The Daily Casper

One of my favorite blogs is The Daily Coyote. I found it a couple of years ago and it's a daily destination for me. Shreve Stockton is a 33 year old woman who lives in Wyoming on a farm with a cow, a horse, a dog, a cat and a coyote. The coyote--named Charlie--found her when he was orphaned as a little pup after his parents were shot for killing sheep. Charlie is as much a part of the family as any other dog. Shreve takes daily pictures of Charlie living life on the farm. The pictures are gorgeous. Not only because they feature Charlie, who is beautiful in all his wildness anyway, but she catches him in the Wyoming wildness.

It made me giggle to think if I posted daily pictures of my cat, Casper. He is strictly a house cat, so his 'prop' possibilities are trimmed down quite a bit, but none the less, here is my experiment after one week.

The Daily Casper:

Squirrel Whisperer....

Contemplating Trouble

Hours of Fun

Cool Ceramic Hammock


Bed Stealer....

I have to say that I was shocked at all the different poses I got of Casper because I always see him only doing 3 things --laying on the bed, sitting at the food dish or digging to China in the litter box (I'm not taking pictures of that, sorry). Hard as I try I can not get a picture of him playing with his toys because as soon as he sees me coming with the camera he stops and rubs up against the lens. All that produces is a bunch of blurry, black face shots. Maybe The Daily Casper wasn't as unadventurous as I thought it would be. Thanks, Shreve for the inspiration. And thanks for sharing Charlie with me everyday!

Time flies....

It's been a little while since I've written. I have been busy for sure. The job hunt continues and has taken me to Seattle, NYC, Orlando, Miami and points in between, but has not netted the perfect job just yet. I'm very blessed that I have the time and resources to take my time to find the job that I want and not have to jump at just any job that strolls by. So the search continues. We'll see where it leads this week.....

I've spent lots of time in my yard landscaping and getting my backyard to the lush oasis that I want it to be.....even if it might end up being for the next homeowner if a move is in our future. Our home builder did a good job of foundation planting, but I need plants--I mean rainforest thick monster plants! I've planted five Leyland Cypress to help hide the neighbor behind us. Lots of large shrubbery, flowering and not, to help fill in some of the open areas in our 'natural area'. Some Calla Lilies, Jasmine and a bunch of other flowering bushes and plants to bring those little pops of color here and there. And, of course, a massive amount of day-lilies. They are my favorite back and front yard plants. Taking a walk around the yard this morning--my favorite time to inspect the 'estate' (lol)--everything has taken root perfectly and is growing. In about 3-5 years, it'll look amazing!

As a hockey fan, I'm enjoying some great playoff games that are being played out. My team is not in it so I'm not really pulling for any team, but I love a good, hard fought game and there have been several so far! Hubby and I finally got around to catching up on some tv we missed while he was workin' hard during tax season. We caught up on all 8 episodes of "Parenthood" over the weekend. Oh my, I love that show. Why was I not shocked that uber-producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer were part of it. I'm so wary to get hooked on a new show because they get cancelled so fast these days. I hope this one survives. What a great cast. I especially like Peter Krause, whose acting I fell in love with during Six Feet Under.

I had to say goodbye to my dear Leo last week. He would've turned 19 next month and my 'grandpa' kitty just wore out. His pace had slowed quite considerably, he had to stop every 10 feet or so to rest and was getting lower and lower in his back legs. Then when the vet said his kidney numbers has jumped into the danger zone, we knew the time had come. This was the first time I had been present during one of our pets' euthanizations and I was surprised at how peaceful the whole process was. I blubbered my way through saying goodbye to him after the vet gave him a sedative and then she gave him the final shot. Just as he did during life, he passed while laying on my lap. I would have had it no other way. He didn't suffer, he died with dignity and on his favorite lap. Leo was a great kitty and he and I shared many adventures together. I couldn't have asked for a better boy......

