The Mouw's Got Mange

We own a cat.  We aren't exactly sure of her age.  I guess-timate at about 15-16 or so years old.  I base that on the fact that we lived in our house 14 years and have been here two so that's sixteen years and the cat showed up maybe after we lived in West Valley a year or two. Maybe more. How did we acquire this cat you say?  Well here's the story.  

Lori, my sister, was visiting and rumor had it that the kids had found a cat and had it outside.  I went out back to check up on them and found Whit and my nephew Ricco in the shed. Whit was about four or five years old, Ricco about three. As I entered the shed, both boys looked up at me with fear and guilt on their faces, which changed to fascination after they saw my reaction to what they had hidden.  With fervor and excitement, both little boys lifted up the lid exposing the tiny kitty held prisoner in a food cooler.  They provided it cherries from off the tree to eat, how sweet.  This kitten was darling, beautiful yellow eyes and just a little ball of black fur.  However, I had no desire for a cat and besides, Nathan is allergic so keeping it was out of the question.

 I took the tiny black fluff ball with me into the kitchen to show Lori and tell her about the cherries and it proceeded to crap down my shoulder.  And that has pretty much been the feeling I've had for kitty ever since.  Well, with the exception that I never gave permission for the kids to keep her. I found out later that they had kept her in their room for three days before I found out she was still hanging around. 

What was I supposed to do now?  Throw her back out into the streets where they found her?  She was just a kitten!!

So, the kids promised they would change the kitty litter (ha ha ha.....every week it was "I did it last time...... I don't want to do it.......").  

Who changes the kitty litter now?  MWah!   Yes, Heather's moved out of the house now and Aub didn't take her when she got married.  Whit wants nothing to do with her.......so whose cat is she?

Definitely not Nates.  He's always teasing about how many lives she has and how he leaves the garage window open so the cat can go and mingle with the coyotes!  He will feed her after much coaxing giving me the quote from Morgan on Anne of Green Gables...........Alright, I'll look into it as soon as I can!!!  

The cat has soft, fine black hair that really builds up  growing her winter coat.  Unfortunately, she is still mostly a wild cat so she doesn't sit still long enough to be brushed and I'm not into getting severely gouged by the two good hind quarter paw claws that work (we had the front ones declawed............. I should say Nate had her declawed and fixed, another story entirely). 

Pretty much after winter was over the cat's hair was matted so bad you couldn't get a finger down to her skin if you tried.  Poor thing.  I felt bad but didn't know what to do for her and I never gave permission for them to have her soooooooo.......

 

Aub and Heather would take the cat aside and rip the fur right off of her. "You do what?"  I'd say............ "She likes it mom" they'd tell me.  They would either rip the hair off her, or they would take the scissors to her or a combo of both.  Aub and Heather would work as a team to do this, one holding her down and the other snipping away.  OMG, that cat looked so funny when they were done, leaving only the tail, head and legs with hair.  We have shaved her a couple times and I've wanted to do that here but since she hasn't had her shots, no one will do it.  So guess who's ripping out cat hair?  Here's the proof.  I got one strip off her the other day that was at least 12 inches long.  And you know what?  She does like it!  No really,  it can get a little painful and that's my signal to let up, but I get quite a lot of hair off her and she seems to appreciate it once it's gone.  Sadly, you can see all the dander that's built up under the layer of old hair.  And she licks it afterward which makes me believe it's pretty itchy under there. 

Are you thoroughly grossed out by now?  Obviously not in the medical profession are you?  

So I've almost ridded the poor cat of most of the large matted areas on her body.  The hair comes in soft and shiney.  Right now she has quite a large number of bald spots.  Poor thing.  That should have been her name instead of Mouw Mouw, or Mee Mouw, or Kitty Mouw, or Kitty Mee Mouw.  She is not unlike all the other animals we've owned who have a number of nicknames.  

Nate is always commenting on how many lives she still has which only leaves me that many springs I'll be left yanking hair out of the Mouw!!!!!

My Family in Michigan

I was planning on writing all about my Michigan trip after I got home, but, I'm on the last day today..... well, really the second to last day, we fly out Friday and it's Wednesday today.  

I have had a wonderful time here and I can't help but be ever so grateful to Aubrey and Nathan for opening their arms to us during such a wonderfully joyous time in their lives as well a time of adjustment for them and their little family.  

Pictures seem to lend so much more to a story and I have TONS!!!!

I have been threatening to put my little Clara in my suitcase and take her home with me.

For some reason I am unable to move the pictures around within my blog, possibly because I am using a Mac instead of my normal PC,  none the less, I'll post many more pics later. 

