Chronicles of Nani - The Cutting Room Floor

Along with my cohost, Marco, this is a journey through clips that start with my deciding whether or not Chronicles of Nani was even going to happen all the way through some things from actual episodes that didn't quite fit but are still nonetheless interesting. 

(Yes, my co-host slept through the entire thing, but it was shot during kitty siesta time.) 

Join me on YouTube every Friday at 8am to chat with me during the premier! 

 Or visit the cyber coffee shop anytime, open 24/7! 

#MultipleSclerosis #cats

 

The Chronicles of Nani - Outtakes + Cats

This is a collection of clips from the cutting room folder. It's funny or informative bits that just didn't fit in their original vlogs. There's also a "halftime show" with some short cat bits. Because cats seem to rule YouTube. LOL 

 PSA "Prince,” The Humane Society of The United States, Maddie’s Fund & The Ad Council, 2016.

The Chronicles of Nani - Emotional Support Pets

 I've been looking forward to finishing and posting this one for a while!

There is a difference between assistance animals and therapy pets. This week we're talking about emotional support pets, therapy pets. If you have a chronic illness, or if you're recovering from an illness or injury, your pets can be the comfort you need to recover or make it another day. Even if you're not dealing with an illness or something you're recovering from, if it's just been a bad day or a frustrating day, if you're just sad about something that's happened, your pets, furry, feathered, scaled or swimming, can calm you and make everything okay. Pets give love unconditionally and all they really want is to make you feel good.

Friendly Fill-ins

It doesn't really seem fair because Mommy wasn't feeling good today so she slept a lot. So it wasn't easy to get on her computer because we kind of got to sit on her to use it. She fell asleep with it closed and her iPad on top of it. How rude.

But now we get to use the computer because she's awake although she says she still feels groggy. I don't know what groggy is, but I don't sleep the way she sleeps. Daddy said there was an earthquake and nobody knew. It didn't wake up Mommy and didn't bug either of us either.

I bet because that's a thing for Daddy, he wouldn't like us using either twice in a sentence. I hear him yell at Mommy for stuff like that. 

Today we both wanted to do Friendly Fill-ins  with Four-Legged Furballs and 15andmeowing. We decided to share the blog page. Our neighbors next-door moved but when they still lived here my friend Domino, who is a dog, taught me what share means. I thought it sounded like something interesting to do ONCE in a while.

Marco

 

Behind Stripes And Spots 

1. I feel like going outside all the time. My human staff members are not as accommodating as I'd like them to be. 

2. I wish I could exchange the way Daddy gives us treats for the way Mommy gives us treats. Mommy usually gives us more.

3. It's time for me to let the full-time staff know that I haven't had my wet food yet.

4. A training session for our part-time staff is really tempting these days. Mommy calls them aides, but aside from one who occasionally cleans for the litter boxes, I don't really think they do enough for the cats in the house.

Behind The Dot

1. I feel like Marco needs to watch daddy play poker online more. He played one game with me and lost the house. It used to be his, now it's mine. HAHAHAHA! 

2. I wish I could exchange all of my quiet toys for For ones that made noise.

3. It's time for me to take another nap in the window so I have plenty of cute rest.

4. Trying to jump through the front window when the squirrel gets close to the house is really tempting these days.

Behind The Dot

Hi everyone in the Interwebs!

I’m Julie Danielle Catinez, but call me JD. I like JD better. Mommy says Julie Danielle is my name but she only uses it when I’m bad. Bad? Who’s the cat here? I’ll tell you if I’m ever bad. I’ll turn 4 next year and be able to go to feline obedience school. I read that in the online sample of our first semester text book, “Make Them Obey.” Even if you don’t go to obedience school, it’s a best-seller at Catmazon!

Mommy follows some pretty cool blogs! She hasn’t writed a lot in a while, but she’s using stuff she says is like catnip but you don’t feel funny. It sounds like boring catnip, but it helps her help me write, so if she likes it, it’s okay for me.

Mommy follows some great blogs Of course there’s Miss Edna’s biog where we keep up on our friend, Pogo, but there are also blogs about or writed by other cats! They play Interwebs games together. Mommy’s gonna help me with Linky so I can play too.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a Friday game, and I will try to do it earlier this week.

Friendly Fill-Ins are from Four Legged Fur Balls and 15 and Meowing.

1. I look forward to seeing _________ at the holidays.

2. I can see _________ outside my _________ window.

3. _________ always puts me in a festive mood.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is _________.


1. I look forward to seeing Santa Paws at the holidays! Last year I was a kiteen (Mommy and Daddy say we look like cats at a year old, but kittenhood lasts for a couple years.) Because I just becomed a housecat last year, I never got treats and toys for Christmas before. I can’t wait this year!

2. I can see squirrels outside my front cat TV screen. (Which they tell me is also called a window) It snowed last month and Squirrely, the star of The Squirrel Show, went into his oak tree in front of the screen. But it got warmer and there was another episode!

