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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

God Speed Donald

I found out today, that my first love, my first kiss, died on June 30. Donald loved music and loved to sing and actually, he was quite good at it. He used to sing the song Last Kiss all the time. That is my BFF-Vicky's sweet mother in the photo with Donald. He had both our mothers wrapped around his little finger! I stole this photo from Vicky's Facebook page. I don't think she will be too upset with me. We sure had some fun together, the three of us.
Here's to you Donald! I hope you had a beautiful life!

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Friday, July 03, 2009

Summer Morning Rain

Rest in Peace Squash Blossom

"Give me a sunny spot to sleep in when morning dawns and I will warm your lap on cold evenings." Phylis Feiner Johnson
Our lives are often touched by the unexpected. Such was our story with Squash Blossom. Last summer, my adult daughter spent a great deal of time at home with us, needing to escape for a short while, her small apartment and the small town in which she goes to school. She also stayed with us to provide company and an extra set of hands after I had surgery last summer. Many of our summer mornings were spent on our breezy front porch with a cup of coffee in hand and a magazine in our laps. It was our morning ritual, one we will both always hold close in our hearts.


On one such morning, as we sat on the porch chatting, reading and sipping our coffee, we heard not so much a meow, as a "mew". When we peeked down the driveway to find the source, we saw a dreadfully skinny orange cat walking toward us. We gave it a cheerful salutation and then continued our morning ritual.  Within a few short minutes, appearing as quietly as a butterfly landing, seemingly out of thin air, the orange kitty was on the porch. He climbed onto the iron sofa and then straight into my daughter's lap. He curled up on her as if they had been long time buddies, all the while purring like a motorboat. While his friendliness entertained us, his dirtiness worried us, as did the fact that he was so very thin.
He hung out with us all morning and we jokingly came up with names for him. We weren't claiming him, I did not want another cat. We were simply amusing ourselves. He was such a friendly little guy that it was hard to shoo him away. Several names came up and eventually we decided that his color reminded us of the inside of a butternut squash, or the color of a squash blossom. Somehow "Squash Blossom" just seemed to stick. Eventually we found out he officially belonged to neighbors who had moved in a few short days before he appeared on our porch. Obviously hungry and uncared for, he soaked up our attention like a wet sponge. For the rest of the summer, if we were outside, he was with us.


Squash had an odd condition. One that made him even more adorable.  He would purr so loudly and with such vigor that he would drool. Big droplets of slobber would drizzle down his chin while he was sitting in your lap. As for our laps, he never waited for an invitation. If you were stationary, he found you and sprawled out in your lap.
Although horribly undernourished and thin, Squash had massive paws and very lengthy whiskers, whiskers that somehow over the late summer, simply disappeared. They were pulled out or cut off by someone he trusted enough to let them get that close. That person should have every single hair on their body pulled out one at a time for the pain they caused that precious cat.  Eventually his whiskers grew back, longer and stronger, but not even that abuse dampened his sweet spirit.
As winter came, we feared for his safety. By now he was basically homeless, and feeding off the kindness of the neighborhood, excluding the people who brought him into it in the first place.
Ohio winters can be brutal and I feared he would not make it through. I created a small sheltered area on our back porch, so he would at least have it as a last resort. Already having one cat, an old grouchy guy, we knew trying to bring Squash into our home would be disastrous! Another kind neighbor let him come into her house on the bitterest of nights, Squash having won over her heart and the hearts of her young children.  Thankful for the warmth, he was simply an alley cat at heart and needed his freedom as soon as daylight emerged. I greeted him each cold morning with a bowl of heated milk to warm his tummy after the chilly night and before he set out to explore the freshly fallen snow. He began to expect it and even after being in the warmth and safety of the neighbor's house overnight, he would fuss to get out and run to my back porch for his morning bowl of warm milk. During the winter, there were tracks in the snow that led between our house and theirs, a path Squash had worn between them, fighting to survive.
When the sun began to warm the earth in the spring, Squash could be found lying directly under my platform bird feeder, nestled in among the growing daylilies, his fur speckled with discarded sunflower seed shells.
He was the sweetest of cats, always with a purr for you, sweeping in and out of your ankles or curling up in your lap the moment you sat down.
Who would've thought that the cat that almost starved to death, the cat with nine lives, who lived through the bitterest of winters would meet his end in the warmth of summer.
My house was full of company, my children home, my son's 6 month old German Shepherd/Husky mix puppy visiting and my sister here from out of state. Amidst all this bustle, I mentioned that I hadn't seen Squash in a few days, which was unusual since even with the dog here, he would still come calling and curl up on our back porch bench in the morning sunlight, both to the puppy's delight and aggravation. She wanted to play with Squash in the worst way. We would often have to shoo Squash off the back porch before we could bring Prudence out for her walk or we would have been flapping in the breeze like a flag on the end of Pru's leash as she tried her best to play with that cat!
A couple evenings later, Squash Blossom came to us for help, battered and in pain. We wrapped him in a towel, my sweet sister holding him like a baby in her arms as my husband drove us all to the vet. Squash was very brave and still just as sweet as ever. I unashamedly wept for him, my hand vibrating on his back as he lay on the cold stainless of the vet's table. He purred all the way till the end. My sister stayed with him in his last moments. My heart could not endure it.
Below is my last photo of Squash Blossom, taken just a few days before his accident, as he came trotting toward me out of the middle of my flower garden. Whenever out in the garden, if I stood still for more than a few seconds, Squash would lie across my feet,  or if I squatted down to do something in the garden, he would curl up in my "shade". I will miss his sweet spirit and his constant company as I pull the weeds from my flowers.
"And when I am old and the time comes to say farewell, hold me gently in your arms and I will go without a whimper."  Phylis Feiner Johnson

