Chris & Joy's Critterweb » Winter

Facing a brand-new year, head-on

Chris — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:27:03 +0000

The holiday leftovers have all been eaten, the cards taken down, and I think there’s maybe half a glass of eggnog left in the fridge. The cats have scattered their Christmas toys under various large pieces of furniture and Gwen’s are already quite well-chewed. Winter Solstice brought us the promise of the days beginning to lengthen again, with Christmas came time spent with reconnecting with friends and family (some in person, others maybe only by phone or online) and then 2011 wound itself down to an end. And now here we are, in a brand new year again.

Last night we got a half inch of snow followed by a day of bitter cold, but I can’t complain as we’d been hammered with three heavy snows by this time last year and it’s been very mild. Perhaps winter will go easy on us this year. On New Year’s Day we had breakfast of homemade breakfast ‘sausage’ Joy made and eggnog pancakes I contributed, then relaxed for a few hours reading in front of the fire with all seven critters sprawled out around us. Then we went hiking with Gwen in the DuPont State Forest – it was brilliantly sunny and very warm for this time of year, a beautiful day for a hike. After we returned, we had another nice home cooked meal and a movie from Netflix. It was a relaxing and restorative holiday weekend and I hope it sets a good precedent for 2012.

Last year saw a lot of change and turmoil in the world around us, and it seems likely that pattern will continue… especially when you add in this being an election year here in the US (and the coming onslaught of nonsense that is going to bring), the ongoing recession, and all the Mayan calendar silliness. If there is actually some sort of ‘change of consciousness’ happening, maybe it’s that people are beginning to wake up on a mass scale, and really see what is going on around them. It needs to happen, the world is facing so many challenges and I’m hoping that all the protests and unrest are the first stage of people learning to work together and solve some of these problems.

On a more personal level, in 2011 we had a few changes around here. We added an unexpected family member… everyone has been too tactful to point out the ‘foster fail’, but guess we need to come clean, especially since our foster kitten, Ishi, is over a year old now! Equally unexpectedly, but with much regret, we also lost one this year. What happened with Paddy is still a sore spot… we never saw that coming and it still hurts.

Cricket made it through another year, for which we are grateful, though both she and Olive have gotten so old and frail… I’m not sure either of them has another Christmas in them, all we can do is make them as comfortable and happy as we can, and enjoy the time we have left with them. Time seems to flow faster with each passing year… I look at Simon, who is ten, and wonder where that black kitten disappeared to? Winter is six now and even Calvin is already all grown up, though still prone to flying through the air like superman. Gwen and Ishi, at 15 months, are still the ‘babies’ of the family, but not really babies anymore. I look in the mirror and see the inevitable passage of time etched in lines on my face , and glistening in the ‘few white hairs’ that are becoming a white streak…and as I stare at my reflection, I ask myself the important question, “is there ‘enough’ grey mixed in with the dark brown yet?” You know, so that I can dye my hair some outlandish shade of purple and actually be able to see the purple? Almost, I think. Maybe next year.

I thought that the above picture of Ishi that I’d been playing with in Photoshop, seeming to look out the window pensively (actually she was watching our new neighbor working in his garage) was a good image to start the year with. From this angle, you can’t even see that she singed off half her eyebrows last night sniffing a candle. Come to think of it, maybe that’s an even better metaphor to live by for 2012 – having the initiative to explore new experiences in the coming year, face them head on.

Even if you lose a few eyebrows in the process.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Chris — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:12:21 +0000

The stockings are hung, good things are cooking in the kitchen, and the animals are all getting ready…

Some of them are pretty excited:

Others are maybe a bit more laid back about it:

It’s a good time to put on a costume, if you’re so inclined:

Or your fancy party clothes:

And there’s possibly even been a bit of caroling going on:

Of course, there’s always that one family member who puts away a bit too much of the spiked eggnog at the holiday party:

Calvin is having somewhat of an impulse control issue about waiting till Christmas morning to open presents:

This is the second time I’ve had to drag him out of this one, and rearrange the (increasingly more shredded) paper in the bag. And it’s not even his present.

Winter has decided the presents don’t need to be unwrapped to be useful:

We hope everyone has a safe, wonderful, and abundant holiday, and good things for the year to come!

The Annual Halloween Critter Costume Party

Chris — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:38:39 +0000

Fairy Princesses in the sun

It’s that time of year again… we took the pictures a day early because it might be dark by the time I get home from work tomorrow. The full album is here.

Turtle high five!

Cricket, Gwen, Simon, and Calvin

The usual disclaimer applies: no animals were physically harmed in the making of this photo album, but we can’t make any guarantees as to psychological effects. It’s payback for every lost night of sleep, and everything chewed, clawed or smashed throughout the rest of the year.

Who are these cats, and what have they done with Winter and Simon?

Chris — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:34:40 +0000

I don’t think I’ve ever seen these two within a foot of each other. There was a sunbeam involved.

A new year comes bounding in…

Chris — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:21:55 +0000

…like a hellhound out of some frozen Hell. That is what a friend jokingly said about the above picture, and that description seems to fit the weather of the past month rather well. It’s a shiny new year, but that’s because of the glare bouncing off all the snow and ice. We’ve had four snows – three of them significant, the last one still with us. Each time the snow was followed by days of bitter cold. Yesterday morning, it was four degrees outside when we got up. It’s very unusual for NC to get weather like this, and with this being the second year of it, I think we’re beginning to suffer from snow fatigue.