3. Mommy puts on my favorite green blanket so I can sleep on her legs always makes me happy and that’s a festive mood. She makes Christmas scrapbook pages and it makes her happy.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is Mommy has Christmas candy so we get more treats!

Have fun! I’ll be back soon!

Friday By Request 2//15/19

This week I'm sending a big thank you to Lillian and Edna for their requests for today which came in at about the same time. Edna mentioned in comments that she'd love to read some more poetry and Lillian had asked on Facebook for a poem specifically about squirrels. I'm much too happy to oblige! Since there were two requests my furrry friends get two .poems.

A Child's Camping Buddies

Camping with our grandparents in the late off-season

Always caused Papa to require with the own reason

“Better know where the nearest hospital is

‘Cause one of these days they'll bite that kid'

After a summer full of campers they were practically domestic

‘I'd sit alone on a picnic table with my bag full of peanuts

They’d gather around me enjoying their treats

Some right out of my hand, I thought that was neat

When I wasn't at the playground or catching a fish

I was back at the picnic table granting their wish

And all of my grandfather’s fears were for naught

'Cause I never once needed a rabies shot

Squirrely On CAT TV

When there's not the boring "White Show” on CAT TV

"Squirrely" is my favorite show I watch with JD

Having a giant oak tree in our front yard

Guarantees kitty and me will be watching hard

I can't see the nest from the wheelchair when I'm out

But there's one squirrel on that tree constantly happy and stout

And he'll share the tree with some others to play

There seems to be a limit, they only come up half way

On a good day we see four, five or more

Scaling that tree, and looking to explore

JD wags her tail and paces the big front "screen"

I chuckle and call her "Mamas girl" as I watch that scene

When the day gets later and they finish their playing

She can often be found snuggled across my chest laying

JD falls asleep still wiggling it seems

Chasing the squirrels in the yard in her dreams.

Our newest baby!

Since I haven't written in a while there are a few things I want to update visitors to my cyber coffeeshop about. If you aren't a Facebook follower of my husband or me you haven't seen photos of JD, who came to live with us in May!

This is Julie Danielle. We call her JD “Catinez.” She is named after "My" former Tiger, now "My" Red Sox, JD Martinez. The JD in the baseball player is Julio Daniel. We decided OUR JD should be Julie instead of Julia because cats respond better and better recognize a two syllable word as their name. But we call her JD and she recognizes JD. I don't think she has any idea who Julie is.

JD is a rescue from the Michigan Humane Society. David's former coworker and a mutual friend on Facebook, Tanya, is a foster mom for MHS. She brought, at the time known as "Gina," to meet us after her kittens were weaned. David saw a picture of her and her story on Facebook.

Marco had become known to us as ”needy cat.” He had become almost demandingly affectionate. He just seemed to not be happy as an only cat. Marco needed company. So we were avidly, or at least semi avidly, looking for a sibling for him.

We’re proud that we were instrumental in making JD very special. In the shelter world black cats are usually the most difficult to find homes for and kittens usually find homes long before their mama cats do. JD is a black cat who was adopted before any of her kittens!

It's usually about a week of listening to growling and hissing sas cats get to know each other. Marco and JD were getting along within about three days. I think part of that may be that Marco is not the alpha cat we thought he might be. We really expected he would take rule of the household after we lost Kaline, but he and Carla remained living as equals. JD did seem to take over that alpha position and Marco not only seemed okay with it, he seemed pleased.

Now, for the last three weeks or so, Marco’s finally realized that at 15 1/2 pounds he's just a little bit bigger than the 8-pound alpha cat. So know when they play it’s a little rough. But I do know that it’s play because she lays on her back and waves her paws at him after she hisses instead of running away and Margo grooms the top of her head after they bump noses in a friendly “kitty-kiss.“Sometimes I just have to remember that cats can play as rough as puppies do. But it's a happier house with another cat.

We Are A One-Cat Family Now

Carla Yastrzemski Patch

“The Good One”

*September 9, 2008 - December 1, 2017

*observed

December started for us with our second visit this year to that room at the vet’s office with the soft blanket and a box of tissues. They couldn’t perform the scheduled mastectomy on Carla. They shaved her up to get her ready, and discovered the cancer had moved into her armpits, it was just too aggressive to operate. We thought we would have to go in the next morning to say goodbye. I called David that afternoon and told him I wanted him to bring Carla home at least for that night. In 2008 when we brought her home from the shelter and promised her a forever home, we rescued her from living in a cage. I didn’t want her last night to be in a cage.

They sent her home with pain medicine. We would be able to allow her to let us know when she was done. She wasn’t really a lot weaker yet, she could still jump up on the bed to curl up with her daddy until he fell asleep and she could still come downstairs. to jump up on the foot rest of the recliner and sleep to relax her mommy to sleep. She was still eating and enjoying treats and in the evening she still spent part of the time attached to daddy's side on the couch and the other part on her armrest on the recliner making Carlaccino.