The warm days of summer brought you, the warm days of summer took you away.


Rest in Peace Squash Blossom. 
You brought a bit more sunshine to our lives.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

After the Rain

We had a beautiful day-long summer rain yesterday here in Ohio. My sister and I spent part of the morning on the front porch listening to the rain fall around us, rain misting our faces as we ate our toasted bagels and drank cups of hot coffee. I was delighted to see that my first daylily of the season had bloomed. They are always such a cheerful addition to the yard. When the rain let up, I decided to grab my camera and head out to take a  few photos of the rain-soaked flowers. These are a few of my favorites.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sunny Day, Keeping the Clouds Away...

Yesterday was a gorgeous, warm and sunny day. Sometime before noon, I decided to grab a Kashi Blackberry snack bar, a cup of coffee and my journal and head out to the back yard to my cedar swing. That was the last second the day belonged to me, until late afternoon. Should I have been working? Yes. Am I glad I didn't? Yes.

As I turned toward the neighbor's house to reply to a greeting, the little toddler (he is probably pushing 1 3/4 now) started smiling from ear to ear and toddling towards me  on newly found running legs, with freedom in his eyes.  All was lost.  By the time I rounded the corner of my wooden fence, little Lyndy was heading my way as well. She is such a lover, that one. Always in your lap, cuddling and wrapping her love around you. What idiot walks away from that?

Cheyanne and Lyndy ended up coming back home with me and the three of us sat in the swing and shared my granola bar. Then after chatting for a while, I dug out my bucket of sidewalk chalk (I'm not even sure how old that sidewalk chalk is) and the girls proceeded to draw on the patio beside the swing. Lyndy, in her infinite wisdom for a mere four year old, looks up at me with big blue eyes and says "I am going to draw my future". In her future, she must be an exterminator because she kept crushing ants with the chalk! Lyndy drew her future, Cheyanne drew a stop sign and a police officer (which I hope isn't part of her future) and the three of us drew a geometric design, taking turns coloring in the shapes.
As we retreated back to the swing, chatting about this and that, sometime amidst the conversation, Lyndy says to me "This is the face I make when I want to make a bumblebee laugh". I cracked up! (Just a warning...If you choose to enlarge the view of this photo, she has a nasty nose. She is a kid, being a kid, out in the yard on a warm sunny day, playing kick ball, playing in the dirt and drinking in the sunshine, so if nasty noses make you squirm, don't enlarge this photo!)
Lyndy spent most of the afternoon with my husband and me. As we sat in the swing, the three of us, eating apples with peanut butter on them, Lyndy decided she needed to take a piece of apple to her brother Connor. The next thing I knew, all four of them were with me, sitting in the swing chatting, chattering and giggling about all things, while eating popcorn and peanut butter covered apple slices.
They brought Easter candy to share, with Lyndy picking a pretty pink foil covered Hershey kiss to take to my husband as he polished the wheels on his car.
They always enjoy my  binoculars and the bird book that sit on the back window ledge of my kitchen, so I let them bring the binoculars outside and gathered up two other bird books for them to use as a reference. We looked up photos of birds we often see in the yard and as if on que, a round robin dropped in for a splash in the bird bath. Connor asked me to take photos of the evidence of the splish-splashing robin.
Through the fence,  on his way back to their yard, Connor found more evidence of the birds that visit our yards.
After spending most of the afternoon sleeping among the daylilies UNDER the bird feeder, Squash Blossom found another place to rest.
A cleaned up, piggy-tailed Lyndy.

Martha Stewart - Cookie of the Day