marius

While we were gardening, we let the cats out. One cat does not have claws and the other let us know when she found us that she'd been ill-used and so we've never let her run free. However, it has always bothered me to keep them inside. When spouse found an article telling how to train your cats to wear a harness and be on a leash ... think you know where this is going.

Yes, both cats are now trained ... actually, better to say both have learned to tolerate harness and leash in order to get outside, chew grass, chase bugs, lie in the sun and hunt birds or moles. The leashes are about 30 feet long (spouse made them) and we used to tie one end to something.

However, the yard is rather big and cats were always wanting to go where the leash would not allow. So, one night we liberated our poor beasts ... and now they walk or run about with a 30 rope trailing behind. They do not adore this arrangement, but it's quite handy as we can generally grab the end of the rope right before they hop the fence or make a run for the top of the Ash tree.

marius

30 foot rope

Robindcr8l

marius, your flower garden sounds gorgeous. Tell me, do you have any gerber daisies, too? I just love gerber daisies!

I spent part of my day cleaning up the mass carnage in my upstairs family room. I took my son to school this morning, then came home and went back to bed. I did hear a ruckous downstairs with the animals at one point, and thought perhaps the stray cat had come back into my kitchen through the doggie door, but then dismissed that thought since the dogs were "dancing" but not barking. Well, when I finally emerged from my room, I became instantly aware of what all the hubub was about. One of my cats ( I suspect it was BratCat) had apparently brought a bird in the house. I am thinking the bird was still alive and flew up the stairs, because there were PILES of feathers all over the room! I followed the trail to the poor little mutilated thing. I'm pretty sure it was a Kildeer (not all THAT little, actually). There were so many feathers, I thought it would clog the vacuum, so had to pick up a lot of them by hand before vacuuming. This is a good argument, among many, for keeping one's cats as indoor only pets. But, to do that, I would have to shut off my doggie door. I work for 12.5 hrs at a time, and with travel time, I am gone for over 13 hrs. That's too long to make my dogs stay in without peeing. Alas, it creates an occasional sacrificial bird.

Worse than this, I have 2 bird feeders out in front of the house. Feels a little like bait and shoot when I see BratCat hiding in the shrub just below the feeder. But, over the course of the summer, we've found probably fewer than half a dozen birds, and maybe as many mice. So he's not the most prolific hunter around. And I'm kind of happy when he gets the mice. Keeps them out of the house.

Good night.

Baldur

Baldur had a quiet Robertless evening.
Robert went off to a friend's place and spent a long time in his sauna.
It was marvelous having the television shut off for a few hours.

I was working at the memorial again today, mostly hauling in wheelbarrows full of soil. Unless the count got messed up Baldur lugged 11 loads of loam down the road.
After mentally debating the process it seemed easier to do it that way than to load it and unload it with the pickup truck.

Meanwhile another mental debate has been raging. Baldur wishes to plant groundcover of some sort around the stonework. Grass does poorly there so what has served as a backdrop has been a weedy mess.
My first inclination was to plant Vinca which there is plenty of in my own yard, but then inspiration struck.
Why not plant purple leafed (bronze is the official adjective) Ajuga?
That plant is lower, spreads quickly, has dramatic but not overpowering color, and is already threatening to take over my own lawn.

marius

Ahhh - Robin, Baldur's "sometime" DJ just joined us, if only for a moment. Sweet dreams, Robin.

I do have daisies, two kinds but not sure what they are. Just started cut flower gardens three years ago and have been sloppy about tossing in mixed seeds. First time I've EVER grown things and not known their names. I'll look up gerber daises and get back with you.

And - poor kildeer, but these things do happen. It made a great story. And, poor Robin having to clean up all those feathers! We also have bird feeders and the cats play stake-out at the base of them, to no avail. In fact, the nervy hummingbirds buzzed very low over our calico this summer, letting her know she was not welcome. She made no attempt to get at them even though they were only a foot or so above her head. She's lazy for a 12 year old.

marius

And now the host has arrived. Thank goodness. Sounds like you worked hard again today Baldur. What are the temperatures there now? Day and night? It's frightfully cold here, below sixty degrees some mornings!

