Cute trick, Dougy! Waiting in the dark, his pupils go Bambi, making him look even more pathetic and vulnerable! But I see dry kitty food crumbs on his face….
Andy, on the other hand, is ready for Freddy: He wants his breakfast now!
So, since all the kitty dishes are dirty, I wash dishes first. The kitty boys wait impatiently, but they eventually get breakfast and wander off to take a nap.
While Andy doesn’t like to be brushed, Dougy responds to nothing more than the brush on his ottoman. He hops up there to get a good brushing! Dougy love, love, loves being brushed!
Sometimes rendering a photo in black and white enhances it. On a sunny day, Andy (on the walker) and Dougy enjoy the open door, with its fresh breeze and the possibility of spotting birds in the fir, apple trees, or the bird bath.
Of course, when I try to take their photo doing these things, they become alert to my presence, turn around, and watch me. “What’s he up to? Getting ready to give us kitty treats?” Could be. Or maybe I just need something for the blog.
Andy suspects Doug is up to something. Doug is putting together things, and seems about to leave. “What’s up?”
Dougy picked up on it, too.
Water jugs??? The kitty boys are perplexed. There’s plenty of water in their fountain. What’s Doug up to?
The kitty boys run over to the door. Doug’s about to leave, and this always interests them! (Perhaps because they get to run amok and play kitty games, perhaps because they get to snoop on places they know they aren’t allowed to be….)
I left to place dahlias on the family graves. The jugs were to water the flowers at the cemetery
The kitty boys met my Mom (Jean Thomas) when they were kittens, and she worried about Dougy because he snooped all over the room she had at the care center. She was worried he would run away! I closed the door to contain him. He has continued to be a cat that follows his nose, excited by new scents. Andy was content to snooze on Mom’s lap.
None of the rest of these departed ever met my kitty boys. All loved animals and would have been delighted with them, I think!
I wish they were here to know the kitty boys, but time has its own schedule: In remembrance of those who passed before and who shared their love of God’s creatures with me.
Also departed, Jerry, the cocker spaniel who followed Grandpa Thomas home from his walks and whose owners recognized Jerry and George Thomas were buddies forever. They gave Jerry to him. Grandma Thomas (Mary) let Jerry stay! Man and dog were best buddies till Jerry died.
And Laddie, Grandma McKenzie’s cocker spaniel -mutt mix, the first dog I ever knew, the dog that adopted my siblings and me and protected us when we grew up. (No photo accessible.) Laddie used to clean up milk messes and food that suddenly appeared on the floor, something that happened often enough in a house with four kids that he regularly visited at meal times. Of course!
And Peanuts Lee Thomas, my childhood dog, who was a puppy my Dad won in a pinochle game, or so the family tale goes. I suspect he just got him for me because all my siblings were graduated from high school but one, and my parents wanted me to have a companion… (I had exactly one photo of “Peanie”, as we called him, and it is missing.) He was a beautiful black dog with a white chest and something like seven white hairs in his otherwise all black plume-like tail!
And Freckles and Louie, my first two cats. As sad as it is that all these family members are gone, there is the joy of my memories of each and every one, human and animal, on this Memorial Day. That is why I left the house: To put flowers on the graves of family who helped me become the person I am.
When I came home from the cemetery, Andy greeted me by the door, and Dougy came running from the front room. As I suspected (notice the strip of multi-colored fabric stretched out between them), they’d played their little self-created game while I was gone.
Life goes on.
Dougy rubs against my leg to remind me I’m his human and that comes with responsibilities. You know, waiting on him and his brother Andy hand and foot!
“That’s it! ‘Scritch’ just there! That’s right! I’ll let you do this till I’m tired of it. Then I’ll ignore you! I’m the cat!”
Dougy wanted to take a walk outside, it was so sunny and nice! Of course, he isn’t allowed out for his safety, but a kitty boy can dream.
The yellow climbing rose bush is putting out more blossoms, and the thistle growing in the hole in the sidewalk is looking to take over the world.
It’s shedding season, as the carpet attests. Clumps of kitty fur are everywhere, and vacuuming only solves the problem for the moment. More will replace it…soon!
Tuesday, I thought the day before was Memorial Day and that I failed to place flowers on family graves, breaking a chain going back three generations and nearly a century. Oops! Then I saw something in print that referred to the coming holiday. Yes, next Monday is Memorial Day in America, and I bought some potted dahlias for the graves.
“When are you going to amuse me?” Dougy asks.
I thought I had a good one when I brought home the bloody jacket after my dialysis buttonhole leaked, but Dougy ran away and Andy was not amused – see lower left hand corner photo.
I try. Yes, I try! But many times all I get is a yawn – see most of the rest of the photos.
Dougy loves me to rub that spot between his eyes that is hard for Persians to scratch. Yet…there are times he has other things on his mind and he gets impatient with me when I try to rub it.
“#&%^#(($&$#@! No means NO!”
OK, Dougy! I get your drift! LOL!
Whew! Andy figured out a way to use a floor lamp to rub that spot at will. Dougy still depends on me to do it. It is fair to note that Dougy’s little snit was because he wanted to play peacock feather, not get some loving. He was his usual sweet self shortly when I brought out the peacock feather. RAWR!
No doubt about it, Andy and Dougy love “kitty treat time”! Any time I go into the kitchen, they think it must be “kitty treat time”. Sometimes it is.
Dougy finished first, then stayed to clean his whiskers. Andy moved over to where Dougy was to finish what he left. Andy is a real “chow hound”! Hee! Hee!
Don’t know what to call it, but it grows among the the thistles that have invaded and conquered most of the front flower bed (sic).
Dougy couldn’t care less. He’s enjoying his old favorite, the flamingo-colored tub!
Andy, on the other hand, likes the “real” flowers best.
A weed by any other name…is a flower. I like the yellow one best of all!
Here’s a better look at the yellow rose bush flowers. See why I love, love, love this rose!
While cleaning his right paw, Andy saw Dougy…
…ripping into Doug’s password notebook. (Fortunately, it was the section of pages with obsolete passwords, not any current ones!)
Just the same, for alerting me, I know a that kitty deserves extra kitty treats today!