The dogs, on the other hand, (Cricket being the exception here) are loving the snow. They frolic in it until they are exhausted. Paddy eats it, snorts it, digs in it gleefully. Gwen bounds through it and ends up coated in snow, looking like some sort of miniature yeti. At least someone is enjoying it, right?

If you click on either of the above pictures it will take you to a gallery of their “Fun in the snow” from January 10.

Last year wasn’t the greatest one, but I am thankful for everything we have. These are hard times, a lot of people are struggling hard, facing incredible losses, and we’re fortunate to have stable jobs and a roof (of our own, yet!) over our heads. We lost Lindsy this past year, and it’s still weird and sad to have her gone. She was part of our lives for what felt like forever. We had Paddy and Gwen (who I still haven’t properly introduced here, that’s coming) join the family, and the little kitten we adopted in December of 2009 blossomed into the most wonderful big hunk of orange cuddliness. We adore our Calvin.

Cricket – amazingly – is still with us and thanks to some advice from our vet, her stomach trouble is better than it has been in years. Olive reached her fourteenth birthday! Simon is nine – nine! Holy crap, how did that happen? Winter, the ‘baby’ before Calvin came, will be six this coming June. Time just seems to go faster and faster.

This year ahead is going to be a tough one, I think; we have family members facing serious health challenges and it feels like there is some uncertainty and change possibly in the wind with other parts of our lives. But I also feel that these are all things that everyone could emerge on the other side of better than before. We just need to buckle in for the wild ride, and remember to be grateful for all the good things in our lives.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Chris — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:25:59 +0000

It’s that time of year again! The full album is here but below are a few highlights…

Cricket the flapper

Winter in her Sunday best

Simon butterfly

Calvin the purple dinosaur

Angry Olive Tiger

and last but not least….

Paddy the Cheerleader!

Simon sauntered around the entire time in his wings, I don’t think he wanted to take them off. Cricket also enjoyed her dress. Calvin wasn’t pleased with his outfit at first but eventually got into it. Paddy was cool with the dress and pink toenails, but not so much with the wig. They all enjoyed the treats, though.

Feeding frenzy. If you look close, you’ll see everyone is in the picture.

Winter makes her mark

Chris — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:38:39 +0000

We aren’t quite ready to say what is under those crate halves, but we will say that Winter was unexpectedly underneath the one half when I picked it up to cover the spot…

…as her signature proves.

Happy 9th birthday, Simon!

Chris — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:32:27 +0000

Today was Simon’s birthday, or at least it’s the day we celebrate it. Since Simon was a rescue that we adopted while living in Tucson, AZ, we kind of had to estimate by the age he was when we got him. We can’t believe he is actually NINE!

There was vanilla ice cream, and cheetos, two of Simon’s favorite things…

… though there was also no shortage of volunteers offering to help him finish the ice cream.

It being the first birthday party Paddy has attended, he had some etiquette issues involving others’ ice cream and had to have a leash.

Cricket was proud of her party outfit, which she got from Wag!…

Winter chose to show up fashionably late and missed the ice cream.

Olive isn’t much for crowds and watched from a distance.

Calvin didn’t have time to pick out an outfit so he made his own.

After the ice cream, everyone headed out to the park to play soccer.

Simon got to play first, it being HIS birthday…

…but Calvin couldn’t resist jumping in…

… and like many good parties (and sporting events) it kind of ended in a drunken brawl.

Sunny Saturday

Chris — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:20:37 +0000

Well, it’s raining again today but yesterday was pretty nice… if a bit chilly. We had a vet appointment in the morning to get Paddy’s DHLPP booster and then bundled up a bit to sit out in the sun with the critters. Calvin is now allowed out with supervision (at least until we get the tree scrunchies installed on the cherry tree) and Winter didn’t get photographed much because she was off stalking birds. Olive didn’t make it into the photo gallery at all, because I figured we already have a bazillion pictures of her sitting watching for moles… but then again,we did take yet another picture of Simon upside down. Honest, the cat is not paraplegic, he does walk sometimes. Paddy is on a leash only because we are being very slow and careful about introducing him to being outside with the cats (blame that, again, on Arthur) but he is doing really good. Lindsy is having a harder and harder time getting around and it shows in these pictures, sadly.

Anyway, here are a few highlights and the full album can be found in the gallery. There’s even a few rare pics of the critterweb humans.

Simon appreciating the chilly day from the comfort of a lap.

The mini roses all survived the winter and are getting leaves already.

Cricket also subscribes to the ‘sunbathing is better on a lap’ ideal.

Last year’s parsley, still going strong.

Unbeknown to her, the huntress (Winter is on far right of pic) is also the hunted.

A photo op goes awry.

Lindsy, Chris, Simon, and Paddy

When I was taking this, I wondered if Joy was having a creepy sensation of being spied on?

Calvin had a great time outside.

There are 21 more pictures in the full album.

More snow pics

Chris — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:29:25 +0000

The entire gallery can be found here.

Winter thought she wanted out…

…but changed her mind.

The snowcat was joined by a snowowl

if you look real close you can see our power lines – under the weighted hemlock branches.

neighbor’s house through the snowy fence

Even the abandoned rundown house next to us looks pretty in the snow

My favorite pic – one of our dogwood trees, as seen from below.

We ended up with eight inches and the snow was tapering off when it got dark. The roads are now clear. I am assuming at this point that I’ll be able to get out of here and get to Tennessee tomorrow but it should make for an, uh, interesting journey through Sam’s Gap.