The boys....

I have been wanting to post pictures of the cats for a while now, but the only time they will be still is when they are sleeping. I went ahead and took a few of the boys today.
First we have Bubbie...the above picture is just typical of him. He sleeps like this at least half the time. And below he is helping Roger surf the net, taken a couple days ago.
Can you tell that he loves us? He should...remember when he broke his leg....way back here. I think he has been grateful ever since. Before his leg was broken, he was Roger and Rachel's cat....did not have the time of day for me. Unless I was feeding him..just didn't care if I gave him any type of petting or anything.
After he went through his leg being broken, he comes at least once a day for me to pet him...can be very insistent on it. And he still doesn't mind Lorelei...remember this. That seems like a lifetime ago. Just look how small Lorelei was in that post.
And this is my boy! Like his namesake, I am Cougar's favorite person. He likes everyone but I am the one he loves best!
I cannot put the skirt under the tree...any time I think about it, a cat is sleeping under it. And I don't like to disturb them. I will forever think that a cat laying sleeping in a house or store adds so much to the atmosphere.
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As I type this, we are getting snow!!!! I told Roger the other night that winter is officially here. We happened to go to bed about the same time and here came Puss Puss wanting under the cover with us. And she still insists on being between us. Roger let her under the cover on the outside edge but she just goes under and then proceeds to climb over him and snuggles down between us.

Bubbie, on the other hand does not want between us and generally does not want under the cover. He likes for one of us to scoot back from the edge of the bed and then he will snuggle in to our stomach and sleep.

Cougar comes and will come up and if my hands are under the cover, he will reach under with his paws to find my hand. He only wants to be petted a little bit and will either sleep curled up at the foot of the bed or get down completely.

And Mama Cat now comes and gets in bed occasionally to be petted and even sometimes to sleep with us. She now comes and gets in my lap and sits and sits. And she still is good with Lorelei also...if you knew her life before she came to live with us, you would understand that her attitude is basically a miracle. I have yet to see her get mad at Lorelei.
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That is it for now...I am hoping we get enough snow for it to make the world new. It is just beautiful to look out towards the streetlights now.

Original Cougar, geese, and strip pits...stated randomly

I often do posts from the strip pit area...this one among them. But in the end, there is a more intimate tale involved this time. First off, we drove around out there last night till the sun was setting...the first thing we noticed were the geese...they are back in larger numbers. The sound was incredible. I wondered aloud if I lived close, would I get tired of their incessant honking.
Even if you click and enlarge the above photo, it appears compressed. It just does not show how big the strip pit is, nor can you get the full impact of how many geese are there.

Below, is an image from google earth that shows the area out there. The strip pit above is marked...it is in the upper left-hand corner of the image. BTW, it is in Illinois. I really hope you will click on it at least...one of these days I am going to think and see how long that strip pit is by hitting the odometer on the vehicle I am in. I am pretty sure it is at least half a mile long, and probably longer. Just east of the strip pit is the road we take about half of the time to enter the area.

We have been going out there for years, though originally, it was being mined so we only drove through it every now and then. If you will look in the lower righ-hand corner, I have a strip pit marked as where we got our original cat named Cougar. Before the mining stopped, we could get permits to fish that strip pit.... I have spent more happy hours fishing there than any place else on earth. I never once got to stay as long as I wanted to stay.
Anyway, that is one long strip pit...it doesn't show it here so much, but it was big and it was deep. Where the arrow is pointing, there was a pump house close to there. The part of the strip pit to the east of the arrow is where I fished the most....but I did fish on south also. Right where the arrow is was just a narrow strip of water leading from one part of the strip pit into the other. A boat could go through, but it would have been close for two boats to pass each other, though I am not sure they could have.

Anyway, one evening we were out there fishing and kept hearing this sound. Over and over. Right there where that arrow is. Well, we fished for quite a while, and before we left, for my sake Roger went across to find out what was over there. I think he could wade most of it chest deep, but had to swim a few strokes...
Anyway, he got over there and found it....a little tabby cat. Its voice was so hoarse from meowing so much. As he held it above the cattails for me to see, he said, "Do you want it?" Dumb question...I had never seen a cat I didn't want. Just some I didn't need.

Anyway, so the kitty went home with us, to become Cougar Lee. He was literally on the point of starvation...I have only seen one other animal in my life as bad off as he was. You could see almost every bone in his body. His backbone was just so prominent... And he was SO sick....congestion and his little eyes all matted.

