Archive for the ‘Adventures on Mill Road’ Category

This is my story of how I became an unintentional Crazy Cat Lady.

I like animals.  If it’s furry, 4 legged and mammalian, it’s welcome in my house. Growing up I always had a cat and a dog.  I had the coolest dog growing up. Inky. My Grandfather rescued him from Paoli Pike (a busy 4 lane street) and when he passed away Mom & Dad inherited him.  Inky is a blog for another day.

Like I said, I didn’t intend to be a Crazy Cat Lady.  It just happened.  When David and I bought this house there were some outdoor kitties that were living on the porch.  We continued in Mr. Norton’s path and took care of them.  Well, one thing led to another and the next season there was a kitten who needed vet care and it was night. So we brought the little guy inside so we could get our hands on him to take him to the vet the next day.

Let me jump back. When we moved into the house I had 1 cat. 1 big black cat with an attitude.  She was used to be the only.  So we brought in the sick kitten we put it in a cage with a towel and some water and David went off to get some wet food for it.  Well the kitten wouldn’t stay in the cage.  So in order to keep this little Houdini (yes, he is my Butt) in the house David brought in his friends.  All all 6 of these kittens went into the bathroom.  TAH-DAH instant Crazy Cat Lady.  And it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t bring them in.

The unfortunate thing is once you have multiple cats, it’s easy to add just one more.

The good thing is … I live with a Crazy Cat Man.

For the record, wet cats suck. They seem to have an uncontrollable need to dry themselves upon you. Or me that is. Right now it’s raining about 1″ per hour and our stupid four legged friends seem oblivious to this fact. Right now I need to change my t-shirt because I’ve had 3 cats dry themselves on me. The only good news about this is, when wet they don’t smell nearly as bad as dogs. So, if you will excuse me, I’m going to go change into dry clothes.

Hi. My name is Tacie and I’m a klutz.

The town I work in recently redid all the sidewalks and curbs with very nice brick sidewalks and granite curbs.  The upgrades look very nice and very historic. However, when the curbs get wet they get slicker then snot covered ice. We’ve had a dry spell lately so the grease and grime and oil have had a chance to build up the curbs.

Enter the monsoon.  We are in the middle of almost 24 hours of pretty steady rain.  The local creeks and rivers are flooding (the Brandywine Creek is estimated to crest 14 feet over flood stage tomorrow at 3 pm).  We had tornado warnings until 7 pm tonight – thank God none appeared.  But it hasn’t stopped raining and is predicted to go until at least 1 am.  And since weathermen can’t tell what the weather is doing unless their head is out a window (I have a weather cat who is more accurate – but that’s a post for another day) who know when it will end.

Enter the clutz.  I was walking from my parking garage to my office when I went tushy over tincups on one of those slicker than snot curbs.  I was wearing flip flops and I really went down hard on my left knee and I twisted my right ankle.  I just thank God for 2 things – 1 it wasn’t pouring when I went down so I only got slightly wet and 2 my coworker Bob was right behind me.  Thank you Bob!!! Make that 3 things… I didn’t rip or tear or soil any of my clothing.  Bob helped me up and would have waited and walked up to the office with me, but I shooed him along.  After all – it took me quite a while to get to the office and there was no sense on both of us being late!

I did manage to make it all day at the office.  I iced my swollen ankle and put a big old band aide on my skinned knee.  Which involved walking (limping) down the hall to the ladies room in my barefeet.  I wasn’t putting those rotten flip flops back on.  And don’tcha know, I ran smack dab into the HR director!  But I was with my boss discussing my injuries.  What I didn’t realize until I home was how swollen my knee is.  WOW! It’s huge. Which explains why it hurts so much and won’t bend much. I must have hit the edge of the curb or something.  So here I sit on the couch, ice pack (aka bag of frozen corn) on my left knee and right ankle wrapped in an ace bandage.  And it really is an Ace bandage.