Purple leafed Ajuga is pretty but my experience with it ... called it the terrorist plant. It wanted to take over EVERYTHING. That I could not abide and worked for years to get rid of it. Never did. Had to move to a new locale and now the offending plant is creeping cinquefoil. Pretty ground cover for the sun, but it shoots out runners and is killing everything it can.

marius

And, just because I battled with Ajuga and lost - does not mean there is a suggestion to NOT plant it. It IS quite pretty and, hardy too! : )

sheftali52

Great tales tonight, Marius and Robin. Perhaps our host is nursing sore muscles from the neighbor's project he's working on. Sheftali's garden is definitely waning, too. There's an occasional tomato, a few handfuls of green beans, and more peppers than I expected (bell, holy mole, ancho, habanero, and some Chinese hot pepper my neighbor gave me). I ripped out the long-dead cucumber vines last weekend, as well as the remnants of the yellow squash vines. Birds have been eating the seeds on the sunflowers. Soon, Sheftali's husband will break out the leaf machine he pulls behind his John Deere, and get it ready for the fall leaves. The neighbors love my husband, as he sucks up the leaves in their yards, too. Most of the leaves are then blown into Sheftali's garden, to start the whole garden cycle over again. Life is good!

marius

Also - Baldur, I too enjoy a TV-less sound in the house. Mercifully, there are many hours when it isn't on. Speaking of which, I've nearly finished my glass of cabernet, our host spoke to us a moment, his guest host Robin joined in, so my day is complete. Sweet dreams to all!

marius

Yes sheftali, life IS good. We also collect leaves for our garden and spouse roto-tills them in. The cycle is quite lovely! When we eat our produce I think, "Oh - we're eating the oak trees that take in the sun and make everything work." It makes me smile.

You sure grow a lot of peppers. I think we should try that next year. Now I'm feeling inspired. Thanks for the idea!

Life is good, so is sleep - see you all later.

Baldur

This may have been Summer's last hurrah.
It just barely made it to 80 degrees today but tomorrow it is expected to only reach 60. That is quite fine with Baldur.
It also kept threatening to rain today but nothing came of it.
In any case I really must get to bed, my muscles do ache.
Good Night

"All Baldur, All the Time"

sheftali52

Good night Baldur and Marius. Sheftali, ever the night owl, will be up for quite some time. Hubby and one dog are snoozing upstairs, and the other dog is keeping me company. Oh, I have had another odd companion these past few evenings. A small frog has been hanging onto the picture window close to where Sheftali normally spends each evening. It apparently likes the plethora (+5) of bugs available for snacks. (The bugs are attracted by the bright light in the house and buzz around outside this window regularly). Natural bug control is good! BTW, this is the first year Sheftali did not encounter even one tomato worm in her garden. Life is really good!!!

Dragon

We're having a lovely indian summer here in Central Alberta. It got up to a record smashing 34.4 degrees yesterday (I think around 85 F) that beat the previous record by a full 5 degrees. Dragon (who is actually a Mexican woefully trapped in a Canadian body) has been in her glory, the only problem being that darned work thing I have to go to all day long.
Back when I had a yard I frequently took the cats out on long leashes to spend an afternoon outside. They thouroughly loved this and probably miss it. Ozzy (my wuss puss) would find a nice bush to settle under and would watch the world go by enjoying a lovely grass salad which he would usually puke up on the shag carpet in the living room later. Oscar (my adventurer and all around pest) would endlessly wander the yard hunting bees (which never seemed to sting him) and dragonflies (which he thought were an excellent before dinner snack). I also had a friend who would simply tie her two cats to each other on a long rope. As the cats could never decide to go in the same direction at the same time they effectively kept each other from running away.

sheftali52

Dragon, the mental picture of two cats tethered to each other with rope and pulling each other every which way is somehow pretty hilarious!

