So, You Have or Want a New Family Member? A Dog?! A Cat?!

Written on January 27, 2010 – 6:01 am | by maxine |

 

I will never forget coming to live here in the Ark.  One extremely hot summer’s day in June 2001 Bob (that’s the head two legger in the Ark) saw me with my litter mates in a box just outside a grocery store.  Two little girls were trying to sell us and it was so hot nobody was even stopping to look at us.  But Bob did!  To make a long story short, Bob and Andrea (his daughter) raced home and begged Mrs. Noah to let me come to live in the Ark. That very afternoon they took me to a vet to make sure I was OK, and the next thing you know, I was HOME! 

Trust me, Mrs. Noah doesn’t normally recommend this way of adopting dog or another pet.  It turns out I was the runt of the litter.  But, with lots love and care I grew to be 55 pounds – actually much bigger than even the vet expected who thought I would be about 30 pounds at the most!  In fact, the vet on that afternoon must have been very hot himself because he didn’t even know for sure what breed I was.  He said to consider me as a “rescue” pup.  What the girls told Bob was definitely NOT what I turned out to be.  When I was younger I needed lots of walking and running time and it turns out I have hip problems and skin issues, oh yes, and some allergies. These are some of the reasons Mrs. Noah always says to do your homework before choosing a pet.  Thankfully, my family did not surrender me to a animal shelter when I got so big and they gradually found out my health issues.  Unfortunately, a lot of people do abandon the poor doggy that just grew and grew and grew, or ate and ate and ate, or barked and barked and barked, or chewed and chewed and chewed, or . . . .!!
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A Guest Room?

Written on January 20, 2010 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

Remember that New Year’s guest room project we told you about?  Well, it turns out it is more than a guest room.  In fact, our people are trying to put one over on poor Sandi!

Mrs. Noah is given to staying up late into the night working in the office.  Sandi can’t stand it when someone is up – particularly Mrs. Noah.  So, Sandi . being a descendent of a long line of herders, stays in the office whining and carrying on in an attempt to get Mrs. Noah to go to bed.  Sandi gets exhausted and really does not appreciate the long hours Mrs. Noah puts in.  So, it turns out that is one of the reasons why Mrs. Noah and Andrea came up with the guest room plan.  Yes, it will be a guest room but it is certainly not going to be sitting idle waiting for a guest to come along!
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New Year = Changes

Written on January 16, 2010 – 6:30 pm | by maxine |

Had this post been written when it should have been, it would have been titled “Happy New Year!!”  However, around here, one has to be flexible.  When our people rang in the new year we were ALL up to our ears in the middle of changes.  A lot of people stay up late on New Years Eve partying or at least counting down the minutes until the new year arrives and then they sleep in the next day.  Which, of course, is fine by the cats in our family, who tend to be a little nocturnal in nature and who appreciate having someone awake in the night to play with.  But, not around here!  Our people celebrate New Years with Newfoundland time which is an hour and a half earlier than the eastern time zone we are in.  That way they get to bed earlier and can start the New Years Day earlier and get right into whatever their New Year’s project is.

The “New Year’s project” was started early this year.  
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Not a Creature Was Stirring – Not Even a Mouse!

Written on December 23, 2009 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

The season of blessings and good cheer is upon us.  In just two days, people will be quoting those words, “Not a creature was stirring – not even a mouse!” 

It’s sad, but true.  Back last summer at the warehouse Mrs. Noah found a mouse in a big box of styrofoam packing wiggles.   It was stuck in there and couldn’t climb out.  Now this was a good thing because he/she had been messing up the warehouse for quite some time and there had been considerable conversations about the various options for getting it out into the great outdoors.  This was a golden opportunity.  Mrs. Noah loaded the box into the back of the van, she drove several miles away from the warehouse – way out in the country – and she let the mouse go free beside a nice big field.   The only thing is, it turned out there was more than one mouse and none of the rest of them had the good sense to fall into a box of styro wiggles!  Hence, much more discussion.
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What Do You Mean – Don’t Have a Friendly Personality?