My heart is so full, I can hardly contain my emotion. I love all my kids so much and this trip has sealed the deal for these new little grandkids. I never would have believed that I could love someone else's children as much as my own.

When I look at little Claralynne and see her dance and talk and just be herself it takes me back to when Aub was a baby. It freaks me out how they are so much alike.   

Bittersweet this has been.  To only get a snippet of their lives and be able to touch them, and smell them and feel them in my arms until who knows how long makes each and every moment so precious.  

I've been able to get Clara up first thing in the morning when she wakes up and have had the privilege of seeing baby James being bathed for the first time.  We've shared dinners at several restaurants, taken all kinds of walks and eaten fudge from a shop in St Ignace.  It's been more than I could have dreamed it to be. 

Michigan is such a beautiful state.  The locals have ever so slight an accent and are very friendly.  The air has just enough moisture in it to have rid me of my hangnails and my skin has felt soft .  The air is crisp and clean and only slightly cold in the mornings.  I've enjoyed my morning runs through the neighborhoods to see houses built in the 1800's and along the shore line in front of the shops and ferry lines. 

What a privilege I have just to have the right to hold this new baby. Just to be able to watch his uneven breath, or see his eyes move while he sleeps.  To see him smile makes me wonder what on earth he could have on his mind to smile about, or where could possibly have gotten humor when he laughs.

They are both so sweet and I feel like the luckiest person in the world.

Grandbaby Number Two

What an amazing day today has been. My daughter went and had her second baby. I didn't get to be there and I've really wanted to either experience for myself or see someone elses water birth. James Blake Hatch crept in through the back door and left the womb just as sneakily. I really expected him to be a very big baby because his daddy was such a big baby and he comes from his mother's father's stock............GYNORMOUS menfolk. But there again, he surprised us as he has been doing since his conception and weighed in at 7lbs something. I didn't get the details until way after his birth. In fact, it seemed there was a hovering something always standing just outside of earshot for me to know exactly what, when, and how he got here.

No worries, I will be able to hold him and squeeze him, and love him in just a few short days that will most likely feel like months away.

Welcome to the world James, we're so glad you're here. We all send our love. Mee Mee T

To Vic's Passing and All the other Dogs I Love

(Earl and Vic last year)

I woke up around 1:30 a.m. this morning worrying about Vic. Nathan and I moved him on a blanket into the garage and placed him on the futon that has been designated the dog bed. We moved him around 10:00 p.m. last night and when I got up this morning at 1:30 a.m., Vic had passed. Cisco, the female Rottweiler layed with her back to him and didn't acknowledge my presence when I leaned down to pet Vic.

(Judy and Toby)




I don't think he lingered much later into the night. I was sad, especially because Earl wasn't here to be with Vic and see him off. Plus, I haven't gotten over the loss of Soda.


(The Fullmer's "Daddy Maxer")


Blogging about the loss of a dog has left me feeling kind of odd. Unless you own a dog, or have had a companion like I had in Soda, you can't understand the loss. So I went online to see if there was anything on the loss of a dog and I found this poignant article that describes what I have felt in the loss of my dogs.


(Online pic looks like it could be Cisco)

I will just cut and paste it here so that my feelings may be said through someone elses words.


(My sweet See-so poopers)

Mourning the Death of a Loved One

Is the Same for Both Humans and Other Animals
How Do Animals Perceive Death?


by Ellen B Katcher


Our love for companion animals is more evident today than ever before. We spend much money on their health care. When they pass on we mourn them, and many of us bury or cremate them.


(Soda and Nathan cuddling)

One grieving pet owner told me that the love she shared with her departed companion was greater than any she had shared with a human in her life. I suspect it actually was of a different quality. Dogs do not indulge in deceit, selfishness, or any of the other frailties that we humans must fight to suppress. The love of an animal is a pure love, with little ambiguity, and thus is a thing of beauty akin to truth. It is no surprise, then, that when one mentions a departed pet ten years after the event, the owner may shed some tears. Like all truths, the love remembered is a thing of beauty, and great beauty makes us cry. Ask this tearful owner if he or she feels sad, and they may say, Well, not really sad. It just brings tears to my eyes to think of him.


(Me, Cisco and Soda)

The human-animal bond is a strong one. Our dogs are the exquisite ephemera of our lives. They stay for a very brief time and, it often seems, leave us just when the bond is strongest. It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Losing my darling companion was the most difficult experience of my life. However, all the joy and love we shared was worth it, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.




How do animals perceive their own imminent deaths? Do they joyously look forward to the "'Rainbow Bridge"? Are they privy to information about a "Hereafter" that we are not? Does a "sixth sense" let them perceive things on another plane? My observations tell me, "No".