Robindcr8l

I'd hate to see what would happen, though, if one of those cats decided to jump a fence, and the other didn't!

Dragon

Actually the same friend had tied her cat out in the yard on a long rope one day. She went inside to answer the phone (this was back in the days when nobody had a cordless phone). When she came back out she found the rope wound around everything possible in the yard, trees, patio furniture - you could tell exactly where the cat had been. The rope led to the fence where it was pulled taut over the side. On the other side of the fence was her cat hanging in it's harness, completely unharmed but immobile and with a very dirty look on it's face.

marius

Robin - if they were my cats tied together and one jumped the fence ... there would be hissing. When our little one hops the fence to Mazie's yard, once he's there he doesn't seem to know who we are. Guess in a cat-mind, if the territory is new then nothing from the "old world" can exist? He hisses when we reclaim him.

Dragon - funny stories! Especially like your description of cats in the yard and "lovely grass salad," and the cat hanging in the harness with dirty look on its face. We too find grass salad remains on the carpet. And, WHY the carpet? There is plenty of wood or kitchen flooring upon which to regurgitate (5 points), but oh no - the carpet is preferred.

And your cat that chases bees ... too funny. Our Maine Coon is enamored of flying insects. One day his bottom lip looked odd. A friend showed up and said, "Your cat has such a cute pouty lip." He did! But the next morning it was hideous. Took him to the vet - wasp sting. Didn't surprise us - he's very stupid in some areas. One night we caught him eating at the little pieces of wood sticking up from one of the fireplace logs. We stopped him, then forgot about it. Then...the next day he wouldn't eat or drink. Took him to the vet, again, and she showed us the Xray with gigantic gas bubbles in the intestines, and also something that looked like it wasn't a food item. We had to give him pecid AC, and vet took a big needle and filled the top of his leg with water. The immediate result was that the skin or ??? ballooned out and the water pocket would waddle back and forth at the top of his leg when he walked. We were worried, but all returned to normal, except we have to secure our firewood now.

And sheftali - love the frog story. Sounds like tree frog! They are so charming. This summer when I picked an ear of corn, something caught my eye - it was a half-inch long tree frog. How it had climbed in between the ear of corn and the big leaf that supports it, I don't know.

Dragon

Marius, I know what you mean about the carpet. I came home one day to find that one of my little darlings had thrown up, but what was funny was that it was obvious he had started on the lino and (while puking) had run into the living room to finish on the shag carpet. When I moved into a place with carpet so old and thin it would have been no trouble to clean they started using the couch or the bed instead. You just can't win.

Login

I've never heard of people tying their cats up. Cats always come back to the hand that feeds them ... or is it because you're afraid they'll get run over?

marius

Dragon - I've SEEN that walk-vomit routine. Our calico is fond of it and tries to throw up in three to four places, minimum! Why do we put up with it! (Twinkle in my eye cause I KNOW why ..... I'm hopelessly in love with our felines. Smitten beyond repair! Bet you are too.)

Login - good question! In Missouri there has been a push for people to keep their house cats IN the house. I know some folks whose cats have never been outside and therefore, are terrified of the out of doors.

Depending on who you talk with, there are many reasons for "containing" cats. One is to prevent them from getting run over, another is to prevent them from catching diseases, another is protecting bird populations, and maybe another reason is fear of never seeing them again. We chose to not let ours run wild because the first one came to us when we were living on a wildlife preserve - I would have lost my job if I'd let her run wild. The second cat, well, he had to do what the first one did - plus someone had him declawed before we got him.

In our neighborhood we have several free-roaming cats and I'm not fond of them jumping on and ripping our porch screens! We've had to replace three screens due to these cats trying to get at our cats ... who are politely sitting inside, in their own space. Other than the screen attacks, I have no opinion about what other people's cats do. : )