Introducing Molly Flopover

There is no cat more beautiful than a tabby, especially a classic tabby like Molly.  Molly came to me as a kitten, the last of three siblings born in the warehouse of my local feed store.  She should have been wild, but instead she was fearless and gregarious, which is how I ended up taking her home.  The young man who loaded feed said she would run if I tried to pet her, but instead she purred and rubbed her head on my hand.  How could I resist?  I was still saying "no more cats.." as I drove away with my 200 lbs of feed and one tiny tabby kitten.

Molly helping out in the studio.

Her tabby daddy ruled that feed store for years, perching on the counter for all the customers to admire .  Even for a tom cat he was heavily built; a stocky cat - and Molly takes after him.  She's chunky; kind of square, and when she walks ahead of me during chores I always notice her unusual build.

Contemplating global warming...  or perhaps listening for the sound of kibble

Molly has a talent, too.  She holds the Small Meadows Farm record for the most flop-overs completed between the house and the feed shed - a total of eight!  If only I had a video camera...  

Molly is eleven this year - a noble age for a noble cat.  Molly is a loner -mostly aloof from the other cats.  She comes in for lengthy naps and one-on-one attention from me, and she is happiest lying in the sun on one of her many perches.

 My favorite Molly photo... 

Valentine Sunset

I spent much of this week concerned with red and not just because of Valentines. I chose a red called "saffron" for my kitchen cupboards, looked at it next to a beautiful celery green and had it duly mixed. Only problem was that placed next to most any other color, my saffron read: ORANGE. Now I've nothing against orange (other than its poetic failings) but I needed a bit more red in my red. So today I went back to the paint department and ordered up a red called " Bijou."

It's RED.

I love red.

I'm countin' again...!!! and Warm Weather Hap'nins

Here's Garfy... He's sacked out on one of his favorite things: a paper (what else?) sack. Garfy's rescue story was recently featured on The Animal Rescue Site. At least three of my (online) buds recognized either him or my name and I contacted me. How cool is that? Every morning I take my first cup of coffee and click over from my reminder email to help feed shelter animals. Reading the rescue stories always gives me a lift and a good start to my day. It reassures me that there really are lots of responsible animal people out there. Some folks listen do the morning news. I read the rescues.

Then I click over to Freekibble.com to check out the bow-wow and meow trivia questions and again, to donate kibble to shelters.

And what am I counting? YOU. All the "yous" who didn't mail back their census forms can expect a visit. Training started yesterday and I was over the top to learn I had several weeks of paid work for the Department of Commerce once again. This will be quite different from the canvassing and map spotting of last year, but it should be interesting to say the least. I'm hoping for friendly dogs and friendlier people as I have to ask all sorts of personal and repetitive questions. Though it's in the best interest of everyone to participate, there's a lot of paranoia out there - especially around here. So look for the 2010 Census Blogs to begin!!

And here is a sure sign that we went from cold to very, very warm really fast. Bogo is my dear elderly lady who grew an amazingly thick coat this past year in the coldest winter I've experienced in my 20 years in GA. Even with all that horsehair, a blanket on the coldest nights and lots of extra food, she lost a lot of condition. All my other horse are fat. Poor Bogo is very thin and looks rather motheaten.

I'm trying a few different diets to help fatten her up. She's 23 this year - not that old for a horse, though my Roman only lived to be 24, and I don't know what sort of care she had before she came to me two years ago. Isn't it amazing how different her summer and winter coats are?

She seems to feel fine - and all the routine medical work show her healthy, but she's not digesting hay and grain well enough. I'm open to any suggestions from the horsey folks out there. Right now she's on pasture that is adequate but not yet very lush or long, along with Strategy, a pelleted feed with a cup of corn oil added for extra fat and calories. When the Burmuda grass comes in, the pasture will be at its best.

The last of Winter... a photo journey

Peeking out from one of my canvas carryalls is Dinah. Tiny Dinah as she is known here, doesn't get much respect. She's very small, difficult to photograph being a black cat - and she tends to be very busy except when she's hogging Freda's dog bed. Poor Freda is completely intimidated by this tiny dynamo - and will come and stare at me to do something about Dinah being in her bed.

Dinah was one of two kittens found on a highway dehydrated and near death from upper respiratory disease. She and her sister Winkle (the Blue Siamese) spent six weeks in quarantine. My vet said that even though they were tiny as eight week old kittens, in reality they were five or six months old. They finally got well and grew a little - but both maxed out at about five pounds. Five pounds of Dinah-mite!! Dinah is of course named after Alice's cat in Alice in Wonderland.
What do you do when you are iced in and out of birdseed? My poor birdies couldn't believe that the feeders were empty what with the freezing temps and the wind blowing snow. I felt so guilty that I rummaged about to come up with something to get them by. I had whole corn that I mix into the horses' feed and actual horse feed - which is pelleted grain and alfalfa along with cracked oats.

The bits were way too big for the small songbirds, so into the Oster for a grind. Then I added Kasha and barley and bread crumbs to the mix, and got out the Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter to slather onto the suet feeder and some pine cones that I wired to the old pear tree. What a feast!! This buffet drew cardinals, bluejays, doves, nuthatches, woodpeckers, chickadees, red-winged blackbirds, several different sparrows, phoebes, tufted titmice, juncos and of course, starlings. I'm pretty sure they like the Jif better than the generic stuff I usually give them!! (But then, so do I)

When I ventured outside with my camera, I found this imprint of wingtips and little bird feet and got this photo right before Elvis obliterated it in an attempt to ambush Madeline...
If you look closely for click for enlarging, you can see the imprint here ... and then...

Whump!

I think he's trying to lick the snow or just make a face at Maddy

And finally - Here's Claire. She may not look it, but I know she was thrilled to finally get some Pyrenees-suitable weather. These dogs begin to pant when it is over 50 degrees. That's why I have them shaved every spring.

Today it is nearing 70 degrees and it's my turn to be thrilled!!