I started the day with joyful and thankful remembrance of Auggie … photo is from last Thanksgiving. Thoughts also of all times spent with Bear, Bob, Karl, Gus and Zack … they all came to mind and I enjoyed looking at photos of all of them and remembering their antics and the beautiful times we shared.
When a pet dies, that special place in our hearts feels so empty. But we realize, as time passes, that animals have a way of teaching us about loving, about loyalty, friendship, and joy.
And whatever we’ve shared in their presence can never really be lost.
Writer unknown
From Irving Townsend … these words have helped me when I’ve been in that place of “how/when”…
Another cat? Perhaps. For love there is also a season; its seeds must be resown. But a family cat is not replaceable like a wornout coat or a set of tires. Each new kitten becomes its own cat, and none is repeated. I am four cats old, measuring out my life in friends that have succeeded, but not replaced one another.
And so, this Thanksgiving I remember all that I shared in the presence of Auggie, Bear, Bob, Karl, Gus and Zack … and also embrace a new season of Emmett and Oscar.
You can only see 2 of Oscar’s feet, but he does have 4 :)
After 2 aborted appointments at local shelters (I backed out), and numerous times of picking up the phone and then not calling … AND, last Friday being rejected by the adoption organization where I got Auggie, because of Emmett … grggh*!%$& … Thursday, in my normal perusal of the local “Mountain Trader” there was an ad for kittens and the thought immediately came to me: “Oscar”.
Now, I had been rolling names around as I saw cats and kittens, but Oscar was not one of them.
I don’t fool with those kind of thoughts so I called. Vasily, texted me photos … and btw, yes, he is Russian and did not have a lot of English and I asked and he laughed so I had a fun feeling of connection. I am sure that I was not at all politically correct and he was not offended. We arranged that I would see the kittens at 1:00. This was about 10:00 and a 35 minute drive to see them.
Next … kitten stuff: food, toys, itty bitty litter box for the crate to bring him home in, new toy(s) for Emmett also…
There is a newish place in Bigfork, 10 minutes away. I’d never stopped there.
Despite the name, they have stuff for dogs, puppies, cats and kittens – YEA! And I am so glad I finally went there – very nice couple who are owners and they took a lot of time to help me find what I needed. PLUS, you can order online and they deliver … holy cow!
So, I came away with stuff.
I fixed up the small crate that fits in the Jeep: Fleecy blanket and small litter box.
No doubts and off I went at the appointed time to get our Oscar.
Vasily was a friendly man of my vintage with sparkly blue eyes. He brought out a box with the kittens, picked one up and handed it to me … a male … our Oscar. That was that! I went inside and met Mrs. Vasily who looked exactly as you would expect a “Russian” (actually they are from Ukraine) woman who bore 11 children (“only” 11 per Vasily as he was one of 14) to look. No English, but a huge smile and the smell of chicken soup on the stove. I also got to see a family photo of all … taken 22 years ago. The 2 year old youngest in the photo just married and I got to see her wedding photo – lovely! I also got to see a photo of the mama cat, a Siamese. The papa is a ragdoll but I didn’t get to see him. All business completed, Oscar and I headed for home.
All the way home, whenever I could steal a look in the back, Oscar was looking back … calm and almost as if he knew he was going home.
First look for Emmett and Oscar. No panic, but when Emmett moved closer, Oscar growled. Emmett backed away, which is good as Emmett never really backed off from Auggie!
In the house, I closed off the office, opened the crate door and spent some time with Oscar. He started purring when I scratched his chin and his motor is amazingly loud for such a tiny kitten! (8 weeks old, just a bit over 2 pounds).
After a bit, I left him alone and went to get a very late lunch plus spend time with Emmett and take a long walk. I was back and forth the rest of the afternoon and evening, but kept a panel from Emmett’s puppy playpen between office and kitchen. Oscar left the crate and took up residence under the corner chair.
So … he liked a dark cave kind of spot …
I set up Emmett’s XXL crate with a fleecy blanket, Auggie’s laundry room cat cave bed and the small litter box … covered all with a quilt.
Oscar’s room!!
I had been wondering how to do things overnight so that everyone was comfortable, safe and all (ME!) got some sleep.
I have a baby monitor that I have used with Bob and Bear when they were ill/recovering from surgery. I set it up so that I could see and hear Oscar.
Although Oscar had been quiet all afternoon and evening, he decided to be an active kitten about the time I was ready to call it a day :) … so we played and Emmett came in with us for a little bit and finally, I was out of gas. I put the shirt and fleece pants I was wearing into the cat cave and then Oscar. He meowed a bit, but then made himself a nest and settled down.
Emmett and I had our normal last outs and went to bed.
First night success! We followed the same procedure last night, with a last meal about 7 and then some before bed play and snuggles and then into the crate with Oscar, to bed for Emmett and me. No meows at all from Oscar … he settled right into his nest.
