Peeve: Installing new tech stuff Passion: The Cats, of course

A whole day installing my new HP printer.  It does print beautiful photos and uses the same ink cartridges as my old printer.  It was my Christmas present from Ron!   It should have been easy but was not.  I did get it done  with his help  however. 
 The slippers were also a gift from him.  Lands End booties that I wear everywhere except to the club and out and about in town. I  wore my old  ones until they had holes in both toes and now they go to the fosters as cuddle toys!
The Fosters are all out for adoptions now.  Three, Chewie, Leah and Homer are at Petsmart, and Dori and Hope are at Petco.  I am having a bit of kitty withdrawal as Marian calls it, but Winnie is doing her best to keep that at bay.  I printed the beautiful close up of her  shown below, once I got my new printer up and running. I framed it with a frame from  my raffle basket that I won at the Fiesta dinner this  last spring.

She is so lain back now.  No more IBS, and lots of kitten playfulness. She is thrilled to be allowed to mess with my feet at bedtime and then settle in beside by my tummy for sleep.

Passion: Adoptions like this. Merry Christmas Nick and RC

A wonderful Christmas present for these 2 handsome brothers! They were adopted tonight and will be delivered to their new family this week-end. Nick and RC came to us this last April because their ‘Mom’ could no longer keep them due to health issues. It was a Christmas wish come true for all involved! Also struggling with family health issues, Nick and RC’s new family are so excited to add these 2 wonderful boys to their family. It will be nurturing for both people and cats!
“Nick and RC: there is a Santa Claus!”

Passion:See below

Cat House Update

The 5 at the Cat House are doing well.  They have a heater that has kept them toasty through the nights of hard freeze.  I have pictures to  post but have been too lazy to download them from my camera. Dori is now fully tamed and comes to lie in my lap when I visit.  She is the largest of the crew and a beautiful sleek tuxedo   girl with  the shiniest coat   and cutest white bow on her lip and a white "blaze"  on her nose.  Hope, the smallest of the lot adores her.  Tomorrow I am taking her and Homer for their rabies shots so that they will be ready to go  to Petsmart for adoptions the day after Christmas. 
Homer is a crazy boy who plays with all the girls, and with  Chewy who doesn't mind Homer's rough housing as much as the girls do.  Even Dori gets a little upset with  Homer's rough neck behavior.  More later...

Passion: How Winnie lost her Pooh

I have promised Marian a "Happy Tail"   and am finally getting to it.  The hang up was getting a decent picture.  At last... with Ron's help...

 

Winnie and Lynn

 

Winnie came to me for observation and potential resolution of her gastrointestinal distress issues... ( Gas and recurrent diarrhea). Thus the addition of "Pooh" to her AFC name, Winnie. The problems narrowed down to IBS triggered by any kind of stress. Going to adoptions on Saturday was one stressor, overnight visitors at my house another.  She could easily clear a room with her gas, and had me yearning for beano for kitties. 

I  got her in October and was going to continue taking her to Petco on Saturdays through January when I told myself I would consider adopting her  so that she could remain unstressed.  When I lost my Old Scruffy right before New Years,  I couldn't bear to face another loss even to a "happy adoption".  I went to adoptions  to fill out papers and give the staff her consent letter, while Winnie napped happily at home.  She was 8 months old and weighed 9 lbs.  She is now a year and a half and weighs 12 lbs.  She seldom has gas attacks, (Winnie has lost her Pooh)  and never has diarrhea.  She is one big happy girl and very "busy".  She likes to start the day with a romp after a lazer light, and to go out to the patio in summer, with supervision and a leash and harness, so I can prevent wandering.  However, she is very cleaver and can go in and out the doggy door when it is open and available. Now she is an only cat because I lost my old girl Dinah last month.  She is content.  We have agreed she will just help me foster kittens for now.  She enjoys the new access to the bedroom at night and keeps me awake by pouncing on moving hands or feet under the covers until I speak to her sharply.  She is an awesome cat  and she is  my 21 days ++ of gratitude.   Mika, my lovable maltipoo rescue dog, won't play with Winnie but she loves washing Winnie's face before bedtime at night.  Winnie also  enjoys this added pampering while reclining on my lap at night. 

