Sunday, March 6, 2016

Two more mice

When I checked on Daisy at 8 am I found two dead mice on the front step.  Daisy came in the house and I went back to bed.   When I checked at 11 am both mice were gone.  I know Daisy didn't move them.

Monday, February 29, 2016

First mouse of 2016

This morning when I opened the door at 7 am to let Daisy back in the house I found a dead mouse on the front step.  Daisy had been working.   I decided I would remove the mouse when I got up for real later in the morning.

After eating Daisy wanted to go back outside.  She ran past the mouse without looking at it.  Hours later when I got up for real I discovered the mouse was gone from the front step.  I never did find the mouse.  I doubt it was Daisy who moved the mouse.  She leaves the mouse when she is done playing with it.  I think another animal, probably a magpie, took the mouse.

This is the first mouse I found this year.  But it may not have been the first mouse Daisy caught and killed this year.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Water trough and attention

Friday Daisy went out at 4:30 am and didn't come back into the house until 7 am when I woke up to check on her.  After eating, she roamed around.  In the bedroom she wanted me to open a drawer so she could climb in it.  But this time it didn't feel right for sleeping.  She turned around and around and after a short bit of grooming jumped back out.  A little more roaming around before she jumped up on the bed with me and settled down against/on me.  I finally was able to go back to sleep.

Later once I got up, and Daisy realized I was up for good and was going outside, she got up and came outside with me to check on the cattle and fill the water trough.

Here she is waiting while I fill the water trough.



A serious half-awake cat who hasn't had her breakfast yet.

Once I filled the water trough she drank and drank and drank.

Here is a video of her initially drinking:  https://youtu.be/bfwKyLpWx4U


Later when I was playing the video of Daisy on my computer Daisy heard her meow but didn't realize it was her, and was unsure of where the cat who was meowing was located.  So she left.

Around noon she kept coming in and out of the house in an effort to get me to come outside and be with her.  Sorry Daisy, I have things to do.  By the time I went uptown for my doctor visit Daisy came in the house and went to sleep.


Mid evening Daisy came back in the house because it was raining outside.  But she was restless.  She came to me at the computer and meowed at me to come with her.  Instead of going outside she plopped down by the wood stove and began playing with the rug.  Once she settled down and was staring at the wood stove fire light flickering on the walls I went back to the computer.

Ten minutes later Daisy was back meowing at me to follow her.  Again, instead of going outside, she again plopped down near the wood stove and played with the rug.  By now the rug was a balled up mess.  She wasn't satisfied until I laid down on the floor by her and watched her play.  She would play with the rug then look at me with her big dark eyes wanting a reaction from me.  One time she reached over with one paw and lightly patted me on my nose.  I appreciated that she did not have her claws out.

Once the rain quit Daisy went back outside and I was able to get back to my blog.

Later when I went outside to check on the cattle's water trough before going to bed Daisy came over and impatiently waited for me to return to the house.  She then quickly led me back to the house - no dawdling this time! - where she then went right to eating.   Before I could fall asleep she wanted back outside.  The second time she asked I relented.  She spent most of the night outside as I slept long and hard.


Saturday evening Daisy slept under a drying rack for a while.  No, she is not drunk on Barq's root beer.  She likes to sleep funny.



When I took the first photo Daisy opened her eyes after the camera's flash went off and then I caught her looking at me in the second photo.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Grabbing the chair

Earlier this evening Daisy didn't take pity on a poor cripple with only one good arm and she grabbed the computer chair for herself.

I took the first picture.  The camera's flash woke Daisy up and in the second photo she rolled over to go back to sleep in the third photo.



Saturday, February 13, 2016

Wet

Today Daisy accompanied me as I checked on the hay for the cattle and refilled their water trough.  Tomorrow I will have to move another hay bale out to the pasture for the cattle. While the recent warm weather melted most of the snow off the larger hay bales, even with the use of only one arm today I climbed up on several rows of hay bales to push the remaining snow off of them. 

Daisy climbed up too.  Even though it began to rain before I finished Daisy stayed with me until the end.  I lifted her down so she didn't have to jump off into a snow bank.  Once in the house I rubbed the water off her fur as she was plenty wet.  What a loyal cat.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Net wrap

The net wrap from the last large hay bale was like catnip to Daisy today.  She rubbed on it and rolled around in it and laid and slept on it.



Another sleepy day for me.  I slept until 11 am.  Then around 12:30 pm I feel asleep again until 3:15 pm.  I then awoke from a dream about waking up from a dream.  Dream within a dream was odd.  I don't remember it now, but at the time I woke up I could remember what the inner dream was about.

I am now up to four hours between pain pills.  When the pills are wearing off I don't feel sharp pain.  Instead it feels like ever increasing pressure on my broken bone.  Last night I went outside to check on the cattle's water trough before going to bed.  It was chilly and I wasn't wearing a coat.  The cold affected my shoulder and greatly increased the pressure on my broken bone.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Winter routine

Here is Daisy's routine in the Winter when she isn't outside as much.

She wakes me up usually between 5 am and 6 am to be let outside.  She scratches on the bed mattress to wake me up.

She goes outside to see what's going on outside.  I go back to bed.

I try to wake back up 5 to 15 minutes later to let her back in the house.  I fall asleep easily so often I have to wake up.  When it is cold I make an effort not to fall back asleep.

Daisy comes back in the house to eat her breakfast. I go back to sleep.

If it is not too cold outside, 5 to 10 minutes later she wakes me back up by scratching on the bed mattress.

I let her back outside.  I go back to sleep.  This time I usually sleep one dream cycle and wake up an hour to 90 minutes later.

I call for Daisy and she comes back inside.  She runs to my bed and jumps on it.  I go back to sleep.  Before I fall asleep Daisy kneads the blankets against my legs.  Then she will curl up behind my knees, halfway laying on me as she insists on laying right against me.

