Pussies, Plants and Pale-Green Eggs

I looked after Homer's cats while he was in San Diego over the past few days.  Forrest, who moved in Ye Olde Casita after my February return to Sydney, has also been out of town.  His cat, Shirley, needed some TLC, so I looked in on her, too.  Five cats.  That's a lot of petting, not to mention poo to scoop.  I don't mind, however.  They're sweet cats.  

Homer and his cats (minus Snowball), circa 2007

I did have a scare yesterday.  Snowball the Kitten decided to wander outside after Puff had craftily pried open the door, after I only thought I had closed it tightly behind me upon going to visit Shirley in the Casita.  So I returned to Homer's backyard and found Puff standing at the door and Snowball under a tree.  Snowball, just this side of feral, was nervously sniffing around, eating grass and crying.  The big sook.  I tried to coax him back inside, but he wouldn't have anything to do with me and wouldn't let me get near him, despite the pleading, scolding and food handouts.  The clincher was when he squeezed into the crawlspace under the house.  At that point, I gave up.  I've had many cats before, and when one has got out before, they always come back that evening.  They know where home is.  And food.

So I got to tell Homer when I picked him up from the airport that the newest addition to his fold had temporarily flown the coop.  No, not Henny-Penny, but Snowball.  Of course, I felt terrible, and I tried to palliate his worry by telling him that cats come back.  Snowball didn't look like he was going anywhere.  He just wanted to relive some of his vanishing youth in the wild for a few hours. 

About an hour later, Homer called to tell me that Snowball was safely back in the house.  I hope I'm not off the Holiday Party list. 

Homer's hen, Henny-Penny, was a good girl while he was away.  She laid an egg nearly every morning.  They are beautiful, the color of fairy tales.  Unfortunately, Snowball the Kitten rolled one of them off the kitchen table.  Not so pretty anymore.

Proud Henny-Penny

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Yesterday, I planted the cactus we had bought over the weekend.  Zane has been wanting a big cactus bowl, so he, Mark and I headed to a very cool local nursery, where we all chose a few succulents we liked.  Last night, while he was taking a break from some Pre-Algebra homework that was kicking his butt, Zane designed the arrangement, and I transplanted them to the bowl.  I enjoy these projects with Zane.  It's nice to do something creative and non-Wii.  

 

 

By the way, Zane started his own blog a couple of weeks ago.  Why not stop by and encourage him to write more?

Comments

[John]

LOL. You should write an adventure children book about one chicken and several cats based on your pet sitting experience.