Thoreau & More...

 

"I find it good to be out this still, dark, mizzling afternoon; my walk or voyage is more suggestive and profitable than in bright weather.  The view is contracted by the misty rain, the water is perfectly smooth, and the stillness is favorable to reflection...The solitude is real too, for it keeps other men at home...My power of observation and contemplation is much increased.  My attention does not wander.  The world and my life are much simplified."  

& MORE...Particularly about cats.

 

"Gather kittens while ye may

for time brings only sorrow

and the kittens of today

will be old cats tomorrow."

~Unknown 

The kittens had their appointments at the vet clinic.  It sounds like such an ordinary and common thing, doesn't it?  But, NOT!  These feral babies are anything but "ordinary and common."  

The plan from day one was simple enough -  Feed kittens in wire cage.  On the appointed day, close door.  Load cage, kittens and all, into Jeep and take to vet.  

But, it didn't happen that way.  When that big, tall scary man went into the crib to help carry the cage things got pretty wild.  As our granddaughter said, "They were like bouncing off the walls."  It was probably a good thing that the door came open and three of them escaped.  Well...  One was better than none!

 And, that's the way it was done.  One cat at a time.  By the time, this ordeal was over, we had made a total of eight trips to the animal clinic.  The kittens began to get very suspicious of my every move, so that by the time I got to Kitty #4, she was quite a challenge.  But, now they are all back home and doing well.  And, I am no longer having nightmares about catching cats!  

   

Winter 2025

 

The Pond Jan. 10, 2025

We got snow!  Lots of it... A walloping  total of ten-inches.  Millie and I made our daily walk, despite the fact that I had only 7-inch boots.  Thanks to Dan who made tracks in the snow for us to follow.  How beautiful everything looked!  I have no words to describe it.  Just Wow!  Walk #1,008 was certainly not one to be missed!  

I know this post is long on pictures and short on words, but, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I will add that the kitties holed up somewhere during this entire event for 2 1/2 days, but are all safely back in the fold. 

 

  

The Next Day - January 11, 2025 ( I love those oh-so-blue skies!)

One thousand walks and the Kittens make a move...

Well, Millie and I did it.  We made our long anticipated 1000th walk over the hill.  The world didn't seem to notice, but to us, it was something to celebrate.  Lots of memories are locked into those 1000 days, some of which I photographed, but most of them are like "a river, glimpsed once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone."  (Marcus Aurelius)  I will post a few pictures taken from those 1000 days at the end of this post.

In other news, the kitties moved themselves to another barn. When I went to the old barn on New Year's morning, I found nothing but an old empty crib.  All of my sweet kitties had gone missing.  One can imagine the thoughts that raced through my mind.  It wasn't until we were doing the evening chores that we spotted one of them in the tractor barn.  What to do?  Has anyone ever had success at herding a bunch of cats?  

They were all quite anxious and very wary, having reverted back to some of their wild ways.  Their mother was, after all, a feral cat, so their DNA was not to be denied.  There would be no catching them that day to return them to the safety of the old crib as Dan suggested we do.  Besides, I couldn't help but think, that maybe they were wiser than we were.  Was there some danger lurking around the old barn that made them seek a new safer place?

I was relieved that they were all safe and still together.  In hopes that they would return on their own, we left them in their new place, which was a bit more than a quarter of a mile away from their old place.  I did not feed them that day.  

Early morning of the next day, we found them just as we had left them the evening before.  They were hungry.  I fed them.  They had found a tub of bale-wrap mixed with hay in which they had obviously slept.  So, there you go....  Cats will be cats.  I moved their feed and water dishes to their new abode and made their bed better.  I stroked all their backs this morning.  

I'll never forget the late night walk Millie and I made in which we were harassed  by the coyotes.  

Or, of when we went walking after midnight, and caught up with a family of raccoons in a hackberry tree.

And, walking in a snowstorm should be on everyone's must do list.  Right?

I hope everyone's new year is off to a great start, and that you are doing better with your resolutions than I am.  I am not giving up.  Just blaming it on the kitties!  Ha Ha!

Until next time,

Mary

Walk # 987 & Merry Christmas!

 

ONE THOUSAND WALKS is a big deal around here... at least for Millie and me, and we are oh-so-close to that number having made our 987th trek over this old hill this morning.  We've only accomplished that feat one time before, and that was back in February of 2021.  Here's the way it happened.