Casper, our last kitty left out of four, has adjusted easily to his playmate being gone. The vet said dogs have a harder time adjusting to a member of their pack being gone than cats. I wonder how long Casper grieved? The first day I fed him as a solo kitty, he stood at the side of the food dish, like always, as Leo was the alpha-cat and always ate first. That was a sad sight, as Casper sat there and waited for Leo to round the corner and eat the lions share first......but he never came. Here we are six days later and Casper no longer waits. It is weird only having one cat in the house though.

Casper and Leo

Catnip caper...

My two cats have a wonderful great-uncle who bought them a bag of fresh catnip some time ago from an herb farm up in Maryland. It is a 1/2 lb bag that is taking forever to finish up but the bag is now almost finished. The cats know the sound of the closet door opening that houses the nip and they usually come running when they hear it. If they are out of earshot of the door, they definitely know the sound of that bag that holds the nip. As I try to walk around, over, through kitties at my feet who are circling me, weaving in and out of my legs looking up at me so endearingly. Their little, bright eyes saying "please oh please oh please put the nip down NOW!". They each get a little pile on the carpet in our bedroom and that is where they stay for the rest of the day. First they lay on it, then roll in it, lick at it, chew on it and eventually, sleep on top of it. Ahhhhh, a full day.

The bummer of this story is, is that Stillridge Farms in Maryland, the herb farm where my brother bought this catnip, does not have an on-line store, so I can't get a new bag of their favorite stuff. I now will have to search out another 'supplier' and hope that it will be just as good as their favorite nip!

Lotsa lights....

My computer has been at the IT hospital for the past few days getting some bugs removed and I've been using my work laptop lately. I didn't realize how much I would miss my personal computer. Of course the day we got the CPU back, the monitor decided to blow up so I had to make an emergency trip out to buy a new one today. This monitor is much bigger than our previous one, so I feel like I'm watching tv rather than working on the computer. It sure is nice!

I've been wanting to publish these Christmas photos and can now that my harddrive is back. These are from our decorating weekend over the long Thanksgiving holiday.

Christmas Kitty. I haven't quite figured out what it is about cats and their love for either climbing into the Christmas tree to sleep or settling for the tree skirt. Casper has found his favorite spot for this year!

We decided to do a live tree this year. This guy is 10 ft. tall and drinks water like a camel. There are needles everywhere. I don't think we'll do a live one again next year. This is tree 1 of 2!!


Tree #2. This is the artificial tree we normally use that I went ahead and set up even though we had the real thing this year. It's pretty cool having 2 trees all decorated. There are over 1800 little Christmas lights between the two trees and they are only 25 feet away from each other. Oh, how we glow.....really!


I've always loved the idea of having a train at the base of my Christmas tree. Eleven years ago, when I was pregnant with Cassie, I bought this from a wood craftsman and painted it myself.
It is one of my favorite things to pull out of storage every Christmas. I love knowing that she will have it to pass on to her kids one day.....

Kitty-sicle.....

I love cats and have always owned one since college. Cheetah was my first love. She came from the SPCA in Garner and was solid black with gorgeous green eyes. Then we added Leo and Stevie, a brother and sister team that Sal and I adopted right before we got married from the North Shore Animal League up on Long Island, NY. Priscilla was an adoption from a co-worker who was left with the cat when his engagement broke off....he wasn't crazy about cats, but his fiance' wanted one. And Casper came to us from one of Sals clients who was getting married to a man who was deathly allergic to Casper. Cheetah, Stevie and Priscilla have since passed on which leaves us with Leo and Casper still. The two boys. Leo is the alpha-cat as he has seniority in the house. He is now 19 years old and is puttering around fine, but more like an old man now--slower and not a sleek looking as he did in his younger years. Casper, that gorgeous guy above, is 13 or 14. We're not quite sure how old he was when we took him in, so we guess-timate.

Now that Fall has firmly settled in and I have now added the big, warm, fuzzy blankets and one heated blanket to the bed, these two rarely leave it. Sleeping for me has become a challenge as Leo will only sleep wrapped around my legs or between my feet or partially over one leg and head resting on the other. Getting out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom becomes quite the project as I try not to disturb the sleeping feline prince. Casper only gets on the bed during the day when he can sprawl out wherever he wants all by himself....or sometimes with his sleeping buddy......

Leo & Casper...snuggle buddies