Zoob and the New Kitten

One day, 
I took Zoob, my furry little friend on an adventure.  We went to play at the house of a little girl I know, who, upon meeting Zoob, thought he... (or maybe "she,") was the most wonderful little kitten in the world.  She even gave Zoob a new name... "Snookie."

Zoob felt right at home.... and became Snookie in an instant.



Snookie did everything he normally does at my house, at her house.  He even did some new things that he liked very much.  

He played on a soft fluff ball... It was his favorite color, "magenta."











He read the a little bit of the Cat Club Gazette...  
and even curled up to take a little nap with balls of his favorite cotton yarn.  Then he played outside.

LOOK!  

Did yuu see anything?
Snookie thought he did.  

He thought he saw a mouse!  

Snookie went on a mouse hunt....














He didn't catch a mouse, but hunting for one was fun. 




Later, he learned a new chord on the guitar.




Then he sang a special kitty song about mousies.

 
But the best part of the day was a tea party with some friends...

 and the kitty-kiss at the end of the very busy day.


Snookie loved it here.  

He told me that he wouldn't mind staying here and making this  his home.  He liked being a cat with this sweet, kind and gentle, loving little girl.  

I agreed that it would be a good idea... that is,  if she wanted him to... and if her parents said he could stay.  

Well, wouldn't you know, it all worked out and he did.  

Then we had to say good-bye.


It was a little bit sad.  I wasn't too sad, of course, because I know this little girl loved Snookie and would take good care of him.  I also knew too that Zoob/Snookie would be much happier here than being bored and lonely waiting for some little person to come and play with him at my house. (He is a stuffed toy and that is how it is when you are a stuffed toy like he is.)Still, I was a little bit lonley going home without him. 

You see, I liked my kitty friend and now he had a new home. 


We all miss our friends and families when they are someplace else, busy having fun and having adventures of their own.... without us .  But that is how life is sometimes...  It's good times sandwiched in-between times of work, sleep, even loneliness and doing things we just do not like to do, but we have to.   Without my kitty friend I was feeling like I had left something behind.  I felt like I was missing out on some kitty fun.  

I must admit, I felt a little sad, but I knew in my heart that it was the right thing to do.  I had some work to do at home... so I had to leave... and he had a new home.  He was busy too, being a little toy cat.  

Pretty soon I quit being sad.  I quit being sad just in time too, because, as you know.. "you just never know what a day will bring," and to my surprise, something marvelous happened while I had been gone from home.  

Now, there was a surprise for me!

Can you guess what it was?

. 
No.  It wasn't a flower...blooming  It was just as marvelous as that.. but this surprise, especially at this particular moment,  was even better!

Well.... While I was gone that day Nate and George had found something special outside....  

Do you see this cat?  This is Tansy.  It seems that Tansy (shortend for Tanzania) had been hiding a little something in the shed.  


Can you guess what it is?  


What could it possibly be?

 She is good at keeping surprises... at least until the right time.   She is, after all, a cat. 

Here she is taking a cat bath, being rather nonchalant, you might say.

She is patient, a bit elusive... sometimes mysterious, and she takes her time with things like this you know. 

 Then, when you least expect it, SURPRISE!  She surprises you.

There it is!  It is a real live and very cute little cat!  

Momma cat had kittens!

There was only one.

Nate named him.  His name is "Alexander," formally anyhow.  

He is a little bit wild now.  He hisses at people and hides from anything that looks like danger.  It's hard to be small, especially  when you are small as a kitten, but someday he might be tame and more affectionate.  



I love it when stories have happy endings and this was two stories with two happy endings, one for Zoob and one for me... Having a real live kitten around is a happy ending indeed!

The End.

Cat Club Gazette

I bet you didn't know that there is a whole underworld of cats who, unbeknown to us supposedly-wise human beings, not only tolerate living with us on this planet, integrate with out lives, but also write about it.  It's amazing to think they have a world all their own. Their world is Meowville... and now that I know about this I have to say I think cats are about the smartest creatures in the whole world!

I love hearing the adventures of my cat friends as they write about events from their feline perspectives.  I read all about it in a special periodical called, The Cat Club Gazette.  This is only because I, (yes... lil ol' moi,) am fortunate enough to have made acquaintance with the publisher and since since I have taken an interest, she has graciously invited me to read her publication , of which I have become undoubtedly become an avid fan.

