Rainy Days and Mondays............

5/14/11 Morrilton, Arkansas

We got up Saturday morning fairly early. I decided to walk up to the KOA Store to see what they had. Charlie said that all he saw the night before was knick knacks, little souvenirs, etc. and I said “I like that” so I wanted to see what they had.

Well the store didn’t open until noon, so I guess we saved some money. We decided we’d just get underway.

Charlie’s Uncle James had triple by-pass surgery on Thursday, May 12, in Memphis, Tennessee. We decided to stop and see if we could visit him. We got to the hospital and discovered that he couldn’t have visitors yet. We drove on down to Holly Springs, Mississippi and parked at the Wall Doxie State Park for the night. Charlie’s cousin, Milton, came to pick us up and take us to meet relatives for dinner. We had a fun night.

Then we got back to our campsite and just crashed. The cats and Sheila were doing fine. They missed us though and were glad to see us.

We got up Sunday morning and got ready to go down to Calhoun City, Mississippi to visit Charlie’s Aunt Marie.

When we got there, our cousins Debbie and Renay were waiting, along with Aunt Marie. We went inside.

Aunt Marie has 8 cats and several dogs. She calls all of them her “babies”. Aunt Marie had kids who are grown and grandkids, but the critters are her babies.

Later, Aunt Marie took me back to the “cat room”. I met all of her cats there. They have beds and chairs and window sills to sleep or sit on. Also there are two dogs, Polly and Chloe, who share the space with the cats.

Polly is the one who brought tears to my eyes. Back in 2004 when we came for a visit, Aunt Marie took us down the hill and to the pond on the back of her property. Polly, a brown lab, ran with us. Polly was a dog who watched for snakes and just protected Aunt Marie. She was frisky and so full of it. Today when I met her, she had a hard time getting up from her bed. She limped over to see me. I petted her and she looked into my eyes. She was so sweet. Aunt Marie said that Polly had cancer and there was nothing she could do but treat her as normal as possible. I just remembered how Polly was the last time we were there and I felt sad. But, Polly was happy and she really had a good life. Aunt Marie just adored her.

Our cousin, Debbie, lives with Aunt Marie. She has two dogs, Daisy and Susie. They are both Cocker Spaniels. Daisy is blond and Susie is black. They both have stories.

Both of them were severely mistreated before. Daisy was kept by people who shot at her with BB guns. She had BB’s imbedded in her back. They threw water balloons with rocks in them at her and other things. Just terrible stuff. Debbie rescued her.

Then she heard about Susie. Susie was kept in a very small kennel for three years. She was not allowed outside of it. When Debbie heard about her, she went to see and no one was around so she took Susie out of the kennel and brought her to a vet. Susie was a mess. Her legs were grown together. She was dirty and in bad shape. They fixed her up.

We did not meet Daisy today and we have never met her. She is still not ready to meet people because of her abuse before. Only Debbie can be with her right now.

But, Susie is a different story. She is the most loving, sweet little dog. She looks into your eyes when you’re petting her. I don’t know how anyone could mistreat any dog, least of all a dog like this.

We brought our dog, Sheila, inside to be with everyone. She was a hit. Everyone just loved her. She’s very shy, but she did well.

We had lunch and Sheila got lots of snacks. We usually limit her, but this was a special occasion, so we let her have as much as anyone wanted to give.

She had a very nice day, but a very tiring day.

We went back to the campground and rested for awhile, then we went to bed.

Monday morning, May 16, 2011

We woke up pretty early. I had set the clock for 6:00am, but we woke at 5:20am. The cats were playing and making noise. We noticed that the cabinet door was open under the sink. Jason had pryied it open. I forgot to latch it. No cats were in there though.

We got up. I fed the cats and started coffee. Charlie took Sheila out, I made the bed. Then Charlie came back and sat down.

As I was coming from the bedroom, I noticed that Jason was standing in front of the stove, looking up, measuring his jump. I yelled at him, but it was too late. He jumped up to the stove. He touched the burner, but jumped down and ran. I said “Jason is hurt”. Charlie picked him up and checked him. We could smell that he got burned or his fur got singed by the fire.

Charlie said Jason seemed fine. He got up in the kennel and seemed scared.

