Phone photo 3113

Buster and Charlie

Phone photo 3107

Muddy cat tracks on Nadine

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Hettie

Phone photo 3082

Buster, Charlie, Hettie

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Beckoning Cat in McCleary, Washington

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Miss Hettie refuses to eat like a commoner on the linoleum with the boys.

Phone photo 3067

I live with 4 cats. Every week I vacuum up enough fur to create a 5th cat.

Phone photo 3054

Charlie says, "You shoulda seen the other guy!"

Phone photo 3052

Hettie

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Charlie

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Charlie's front paws, the terror of birds and rodents

Oh, sure, I could put a little bell around his neck to warn his prey. But y'know, cats gotta do what they do. Plus, the other cats on the block would say, "Hey, here comes that sissy with the bell!" My big, wooded yard is somewhat Darwinian.

Phone photo 3049

Buster yawns in the luxury of his heater vent sauna box on this cold morning

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Queen

"I don't know why I'm surprised. At the end of the day, all Labour Prime Ministers go gaga for the Queen."

Phone photo 3041

Charlie, Dreamer, Hettie, and Buster line crash

They have a combined age of 40

Phone photo 3034

The Fab Four Flopped Flat

Reeves Family Album

I have a couple old puffy Victorian-era family photo albums, both tracing back to my Mom's relatives. Some of the photos are tintypes, and I know a few were taken during the Civil War. They are pretty interesting as artifacts, and in many cases I have no idea who the subject is, or otherwise have little information.

The first of the two albums apparently belonged to my great-grandmother, Jennie Melissa Reeves, who married Theodore Jacob Hoss. I'm going to try and spare all of you any lengthy genealogical narratives, but I will supply some brief facts with each photo as we go.

This particular album was handed down to Jennie's oldest child, my grandmother. After she died in 1978 my Mom picked it up as the surviving heirs divided up the estate. It was given to me quite some ago when I was still interested in family history. The advent of Internet sort of spoiled the hunt for me, I must say. At least I got to talk to all those oldtimers in the 1970s and 1980s before their entire generation passed on. My grandparents and their siblings were born mostly in the 1880s or 1890s.

When I hauled this monster into the living room Hettie had to come and check it out.

Phone photo 3023

Charlie got some kind of fight wound on his side which required a cone on his head for two days and nights plus a hideous scar and abcess stent. He was a pretty good sport about it.

His brother Dreamer just sort accepted Charlie's condition with an attitude like, "OK, what have you gotten yourself into now, Brother?" But the classics, Buster and Hettie, regarded Charlie as the Robot Monster and hissed and hid.

I'm happy to report Charlie has healed quickly and life is returning to normal in the House of Morty.

Phone photo 3009

One of my cats, Dreamer, sure spends a long time in the litter box scratching around after doing some real "downloading."

The other day I heard him in the next room rustling around in there a bit longer than usual. When he finished he entered my room and he was wearing a little beret and looking quite pleased. He meowed and pointed in the direction of the litter box.

So when I went in later to clean the box, here is what I found.

At least it is a happy face!

Phone photo 3008

November is here. Time to gather 'round the heat registers.

Phone photo 3004

This mole is sure one busy animal. It is now as close to my back door as it can get. The cats enjoy using the molehills as outdoor litterboxes, but if they see a hill moving which indicates a mole is active they just sort of bat at the rising dirt in a quizzical way.

Back in the 1980s and early 1990s I had a cat named Ahab who was a superb mole catcher and would deliver them on the porch.

But, I'm no lawn nut, obviously. Most of it is moss anyway. I say, let nature take its course and truth to tell, this is pretty interesting. In my 19 years on this place, this is the first mole to venture here.