Hello, Readers!
Eloise, here,
reporting in from a very cold week!
Here is Harborcreek, PA
under the Cold Moon on Thursday.
It was a Supermoon,
which means it was closest to Earth in its orbit.
The sunrise today
was as breathtaking
as the 10 degree early morning air.
Grandma and Grandpa's snow couple are dressed
and ready for the season.
I fussed a little extra yesterday preparing
my feral cats for the winter.
This will be Stealth's 9th winter!
To bring the newer readers up to speed,
Stealth was a kitten I took in during the summer of 2017.
She was quite wild and wanted nothing to do with inside the house,
so we set up a house for her in the old, red barn,
which burned to the ground the summer after.
Little did we know that kittens reproduce so quickly.
She had a litter of kittens in the barn,
and soon there were 7!
Not even a year later--14!
After repeatedly calling every vet in the area,
one agreed to help me.
During 4:30 am hunting expeditions,
I captured the cats one by one
with cans of tuna and box traps.
We would text the vet when we caught one,
and they would spay or neuter,
and give a rabies shot,
to be taken home the same day and released.
As of this summer I was down to 4.
My favorite feral Franklin
passed from a respiratory infection this fall.
I have three left to survive the winter:
Stealth, the OG
and two I refer to as "The Twins."
I ran out of creative names,
so they went into the vet names #7 and #8.
They are orange and white like their mom,
and hard to tell apart,
therefore "The Twins" and Stealth are my survivors.
Here is there warm winter "cradle"
beneath the barn porch.
These plastic tub shelters are under the booth,
behind the straw.
Here is a shelter design if you would like to help
animals survive the winter.
Our current indoor rescued cats are
Gus and Whitford
and Charlie and Lucy
who reside next door at my parents' house.
One could say that they are doted on.
You are probably wondering
how scattered Eloise can remember
all of the cat specifics.
Here is one thing I use to help keep track
of daily occurrences like the weather,
and the out of the ordinary ones
when I adopt pets,
Erie gets five feet of snow,
or I find something worthy of celebrating:
Get a five year diary!
My Grandma Millie kept one
and I loved looking through them
when I'd visit her.
(why do cats insist on sitting on everything you put down?)
Actually,
I started with a three year diary,
and moved up to the five year.
I always write the temperature and weather information.
It's fun to compare year to year.
I also list things I plant,
high school sports victories,
and cool quotes I want to remember.
Here's my birthday page.
El Canelo and cheesecake
seem to be a year to year favorite.
I'm finishing one this week,
and will start this pretty new one on December 13th.
No, don't wait until January 1st!
Life is not that neat.
Get one for yourself tomorrow and get going.
These also would make a great gift.
Look at how pretty she is on the inside!
Another great gift suggestion
that is non-screen related
is a Cat's Cradle book and string game set.
I have this one:
and this one comes with string.
My students and I worked on these figures this week.
These make great gifts for kids of any age.
I have to go settle a cat argument,
so I'll sign off for tonight.
The boys are fighting over
whether we are celebrating
Gusmas
or
Whitmas
in a couple of weeks.
No matter the name,
it will be a Merry Catmas
at the Lamp Post.
Eloise