Marco and Carla- one last sun bath in the front window together

That lasted just over two weeks. At the end of two weeks she was moving very slow, sleeping a lot and not able to get up to the places she liked to be. Three days before it was over we had given her one of the painkillers in the morning. It was very sunny and it took her two tries to get on top of the chest by the window. She sat confused and Marco sort of guided her in to the cat hammock in the window so she could sit in the sun. It broke my heart that night after David went up to bed and she didn't follow upstairs, she crawled off the couch and sat in front of the recliner and cried up to me begging to be picked up. I wanted so badly to be able to pick her up and comfort her. She crawled back up to the couch and curled up back to sleep and I cried. The next day we gave her a painkiller in the morning and she pretty much slept all day with no interest in food or any of the other things she normally liked to do. She knew it was time.

We'll remember Carla in many special ways. She was a year-old when we adopted her and after having a rough first year, including having had kittens when she was still a kitten herself, she was adult cat size but had the happy kittenhood with lots of love she was owed. We were happy to give that to her and she never stopped being grateful. In so many ways she never stop being a kitten.

But to everyone that met her, Carla was a kitty of sounds. Her shelter name at Paws and Whiskers was Sassy. It wasn't too long after she came home that we realized how such a sweet girl could be called sassy. Carla had no problem letting us know when she needed petting. She had a very distinct, loud and plaintive meow when she demanded attention. But more than that meow, I worried the first time I heard the happy meow. She would yell loudly but muffled when she had a toy in her mouth and was walking around with it. We came to call that muffled meow singing, "I got I toy, I got a toy, I got a toy!” We call her purring “Carlaccino” because it sounded like the espresso machines in the coffee shop. When you pet her on her sweet spot; right on the top of her head between her ears, her purr would start low and quiet and get louder, building just like an espresso pot.

But what turned out to be the most distinctive Carla sound was there in other parts of the house but it really came to life when we removed the carpet over the hardwood floors in the living room. She had her clumsy moments jumping up on things, but when she walked through a room she had a fluid elegance and when she walked on the hardwood floor her claws made a rhythmic clicking sound like a lady in high heels. My weekend aide always celebrated her when she came downstairs welcoming her as “Miss Fancy Feet.” The friends, aides and nurses who are here most often noted they missed the lady like clicks of her feet on the floor when she came home for hospice care. In prepping her for this surgery she ended up not having, they clipped her claws.

Now all of Carla’s sounds, warm cuddles and the eternal kitten who never stopped playing in the eight years she was with us are gone. Last year at Christmas time, gifts to the canine family and friends came from "the three wise cats." This year Marco will be an only cat for the holidays. He left his litter mates when he was a kitten and instantly had two sisters so he's never been an only cat. It's different for all of us in a little emptier house this year.

2017: We lost our ‘Queen” and our “Good One.” 2018 has to be better.

But Now My Kitty Sunshine's Gone Away

Alexis Kaline Patch

2005-2017

50 ended with tears. We said goodbye to our Kaline, just a couple weeks before her. 12th birthday.

Early in June she was taken to the vet to look at her because of severe weight loss in a very short time. It was then, on June 8, that she was diagnosed with kidney failure, something that there is not a cure for in cats. It's also something that is, while not common, it's not uncommon in house cats. Her vet told us it may be months, it may be years, but there is nothing that could be done to reverse the damage.

I prayed that she'd have years, but she lost 25% of her body weight in about a month. David got prescription food and I made cat-recipe chicken broth to try to get her to drink more. She did eat the food, but just a little each day, and wasn't even interested in the chicken meat, let alone the broth. She still cuddled and purred with me and crawled on David's hip for morning scritches, but she was still losing weight and seemed to be slowing down. Last week she was struggling to get up on the furniture or the cedar chest to look out the front window. She was spending most of her.time in the sunny spot in the upstairs hall – it had always been one of her favorite places.

For the last couple of weeks, when I sang the song I always do when I'm giving evening treats, she still came running down with Carla and Marco, but she became even more finicky than usual, only eating her favorites. Then this past week she'd run down but just watch the treats tossed and her brother and sister eat them. When it had been a couple of days since she'd eaten and David gave her a bowl of moist food with lots of gravy, which she loved, she looked at it, put her tongue on it for a test, and then shook her head and walked away. That really was the sign we had to accept. It seemed like she was only holding on for us. Her once shining coat on her strong body was just hanging off pretty much her skeleton.

David came home from work early Thursday. Uncharacteristically Kaline came downstairs as soon as he came in. She halfheartedly struggled when he put her in the carrier and when she was in the carrier she gave three scratches at the floor where her usual was she try to dig herself out for a while. There was meowing but not as robust as usual. We were about to take the longest and most painful ride we've ever made to the vet. You see, when it's been the final ride with our cats before we didn't know that was the last trip ahead of time. Even with Baggle, we knew he was sick and that day was coming, but we didn't know that was that day when we left home. For Kaline we knew.