There was never any doubt that he was my kitty...from day one. It was a weekend so no going to the vet....and besides that I don't know if we went right away or if we waited a few days. I do know that right away, I made warm salty water and wrung a washrag out in it and would wash his eyes 3 or 4 times a day. Salt water will do miracles for some things...and it did help.

But his cold/congestion was another story. I don't know how many times he was to the vet to get rid of it. It was over a period of a few weeks, and at one time he and I were on the same antibiotic....only his was just once a day and not as strong as mine. It was this antibiotic, ampicillin that finally cleared his congestion.

Cougar was sure an original...when he was little, if I was standing washing dishes or doing something in the kitchen, he would climb up my jeans to my waist and just hang there till I got to the point where I could stop and hold him a few minutes. He slept with us/me, at first he laid across my forehead and I wondered how in the world was I ever going to get used to that.

You would not believe how quickly I became accustomed to it, I would have to feel my head to see if he was there or not. As he got older, he gradually stopped doing that very much, but graduated to curling himself around my head, or somehow till his one paw would be across my neck. Honest to goodness. He had to be touching me.

What is so funny, he jumped on Roger when Roger was asleep and it startled Roger and made him really mad at Cougar. From that time on, Cougar never, ever touched Roger unless Roger was awake. He would sniff towards Roger and somehow or other could tell if Roger was awake. If Roger was awake, he would put a paw out and touch him.

As Cougar got older, he was neutered, of course. He loved to spend time outside in the summer...we always thought when he laid in the garden under the tomato plants, that he thought himself in the jungle. He was not much of a hunter...which was fine by me. He loved all of us, and was never afraid of strangers, but I was always his favorite. He could be sitting with anyone else, and all I had to do was say his name and he would come to me.

Cougar was the smartest cat I have ever known...though I am trying to think of examples and having a hard time. He did know his name...if he was out in the yard...all we had to do was open the door and call his name and he came. He knew what the word 'no' meant, also knew what we meant if we said 'get down.' I also think he showed how smart he was by not bothering Roger when Roger was asleep.

He loved tomatoes or things cooked with tomatoes. If we had spaghetti, he literally came running. He always got a bite or two of it. He really didn't want much, but had to have a taste or if we had a pizza, he had to have a bite. If I cut a tomato in half and left it laying, he would lick the whole inside of it out. Even if it was a medium sized tomato.

If I was sick and sleeping on the couch, he watched over me...he would sleep on the back and talk to me if I was awake. Oh, that is the other thing. He would really try to carry on a conversation. Not the constant meowing that some cats do, but an exchange. We could say something and he would say something back...with what we called a meow-purr. Not loud and disturbing, more like, hey, what are you doing. And he would stop and wait for our reply.

He also was a guard cat...did not like other cats or dogs in our yard. Even though he was neutered, he would fight any cat that came in the yard. Yet if the kids brought one home, he wasn't jealous. And luckily, all the dogs he chased out were so surprised to have a cat come after them, that they ran.

During the last years of his life, he started to sleep under the cover...always against my side with his head resting over my arm. And always between us...never on the outside edge.

A couple times he almost died. One night he was fine, begging for hamburger. The next morn, I happened to be up and about to leave for work and went downstairs for something. Cougar was sitting down there...he never sits down there. Just never. I could tell he was dieing.

I called the vet, and got him in that evening. We never really knew what happened to him...the vet kept him a couple days and did find that he had inflammation but could not find what was causing it. He gave him a vitamin B shot, and that did the trick. That was the strangest thing...he was perfectly fine the night before and I am positive if I had not taken him to the vet the next day, he would have died. No doubt in my mind.

And we had a repeat of that episode the following spring. Went through basically the same scenario. Again, the vitamin B shot brought him out of it.

During the last few months of his life, he lost weight...and he never had any weight to lose. We always assumed it was from being almost starved to death in his youth. Cougar just stayed a long, lanky cat. So, with losing the weight, he really was skin and bones. I had him to the vet, and it was just basically old age.

I knew I needed to make the decision, but could not do it till one morn, I heard him hit the floor. I will not go into details, I will just say I promised him then he would not have to go through any more. When the vet opened, I called and made arrangements to take him to be put down once Roger got home from work....I dug his grave in the garden so he could have his final sleep where he had spent so many enjoyable hours.

For two or three years, I did not even want to pet a cat...just didn't even want to look at one really. His spirit stayed with us. In the two or three years between losing him and getting the kitties we have now, Roger and I both felt him. There were a couple times we both, at the same time, felt him jump up in bed with us, and we both moved apart and started to raise the cover for him to go under. This was not right after he died, but months later.

