CATS I'VE KNOWN

A Cat by Any Other Name
When we moved into our first home, a wild cat obviously recognizing a new food chain, began hanging around. We couldn’t get near her but judging by her, pardon the pun, hangdog expression, she was sorely in need of food.
As any family with kids will tell you, it was never a question of “Can we feed her?“, but rather “How soon can you get to the store“? So began the saga of “Mama” cat. No matter how much we stuffed her with food, she resisted every effort to let anyone pet her, instead making sure no one was nearby to see her consume her free handouts.
As the days got cold, it soon became clear that “Mama” at one time in her past, had been “friendlier” than she was now and was going to have kittens, hence her ferocious appetite.
Between our back steps and the house, there was just enough space to drop a tennis ball and that’s where “Mama” decided to drop her four kittens. There was no doubt they would freeze if we didn’t help her, so with much spitting, scratching and clawing from the ungrateful wretch, we successfully transferred the family to our basement where we had made a bed for her.
She was terrified, as she had never been inside before, and would have bolted at once if not for her motherly instincts. Of course, the kittens all were given names and unlike their mother, were very happy to have a warm place to stay. “Mama” was greatly relieved when they were all allowed outside again.
One of the kittens was named George who was very playful and frisky. Seven months had passed and we found out just how frisky George was, as “George” had a litter of five which made nine cats! To make matters worse, poor dumb playgirl “Georgette” had no clue about “birthin’ no babies”, so “Mama” had to do all the dirty work and nurse the newborns besides. We were finally able to spread the kitten wealth, which just left “Mama” to contend with, who was still no friendlier than when she first came into our lives.
We used to have an egg man who delivered eggs every week and, out of desperation, asked him if he wanted “Mama” cat. “Sure”, he said, “the farm can always use a good mouser”. Arrangements were made and we put “Mama”, spitting, snarling and screaming, in a box to take her to the farm, an hour away.
Poor Paul, holding the box on his lap, had to contend with a clawing arm every few minutes as “Mama” tried to escape. After a harrowing trip and the awful stench of cat pervading the car, we finally arrived with frayed nerves, Paul’s arms scratched beyond belief, and a sense of relief from Ed and me.

Cooking 101

I decided to fix dinner for our family today and thanks to Kathy, Chris and my supervision, we did it! I am exhausted and realize for the first time since my stroke that I simply can't cook without help. What a blow.

With all three of us working busily, it still took three hours to assemble this meal and get it in the oven. We did double the recipe so we can have a second meal at a later time. The most remarkable thing about it though, was that too many cooks did not "spoil the broth" as the saying goes.

I suppose I will try to help more with cooking dinner, as long as long-suffering Chris will help me with it. Cooking was never my forte, but I love to try out new recipes. Hopefully, everyone will like this one, because we have another complete meal in the freezer.

Back in the "What's for dinner?" days, I made a meat loaf one evening, and while it was okay, it tasted a little funny. Ed said, "Did you do something different with the meat loaf"? Much to my chagrin, it turned out that what I thought was groumd beef was ground pork sausage. And that was just one of my more unevenful meals. On second thought, maybe I won't cook any more meals.

Election of a President

What a thrilling event last night, as we the people came together to elect Barack Obama as our next President. Regardless of who you wanted for the highest office in America, we were united as soon as the results were announced. I hope everyone will pray for him and his family as he meets the tough challenges he is facing with knowledge and courage.

Some of his decisions will be unpopular for many of us, but for our country to recover it's self-esteem, he will have to make some unpleasant choices. We can only pray that he will make our country stronger, wiser and better off economically than it has been in a very long time. Now is the time to stand up and support Barack Obama.