Cats purr when they are happy and content or when they are nervous and afraid. We both cried a lot during the last couple months and even more during that ride to the vets office on Thursday. We were in what was set up to be the crying room at the vet's office, lots of seats around the exam table and the feel of a room at a funeral home with a box of tissues on the windowsill. Kaline purred while we pet her. She sat on my chest, the "cat shelf" she discovered as a kitten and never accepted that she'd outgrown, one last time. When the vet's assistant came in for us to sign paperwork, she was teared up too. The job and the crying pet parents never gets easy, even for the people who do it professionally.

After she stopped purring and her labored breaths stopped, we left the office. We stopped at the desk to let them know the tissue box was empty.

On the way home David noted that it was sunny out. Unsuccessfully choking back tears I said "That's because there's no more…" and broke into an uncontrolled loud sob. He said he didn't understand what I said but then said, "I think I know what you said” and joined me in more tears. I tried to say "kitty sunshine" again unsuccessfully. I sang "You Are My Sunshine" with the kitty sunshine customized lyrics to her since she was a kitten. I couldn't sing that song since her diagnosis because the last line, "please don't take my kitty sunshine away" was just too painful to sing to her.

There will be more tears for a few days that will fade from tears into happy memories. But right now her song is over and I just wish it had been a more extended cut.

A Carnival Fights Blog-Block

I’ve been in a writing funk lately. I'm going to try write my way out of it. We’ll see if it works.

Today's been a pretty good day. It's Carnival weekend at the church kitty corner from us. I asked my aide to crack open the window on the side of the house so I can hear the carnival. I hope that doesn't sound pathetic, it shouldn’t. I'm not disabled and hearing the sounds of fun I can't have. The truth is I find this sounds to be inspiring. I've always loved listening to the rides and people laughing and having fun. When I used to go to the park and walk every day the absolute greatest day was when it was just warm enough for moms to bring out their kids to play in the playground. It made me even more relaxed and happy to hear the sound of the kids outside having fun. This carnival weekend has been awesome for that reason ever since I moved into this house, 10 years ago. I've never actually been to that carnival. I’ve never really been a carnival goer as an adult. But I love the sounds of crowds of people having fun. So right now the setting sun is shining in my window and over me, I'm toggling the TV remote between three baseball games, and the fresh smell of outside with the sound of two crazy rides that I can see through the window make it a pretty great evening.

The Reds game tonight against Atlanta, is the first game since the off-season trade that Brandon Phillips has been back in Cincinnati. In the top of the first inning, his first at bat, Reds fans gave him a standing ovation. Bronson Arroyo stepped off the pitching mound to allow Phillips an opportunity to step back from the plate, take off his hat and salute the crowd. After 11 years with the Reds, Phillips’ contract gave him the right to say “no” to any trade the team considered. He used that right a couple of times, but the only team I'm sure he would've said ”yes” to would've been Atlanta, to go home. I admitted I choked up a little watching the whole thing; the welcoming ovation, Arroyo’s gesture, Brandon acknowledging the crowd and the fact that both pitcher and hitter we're visibly moved.


Maybe the carnival is helpful. The biggest problem that I've had when I've been writing lately is that when I start writing and I think I'm writing for the blog, I start getting very negative and very hostile, so it just ends up being writing that I put my personal journal. Remember that I write to get negative feelings out and put away. So I have enough things that are bugging me right now that everything I write turns into a page or two of grumbling and ranting. Even my scrapbooked daily blurbs have sometimes turned into a page long growling sessions that I've had to cut and paste into the personal journal, and write my daily comment shorter or about something else entirely. So I've had some demons that I've been dealing with. I won't say anything more about that lest this turn into another attempted blog that ends up going into the file that will only be opened after I'm gone.

I hope somebody does read it. It's not all negative stuff, though I do think, especially for those that know me, that seeing, understanding, the things that really got under my skin and how I dealt with them is a good thing. But there are fun things too. I put the text from my blogs, comments that I make in different forums, and even silly one liners. I also occasionally address the reader in the things that I write. What's the point in doing that if there's not going to be a reader someday? My scrapbooks and the complete and uncensored Chronicles of Nani will be my legacy. I'd like to be remembered for a generation or two after I'm gone. (smiles)


We celebrated Marco's fourth birthday yesterday. He's the only one of our cats whose birthday we are sure of. Marco and his litter siblings were born in our friend's garage on June 1, 2013. The girls’ birthdays are educated guesses. I'll do a scrapbook page for his birthday and maybe a "Christmas in June" page or two. I'm scrapping June for 2017 but December for every other year right now. Yes, that means I'm finishing books now! More details on that soon.

Rumor Has It We Won!

Behind Stripes and Spots

Me and Rumor, Toledo area winner 

of the Westminster Dog Show

That's a picture of me, because it's my column, and my pal Rumor. Mommy says it's a picture of alternate fact, whatever. I read a tutorial about making friends with photoshop. I think it's a good first try.

I think Rumor is a great-looking dog and he'd be great to play Domino in the movie! Domino is one of the dogs next door. When Daddy lets me go outside with him and the dogs are out we sniff at each other through the fence. Mommy says "if they get together supervised, they might be friends. If they get together unsupervised, they'd be a Disney movie." I think that would be fun!