Here’s the fun part.  We only have 1 bathroom – upstairs.  And walking up the stairs is just not fun.  Since my left knee doesn’t bend without pain. I’m guess a doctor’s visit is in my very near future if I can’t get the swelling down. Assuming I can get back across the Brandywine.  I’ve been upstairs twice tonight.  Next time I’m not coming back downstairs.  Or I’ve gotta get a port-o-potty down in the living room so I don’t have to keep going up and down.  Up is a lot easier than down. I’ve been coming down on my butt.

Thank you BP! I would not have made it into the office today without you. And thanks for checking up on me to make sure I was still alive and kicking.  And with that… I gotta use the bathroom – again.  And my frozen corn isn’t.

My girlfriend Michelle wrote a wonderful blog post on new love –  Jersey Girl Gets Real.  I’m a day early for shameless promoting of her website, but hey… sue me.  No wait – don’t! 

I’ve found the perfect man. Well, the perfect man for me. Granted he’s not actually perfect. But then again – neither am I. His quirks and idiosyncrasies compliment mine.  It took me a long time to find him and he’s all mine.  Once you find your perfect person and the initial rush is over… it’s like putting on your favorite pair of blue jeans.  They are comfortable, fit perfect, and make you feel good.  And when you find your perfect person, you should hang on to them.

It reminds me of a friends of mine.  I dated the husband in high school.  And in college he found his perfect woman. The beginning was a little rocky. He’s wasn’t sure she loved him, but today they are happily married and have 2 beautiful kids. And I got a friend out of it. True love in action. They are an adorable couple.

But this is about My David. He is wonderful to me. He’s loyal, loving and just darned cute.  He’s intelligent and well read.  He’s passionate and most importantly he’s patient with me – which some days I really need. And he treats me like a Princess.  Which is all I really wanted in life.  He understands when I am cranky and usually just ignores that I’m cranky. He tries very hard to make me happy.  And he doesn’t really have to try. He makes me happy. He’s like a warm fuzzy blanket that you wrap around you and you warm and safe and happy.  All he has to do to cheer me up is smile at me or tell me a corny joke.  The sound of his voice lightens my day.  I guess we’re still kind of in a honeymoon type period.  If you haven’t read Michelle’s blog – go do that.

We are silly together. He’s got a bunch of nick names for me and is always singing me silly made up songs. And it always makes me smile.  Don’t get me wrong. There are days that we both get on each other nerves and just don’t get along perfectly. But those days – minutes is more like it – are few and far between. We do argue – but that is also infrequent.   It’s a relationship on built on friendship and trust and silliness.  We are interested in a lot of the same things.  But I’m not expected to like everything he likes, nor is he expect to like the same things as I do.

He accepts me for who I am. I say fat – he says voluptuous. (he just said he spells it T… A… C… I… E… (isn’t he wonderful!)) He never complains when we watch Mythbusters – again. And doesn’t try to change me… I willing change for him, but he doesn’t ask. And he changes for me… I don’t ask.  It is love. True Love.

Oh… and did I mention, he’s a Crazy Cat Man. I adore my David.

The good news about the wonderfully cool weather we are having is we can open the windows so the cats can come and go as the please.  Which means we don’t have to get up every 2 seconds to let a cat in the window or open the window above the bed all night long as cats come & go.  David has taught them if they bang at the window – no matter what time of day or night – we will let them in.

But the bad news is with the windows open, and the screens up, the FLIES get in too! God they are annoying.  Because there’s nothing for them to eat, they like to land on me, the computer, the sleeping cats. And they tickle.  So  here I sit, with my can of Raid Flying Insect killer zapping away.  And it smells a bit like tart apples, so it’s not completely unpleasant.

And I’m somewhat annoyed at this group of cats.  Flies are the ULTIMATE toy/treat.  I had a cat that used to chase flies, play them to death and then eat them.  Toy and then treat.  This group can’t seem to be bothered.  They are just too lazy! We should stop feeding them for a week or two. Then they’d be thrilled to have a nice bit of juice fly.

That’s my whine of the day – Flies. Not dead enough for me.