Written on December 16, 2009 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

Mrs. Noah was speaking with a fellow who’s wife has a phobia about cats.  She apparently sees ALL cats as a threat to her personal safety and enjoyment of life.  He (her husband) stated that no cat is a friendly cat and that they are only self-serving and totally aloof, only giving you the time of day when they want something!  And he applied that observation to any and every cat on the planet.

Well, that would be like saying that since Uncle Joe is selfish and self-absorbed, all men are likewise selfish and self-absorbed.  Teenage Martha is as lazy as the day is long so all teen girls are lazy.  Teenage Mike is vain and conceited and so all male teens are likewise.  No man will ever find a loving, caring, compassionate woman because there is a woman somewhere who, as the Bible says, is like living with a dripping faucet and it is better to live on the corner of the rooftop than in the house with her.  So, since there is one woman, or even more than a few like that, all woman are tarred and feathered with the same brush!
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A Little Catty Intelligence

Written on December 2, 2009 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

 

Ya gotta love cats.  They spend hours and hours every day sleeping or, as they like to say, cat napping.  And still, they are mentally sharp.  I suspect they are not really sleeping at all but are actually scheming and planning out their next way to keep their care givers on their toes.  Just today, Mr. Noah had to stand on his very tippy tip toes to get Buzz down from the top of a cupboard that, by all normal accounts, he should not have been able to get up onto in the first place!  He must have schemed for days over a route to take him from the floor, straight up about seven feet to the top of the cupboard and to be able to tuck himself in behind a stack of file folders – incredible to say the least!
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Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Written on November 25, 2009 – 6:06 am | by maxine |

 

Yes, we know that the Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving on October 12 because in most areas of Canada, by the time the American celebration comes around, we are typically under lots of snow.  There is usually definitely more than just frost on the pumpkins where we live.  In fact, the pumpkins are all gone!  So Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who is celebrating the American Thanksgiving.

Probably there are people reading this who are in other countries who have celebrations of thanksgiving on other days.  So, in case we miss your special day, Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.


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White + Black + Brown = Cat Art

Written on November 18, 2009 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

I am almost embarrassed to say it but I am an artist!  To be honest, my skills came to light last week quite unexpectedly.  You just never know what talents and major discoveries are lurking in the background, just waiting to be exposed.

For instance, the world’s greatest artists did not just suddenly have people snapping up their very first works of art.  No, often their skills were not recognized until they had created hundreds of pieces and often not until long after they were dead!  The same is true of composers.  Authors usually have to endure receiving scads of “rejection” notices.  Plus, beauty is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder.  Mrs. Noah has often said her children painted better pictures than what are hanging in some world renowned art galleries and that had she marketed their kindergarten painting efforts she and they would be rich!  And just last week Mrs. Noah and I watched a small TV clip about a dog who has been taught to paint.  Yup, he has a paint brush with a small ball type thing on the end of it.  He holds the brush with the ball end in his mouth, dips the bristles into paint, then drags the paint across a canvass and voila, he is earning a fortune!


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Not Just ANY Water Will Do!!

Written on November 11, 2009 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

I’m not sure but, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that my body is mostly water, just like human bodies are mostly water.  In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that all cats and dogs are made up of mostly water. I do know it is very important that we have access to ample supplies of clean water in order to be as healthy as possible. Yes, I know that sometimes cats and dogs who live on their own might drink some less than clean water but, then again, most of them don’t live long either!  I also know that many pets drink tap water with no apparent negative effects, but not all of us, nor are humans, so fortunate to have no problems. 


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Do ALL two-leggers think – or is it just some that do?

Written on November 4, 2009 – 6:00 am | by maxine |

 

We – meaning we eight members of the livestock family here – were having a discussion the other day.  We overheard our human care givers talking about yet another report in the news about a small dog who had been carried off by a coyote.  All kinds of cats and dogs have gone missing and their care givers are sounding just devastated about it.  To be honest, this is one of those DAAH! situations.

Ya, we can understand the frustration of farmers who have had a terrible time this year with sheep and goats being carried off by coyotes.  Oh, in case you don’t know, a coyote is like a wild dog and they run in packs.  Farmers have fought with them for centuries!Apparently there has been an explosion in the population of coyotes this year and they are getting hungry and bold and are even wandering into towns and carrying off small pets. 
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