A friend recently lost her 15-year-old dog. She showed the body to her other dog, his mother. Within a few weeks the second, older dog died. It seemed as if she was grieving, and that this precipitated her own death. There was no sense that she knew that she would see her son again, or that she knew that he was in "a better place".




My experience with my own angel was that she was sad, and then frightened at the end. At the end she was just plain scared. Just as you or I would be.




Does this mean that I believe that there is no afterlife? Hardly. It is my hope that the world's major religions are correct, and that there is an afterlife. However, since no one has ever come back to describe it, I believe it is a faith one can hold, and not something one has knowledge of. I think this is true for animals as well. We know animals put their faith in us. This is an awesome responsibility. Beyond this, their spiritual mind sets are unknown to us.




I think animals perceive death much as we do -- as a fearsome, unknown change, a loss of control, that one undergoes alone. This implies that their consciousness is, in this instance, very much like ours. Generalize this, and you see that animals feel much the same as we do about most things. They do not want to die "to get to a better place". They fear the unknown, just as we do. They want the comfort of those they love around them as they do the hard work of dying.




I know from experience that living up to this is no easy task. Watching my dog's decline sent me on many lone, tearful walks and needless trips to the market to escape. If I had it to do over again, I would have stayed with her for every last second, no matter how badly it hurt.
She absolutely would have done as much for me.
My only excuse for this regrettable lapse is that I, alas, am only human. I was not able to live up to the standard that she set.

Strong Like Bull

I'm so glad I took these pictures of Vic with Earl. This was taken March 2007. Vic was "strong like bull". At least as strong as a 15 year old Rottweiler can be. He was pretty feisty at this point and really only trusted Earl.


In the last few months, Vic hasn't even so much as growled if you get too close to his face. He's even let me hug him, which is totally out of character for this dog. In the last few days, he has gotten stuck in the ditches and crevices around the land and he's let Nate pick him up.... totally out of character for Vic. Nate lost a chunk of his cheek to Vic once when he bent down to love him. Vic has only ever trusted Earl, until the last few months. Vic was severely beaten as a pup by some very mean and brutal kids and he hasn't much cared for anyone to get too close to him since.


I feel I have earned his trust through all the care we've had to give him on several occasions of him being sick and Earl being in Utah taking care of Roy and Wahneta (brother and sister-in-law).

Today and the last two to three days Vic's been too weak to eat, drink or move. I hate this stage of life. Not many people like it, but they don't see it as often as I do.


So, because I don't want to remember this monster dog as weak and vulnerable, this is an ode to Vic, The Vic Meister, Mr Vickerman (he's not my dog, but all of our dogs have had multiple nicknames and he hasn't escaped a few from us too).


Vic was Earls only companion in cold Colorado and all the time Earl was building this house. Earl lived in a tent trailer at that time and later moved the tent trailer right into the house. Earl was 65 years old when he build this house himself.

Earl is still very strong for being nearly 80 years old. It's hard to see him age. He has a shake to his hands and his hearing is diminishing, but he is still as feisty as ever. Vic and Earl have a lot in common.


There weren't very many houses out here when Earl was building this house and Earl recounts the sounds of coyotes calling to each other at night. I think I'd have been scared of those sounds if I didn't have a big, mean dog to protect me. Vic was there for Earl.

(See him under my arm in this pic. He's sneaky)


There have been bears, deer and other wild life that don't come round as much now. I have seen some really beautiful deer, but no mountain lions or bears, though Veloy recounts seeing a bear outside her window when she was using her stationary bike.


My son and husband have both lost a piece of their face to this dog and if it had been me, I might not like the dog too much. But, I have understood why he's been the way he has due to his past. So I love and forgive him his foibles and hope he doesn't have to stay here on earth much longer.


I hope it won't be too long before he will be able to once again experience all the wonderful things he did as a young dog, running and sniffing about in a great open wooded area like he has known most of his life. I'd much rather think of him running and playing and being in nature than suffering as he is now.


I only wish his master were here to wish him on.


We will miss you greeting us with your head between our legs. We will miss your loud smacks when you're eating and drinking. We will just miss you.


We send you safe travels on your merry way and say hi to Soda for us, only..................... don't eat him.