We kept checking on him and he stayed in the kennel. Then we had breakfast and got ready to leave. I picked him up and smelled his foot. He definitely had singed fur, but I’m not sure if his skin was burned.

Jason seemed okay all day. We had a long traveling day. It was raining and cold.

We got to our KOA campground in Cantler, near Asheville, NC. Jason ate his dinner and then later came over and looked out the window with Jonesie to look at the birds.

I’m worried about Jason because he had started sneezing a couple of days ago. We will take him to a vet when we get to New Bern, if he isn’t any better.

This is a nice KOA, from what we’ve seen. We’ll walk around some in the morning before we leave.

We haven’t had any internet since Friday night. Tomorrow we will be in New Bern, NC and they have pretty good WiFi, so we’ll probably be able to post each night.

We are having a nice trip, although it has been tiring to drive each day. We will be in New Bern from Tuesday, May 17 until Monday, May 23.

More later………..

Livin' La KOA

We left the Elk City/Clinton, OK KOA this morning about 9:00 am. Our first stop for gas was $3.84/gallon. It was really windy and cold. Then the next stop was $3.87. Later as we stopped, I said the price was $3.84. Charlie said “$3.84!” We’re already getting spoiled, paying less than $4.00/gallon!

We stopped for gas just before coming to this KOA tonight. It was $3.79/gallon.

We are in Morrilton, Arkansas tonight. It is a KOA Kampground. When we first got here, we weren’t so sure about it. It looked like a regular trailer park. When we got to the office, it was closed. The sign said they’d be back at 3:30pm and it was 3:15. We waited and then were able to register.

We were told to park anywhere in the back row. When we drove back, we noticed that all but two or three spaces were taken. They looked like long term campers to us. We parked and hooked up.

It was very quiet. We decided last night that we would just relax when we first stopped for the night instead of starting dinner, feeding everyone, etc. We all need to decompress from the day. It worked out fine. The cats all crashed, Sheila went to the bedroom and went to sleep by the bed. Charlie got a beer and I got a glass of wine. We sat and talked and watched as the neighbors came home from work.

The guy next to us came home. Then as we sat there, a friend came over with a six pack of beer and went inside. A few minutes later, both left, with the beer. We figured they got a call or something, “Hey, come over, bring beer”, I don’t know. Go figure.

We finally fed the cats and Sheila, I made dinner. Then I went to take a shower. I came back and Charlie went to get his shower.

I turned on the hot water and while I waited for it to heat, I checked my email. No sooner had I sat down than Jonesie got up on the sink, stepped on the board near the sink which had a lit candle jar on it. It fell and splashed hot candle wax everywhere! I checked to see if Jonesie was okay and he looked fine, not even scared.

I started cleaning up the cooling wax. Charlie came in about that time. I said “We had a near catastrophe here!” and I told him what happened. We both worked on it. He looked at Jonesie again. Jonesie’s ear had some wax on it. I was able to scrape it off and it didn’t seen to have burned him or bothered him.

We cleaned a little while and then Charlie said “Why don’t you take a break and have some wine? I’ll work on this”. He did work on it and said “I declare that your sink and stove are clear of wax.”

We’ll keep an eye on Jonesie’s “ear wax”. He’s asleep on the couch right now and I think he’s fine. Jason is relaxing and Kaci is getting some water.

It’s a quiet Friday night, so far, in the trailer park.

More later…………

If anything can go wrong..........

Update: Friday afternoon, 5:30PM May 13, 2011

I was unable to post last night. My blogger site was down this morning when we left our campground. Here is the post from Thursday night.

From Thursday night: We slept really well last night. It was kind of cool so we had the heat on low. The cats were also quiet. But, when I woke up about 6:00am, I noticed that Jonesie was sitting on top of the stove. There is a butcher block board that covers the burners. Then I noticed that the door to the cupboard under the sink was open! Jason has always been able to open this door. It is hard for me to open! I’m not sure how he does it. I’m sure that he, Kaci and Jonesie were in the cabinet, exploring.

I got up and closed the door. Charlie had installed a latch, but I had forgotten to latch it last night. Jason taught Jonesie about this little secret place and Jonesie kept coming back to see if he could get in.

We made coffee and breakfast, which was good. We were hungry. It must be those high elevations in New Mexico!

