Pets and other things

I woke today only to see Brando (who we now sometimes call Lennie, in reference to Of Mice and Men) guarding a dark object in the living room. It was a mole. UGH..and a dead mole no less. I guess the cats go out and hunt and he is the keeper of the carnage. Being the brave soul I am, I covered it with a paper towel, and later a small table, until Ann would get up and take care of it. Years back, when Maudie was a young cat, she single handedly (or is that pawedly) rid West Asheville of its mole population. She use to line them up on the porch, and I would pay the nine year old next door a dollar a body to rid the porch of all that mess. He made a fortune one summer. Anyway, I went upstairs only to find another dead mole. I covered that with paper towel and then watched as Brando picked up the dead thing and took it into another room. By now I am shrieking. I covered it again, placed a tool box on each side of the paper towel, careful not to smoosh the poor lifeless thing, and then I wake Ann, who gets up and removes the evidence that our cats are killers.

The cats really enjoy living in the mountains. Only Roxanne, who is old and lives in a bed on the corner of the table, has not learned how to come and go via the dog door. Even Maudie, who is as old as Roxanne (and the champion mole killer) goes in and out. I see them laying in the driveway or on the top of the car. When I go out in the morning they are usually asleep in chairs on the front porch. We had to buy washable covers for those chairs because they became so laden with cat hair that even we would not sit in them.

Roxanne moved with me from New Jersey, but she has become Ann’s cat. We most often eat in the living room (the whole downstairs is one big room, but we still label parts of it) (and wouldn’t you eat in the living room if you had a cat living in a bed on your table?), and Rox will sit on the chair behind Ann’s head. As Ann eats, she will move down to her shoulder and begin to tap Ann’s face. I have seen her reach for the fork. Ann shares with her every time.

Donna left on Monday, as she had to get back for an appointment. Brando and Jack went after each other, but I think most of it was show. Jack never did realize that he was about forty-five pounds lighter than the knucklehead Brando. He held his own.

He is a very loving dog, even though he has not got the pooping outside thing mastered.

When Donna and I get together we play cards, Hand and Foot to be exact. We play day and night. It is something we have been doing for a long time. I never beat her. I NEVER beat her. I held my own this visit, and at one point led her in games, but things did not end the way I wanted. We kept the score on the frig.

We always enjoy Donna’s visits. She is what we call “pajama company.” That means we are so relaxed when she visits, we can sit around in our pajamas and drink coffee.

We are heading to Possum Manor West this weekend. There are major changes to life out there, and I will blog that when we come back.

Oh, I have started my canning. I did a batch of lemon jelly, which is so tart that I am still puckered from tasting it three days ago. I had to reheat it and add pectin, because it did not set the first time. l was told lemon would set without pectin because it has so much in it naturally. It did not set. I think altitude is a problem. My oatmeal cookies fails too, and never has that happened. I did two batches of raspberry/blackberry jam, one regular and one no sugar freezer jam. When you think of it, you can buy jam in the store a whole lot cheaper than you can can it. I just hope mine is better.