After the very quiet first day, Oscar was very active yesterday. He also progressed from hissing every time Emmett looked at him, to allowing Emmett to approach fairly close before hissing. Emmett and I occasionally sat on the floor quietly and Oscar approached from behind me … played around my side and back.
First, I set the panel so that Oscar could get to the rest of the house, but could retreat to the office if he wanted and Emmett couldn’t follow. But as much as Emmett would LOVE to play, he is being very good about approaching slowly and backing off. Occasionally, he kind of groans in frustration and then takes it out on his new toy which is a big fleece ball with a squeaker … well, it did have a squeaker.
At any rate, it is not quite yet 48 hours as I write this and the house is wide open. Oscar is allowing a brief nose touch from Emmett and has explored all of the rooms on his own.
Synchronized chair napping … thankfully, Oscar chose the small chair … he was on it falling asleep and Emmett went to his chair. D’accord!
4 sweet feet added to the house … love, laughter and fun abound!
***I have loads of video, but it will take me awhile to sort it out. I sometimes just set up 2 cameras and let them roll to get the action so there is a lot for me to look through and put together the fun bits.
Last Saturday, January 12, 2019, Emmett was 11 months old!
In 3 weeks and a couple of days he will be a year old. Time flies. AND it is SO.MUCH.FUN. !!!
This is a “go to place” shot. The morning play was getting a bit much so I did my sing-song attention noise: “hoody, hoody, hoody” and then in a happy voice: “Emmett, go to place” and he did. The little sofa is “place”.
Auggie settles near by and treats are dispensed all around!
Friday, after a week of gray … sunshine!
Mountain tops visible on the afternoon walk.
And then a mini-winter storm.
Home.
Sticks, always sticks!
Emmett: 11 months old!
Saturday doughnut: sour cream old fashioned with chocolate frosting … yes, homemade!
I’m writing this on Sunday evening, the last night of my 14 day holiday break.
It has been a wonderful, refreshing time away from the normal work schedule. I actually didn’t work except for answering some emails and a bit over 1/2 day on Friday due to a minor emergency … but that was good as I was somewhat forced to hop to and my head is “back in the game”. I haven’t taken this much time off – as in completely off – in many years.
Even though I get outside as much as possible normally, we got out even more the last 2 weeks. The weather was all over the place, but not much snow and as we had a melt down this past week, the drive is a sheet of ice, but the yard and woods are nearly bare – walking and playing has been good!
I had time to get to know my new bit of tech fun: a wearable … series 4 Apple Watch.
All sorts of info at a glance! After trying several watch faces, I settled on what they call Infograph. It has the most “complications” of any current face. Complications are the editable quick app items on the face. I have Sunrise/Sunset, Weather, Digital time, Activity, Date, Heart Rate, Timer and Battery as my selections … all of the apps I use most.
One I use a LOT is the timer.
I use this for cooking and baking instead of the oven timer. The oven timer goes off and chimes until I get to it. If I’m indisposed or outside or in a meeting … kind of obnoxious. The phone timer is easy to reset, add a minute or keep an eye on if I am outside. There are a number of presets as well as you can set a specific time. I often use the timer as a 10 minute warning before a meeting. That allows me to enjoy outside time or inside play and training or whatever without being concerned about watching the clock.
The Activity app. I spent some time over my break learning about not only the Activity app, but how it worked with the Health app and Fall detection. I find all of it amazing technology. There is an internal accelerometer and a gyroscope that are part of the technology for all of the “movement” functionality.
The Health App screen consolidates activity, ECG, Heart monitoring and Fall detection history … PLUS allows you to enter other things: for example blood pressure, oxygen and a whole screen full of pertinent items. And everything can be exported to a PDF to send to clinic and/or physician.
But, back to Activity. Apple calls it “Close the Rings”. You set goals for Moving (outer red), Exercise (middle green) and Standing (inner aqua). Additionally, the app details give calories burned (active and non-active), steps and several graphs showing the times of activity. But the visual of the rings is a quick and easy way to see how I’m doing through the day without getting involved in details. I had a fitness band device several years ago and besides being not that comfortable to wear, I found myself getting a bit too obsessed about the details. The “close the rings” visual works better for me. The watch itself – I hardly know I’m wearing it: light and comfortable. I have the 44m – the largest and no complaints about how it sits on my wrist.
When I had the previous wearable, I DID like that I could see messages and emails easily without digging out my phone: outside and especially in Winter when my phone was in an inside pocket and wearing gloves, etc. And in the dark outside! I was happy to have that functionality back with this watch. The convenience of seeing if a message, notification or email is something that requires immediate action is wonderful. And while I would not try to respond from the watch normally, there are some quick response items selectable from a menu: Yes, No, Sure, Thanks, Ok. As a consultant, it is one more tool that allows me flexibility in what hours I spend at my desk while still being “available”.
