Camera Critters #33

Camera Critters time again, thanks to Misty Dawn.


I know that many of you love your cats very much. I do not have a cat. I have had them in the past, or rather, my children have had them. I am a dog person myself.I really prefer this kind of cat.




But thanks to neighbors, there are always cats around my house. For instance....


This one doesn't bother me much, and is the prettiest one of the bunch.



I say "bunch" because my next door neighbor has five, and most of them are allowed to roam the neighborhood. They only go home to eat.

This one spends most of his time on my porch. When he's on the railing, I don't mind. I hate it when he lies just outside of my door for me to trip over him.
















This is the really mean one. His name is Buddy. He challenges other cats and gets into fights.



I couldn't find the picture I took of the white one, who lies directly under my hummingbird feeder every chance he gets. Here's another, not from next door. My daughter took this one. It's possible that I printed this near Halloween?








Those that live next door spend most of their time digging up my garden, tracking muddy paw prints all over my car, killing birds in my yard, or howling under my windows. As I said, I'm a dog person.


I really don't mind cats, and I think they are beautiful animals, so graceful. And of course kittens are adorable. But I do not understand why, if you have a pet, you wouldn't want to keep it at home, safe and protected, unless you happen to live on a farm and let them roam the acreage. When we had cats, they were always indoor cats.

Persistence

It's time once again to fight the battle of the ivy. No matter how often I try to dig it up away from the house, no matter how often I scrape it out from under the shingles or away
from the paving, it comes back.


And when it comes back, this is what happens.






And this, too.

Wouldn't it be nice if everything I planted grew as strong and beautiful?

Actually, my little garden plot is doing very well so far, thank you. The wild flowers are crowding one another quite a bit, due to the hard rain we got right after I planted the seeds. But I think wild flowers will survive that. The sun flowers around the back of the garden are looking fine, and the butterfly bush I planted last year seems to be almost ready to blossom. So I'm a happy camper. The veggies haven't really got started yet.

I give credit for the success to the fact that I laid wire mesh over the garden after planting, so my neighbor's cats were thwarted in attempts to use my garden for their litter box.
That's what has happened many times in previous years. No amount of pepper, nor any other means of keeping them away has worked. Now if only I could find a means of keeping them off my car. I always have little kitty footprints over the hood, windows, top and trunk, and I don't dare leave a window open or I find one curled up on the seat. Don't understand why, if you have a pet, you don't keep it in the house except for exercise time. My neighbor has five cats, and the only time she ever sees them is when they come home to eat, then they run right out again, looking for ways to harass the neighbors.

Well, this didn't start out as a bitchy blog, so I'd better end right here.

MORE OF THIS AND THAT

I like this new scheduling we can do with our blog posts. It lets me set up Sky Watch Friday ahead of time.




Do hope you're considering a post on something to do with Human Rights on the 15th.





Here's a thought. It's been making the rounds of emails for a while now and it seems to make sense to me. If we're really concerned about the price of gas - just stop buying it from the biggest producers - and they would be Exxon/Mobil. Go elsewhere for it. If enough of us did that to the Big Guys - it could hurt them enough that they might lower prices.



Here's a good one. Villas Girl, as you may have figured out, is sort of like a second daughter to me - Well, I guess that should be a fourth daughter. She kind of looks out for me, which I do appreciate. Now she's complaining because my son repaired my car too well. She used to be able to hear my car when I went off somewhere or when I came home. Now she doesn't hear me. I'm driving The Stealth-Mobile!



My son was here the other night, putting in my a/c. As he was leaving, he got dive-bombed by one of my hummingbirds who had headed for the feeder, but was side-tracked by Joe standing too near it. He went buzzing past his ear, then swooped off. It was pretty comical.



The seeds I threw into the little extension of my garden are sprouting faster than I would have believed. I will have wild flowers for my butterflies in no time at all. And this time I do not have my neighbors nasty cats using the garden for a litter box, because I laid wire mesh over the whole thing. The plants can grow right through it, and the cats can't dig. In the past I've tried hot pepper and every other suggested deterrent, but nothing has worked. For now, my only complaint about the cats is that they continually walk through mud and then over my car, leaving their paw prints over the hood, windows, top and trunk. I've about given up trying to keep it anywhere near clean.


If I keep posting odd little things like this, I'm going to have to find a better title than "This and That" aren't I?






Well, at least today I managed a decent photo of one of my hummers.