Here kitty kitty kitty......

Ok, so I have been MIA for quite some time now. I had a lot of photos to upload...then my work load doubled....plus I was new car shopping as well as planning a vacation down south with a group of long time friends. I must confess that it's a bit overwhelming to have well over 3,000 digital photos to sift through now. I am offically shelving the photo a day for 365 days deal. Sorry folks, I bit off more than I could chew I'm afraid. I will now go back to the regularly scheduled program.

Christmas is upon us, in fact I only just finished decorating the tree this morning. I gave Cheetah, the cat a few days to get the  tree climbing phase out of his system. It seems to have worked....for now. The real test will be this evening when he wakes from his catnap and sees all the shiny ornaments hanging within reach of his inquistive paws.
The weather outside is frightful.....if you live pretty much an hours drive away in any direction from where I live in the banana belt of Southern Ontario. Here in balmy Stoney Creek we had wind and rain the other day when everyone else was getting a major winter storm. Parts north of Toronto got upwards of 100cm of blowing snow...that's over 40 inches for you folks in the U.S.
today we are getting rain, once again. I'm thinking maybe I brought the warm breezes back from Jamaica with me...ah but even I know it can't last forever. Eventually the white stuff will be upon us... even here.
That  said, maybe it's time to start thinking about heading to Mexico next........

Rain...Floods...mice...what next?

I know, I know, I have been MIA for a while now. Its summer and I like to spend as much time outdoors. The season seems so short and before you know it, the pool is closed and the backyard furniture has been stored away once again. Wait! It’s almost August and I’m walking around with a sweatshirt on in the evenings. Where is summer? I’ll take a little global warming right about now, and heck I was only joking when we put down all that new sod in May about it raining so I didn’t have to worry about it dying. No worries about that this year. It seems like it has been raining every day for weeks now with more rain forecast for most of the next week. Hamilton Flooding
Yesterday we had rain like we rarely see unless I compare it to some of the storms I used to witness in Mexico, with flooded streets and storm sewers unable to keep up with the deluge. At one point, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly rain any harder, it did. I spent me time roaming around the house looking for any points of entry. Nothing serious but I did find some water trickling in under the French doors leading to the backyard, nothing a towel couldn’t handle though. There was also a small puddle in the basement under the kitchen that was more like dampness than anything. Later I found out some of our neighbors basements didn’t fare so well and were up to their knees with water.
The one spot I was worried about was the family room ceiling. We had a bad leak early in the spring practically from one end of the room to the other. Luckily it stayed close to the windows and didn’t make it as far as the pool table. I don’t think submersible billiards would be much fun. Well yesterday….nary a drop! We don’t plan on doing the repairs until the new roof gets done, hopefully early this fall. Now a new drip has been discovered in the living room. I noticed there was a puddle in the corner of the fireplace and the rain was actually dripping off the fireplace insert on to the concrete. There was one stone halfway up the wall that was soaked which seemed out of place. So between downpours the man came home and had to climb up and calk around the chimney. He noticed that part of the cap had broken off and there was a gap where the rain was most likely pouring in. The raccoons need to go on a diet around here. They like to romp around on our roof in the middle of the night and they are by no means light footed. They can’t get in the chimney but that doesn’t stop them from trying on a regular basis. They have even ripped the siding off part of the house trying to get in. Must be my home made cooking they are after….or not.
So with all the rain, I guess some of Gods creatures need to head for higher ground as in….my laundry room in the basement. In the last couple of days there have been a total of 5 mice in the laundry tub. It looks like the young ones fall in and mamma comes to the rescue. Mamma can easily jump out but the babies can only make it halfway up the side before sliding back down. In comes the cat. The man tells Cheetah to earn his keep. I think the cat would have done fine if the man had just left him to do his feline thing. But no….he tries to hit the mouse with a towel…..misses and gets the cat in the head!....
Score: Mouse 1, Cat 0, Man -0. Next the cat turns to the baby in the sink. I couldn’t believe what the he did next. He very gently kept touching the mouse with his paw (no claws out) to make it jump. He then stepped on its tail and then gently picked it up in his mouth. At this point I had visions of the cat letting the mouse go somewhere upstairs where he would have room to chase it around. I grabbed Cheetah just as he was going to jump out of the tub and tapped him on the head and he let his new toy drop back where he found it. It was enough to know that there was already one mouse running loose in the house. The man placed the mouse in a jar and let it go outside after taking it for a short drive out of the neighborhood. The other three took a car ride the following day as well.
I really have to laugh since we have only ever had a problem with mice coming in the house once before and that was in the fall which is understandable. Typically November is the time of year when they normally would come in for the winter, not in July! My guess is that it’s too wet for them and they are getting flooded out of their nests.

……As long as Cheetah doesn’t decide to surprise me one morning with a rodent wake up treat………….

Cats Prefer Rain Over Snow Any Day

At least this one does at the moment. Today was really mild, causing a major meltdown everywhere I was trying to walk. Could this mean that spring is on its way? I mean after all it's been 4 weeks already since those 6 robins descended into my magnolia tree. I can't remember seeing that many robins all together at the same time so early in the year. Maybe Wiarton Willie really does know his stuff. After all he promised an early spring. Willie is the Canadian version of Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog for those of you south of the 49th.

At this time of the year the rain helps to wash away some of the winter grey that seems to have dusted everything outside including my car.

I can hardly wait for the spring flowers to start poking through the ground, even if they still may have to fight to get through the crusty leftover snow.