Some of the messages when out and about are notifications from Emmett’s “wearable” device! If you’ve followed the blog for years, you will know that I used a GPS device with Bear and now the latest version with Emmett.
It is called Whistle and in addition to GPS tracking, alerts for “away from home”, low battery … it has an Activity tracker :)!
So. Absolutely no excuse(s) for either Emmett or me not getting our exercise!! Whistle is getting close to adding some other things like temperature. That is important to me, especially when we get back to rving. It has always been a worry if I had to leave Bear and Auggie in the motorhome on a hot day. I leave the generator running and AC on but if there is a failure, the motorhome heats up fast … not as bad as a car, but worse than a house. The temperature functionality will be one more useful thing to give me peace of mind.
But, the GPS and the App and the Watch:
Above shot of the watch is the type of message I get when we are walking. Although you can shut off messaging for walks and outings, I do not. I want the device giving me info in the hopefully, unlikely event, that Emmett and I are separated.
If that did happen, I am able to activate tracking on my phone and see where Emmett is in relation to me:
Darn cool!! This part gets better and better and faster as time goes on – better devices, more high speed cell coverage – progress. I want training and our relationship to be the first defense, but this kind of backup is priceless to me.
Yoga via the internet!! I do have a Yoga DVD that I like. It has some 15-30 minute things like: Yoga break from the computer. But my favorite is via YouTube: Yoga with Adriene
Adriene has a calm and peaceful demeanor, and she always stresses awareness and intention vs perfection in position. Adriene’s dog Benji is always in the background. Starting January 1, a series of 30 days titled: Dedicate. I am doing the 30 days.
With Emmett… (sharing the mat!)
And Auggie!
When I started Day 1, Emmett was pretty sure that it was play time since I was on the floor. I stayed quiet, followed as I was able and he eventually settled … on the mat! So I worked around him.
He is getting the idea and settles faster every day. I am thrilled to have both him and Auggie near.
Sunday.
Back to work tomorrow. A Winter Weather advisory is in effect from 8:00 p.m. this evening (1 hour from now) until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. Mostly for the morning commute which thankfully, I do not have to make.
But, the weather did inspire me to take a quick run for a few items.
Christmas Eve Day. A day full of excitement, anticipation, joy and just my favorite day of the year! Most of this love of the day stems from the idyllic times of my childhood. And even though, I now enjoy the holiday on my own with my pets, it is still a most favorite day filled with remembrance and just general joie de vivre!
This year, I am especially enjoying the day. For the last 3.5 weeks my work life has been INTENSE. A series of circumstance pushed a deadline forward and the programming team had to go into serious overdrive. As I commented to another: “a tough schedule for an old broad” (ME!). We delivered at the last moment on Friday and although we will probably do some firefighting in January, mostly it was mission accomplished.
The thought of a good amount of downtime over the holiday break kept me going. Also the necessary breaks to walk/play/snuggle with Auggie and Emmett. Often, when I thought I couldn’t possibly stop, but knew I must for them … the time with them, mostly outside in the fresh air, allowed me to come back to work with a fresh perspective and get a 2nd, 3rd and 4th wind!
Ultimately, as challenging as the pace was, there was also an incredible feeling of accomplishment as well as the comradery of working with a team that I respect and enjoy. So. Job.Well.Done. and now we enjoy before the next stage.
Saturday was sunny and bright and although lacking in snow, it was a perfect day for a run to town to gather a few things I wanted, before a spell of Winter Weather arrived.
Saturday … a day with no work and pretty weather was just “ahhhhh”. And I slept so well Saturday night with NO programming conundrums disturbing my dreams. So, Sunday, was a day of relaxing and anticipation.
Now, here we are on Christmas Eve Day… but wait … some fun from last week:
In illustration of why, once again, we do not have a “real” Christmas tree…
No harm done to the little silk tree.
Auggie’s wound has closed with no issue.
I don’t know, but it was funny!
This morning’s most perfect fire in the woodstove!
It was a gray day – perfect for enjoying inside, but we also got outside!
A quick “Happy 10 months” to Mr. Emmett post and some Auggie news … (all is well, but a warning that there are some graphic images!!)
AND, if you follow my Instagram stories … repeats, but the schedule has been overfull lately.
Yes, Emmett is 10 months old and has been part of the fambly for 8 months – unbelievable!!
Still has a blonde bottom and gorgeous tail feathers :)
Meanwhile…
Auggie came in Monday afternoon with a kind of spectacular wound. We got right into the vet – fortunately 15 minutes away in Bigfork. After a shave, cleanup and antibiotic shot, we came home.
Auggie was pretty sanguine about the whole thing and has been complaining about my enforcement of inside time. My reply is: “You MAY NOT go outside with a hole in your head!”
