How We are Ruled by Cats and a Sky Shot

After my last post about cats and doves who get a second lease on life, I thought you might like to see the other feline in our family. Sampson is about 15 years old. We adopted him from a shelter. When he came to us, he didn't know how to purr. He was a pretty cool cat, though, doing his own thing and occasionally blessing us with a visit on our laps and a few head bumps.

He's not a big meower either. To let us know that he want out, he pulls at the mat in front of a door, lifting it up and letting it drop a couple of times to get our attention. If he wants to be let in, he rips the hell out our screens.

He does hunt and kindly leaves us offerings on any outdoor mat leading to a door. The worst thing he ever killed and left for us was an indigo bunting. I hated him for about a day after that.

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He hasn't given us too much grief over the years, with only a couple of issues that needed vet assistance. As with many pets, he is a creature of habit. One of his habits (which likely is our own fault for having started it) is to expect to be dried off when he comes in wet from the rain or moving through long wet grass. One of us grabs a towel from the "to be washed" towel bin and does his bidding.

First, place cat on towel (or sometimes if you lay the towel out and invite him, he will go on his own).

Next, wrap cat in towel and rub gently.

Finally, note look of complete satisfaction and air of superiority on cat's face as you complete the task.

Now moving onto weather, as every good Canadian should, we had some pounding rain on Thursday evening, just in time for husband and I to leave after work to drive to the city where daughter is wrapping up her third year of university. We took both vehicles down so we could get all her stuff packed and moved home. At one point, I pulled over at a gas station to wait out the heaviest of the rain because it was a little hard to see while driving. At that time, an Amish horse and buggy with passengers went past and I thought, "This is not a good time to be Amish!"

We got there within 20 minutes of each other and daughter was all ready for us, we just took a few elevator loads down in her residence building, loaded up, and stopped off for supper. Daughter drove with me and we chatted the whole way home. The rain stopped by then and the drive was very nice. The setting sun was magnificent so I pulled over to take a picture. Daughter insisted that she take the picture (presumably I am incapable), which she did and then proceeded to enhance this and diminish that... here is the result: