Walter Henry.........

Was talking to a friend on Facebook about cats, as she posted a cute video of her black cat.  I am quite sure my other friend who is part of the cat team at our local Humane Society said black cats are harder to re-home.  Not sure why as I love black cats.  We had a black cat growing up called Moggs, she was an outdoor cat most of the time which was normal back in Britain in the 70's.  When dh and I got married we got a cat, but she ended up going to live at a neighbours when we had our son.  Again he was an outdoor cat that came home to eat.  We never had litter boxes for either of those cats.

Not sure if you are a long time reader of my blog but we had a short bout of ownership of a male cat called Walter Henry, which you can read about here.  Unbeknownst to us dh is really allergic to cats, and over the years I am getting to be the same.  So poor Walter Henry only lasted a couple of days in our old house, before we had to take him back to the shelter.

As I mentioned before my friend is part of the cat team at our local shelter.  It's called Alliston and District Humane Society they do such good work.  I have learned a lot about what they actually do and without all the volunteers there would be a lot of animals without homes.  My friend puts in long hours at the shelter doing various projects.  One of the things she's helped implement is the kitten adoption programme where for a fixed rate, you get to adopt a kitten and get follow up medical care, which includes a spay or neuter in the cost.  They are also active in trying to get local feral cat populations down, by capturing cats and spay or neutering them and releasing them.  Feral cats tend to be hard to domesticate, if they are friendly though they will re-home but more often than not they are released back into the feral colony.

My heart though is with dogs first.  We would love another dog, but we don't live in a dog friendly neighbourhood.  However there are lots of dogs where we live, but lots of whining going on about them.  We actually live in the little white yapping dog capital of the world, and 90% of those dogs just want to nip and bite your ankles.  Give me a large dog any day.  I had a Bernese Mountain dog come up to me the other day, plop itself down in front of me, right on my feet and sat there so I could rub her chin.  Funniest girl ever, thought she was a lap dog!!

Are you a pet owner?  Did you buy from a breeder or adopt from a Humane Society or Animal Shelter?

As Bob Barker from the Price is Right Show always said at the end of every show:

"Help control the pet population: have your pets spayed or neutered."

A couple of things...........

Well first of all, Walter Henry has gone back to the shelter. I feel bad, but we honestly couldn't live with the allergies. Every time he went close to dh, dh's eyes started to water. Even my nose was itching and we were avoiding poor Walter Henry, which wasn't fair to him. We also decided that we would rather do it now, as the longer we left it the more attached we would become to him, and him to us. So there will be no cats in this house, ever. He's an adorable cat, and will be adopted in no time. The shelter people were ever so nice and even asked if we were ready to adopt a dog. I said I wanted to leave it for a while.

I feel as though it's been a rough few days, and due to that we had a couple hours away from the house. We went to a small town called Creemore for a couple of hours. Its the first time we have been there and its really a pleasant little town/village. I picked up a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," by Barbara Kingsolver from the Curiosity House Books & Gallery. I am looking forward to reading it. There was another book I saw there, but I have forgotten what it was called, but it was about the trials and tribulations of living on a country property. Sound familiar!!!!

I am hoping this week to get some things sorted out with the attic. I am finding it frustrating trying to get quotes for work on the attic. Also we keep getting conflicting information on what should or shouldn't be done in the attic. I know the house is looking a lot better than it was when we moved in, I do feel as though we have hit a stand still.

We got a couple of little jobs done this weekend, including getting the base built for the wood/logs storage. I rang a guy and left a message about getting some logs, but as yet he hasn't called me back, which is typical!! We also got the willow tree trimmed at the entrance to the property. It was hanging down so low, that when I went for the mail the branches were hitting me. So it looks a lot tidier now.

Dh has some vacation time in September, and due to all the expenses we have with the house, I think it will be a vacation at home. However we live in such a lovely area, that I am hoping to have a few day trips. We picked up a copy of the Georgian Bay Mountain Life magazine when we were out, and there is a lot to do close to home. We also got the Summer copy of The Hills Of Headwaters magazine this past week and there is a lot featured in there of places I would like to visit. So I can see us having some pleasant day trips to places we haven't been to yet.

So here's hoping I have a much more productive and positive week.

Sorry..... and Today's Flower

Sorry I didn't get a post done for yesterday, but I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and tired with things this week. Its been so hot and humid, and I have suffered from it. Then add in Walter Henry to it all, it was all just a bit too much for me. Feeling a bit better now, as Walter Henry is settling in nicely and the weather is cooler.

However we have ran into a bit of a problem with Walter Henry, dh is allergic to him; I mean very allergic, his poor eyes are red raw and are running like mad. My eyes are itchy and my nose is itchy. As dh is on blood pressure medication I am not sure what he will be able to take, so I need to go to the pharmacy and see what is safe for him. So the jury is out at the moment whether or not we'll be keeping him. Otherwise Walter Henry is settling in just fine.

I took a couple of shots for the Today's Flower meme. I really need to understand how to use the Macro function on my camera properly, as sometimes I get good photos that are in focus, other times I just can't get them in focus properly. It all seems very hitty missy to me. So I am guessing it's me not the camera that is the problem?


For more of Today's Flower's please click on this link

Say hello to Walter Henry........

I brought him home on Thursday afternoon and he spent most of the time in the closet. So the photo is the one from the shelter website, as he seems to be very camera shy at the moment!! Now you are probably wondering where I got the name from? It's from a Dolly Parton song, "Walter Henry Hagen." I have always loved that song, so thought it was appropriate.

I am hoping he'll be more comfortable around us in a couple of days. One thing I do need to do is brush him. I have to take him to the vet on Friday for a check up and a rabies shot. I think he'll fit in just fine around here. When we can get him out of the closet he seems very friendly enough, he obviously feels more comfortable in the closet though at the moment.

We finally got rain on Thursday which cooled things down a little finally. I bought another fan in Wal-Mart on the way to picking Walter Henry up, to put in the family room. I can see it being a long summer if this heat continues though!!

I spent another 3 hours on the lawn tractor Thursday morning and got a lot of the field done. It's been over two weeks since I last cut it, and because of that its taking longer than normal to cut. I hope to get the rest done today (Friday).

Quite a shock Michael Jackson dying. Also what a shame Farrah Fawcett dying as well. Used to love her in Charlie's Angels.