Cat Fight!!!

Wow, I really have nothing in my brain that is of any interest to write about lately. Sooo, I'll just post this cute little video of Figgy and Chloe wrestling. This is my first attempt at posting a video. I apologize for the darkness. Question: How do you know when cats are just playing and not really fighting? Answer: you won't hear a sound from them when they are just playing. No growling, crying, or hissing. The only sound you do hear is the 10:00 news. I didn't realize it was on so loud!

And just a few minutes later, I found them curled up together

Opps, gotta go. They're playing last year's season ending episode of LOST to get us up to date before the premiere tomorrow night. I can't wait!!!

A Look Back in Time

I've been dealing with a sick kitty lately so I've had no interest or energy to blog.


I've also been keeping up with the uprising in Kenya which makes me incredibly sad. Ten years ago in May I went on my dream vacation--a safari to East Africa. Kenya and Tanzania to be exact. Kenya and Tanzania are right next to each other but worlds apart as third world countries go. Kenya was light years ahead of Tanzania with regards to the infrastructure (roads, electricity, etc) and the education of its people. People of both countries though were incredibly warm, inviting and eager to practice their english. My trip came just a few years after the massacre in Rwanda and I remember talking to my Maasai tour guide (Victor) in Tanzania and my Kikuyu guide (Godrey Mathenge) in Kenya. Both assured me that what happened in Rwanda would never happen in either Kenya or Tanzania since each country had over 20 tribes and there was not one tribe that was dominant. It breaks my heart thinking that some of the most philosophical and gentle people I have ever met may be fearing for their lives right now, or perhaps worse.

So, I took out my photos today to look over the incredible wildlife that exists in those countries. In fact, my signature photo is of me in Tanzania holding a baby goat when we visited a maasai village. I'll post a few photos here. Again, I have to apologize for the quality of the photos. My actual photos turned out better than I ever imagined but trying to take a quick photo of a photo never quite cuts it.

My favorite cat, the cheetah.

Cat on a rock. The Great Rift is in the background.

Peekaboo

Hyenas are incredibly complex animals. Not just the scavenger that many people think it is. I would hear them from my tent "laughing" during the night.



These Rhinos in the Ngorongoro Crater were so endangered that they were under 24 hour watch with armed guards in the park. Poachers would come from Somolia to kill them just for their horn.

Tick birds hitching a ride

"What are YOU looking at?"

You have to trust me that this is one gorgeous bird! A Lilac-breasted Roller.

A Weaver Bird's nest

I'm ashamed to say I can't remember what type of owl this is. I love that I got this shot. It's wings always remind me of the old Delorian cars and how their doors would open.

I'll leave my little photographic safari with a quote that is hanging on a wall next to a group of some of these photos in my tv room--

"I prayed that all this lovely wildness would not forget me, and the answer was always 'It is not I who will forget, it is for you to make your way back"

The people of Kenya are in my thoughts and prayers

A Broken Smile beneath her Whispered Wings

Isn't that a hauntingly beautiful sentence?

I have a confession to make. I suffer from a form of OCD. Sometimes a song, a book, a movie, or a person will lodge itself into my head and I need to either continually listen to a song, watch a movie or read up on someone until the obsession slowly fades away.

The first time I noticed this was when I read the the biography of Zelda Fitzgerald in my mid-20s. I just became fascinated with her and had to go to the library and read everything I could about her and F. Scott. By sheer luck, at the same time there was a one-woman show in DC at the National Portrait Gallery about Zelda Fitzgerald where she read her letters. I saw her every performance. I topped it off by making a field trip out to Rockville, Maryland to the cemetary where F. Scott and Zelda are buried. After that I finally felt sated and went onto something else.

When the movie The Mothman Prophecies came out in 2002 I was really intrigued. The movie was totally panned by almost every movie critic labeling it an X-Files wannabe with a terrible ending because there were no answers and no resolution. I waited until it came out on DVD and saw it. I LOVED it and recommended it to everyone. Fast forward to this December. If you have Comcast Digital cable you know you can rent movies On Demand right off your TV for $3.99. They also have a "library" of free movies that you can watch. Each free movie usually last for a month when they are replaced with another. Toward the end of December I realized The Mothman Prophecies was listed as free but would expire on December 26. I watched it and that something clicked in me. I don't know if it was the eeriness of the movie, the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack (which I've already ordered), the fact that it is based loosely on a true story and filmed partially here in DC, or all of the above. Whatever it was, I watched it every night. When I was off for the holidays I watched it multiple times during the day. It seems that everytime I watched it I learned something new. There is a point in the movie when Richard Gere grabs a book and asked someone/something over the phone what the 3rd line is on page 51 and the voice whispers the line from the paperback "A Broken Smile beneath her Whispered Wings" It still gives me goosebumps.

Look, even the photo of the book didn't come out very clear---spooky!!

I was so intrigued with the line from the book that I googled it and unfortunately it was just scripted for the movie.