Neither one of my friends next door is a German shepherd, but I think one of the dogs should be a big dog for the movie. Rumor would have good star-power for a costar too! I learned a lot about movies after watching Keanu with Mommy and Daddy. Keanu's part was way too small for the star of the movie. The humans who costarred got most of the screen time. I think our movie will be better because dogs are easier to work with than humans. Humans have big egos.

This picture is from the Keanu movie

I'd have to see his current publicity shot to see if he could play me. Some kitten-actors just don't keep "the look." I'm almost 4 and still as adorable as a kitten, so an actor who plays me would still have to have "the look."

Mommy just said something about ego. I already said human egos were bigger than dogs which is why dogs are better to work with. Boy, she reads slow.

So, congratulations to Rumor for being the best dog in the dog show! Now how about being a movie star? I guess I should send Disney an email. I need to tell the dogs next door that we gotta write a script!

A Few Spring Things

Happy Opening Day! Like the parties on Christmas Eve have increased over the years, there were 3 Opening Day Eve parties. I watched bits of the first one, because my aide was in and yesterday was salon-day (hair-wash and pamper,) and all of the last two. Opening Day is today, not because I’m a Reds fan, but because the oldest professional team in baseball has always played at home on Opening Day. Baseball resuming in Cincinnati has always marked the beginning of the new season.

I still want to one day get to Cincinnati for Opening Day, parade and everything. I’ve been to OD for the Tigers as both a paying fan, intern and paid staff. No matter in what capacity, there is nothing that compares to the electric feeling in the air on Opening Day. As huge as it is in Tiger-town, you can feel the city-wide buzz is even more powerful in Cincinnati watching it on TV. I’d hope that the Joey Votto jersey and wheelchair could get me to the front of the parade line, or at least a free drink. **smiles**

When Melinda, my aide a few days a week, was here on Saturday it was snowing. It was enough snow that at times it looked pretty heavy and it did stick to the ground. It was April 2, so where did that prank come from? Its been a rough spring for me with no actual usable wheelchair, I’ve been a house-body, so I pretty much missed the crocuses this year except for one photo David took when they first came up and a glimpse of the end of them and beginning of the daffodil buds when I went to the doctor’s office a couple weeks ago. Melinda came right back in after she left and brought me one of the narcissus blooms. It didn’t get knocked off, she picked it. “So you get to enjoy at least one of them.” It made my day.

The snow we got on Saturday was melted away pretty quickly yesterday morning. Even though it was still a cold day, it started out sunny. We have nothing to complain about. I read on Edna's blog  that they woke up to a lot more snow from overnight in New England yesterday. She had some nice snow pictures and in spite of the snow, she offered a very bright and warm quick page freebie. By golly, it’s spring! I followed her lead and rebelled against the chill with this:

Credits: 2016 quick page 15 by Miss Edna, Open Windows by Mandy King and Connie Prince

I added a bit of my slightly sarcastic sense of humor, I remembered the ads from my childhood that “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” It seems she pranks us enough. I don’t need no stinkin’ real butter…

Funny memories… Marco was being nosey about my toothbrushing stuff and it brought to mind an old lesson about why they don’t sell cat-toothbrushes.

Nani and Ritchie ages 17 & 1

When I was 17, I had a cat, Ritchie. Ritchie was all black except for a few white hairs on his chest and he was incredibly affectionate, although dumb as a box of rocks. On one given day, 17-year-old Nani was dumber than that box of rocks. I was playing with Ritchie, nuzzling his face, and he had incredible fish-breath! I figured it was a good idea to brush his teeth. I got an old toothbrush and put a little toothpaste on it. I never got to brush his teeth. As soon as the toothpaste hit his tongue he freaked. He ran through the house with the foam that the tooth paste instantly created trailing behind him leaving a frothy white map to exactly where he was. Where he it eventually ended up was his water bowl and I don't think I’ve ever seen a cat drink so much water!

Leave cat dental procedures to the professionals!

Santa Paws Is Just Awesome!

Behind Stripes and Spots

I needed a break after playing with Wobbert

This was such a cool Christmas! We got lots of treats and toy mousies. Two mousies jungle and two of them make real squeaks! But the best thing I got was Wobbert! Here’s Wobbert’s video:


Isn’t Wobbert cool? Mommy says Wobbert is a “Feline Tickle Me Elmo.” I don’t know what that is but she says that everycat wants a Wobbert this year. Well, yeah. Did you watch the video? How could anycat NOT want a Wobbert?

I’m not so sure about the name on my present. It didn’t say Marco it said Share. Mommy and Daddy have called me nicknames before but Santa Paws is the first one to call me Share. But it’s okay to call me Share if you’re giving me edible string!

