Musings on a Small Life

I thought I'd end the week with snapshots of a few "furriends" I've recently encountered. Comments are off, enjoy the weekend and stay cool if you're in the middle of a heat wave, as we are. (As always, click to enlarge the pics to see them better.) I spied this sweetie early on the Sunday morning we were in Montreal. Dad and I had gone for a walk around a neighbourhood near the hotel at which we were staying.     This cat joined us at an outdoor patio café in Brockville, when Dad and I stopped for lunch. He was VERY thin, I don't know if he was young, old, or neglected. Someone "owns" him, though, you can see his flea collar in the first snapshot.   Patches, the vet clinic cat. She's been there for quite a long time, but used to hang out in the back when they still had a second clinic cat. He passed last year, and now Patches can be found lounging in the waiting area. She's VERY affectionate!   A cute pair be...

The bus I took home yesterday was jam-packed with students, and along the way three people got on: this kid, a young woman, and an older woman. The boy first sat in the seat ahead of me, then when the bus cleared a bit, moved over with his family. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing on his back: OMG, the poor cat! I asked the young woman if the cat was a girl or boy (female) and if she had been to the vet. She said yes to the vet, but as they were not English-speaking, I really don't know if she understood. Anyway, I felt awful for the poor cat, stuffed into that carrier on a packed, noisy bus. She meowed piteously at one point, but then was quiet. The boy was not careful with that backpack carrier, either, he banged it around a lot, which I'm sure added to the cat's discomfort. Bloody stupid thing to do, IMO, especially during the afternoon rush hour. Take a taxi, people. I'm actually surprised the driver let them on, but as it was so bus...

Well! When I was still blogging for the cats, people around the CB used to "talk" about the Kitten Bowl , run on Super Bowl Sunday and featuring kittens from a well-known shelter/rescue in the States. This year I got to see what it was all about, thanks to it airing, for the first time, on a cable station I actually get.   Image copyright Crown Media (presumably), and from the web site: The action was interspersed with heart-warming stories of special needs adoptions, so I went through a lot of Kleenex. (I admit I watched about the first half hour or so, then kept it on in the background while I was puttering around.) It was quite entertaining, and I can just imagine that all those kittens would have crashed hard after the action! My own two crashed hard just from watching them. (Okay, truthfully it wasn't until almost the end that Derry actually sat up and noticed the kittens on the TV. Both N & D generally are oblivious to the television.)   ...

I had a 9:15 AM appointment today for a haircut (my stylist works out of her home, has her "salon" set up in her basement). But it seems someone else wanted a trim too! Willard, her cat, who was in the cutting chair when I came in.  He moved quickly to the shampoo chair before I could sit down! Silly cat. My stylist moved him back to the cutting chair so I could sit down, and he got up in a huff, went upstairs, presumably disgusted with us.  :-) I did manage to get my hair trimmed after that, though I'm sure my "fur" doesn't look nearly as nice as Willard's.  :-) Peace.

I just spent a couple of days with friends in Brighton and now am wading through all the snapshots I took during our jaunts. I had 672 pics, plus about 60 on the cell phone, whittled that down to 222 on the camera and 50 on the phone. What can I say? I can't help myself! I'll have lots to post for a bit, and I'll start with Penny, the store cat the antique market in Colborne.  We'd gone last fall when I was visiting, and while we didn't set out to return this time, we missed a turn off for "Little Lake" and so ended up there. That turned out to be fortuitous for Robin, who found a couple of items that "spoke to her heart", and for us both, as we got to see Penny again. Penny is a licker, she licks anyone who starts to pet her. We both thought she was a very senior cat, perhaps because she's so petite, not much but fur, but it turns out she's only 6-ish, adopted from a humane society. She also doesn't seem to be very a...

We've been very low-key for the past couple of weeks, as temps have been crazy-hot for late June/early July in this part of the country, with humidex values hovering around 40 C (104 F) or more. Worse in areas inland, away from the lake. I heard on the news that there have been 17 heat-related deaths in Montreal, QC, so yeah, temps are pretty extreme for this region. I realize that many parts of the U.S. deal with this as the norm for most of the year, but we're more accustomed to cold, with sustained intense heat only in the latter part of summer. I took last Friday and this past Tuesday off, extra days around our Canada Day (July 1) holiday. I did very little, though, and any outdoor time was limited to waiting at bus stops. Anyway, we (the boys and I) might be "melting", but we're also very glad for the central air I had installed in spring 2017. This is pretty much what it's like at home at the moment: Of course, that's what it lo...

Worst. April. Weather. Ever. The ice pellets and freezing rain continue. We're hunkered down inside for the second consecutive day, which is almost unprecedented for me.  Weather aside, Mr. Brat (Nicki) had quite the adventure early yesterday AM.  Juncos in the back space yesterday afternoon. Just before 6 AM I heard a faint, plaintive meow, the kind that means someone's in trouble, trapped in a bureau drawer or some such. I went hunting for Nicki, and it turned out that he had gotten behind the old bedspread I had tucked around the box spring propped up in the spare room (I'd thought to keep it and just get another mattress, use it for a guest bed, now that I have my new platform bed). Not only behind the bedspread, but he'd gotten himself inside the box spring itself (the underside) and was wedged up in the springs. He was NOT happy! With some help from me he did manage to extricate himself, and while he was fine, he just about gave me heart fail...

Goose synchronized swimming Two weekends ago I had spied a pair of swans nesting in some reeds off a major thoroughfare, then saw them again yesterday when I was on the bus, headed to an appointment. So I donned my thermal layers (minus 14 C windchill!) and walked over this morning, to get a few snapshots. This is the view, below, before zooming in. The swans are tiny white specs on a little spit of land in the middle of the image. At full zoom There were lots of geese around too (hence the first pic of the pair feeding, who were much closer to me), and even a pair of nesting geese with the swans, which I didn't see until I got home and downloaded the pics. I think you'd have to look at them at full size to see the geese on the left. In fact, there were three geese, the male, the female who stayed on the nest, and another with them (last year's child?) too. All but the female goose took to the water when I moved down to the water's edge, even though...

Willard is approximately 2 years old, and very recently was adopted from the Gananoque Humane Society (same shelter from which Nicki and Derry were adopted) by my hair stylist and her family. I was out to her house (she works out of her basement) on Saturday for a haircut, and while Willard wouldn't approach me, I was able to get a few pics. (Their young son got the laser toy and played with Willard, so I could take some snaps.)  Isn't he a cutie? He coordinates with their senior dog, Wiley, who's also black and white.  :-) You can just glimpse Wiley in the lower left corner, below.  I hope Willard has a long and happy life in his new home.  :-) Peace . Comments are off, as this is wordless Wednesday for you!