THE BIRTHDAY DINNER AND MINKEY GETS A BATH

Yesterday we were guests at a birthday dinner for our granddaughter, Maddy, who, it seems is growing up. We gave her--to be redeemed in the future--lunch out and then we will come back home for endless grandma-stories and jewelry making. Her favorite gift, I think, was a "pouffy" skirt that her sister, Ruby gave her (who spent the day dressed as Bo Peep, complete with sheep).

Or maybe her favorites were her Chuck Taylor shoes. We still owe five grandkids birthday lunches and movies--or maybe they want lunch and something else, like Maddy does. (We are going to have a busy time, once our ship comes in.) One of our sons is owed a birthday treat too. What do you buy a gadget freak who buys all his own gadget stuff? Maybe he should let me know.

We had Cafe Rio salads and that yummy Robert Redford's favorite dessert (about fifteen years ago--he loved the dessert fifteen years ago, this dessert isn't that old). The chocolate version--it was yummy. (Click here for the lemon version.)

And then, this afternoon, I gave Minkey a bath. The kitchen is flooded, the counters are flooded, and my sleeves are wet to the elbow. Minkey is happy to be clean, just didn't like the process.That's pretty much like all of us, isn't it? We love progress and better things. We like being better people, want to be more educated, perhaps thiner and more fit, etc. We just sometimes don't like the process it takes to get there.

Happy Birthday, Miss Maddison!

And stay clean, Minkey. I don't know if I have another bath in me.

MEDITATION AND MINKEY

I didn't get enough sleep last night so I decided to see if Wayne Dyer was right--see the end of yesterday's post--that when you meditate it is worth several hours of sleep. I was deep into meditation when "Yowl, yowl, yowl," that was Minkey standing in the doorway. Who knows what he wanted? He finally went away. In five minutes he was back, "yowlyowlyoowwwll."

sigh.

Even with the interruptions the meditation was good. I felt refreshed and I'm still up. Sadly, I'm still up. In two minutes it will be midnight. If Minkey realized it was almost the witching hour he would be yowling again. He never misses an opportunity to be annoying.

If anyone in Utah Valley wants to learn how to meditate call Harmony House in Orem, Utah. 801-434-8800. 1145 East 800 North, Orem, Utah (It's the basement office.) The office looks like a house, it's on the north side of the street. They will teach you for free. Even if you have an annoying cat in the house.

PS They are teaching a class tomorrow night, Thursday, October 22 at 7:00. So worth it.

PPS Stop by my house first and get your free cat (just in timefor Halloween). A bargain you shouldn't pass up.

WHEN KRAMER GETS BORED

This morning this is what I found in the hall bathroom. More rug plucking and now the garbage violated.

Sigh.

And then, Kramer came downstairs and barked, barked, barked. I pulled up the blinds to see what he was barking at. Nothing. No car. No dog. No cat. No person. Nothing. "What are you barking at?"

He almost turned around to see me but not quite and then....

...he returned to his duties. Barking at nothing.Tonight he and Minkey had a go around. He festered Minkey. Minkey growled and hissed and finally Minkey had had enough and he chased Kramer, swatting at him and Kramer was delighted. Finally one of those hissy-fit cats will play!

And then Kramer ran into the TV and whacked his noggin and yipped. Minkey slunk away to a corner and had a good cat-laugh.

Kramer let me comfort him for two whole minutes.

Then he got down and sniffed all around and peed on the carpet.

The fun never stops.

SIX WORDS FOR HAPPY CAT, MINKEY

Snooze, stretch, snoozing again, pure contentment.

MINKEY HAS BEEN ONE HAPPY CAT

These are pictures of Minkey, being totally happy, sleeping on my lap, stretching out and snoozing some more.

Usually, Minkey bothers us with his never-ending complaints UNLESS the fire is on. Then he is stretched out in front of it like a bear rug. He soaks up the heat as if he were a naked cat that doesn't own a fur coat.

This last week, I have hardly moved from the recliner with a blanket tucked around me like one of one of the old folks in the "Home." This allowed Minkey to be on my lap whenever the fire was not on and most of the time when it was. He has not whined once. It has been heavenly.

Once I am well again I'm leaving the house because he will begin his campaign for heat and laps. He will drive me nuts. I think he needs an electric lap for Christmas. I will begin my search soon. Maybe they have one online. Maybe I can rent an old person who sits a lot. It might be worth it.

PS MINKEY DELETED EMAILS

If you emailed me today and I'm ignoring you it's because Minkey stood on my computer and permanently deleted about 20 emails and I have no idea who they were from. Resend.

SIX WORDS FOR HALLOWEEN CATS

Snoozing, plotting Halloween tricks for midnight.

THE FIRST SNOW or WHAT SHALL I DO ABOUT MY FLOWERS?

This morning I woke up to snow. Not a lot, but enough.

At church today one of our most faithful lawn swing visiting neighbors said, "What will we do now?" I don't know. I enjoy the friendships the lawn swings facilitate and the winter months find me lonely.
This hanging basket is just coming into its glory. In the last two weeks it was breathtaking and today it is wilting. In the morning it will be a limp bunch of faded blooms. I hate to see this one go as I planted it from scratch and I have loved watching it grow.
The basil and geraniums are frosty.

