Lesson 928: Cat's Cradle

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!

Truth!

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