The showers at the park were being renovated, so only one was working. It was the handicapped one. Charlie went first. He said the water pressure was low and the water was not really that warm, but it felt good to get a shower.

I went over to get my shower. The water was luke warm and by the time I got soaped up, the water was getting pretty cool. I was able to get rinsed off. I felt pretty good.

We left the park about 8:35am. At our first stop for gas, the price was $3.89. We drove on and there was no radio reception. It was just miles and miles of open range. We saw 3 or 4 antelope grazing. Since we had no radio, we played cassettes. Lots of songs we had forgotten about. Some were recorded from my old 45 rpm collection. For those of you who don’t know what a 45 is, it is a vinyl record!

We stopped in Tucumcari, NM for gas at $3.75/gallon and then went through Amarillo, TX. I was looking for those old Cadillacs that are buried, front end in the ground, just off the freeway near Amarillo. I thought they were further back and I thought there were about 10 of them. I noticed some vehicles on the Frontage Road and then when I looked over, I saw that some people had stopped to see the cars sticking out of the ground. There were only 5 or 6 though and I didn’t notice what kind they were. I don’t think they are the ones called “Cadillac Ranch”.

We stopped for gas about 28 miles east of Amarillo. It was $3.79/gallon. Charlie says we’re getting about 10 miles to the gallon, which is pretty good.

Tonight we are at the Elk City/Clinton KOA in Oklahoma. It’s about 140 miles west of Oklahoma City. When we stopped, it was kind of warm, maybe in the 80’s. The cats were tired from riding all day. I fed them and Jason stretched out on the couch, Kaci went into Sheila’s kennel and Jonesie stretched out on top of one of the kennels in the cab.

The park is a really nice campground. The mascot is a little grey tabby cat who is very friendly. We’ve both petted him. When we took Sheila for a walk before dark, he was sitting at one of the camp sites, washing his face. I forgot to ask his name, but I know he lives here. We saw a bowl of dry food by the shower door tonight.

We hooked up cable for our TV and it works great. We were able to watch O’Reilly and catch up on some news of the day. We’re hoping to watch American Idol tonight and see who gets kicked off. I went online last night and found that Jacob had been kicked off last week.

Also, the WiFi is great. Charlie was able to go on his World of War Craft and do some business. He puts things up for sale and checks his messages, etc. Oh, and I looked up the “Cadillac Ranch”. Apparently those 10 Cads are buried near Route 66. We saw a couple of imitators today, but nothing like the real thing on the real road.

More later……..

Runaway Home is Cold and Wet

We woke up pretty early this morning. Jonesie got his mouth caught on his collar and was struggling to get it loose. I tried to get the collar out of his mouth, but couldn’t. We turned the light on and while Charlie held Jonesie, I unbuckled his collar. Poor little fellow. His neck is still so small. I have to make another hole in the collar. It’s either too loose or too tight. We always make the cats wear collars when we travel.

The breakaway collars are the best. Mr. Crème wears one and, of course, he has lost several of his collars. He gets them caught on bushes in the yard, etc., but I’m glad they break open.

Not long after we got Jezibel declawed, I came home from work one day at lunch. I walked in the house and there were bloody tracks everywhere on the entryway tiles. I could hear something in the dining room. When I went in there, Jezibel was in the window, struggling to get her collar out of her mouth! She was all bloody and I’ll never forget that panic stricken look in her eyes. Her face is white and that made the blood on her fur look even worse. She had opened up her sutures from her claws and that was where all the blood came from.

I got the collar off and called the vet to tell them I was coming in with her. Then I called Charlie. He said he’d come home as soon as he could. I took Jezibel to the vet and they kept her to fix her paws. I came home and discovered that not only was there blood in the entryway and dining room, but all up the stairs, on the walls, in one of the closets upstairs. That poor little Jezibel had run all over the house trying to get that collar out of her mouth.

I started cleaning up the blood. Charlie said when he walked in the door and saw his wife cleaning up the bloody floor, his imagination could have gone wild if he didn’t know about Jezibel! We managed to get it clean and we picked up Jezibel the next day. She was fine and her paws healed. We do not put collars on our cats while they are in the house anymore. They only wear them when they go into our back yard.