And my inpatients...they will be gone by morning.
But, I brought the hanging geranium baskets in. Pika, who follows me like a guard dog, came to admire herself in the mirror.
I hoping to take the geranium baskets to the dark basement and leave them, without light or water until February. That is if I can persuade Phil that they are worth saving. And if I can persuade him that we have room in the basement--the basement that I have STUFFED with "things." I only paid 79 cents for each geranium and there are about eight plants in each basket.

Then I went downstairs to the family room, Pika, my faithful guard dog, came down, too. And Minkey, the lazy, heat-loving Burmese cat had never moved and still hasn't moved. As long as the fire is on he will stay right there. Which, as I think about it, isn't a bad idea.

SIX WORDS FOR ESCAPING CATS

"Sleeping on your pillow comes next."

ESCAPING CATS

I have one room in the house that is cat free. The bedroom. In order to get proper air flow through the house Phil installed a latch. It worked for years until Pika realized that she only looks big, she's actually tiny under all that fur and she could slip through a door that is open less than three inches. We have found her in the bedroom several times and as soon as she sees us she zips under the bed. So we leave the door open, hoping she will come out. This invites Minkey in. He knows he's not supposed to be in there either and as soon as he sees us he zips under the bed too. Now there are two zippy cats in my cat-free room.

The other day we couldn't get them out and we had to leave. When we came home we could see they had had a nice cat-nap in my cat-free room on my cat-free bed.

I have been drying tomatoes. Every time I take a tray to the garage to put in the dehydrator Pika escapes to the garage, even though she knows she's not supposed to be there.

Here she is saying, "Ha ha. I'm out here,

looking at all the stuff you worry about me getting into." I don't actually think she'll eat plant food but how would it look if you had to take a cat to the vet with an overdose of Miracle Gro?She won't come when called. If I walk toward her, her usual pokey attitude changes into a Zippidy-do-da one and she zips away. The next time I go to take a tray to the garage she's waiting by the door. "I'll come in now but you can't walk toward me or I'll do my zippy thing again." I have to wait in the kitchen,while she sniffs the door jam and takes her time. Then when she gets inside she stops to grooms herself, as if she were bored with all the zippy behavior.But, she knows I've been going to the garden for more tomatoes so she...plants herself by the slider, waiting for her chance to escape to another forbidden place. The door is open but she's ignoring it, hoping I will leave it open and walk away but I want to see what she'll do."Oh, is that an open door? I had no idea.""I'm sure she meant for me to come outside. I'll just sniff the door jam first."And then she gets serious.In her "serious getting," she sends some kind of inaudible signal to Minkey, who was sound asleep, downstairs. He wakes up with a jerk and races upstairs to find Pika's open door.The both sniff things to make sure they are not going to be stepping on a camouflaged dog.Pilka looks all around for dogs. There hasn't been a dog in the back yard for years and she got along great with Sebastian when he was alive anyway. But she checks, just to make sure.Minkey watches her make her leap to freedom. I caught her and scooted both of them back inside. They don't have claws and I can't take chances that they will get hurt.But, they were not happy. This is what I found later.How does a cat with no claws do this? They must have been really angry at me. Tomorrow they are plotting how to open the bedroom door by themselves and sleep on my pillow. I just know it.

SIX WORDS FOR ANNOYING CAT

Meow, licklicklick. Shoo! I'm ba-a-ack, licklicklick.

MINKEY, THE LONESOME CAT, NEEDS SOME LOVES

Phil and I went to the movie this afternoon without Minkey's permission. When we got home he followed me around complaining. When I sat down at the computer he sat in front of the printer telling me off.
Then he ventured onto my lap.First he checked out what I was doing on the computer. It was boring so...
...he licked me. He licked my fingers,
he licked my wrist, he licked my arm.
I moved my hand so he licked my other hand.

And he purred and purred. I won't be getting anything done on the computer for awhile. I will be scratching Minkey behind the ears and on the back. I have moved him but he comes right back. Scratching Minkey some more...and some more...sigh...and some more.

THE 110% ANNOYING, NOISY SUNDAY CAT

Minkey is driving me crazy. I'm a pretty tolerant person and can put up with rudeness--to a point and then I either tune the rude person out or walk away--but this cat, this ever talking cat, this rude cat, who talks, but never listens is DRIVING ME CRAZY! I cannot tune him out. I can not walk away--I live here.

I told him today, "Minkey, you don't need to express your every thought!"

His response, "Meaaaow."

He does not have a sweet voice. His voice went through a meat grinder, was drug across a Nevada cactus field, got dumped in a vat of rusty nails, was basted with vinegar and then was installed into his voice box. To say it is irritating is like calling the Grand Canyon and interesting place with a river at the bottom. There is no adjective to describe his voice.

If I hang my left hand down and scratch his back, fondle his ears, pat his head he shuts up but the minute I remove my hand to type, he complains. He needs to belong to a little old lady, who watches TV a lot and wants a cat on her lap.

He won't be able to live here much longer because I won't be here. I'll be in a rubber room, all dressed up in a straight jacket and Phil will be in the room next to mine.

Send help. Send A little old lady with an empty lap. Come and get Minkey. You'll have to get the key from the neighbors and let yourself in. I won't be here. Just take the cat and go. Call the mental home and tell them it's okay to let me out. In the meantime, I'll be there, all wrapped up, twitching.