Good-bye March. You were a weird month and you can just . . . go. You were really cold and I had to share my brother Quint’s fort to stay warm. You had lots of puffy snow and did I mention the cold? My Mom says you were good for rain and we need more. I guess that means we’re looking forward to you, April.
Oh, to be as relaxed as Viola resting on a heated bed with a favorite gray mat cover. Hardly a care in the world.
Here at Colehaus, while Mom’s on week 2 of a brutal three-week work schedule and going through a rough patch of allergies, spring is ever so slowly creeping along. Last week, we had sun, 60 degree (f) temperatures, hail, thunder and lightning, freezing overnight temperatures, and snow. Yesterday morning, Mom experienced a light snowy drive into work. Yep, this is typical spring weather around these parts. Yet all that didn’t stop things from budding out and blooming!
What would spring be if we weren’t to include a photo of moss? Boring, that’s what! This is one of our favorite mossy rocks. It’s big, as big as a microwave oven, and it used to reside at the end of our driveway as a kind of protection rock for one of our sprinkler heads located nearby. Over the winter, probably on that really snowy day last month, someone used our driveway as a turn around spot and hit the rock hidden beneath the snow, moving it about three feet up into our yard. Somehow, the sprinkler head survived and the rock only has a paint scuff. Item number 63 on Mom’s Yard Word To-Do List, is to dig out her big pry bar and move that rock back into place and everyone will be happy again. Except maybe that vehicle missing a bit of blue paint.
Inside, our Thanksgiving Cactus is blooming once again, making it a Thanksgiving, Christmas, Almost Easter cactus, or as we’ve started calling it, the Anytime Cactus. It’s positively bursting with buds!
Back outside, visitor Mew Mew (Mr. Mew Mew to you and us) enjoys a roll in a pinch of chicken catnip treats. Funny how he never eats the dried chicken bits but LOVES to roll in the dried catnip. And then, he rubs himself all over our pant legs until he gets angry and hisses at himself for allowing himself to be lovey before hopping back out through the opening in our fence to go home, we assume, to sulk.
Cat 1, as in Cat 1 and Cat 2 who are sibling near twins, has been stopping by on and off and the other day, allowed Mom to pet him. Cat 2 absolutely will NOT get anywhere close to allow petting. Mom did get a photo of petting Cat 1, for proof, but the photo turned out to be a blooper of a blooper of a blooper and honestly, we’re skeptical the photo even contained an image of a cat.
Coming up the walkway is visitor Murray, who’s still holding out on coming up to Mom’s hand and chicken catnip treat bag. But she does come when called so we’re making headway. We don’t know that Murray is a girl; it’s just a sense based on interaction with other visiting cats. We’d love it if Murray would be so kind as to prove us wrong!
March and April is breeding season for raccoons. Back for her third year is Shaggy, a big, kind-hearted female who prefers to visit the feeding station right after dawn which is just about the time we put food out for Mr. Mew Mew, Murray, Lloyd, and others. Shaggy is smart and undoubtedly, she’ll bring her own babies and other raccoon babies to our backyard playground later in June like she has for the past two years.
That’s most everything going on around here. Pia goes for a checkup next month and once again, we’re trying to get her interested in wet food. Maybe this will be the year!