Hard freezes for ferals

It has been so  cold for  so long....going on  two    weeks    of  night time temperatures  in the 20 degree range and daytimes only creeping into the 40's.  I ordered a pet barn for my semi feral "Rauder"  short for Marauder which he was when I had a doggy door and let the critters come and go as they pleased.  He would come at night to sleep in the Lanai and sometimes took to wandering into the main  parts of the house and "spraying" here and there.  I could track his visits by the odor. 
Now he comes to sleep on my patio,  from time to  time and was coming regularly until Friday when I tried to bring his chair in with him in it.  He awakened and freaked and ran away.  He was back Saturday and I had the good sense not to mess with him.  Then yesterday his Pet Barn came and I put it out by his chair with bedding.  No sign of him this morning.  I have also  ordered him a heatable gel pad but by the time it arrives the cold  snap will probably be over since the shipment seems to be hung up in Wisconsin.
I worry  about him much of the time.  Hopefully he has another warm spot, when he skips my place. I do live in a caring neighborhood.  

This 1st picture is Rauder leaving after a visit in 2011.  The next picture is Rauder back in his prime when he was coming into the Lanai to eat and sleep. 

 My guess is that he was abandoned when his people moved away.  For a long time though he did not  come on to the property that I knew of and then one morning he was there sleeping in the Lanai next to the big mouse which he did enjoy playing with.  He was very handsome back then in 2010 and 2011.  Now he has a torn off left ear, and a wound that healed and then reopened.  I did get him some antibiotics to treat that last spring.  His upper respiratory condition sounds worse than mine when I am experiencing rhinitis. He allows me to brush or pet him while he eats but does not want to be fenced in, so being alone, I have been unsuccessful in trapping and neutering and releasing. I  simply pray that he makes it through this weather.

Grief and Good..

I lost my old girl Dinah shortly after my last post. She came to live with me about 15 years ago.  I  heard a load yowling  sort of like MEOWOWOW which was coming from across the street  from my house.  There she was, so tiny that she fit in the palm of my hand.  She was weaned however and ate voraciously when given some wet food. She joined the four others living at my house at that time. She survived Scruffy,  her next senior by about a year.    When  I grieve I don't write, thus the lapse since my last blog.

 I   got three new fosters however, Homer, Princess Leah and Chewy from the Star Wars  litter that were abandoned at Petco.  Homer fit right in at the Cat House.  He was quiet at first, but now can get crazy.  He races around and then does straight up in the air leaps. 
Princess growled and hissed constantly at first but after two time outs in the condo, has integrated well and tonight was doing the crazies with Homer.  Chewy seems to have hurt his little left paw so was subdued.  Hope is having  "morning sickness" even though  she can not be pregnant. 
With the hard freezes beginning this week I went to Home depot and got a space heater for the Cat House since it is on the end chain of the cottage heating system and was not   heating sufficiently even when the rest of the cottage was sweltering.  The little space heater does quite nicely and is safely positioned in the condo.  It oscillates and even  on "low", heats the room.

Winnie the Pooh continues to wander the house in search of Dinah, but she enjoys the house being more  open to her, and bedding down with Mika  and me at night. She and I have discussed letting her be an only cat for the time being and she is OK with that. She can  sometimes help with fostering. 
I  am ready to write her Happy Tail for AFC.  Ron took nice pictures of me with her, so I can choose one for attachment.  She hates being "held" for pictures, so  although I have good hair in a couple of the photos she has a sour puss in them. 
With all that has gone on (Thanksgiving came and went) I have not gotten pictures of the new kids at the Cat House but here are Winnie and I.

 

 

Winnie and I

 

 

 And in Memorial:  Dinah

 

 

Another Peeve

People that view pets as disposable toys or possessions.  Pets are like children.  they are a commitment. Unlike children, however, once domesticated and cared for, they can not just be turned loose when they grow up. But people do just that.  They turn them loose or abandon them when they become inconvenient.  That's why I enjoy my work  with AFCHS, because they screen adopters and also take back  the critter if the person finds it impossible to keep it.  If some one is too ill to properly care for a pet, returning or relinquishing to a sanctuary is of course the thing to do.  My peeve is with those who do not take ownership as a lifelong commitment, and abandon or release a  critter who  has not learned to hunt or care for itself,  and therefore will be at a disadvantage on return to the wild. That's two  peeves in one day!  No  more for a while, Please!

