I truly didn't mean for there to be almost a year between postings on this blog. this blog is one that comes from life experience. had i no life experience from last June to this one? noooo there has never been a period of time in our married life when nothing has happened. we seem to go from situation to situation. or emergency to emergency. at times it is from laughter to more laughter, i love those times. and there is just life as it happens from one time to the next.

We didn't have kittens born in this past year. that is a very good thing. our cats have all had their little operations preventing them from having aftermath of slutty behavior. what usually happens is we are known as the soft touch of the block. find an unwed mom cat, leave her on our front porch, we will take her in, i have a bit of a "midwife" crisis waiting for the babies to be born.

love snuggling with the mom's who are usually thrilled to be in a house and warm, must have been someone's pet before being left out. you can feel the babies move around if you leave your hand on the mom's belly. sometimes you can play with one, or more, when mom is near her time, if you use a finger and press lightly in one stop that you have just felt kick. you will get a kick back. you can then press lightly again. the kit will again kick back, some times harder, so it could be two feet, or 2 kittens. course, by this time the mom cat is not thrilled and after giving several nasty looks, will stand up and reposition herself, then lay back down. i try not to start it up again, but i sometimes feel the kicking start, and can't help the interaction. course, bout then Jon admonishes me to quit messing with the mom, let her be. like i did something wrong.

anyway, we then help administer birthing assistance, breech not a favorite but i can do it, help with getting the little ones to be "pee'd" thou we use tp to gently wipe, not as the mom does, with her tongue. we have some standards. we laugh and take pictures of first solid food and the tracks that happen as they wander in and out of the rice cereal. that 's always good for a laugh or two. it is amazing how cats we did not get as kittens, but cats who are basically left on our porch, sometimes in a box for goodness sake, will adapt and trust me.

there is nothing more rewarding than gaining the trust of a wild cat, one who you have seen wild as a kitten, but no matter how hard you try, will not trust. we had one that i finally figured out, lived on our roof. there is a screened in patio, i guessed that she must be settled in on the flat surface of that. however she would come across and come down via a large necturine tree (that never gave fruit until about 7 years after we planted it, it gave us 4 plums. right. anyway, this sweetie would come down the tree to the ground. so i started there. cut up turkey from Thanksgiving, and put some way up on the branches that touched the roof. she would see me, and back off till she couldn't stand it, and would take the turkey off the branch. now i was sitting in a chair, fairly down from the limb. after 3 weeks, she would come down lower, cause i would put the turkey lower. by the time i had turkey from Christmas, it was down to the lowest limb, where it met the trunk.

i spoke to her the entire time, and she was getting used to me. slowly, she would gain more and more confidence. by the end of February i would sit on the front step and she would eat off a paper plate i held, and she would actually crawl into my lap to eat. course the first time that happened, i cried. which scared her off, so i had to stop and then she came back.

it was so cool. funniest thing was she looked just almost identical to our grey cat. we could not figure out how we could talk to misty in the house, then finish carrying on the conversation with her outside. till they stood side by side one day. fake misty never would come inside. and i lost alot of ground when i trapped her for taking her in for her little operation to insure no little misty cats would be around. took weeks to regain her trust. i felt awful

but, you gotta do that.
pat
http://imageevent.com/patmcaudel jewelry that is crocheted in silver wire
http:// members.aol.com/somebdychd/index.html
missing child education/prevention material for parental/stranger abduction/runaway/throwaway (i hate that term) means in non scary book/interactive play and parental guide

one of the best ways to escape the 'excitement"of the day is to read. By excitement I mean it is filled with the adventures of 3 jailhouse cats (were raised by convicted felons as their mom cats were missing)named Felly O'Knee, Missy Demeanor and the boy a pure grey looks like a Russian Blue Wobbler, cause an arrest can sometimes be a close decision between felony and mis.. well, married to a retired cop, what did you expect, fluffy? Then there is Schmokes,one very ticked off alpha cat age 9, who is inside/outside, but now insists on flaunting her outside privileges. and she does it well.