Hours later I wake up.  Daisy wakes up.

Both Daisy and I go outside.  I toss the wood stove ash from yesterday out in the hayfield.  Daisy follows in my footsteps through the snow.  She looks and listens for "da mousies" under the snow.  When it is time walk back to the house Daisy crouches down in one of my footprints then jumps up, spins around and runs back to the house.

Daisy follows me to go fill the cattle's water through.  Once the trough is full she drinks some water.  Yesterday I filled the trough right to the very top.  Daisy's tail got soaked as she sat right on top of the trough.

On the day between the large hay bales I toss several small hay bales for the cattle.  Daisy follows me to the barn and checks the rest of the bales out for "da mousies" while I give hay to the cattle.  When I am done and ready to close the barn door Daisy comes and then we go back to the house.

Daisy eats breakfast while I clean the ashes from the wood stove.  She then will go and watch the birds at the bird feeder, else run around the house checking everything out.  If I have the radio on too loud she will either go into the spare bedroom, the basement or back outside if it is not too cold.

I eat breakfast.  If outside, Daisy comes back inside.

At noon I watch the noon news and weather.  As I sit on the couch Daisy comes over.  Now that she got a blankie from Donna for Christmas I have to put her blankie on my lap so Daisy can knead on it.  Then she lays on her blankie and me for a little petting,then she goes to sleep.  Often I have to remember to bring something over to read after news and weather is over so I have something to do until she wakes up.

Eventually Daisy will move over to lay on her other blanket on the loveseat and I can get up.

When Tammy lived here Daisy did not want to lay on people's lap.  Daisy lays on my lap now.  The difference is that Tammy was cold when the house temperature was lower than 77 degrees.  I seldom have the house temperature over 70 degrees now.  When Tammy was here Daisy would lay on the tile floor in the bathroom or in the entryway sink, never near the wood stove.  Now Daisy lays near the wood stove or on my lap.  Sometimes when the stove is really putting out heat Daisy will alternate between the wood stove and on my computer table to cool down.

Daisy sleeps the afternoon.

Late afternoon / early evening Daisy wakes up to go outside.  Depending on the time and the weather she may go in and out a few times.

Once I start my supper, if Daisy is outside she scratches at the door to come inside.  She then asks for her "special treat" (wet food from a can) cat food.  I try to wait to give it to her until when my food is ready, but on the days where it takes a while for my food to cook she gets insistent on having her food now and I get an earful until I give it to her.  Of course once my food is ready later she comes back and tries to con me into giving her another helping of her "special treat" cat food.

A few times I gave her a large helping of her special treat food and she left a few pieces.  I would gather it on my finger for her to lick off and finish before I washed her dish.  Well.... now I am finding she always leaves one piece in her dish even if I give her a small amount.

After a little bit of grooming Daisy asks to go outside.  The temperature determines how long she stays outside.  When I am by the computer or in the living room Daisy knows to come to the other door to scratch and let me know she is ready to come inside.

Once inside she walks and rubs against the furniture and me as I kneel to pet her.  Often she does a few somersaults .  Then after a bite to eat she goes and lays down by the stove.

Later in the evening when the wood stove does down and I am watching a movie she will come join me on the loveseat.  Sometimes she will lay on my lap, usually she lays next to me.  When I go to bed she stays on the loveseat.  Sometimes when I later get up during the night I will find her on the back of the couch.

That's the Winter routine for a generally happy cat.


Saturday, January 16, 2016

Paper bag

Why get a fancy toy for Daisy to play with... she prefers the simple stuff.  Like a paper bag.  The past few weeks Daisy has been attacking a plain brown paper bag.  The bag is pretty beaten up now.

Daisy looks inside the bag.
Daisy tips the bag over.
Daisy crunches the bag.
Daisy somersaults on top of the bag.
Daisy rips the bag.
Daisy chews the bag.

Too much fun.

Posing by her bag.  She quit attacking the bag when I got my camera out.



Tearing off a piece of the bag.  You can see a strip of paper in her mouth.


Here is a 49 second video of Daisy with the bag.  Daisy stopped beating up on the bag when I got my camera out.  I kept the video because of how her tail was moving.  I waited for her to attack her tail like she often does but she got distracted by the birds at the bird feeder out the window.

https://youtu.be/pIAWxXwuBkM


Here is a photo of Daisy outside earlier this Winter.


Monday, January 4, 2016

Very bored kitty

Daisy is very bored.  It is too cold and snowy for her to spend much time outside.  When not sleeeping she lays and stares off into space.  When I go outside she often jumps up and watches me out the window.

Tonight while I was on the computer she came and meowed at me until I followed her over to the wood stove.  I had to lay down on the floor near her.    She stretched out and her tail was hitting the floor pretty hard. She wasn't in the mood to be petted.  She just wanted company.  She pushed up the rug.  A couple times I quickly reached over and touched one of her paws.  She is fast and almost got me with her paw and claws.  After I stopped she moved over and pressed her face against my shoulder and briefly gave a nip on my shirt before she moved back to where she was laying.  Wap! Wap! Wap! went her tail as she looked at me.

After a while I was able to get up and return to my computer.  She is now stretched out and laying on the computer table, bored.


Daisy's had her eyes open and was staring off into space until she saw me with the camera.  Then she closed her eyes.


Friday, December 25, 2015

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.


Tuesday, December 22, 2015

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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Friday, December 18, 2015

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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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

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



Sunday, December 13, 2015

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.


Thursday, December 10, 2015

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.


Wednesday, December 9, 2015

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.

Monday, December 7, 2015

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.


Saturday, December 5, 2015

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.

Friday, December 4, 2015

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.



Wednesday, December 2, 2015

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.