My day yesterday involved a little of this and a little of that: picking plums, buying a new supply of doggie biscuits, vacuuming Festus' man-cat cave, pulling out bean plants, watching a little TV, walking in the rain, visiting in the grocery store and, of course, the usual daily head scratching after learning the latest ongoing insanity within our government(s)---top to bottom.
During one time slot, I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies---just three.
Then, a walk up and down cashier lane soon revealed that, in each line, the folks wanting the checker to help with their transaction had full carts.
As one who's still not in to doing self checkout, I walked the lane again and finally decided on standing in line behind two customers.
The lady in front had a cart filled to the brim. It looked as if she might be doing some company-related shopping with multiple items of the same kind, including a whole lot of cleaning supplies.
The second lady had a relatively full cart, but not so much in relation to the others I'd seen.
I had stood behind her for just a few seconds when she turned around, looked at my items and said I could go in front of her.
"That's okay," I said, but she nicely insisted.
As we both stood waiting our turn, I struck up a conversation with her because I wanted to know more about the person who had extended a random act of kindness to me.
Her name is Janet. She lives in Heron, Mont., comes to Sandpoint twice monthly for shopping and has worked at Pend Oreille Shores at Hope for several years.
We exchanged a few more tidbits, and, in no time, it was my turn with the checker.
I love such moments as they usually offer positive opportunities for all concerned.
For me, it was both a shorter wait and an introduction into another human who helps make this world keep spinning smoothly in the midst of negativity and chaos.
A very nice lady, indeed. Thank you, Janet.
Could be our visit made her wait in line go by faster too.
Yesterday, I also started rounding up mousetraps.
It's that time of year again, especially around the house. I'll continue the trap round-up today, both at the greenhouse and at the barn.
No need for traps in either spot this time of year.
And, thanks to Miss Sunny, our barn cat, I may not need a trapline in the barn for some time.
In addition to keeping track of the horses---sometimes dangerously so---Sunny has kept the mouse population down so well that I have seen just one mouse since she came to live with us back in May.
Twasn't long before Sunny zeroed in on that one a month or two back.
So, the outside traps can join the house supply, and I'll be getting them set up for the first frost of the fall.
I've discovered that if ya catch a few early any other potential squatters get the message and head elsewhere.
Now for the TBT and cats.
Check out this link.
Check out this link.
About this time last year, I declared that I would never ever have another cat.
Most of last September was utterly frustrating and scary for me, thanks to a cat.
There is much to the story, but basically, it involves a black feral cat which had wandered the neighborhood for a number of years.
Late last summer she had kittens. Annie discovered them in our far shed. For a couple of days, we put out some cat food for the mother.
Then, she and the kittens disappeared, probably moving on to other venues where the mother cat generally circulated. One day I saw a couple of the kittens in Taylor's field next to Gary Finney's fence. They seemed quite content, and I figured they would do just fine.
A few days later, some people appeared at our doorstep with a box. Inside the box were three kittens. They had seen the mother cat on the road and miraculously rounded up the kittens.
They wondered if the kittens and cat belonged to me. No, I said, explaining the neighborhood nature of the mother's wanderings.
Suddenly, I had a box of feral kittens. I took them back to the spot where Annie had first found them. Overnight, I thought this situation over and decided it was important to do the right thing, catch these kittens, get them neutered and hopefully someone would take them.
Long story short in a virtual nightmare, I caught them in a trap and over the days of waiting for the appointed day of neutering by the animal shelter, I attempted to tame them.
In that process, one bit me through a glove. My instant thought: remembering my mother's two bouts with cat bites, which led to several days of twice daily IVs at the hospital for antibiotics and eventual damage to her hand.
I went to the immediate care, got a tetanus shot and went on a regimen of antibiotics. I also read about rabies, which is not common around this area but knowing that rabies is pretty much 100-percent fatal adds a dimension of fear which is difficult to turn off, especially because it may not manifest itself for weeks or months.
The fact that we were due to go to Ireland in a couple of weeks compounded the frustration.
After listening to lots of advice in how to make sure I did not have rabies and not having to go through the awful vaccination process, I followed that advice and eventually learned that the feral cats were not rabid.
There's much more that happened in this awful experience, but the bottom line was that, at the time I never wanted to deal with another cat again-----'cept for our Festus, of course.
Well, then this past spring along came Sunny.
When our barn last spring was alive with mice racing to and fro and the opportunity for a barn cat came up, I reneged on my "catless forever" pledge and brought her home.
A year later, I kinda like the idea of cats around the place once again, especially when they are nice and friendly and they catch mice.
Still, a year later, this morning when I saw the story in the link above, I did have some flashbacks of this time last year.
I was both scared and frustrated with that experience which seemed to go on and on and on from one bad thing to another.
Happily, it turned out okay, and I'm a happy cat owner, thanks to our beloved Sunny.
Guess that's enough slices of life for this morning.
Happy Thursday.
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