunk (including huge bag of cheap cat food for the feral cats) - she looked at the non-helping male employee and told him to get some salt out for the lot. (Stupid lazy man!) Why wasn't there salt out before? I think it had something to do with laziness...

So I fell. I'm dirty. I hit my knee - which is still sore from my previous fall.

Later I went back out to get less toxic ice melter for the home from because I, unlike certain lazy people, have been putting it out on the walkways. I ended up with similarly toxic ice melter (the fine print was too fine at the time).

I went to do laundry and there was a load of wet laundry IN the machine. Dee has been gone more than a week. So it had that not so fresh odor. I'm not angry about it but annoyed that after having an upset that I faced the stinky impediment to my own clean clothes.

THEN - Daisy, who had been outside for 20 minutes or so, came in and when she jumped up onto her spot on the sofa - she PEED! That was the straw that broke my back.

I remembered professor Farnsworth announcing, "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the angry dome!" and later you see him shaking his fist and appearing to yell at the air. Futurama, so many lessons for life!

It does no good to yell at anyone so I sit here and shake my fist at the world.

To feel better I made myself some chocolate Malt-O-Meal (farina - like Professor Farnsworth is known to eat) and coffee.

This evening, I have to go back out into the snow and ice to a party organized by my office at work. It is a big deal with music, prizes, games, dinner. No alcohol, though - which is good and bad. Dressing nice is encouraged. I will dress nice but put on my spiky ice cleats and hope it doesn't spoil the look - HAHA I would be happiest if I could just stay here, with the cats (and no dog) and read a book but I will try to muster the good sport buried inside myself because nobody likes a raging whiner.

The Clock

Half hour until it's Daisy's bedtime. It's impossible not to watch the clock!

The Blame Game

By the way, I do believe that it is almost always the owner's fault when a dog fails, in case you were wondering whose fault I thought it was.

Now Whose Fault Is It?

Dee is at a training course for a couple weeks which means it's me and Daisy. All dog - all the time. So, as I've mentioned, my m.s. is rearing its ugly head and I'm not the best dog-walker right now. I was walking Daisy last night on the treadmill - which means I watch her walk herself and she started walking funny. She would quit walking and coast to the back of the treadmill and then hurry back up front. She seemed like she was overly anxious so I slowed the belt down. I commented to her about her stinky farts and then my eyes focused on a glistening pile of poo off the end of the treadmill. Needless to say, we evacuated the room and she went outside in case there was more where that came from.

The question remains - what happened?

I took her out twice before she got on the treadmill. Why didn't she go? It's cold out - maybe she didn't want to stand there on the cold concrete taking a dump but what am I supposed to do, carefully place a heating pad on the ground for her precious footsies? I waited this evening until she went. It took longer but I am not about to repeat last nights chore of poo removal. I definitely didn't pick up on the signals she gave me with her behavior - Dee probably would have shouted, "we have poop-sign!" and rushed her outside but I didn't catch it. So, thanks Daisy for the educational experience! Rigggggght...