Eavesdropping on ABC Wednesday

 

Ruby may not especially enjoy my eavesdropping on her while she is eating......   Her eyes and ears are expressing a warning should you get any nearer her treat, "I am not an effete nor an endentate!"  "Well, excuse me!" I exclaimed, and exited most energetically.

Explore more E's on this week's ABC Wednesday.

She never even moved!

What I didn't capture was the next moment when Willow was on the ground just behind Abbey Rose in the "let's play" posture.  Abbey finally looked at her, but still sat there unmoved by Willow's whimpering entreaties.  Both Kali and Ruby would have given Willow a merry chase.  Abbey is now 10 years old and less inclined to frolic than she once was.

Notice that green grass!  It goes with yesterday's willow tree as hopeful signs of spring.  Stayed tuned for more such signs.

Couch kitty for ABC Wednesday

This kitty has a knack for finding comfort, not that I am kvetching.  If only she were (k)nodding off and (k)napping on a kilim rug,  my K-blog would not have gone kaflooey.  But the kitty, Miss Abbey Rose, is a knock-out, isn't she!
Enjoy less kerflooey K-blogs on Mrs. N and company's ABC Wednesday.  And take the time to kibitz about them in the comment section!

And the C's came crashing in

Such calm I felt as I considered how to compose a contribution for C-day.   I have a calico cat and a week ago I had captured her in a photo crouched on the porch railing.   As I contemplated the photo, I began to realize it was crammed with C’s: behind her the cedar shingles of the house and the cable from the satellite dish plus through the window to her right a lighted bulb on the Christmas tree.  “Criminetly!!!” I cried,  “there’s even the clapper of the chimes hanging above her cranium!  And by cracky!  those blurry blobs in the foreground are snow crowns on the seedpods of the Purple Coneflowers.”

But I confess: there are more C’s caught up in this story.  This calico’s name is Caliste/Kalliste which in Greek means most beautiful.  Her nickname is Cali/Kali from the fierce Hindu goddess, the Dark Mother.   And her personality contains both qualities.   Just like the letter C itself – is she soft or hard?  She will cuddle up on your lap any chance she gets.  But she is not a companion to the other cats (Ruby and Abbey, another calico) and merely tolerates, rather condescendingly at that, the company of Willow.   How could we have done such a callous thing as bring a dog into her castle!

I am now utterly confused by the number of C’s cascading into this contribution and will caress the keyboard no longer.  If you crave less contrived and corny contact with C’s, please join the company of Mrs. Nesbitt and companions at ABC Wednesday.

OK, now what?!

This is Abbey Rose, named for the Abbey down the road where she was abandoned one wintry day almost 10 years ago.  The day after we returned from up north, she would not come down from this eight-foot high fence.   In fact she jumped from the fence onto the roof of the house where she then spent the night, despite our best efforts to lure her off and stop the mournful meowing. 

Anthropomorphizing her plight, I arrived at three possible reasons for her roof sitting.  Had she caught wind of the fact that Willow keeps making the blog and she has never been so honored?  Or, despite daily visits by our good neighbor, was she simply seeking lots of attention after having been left home alone for a week?  Or was she registering outrage that "that dog" came back?

She is a truly beautiful calico with eyes of different colors, one blue, one green.  And she is a cuddler who has the least contentious relationship with Willow, "that dog" who has interrupted the ten-year reign of her kitty kingdom.

Hiding out!

It was a huge celebration for the baptism of Helen's newest grand nephew, Sean Christopher.  The house was filled with all the family and the table was heaped with food.  But Tiger would have none of it and hid out under the coffee table.  Hmmmm, why not hustle off to the basement rafters where his pal Merlin was holed up?  Well just in case out of the huddle of Mary's grandchildren would drop a hint of food he could hurry off with! 

Happy H's on ABC Wednesday!

a Catbird seat

Have you heard what sounds like a kitten mewing in a tree?  Here is the source of that cat-like sound, a Gray Catbird.  We can never tell if our cats are crying to come in or whether the Catbirds are calling us!   see what Wikipedia and Oxford English Dictionary has to say about this idiomatic phrase, the "catbird seat."

How could I have forgotten red thursday?

Abbey Rose is not red, but her resting place on the sofa is!
A little more about Abbey who is named after the place where she was abandoned one winter and the question of how could anyone abandon such a beauty.  I cannot answer the latter but the monks of St. Gregory's Abbey rescued her and then convinced me to adopt her.  She was so frightened of everyone that it took me a month of days going into the room where she was kept and luring her with treats before she would let me even touch her.  I worked part time helping the abbot prepare new books for the abbey library and my workroom was a floor below her "cell" so visiting her daily was no chore.
And once she came home it took another month to once again calm her down.  She would hide in the basement and come out for food only if no one was there.  She and I worked very hard at getting to know each other! 
And now she is as Louie and B say,  calm and contentment personified!

Seen out the window

This is Ruby in front of St. Francis.  What is she so interested in?  St. Francis or the burrows in the mound behind him?  But she stayed there quietly for ten minutes or so.  Such concentration!
Ruby, Ruby Begonia is her full name, adopted us one day maybe 7 or 8 years ago as we walked our road.  She was very little and came toward us crying.  When we heard a car coming, we scooped her up and she stayed in my arms the half mile to home.  She has been with us ever since, but is our most outdoor cat, taking every opportunity to roam far and wide, except when winter finally gets her down, or in, to be more correct.