From my calendar pages, I wrote on February 14th. "Low of 14 degrees, High of 14 degrees.  Snow and oh-so-cold.  It was probably a dumb thing to do, but Millie and I walked the lower trail to the old Black Jack tree and back down the hill.  As a result I felt tired all day. 1,314 walks."

February 15:  Low 7 degrees, High 16 degrees.  Our walking streak is broken!  The weather was just too dangerously cold today at single digits.  And, the snow kept coming down, now measuring about 6 inches.  

February 16:  -7 degrees (Negative 7 degrees)  We had sunshine!  Millie and I walked the hillside trails.  We are now under a winter storm warning.  It is snowing as I write.  We aren't counting anymore walks...maybe never again.  (But, we did!)

February 17:  So, Mother Nature gave us another couple of inches of snow, making a bit more than 8 inches on the ground.  I tried walking but the snow was deeper than my boots were tall.  Besides, I worried that Millie might get out on the pond ice and fall through.

So, if the Lord is willing and if the creeks don't rise, as I used to hear people say, Millie and I will be out on this old hill doing our 1,000th walk on the second day of January 2025. We will celebrate a bit with Dan, and then the next day we will hit the old trail again.  Who knows, we might even make it to 2,000!   

Here's hoping your season is filled with joy.

Merry Christmas!

Mary

A Walk With Millie...

 

"Walk with me; don't just walk me.  Slow down and see the world as I do.  I know you've got things to do, places to be.  But out here, with the ground beneath our feet and the sky above us, there's a whole world worth noticing.

The autumn chill is in the air today, crisp and full of new smells.  It's different from yesterday, and different from the day before.  Every day is new.  The leaves crunch under my paws, and I stop to breathe in the rich, earthy scent of them.  To you, it might just be a pile of leaves, but to me, it's a story - one I can't help but dive into, nose first.

So, slow down.  Breathe.  Let the chill fill your lungs and the colors fill your eyes.  Walk with me, don't just walk me.  See the world as I do, if only for a little while.  It's all waiting for you, just beneath the surface."

~ Facebook, Dogs World 

I am working hard on this.  It has become a new rule:  Pay close attention to your surroundings.  Do not think about other stuff.  I had kind of allowed myself to slip into the habit of  doing just that - a time to work out problems and to make plans, etc.  How many times have I said to Millie, "I need to talk to you about some things."   What a waste it was to get to the end of the trail and realize that I had seen nothing of the woods and fields and sky.  I think Millie likes the new rule and I know that I do.  

P.S.  You should see how well the kitties are doing.  And, how big they are getting.  They love me now.  All four of them.  Even Elon, the wild tux kitten which you can see hiding behind the door.  He is still shy and very wary, but that may be a good thing when it comes to surviving in the great outdoors.  He loves for me to stroke him, and purrs like a motor boat.  Here he is with Margo waiting on food.  You'll notice that I still feed them in the cage, but it is never closed.  I thought it might come in handy to have Elon there when it comes time to take him for his vet visit.  I have never picked him up, but I hold and kiss the other three.  I think Elon wants me to hold him.  I may try that tomorrow.    

Kitties and a Pretty Picture...

 

Fall 2024

It's not a very pretty fall here because of the extremely dry conditions we have been experiencing for so very long.  The pond along which Millie and I walk every day has always been a reliable place in which to find a good picture in every season, but, even it, came up lacking this fall.  I did find a bit of color there, however, and using my iPhone mustered up a pleasing enough picture.    

The barn kitties are growing up.  It has been quite a challenge to tame these little wild critters, but, slowly and surely, I am getting it done.  The Tabbies were first to allow me to touch them, and now love to be petted.  Little Blackie was next, and has now stolen my heart.  The Tuxedo cat is a wild one, but even he, is finally allowing me to pet him at the feed dish.   

I still haven't definitely decided which kitties are girls and which are boys.  I actually googled for information on how to determine the sex of a kitten.  I found a good site with drawings.  Step l:  Lift tail.  Ha Ha!  I think I knew that much, but lifting Tux's tail hasn't happened yet.  I have just about concluded that the tabbies are both girls and that the little black one is a boy.  My guess is that the wild black and white kitty is a boy. When they are just a little older we will make appointments for them with our vet, then we'll know for sure.  

Tabby White Paws

Little Blackie

Tux

The following quote has been going around on Facebook.  It's so me that I just have to share it here.

"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.  I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.  But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill.  Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right."

~Soren Kierkegaard

It has been 934 days since Millie and I last missed our walk over the hill.  If I counted correctly we will hit the 1,000 mark on Jan. 2, 2025.