05/13/2022 – Some Questions, Some Answers

Look at Tessa's Paw © Colehauscats.com
Look at Tessa’s Paw © Colehauscats.com

Oh geez, Mom! Don’t bore my readers with more questions and answers. They’d rather hear me tell a story, I’m sure. Once upon a time, there was this magnificently magnificent gray and white tuxedo cat named Tessa who had a gloriously glorious white paw and . . .

Not today, Tessa. We have questions and by golly, we’ve got answers.

1 – Someone asked why we put past year’s blog post links at the bottom of each post when we don’t post every day of the week, leaving many years with no post.

Good question and thank you for noticing! We do know of one person who is annoyed by that, the lack of links on each day for every year, but that person doesn’t blog, doesn’t post, doesn’t comment, except when passing through the aisles at the assembly warehouse Mom used to work at. So, does that count? We’re pretty sure they’re still annoyed by it. So why do it? Hmm, self validation? A big ol’ arm-straining pat on the back for blogging for over twelve years? Perhaps the next question might shed more light on the topic.

2 – A couple of someones asked if we borrowed/stole the idea of posting links to previous years’ blog entries from another cuter and way more popular cat blog.

Yep, blatantly stole the idea because it’s a darn good one! Did we give them credit? No. Our bad. We do keep a permanent link to them, though. Is that good for anything? We probably could have done better. If it helps, we’ll hang our heads in shame for a couple of hours.

3 – You haven’t said anything about house painting lately. We hoped to see photos of the change. Did you give up?

Give up? Mom rarely ever gives up. She gets intensely irritated by half-finished projects, especially big ones like repainting every room from top to bottom.

But the truth is, after our upstairs shower leak blew a hole through the downstairs living room ceiling, bubbled up the freshly painted wall, and soaked the neighboring bedroom carpet/subflooring plywood, she lost all motivation to go any further. She says, until the shower/bathroom/drywall/ceiling/flooring is fixed AND repainted by someone other than herself, she’s not going to bust herself getting back to it.

Current state of our shower © Colehauscats.com
Current state of our shower © Colehauscats.com
Drying out the spare bedroom plywood © Colehauscats.com
Drying out the spare bedroom plywood © Colehauscats.com
Downstairs damaged drywall removed © Colehauscats.com
Downstairs damaged drywall removed © Colehauscats.com

Honestly, it’s enough just to come home every day after working 12-hour shifts and have to look at the state of things in disarray. It’s hard being a clean freak with this going on. Today marks day 74 since the leak was noticed. Just this past Monday, the actual leak itself was finally repaired and finally, restoration work can begin. On the construction company’s schedule, of course. Maybe sometime in June.

On the other hand, you can see the almost-white-but-not-white cream paint color on that once freshly painted wall, and we still like how it looks next to the true white ceiling and the ash blue of the “feature” wall. It’ll be pretty again some day.

And someday, we’ll let Tessa tell her story of her glorious white paw. Maybe sometime in June.

Tessa © Colehauscats.com
Tessa © Colehauscats.com

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2021 – No post
2020What’s That Wednesday
2019That time of year
2018 – No post
2017 – No post
2016Good Luck Friday
2015Not So Wee Wednesday
2014 – No post
2013The Playboys
2012 – No post

Posted in At Colehaus, Tessa | Tagged | 9 Comments

05/11/2022 – Wordless Wednesday

Viola © Colehauscats.com
Viola © Colehauscats.com

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2021 – No post
2020MultiCat Monday
2019 – No post
2018Friday Fun in Photos
2017 – No post
2016Two Word Wednesday
2015The Tickle Pickle
2014 – No post
2013 – No post
2012 – No post

Posted in Viola | Tagged | 7 Comments

05/09/2022 – Hey Lady!

Shaggy, May 2022 © Colehauscats.com
Shaggy, May 2022 © Colehauscats.com

Got any food in there?

This is Shaggy, our first visiting mama raccoon of 2022.

This is Shaggy’s second year visiting us and we know she’s a mama again because she’s raiding the feral cat feeding station during daylight hours, she’s a bit shaggy-looking from the side and back, and she has big, extended nipples. Won’t be long and we’ll wake in the middle of the night to the sound of trilling raccoon babies calling after their mama as she teaches them the route into our backyard and to our water fountain. They will need to be big and strong enough to climb a pointless wire netting fence our backyard neighbor put up last fall and will have to learn to avoid the yelping dogs that now live catty-corner behind us. It’s become a tougher world out there in just six months. We’re sure Shaggy will do her best at being a good mama.

Shaggy, June 2021 © Colehauscats.com
Shaggy, June 2021 © Colehauscats.com

Undoubtedly, someone(s) will ask how we know this is Shaggy. Good question and thanks for asking!

Raccoons, while looking remarkably similar overall, tend to have distinctive ears, meaning they have ripples, tears, rips, sometimes chunks missing. We once had a short-term visiting raccoon with just one ear, the other barely a nub. Sometimes, they have short tails, half tails, or in Bob’s case, a raccoon who used to visit six or seven years ago, no tail at all.

Sometimes, old injuries make identification easy. In Shaggy’s case, she suffered some kind of injury late last summer and dragged her right back leg for over a month. She walks on it now but it’s clear she has a good amount of arthritis in her hips. Climbing is probably painful for her as we’ve seen when she hoists herself up the boulders around our fountain to drink. This might be a good thing for her babies though. They’ll be able to keep up with her and no one will be left behind.

And sometimes, along with slight facial mask coloring and markings, their personalities tell all. Shaggy’s a good girl and a good mama. And we’re good, responsible wildlife viewers, never attempting to touch or “make friends.” Raccoons are wild animals and we’d like to keep our fingers intact. Shaggy stops, tilts her head, and listens to our voices, more so than almost any other raccoon that’s visited us, and we’ve had visiting raccoons every summer since 2006.

Bleh © Colehauscats.com
Bleh © Colehauscats.com

Why are you guys going on and on about trash pandas? They aren’t cute, they don’t like to cuddle, and they’ll eat anything. I’ll bet if you put one of our litter boxes out there, they’d clean it better than Dad does! Bleh!

Hey now! That was uncalled for!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018Wordy Wednesday
2017 – No post
2016Many Ginger Cat Monday
2015 – No post
2014Tessa Toes
2013 – No post
2012 – No post

Posted in At Colehaus, Pia, Visitors | Tagged , | 10 Comments