That is the part of the video I don’t get. How can you play with Wobbert when he still has chicken-string? When Mommy loads him up like the video shows, the first thing I do is eat the yummy string. Mommy gave a piece of string to Carla and one to Kaline. Neither one of them liked the string so when Mommy stopped holding me against my will, I got the extra pieces of string right away. How could they not like edible string??

We all play with Wobbert and get him to drop treats for us. Kaline platys with him a little, but would rather have human staff just give her the treats. But I admit Carla is pretty impressive. She can get a treat from Wobbert almost every time she hits him! One time she hit him a buncha times and got treats for all of us!

We also found out my Wobbert is better than games for people-kids because Mommy heard that one of her people-kid cousins got a new X-box that wouldn’t play his old X-box games! Santa Paws sent a present from our friend, Pogo, in New England. It was a whole bag of Meow Mix treats, which are very yummy treats by the way, thanks, Pogo! Mommy put some of those treats in my Wobbert and they worked great. Take THAT X-box!

Mommy said maybe she should get another Wobbert since we all like to play at the same time when she loads the treat holders. I think that's a good idea. If she got the girls a Wobbert I could eat all the string since they don’t like the string.

It was a good Christmas!

Brrr...This is June?

Good morning friends! It’s 7AM and 46 degrees outside. If this were March I’d be ecstatic about the balmy temperature and sunny day. However, being June and all I’m ready to panic! I mean, we really didn’t have summer last year and after the deep freeze just a few months ago, I’d just hate to think I missed the warm weather already. I didn’t go outside every day just because the high temp was in the 80s because I figured it was only the beginning, ya know? This morning I have R2D2 running steady to heat up the room and it has nothing to do with a chill from the air conditioning. I even gave thought to passing on making a cup of morning coffee to get back into the room with my diligent space heater. But you know me well enough to know I stayed in the chill of the kitchen long enough to get a cup of my morning elixir!

Yesterday was Marco’s birthday! Our little boy cat-dog is 2! The kids all shared Savory Salmon Feast birthday cake at Marco’s party last night and David and I sang Happy Birthday. All three of the kitty-kids were so affectionate with the party spirit and even Marco joined in the singing as we held the plates of salmon feast and serenaded him.

My allergies seem to finally be calming down. It was especially bad this year, but I’ve read it just was especially bad; not just for me. I think the storms we had last weekend must have tamped the pollen down so it’s not flying all over. The rain made everything a robust green and made the trees full and healthy looking. The main drawback to last weekend’s rain is it was the festival weekend at the church across the street and the usual carnival sounds I enjoy hearing that weekend were too often interrupted by the sound of rain and thunder! The festival goers came back when the sun did, but it still hurts the church/school's fundraising when rain interrupts the carnival.

I never went to a carnival that I didn’t ride the Tilt-a-Whirl at least once when I was in my teens/20s. Usually I’d ride it a few times! Nowadays I really don’t go to carnivals; they set-it-up-for-a-week rides really aren’t wheelchair-friendly. It’s still great to listen to the carnival sounds and the happy screeching people on a warm summer weekend. But I’ve found that I can turn the speed up a little on the power chair if I have a smooth and a little open space and spin for some fun. I call that tilt-a-whirling! I can go around about 3 times and then I have the same feeling I used to enjoy at carnivals too! What is/was your favorite carnival ride or game?

A Magic Chair?

Well, it sure has become spring in these parts! The crocuses have bloomed and finished and we have members of the narcissus family appearing, when it’s not raining it’s bright and the trees are beginning to bud and shower their happy pollen up my nose!

I’ve acknowledged before and it’s still true tart my allergies are incredibly mild compared to many people who suffer from them but it’s all personal perspective at any given moment. I’ve been mildly stuffed up but I can maintain my breathing without panting like a dog all the time but I don’t smell as well. That’s such a bummer because they had a couple of huge lilies at the senior center when our MS group met and I tried to smell them and couldn’t. Lilies are one of my favorite springtime scents. My chest and throat are a little gravelly buy while I can feel a little stress when I take a deep breath and my voice is a little raspy, I don’t have a sore throat or cough. I’m taking care of myself by keeping my area warm with the space heater and drinking my Gypsy Cold Care tea. I’m also getting a lot more sleep the past few nights!

I got a call on Monday from the medical supply place we ordered the lift hair from. The chair was in and could they deliver it this week, tomorrow?

Well, yeah!

We’d cleared the area where the chair was to go. It was going to replace the loveseat that the cats had ravaged. I don’t exactly remember the couch and love seat pair’s history in detail, but they far outdate me in David’s world and as he said, “they owe me nothing.” Rather than David trying to take the loveseat out on his own (NOT cool with me even if he’d been dumb enough o want to) we tilted it up on its side out of the way to take it out when we have help. The thing is, tilting it made it brand new to the kitty kids and they immediately started to find new places to prowl on the love seat they’d claimed as a scratching post.

 

For right now it’s keeping them from wanting to scratch the new chair!

