Weakness

They can sense weakness and fatigue. 
They can tell when you just don't have the strength.
They can tell when you are alone. 
Then run rough-shod over you.
Husband was out at a meeting last night.  I was left alone and defenseless.

 This one attempted to crawl into my dinner and when I wouldn't let her stalked around the counter tops and the stove looking for left overs. I was required to carry my plate with me when going to remove her because if I left it unattended her brothers would have finished it off.

This one knocked over the garbage can and managed to retrieve the chicken bone from the bottom.  Why was the chicken bone not in the compost?  Well, they'd manage to get to the compost bin and I'd be forced to take it outside. 

This one assisted his brother with the garbage can caper.  He also chased his sister around and tried to jump on her head.  Then he convinced his canine sister to chase him around to give him an excuse to climb on my shelves of knick-knacks.

This one mostly watched the kitty cats who were being highly entertaining.... and maybe chased Spock just a little bit but he did ask her to do it.



I tried chasing the cats when they were messing around by the garbage bin but they just stared at me from under the table.  I am not scary. I am the pushover.  It is official.

White Out

When Hurricane Juan came through Atlantic Canada (quite a few years ago now) I was living in Europe and missed it.  When White Juan, the blizzard came through I was... living in Europe again.  So when the media started naming the snowstorm coming through I was fairly skeptical.  We get a lot of snowstorms here on the east coast of Canada.  I figured that we were just under our usual number so they were needing something to talk about.  This one wasn't even predicted to have the amount of snow that we got between Christmas and New Years.

Here's the thing,  I've never seen a snowstorm with this much wind before.  I woke up to the house shaking and thought "here we go again" because last week we had a major rain storm with a great deal of wind and lost a tree out front.  The back yard was littered with branches and the odd bit that blew in from the neighbourhood.  I got up to find we still had power and therefore running water (well system uses an electric pump) and noticed the wind was blowing in the opposite direction from the last storm so we're likely to have some trees come down in the neighbourhood that survived the last one.  We should be fine from that direction though.

I headed downstairs to let the pets out.  Our three cats and golden retriever spend the night in our utility room.  It's a room that some might describe as a laundry room except that about 1/3 is dedicated to laundry facilities and the water heater and tub sink and the other 2/3 are dedicated to pet stuff.  It's a fully finished room with paint on the walls and a lino floor. It's 10 x 17 and has 5 cat beds (yes we only have 3 cats, we like to give them choice) as well as a shelf for food and water bowls for each cat and then the dog bed, bowls and toys on the floor. 

And when I opened the door to the utility room a cold gust of wind blew out at me.  The back door which I always lock and bolt every night had somehow blown open. There were 3 inches of snow in our boots by the back door and in Sadie's food bowl and a fair amount of slush on the back door mat.  I ran to shut the door (which my sock covered feet are still not pleased about) while trying to count furry heads.  I had the two oldest cats and the dog but not the baby of the household.  The others all had grown up experiences of being homeless, but we rescued Spock at 5 weeks and he has no sense of danger ever.  He thinks everything and everyone is awesome.

I start frantically checking the rooms closest to the utility room while alternating between calling for Spock in a "I'm totally reasonable so of course you should come see Mama" tone and screaming for Husband who was still in bed in a "I'm completely losing it and also my feet are soaked with snow and they all could have died" tone. Spock came trotting down the stairs after I'm sure mere seconds wondering what all the fuss was about and why breakfast hadn't materialized.  Husband followed not far after to find me quite a wreck.

So I got to spend the time between 6:30 and 7:15am emptying snow out of boots and putting them in various places to dry, piling dog bedding and towels in the wash and scooping snow into a bucket and then throwing it out the door into the wind.  Not a single pet shows any indication that they remember the incident.  Spock bounced around trying to play with snow balls and at one point the golden retriever tried to carry the snow bucket off to her bed in the tv room (we have one dog and three dog beds... and she still often prefers to lay directly next to a dog bed).

I figured I've earned a nice cup of tea... which I just realise has been steeping the entire time I've been typing this.  We'll see if it's still drinkable.

PS. You know I was traumatized if there isn't a photo of the snow in the utility room.  Here's a glimpse of what it normally looks like.

Cutest Cupid

I've never been huge on Valentine's Day. I think it's largely due to how close Valentine's Day is to my birthday.  Red hearts tend to have taken over the stores by February 3rd.  Plus it always just seemed like it was designed to make everyone feel lonely and depressed.  I'm starting to see how it could be nice to have a reason to be romantic because, seriously, spontaneity really doesn't happen much these days. It's not that Husband doesn't do nice things for me. It's just that life is busy and, I don't know about where you live, but it's cold and dark here in Winter.

Anyway, all of that was as poor lead in to the fact that our local animal shelter is doing the cutest thing as a fundraiser for Valentine's Day designed to make people feel loved and whatever the opposite of depressed is.  It's called Cupid for a Cause and the way it works is that you order a "cat" or "dog" themed gift basket for someone and on Valentine's Day it is delivered to them by this year's adorable cupid, Murphy the Wonderdog (with a human helper).

Isn't that too cute? Check them out on facebook.

Snow Stroll

Taking a bit of time to enjoy one of the days where we had nice, fluffy, snow and relatively warm temperatures (this time of year sitting right around freezing is delightful considering what it can be like).

One of Sadie's favourite things to do is to shove her head as far into the snow as possible. When she comes up she usually has a little pile of snow sitting on her nose for several minutes.