Back at the Cat House

Dori and Hope, the only two remaining fosters, came home from Petco yesterday.  They have settled in, but Hope misses playmates.  Dori isn't much of a playmate.  She has turned into quite a young lady.  She put on a couple pounds lying around at Petco, and enjoys lap time now, when I visit. 
Hope is now a gangly youngster, also having gained in size while away for the two  weeks.  She has the longest tail  I have ever seen on a kitten her size and it will take some more growth before she totally grows into  it. She used to enjoy chasing it and would entertain herself doing that rather than playing with toys.  Now she pounces at Dori, who just ignores her antics.
While there were adoptions at Petsmart this time there were also six or so returns of previous adoptees.  I have agreed  to  take two  of them, Marian's choice. This next Friday she may bring one.  I  will get some pictures of the girls for posting tomorrow.  I have the picture of Winnie and I for our happy tails story but have yet to download it. 

Peeve

Trying to  buy the perfect Christmas gift  for someone.  Thought I had it and  then the  recipient  calls to say  that he just bought that item for himself.  It is my karma for all those surprise parties that people tried  to give me that I sussed out. I hate returning stuff, but it must be done. 

Happy adoptees

Here are the 4 lucky kitties that were adopted yesterday.

 Faith

 

 Joy

 

Tabeto and Sweetie

 



I am  always thrilled  for the kitties.  I love AFCHS because   if anyone changes their minds, at any time later, they can return the cats to us.  I have not had any returns, but I have fond memories of all the 25 fosters I have raised, many from the bottle baby stage.   If they were  to be returned they could come back to live with me.  Winnie particularly took to Wendy and Winchester this year.  She is into black  cats.  They were rough necks and despite her being twice to 3 times their size, wrestled her to  uncle a couple of times. 

 

Here are pictures of her with her favorites.

 

Winnie and Winchester

 

Winnie and Wendy 

Passion: Purrfect, Purmanent homes!

Four of my foster kitties were adopted yesterday.   Fortunately, I got shots of them at Petsmart while I was up there cleaning Friday morning.  Little Miss Sweetie, my Velcro girl was adopted with Tabeto, her lap buddy and cell mate at the pet store!  Faith and Joy, who were housed together also were adopted together.  So, I have only Dori and Hope remaining.  They are currently at Petco  but may go  to Petsmart this week.  There seem to be more adoptions happening at Petsmart  right now than at Petco.
Mika is thrilled because she will get more walks  and Winnie is thrilled because she will get more lovin'. 
I have listed a bunch of sewing and knitting projects to  my "To Do" list, and  want  to resume some shedding.  I have tons of books and clothes that need to  go and I am like stuck!  Inertia !   Action constipation ! 
I have also  neglected yoga  lately.  With more free  time and not having to manage crating and transporting the kids, I should be able to resume my one to two  day asana practice and one to three days of Mika walking.  
I have not neglected reading, or blogging.  I have read  both of Ken Follett's works in the Fall of Giants trilogy and am  now reading Elizabeth George's  latest novel in the Inspector Lindley  series.  I have read all of her works and so have to  eagerly await new releases. On the serious side I  read  The Amature and Thomas Sowell's  auto  biographical reminiscences of the important events affecting his current philosophical  and economic views that he writes about.  I always eagerly await his columns from Townhall.
I spent a lot of time organizing the photos that I have downloaded from my camera to my computer an have more work to do there.  I want to post the pictures of the adopted kids in a brief subsequent post about the kids.  This update is for those of you who  want to know what I have been up to. 

Le Roi II

Le Roi, who was previously dubbed Mouth because of his loud and persistent MEOWing especially during transport, was my fault.  Going into Petco one morning to clean,  a lady in a red velvet dress was exiting and Mouth was "mouthing" in her arms.  I stopped to ask her "que Passa?"She said she had rescued him from some bushes and needed to go to work  but wanted to  be sure he was safe.  I  saw Laura,Petco manager, who had to approve dumps, and called her out to view Mouth.  She alerted me that the kitten was bathed, groomed, had no fleas and she did take him. The lady in  red velvet was so relieved.  I think the real story was she got the kitten,  it yowled all day while she worked and so  someone said it had to go and there she was at Petco where people are not supposed to  dump or abandon animals but do! 
Since AFCHS was on kitten overload this spring, I agreed to take him once tested, since I felt guilty for intervening, and bringing in yet another!! He never even meowed softly at home.  He was all lover, both with  me and all the other many fosters at my house. He nurtured Sweetie  through her illness, groomed and cradled the other youngsters  and loved it when Tabeto came in because he had another boy to  play and wrestle with. Both would crowd into my lap and purr loadly on my visits to the "Cat House". 
I promised  Mouth that he would find a "purrfect" home and that his new person would give him a much more fitting name. Voila! Le Roi II!  Couldn't be better.  He went to live with another AFCHS volunteer in a house that has both other cats and two loving humans.  He was adopted with the beautiful Venus, fostered by another of the volunteers. Her picture appears in an earlier post.

