relative of the rat

I've been off the past week, staying at home doing some projects while my sister and nephews visited. The boys attended Bradley's awesome World of Wonder program. Last night, a friend stopped over - she had not seen my sister in a long while. I walked into the kitchen to get more coffee and saw a peculiar mouse dead on the floor. Earlier I had noticed the cat quite interested in what was underneath the cook book shelf.

Readers of this blog know that I have a severe reaction to mice. I don't even like picking up dead ones. I tried to get the dogs to eat it, but they looked at me like I was crazy. They eat baby rabbits that the cats have killed, so why not a mouse?

I didn't want to cause a scene, so I decided, "I can do this." I found two paper plates and a bag and prepared to scoop it up. When I touched it, however, it moved. Walked a few inches and then sat back down. My sister heard the commotion and came to the kitchen. She has the same feelings toward rodents as I do. Warned that it was still breathing, she was prepared. She grabbed the plates and dropped it in the bag. About then, Riley began to protest that we were suffocating the helpless beast.

Later, my sister asked if I was sure it was a mouse. "It had a long, bare tail like a rat," she said.

"Please God no," I said. I ran to the computer and typed in "Field Mouse" which was what I thought the creature was. Thank all goodness. Field mice are related to Brer Rat, thus the long bare tale and pronounced metatarsals.

Coltrane . . . one of my favorite things

Our little white kitty Blaze found a friend.

He coaxed a shy grey kitty into the yard over the past week. We have watched white kitty and grey kitty play recent evenings. Two nights ago, grey kitty presented with a hurt left front paw. It was swollen, and he held it up.

We took him into our sun room, where we provided a litter box, scratch pad, food, and water. Next morning, the swelling was worse. The vet clinic said he needed antibiotics, anti-inflammatorries, flea treatment, stool testing, neutering, leukemia testing, and vaccinations.

Little grey kitty is quite affectionate and seems unfazed by dogs or other cats.

I dropped him off at the clinic over my lunch hour. As I drove back to Bradley campus, I tuned in WGLT, public radio station from neighbor ISU. They played John Coltrane on tenor sax performing "My favorite things," one of which is "whiskers on kittens." Coltrane's performance is masterful. I hummed the tune as I picked through the salad bar and soup line. I couldn't get it out of my head. I hope my humming didn't attract too much notice.

So, I decided to name the fellow "Coltrane."

Tonight I accidentally called him Mr. C, which was my pet name for our recently departed old Lab, Carlos. Well, life does go on.

Summer memories

Things I remember from summer

The smell of Deep Woods Off on my face - my sister won a case of it by calling into a radio station

Hector our Newfoundland dog sitting at attention all night while we slept outside. A possum comes into the yard, causing a full-scale alarm

Creating a bakery of mud pies and then dad bringing home several loaves of fresh-baked French bread from Mrs. Chevalier. Many people paid her for the bread. She gave it to dad in exchange for appliance repairs and carpentry work

Sitting with my friends in the apple tree on branches hanging over the road - listening to conversations as bicycles and cars pass by unnoticed on the country road past our house

A neighbor girl - a foster child - living in the farm house further down that road. She comes to our house to drink the "wonderful" city water and to play with us. She says her mother will be out of the hospital and coming for her soon.

Running through corn fields - dark and mysterious - the stalks and leaves creating deep rashes on our arms

Wearing pink, green, blue, or yellow flip flops in the July sun - popping bubbles in the freshly spread tar on the road outside our house

Black squirrels and snowy owls

It's been a winter of unusual sightings.

Deep in the heart of a bitterly cold December ice storm, I saw a black squirrel eating on the ground beneath the bird feeder. I thought the creature must have fallen down an oil well, but upon Googling "black squirrels" I learned they are a genetic mutation of the grey squirrel favoring cold climates. I tried to take a photo, but the little fellow was quite skittish. In fact, I only saw him on what turned out to be the two coldest days of the year.

My mother-in-law drove from Bloomington to Peoria for a visit in January. Approaching an empty parking lot in a less-than-desirable part of town, she said she thought she saw a pair of snowy owls hovering in the cold air. I said such behavior sounded more like sea gulls than owls, but I kept an open mind. She has spent lots of time near the ocean and knows the familiar outline of sea gulls quite well.

This weekend, my sister and my nephews visited. My husband said, when he was putting our dinner on the grill outside, that he had seen what appeared to be a snowy owl gliding over our yard. I came home today at lunch and thought I saw a huge white figure soaring through the trees behind the house. We all got excited and pulled out the binoculars.

Then, again, maybe it was the reflection of a white car in the window. We peered into the woods but only saw a red fox squirrel perching at the tippy top of a tree. Hmm.

Maybe, in our deep hope for an early spring, we are just seeing things.

What I know and what I don't know

Well I haven't blogged much of late. I've been thinking that my ignorance on so many issues is magnificent.

I've been thinking that what I know could fit into a thimble. And then there's everything else.

Best wishes for a thoughtful day.

"Merry Christmas and don't let the door hit you on the way out"

Peoria Journal Star reporter Phil Luciano recently wrote about a longtime United Way employee who was fired because her husband had cancer and, so he reported, was told she would miss too many days taking care of him. She stated, however, that she could continue to work her three-day-per-week schedule.

Phil interviewed one of the employee's former bosses who said she was invaluable to the organization. On the PJS Web site, a commentator who had volunteered with UW testified to this employee's wonderful qualities. Maybe the UW has some serious dirt on this 77-year-old retired farmer who has worked for the UW earning minimum wage for many years. Or maybe it's just managerial arrogance run amok. (One cynically suspects as much.)

I generally do not support the UW, although I have given minimal contributions in the past. This year, however, I left the pledge envelope on my desk unopened. I'm not even sure why, just a gut feeling that I'd had enough. Maybe I am growing more cynical in old age. I do know that I would rather give directly to some of the best organizations in our community.

Maybe employers, instead of supporting the UW campaign, should have "Give Directly" campaigns and offer to make payroll deductions to any charitable organization that an employee wishes to support. That would provide more money to organizations, as we would cut out the UW executive salaries.

http://www.pjstar.com/homepage/x1460304559/Luciano-Longtime-employee-gets-unjust-surprise

An issue with tissue

My most recent trip to the bathroom revealed to me serious feline distress. The tissue had been pulled from the roll and shredded into a huge mountain.

All three kitties are frustrated by single-digit temps. They want to go outside and take out their feline frustration on neighborhood mice, birds, and ground squirrels. But that darn freezing wind makes it difficult. They retreat inside. Big grey cat harasses the old, beautiful tortie. Little white Siamese, tries to cuddle with big grey, but that doesn't work, so he, too, hisses at very old Odetta.

Banjo, the kitty mamma tries to keep the peace, but, in the end, he can only take so many hits to the nose. My water spray bottle is at the ready, but sometimes I miss my cue.

Then, I wonder, who's the tissue terrorist? Big grey is just "large" and dumb. This is the same cat who fell into the pool while chasing a mosquito. Who jumped into the path of a moving car when he saw the wipers activiated. Who tried to overtake an enormous wild turkey.

Little white kittie is wiley and smart. He runs away when a vacuum or car starts up. I think he is most likely to think of taking his cabin fever out on the tissue. But, certainly, I will keep monitoring this issue.