Cat and Dog Act Gone Bad!
This isn’t my typical nature post but this is worth changing everything around for the day! My mother continues to be tested by her two adopted kids teaming up together and causing nonstop trouble. I received this phone call from her telling me about how this most recent event went bad for everyone.
Supposedly the dog decided that it was too cold outside and left a stinky treat for my mother on the kitchen floor! Upset with the dog, she yelled at him and cleaned up after it. Because it had stunk so bad, she decided to light 3 candles to help mask the horrific odor. Of course the cat had to investigate the crime scene after hearing her partner in crime had been yelled at (as she always does).
My mother continued telling me how she was running around trying to get ready for a funeral that she was about to attend. While running around the house and head outside to start her car; she happened to notice 4 flames over in the kitchen. With motherly instincts she realized that the cat’s tail was on fire. You have to hear how my mother explains it but there sat the cat with no clue that she had just placed her tail in the wrong location. Mother now needed to rescue her, ASAP!
Of course my mother freaked out (as would anyone finding their babies on fire) and smothered the flame by placing the closest towel over the cat’s tail. Being startled by all the excitement the cat took off hiding in a location which made it impossible for my mother to check to see if she had been burned.
Of course the cat is perfectly fine with only shorter hairs on her tail now. We continued to discuss how lucky the cat was that those huge flames were seen just as the event happened. We could only imagine what would have happened if the cat got startled while on fire and hid somewhere!! She could have burned down the whole house, curtains or even one of the couches. She is so luck that she didn’t get seriously burned which wouldn’t have been good.
So, not only did the house stink from the dog, it now smelled like burnt cat hair. MOM – I know you are reading this! PLEASE place your candles in locations which the cat will not be sticking her tail or whiskers in!!
time for work or time for play?
This weekend I spent numerous hours working on my end-of-the-year reports and can you believe that I am still behind on my PowerPoint slide show? This tardiness is partially due to parking myself next to the window entering my endless data into the computer. Of course I was watching the bird activity at the feeder’s more than typing. I was amazed at the nonstop lake effect dumping on us and I have decided that it is officially the start of winter (which finally brought out the birds). Although winter arrived late this year; I am just starting to see true signs of spring with numerous species of birds beginning to behave differently.
The entire day I watched two pairs of Northern Cardinals showing continuously agonistic behavior between each other. I still think that they only had a few opportunities to eat a few seeds before another cardinal would chase it away. It appears that the territories of the Cardinal have already been established and I think my feeder is the no fly zone between these two pairs.
I also noticed that the Dark-eyed Junco’s were more frequently singing and could this be the start of pair bonding? It is still quite a few months until they begin sitting on eggs but it is wonderful to hear those junco trills again after a long quiet fall/winter. I plan on continuing to watch all the birds at my feeders and smile every time those cute little chickadee’s tell the females “cheeeeese….burg..ger”
I will continue working on my PowerPoint slide show and then start working on more year end reports for 2006 (ugg). Just someday I can get back to schedule on updating my blog on a daily basis and spend more time taking pictures of our favorite fluff balls. Sunday you can expect me taking advantage of this fresh snow going snowboarding at one of the resorts for the first time this season. I hope to try to do some cross country skiing tomorrow evening after work.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 