Does Le Roi II look happy or what?

   Long live the king!

I  got pictures today of  Le Roi II at his new home . Here are just a few.  

Here he is with his new friends  

 Here he is with  Love goddess,Venus, who was adopted at the same time

 And here is Le Roi II, formerly Mouth,  dozing happily at his new home.

 

  I am told that he and Venus have brought a calming influence to the scene, as kings and Godesses will do, and I am delighted for him.  He so deserves calm, peaceful and loving, (which by the way is my mantra or intention for my yoga nidra, and my gift to him.)

 

Thank you  RR.  Wonderful pictures. 

Passion:A little break for "the staff".

All six of the kids went to Petco adoptions yesterday and two will be staying for a couple weeks, Dory and Hope.  I am worried about Dory because she is very comfortable   with me and the 5 other cats, but is not other people comfortable yet. She crawled under the sham when Ron entered the room yesterday.  It made it easy for me to   just lift the whole sham bundle and open up the back  to  allow her escape right into  the carrier.  I  think Ron was sorry he offered to help me.  Those carriers when filled with cat are very heavy!  I do count it as arm strengthening exercises
when I carry them.
The four kids that came home, go up to Petsmart on  Tuesday or Wednesday. 
The three lap cats are at home: Faith, Sweetie and Tabeto. Joy is somewhat of a loner and squirms out of your arms when she is held, but she purrs when petted and rubbed when she is in her favorite spot, on top of the kitty playpen.
I finally got word on Mouth's new forever name.  He is now called Le Roi.  He reportedly walked into his new home, with his new partner,  Rusty Girl also renamed, Venus,  and immediately was comfortable, He also introduced a calm into the household that had been missing since his owner's  elderly cat had passed .   I knew he would be a wonderful quiet addition to   someone's household.   No more "mouth". Well there may be come grumbling if he has to  go to the vet. Many  cats mouth off about car rides.  Up until now his car rides were all scary:  "means a loss" experiences for him.
Today  will be a Mika day.  She will get her walk when it warms up just a bit more, and I may groom her again  too.

Sweetie

Sweetie is growing up!  She needs her own private person.  She is a beautiful long hair black with silver undercoat who loves to be in your lap purring loudly and occasionally looking into your eyes and rubbing chins with you.  She had a rough start...Blowing around in a box in the Petco parking lot.  Now she is everything her name implies!  Here are three photos.  The first is Sweetie as a kitten and the next 2 .. Sweetie now.

 

Sweetie then

 

 

Sweetie now...
And with her crinkle toy which she loves. 

 



 

 

Passion: Sunset with clouds

The sunset tonight is the colors of my high school senior prom dress,  Pink clouds against a sky of blue fading to grey.. the dress was grey lace over pink toile. 
All six of my foster kitties went to Petco for adoptions today and I cleaned their room while they were gone. 2 and 1/2 hours worth of cleaning to be exact.  Lugging 4 carrying crates in and out of home and Petco and I am beat.  They all showed well but did not get adopted.  Perhaps they will all go to Petsmart in a week or two.  Then I can deep clean the room again!
Dori is well tamed and getting more loving every day.  She is also much more laid back at Petco than her sister Daisy who always looks terrified when they put her in the cage.  Of course Dori has all her buddies and today when I went to pick them up, the three little kitties were all asleep up against her.  Sweety and Tabeto had their own private cages side by side and were happy to be close.
I got progress updates on many of my adoptees.  Mouth is doing well and thank heavens, his new owner, Russell, renamed him.  Marian will e-mail his new name which she could not remember. 
Sassy is also OK except for what sounds like IBS, exacerbated by lots of different kinds of food.  She is spoiled and well loved!
It will be early to bed and early to rise for me tonight.  It is fall back Sunday tomorrow so I'll have an extra hour.  It takes my body and brain clock several days to adjust and that is not aided by the cat clocks at my house which to not observe the change overs. Winnie will be bouncing off the door at 4:30 to 5:00 a.m.