Another time I had one of those colds where I coughed and coughed and coughed, so was trying to sleep sitting up on the couch...Cougar was there with me. I heard him talking...and looked to talk to him before I thought. Even after I realized, I kept hearing him.

His spirit doesn't visit us any more, not since we got the cats we have. Except my new Cougar loves tomatoes...does anyone else have a cat that likes tomatoes? I have never heard of it before...so I think it sort of strange that I have had two that likes them.

edited to add: I wanted to add that Cougar, the original, lived to be approximately 17 yrs. old

The boys

Click to enlarge for better viewing!

I haven't shown the babies in a while...so here are the boys. About the only time they are still is when they are sleeping. Bubbie, on the top does a lot of sleeping. However when he is awake, he likes to keep things stirred up. If nothing else, he likes for us to play chase with him. And he loves Shelby, our old collie/shepherd mix.

Cougar, who I first called Chunky Monkey is still very close to his sister. He reminded me so much of my original cat called Cougar that I was all the time slipping and calling him that, so just decided that was his name. He is even lanky like the original was. He likes to play with his sister, but does not like to play with Bubbie cause Bubbie is too rough.

Like the original Cougar, he can smell fresh hamburger a mile away. They all will eat it, but he begs for it. I tried to snap a couple pictures of the Princess, aka Puss Puss but she just cannot be still. The only way almost to catch any of them is when they are sleeping. I will try again in the coming days.

We have started letting my two kitties and Mother Cat outside, but we make Bubbie stay in. I would rather have them all stay inside, but the two females will run you over to get outside. It is understandable with the mother, since she was an outside cat the first two or three months of her life, till my daughter took her home.

Besides having a fear of one getting run over, they have really interfered with Mama Squirrel. She only comes about twice a week now...and even then is not quite herself. She will come running when I see her and call her name, but once she gets here she is very leery of everything. So I really miss her easy companionship. We used to sit at the picnic table or I would sit on the edge of the porch and she would sit beside me...and she will sit at the picnic table but just not very long. Before she would sit there as long as I was feeding her.

This is where I would like to be for a while--in Tennessee. It is the view from out back of my Tennessee home that I grew up in. This was taken in April of 2006....

Also wanted to announce a new use for your refrigerator! You can tell by looking at his eyes that he is a little aggravated at me for waking him from his nap! My daughter came through to the living room last night and asked me if I had seen my cat...and told me to come look. I just left him there and came back in a while and he was stretched out asleep, but when I got my camera he woke up.

This is Chunky Monkey hard at rest! He does lay in some of the most contorted positions I have ever seen a cat lay in. This one is not bad in comparison to some I have seen. Sometimes he will have an arm so out of position that I think he about has to be double jointed.

This weekend was fine entertainment from them. Sunday morn, husband got up to go to the potty and came back to bed. Normally I lay there with my eyes closed, but for some reason I had them open and seen him come around the end of the bed--one of the cats was under the bed and grabbed him! I laughed till I cried at his expression and the way he jumped.

Then there is the little girl, who is sometimes a little princess and sometimes Puss Puss. She loves Roger--when he comes home from work, the first thing he is supposed to do is pick her up and pet her a few minutes. Then when he puts her down, she helps him take off his work boots, followed by a quick dash to the bedroom for a romp on the bed.

She will come get in bed with us, and she peddle pushes/kneads with her paws. And will go in and out from under the cover numerous times. Well, I went to bed just a bit past midnight Sunday night, leaving the kitties all asleep in the living room and dining room. I had not been in bed but a minute when up over the side she hops. Goes straight to husband to peddle push for a few seconds, then is in and out under the cover I don't know how many times.

Then she comes and gets on my chest and peddle-pushes for a bit then lays down and I think she is settled down good. I continue petting her all the time thinking we have got it made--we can just lay there and go to sleep, or back to sleep as in the case of Roger. But she only lays there a few minutes and hops up and goes over on his pillow to peddle push with her face right in his face, and purring loud enough to wake the dead. By then I am laughing so hard I am shaking the bed, so get up, grab her and sleep on the couch. He can't stand it cause her whiskers tickle his face sort of like walking through a spider web.

Mama cat is so settled in...I think she fully realizes she does not have to worry about anything here. I have not had her hiss at me or heard her hiss at anyone since about the first week. Can about sit down on her and she won't move. So different to when she was at her other home--she would not stick around for anyone except my daughter. She was constantly in the defense mode.