Horses, dog and a tree

The afternoon started off lazy for Daisy due to the heat.  She did a lot of laying around with her eyes open. Not tired for sleeping; too warm to do anything.

The lazy day changed in the afternoon when the couple brought a new horse (Sierra) to replace Cowgirl.  They also brought their dog, Pistol.  I thought Daisy was sleeping in the garage when she showed up all of a sudden.  She came towards the dog and none of us knew what to do.  Even the dog didn't know what to do as it just stood there.

Then Daisy walked past the dog to go to the corral where I was.  When the dog started to follow Daisy she didn't like it as you can see in the photo below where Daisy told the dog to back off.  She then ran off towards the horse trailer while the dog remained here.

Once we got the horses swapped in the corral and the owners left with Cowgirl I walked to the house.  I heard meowing which I discovered to be from up one of the huge box elder trees over the patio.  I wonder if Daisy ran up the tree to get away from the dog?

I had to get an extension ladder to get Daisy down from the tree.  She allowed me to lift her from the tree and carry her down the ladder.  Once I was on the ground Daisy jumped from me to the ground rather than let me lower her to the ground.

Here is a 13 second video of Daisy in the tree:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1esC0B2Pkks

In the garden

When I quit trying to dig a garden Daisy came and played in the freshly dug dirt.

As you can see from Daisy's front leg, she got quite dirty playing in the dirt.

Here is 1 minute 50 second video of Daisy playing in the dirt, listening to the birds and chasing bugs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLZY5L3A_Wo

Daisy and the horses

Now that I am back home I let the horses into the yard to eat the grass down.

Daisy is braver than I expected.  Here Daisy came out of the house to check on Cowgirl.  Now if only Cowgirl would accidentally bump creepy cat and break it.

While Daisy is brave with the horses she doesn't like to be between them.  Wednesday night I was walking out of the corral after petting Lily and Daisy came running to me from the patio.  When Cowgirl then came behind her Daisy didn't know which horse to keep an eye on - the one in front or the one behind her - so she ran over to my car in the pole shed.


Well... Daisy's braveness comes and goes...

Thursday morning Daisy didn't like it when Lily came up to a living room window.  She was unnerved by this.  Look at how bushy her tail got.  In the second photo you can just make out Lily's head in the window on the left side.

Once Lily moved away from the window Daisy kept an eye on the door in case Lily decided to come to the door.

After all the excitement in the morning Daisy decided to sleep most of the afternoon hiding under the wire shelving unit in Tammy's office.  In the evening, when not distracted by the moths against the outside window and attracted to the light inside the house, Daisy sat on the back of the couch by the window and watched the horses in the yard - as long as they didn't come up to the window.

Hiding in tall grass

Because I hadn't mowed the yard, and the horses haven't had a chance to eat the grass shorter, the grass is fairly tall.  Sometimes Daisy has to bound to get through the grass.

One advantage of the tall grass is that Daisy has plenty of places to lay in the shade.

Here Daisy is laying near Tammy as Tammy hangs the wash on the clothesline.

Where's Daisy?

Is this my kitty?

There you are!

There's my kitty.

Daisy's ride home

I think Daisy wanted to stay at my brother's house in North Dakota.  She had settled into an active routine.  There was lots to see and do there.  The morning we left Daisy held on to the chair.

Here is a 59 second  video of Daisy in the chair:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpF_udN9xc


Once we got in the car we had to hold onto Daisy as she wanted to bolt from the minivan back into the house.  Once we got under way Daisy settled down on the floor under Tammy's snuggie.  Every once in a while Daisy would poke her head out of the snuggie to look around.

For a change of pace Daisy slept on the floor under my legs.

Then back to sleeping with Tammy.

When we stopped for gas in Malta Tammy put Daisy on a leash for a walk outside the minivan. A good thing she was on a leash as Daisy wanted to run once she was outside the minivan.  She had no interest in eating, drinking or going to the bathroom either at the gas stop or when we were driving.

Unlike our trip to North Dakota, on our return trip Daisy did not throw up.  She mainly slept the entire time.


When Tammy was in Minnesota her sister gave her this creepy ugly cat statue.  Once we got home Tammy set the statue on the front step.  When Daisy first saw the statue she wasn't sure about it.  She crouched down and sneaked up on it. 

Once she realized it was a statue and not a cat Daisy ignored it.

If only I could ignore the creepy statue.

Last night

Saturday night when we were packing the minivan for our trip back to Montana Daisy realized something was up.  Once I was finished loading the stuff into the minivan Daisy insisted on going outside.  She would go to one then the other door and sit and meow at the door to be let outside.  Sometimes she would scratch at the door.

When I told her she couldn't go outside, she tried:

• the pity route with a mournful meow and a sad look back at me,
• a sassy route with a quick meow back when I told her no, or
• a mad meow with a stern stare at me when I told her no.

I told her no. Tammy told her no.  On and on Daisy meowed and went from door to door.

