Today is Shade's Gotcha Day!! Yippee!!! Yahoo!!!!! She has been with the PM and Music Man for nine years now which means she is now 10 years old.

Whoa Shade! Into the double digits!

Oops. I shouldn't have said that out loud as Shade gets to choose today's flashback and she picked the one I still have nightmares about. I should have know. Maybe somecat out there will learn from this. Consider it a PSA.

Shade~Goldie is sleeping, resting from his day so I am going to tell the story.

We had another long chat about the winter and how the snow has a thick crust on it due to all the freezing rain. Nothing scary. He was unsure until he saw the MusicMan and the wee ones out there walking on top of the snow too. He got his energy back and he went out with them. I said he should stay in and rest one more day but you know those young Mancats, they don't listen.

As the door was being shut I heard the MusicMan ask, "Hey Goldie, want to go on a crazy carpet ride?" My calls of "No, Goldie!" echoed in the house, unheard and I saw him run over to them.

Our yard has a slight incline and with all of the ice, it was the perfect sliding hill.

I watched in horror mixed in with a touch of anticipation as the MusicMan picked Goldie up and sat with him...on the crazy carpet...with the wee ones...on the top of the slope. The apricot fool had such a serene look on his face it was almost too much to bear, but I kept watching. They started moving, faster and faster, the crazy carpet making a loud, scraping sound in the quiet woods. Goldie's furr face contorted into something unrecognizable, then the flailing started. A blurr of paws, furr and limbs. Then as if plucked off the carpet by the unseen hand of Mother Nature herself, Goldie leaped and made a bee-line for the door, paws slipping out from under him all the way.



I know you shouldn't laugh in those types of situations but I couldn't help it. It was a spectacle to behold. Goldie looking like he had been through the war. I think it aged him a bit.



Goldie, ranting in the background~ Crazy carpet! Yeah, I was the crazy one! They should call it "a death ride"," a ticket to hell", "full speed to broken legs"...

Shade~ I better go, he needs me.

I spent some time looking through the leaves in the "kill mulch" part of the garden. The mice think they are safe in there but they are mistaken. I hope the PM does this to another part of the garden next Spring as it appears to have worked. The weeds keeled over but the critters are flourishing.



The PM saw me in the grass shortly afterwards and I was dancing around, throwing "leaves" in the air. I looked so happy that she came over camera in hand, ready to capture a great shot for the Frisky Fall Contest. When she walked over, I took my "leaf" and ran into the berm.  This is the shot she got.

Well, it sort of came from a tree and it does...er, I mean, did glide through the air.

:::BELCH:::

Sorry,excuse me.

I have taken to hiding in the carrot and garlic chives patch.



I am not a fan of the taste though.



I am enjoying this now as the PM said she is digging these up next week.

I may partake in the harvest as these are one of the few things that actually produced anything worth mentioning. They pulled up everything else as there was killer frosts all week.

I won't go on about it, the PM is irked enough as it is.

Next year, we will try again.

The PM was told a bizarre story about a meezer and we were wondering if any of you cats had ever heard of such things. Maybe some of you need such treatment. Inquiring minds want to know.

Ok, a friend of the PM's was visiting with someone who had a meezer.  They went into the kitchen and there was the cat. The friend reached down and pet the cat a couple of times, gently and then had to lift his leg up quickly to defend himself as he was about to have 12 lbs of irate  kitty wreak havoc on his body.  The woman screamed for her cat to get down then grabbed him and sat down on the couch.  (the cat not the man, hee hee)

She then proceeded to put him on his back and rub his tummy until he calmed down.  While she was doing this, this is the crazy part, she held a pencil between his teeth. I guess the wood was flying, bits going all over the place. He chewed for a few minutes then was calm again.  She apologized and said he had quite a temper and that was the only way to calm him.

The PM thought this was the craziest thing she had ever heard.  Has anyone heard of such things?  Maybe it is some new Dr. Phil for cats technique. I think we live a sheltered life out here in the woods.

Whatcha think?

UPDATE~ I put this question to  George and he has an answer. You can go over and check out what he thinks! Thanks George!!