Growing up most kids have a favorite teddy bear.  Mine was a pink rabbit named… Lord, I can’t remember it’s name. I still have him.  He’s not so pink or furry any more.  He went everywhere with me.  Flopsy Rabbit.  It just came to me.  Flopsy has floppy ears.  My dog growing up, Peanut, ate one of Flopsy’s eyes and Mom replaced it with his nose.

But this isn’t about Flopsy.  This is about my current teddy bears.  I have 2.  One is named Houdini and one is named Irwin (after Steve Irwin the Croc Hunter).  They are cats.  I never was traditional in my teddy bear choices.  Oh… and there’s the whole… they’re alive thing too.  Irwin likes to lay up against me under the covers.  Snugged up against me.  And Houdini.  Well, he’s not happy unless he is laying on bear (excuse the pun) skin.  He likes to be up by my faces so I can pet him and then we go to sleep – Houdini in the teddy bear position.  I’m lucky.  They love me so.  Most of my cats are snuggle cats.  They like to be on you or have a paw on you.  Wellll… not you, unless you are my Beloved David, but me & him (him being David the founder of www.kalarhythms.com)

From the Kitty Chronicles at 483 N Mill Rd

I’ve become Kitty Velcro.  Or at least 1/2 of the Velcro. Houdini, or Velcro Butt (or just Cro) as I’ve taken to calling him these days, has become the other 1/2.  Usually cat moods last for a day or 4 tops and they move onto the next mood.  Laying in the same place for a couple of days, a week tops, and then getting another “favorite” place.

Well, Houdini’s favorite place at night is on me.  And he likes skin. So when I lay on my left side he lays on my arm and I can wrap another arm around him.  He will stay in that position until I move. If I roll over, he walks on me and goes to the other side. If I lay on my back, he lays on my chest and looks at me.  I’ve taken to rolling him over with me so that he doesn’t walk on me.  He gets the wide eyed “I don’t like this” kitty look while we are rolling and then he just settles down and stays put.

My cats are nuts.

Chapter 36 – Bats, Cats, Possums and Skunks

The fun part about living on the edge of rural, just beyond suburban, is the variety of wildlife we have here that comes by the house.  We have bats, cats, vultures, deer, skunks, foxes and possums.  Just to name the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

The vultures congregate in the yard 2 doors over.  There is a small stream, trees around the edges and a lot open space to land in.  Plus there is a compost pile that they seem to be fascinated with.  We have fox around the corner.  I haven’t seen any directly in our backyard, but they are in the neighborhood. And the deer migrate through the backyard, especially in the fall and winter.  There is only one fence to block thier progress.

Bats. One night on of the kitties came in squeeking.  Well, it turns out it wasn’t the cat that was squeeking, it was the bat that it had caught.  He has a small hole in his wings but other wise was unharmed – as far as we could tell. Since it was alive we took it away from the kids and put it in a box with a small saucer of water.  Do bats drink water? Who know.  But Binky got water. Yes, the bat got a name when he went into the box. David put Binky’s box on the top self in a wardrobe to keep him away from the kitties.  The next day we went to get Binky from his box and put him outside in a tree.  Well, he wasn’t in his box. He had climbed out of the box and was hanging on one of the coats in the wardrobe.  So David put Binky out in a tree.  We kept an eye on him until he flew away.

We know all about Edna the possum.  Who spent a night in the bathroom.  But Florence the Skunk came for a visit night before last.  We put food out for the cats that live on the porch.  Earlier in the evening I had smelt her go by… but when David put food out for the cats she jointed in.  The weird thing is, the cats didn’t seem to mind and they all ate together.  She was pretty docile, but then again, we didn’t give her a reason to get her tail up.   And that’s a little update on our wild life.

Kitten Time

Isabelle had her kittens on our porch sometimes between 10 pm last night and 10 am this morning.  We haven’t gotten close to her yet to see how many kittens there are.  I’m going to go give her some milk and see if I can get close to the them without upsetting Isabelle.  If she’ll let me I want to check out the babies.  If she won’t… I won’t.  It’s up to her.

Our  cats are chasing each other all over the house.  Shadow and Houdini are up the stairs and down the stairs. And over the furniture and through the living room and into the kitchen, and up the stairs and down the stairs.

They have a crazies.