So, anyway, that’s how our morning started. Jonesie was no worse for the wear though. We had an early breakfast and got our showers.

Before leaving the park, we walked around and took some pictures. They had three chickens which are called Easter Egg Chickens because they lay light green eggs. I saw one yesterday. The manager said that was the third egg of the day. They are big eggs too. There were also some goats there. Two of the biggest goats we’ve ever seen and I’m not sure what kind they were. There was a smaller one too. There were little food dispensing machines and for a quarter you could feed the chickens and/or goats. They were getting plenty of food, that’s for sure.

We left the park about 8:35 a.m. We were taking I-17 North towards Flagstaff and then onto I-40. We stopped for gas just north of Black Canyon City and paid $3.95/gallon. While driving through the Flagstaff area, we noticed that quite a few of the pines were either dead or dying. I’m not sure why, but it was noticeable.

The next stop was Winslow, Arizona where we paid $3.69. While there, we stopped at Wal Mart and bought a charger for the laptop and some coaxial cable for the TV. Our next gas stop was just east of Gallup, New Mexico, $3.75/gallon.

We had crossed into the Mountain Time Zone when we got to New Mexico, so we lost an hour. It started raining some and because the weather was so cool, I had a sinus headache since morning. I went to lie down on the bed with Jonesie and we took a nap. Charlie said the drops of rain were huge. Sometimes it rained pretty hard and then sometimes it was like a quick shower, then the sun would come out.

We reached the Albuquerque Central KOA around 5:30 p.m. It’s a nice park. Very level campsites. It is in town and there are apartment buildings all around. Even so, it’s very quiet and there are lots of trees. I noticed that the RV across from us has two cats sitting in the doorway.

It’s kind of cool, in the high 50’s maybe. Usually it’s warmer here at this time of year. Guess they haven’t gotten the memo yet on global warming.

The WiFi connection is not very good here and I hope I can get my blog published tonight! If not, I will do it when I can.

More later………

Runaway Home Part Deux

We got out of the house and on the road at 8:35a.m. Our target had been 8:00, but there are always last minute things to do, so.......as we were driving down our street, Charlie announced "It's 8:35", and I didn't say anything since I know I was the reason that we were 35 minutes later than planned. It was not a problem though. Charlie has learned a long time ago that the more he urges me to hurry, the more frustrated I get and then that's not so good for him to deal with.

So we had the three cats, Jason, Kaci and Jonesie with us. This is Jonesie's maiden voyage. Kaci immediately settled on the couch. I covered her with a blanket and she was in "her happy place". Jason found refuge in one of the kennels. Jonesie decided that he wanted to sit on my lap. I loved having him there, but I know the lap thing is short lived....maybe a month.

We stopped for gas in El Centro, about an hour and a half into the trip, with a half tank of gas left. We paid $4.19 per gallon. Then we traveled another couple of hours and stopped in Dateland, Arizona. It's kind of in the middle of no where and we thought the price for gas would be horrendous. It was $3.78 a gallon! Never thought we'd think we were getting a deal. I paid $3.97 at Costco when I filled up the other day and the time before, $4.07 at the base!

So, anyway we stopped for the night at Black Canyon City, Arizona, KOA Kampground. We got here about 3:30 p.m. Charlie took Sheila out for a walk. We had time to just sit and relax. The cats found places to look out the window and watch the rabbits and birds. It was nice, maybe in the 70's, but supposed to get down to 48 degrees tonight.

The camper next to us has three dogs with him. You can tell he just loves them and they watch every move he makes. One of the dogs looks like it has wolf in it, one looks like pit bull, and the other is brown and looks like it may have Chow Chow. All nice looking dogs.

We had Sheila out and a lady camper came over and asked if she was "Aussie". We immediately said "Yes, she is a Blue Heeler". We learned about them from hearing everyone asking us if that is what she is. That is what she is. We had no idea when we got her. When we told the lady (who was Aussie) that her name was "Sheila", she really got off on that. Of course, if you've ever been to "Outback" restaurant, you'll know when you go to the lady's room, it has "Sheilas" on the door. That's Aussie for girls! We didn't even think of that when we named her. Her original name was "Sheba", but we didn't want that for her, so we called her "Sheila" since it sounded like "Sheba". Now we act like we named her that on purpose.