Passion: Morning at the Cat House

This morning with the kittens and juveniles, was great.  I took an article to read with my coffee as I held the lap junkies, but that was dumb.  Watching the kids play is really the best spiritual start to the day.  I got a donated toy from AFCH about two weeks ago and the kids love it.  It is a box with 9 round holes in the top and three along each side.  Drop the toys in and watch the kids fish them out.  Faith, however, also likes to drop toys in and then fish them out.  This morning she had a crinkly ball in her mouth.  She raced over to the box with it and dropped it in.  She then climbed on top of the box and went fishing for it. They got a crinkly bag at the same time and they also love that. 
Dori is now much more tame and comfortable around me.  She hasn't jumped into my lap yet, but she lets me lift her onto my lap and then purrs and purrs as I stroke and rub her. She even looks up expectantly when I stop petting for a minute.  She supervises litter cleaning, and waits until everyone else has chowed down on wet food before she goes over to eat.  This morning she wrestled with Joy and played tag with Hope and Faith while I was there.
Sweety, as usual was watching my cleaning from a condo, but rushed over the moment I plunked down in my chair and reached up, begging to be lifted to my lap.  She needs a person more than playmates or toys, although  she does engage with both sometimes when I'm observing, and may do so more when I am not there.
Tabeto is the other love bug. He loves my lap, but lets sweety and Faith share it with him.  Yesterday, I had him and Dori and Sweety and Faith all pig piled no the lap for a few minutes.  It is hard to leave when that is occurring. 
Then it is home to Winnie the Pooh and Dinah.  They get early mornings and late evenings with me.  Winnie starts her nap time about 11, unless I want to work or play at my desk and then she rushes over to interfere.  She comes when she is called albeit without haste.  I was able to shape this behavior with the use of greenies and petting.    

Passions

I have very few "Peeves" these days, and I attribute that to yoga nidra.  I am passionate about life.  I love my avocation.  This morning I got to experience Dori, coming to me and letting me pick her up and hold her in my lap.  She purred and purred.  She is not as loud as Tabeto or Sweety yet but she has come so far in her domestication that it is awesome.
I am taking a holiday from taking any of the kitties in to be on display for adoption today at Petco.  A holiday means I will have more time for them and for my own rec pursuits.,  The symphony is on the agenda today. 

At the cat house, I will get a new photo of Sweety  Then I can write a blurb on her and post her before and now photos. 

Peeves

Solicitation calls. "Unavailable"  or various places in CA without messages and availability of an automated way to shut them down.  They always come at meal times, or while I am cooking.

Wonderful Winnie the Pooh

 

More fabulous shots of Winnie 

 

The above picture is Winnie dozing on the morning I was sent to Petco to adopt her.

 This is Winnie playing reclining  nude  a la Botticelli?

 This is how Winnie loiters around while waiting for the laser light to emerge from the drawer.  Standing on the netbook usually gets my attention.

This is Winnie meticulously grooming.

Winnie the Pooh aka Winni

Winnie the Pooh is my very own adoptee from Animal Friends Connection.  Winnie came to me for observation and treatment of her second bout of diarrhea.  She also had bouts of flatulence that could clear the room!  She is well now and seldom has gas attacks either.  She consoled me following  the death of my 15 year old, Scruffy, and I knew she was taking me on, when she wrote to the staff at AFCHS giving her consent to adoption and sent me to Petco one Saturday to sign adoption documents while she dozed at home.  She was born in May 2012, came to me from the sanctuary in November, and was adopted in January 2013.  She has thrived!  She was never "tiny  or frail" even during her terrible episode of diarrhea.  At adoption she weighed in at 10.9 pounds and now weighs 12.2 pounds!  She loves to play laser light, and walks back and forth in front of me on my desk until I open the desk drawer.  She knows that is where the red spot lives and she immediately jumps to the floor to begin the chase and pounce game. She tolerates other fosters, (especially likes the black kittens), and tries to get Dinah,  the senior queen in the house, and Mika, the dog, to play when there are no kittens available. She loves to curl up on my body in the evening and it does take the whole body to hold her large body.  She really is not fat: she is just a very large, big boned  girl!

This is Winnie with one of her favorite foster kitties, Winchester, who has found his forever home. Winchester owes his purrfect socialization to Winnie the Pooh!

Work site

Nice photo of the display cages at Petco, where I work each Tuesday and Thursday morning. I get to meet the coolest cats here!