I had to have a few tries to get the transferring to the chair procedure figured out. But by bedtime Tuesday I’d gotten myself into the chair and motored back into the fully reclined position. Fully reclined is my torso just lower than my feet, my lower back comfortably stretched and my legs and feet fully supported by the leg rest. I think I get why “zero-gravity” was a thing to my doctor. Part way thought a very restful night I’d moved the back up a little and Kaline slept in my lap for a while. I woke up after a very full and restful night and I had a very good high energy and low pain day. I slept on the recliner the next two nights and David and I both experienced long restful sleep nights. So at least to the foreseeable future we’re going to way of 1950s TV where married couples sleep in different beds and “don’t ask, don’t tell” what happens during the commercials. ;)


Now the Tigers just won an afternoon game against the White Sox walk off style and the chair is beckoning me to catch some ID before the Reds game.

The Beautiful, The Happy, The Noble and The Abused

Yes, I need a non-rain day and some gardening tools!

The Beautiful

Preferably, that non-rainy day is sooner than later. I have ragged weed-rose stalks and dead leaves strangling the flowers in my back flower bed. But the crocuses are still beautiful, blooming in spite of them. It’s still MY flower. It blooms despite adversity. Abundance of snow? The crocus still grows, little green shoots waiting to be discovered as the snow melts. Snow on it again? The crocus still blooms. Cluttered area filled with obstacles and the crocuses still fill-in and burst with color. That’s me. Sometimes I feel the challenges are so cumbersome I’m smothered in snow like my calls will never be heard. Sometimes I just cry like I’ve been covered with snow again. And sometimes I just see the defeating clutter of difficulties all around me. But I force myself to learn, to grow and choose to bloom. I love my crocuses because they are my spirit-flowers.

Here are a couple closer looks at out fashion colors this year:

Bright yellows

The paler purples inside the purple and white striped petals

The Happy

Yesterday was a beautiful day, although it was still cold in the morning when I was waiting for the bus to take me grocery shopping. In the late afternoon it was a bit warmer, mid-60s, so I could got out to get the mail without the need of a coat over my sweatshirt. I’d opened up the front door so the cats could look out the “tall screen TV” so I took my camera with me to get a picture of them from outside. Trouble was that when I went around to the front of the house there were no cats in the door! I got the mail and came back in the back door. I went in door one onto the porch an locked it behind me. When got to the top of the porch ramp I looked in the double door window, where I usually see Marco waiting, and saw all three of the kids waiting to get onto the porch! I opened the door and Marco and Kaline went right onto the porch. Carla is a little more skittish about the power chair so she went out as soon as I was in.

Kaline by the door to outside

Carla on top of the cat tower

Marco was trying to get into the Christmas tree box and I didn't get a picture of him!

It was fairly warm on the porch and the fresh air outside smelled so good, I left the doors open until it got chilly later in the evening. Ahh, Spring!



The Noble

My fundraising for Walk MS is going slower this year, but I really thought it might. Walk is also later this year so maybe there will be more donations closer to the date.

http://walkoha.nationalmssociety.org/goto/nani

My battle cry this year is EVERY DOLLAR IS HUGE. And it’s true! As I’ve said before, you never know which dollar will be the last one needed to help someone with MS afford a wheelchair or other assistive device, afford their medication or fund the nominal amounts we use to facilitate our self-help support groups. You could be donating the dollar that will complete funding for research that will diagnose the disease sooner or before the symptoms start to tear someone’s world apart. You could send a gift that contains the dollar that will by the last test tube that will unearth the cure. Even if it’s not that celebrated final dollar, the dollars underneath it are essential for that dollar to ever exist. See? Every dollar really is huge! If you can afford to even drop a cup of good coffee and a muffin, $5, it helps, it adds up.

If you want to repost my Walk MS link in your social media or even email signature, please accept my gratitude big time and copy and paste anything you’d like!

 

Click photo to donate

If we reach goal we'll turn off the account

 

I’m still working on fortifying that GoFundMe account for Sheri. I wish I could personally do more. Looking at it now I wish I’d chosen a different funding site than GoFundMe, there are others out there.

The Abused

I’ve seen GoFundMe abused too much. Most recently and notably a fund set up by someone to buy a man a car because he was walking to work ended up with him refusing 2 cars offered because he wanted a different one and now he has financial advisers because, with some media attention, he got way more than he needed for a car and kept all of it.

I have an issue with that because there are GoFundMe accounts, like the one I did for Sheri, that aren’t coming anywhere near goal and people donated to buy him a car, not make him wealthy. Considering that people who can barely afford it are likely to give what they can to help others, that's a statistical fact from data collected from giving, it’s just wrong to keep accepting donations for something specific after the goal has been met. It’s likewise wrong to keep all the overage. I’d have kept the first car offered and maybe enough for the first year of insurance on it. The rest I’d donate to another less funded GoFundMe account.