We had Sheila groomed the other day and the groomer told Charlie that Sheila was "Australian Cattle Dog", not Border Collie, like we'd told her.....well, that is what the animal shelter told us when we adopted her, so.......anyway.

We've had dinner, the cats are settled, Sheila is in her kennel. Time to relax. Oh, we have to stop at the electronics store tomorrow....to get some cable so we can watch TV and also a power cord for the laptop.......Mr. Bell didn't get these things in the bag, although he kept asking me if I had my cords for my cameras, my phones, etc. Well, you know the drill.....he certainly does! It's okay though, I am getting my blog published on the battery that is left......

Tune in later...........

Runaway Home

Me with Jezibel, Ellie, Mr. Creme on floor and
Calvin on couch
July 2004

Lexi, Ellie and Grady catching some Z's

When I was a kid, I read a book at school called "Runaway Home". It was about a family who moved from New England to Washington State. The father got a new job. They decided to make a vacation out of the trip. They bought a travel trailer and took several weeks to see the country. The book was all about their adventures.

We are not moving, but we will start our RV trip today. We’ve been planning this for several months now.

Two years ago we took the month of July and traveled to the east coast and back. That was a fun trip. We took three of our cats, Taz, Jason, Kaci and our dog, Sheila.

Taz was a veteran because he had been with us when we moved to Virginia in 2002. That time we rented an RV one way and drove to Virginia. We had Rowdy, Calvin, Taz, Jezibel, Ellie, Lexi and Grady, plus our dog, Chelsi. That trip was not bad, but we made it as fast as we could because Charlie had to report to work at a certain date and we were paying by the day for the RV rental.

Jezibel planning an escape
August 2002 on the way to Virginia

This is what Jezibel did during the day
At night she rattled the blinds, paced and eventually
got herself put into the kennel for the night

Then, when we moved back to California in 2004, we still had Calvin, Taz, Jezibel, Ellie, Lexi, Grady and Chelsi. We had also picked up Mr. Creme and Toby. That trip was fun. We had a little more time and we owned the RV!

Mr. Creme relaxing at the campsite
listening to the rain
July 2004

Ellie, never far from the secure kennels
August 2004

It’s been two years now and we’re ready to go again. This time we will take Jason, Kaci and our youngest, Jonesie. Oh, and of course, Sheila.

When the gas prices started going up higher and higher, I’d look at Charlie and say “Are we still going?” He’d say “Yes”, so I continued to plan the trip.

I went online and mapped out the trip, made reservations at the KOA Kampgrounds, figured out the mileage, where we were stopping to visit and for how long, etc.

Then we’d watch the news and the gas prices kept going up. One night I asked Charlie, “Are we still going?” He said, “I don’t know, are we?” I said “Well, are we?” He said “You keep asking and I told you YES, we are going”.

So, I quit asking. We just figured if we didn’t go now, we may not ever go!

It should be fun to write about the trip and I will put something together each day.

Stay tuned...........

By associating with the cat, one only risks becoming richer.

One morning about three years ago now, I looked out the bedroom window and saw a grey tabby cat in the front yard. I went out to see if he was friendly. He came over and rubbed against me and purred and meowed loudly. He didn’t have a collar on and I wondered if he belonged to anyone.

"Bob" relaxing in our yard
2008

Love those big green eyes, "Bob"!

He was gone later, but I thought about him. When we moved here we had several cats who came into the yard. They didn’t seem to belong to anyone. We fed two of the cats who “came with the house”, so we just figured that they came up to eat that food.

But, over the years, we didn’t see any feral cats. This little tabby was the first in a long time. And he really wasn’t feral. He was very friendly. When I didn’t see him for a few days, I assumed he went home.

Sometime later I was leaving the house to run errands. The little tabby was again in our yard. I petted him and left. When I returned, he was gone.

"Where's my food?"

One night I heard a cat in the yard meowing. I went out and it was the little tabby. By now I was getting concerned for this little cat. He seemed to be less than a year old. I was afraid something was going to happen to him, since he was out after dark.

"Bob" now wearing a collar

I started putting food out for him when I saw him. He came over and ate and was happy to be petted. One day when I looked out the window, I saw him. He had a collar on. I went out to see what the tag said. It didn’t have a name, but it had a phone number.

