It's important to have goals...

Pip and Widget Adopted!

Adios Lady! Smell my butt! Widget refused to give me a shot of his adorable face with his stripe between his eyes, he was so intent on sniffing his new home.

Pip, now "Tux" led with his nose:

They are living in a home with two cat-loving goldendoodles, and since these two are essentially fearless, there shouldn't be much problem. Like all of our cats, they are on foster-to-adopt and technically still belong to us until the adopter is sure they are a fit.

Have a great life you two silly boys!

It's Caturday!

It's fun to revisit previous rescued cats (in this case, Seven) to create some memes!

Thrifting

I love to poke around in thrift and antique stores, but I don't really have any need for more "things." In fact, I just gave away two vintage chairs to kitty-visitors. I'm tired of dusting around chairs no one will ever sit in, that could be treasured and used by someone else.

Sometimes some stilly treasure speaks to me. Something that I can find a use for. For example, this huge porcelain bowl. What do you think? Family-serve pasta? A bowl for a dry sink?

Nah....

When the cats are all out playing together, I have a "back-up food bowl" out for the gang. This was previously a spill-proof stainless-steel pan. However this bowl was just too huge, low, pretty, and cheap to pass up.

I took this photo as soon as I set it down. They all ran over to investigate, then gave disinterested sniffs when they realized it was just Purina Naturals Kitten Chow (not some beloved wet food), and wandered off to play teenage kitten games.

Cat quilts!

I've been trying to get out.

There are so many simple things I often say "no" too, just because they aren't in my usual frame of reference. When my friend K.C. sent around an email mentioning she had a quilt in the quilt show north of Ithaca, it occurred to me I should say "yes." After all, just because I have zero patience to craft something as beautiful as a quilt, doesn't mean a whole room of them wouldn't be fascinating. It's something I'd never done before.

Wow.

There really isn't any way to describe the range of styles, and the obvious art and effort that went into the show. We found K.C.'s very first quilt...and it won a category! Standing in front of a quilt, paying attention to all the individual steps that went into it to built it, draw it together, and finish it...it's mind-boggling. For those of us with the attention span of a fruit fly, it seems like a quiet, beautiful magical power.

What I hadn't expected were...cat quilts! Dog quilts! Horse quilts! I only took a few photos. You'll have to go to a quilt show on your own to discover for yourself.

Afterward four of us went out for dinner and a drink at the Dryden Hotel. It was a chilly, damp day made warm by something new (quilts!) and something old (friendship).

Is the plastic straw ban "green-posturing"?

This article thinks so.

I happened to walk by a display of paper straws in the dollar store. I bought a box to stash in my car. I'm not-so-good at remembering to refuse the plastic straw when it's thrust at me from the drive-thru window with my soda. When I remember, my brain rolls into thought about the plastic top that's still on my soda cup. Or, forbid! The entire cup is plastic! Refusing a straw does seem like a slightly pathetic gesture.

However, the silly straw debate got my brain rolling about other plastics I use. I regularly buy plastic spoons. I toss two spoons a day, after feeding cats who are not in the house (I use standard stainless spoons in the house). Why don't I wash these plastic spoons, and use them again and again? They are perfectly good. I have to wash and recycle cat food cans anyway. I've also been better about remembering to bring my reusable bags from the car when I go to the store.

Today, as I picked up cat litter at Walmart, I saw a display of Mainstays plastic dishes. 50 cents a plate. Nice and flat, with just a slight brim, sort of like a...paper plate. I used paper plates for ALL of my cats for their wet food. Lots and lots of paper plates. I probably spend (or donors do), a few hundred dollars a year on paper plates. One big stack is around $6.99--the same cost as 14 of these unbreakable permanent plates. Why don't I just buy these plates and wash them, instead of wasting paper, I wondered? I currently use some of my used paper plates to start fires in my wood stove, but I never use them all. The messiest ones end up in the trash.

The straw ban isn't about the straws in Western countries. It about starting a conversation. What can we do without? What habits can we change? The silly straw ban got me to wash and reuse my plastic spoons, finally start hauling my reusable bags into the store so I don't bring home more plastic or paper, and replace those piles and piles of paper plates with permanent ones.

Balloon launches are slowly being banned as well. We are slowly realizing that there are just some things we don't really need, no matter how pretty or convenient they are.

I do kind of wonder what will happen to all that other plastic dishware in Walmart. Will other people use and reuse them, as I am? Or will they pick it up because of the pretty colors (they have a range--teal, purple etc.) and toss them all after the holidays?

I don't have the answers. But paper plates won't be on my wish list for the Owl House kitties this Christmas. Thank you to everyone who kept me supplied all these years!

Using Canva for social posts

It really is rather appalling that I've been working in "marketing" for 15 years while my own social media presence and blog languish. I've had a free Canva account for over a year and I've failed to use it for any of my own work. I have no excuse now. There's no full-time job upon which I can foist my complaints about lack on time! I've even replaced my limping, half-functioning iPhone 6 for a Pixel 3a with a good camera.

Training my brain from an iPhone ("Everything is ON. If you don't want it, learn to turn it OFF!) to an Android ("Everything is OFF! I f you want it, track it down and learn to turn it ON!) has been somewhat frustrating. I know it's just a matter of time, and within a few months I will stopped cursing that I have to touch things three times on my Pixel that required only one touch on an iPhone. I happily remind myself the Pixel was $500 less than an iPhone. $500 is a lot of spays, neuters, and gasoline.

You'll be seeing more "shiny" Canva posts in the future, primarily for celebrations and public education. I'll always prefer to use straight photography for the day-to-day. I've also set up G Suite for the rescue, so Debra and I can share records online. Have I told Debra this? Nope. My communication skills in the real world are a bit rusty!

I'll get there.

Summer is finally started....wait, is it fall?

What incredibly glorious fall weather we've had. My brain says it's just September, but my calendar gives the truth: almost halfway through October! Soon snow will be drifting down, so I've had to write out a check list of everything that MUST be completed while the weather is still warm enough for painting, hauling, and building. On that check list is a "walk for Molly" each day. A walk for Molly is also a walk for me.

I've learned to get zen about the trash a handful of people throw out along my road. Mostly beer bottles and Dunkin Donut cups. It used to make me angry, but that ruined my walk. Now I just accept that while a few people are jerks, the majority of my neighbors are not. I am lucky to have this beautiful road. It's a very small thing to pick up what idle fools discard.

Also on the list is "find homes for kittens." I didn't plan to have visitors this weekend, but a couple who had stopped at one of my roadside furniture sales this summer pulled in the drive yesterday to ask if they could visit cats the next day. I was getting over a cold and wasn't really geared up for visitors, but I knew how comfortable this couple was to talk to, and these kitties need homes! So I said "yes."

They fell in love with not just one...but two! Pip and Widget! These two are neutered and vaccinated, but need to be micro-chipped. I'll call the vet Monday to get them in for a fast tech visit.

Widget's eye looks a bit winky because we were playing hard with them all with feather toys and probably got a bunch of feathers right in his face. His eye is fine now that he's relaxed.

I should be posting more often from now on. Yes, yes, I know I've said that before. However, I've started a part-time position with a marketing company, and I need to exercise what I'm learning. At first I'll just be letting things spill out of my fingers in order to get back in the habit of blogging. After a bit I'll go back to posting about my home on the Feral By Nature blog, and stick to cats here on this blog. However...kitten steps! I need to return to the blogging habit before focusing my storytelling.

The Weather Wizards claim it will be sunny again tomorrow! Let's hope they are accurate in their magical foretelling. I have trim to paint and wood to stack!