Recovery

 The past couple of months have been difficult for me. It seems like a dark cloud has been over me and it just starting to go away.

First my son's wedding was called off two weeks before the date. I won't go into any details, but we have been spending time with him as he recovers from the heart break.

This changed Ken and my plans as well, as we were going to sell our home and move closer to him and his fiance (from Denver area to Fort Collins). Now he is not sure he will stay in Fort Collins after he gets his master's degree, so we don't want to make any moves either.

Then my kitty Neko passed away suddenly. He has been part of our lives for so long that I missed him horribly. He has a good life and he was very loved, as you can probably see from the many stories about him on this blog.

So it has been a couple of months now and recovery is on the way for all of us. But the best part is that Ken and I adopted two female cats from the Denver Cat Cafe and Life is Better Rescue. Everyone should visit a cat cafe. It's a magical place. We played and watched a couple of kitties play and interact with each and decided they were ours. So here they are:

This is 9-month-old Omen (the black one) and
1 1/2 year old Wookie (the tortoiseshell) 

They like hanging around in the yarn room.

They are adorable and affectionate. They like laps and nose kisses. Wookie is a lady with a loud purr and Omen is so soft and sweet. They are experts at lifting the cloud around my soul.  I will be writing more about them in the future, so stay tuned.

Omen is extremely playful

Wookie is my little hunter chattering at the birds

Rest in Peace, My Beloved Neko

You were very loved and you will be missed forever.

3-1-03 to 9-15-17

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My Love of Cats

It looks like we will have to say goodbye to our kitty Neko. Losing Neko will be tough. He is almost 15 and his liver is failing.

If you have been following my blog, you know he is quite a character. I have many stories about him including him sending messages to other cats via library books (11/3/12), second breakfasts (4/19/17), and his ability to appear and disappear at will (6/14/17). If you scroll through my blog, you will find other stories about this adorable but feisty creature.

I grew up on a farm in the 1950's and 1960's. I have three brothers and the nearest neighbors were several miles away; most of them did not have any girls my age. So I created a fantasyland with my cats. In the spring, I would hunt the haylofts to find the new baby kittens and make sure their mommy was well-taken care of. As I walked through the barnyard or the pastures, I was followed by a line of cats. It was so comforting to see a line of tails behind me. If I sat down on the ground, I would be covered with cats in no time. When I was 10, I counted 56 cats on the farm, and everyone of them would be named and loved. My dad would purchase a large bag of dog food, and cut it open in the barn or the garage so they could eat. Since we milked cows, Dad would fill large trays with the first draw of milk (which was not sold). In all my childhood, I never saw a mouse or a rat. Mom would put her wren houses up high in the tree so the cats wouldn't get them. In the winter, they all lived in the barn and in the summer they were everywhere, usually following me. I was destined to be a cat lady from the age of 5.

We will have to see what the rest of today brings but we are a house of sadness right now. It is hard to say goodbye.

A Magical Animal

Cats are wonderfully magical animals. Even my Hannibal Lector Neko has magical abilities that just completely flummoxes me.

I am convinced that he has the ability to appear and disappear at will. I have yet to caught him in the act, but I keep my eyes peeled for the act to happen. Many times, I call him and he doesn't come. I know he hears me and I know he knows his name. I look in his many hiding places where I have found him before:

... in a shopping bag...

... a wayward box in the living room ...

... pile of clothes in the closet ...

Under the spinning wheel ...

... in a basket of clean clothes ...

... behind the piano ...

.... a blanket on the couch ...

... or on the arm of the chair ...

... in the yarn ...

... and more yarn ...

... on the keyboard ...

... up the ladder ...

... in the sink ...

.... among the finished projects ...

... in the cupboard ...

... in a shopping bag, whether it is empty or not ...

...  and he is not in any of those places. I'm not worried because he can't get out, but where is he?

Finally, I give up and live with the fact that I will have to put off cuddling with him for awhile.

Suddenly, he is in the middle of the living room looking at me. I didn't see him come in, I didn't hear him. He was just suddenly there. He looks up at him with that expression on his face "I was here all along."

There have been times when we thought he might have gotten outside because we were in and out the front door several times and he might have sneaked out. Ken and I encircle the yard calling his name. We open a can of tuna cat food to entice him to come back. He can be hard to see in the bushes because he is all black, so you can occasionally see us lifting the branches to get a better look. We crawl on our hands and knees to look under the back deck and under the neighbor's porch.

I have had this cat for over 14 years and I can't believe that I hadn't figured this out before.

He is magic. He has the ability to appear and disappear at will. He wasn't invisible -- he was somewhere else. There has to be a cat dimension that he visits to play with other magical cats and maybe even dogs. Can you imagine what a wonderful place that would be? They have even been planning to take over the world from us humans, thinking they could run it better. They might have something there.

It could be that he is just screwing with me.

Our Foothills Home and Wildlife Need Protection -- from our Panther

We lived in a beautiful community just south of Denver in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The hills you see in the picture above are out our east kitchen windows. Our property backs up to the Pike National Forest so I can always say it is part of our backyard. As you imagine, we have lots and lots of wildlife in our yard and we want to preserve our wildlife habitat while we live in the center of it.

Therefore, we have to be careful not to let our little black kitty Neko out. He would show no mercy to the wildlife! He has been cited by the Wildlife Habitat and Territory (WHAT!) society as being a danger to the environment and wildlife surrounding our home. Neko knows no fear and will defend his home against any and all alien wildlife creatures, including humans and the following critters we have found in our yard:

We have bears, ...

Mama bear and her two cubs

This is how close the bears are; that black spot just over
Ken's shoulder

... and lots and lots of deer:

Our front yard ...

... at the front door ...

... the back deck ...

... grove next to our back deck ...

... tasting the seeds from the bird feeders ...

... even trusting us with their newborns.

We have foxes ...

... and wild turkeys ...

... lots and lots of birds ...

... and yes, mountains lions.

Just outside our garage door

Yes, that mountain lion is just outside the window 

on the south of our house!

Nothing like looking out your window at the mountain lion and then she turns and stares at you!

We also have raccoons, porcupines, and coyotes. I didn't get pictures of the skunks. You can imagine why.

I Shot the Turkeys

Passing through our yard, I got a chance to capture the wild turkey rafter (yes, a group of turkeys is called a 'rafter') and I shot them all.  I used a camera, but you get my drift.

Escaping by way of the cul-de-sac

In our rock garden

Yes, they hang out in trees ...

... just so Neko can watch them.