This underworld of cats is quite amazing.  Yuu see, cats are much more loyal to us humans and to one another than we think.  We think them to be aloof... lazy.. wild... and mysterious... of which they are; they are truely mysterious creatures! But more than any of these they are really they are just busy.  I mean,  some of these cats are doing detective work... solving mysteries and crimes, investigating things like mole appearances, running away from danger... like dogs, and writing news for cats all over the Meaowville world.  I can assure you, after reading the gazette, cats are not always what we humans think.... and they are very busy, delightful, wonderful, precious, and agile creatures indeed.

Take for example Chef Ted... when he is not catching mice, he is always working on a recipe or two, and Pastsy Martin... (she is the publisher, editor and head writer of it all,) when she is not raising kittens she is working on the paper... establishing contacts, writing articles too to keep cats (and cat lovers) everywhere informed on important cat events.  Cutie Pie, Daisy, Scotty, Martin...Ted and Patsy... and all their friends,  have a petty cool cat club... and a pretty cool Cat Club Gazette!

Without their fine efforts, how else, really, would cats, or anyone for the matter, know about local dangers, like fleas you can get by contact with dogs.... or if a bear had been invading the human neighborhoods, taking residence up the the trees?  How would they be well educated and know all there is to know about various kinds of hummingbirds that there are, not to mention the delicacies they offer the more epicureous feline?
Yes.  Without the Gazette, and cats like Chef Ted, they might never know how to make a snicker-doodle in their life! 


I can assure you, these cats have some of the grandest adventures, insight and opportunities to travel around town and the world, and I am quite happy to have had the grand opportunity to read them, to take a peek into their mysterious miraculous world,  all in a fun and fantastical little magazine, called the Cat Club Gazette!

Sky Knight 2000

George used to make kites. His specialty is really big kites... well, actually Colossal ones.  There was the GBK, the Little Buckeroo, the Sky Night and a few others.  My favorite was a totally humongous box kite, though I liked the tetrahedron too.  He designed them and produced them and we flew them a lot on the beach in Marquette when we lived nearby.  We flew them from the backyard too.

The other day we found one we hadn't flown for a while, one called the Sky Knight 2000.  It's not too big, a duel line kite and it's very fun to fly.  So, relaxing at home that afternoon, with a good wind outside, we took turns fly it.  Here is George taking it for a spin....

in the sky.

And here it is rolled up.

It was a great kite-flying day!

Wish you were here!

Sweet Dreams

We took a trip to Green Bluff last Sunday and enjoyed visiting the various farms.  We were actually on a mission... looking for: Sweet Dreams.

Sweet Dreams, in case you would like to know, are a type of peach that we heard about from Marty, who was the instigator of this adventure.  He says they are absolutely delicious! He has witnesses too.

Even along our travels when we asked about this particular peach, other people testified to the notion that these were the peach of peaches.... but no one had Sweet Dream peaches in their possession.

Marty had a suspicion of where they would be found, but since we decided to cover all the territory we could that day... try some other varieties, see the farms, enjoy the weather and the crew, we did.

We did find someplace we could get them shipped into this week.... so we ordered some.  But even without tasting Sweet Dreams, our search made for an adventuresome and fun-filled afternoon.

I am now dreaming about what they might taste like.....

  Red Havens, I know; Suncrest I know, but Sweet Dreams are new to me.  Frankly... any peach that is picked fresh from the tree when ripened to the peak of perfection is a friend of mine.

We did try these and they were great!  These peaches in this box are Regina Red Haven, which were  found to be excellent.

In our travels we found all sorts of incredible edibles.  Nectarines are pictured here.  (They are like peaches, without the fuzz.)


There were also apples, corn, pears...pumpkins on the vine, all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables.  There were even herbs in pots to take home to your kitchen!

There were toys too!

There were wines, jams, jellies, soda pop, of the most unusual flavors ... Coffee, Sarsaparilla, and Huckberry too!  There were cool little restaurants to eat in... and lots of beautiful wide open spaces... and of course, fruit growing on trees.

<----Look!  

There are some PEACH trees now!

Whoa!  The peaches almost ripe! 





 Green Bluff is awesome!


There was pie, fresh, frozen and even ala mode!   (Unfortunately, my camera ran out of power just as we were enjoying our pie ala mode, so I have no photos to show you of that today.  Fortunately for us, in addition to pie, we also found lemon bars and brownies too, but that is a whole new story about who gets the last piece of pie!

Yes... it was a lovely day.

Did I mention that we found giant chickens too?

 and gargoyles...
and lots of pretty sunflowers....

 even a caterpillar on a leaf.

Green Bluff is beautiful. 




However, it was a long way home.... for some of us.