“If elephants didn’t exist, you couldn’t invent one. They belong to a small group of living things so unlikely they challenge credulity and common sense.”
― Lyall Watson
Gentle Giants – The Sketch & Doodle Club
“Nature’s great masterpiece, an elephant – the only harmless great thing.”
― John Donne
IAWS – Couldn’t Find Wrapper
“They say that somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end.”
― Robert McCammon, Boy’s Life
Ubuy – Phillippines – Sechers – Animal Canvas Wall Art
“Elephants love reunions. They recognize one another after years and years of separation and greet each other with wild, boisterous joy. There’s bellowing and trumpeting, ear flapping and rubbing. Trunks entwine.”
― Jennifer Richard Jacobson, Small as an Elephant
Swapnil Nevgi Fine Art – Big Brother
“But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.”
― Lawrence Anthony, The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
“In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.” – English Proverb
Full Bloom Club
“Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.” – Joseph Wood Krutch
Pinterest – Michael… can’t read the signature
“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.” -Missy Dizick
Pixabay
“As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.” – Cleveland Amory
Pinterest
“Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, “I’ll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice?” – Bette Midler
This sweet guy was in the ginormous tree outside my bedroom window. When I say ‘ginormous,’ it’s not much of an exaggeration. My condo is on the 5th floor of the building, and the tree goes up from here!
I zoomed using the camera on my phone, so the picture is not terrific, but he really made me smile. I hope that he makes his home in this tree and comes often.
Otherwise, there are several cats that come into the lobby area of the building, one dog that I’ve only seen once, the sneezing frog that we seem to step over on the way to the gym, and a cute pair of snails in the grass beside a dormitory we pass on the way to the gym. 😁
Amber is 95+ pounds of exuberant yellow lab. She is still shedding all over the place like it’s the middle of summer.
She cavorts around in the cold, absolutely loving it, but wanting to come in and warm up shortly after going out. She has trained me and my husband to let her in and out at her will. We are a bit reluctant to get up out of our chairs at times, but she’s reasonably patient with our efforts.
With the snow coming down now won’t deter her from wanting to go in and out. I have to meet her at the door with a large towel to wipe her down and clean her sweet paws before allowing her to come in – unless she bowls me over first… :0) I now have a towel at the front door and another on the door to our garage.
I guess I should put this in the category of ‘trying-to-move-more,’ because I certainly get my exercise on days like this.
“How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.” — Robert A. Heinlein
Nasreen Lyana-Pinterest
“You can not look at a sleeping cat and feel tense.” — Jane Pauley
voowow.com – I. WANT. THIS. QUILT! :0)
“A cat purring on your lap is more healing than any drug in the world, as the vibrations you are receiving are of pure love and contentment.” — St. Francis of Assisi
I love raccoons – in an abstract way – not in our yard. They tend to swarm our place each spring, summer, and fall – not only eating some bird seed, but eating ALL the bird seed and destroying the feeders!
Kathleen Howsare
They are not good neighbors or sharers – and so we have to use our humane trap to catch them and drive them far out away from us to ‘relocate’ them to hopefully a better place for them.
(Sorry. Don’t know who the artist is, but found this through Sue Cockrell-Pinterest)
I don’t know why, but this season we’ve only had to relocate two – the lowest number I can remember. Whatever the reason is, I’m happy. I love to look at them, see artwork featuring raccoons, but they are a real pest around here.
My good friend, Cathy, sent this to me this morning. I had JUST come out from feeding the cat and cleaning up her area, so this was especially apt. I love it!
Monster Cat’s favorite toys are
the ‘mice’ with catnip in them that I got altogether on a card at Walmart for next to nothing months ago. They don’t seem to lose their allure.
a cloth ‘ball’ on a string not tied to anything
an empty box in the middle of the living room floor
She WILL get on the cat tower in the corner of the room, especially if I put one of the catnip mice on top. (She is drawn to the ball on a string that hangs from the top level.) I got her some ping pong balls, and though she bats them around for a bit, loses interest and just leaves them. Actual cat toys are a complete dud.
I will say that she plays and entertains herself more than any cat we’ve ever had. We sit and watch and laugh at her as she ‘stalks her prey’ of the ball on the end of the string, crouching down behind the corner of the box, then springing out to pounce on the ball. She then carries it in her mouth and jumps into the box. A few seconds later, she SPRINGS up out of the box and the game begins again.
Her favorite thing at the moment is sitting out on the screened back porch watching some rabbits who have been moving around out there in the evenings. I don’t know if she could actually catch them. They certainly keep her attention.
This is how she looks right now, sprawled out on the shelves beside my computer set up. She nods off now and then, looking extremely comfortable. I tried to pet her a few minutes ago and she bit me. She doesn’t bite HARD, but she did break my skin this time, so I’m continuing to try to break her of this.
Our paper towel roll is her newest handiwork. She found it in the pantry recently and apparently batted it all over the place after pulling it down from the shelf. My husband was going to throw it out, but I told him that although it LOOKS a bit odd, it should still work fine to wipe up spills. Maybe it also adds character to our kitchen?
I’m not having to try to catch her to put her into her bathroom anymore. I merely walk toward her bathroom. She either follows me right away, passes me in order to ‘herd’ me in there, or she come running when she hears a bit of her food hit the bowl. I can then step out and close the door without the cat latch. I have modified her food so I can do this each time I go in there and not overfeed her :0)
She is now joining me on my recliner several times a day. She jumps up, walks up my front and looks at me. I pet her, and then she turns around and plops down beside my feet.
She still either ignores my husband or is hostile. We don’t know what her background was before we adopted her, so we have no idea why. He is also relentless in his actions, refusing to adapt to what she does, so this may be a long slog.
Monster Cat and Amber (97 pound yellow lab) are getting along fine. I just make sure the cat isn’t out anywhere when Amber is eating. So, we’re making progress of a sort. Her weirdness fits right in with ours, so it’s an interesting mix.
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