Just Keep Digging

How do you get exercise in the Winter in Canada? Don't own a snowblower.  We got a bit of snow on Saturday.  Luckily it was the "dry" "fluffy" kind.  Dry-fluffy snow is significantly easier to shovel.

 My parents were out of town over night Saturday so we headed over to deal with their driveway as well.  Good thing about that?  They have a nice, new snow blower.  Somehow I still wound up with a shovel while Husband used the snow blower.  I didn't get to play with it at all.

Little Boxes

Little boxes on the hillside

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes on the hillside

Little boxes all the same

I always get that song in my head when we get a new box at our house. Anything that comes in a box is exciting for the humans of course but nothing can match the excitement of the fluffballs when I new box arrives. We got an amazon delivery last week. We'd ordered a bunch of dvds with a gift certificate that we got for Christmas.  Within 20 minutes each of them had given it a try- Sadie had been informed to leave it or she'd have tried to climb in too.

Sleeping in a box is our kitties' idea of a day at the spa.  A box with tissue paper or other paper in it that crinkles is their idea of an amusement park.  Our Princessa can sometimes be a cranky little girl.  Who wouldn't be with the two boys jumping on her head and having to live with a smelly goggie.  There are two things that make our Trilly relax.  One is Husband holding her while I give her ear rubs (two humans are good protection from the boys and she gets ALL of the human attention).  The other is a good nap in a box.

Five

So I'm linking up with Lauren at From My Grey Desk for High Five for Friday since I've been terrible at pre-writing blogs this week and this gives me some sort of focus! So five things about my week.

1. While we haven't been perfect, our household has been much better about eating healthily this week. Lots of vegetables, fewer carbs, much less salt, planning ahead.  We spent a lot of the weekend either cooking or using the slow cooker.  Today Husband has a list of things to pick up at the Saint John City Market since he works across the street so that we can get started cooking again this weekend for next week.

Mother in Law at the Market during her visit this Fall

2. I didn't mention it on the blog but I went to the doctor this Autumn and he had some concerns about my blood pressure.  So I had to go back a month later and he was still concerned about my blood pressure.  He said that a lot of people actually have heightened blood pressure in the doctor's office for various reasons so sent me off to take my blood pressure at home for a couple of weeks.  I'm pleased to report that (after some slightly high blood pressure with all the salt over the holidays) when I take my blood pressure at home and am distracted by a kitty on my lap it's fine and it's getting better as we're eating healthier and exercising more.

3. I've got my butt back to step class.  I work at a university and we have the option of taking free fitness classes that are offered around lunch time.  This Fall I was so slammed that I never got there but I'm heading back (there will never be a picture of this!).

4. I am loving the new canvas art Husband got me for Christmas. Super excited that we've decided on seating to go under it. Now to order that seating!

5. I'm currently carrying this beautiful thing. I haven't had a chance to take an outfit photo with it yet but it's certainly brightened up my week. Mum returned from a recent trip with this Christopher Kon bag and I borrowed it for awhile.  I think it may be borrowed occasionally in the future... once I return it to her.

Happy Friday everyone! Super glad it's here this week.  I actually enjoy my job a lot but I seriously need the weekend to recover from the early mornings.

Pulling Their Weight

Unless you're brand new around here you're probably aware that we have three cats... and the world's smallest golden retriever.  That's a lot of fluffballs under foot every where you go.  That's a lot of demands for food.  That's a lot of begging.  It's also a lot of cuteness.

However, it basically means we have four entities in the house completely failing to pull their weight around here. Yesterday I had to deal with a spider.  Three cats sat there; they had it completely surrounded.  The thing was all three were so busy yelling to demand treats that they'd failed to notice they'd successfully caught a spider at all.

This morning I saw a little mouse making its way across the snow near our shed.  I was incredibly thankful it wasn't inside the house.  It would probably wind up cuddled up next to the dog on her bed without any of our pampered fluffballs noticing.  My street-cats have gone completely soft.

Taken this Autumn not long after Dobby joined us.

Happy New Year

After several days away we decided to celebrate the arrival of 2013 at home (ok, so we actually celebrated the arrival of 2013 in England and went to bed by 11 here) with our fluffballs.  Looking forward to a year where we start and end with the exact same number of fluffballs.  There will be no new furry additions!

Happy New Year from our household!

Boxing Up

Happy Boxing Day Everyone.

We have in fact boxed up our Christmas already.  Husband has been very indulgent of my craziness and actually helped me take down the Christmas tree yesterday afternoon before we headed off on an hour long drive to have Christmas dinner with my extended family.  I'm not normally quite so compulsive about packing away the decorations but we're headed off on a road trip and I didn't want it all waiting for me when I got back.  We're incredibly lucky to have friends who are not only willing but actually happy to move in with our fluffballs while we go away for a few days. 

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Husband was naughty and went way over board while supporting local businesses like crazy.  Here's a little bit of our Christmas.  I'm off to see Les Mis (so excited!!) before we hit the road.

Peace on Earth

Human beings seem to have such a hard time living peacefully with each other.  Peace on earth doesn't seem likely this year.  But in less than 12 weeks these two have gone from fear and distrust and anger to this.

With three cats and a golden retriever (Dobby's not the world's biggest house cat; Sadie is the world's tiniest golden.  She's only 45 pounds) our house isn't always peaceful but every time we've added someone new we've discovered facets of the rest that had never come out before. Individuals are better in community than they are off fending for themselves. Life is also generally better with a bit of fluff in it.