ONE DAY YOU ARE A BORING OLD PERSON AND THE NEXT DAY YOU ARE HERDING CATS!

Friday was the first snow of the year.  It wasn't much, only about two inches here in the foothills of western Maine.

  

This is the time that my wife and always look forward to – a time to light the wood stove, enjoy the beauty of nature, kick back with a pot of tea and a good book and appreciate quiet serenity: but not this year…

We lost our beautiful eighteen year old Ragdoll cat, Dixie Darling Jill, last January.   We have intended to adopt another cat, but it just wasn't the time so soon after the loss of our constant companion of almost two decades.  

But, last week we were checking out pictures of cats at local shelters posted on the internet, and just out of curiosity searched Maine Coon Cats in Maine.   A length popped up to Thunderpaws Maine Coon Cats.   (check out this link to Siberia Farms where Thunderpaws Maine coons are raised.)

We gave a call and talked to Donna Chase, who has been raising Maine Coons for thirty years.  She was coming down to south western Maine from the north country where she lives to bring five male kittens to be picked up by their new owners.   We told her we might be interested in a female and she said she had only one but would bring it with her for us to view. 

Donna Chase with Bella and baby Toula

We had been looking for two cats, because sometimes we are gone overnight and lone cats can suffer loneliness.   Donna said that she breeds her adult cats only three times and then rotates them out, and that she had two adult females she was looking to retire and would make a special price if we were interested and willing to spay the adult, along with the kitten when she was old enough.

A two hour trip down to southern Maine to connect with Donna changed our life from a quiet sedentary older couple to herders of cats.

Bella, the four years old mackerel polydactyl Tabby with beautiful yellow eyes is quiet and dignified; she is quickly adjusting to her new home and to us (Maine Coon Cats are a laid back breed – people oriented and lovable by nature.) 

Bella with the beautiful yellow eyes

Many Maine Coons are polydactyl (five toes instead of four) which gives them feet that look like they are wearing bearpaw snowshoes.

Toula the kitten, on the other hand, is wild – a bundle of energy that never stops.   She is either running at full speed through the house, climbing up our legs or perching on some piece of furniture ready to leap; she is chasing her toys, in our laps, or annoying poor Bella until she crawls under the couch for refuge.  This baby cat runs and dashes or explores for hours until she is exhausted and then wants to sleep in our laps.

And here is trouble.

Neither cat claws the furniture (we have a scratching post they use) but our legs are pitted and scared where Toula has dashed through the room and scampered up our legs to get in our lap – on our book – at the computer keys….

With hair tips on the ears and huge feet she looks like a lynx baby.

We are again cat people – and loving it.   We did not realize how routine our life had gotten until we started herding cats. 

the Ol’Buzzard

http://www.siberia-farm.com/

DOG PEOPLE

CAT PEOPLE always get a bad rap.  When you think of ‘cat people’ there is a connotation of an obsessive person with furniture shredded by claws, the house smelling of urine; carrying on a reclusive, unnatural relationship with a house full of felines.

Dog people, on the other hand, always get a pass. 

Don’t read me wrong, I don’t dislike dogs.   I feel about dogs the same way I feel about kids: You like them – You chose to have them – You put up with them – Don’t inflict them on me. 

Aah, there is the rub and there is my complaint. 

I live in a secluded, wooded area, but yesterday while mowing the lawn I stepped in dog shit.   I don’t own a dog, so why do I have to clean dog shit off my shoe?  

There is an ordinance in town that dog owners must remove dog droppings, but you still find occasional crap piles on the sidewalks - and even when dog owners pick up their dog poop the animals are still pissing in public places.

There is a small park in town where weekly music events take place during the summer, but you have to be careful where you sit because some dog owners will have left their pooch’s crap on the lawn.   There will always be two or three people who show up for the concerts with dog (s.) that will bark and try to cold nose everyone that walks near.  

The complaints continue:

My wife an I were sitting by the front window in a local coffee house when a woman with her dog on a leash stopped to chat with her friend on the sidewalk.   Totally oblivious to the surrounding she chatted while her pooch pissed on the sign advertising the sandwich and soup of the day.

Last year we went to a Chinese buffet and they seated us in a booth next to a woman that had two small dogs wearing orange jackets perched on the chair beside her.   The owner came and asked the woman to remove the dogs but she refused saying the dogs were handicap animals and are allowed, by law, in the restaurants.   Later she explained to a server that she takes the dogs around to nursing homes to cheer up the old people.  

And there is more:

People push their little rat dogs around Wal-Mart in shopping carts – they leave them in cars in parking lots with their windows open – they tie a red bandanna around their necks and let them run free on beaches and in parks – they show up for a visit and bring their dogs.

DOG PEOPLE are inconsiderate.   Dogs are naturally invasive and thoughtless dog owners readily inflict them on the public.   Why do dog owners feel they need to bring their pets down town with them?  Why do they think it is all right to take their dog into fairs and concerts and onto beaches; and even into restaurants and other stores?   It is bad enough that parents bring unruly kids with them into public places, but what is the need to drag along the dog? 

You love your dog and that is great.   You have chosen the companionship of a dog.   All I would ask is that you keep it home – and don’t inflict it on the public. 

the Ol’Buzzard