One time she jumped up to reach the screen.  She got scolded for that.

At one point Tammy held Daisy up to the screen to look outside.  Daisy grabbed the screen and didn't want to let go.  Daisy really wanted outside.

I think Daisy wanted to go hide so she could stay here with my brother and in his house.  She likes it here.  Lots of birds in the trees.  Short green lush lawn.  Lots of people and activity to keep her occupied.

Finally Daisy settled down and laid down to sleep.

Salt block wheel rim

One day a few weeks ago as I worked on a fence rebuild Tammy and Daisy came out to keep me company.  After a while of sitting in the sun where I was working, Daisy went over to a tree for shade and ended up sitting in an old wheel rim now used for holding salt blocks for cattle.

Daisy posed for Tammy.

Cool place to lay

Daisy likes cool places to lay.  Here she is laying on the the cold basement floor now that the water has stopped seeping into it and the floor is dry.

Daisy stayed outside most of the afternoon and evening.  She even stayed outside after the mosquitoes chased me inside the house.  Her fur seemed to be protecting her.  I did notice that when she did come inside she licked on her legs for a while. Maybe she did so because of mosquito bites where her fur was not as thick?

No running around the house tonight.  Daisy is out cold after a busy day.

Hunting and stretching

My brother says Daisy runs around like crazy when he gets up early to get ready for work.  So that hasn't changed from Tammy and Montana.

Late this morning she went outside for a while to run around and patrol the property.  Later I found her "playing" with something.  No, it wasn't a mouse.  A bird.

Later in the afternoon when it got warm she came inside to nap.   She had no interest in going back outside in the evening when I went to trim some tree branches.  She was acting tired and pretending to have trouble keeping her eyes open after several hours of napping.

This evening as I was typing this post I heard her banging on something.  Whenever I went to look the sound stopped.  I looked around a little but couldn't find her.  After a half dozen times I finally figured out she was in the spare bedroom and was scratching on the door and banging against it.  That door is usually closed so I have no idea how she got in that room.

Ms Innocent.

ND stretch

Daisy also stretches in North Dakota.

She had a busy evening outside patrolling the property and a little of the neighbor's property too.  She likes especially to lay under the neighbor's pickup as she has a good view from there.

Several birds (Grackles?) would make a ruckus by sitting in branches above Daisy and squawking loudly when Daisy was in the back yard or near the hedges.  The bird would come back when I left after earlier walking towards it.

Daisy had a good time patrolling.  She came when I went into the front yard and called her.   As I knelt and petted Daisy  several dogs in a house across the street when nuts barking.  They finally stopped when Daisy followed me into the house.

After Daisy came in the house and had something to eat and drink she then laid and did her stretching.

New chair

While I was at the Goodwill thrift store checking prices of jeans and shoes my brother found a bought a newer used chair to replace the ugly orange one he had that really needed replacing.  The chair cost only $35 before tax. 

It is much nicer than the old chair.  Daisy quickly gave her approval of it.

The chair is more blue than green.

Last garage sale day for Daisy

On the second and last day of the garage sale I let Daisy roam outside without being on the leash.  She did well in staying in the yard and spent much of the afternoon outside.

Of course she spent some time talking to the birds.  The chattering between the birds today was louder and longer than yesterday.  I wonder if it was because of a nest in the pine tree.  One of the birds can be seen in the upper left corner of the second photo.

Later  I saw a large baby bird in the grass while Daisy was laying on the sidewalk.  Daisy didn't notice the baby bird even though it was chirping for momma.  Mama was quiet. Perhaps she was holding her breath as Baby walked and tried to fly.  The baby bird eventually got up into a tree safely.

Daisyalso checked out the neighbor's house and the smells on its foundation.

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Garage sale day for Daisy

While my brother and I held the garage sale on Saturday I  let Daisy out of the house in the afternoon as she was getting lonely in the house by herself.  I also didn't put her on a leash.  She mostly behaved herself and only a few hours later got brave enough to leave the yard.

Performing Daisy's patented cat scan on the garage sale set up

Then Daisy decided to sit under the car in the shade and out of the way of the 'hub-bub', especially when a couple of families with boisterous kids came by.

Somebody's tail is showing!

Later Daisy stalked a bird drinking from the water in the street.  At least, until the bird's buddy came over and made a ruckus about Daisy alerting the other bird to the danger.  Then Daisy laid under a tree to the bird's unhappiness in the tree above her.  Daisy ignored the birds (or pretended to).

In the evening after the garage sale was over for the day I let Daisy outside.  This time on the leash.  I moved the leash's stake so Daisy could get under the car.   As I was eating supper a neighbor came over to alert me that Daisy was 'talking' and may be in trouble.   Daisy wasn't in trouble.   She was at the end of her leash next to a car tire and was complaining about either not being able to go farther or about the smell (of another cat?) on the car tire -or both.  And the mosquitoes were now out and a couple of them were on her head and face.  So I brought Daisy back inside the house.