One Cat Is Fine - Five Cats Just Ain't Happening

The other day as Deb and I were turning out of our driveway to take in a show in Lansing, she noticed something down the road. Stopping the car, we noticed a black animal about 50 yards away near the weeds. We determined after a short and heated debate that it was either a Panther like she thought, or just a large black cat like I told her it was. As we were about to once again pull away, she slammed on the brakes and screamed, "Honey Look, there's two more." Rolling down the window there were two more kittens along side the road about 10 feet from our driveway. Deb started acting really nutty and going on a rant, "What are we going to do with them, they're probably hungry. Where will they sleep? How did they get here?" I looked at her in amazement and said, "Simple, some Sh*t Head dropped the damn things off out here so we'd have to deal with them. Let them catch a mouse and fall asleep in the field like the other cats that have been abandoned do. If they're around tomorrow, I'll try and catch them and take them to the vet." Finally,off to Lansing we drove for a night of entertainment and upon our return, no kittens to be seen. The next day was kitten free and we worked around the house getting it back in shape after the tornado, with History Sugar Hall, lounging around in the yard.

This morning, Sunday, we were sitting in the living room talking about how we were going to spend this gorgeous day. Deb got up and opened the front door and sat down and said, "Jim, History is on the front porch crying." and got up to let him in. As she opened the door, I hear her say "Oh my gosh, there's two kittens on the porch." I got up to look and indeed, two kittens approximately six to eight weeks old. "Don't feed them", I said, "Don't you remember what happened when we fed your brother Scott? He didn't leave for six months.", and went outside to see the little things, but they hauled ass around the back of the house and were on the lower deck. Within minutes, Deb was out there with two bowls of kitty food and a bowl of water. "Honey, they're so hungry and I feel so bad for them. What shall we do?" Looking at her in awe for never listening to me, I said, "Well, since you've fed them, they're not going away, so I'll try and snatch them up in the morning during their breakfast and take them to the Vet in town, so he can give them to a good home."

We went about our chores and Stephanie called and asked us if we wanted to go out for dinner at the Ukai Japanese Steakhouse and Hibachi Grill in Lansing. We set a dinner time as I told her about our new outside guests. Dinner was great at the Hibachi Grill. The Chef cooked our meal right at our table, throwing utensils and food in the air, and batting food with a spatula to our plates and catching an egg in his chef's hat. He fired up the grill and flames shot up about four feet in the air. Our chef made a volcano out of an onion which was really cool and I was just as amazed as the two little kids that were sitting at our table. I ordered Hibachi Sea Scallops, while Deb had Hibachi Steak and Steph having Hibachi veggies. If I had known Steph was buying, I would have had Lobster, but the Scallops were excellent and we all shared our meals. I was so impressed that I told Deb that we would be going back again. That is, when Stephanie is once again in the buying mood. After a nice visit back at Steph's, we headed home to kick back home for a nice relaxing evening, I thought.

Pulling into the driveway, we were greeted by two little silver streaked kittens waiting at the end of the driveway. I look at Debbie and I see her sort of smiling, like she's going to try and talk me into keeping one or both of them. "Don't even think about it," I said as we pulled into the garage. "I'm going to give them another bowl of food so they have something in their bellies for tonight," she said and inside she goes, returning with two bowls of food for our overnight guest. Living in the country is great, but when you happen to talk loudly, or I should say scream, it's heard for quite a distance, sort of like being on water and talking. I was about to go inside and watch t.v. when I heard this ear piercing scream, "There's two more. JIM get out here fast, we're being invaded." Looking at the two new kittens and then at her, she looked at me and said, "Guess I'll get two more bowls of food." Returning with two more bowls, we stood there and did the only thing we could do, laugh. Tomorrow instead of taking two kittens to the vet, I'll be taking four. I sure the hell hope he takes them, or tomorrow I'll either be heading to Charlotte to the Human Society or depositing them elsewhere, in someone elses space like someone did to me. Wouldn't it be funny if I lucked out and dropped them off at the same person's home that left them for me. As cute and as lovable as they are, they have already over stayed their welcome. If anyone wants a kitten, give me a call tomorrow by 10:00 a.m. because they are going bye-bye in the car.

The Storm of 08

It's been a few months since I've added something to the B.S FROM J.E. Blog. The last time, I tried to write from my BlackBerry to see if I could mobile blog and it worked. Well, a lot of sh*t has happened since last I've written.....Deb decided to teach summer school for the first time EVER.....We survived a semi tornado.....and my back is still the same - bad. But, life goes on. In two days, Deb will be finished teaching summer school.....The insurance is giving us a good sized amount to get the roof, siding and personal items fixed and replaced.....And, my back is still the same - bad. The day the storm starting, Deb and I were in the garage putting on the new kayak rackswe purchased for the Jeep because we were heading North in two days for a fun packed long weekend of kayaking and kicking back with Steve & Stacey and Mark & Libby at their cabin on the Manistee River. History 'Sugar' Hall was in the garage with us, content with playing with the plastic wrapping that the racks came in. When the first of the hail started hit the house, he stopped dead in his tracks and then hauled ass into the field and wasn't seen again until six hours later. Debbie heard him meowing in the barn across the street as we were walking the road calling for him. It was storming and hailing so badly that I had given him up for dead. As we headed for shelter in the basement, the wind passed the family room door so hard that we thought a freight train was passing the house. I've heard people say who have been in a storm like this or worse, that was the sound the wind made and now I can attest it to be true. It was one scary sound.

Slowly, we are replacing everything that was damaged. All of our landscaping was destroyed in the tornado and my tomato garden that was growing up so nicely was trashed when the tree behind the shed split in two, crashed my fence and fell into the garden. Deb has replaced most of the flowers and shrubs that were destroyed. The flower garden that would normally have taken me a couple of hours to create by my tee boxes, but took me four days because of my back pain, was somewhat saved when a huge tree across the street fell into it and protected it from the hail and high winds. Our glass top patio table that matched all the other deck furniture was picked up and thrown over the deck railing, breaking upon landing and depositing a million pieces of glass into the lawn for me to figure out how to clean up so no one cut their feet. Problem solved: A wet vac, a stool and about eight of being hunched over, which really made my back feel great. The impact was so great, that glass was also thrown across and into the driveway and in the other yard area. Along with that, the roof was ripped to sh*t, some of the siding was torn off and deposited in the neighbor's yard and my picnic table was smashed.

Right after the storm was over, we walked outside to survey the damage and noticed that we were completely blocked in by two huge trees that had fallen. Two pick-up trucks arrived, each on either side of the fallen trees and chain saws began to start up. In a matter of thirty minutes, a path was cleared so we could get out. It was nice to see neighbor helping neighbor in a time of need. People stopping to ask if anyone was hurt and needed medical assistance. Something we see to little of. But, we survived the tornado of 08. The 107 arce bean field next to us and surrounding corn fields were destroyed. It looked like someone grabbed each plant at the bottom of the stalk and slide their hand up, ripping off all the leaves, leaving total devastation in some areas. We came out of it fine, but it could have been worse. I'm just glad that Deb and I were alright and History came out alive. I'd say he's got about one life left and then he will be History.