Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 05:44
Back and Forth
"You don't want to go outside. It's raining outside," I said.
The barn kitties (Petunia, Rosie, Violet, Little Miss Kitty Kate and Sir Thomas) all looked up at me and meowed.
I was on my way out to feed the horses Tuesday morning, and they wanted to go outside. They had stayed in Monday because it was cold and rainy, and now after they have been going outside during the day, one day inside apparently was enough.
I opened the door for them. They all huddled on the step near the basement door, looking out at the rain. Petunia and Violet decided it wasn't worth it and came back inside.
Little Miss Kitty Kate, Rosie and Sir Thomas made a mad dash for the barn.
It wasn't raining very hard, but it was enough for a person to get damp and thoroughly chilled. Of course, by the time I finished feeding and watering the horses and cleaning up some horse manure and hauling a few wheelbarrows from the pile behind the barn out to the hayfield, the rain had stopped.
I went up to the house to see if Petunia and Violet wanted to come outside now that it wasn't raining.
They did.
I walked down to the barn with them, and they were happy to see their two sisters and brother. The kittens stayed outside in the barn all day, and later on in the afternoon, I went downstairs to see if I could call them up to the house.
Petunia and Violet came right away. They knew that I was going to let them inside where it's warm and there are soft places for naps and plenty of kitty food.
After I let the other two in, the remaining three slowly and cautiously made their way up from the barn.
"Hmmmm," I thought. "Maybe I won't have to carry them up to the house after all."
Unfortunately, just as the kitties got as far as the cedar tree in the yard by the basement, the neighbor went by with his noisy truck. The three kittens turned and made a wild dash back to the barn. And when I say dash, I mean dash. It is not just a leisurely trot. It is a stretched-out full-tilt gallop that really covers ground.
I heaved a deep sigh and went to get the container of kitty food. In the meantime, the old tom, Squeak, had come up to the house and was winding himself around my ankles and meowing pitifully. I knew what he was telling me. The kittens had eaten all of the kitty food, and he was hungry and wanted me to do something about it.
Down in the barn, I put out a few handfuls of food. Sir Thomas hopped up with Little Sister and Squeak, so I grabbed him and carried him to the house. The next few small handfuls of kitty food brought Miss Kitty Kate up to the shelf. So I carried her up to the house, too. Rosie was not going to have anything to do with being nabbed on the kitty food shelf. She took off under the wall.
By the time I came out to feed the horses a little while later, Rosie was willing to let me pick her up and take her into the house. Squeak and Little Sister had eaten all the kitty food and Rosie's brother and sisters were up in the basement and she was all by herself.
Well, one thing about it. Carrying the kitties up to the house and making multiple trips to the barn to see if I can't coax them into letting me catch them is adding about a thousand steps a day to my walking routine.
We didn't get much rain on Tuesday, by the way, maybe only one or two tenths of an inch.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 04:18
East Wind
The wind has been blowing out of the east for three days now. The wind blew very strongly out of the east/southeast all day Monday, and it was cloudy and damp and kind of miserable outside.
The weather forecast says we are supposed to get more rain for the next couple of days. We shall see if it amounts to anything.
It was supposed to rain during the day on Monday, but we mostly got just some sprinkles -- maybe a tenth of an inch in Isabelle's tub when I went out to feed the horses before I left for a meeting I was covering for the newspaper Monday evening.
Most of the snow has melted, except there is still some in the woods. And I think there is still quite a lot of frost. Rain might help to take some of the frost out of the ground.
Monday evening after I got home from the meeting, Henry insisted on jumping up into my arms while I was in the bathroom. He likes to get up on the counter and then puts his paws on my shoulder. This indicates he wants to be held. If I don't pick him up, then he claws his way up the front of my sweatshirt so that I don't have much choice but to pick him up.
As I was holding Henry, I heard the rumble of thunder. Henry heard it, too. And decided he did not like it. He leaped to the floor and ran off to hide somewhere.
The rumble of thunder was the first thunder we have had this year. After a long, cold, hard winter, on March 23, we experienced our first thunder shower. When I looked outside, it wasn't raining very much, though. Certainly not as heavy as I would have expected with a thunder shower.
April showers are supposed to bring May flowers. But what are March thunder showers supposed to bring?
LeAnn R. Ralph
AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS -- For yourself or someone else!
Click here to order the Rural Route 2 Cookbook
My new book, The Coldest Day of the Year, is now available.
Click here to order LeAnn's books
"Highly recommended reading!" (The Midwest Book Review)