Donating to the next GoFundMe charitable account accomplishes 2 things. One: it keeps the faith in the GoFundMe idea by not taking donations from the poor to make one person rich. Two: the story of the person who made the news with a need that was met to overflowing with generosity passing that generosity on to someone else would give that account publicity and help fill its need. Helping others could have been passed on and on instead of filling one bank account. A story like this makes me less likely to give to accounts set up like the GoFundMe system. It’s sad because GoFundMe and sites like it really have helped people pay devastating bills like Sheri’s or start a business or recover from destruction like a house fire or flood. To see it abused, giving someone the equivalent of a lottery win without buying a ticket and strangers pay for it with their charitable donations, is just sad.

Happy Black Cat Holiday!

Happy Friday the 13th to all the kitties and the humans brave enough to embrace rather than fear black acts and the number 13! It makes me sad that black cats are hard to place shelter cats. They say it’s because people think they’re “bad luck.” Really? In 2015? It’s just amazing that will all the very real bad things in our world people still fall for unsubstantiated superstitions with archaic roots and take out their gullible fear-attitudes on innocent animals. We celebrate Friday the 13th as a cat-holiday and have adopted the American St Patrick’s Day attitude for it – “Pet me, I’m a black cat” and every cat is a black cat on Friday the 13th!

Please feel free to right click and save the graphic I made for the holiday and share it on your blog or social media sites too. Make Friday the 13th a fun day; catnip for everyone! (and something with milk, like chocolate or ice cream if you don’t do nip.)


Now I’m joining Heather at Feeling Beachie for Follow Friday Four Fill In Blog Hop. This is a meme I haven’t done in a while, but I really enjoy! Stop over to Feeling Beachie to join the fun!

The statements:
1. The worst ____________ is _______________
2. I would rather____________________ than _____________
3. I can ________ but I wish I could ________
4. The song ________________ evokes memories of _______________

My Answers:
1. The worst thing about autumn is winter is the next season.
2. I would rather sit at a ballpark in a rain delay than watch a parade in the snow.
3. I can spin in circles at the mall in my power chair like a tilt-a-whirl but I wish I could still climb into a real Tilt-A-Whirl at a carnival. (That one was too easy, huh?)
4. The song Mess Is Mine by Vance Joy, my current favorite, evokes memories of how wonderful David is and how lucky I am.


I leave you with my signature for Ginger Snaps this month. The challenge was lots of green in your siggie. I got that, but NO green shamrocks! My green eyes and summer freckles are courtesy of the orange part of the flag! My mom used to tell me that it irritated my great grandfather when she wore green to school on St. Patrick ’s Day because her Irish heritage was orange not green. So while I do wear green too, I’ve always made sure to rock a little orange on that Irish holiday in memory of Dad-dad.

Credits: Break Time by Colie’s Corner, Lucky Me by Aprilisa Designs, 

Crocuses from Vintage Rose Blossom by Carena Designs

Mommy Is Just Not Okay In The Head

Behind Stripes and Spots

Mommy sent Daddy away. I mean it. She sent him away for real and he was gone a very very long time. She was bragging about sending Daddy away and she said she did it because she loves him. And I think she’s confused in her head too because she said she wanted him to get a vacation away from wheelchairs and inside hotel rooms with bars in the bathrooms. Daddy doesn’t use those things SHE does! How is sending Daddy away...for a very very long time…giving him a break when it’s stuff he doesn’t use? I can tell you that Daddy doesn’t worry about wheelchairs and hotels with bars when she isn’t there, that’s for sure!

When Mommy sent Daddy away she was all alone. She shoulda thinked about that before sending him away. Mommy got a visit from a friend who saw her pictures of me on Facebook and wanted to meet me just in time so she had someone there when Daddy was gone. Boy was she lucky that happened! I’m so very lucky too because this wasn’t just a new person who brought medicine or a package or even stopped in to fix something. This visitor was KELLY!

I like meeting new people but Kelly is so much more than a new person! I liked her right away and couldn’t help myself from following her everywhere. I had to tell her about my house and my sisters and my Daddy who Mommy sent away but I just knew he’d come back because wishted he could see me and how I love my Mommy but she’s so mean to Daddy making him go away. Do you know what Kelly did? She petted me and said stuff like “Oh, I know baby.” She just gets me.

I stuck with Kelly as much as I could after I found her. I followed her everywhere and curled up to sleep with her. What a guy to do when mean old Mommy sends your Daddy away, right? I was lucky that Kelly came into my life! I mean what if Mommy sends me away because I don’t use a wheelchair and she wants me to have a break, right? I’ll just run away to Kelly.

Then last night I heard a sound I membered from a very very long time ago. Mommy and Kelly were inside but the door opened. IT WAS DADDY!!!! I KNEW he was gonna come home. He HAD to come see me! I was the very first purrson he said hello to the very first scritches he gave. I’m THAT important to him, Marco number one! After he pushed me in the house he said hello to everyone else, even Mommy! After she sent him away he even hugged Mommy and gave her cookies to share with MY Kelly.

My Daddy is such a great guy. He even acted like he was glad not to hafta have a wheelchair or bars in the hotel all the very very long time he was gone. I think next time I‘ll send Mommy away and just stay with Daddy and Kelly.