My fixation has not stopped yet. I'm going through Mothman withdrawals. But, I should be getting the movie from NetFlix any day now!!

What about you? Is there anything you are obsessed with?

Bartlett or Bosc?

New Year's Eve at the Elephant Sanctuary

I've always felt New Year's Eve was a forced holiday. I can't ever remember having a very good time at a NYE party, even when I was dating someone! Unless a neighbor invites me over for a drink and to watch a good dvd, I'll happily stay home and watch the Twilight Zone marathon.

So, if there are any other boring people out there like myself who will be staying home tonight I wanted to alert you to a fun virtual NYE party going on at the Elephant Sanctuary. They started it last year with posting new videos of the girls and a live streaming video with sounds of the girls in their barn at night. Listening to all that trumpeting is not to be missed! I believe they will have new videos posted every hour. Festivities start at 4:00 pm (CST). Check them out at elephants.com.

To get you in the mood, I'm posting the Elephant Sanctuary's latest ele-update. It's a hoot!

*************************

During a late night feed last week Carol lost her favorite earflap hat. It was pouring down rain, so she headed back to the barn with the plan to retrieve her hat the next morning. But the next morning the hat was nowhere to be found. All of the staff at the Quarantine barn were on the lookout for this favorite hat, but it was soon accepted that some form of wildlife had found it and carried it off to their den; what a warm bed that would make! But today while Julia was out feeding the elephants, she found Carol’s hat and called immediately to report her find. Carol rushed out with the camera in order to share the news with all of you. Lottie had not only found the hat, but had tasted it, chewed on it, dragged it through the mud, played tug of war with Minnie with it, and finally tossed it on top of her back where it lodged itself in the fresh mud caking Lottie’s back.

It was kind of cute, like a colorful mouse-size throw blanket. When Carol approached to take pictures and retrieve the hat, Lottie was amused and Minnie was by her side, likewise interested in what Carol was so focused on. Lottie approached Carol chattering, and after many photos were taken, was happy to stand still as Carol reached up to the top of Lottie’s back with a long stick to retrieve the hat. Well, it was really no longer a hat; actually at this point it resembled more of a turtle neck sweater, minus the sweater part because of the large openings at either end. It was no longer any use as a hat so Carol tossed the hat to Jessie the dog who grabbed it and raced off as if he had just scored the best toy ever, with Miai and Java on his heels!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

Update: check out the video link below. It is SO adorable! It shows other four-legged folks that call the Elephant Santuary home.

http://www.tappedintoelephants.com/ram/Dog_Video.ram

Christmas goes to the cats

A good Christmas was had by Possumlady. I went over to my sister's house where we had her traditional Christmas dinner of Prime Rib with yorkshire pudding, my creamed onions, grilled asparagus and a wonderful salad with dried cranberries and macadamian nuts.

Before I left for my sisters, I sprinkled catnip both inside and on the front porch for the outside kitties. I returned home around 10:00 pm feeling both stuffed and exhausted. My sister lives about an hours drive away which is not too bad but I do have to drive the dreaded beltway. I don't mind it too much during the day but it seems much more dangerous at night.

A Christmas moon.

Anywho, I should have gone right to bed but I couldn't resist giving the cats their presents from my sister. It was an entire box of cat toys!! I have never seen so many. I just set the open box on the floor with the tissue paper still in it and stepped back to see what would happen.

This is right after the initial mayhem. Oliver is sitting on the overturned gift box. Notice the shreds of tissue paper.

"Say your prayers mousie"

"Let me just nibble on your tail a wee bit"

"I know I should be playing with this little stuffed stocking, but it is awfully late."

(Yawn) "I think it makes a very nice pillowwwzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Merry Christmas!!

From Santa Claws (aka Sweet Pea)....

And his trusted sidekick, Woody the black-nosed reincat.

Okay, a little background here. I was at Petsmart and found these little cat hats and HAD to buy them. I must have seemed a little unbalanced as I stood in line to pay, laughing to myself while looking at the hats. Someone asked "Are those for cats?!!" I said "YES, I can't imagine EVER getting one of my cats to wear these but I have to try!!"

Sweet Pea has this annoying habit to jump and sit in my favorite chair and WILL NOT BUDGE. Trying to get him to move involved lots of cajoling from me and cries and growls on his part. This particular time he just would. not. move. Hmmm, I thought, a perfect time to get the santa hat out. I put it on him as he continued to growl. I was laughing which did not improve his mood. I then ran to get the camera and fired off a number of shots before he jumped off the chair and pulled the hat off. So, the above photo is of one ANGRY Santa Claws.

Woody on the other hand, while not too pleased to have his ears covered, nonetheless, put up with it because his mom laughs and pays attention to him. Both good things as far as Woody is concerned.

A Very Merry Christmas to all, and may God bless us.....

Every One!!

Love, Possumlady and everyone here at the Possumlady Home for Wayward Animals.