Christmas gifts

Daisy thought the t-shirt I got for Christmas was her present...

After I got my shirt back I put some catnip in an old sock and gave it to Daisy as her Christmas gift to play with for a little while...

Did I hear something?

Nope.  Back to playing with the catnip.

Ooohhh.. I got an itch.

Back to playing with the catnip.

Tonight Daisy pulled up a rug to make a pillow for her to lay her head on as she laid by the wood stove.

Daisy and deep snow

Daisy accompanied me in the morning as I shoveled paths to the various buildings through the 6 to 8 inches of snow that fell over overnight.

Come on.  Catch up.  I need a path around this corner to walk on.

Tired of waiting for me to shovel a path.

Here is a 47 second video of Daisy walking though the snow:  https://youtu.be/EK312tvdjX4

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Daisy helping with two middle pasture gates

When I rebuilt the fence back in July, most days Daisy came out with me and kept me company while I worked on the fence. Luckily she did not come the two days I had to deal with the hornets.

At this link are 18 more photos of Daisy while I worked on the fence: https://picasaweb.google.com/109566462412251958234/DaisyMiddleFenceGates?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIqYzuOdn9uUPg&feat=directlink


For more photos of the fence work, see this blog post: http://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2015/12/two-gates-in-hayfield-fence.html
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Watching the cows fight

When the two cows fought this morning Daisy climbed up on a railroad tie on the corral fence and watched the fight with me.

http://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2015/12/cow-fight.html

Curled up and sleeping

While the following photo doesn't show it, sometimes Daisy tucks her face into her arm so much I wonder how she is able to breathe.

Snow day

With such a snowy day Daisy spent most of the day inside.

After I took her photo Daisy wanted me to scratch her neck.

In moving around for me to scratch her neck she slid off the couch.

Army cat

Last night when I went outside to call for Daisy an owl was sitting up on the power pole by the garage.  I heard the owl before I saw it.  It had an unusual guttural call, not the typical "screeech" or "whoo".  It made its call after I called for Daisy.  I figured Daisy was hunkered down to wait the owl out.  I waited a few minutes. Then in the darkness I noticed a white flash along the tool shed.  It moved to the corner of the garage before making its way to the porch.

It was Daisy.

She was making moves like they do in army movies where they hug buildings and zig-zag to avoid enemy fire.  It worked as Daisy got to the house without the owl coming after her.

In the middle of night / early morning when Daisy went outside again she caught a small shrew and left it on the porch.   Take that owl!  Think you can poach on my turf - think again!

Tonight there is no owl.  When I went outside to give the cattle their night's hay Daisy was up on the house roof watching the world and for "da mousies". Owls aren't the only animal to use height to look for mice.  By the time I gave the cattle their first bale of hay here comes Daisy to the barn to help me.  She doesn't jump off roofs but she sure can get down quick when she wants to.

Soaked

It started to rain late afternoon just before Daisy finished her afternoon nap.  So when she wanted to go outside she ended up sitting on the porch and watching the rain fall.

Later in the evening the rain stopped for a while and Daisy went back outside.  Just a little bit ago she was at the door asking to come inside.  I couldn't get the door open fast enough as she was soaked.  Very wet.

I ended up rubbing the water off her back.  After she groomed herself she is now laying by me at the computer.

Spending time outside

With the inversion gone today, and the sun out and warmer temperatures, Daisy took advantage and spent most of the day outside.

Now she is a tired kitty and is stretched out on my lap and sleeping - which is making typing hard.

On her blankie in my chair

This morning Daisy wanted time with me.  Once I got the fire going in the wood stove she laid and rested her head against my leg.  I thought she would get a crick in her neck from her odd laying position.  Then she changed positions.  She still laid against my leg but not at such an angle as she laid one front leg over my leg to keep me sitting by her.  She was pretty cute about it.  She only barely used her claws to snag my pants in order to keep her paw from siding off my leg.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me as both positions would have made great photos.

Water in the sink

The Valley inversions are still in effect so Daisy and I had to make our own fun indoors.  Here she insisted on drinking water from the bathroom sink.

Mirror, mirror on the wall... whose the fairest one of all?

Now what's there to do?

Oh.  Water in the sink.

Is it okay to drink?

Yup.  Looks okay to drink.

Drinking.

Can't a girl get a drink around here without having her photo taken?

Seriously!  I am soooo over you and your picture taking.

Winter blues

Winter is here.  The temperatures have not been above the low 20s F for quite a few days.  The Valley inversion is very strong.  The ground is frozen.  Looks like fence work is done until next Spring.

Daisy isn't too thrilled with the Winter either.  She wants to go outside and do her patrolling around the ranch but the cold and cold ground has her back inside the house in a short while.  She was outside for an hour early this morning.  I kept waking up and getting out of bed every ten to 20 minutes to see if she wanted back in but she didn't come to the door until an hour later.  Then we both went back to bed for some hours.

Otherwise she is a bored cat.  She is also gaining weight.  This evening she tried to do her somersaults against my bag but couldn't get it right.  When I asked her if her failure to somersault was because she is getting fat, she meowed back at me that, no, and that it isn't polite to talk about her weight.  Okay....

Late morning...

Seriously!!  Another photo, and with a flash yet?!!

Laying by the wood stove in the afternoon...

Bored.  Bored.  Bored.

You come to play with me?

 In the evening when I was on the computer...

More tool shed work

With the nicer and drier weather Daisy spent part of the afternoon with me as I worked on the tool shed roof.

Rainy day blues

It wasn't raining when Daisy went outside at 4 am, but then it pretty much rained all day.  Daisy finally returned after noon.  She had given up waiting for the rain to stop.  She was wet when she came inside the house.  She made a different kind of meow / moan when she came in and walked to her food dish.  It sounded like she was disgusted by the cold wet weather.

While Daisy did go outside a few times to check on the weather or to drink from the rain gutter downspout, for the most part she laid either by the wood stove or on my lap.

Won't this rain ever quit?!

Toolshed roof and vent

When I was on the tool shed roof preparing it for re-shingling Daisy got up on the roof - without using the ladder - to join me.  She climbs a fence post, then from the top of the post jumps onto the roof.  To get off the roof she jumps from the roof back to the top of the fence post, then climbs down the post.  I'll try to get a photo later showing how far the post is from the roof.

Most times I am up on the roof working Daisy comes up to join me. Thursday she came up after I installed the new roof vent.

Checking that I installed the vent correctly.

Checking out the plastic I use to cover the exposed parts of the roof from rain.

Daisy using her super power vision to check stuff out.