Band Opportunity

Whitney called me last night and told me he pierced his eyebrow and his ear cartilage. You'd think I would come out of my skull about this, but he has been one to push the limits when it comes to his looks. He's dyed his hair black....twice. Cut it in all kinds of ways, many of which I didn't care for but figured he needed to get it out of his system now so he didn't have to do it when married with 2.5 kids and a wife wondering what the hell she got herself into. Oh, and did I mention he pierced his own tongue? Many moons ago that is. He asked me if he could get his tongue pierced and I said no. Then I said he could if he paid for it himself. This was back in his mid-high school years when he had no job and thus "no money", and any piercing studio would require a parents permission, which I wouldn't give, so I felt safe. HA! Then I saw it...... and was shocked he had the guts to do it himself. He obviously wasn't medically trained or he might have worried about hitting a nerve or blood vessel. Can you imagine having a paralyzed tongue? And he missed the nerve.......Damn, he could have hit a nerve. I might have had a kid who could no longer talk.......talk back......give attitude.........be a foul mouthed little snot, or at least have me hear it. Too bad he missed! (Just kidding).

Anyway, about his new piercings. So I said "cool, can't wait to see it"! He's been the worst of all my kids in pushing the limits of my patience.............. Oh, yes, all kids test patience and all of mine have, but he receives the gold medallion for limit pushing.

Still, I'm proud of him. He finished high school!!! ...This may not seem like a feat to you, but you weren't behind the mule hefting and shoving with your feet losing way to the muddy ground while your head is inches from his smelly.....eh hem..

He's in a band. "The Airport Scene". Their music is a little Green Day, a little Punk. Not your easy listening stuff. But it gives them all a chance to play and him a chance to pound his drums and have everyone like it.





I took some pictures of their performances at a competition held by a Christian kids group. Can you believe that? Never in Utah would you have this happen. A Christian youth group promoting young punks who scream into a microphone, play loud guitar and drums all while wearing their pants down to their butt crack and ending the competition with a little speech about how grateful they are to have Jesus in their lives. You should have heard the screamer bands before Whits band. Astounding.

The other performance we attended was in a bar in Denver. They look real cool on stage at the one in Denver. Heather had to fill in for Luke, their lead singer, when he accidently made arrangements to go out of state on the night they competed in "The Battle of the Bands".




These top pics were of them playing at the bar, then then next pics were at the Battle of the Bands. The last pics were again at the bar.







Heather's boyfriend Parker is in the above picture playing guitar. He's a sweetie. They all seem to enjoy the band. Heather sang with them at the Battle of the Bands. She was amazing and even learned the synthesizer parts and sang. I thought they should keep her. She added a ton to their sound. But they want to be a boy band. So, ok.

Here are some pics of her.



It's really cool to be a part of their lives. I'm glad they're doing what they want at this point in their lives when they can.

Keep on Truckin'

So I figured that if I started out by showing off my fatty body that would be motivation enough to start being more consistant in exercising. WRONG! Truth is, I just feel plum beat up after I've worked several days in a row and I hate the idea of being in the cold basement. So I find other things to do instead. But I must give myself kudos because I have been really watching what I eat. I have nixed the donuts and candy other people bring to work. I've been eating more raw fruit and veggies. I'm trying to curb the late eating but that gets hard when I haven't eaten since 2:30 in the afternoon and don't get home from work until 8:30pm. I'm hungry when I get home. So I try not to eat a big meal but I do eat something usually around 9pm. THAT'S BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!! So I have some things I must address as far as the food, but I feel I'm doing fairly well on this part.

I have also been trying to get more sleep, however, I do have a difficult time getting to sleep on the nights before I work. This is a problem I have yet to solve. The other day I went to work on absolutely NO sleep. No kidding. I would say to myself, "if you are awake, open your eyes" and I would every time. Before I knew it my alarm went off. I don't have a solution for this one as sleeping pills make me drag the next day. One things for sure, I need better and tighter goals for exercise.

The internet is addictive and I try not to get on it too often because I end up there for hours. I've been on since 0730 this am and it's 0933! What does that tell you?

What have I been surfing? Well, I went on some make-over site and looked at all the pictures. I feel like I need a make-over. Some of the hairstyles showed amazing changes and were really needed. I've worn my hair the same for the past oh, about 19 years! Well, what with occasional layers and a perm here and there, it's about the same. I have pictures of what I will eventually do to my hair. I have other pictures of the style I've kept with me for years. Jodie Foster's new doo is pretty close to what I think I want.

Then I went to someone elses blog site and got some inspiration about what I wanted to blog about. My dream home came to mind so I downloaded pictures of my dream kitchen and conservatory and home.





Do the pics look familiar? Yep, the Practical Magic house is my dream home. I love old Victorians.


So, it is now 1000 am and I must begin planning my day. I have a whole four days off. In those four days I plan to
A)..............EXERCISE!!!!!
B) Read my library books on digital photography and black and white photography.
C) Watch all the movies we've gotten in the mail from blockbuster
D) Lounge until the next time I work.

And last but most important..........Talk alot to my beautiful daughter in Michigan.

Hasta