Thank you again for your Christmas gifts and cards, in all forms! This is our Christmas and we enjoy and savor each and every one. Thank you, dear Friends of Colehaus!
We were supposed to be hit with a rare Christmas Day snow storm that had Mom and Dad worried. Dad had to work that day, across the river in Portland, and since Mom was off work, she had to drive him there (to save on Lyft ride costs). The morning drive was fine, no problems, it wasn’t even cold enough for snow. And the late evening drive was exactly the same. No rain, no snow, not even cold enough for much of anything. So, no problems. Disappointing? A little, but no worries, either.
Then, snow greeted us Sunday morning on Boxing Day. Thankfully, Dad’s off work until later in the week.
Teensy-tiny flakes fell on and off most of the day while the streets stayed pretty much bare. Snow doesn’t stop our visitors. Lloyd (see above) is a new boy in the neighborhood and just as elusive as Rusty. Mom thinks Lloyd is a little deaf; not completely, and she hopes to get to know him better in the future. She keeps saying that about Rusty, too, but nothing has changed Rusty’s mind. He’s his own cat and has little use for some lady shaking a food bowl.
Raccoons visit every day after dark and Mom was downright squealing with giddiness when she spotted an opossum on our fence Christmas eve. It’s been nearly twenty years since we’ve had a ‘possum on our property and Mom loves them dearly. “A Christmas miracle,” she proclaimed and hopes to see it again soon, if for no other reason than to capture a few photos of “Paulie.”
Elsewhere in the garden, two things are flowering including a pretty low-growing perennial that, sadly, we’ve lost the tag for, and a pot of rosemary. The holly bushes are filled with bright red berries and from a window, Quint still enjoys watching the birds flit in and out of the big bushes, nibbling on berries.
Mom’s Cyclamen is doing exceptionally well. She checks it once or twice a month and rakes the hazelnut shells close around the plant. Those shells really do keep the slugs away!
It’s a good thing Mom likes moss, because we have lots of it covering rocks and boulders outside this year. Let’s not forget we’ve had a few moss-less years fairly recently. Because she’s a moss fan, during those moss-less years Mom gave serious thought to creating an indoor Mossarium, which is like a terrarium but with different kinds of moss. There are gorgeous Mossarium photos online, and how-to books and videos and kits and even completed Mossariums to buy and admire, if one were to do so. But since she has little free time, Mom’s decided she already lives in a Mossarium-world that just happens to be called the Pacific Northwest. And that’s good enough for her.
Another thing we haven’t seen in a few years are Paperwhite Narcissus. Both Mom and Dad LOVE Paperwhites, but they can be expensive. We’re lucky to have received a handful of bulbs in late November and all, kept well away from the cats, are now blooming spectacularly! Dad always mentions how he adores the strong fragrance that some people claim smells like dirty litter boxes. Being as he’s the head litter box cleaner around here (twice a day, every day!), he assures those people Paperwhites do not smell like dirty litter boxes, and if yours does, you need to simply send all your Paperwhites to him to enjoy.
Lastly, Olivia and Quint wish you to know it’s definitely time for snuggly and warm flannel sheets and the official sheet changer here needs to get with the program. Okay, kitties. Consider it done!
Thanks for visiting Colehaus! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas weekend!
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A Colehaus Cats flashback:
2020 – No post 2019 – No post 2018 – No post 2017 – Holiday Aftermath 2016 – No post 2015 – No post 2014 – No post 2013 – Colehaus Cats Christmas 2012 – No post
About a week ago, a certain sad, floofy, ginger girl was lamenting over a lost YeoWWW nanner. To be perfectly honest, it wasn’t lost; Mom threw it away. NOW WAIT! Don’t click away just yet! Let Mom explain!
In her defense, Mom says, “This YeoWWW nanner was only a nanner in that it was once full and round and stuffed full of the best nip on the planet, was once bright yellow, and long, long ago all the cats loved it. What I tossed out was something flat as a dime, as yellow as something dragged behind a car, not for a mile but for miles over mucky-brown jagged boulders for five years, had ragged edges and as for fresh? That went out the window half a decade ago after Pia chewed a third hole through the sad, sorry, soggy thing.”
But it was MY sad, sorry, soggy nanner, Mom.
One of Santa’s helpers must have picked up on that lament; they’re very good at such things, because just the other day, an envelope came and inside was a freshly picked YeoWWW nanner. (Actually, there are two but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.)
We know who that belongs to, right? Before she rips it out of our hands and we hand it over, let’s say Merry Christmas, Pia, and the rest of you cats when your sister Pia is good and done with it. And THANK YOU, Santa’s helper!
A little rhyme runs through our heads at this time of year, every year:
We wish we may, we wish we might, help find homes for all this night.
And one year, we saw it happen.
Way back in December of 2013, while interviewing potential Niblet forever families at our local Petco, a sweet, jolly man sat upon a chair seemingly meant for him and someone handed him a kitten, one of a very large group of kittens our area had that year.
And then, something magical happened.
That kitten found a forever home that day. And the next kitten the jolly man held did too. And the next. And so on and so on throughout the entire day. And then, the senior cats brought to the event found their forever families, too. These forever families, they weren’t your average Petco shoppers, stopping by for a bag of litter or dog food, but a whole string of very vetted families who came in, independently of one another, to see cats and kittens they had been following online through the shelter and through word of mouth, and don’t you know, every one of those families fell in love with every one of those cats and kittens and each found the best of homes that day.
*happy sigh*
May we all open our hearts and homes to those who need love, not just for a day but for all of forever.
Thank you for reading us today and over the past year. Thank you, dear angels, who have written to us and sent us cards and gifts. May the holiday spirit continue to fill you with wonder and joy. From us and all the Colehaus Cats – Tessa, Pia, Quint, Olivia, and niblet Viola, we’re wishing you a truly magical Christmas.