Passions day

Wednesday is my "free day".  I like to plan a walk with Mika, yoga and then whatever strikes my fancy.  Today I have a nagging "got-ta".  I promised Marian I would write a brief "Happy Tail" about Winnie (the Poo), the foster that I adopted.  I need a picture of her and I together.  Easier said than done!  She is a busy girl, especially when I am involved with the computer, at my desk or if I handle the camera.  Right now she is bird watching beside me while I type. I am hoping Ron or Ashley F can capture us together on a good hair day, for me.  She seldom has bad hair days. Here is a good picture of her by herself.

Notice that she is at the CATO site with me.  She is a libertarian cat, although she doesn't want her food subsidy cut off!  She believes in purrsonal liberty and small government.  When I adopted her she weighed about 10.9 pounds.  I have not weighed her recently but I know she has not shrunk. She is my first tabby.  I have had a tuxedo, a Siamese, a Siamese mix a black long hair, a muted calico, a black short hair (Dinah), still with me and they all have had very distinct personalities.  Now that I am fostering, I am beginning to note the common behavioral characteristics within these breeds and mixes as well as the variances in temperament and behavior between breeds. It is fun to be a modified animal ecologist.  I say modified beause real ecologists don't get to intervene.  I get to intervene. I get  to detect and remedy health problems, and do some behavior shaping, which of course takes me back to my graduate school roots.   

More tales from the Cat House

When 5 of the current menagerie went to Petsmart for two  weeks on the adoption circuit, I took the opportunity to have the floor in the cat room painted,  The room had previously been carpeted but the indoor outdoor carpet was removed about 3 years ago and since the room was unused I had done nothing with the floor.  Now it is a beautiful barn red and has two very nice area rugs for warmth and ambiance.  Every cat house should have ambiance. 

This photo shows Joy on top of Hope on one of the area rugs.
While the paint was drying, Dori,and the 3 little kittens lived in the guest house bathroom, pretty cramped quarters comparatively speaking.  They survived it though and I think it brought Dori and I closer together figuratively and literally.

Passion

I have been consumed by my passion, as evidenced by my failure to blog, for several months.  I am a volunteer for Animal Friends Connection Humane Society.  I started out simply cleaning cages at Petco for those kitties on display for adoption.  I  have expanded into foster care of kittens, primarily, and now have my own "Cat House" where I have raised and nurtured and socialized about 25 kitties so far.  I still have 6, but all the rest have found wonderful "purrmanent" homes. My most recent girls, Faith, Hope and Joy will be spayed and ready for adoption after October 29. My juvenile, Dori, who was a captured feral and along with her brothers and sisters have been in foster care for socialization training with both other cats and people, is also progressing.  She went to Petco with the other girls on Saturday for showing and did very well.  She came home and has continued to warm up to me.  She is really good with the smaller girls.  Her favorite playmate, Mouth, got adopted and she misses him.  I have only one boy at this time, Tabito.  He is the lucky male in the house full of girls, but alas alack, he was neutered long ago.  He is very loving and fond of all his little playmates.  He protects Miss Sweety who after having a rough start, is growing nicely and is the most beautiful medium length smoky haired girl.  She is a lap junkie, and monopolizes my lap whenever she can.
I will tell my brief tales of the others and attach photos as I go.
Hopefully I can be more consistent in my posting. 
Here is a photo of Dori with Faith on the table at the "Cat House"  

Peeve:Vituperative rants against people

It is wonderful to be in a land where we all have different opinions and views about issues and are not summarily taken to the square and shot.  However, there are those who do not simply take issue with ideas and opinions that differ from their own, but who attack the character and intellignce of the person who has those differing ideas and opinions.  That is a major peeve for me. I call it verbal shooting, and it saddens me.
 But, as Tom Lehrer used to say: " there are some people who are intolerant of others and I hate people like that!"  :-)  On this bright Easter Sunday,  I have returned to my passion
discussed below, and regained my sense of humor. 

Passion: Spring!

I am passionalte about spring weather and all the beautiful blooms in my yard.  Camillias, wisteria, lilacs and Calla lilies are all in bloom.  I can enjoy walks with Mika dog and luncheons on the patio. Today is a gorgeous Easter Sunday!  I hope everyone that I love is as joyous as I am today! 
Yesterday I watched a goshawk stand and then bathe in my birdbath and that was awesome. 

Peeves

Big government, big debt, and the progressives' pomposity.

Passions:

"All creatures great and small, all things wild and wonderful," and my avocation  in animal husbandry.