I called the number and left a message. Later in the day I received a call. The man said that the cat really wasn’t his, but they were feeding him, etc. I asked him what the cat’s name was and he said that he had been calling him “Cat”. I thought that was funny because I was calling the cat “Bob”. I asked if he was going to have “Cat” neutered and vaccinated. He really didn’t seem interested in doing that. I told him that I would get “Bob” neutered and vaccinated because I felt like he would be safer that way. The man said he would pay for half the cost of getting “Bob” neutered, but none of the vaccination cost. I said fine.

“Bob” stayed out of our yard for the next few days. Finally he came into the yard. I made an appointment to bring “Bob” in for his shots and have him neutered. Of course when it was time to take him to the vet, he didn’t come into the yard. I made another appointment and when “Bob” showed up again, I kept him overnight in the garage so I could monitor that he didn’t eat before his surgery the next day.

When I brought him home from the vet’s I kept him in a kennel in the garage for a week so he could heal properly. Finally, the man called and asked if I had his cat. I told him “yes” and that I would bring him down to the corner in a couple of days when “Bob” could be let out.

On the day “Bob” was to go ‘home’, I called and asked the man to meet me at the corner of our street. I carried “Bob” down and handed him over to the man.

I keep referring to “the man” because I never knew his name. He probably told me at first, but it didn’t stick with me.

We still saw “Bob” in our yard frequently. He was very vocal and we could hear him meowing very loud. When I heard him I would go out to pet him and I usually gave him something to eat.

He started coming in our backyard, which was not good since our cats don’t like strangers. “Bob” and Taz got into quite a “shouting” match a couple of times. I don’t think it ever came to blows, but poor “Bob” was chased from the yard.

We still had Chelsi then and she was slowing down quite a bit. I used to take her out for a short walk at night. We started down our street leaving the cul-de-sac. Sometimes “Bob” was out there and he would run along with us, frolicking in the yards, running up ahead. He went with us as far as the corner one night and then waited for us to come back. Chelsi didn’t mind him sharing our walks. I looked forward to seeing “Bob”.

Chelsi passed away that September. We got Sheila in January 2009. “Bob” was still in our neighborhood. He still waited for his walks at night with me and Sheila. Sometimes we didn’t see him until we walked by “his” house. If he noticed that I was walking a different dog, he didn’t show it. Sheila also didn’t mind walking with “Bob”.

A few months went by and then I noticed that “Bob” hadn’t been coming in the yard as much. When we walked by “his” house, we didn’t see him. I was sure that something happened to him. I really didn’t want to ask the man though. I hoped that the man’s son may have moved out and took “Bob” with him. I imagined all kinds of things and tried not to imagine the worst......”Bob” getting hit by a car, or being caught by a coyote, or hurt by a dog........or?

One night I walked with Sheila. As we walked by “Bob’s” house, I looked at it as I always did. I noticed light under the cracked garage door. I saw what was obviously a cat walking around the garage. My hopes were that it was “Bob” and that the man finally decided to start keeping him in. Although I missed him, I was glad that he wasn’t roaming freely.

My hopes were dashed a few days later when I was walking by and the man’s son was in the driveway, just getting home from work. Emboldened to ask about “Bob”, I approached the son and asked “Do you still have “Cat”?

He said “No”. “Cat” had died a few weeks ago. He came home and was sick. Seems he got hold of a poisoned rat or something, blah, blah, blah......he said he was very upset about it.....My mind was racing and I was just so disappointed that “Bob” died like that. I could have said something like, “Well, if you had cared enough about “Cat”, you could have kept him home!”, but I didn’t say anything but, “Oh, he was such a good little guy” or something like that. I was too angry to say much.

I often wished that I had never called that number on “Bob’s” collar. My plan was to find a good home for “Bob”. If I’d never called the man, he would never have known and probably wouldn’t have cared.

Then, since I’d seen the cat in the garage one night, I asked if they had another cat. He said that they had gotten his mom two kittens for Mother’s Day. I didn’t say anything else, just “Have a nice night”.

That’s been several months now and I haven’t seen any new cats in our yard. I can only hope that they learned a lesson when poor little “Cat” came home so sick that night and died from a poisoned rat.

Rest in peace little fellow...

More later.........