The canine side of the family,who have watched in disbelief that we would bring those balls of fluff into their home, 2 blue eyed twin Siamese, one short hair who is afraid of her own shadow, (felly) then there is Missy, long hair who loves our 8yr old mostly border terrier(also dachshund)Brutus, who's front legs bow so much, you can see his entire front chest, his blase of white against his red coat. The feet are, however, splayed out so that after about 5 months I finally figured it out, his feet were on the wrong feet!

His co-hort in crime, Armonti-Bwana, 110lb Rhodesian Ridgeback Hound, fully pedigreed for almost show (he has this over bite, see, and a brain knot) He has been invited back to obedience classes as often as it takes to get him to at least sit/stay. After all this time I have worked with him to the point he does do a couple tricks I can get him, when conditions are right (Pizza has been delivered) to sit/stay with one look, and no command, then leap in the air and catch the crust. he then can walk past you while you are sitting in the living room eatting said pizza and snag the waiting fresh piece off your plate, or out of your hand or if really feeling brave and the back door is open, take entire box and run for it. Last night he got 2 hot dogs. Jon is usually better about his food than that.

Most common phrase used in our home: HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN THIS HOUSE?

But, the reading, I can escape. I can be transported, I want to be transported.
I was able to do the impossible and not only bid but be the high bidder on an ARC for The Unfortunate Miss Fortunates. I settled in with appropriate food, Mothers Cookies, animal, frosted. thoughts of popcorn but it was a full bag of cookies, Armonti asleep,....pillows fluffed, snuggled in with fan directly blowing, temps in sf bay area were very warm today. One smalld og, 3 cats around, head count was right, open the book and prepare for being transported into magic. I had a few interruptions, and the book does have a very nice 410 pages. Life does intrude. I accepted it, rudely, and went back to reading fast as I could.

I was not disappointed at any stage. From the beginning, I was in the book. I knew that there were 3 authors, each writing a voice, and had wondered how it could be done, without the novella feel but it very much can be done, and was done with flair and drama and everything nice, throwing in green and blue and purple sparkles here. Magic has colors. It also has restrictions, depending on the magic person or witch. One may, as Dee Dee (Green)can, is changing into birds, or mothers, or whatever the need is at the time, but she can't move things with her mind, or turn one thing into another. Her sister Lizzie(purple) does the changing one thing into another, be it spoons to bunnies or perhaps a ferret or two, shoes are always a welcome addition however never the intended project, turning something into gold. Her current ambition is straw into gold. She heard it could be done. Young sister Mare(blue),. feels the short end of the magic wand, with the ability to move things one place to another. with a thought and a flick of her wrist furniture, a pencil holder perched precariously on a desk that begins to tip or that over flowing teapot that needs to be removed from the stove top NOW is no trick for Mare. She however is not impressed.

The death of their parents, who were very public with their talent, both on television for show business and then later for fraud when something went very wrong and they were jailed for defrauding the public. The actual culprit who caused not only the fraud by absconding with all of the money but also caused the death of the parents. She has up till now tracked the girls as they grew up, and hid from the sight of the public, but more importantly, from her, their Aunt Xantippe. Her plans...well, she does have plans, three sisters, three men who are their true loves, what more can she do?

The story is woven so completely you forget that each author has claimed a sister, early on to hear them speak on it at their web site where they opened up to the fans how to write a collaborated book, and stay friends, be crazy, and win the hearts of those who followed them each thru the years as they entertained us from the comfort of our homes, or on a bus or waiting for a train. The fact that it could have been three separate stories each one in the book prefaced with the name of the sister, then her story of growing up in the magic, bringing each to the conclusion, and joining at the last chapter THAT DID NOT HAPPEN HERE. I don't know how anyone could imagine it could have. The writing is seamless, I tried to see it, and at the end felt quite proud of myself, till I read the back jacket and discovered I mixed up the writers, and who I thought wrote who, didn't. Dang.

Buy the book, you will not be disappointed. I wondered if there would be a comparison between this book and that TV show that was on for what, 8 years or so that featured 3 sisters and witch craft, one that I followed till the last year. At the appropriate times, a comment would appear in the book, mentioning the sister on TV and the power of three. Snickers that had nothing to do with candy abound. Course, the candy would have been nice, but I don't have that kind of power.