Wordless Wednesday

Snowy Days

"No photos please."

In case you haven't noticed, it has been so cold pretty much all over. What are they calling it? The Polar Vortex? Anyway, I find snowy and cold days to be the perfect ones for being outside. If you knew me, you'd think that's pretty weird since I say I hate snow. I just like the peaceful atmosphere.

Now, I rarely get to enjoy that peace and quiet for one reason: Woody. I cannot go outside without him or he barks, whimpers, and claws at the windows. It doesn't matter if I'm just going to grab something off the porch. He makes the biggest fuss if I don't bring him with me. 

And pretty much all he does when I do take him is run and jerk me around. He also gets caught around EVERYTHING. If you turn your back for a second, he's already tangled around every tree in sight. But, I do love to get pictures of him while running. They're not the easiest pictures to get. I end up with a lot of blurred ones because I couldn't tell that the shutter speed was so slow. Out of 100 pictures, I maybe get 3 good ones. And of course, he's not the easiest dog to get pictures of. Every time I get out the camera, he refuses to face me for long enough to get a picture. Sometimes I can bribe him with food or weird noises, but he just cannot sit still(unless it's with his back to me). You guys may never get to enjoy the cute faces he makes. :( Cherry, on the other hand, poses every time I get the camera out. She was born to be a diva.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for....

THE PICTURES!

DERP

Isn't it beautiful?

HERPADERP

I love this one.

"Ohhhh! Tracks!"

Black and White Sunday

A New Schedule

I have come to the conclusion that I will probably have enough time to do some blogging. I'm going to make some changes to the schedule, though. It may change at any time depending on what comes up. At some point I do want to start volunteering again and maybe get a job, so the schedule will change again then.

Anyway, here's the new schedule:

Monday- Pet post
Tuesday- None
Wednesday- Wordless Wednesday
Thursday-Saturday- None
Sunday- Black and White Sunday

Yeah, so there are a lot less scheduled posts, but I think that will make it easier to keep up with. :)

Three Years Already?

Wow. We've had Cherry for three years now. I remember the day we brought her home. I think now will be a nice time to write how I chose her. I can't remember if I've told you guys that story before, but it's a cute story.

Taken today; Age: 3 1/2

Anyway, Casie died on January 3rd, 2011. I was distraught. The only thing that could make me feel better was looking up cats that needed homes and looking through my book of cat breeds. I wasn't trying to replace Cas, I just couldn't deal with not having a cat. When Casie died, I realized how safe she made me feel. I couldn't sleep knowing there wasn't anyone there beside me. Woody isn't normally allowed upstairs in my room(not my choice), but for the two weeks when we didn't have a cat, he slept on my bed. I couldn't sleep otherwise.

So, by that night, we sent in a form to adopt a cat. It took two weeks for us to finally be able to go. We went on Martin Luther King Jr's day, so there was no school. I think it was a Monday. I was so excited. You have absolutely no idea how long I had waited to go and pick out a pet that would be all my choice. We got to the shelter and they asked what age we were looking for. My parents really didn't want a kitten, so we looked at the adolescent cats. I think they were probably 6 months and up.

Taken today

The first cat that I seriously considered was not Cherry. His name was Prince. He came right up to me as soon as I entered the room and he was so affectionate. The reason I didn't pick him was because he jumped out of my arms when I picked him up. I wanted a cat that I could hold. There really weren't many cats that caught my eye. A lot of them were pretty shy and some were fast asleep. I admit that I was kind of staying away from the black and black&white cats because I wanted something a bit more cool looking. I mean, Casie was pretty cool looking. Don't get me wrong, there's no way I was picking a cat based solely on looks. I'm a bit believer in letting an animal choose you. Also, Prince was a black and white cat. I liked him because he came right up to me.

Cherry was not my second choice either. I kind of wandered around picking up cats to see which one wanted to be held. I didn't do that for long and ended up picking up a feather toy. Cherry went right after it. She was the one chasing the toy in circles and falling over with dizziness. It was adorable. I picked her up and she flopped right over. I knew she was the one. I'll never regret that decision. She is the sweetest thing ever.

Within a few hours of bringing her home, she was already curled up in my arms fast asleep. She was still pretty wild though. I barely slept that night. She woke me up at 5am and I just decided to get up and feed her. Luckily, it was a snow day. But you know what? I couldn't have cared less about sleep. I had a cat again. And she was pretty awesome.

First picture of her I took

First day home; Age: 7 months

First day home

First day home

First day home

First day home

Now, I seriously need to update the header image and stuff. I hope to get that done maybe this week. I start classes Tuesday and this weekend I have three midterms to finish so I can withdraw from my old school. Once I see how my schedule works out this week, I'll make a decision on blogging. I want to start again because I've got so many cute videos of Cherry. She's also picked up some new tricks. ;)

Etsy

I don't know if any of you are interested, but I've listed some more clay dragon sculptures on my Etsy.


Also, I'll be receiving my class schedule tomorrow, so then I will have a better idea of if I'm ready to come back to regular blogging.

We may be back soon

So, I'm taking a different approach to school. I'll be on a college schedule, so hopefully that means more time for blogging.

An Obligatory Post

First off, happy New Year to everyone.

Now to get down to the business of this post. I know I said I'd be gone for an indefinite time, but this post had to be made.

Yesterday (January 3rd, 2014) was the third anniversary of Casie's death. It's hard to believe that it's been three years. It's still weird to think that she's dead, but I've got her box of ashes sitting beside me.

Casie was an interesting cat. If I had to think of one word to describe, I think I'd choose 'bitch'. She was mean. Everyone who ever worked at our house had been bitten by her at some point. She would turn on you in a heart beat. One minute she'd be rubbing against your leg and the next she'd be sinking her teeth into your skin. Even Titan was scared of her. I've still got scars from her.

See? Those are from a bite.

But I still loved her with all my heart. She was my best friend. She was my guardian. She wasn't the cuddliest or the nicest, but she loved in her own way. I was her favorite. I think I always had been. When I was little she would sleep under my bed or in my closet. She even used to bring me dead mice. I'm surprised that finding half a dead mouse on my bedroom floor didn't scar my four-year-old self for life.

As I got older, I held onto the fear of monsters in the dark. Casie spent every night curled up beside me. She might not have stayed all night, but she at least stayed until I was asleep. Every morning she'd be strolling up to my bed as I woke up. Sometimes she was still curled up beside me, but a lot of the times she would just greet me in the morning. I always felt safe with her beside me.

She mellowed out when she reached her last few years of life. She wasn't so much of a bitch then. It was probably because of her being sick, but it was a while before we realized it. Back around the Christmas of 2010, Casie stopped eating. I was very concerned about this. She loved food. For a while I felt like something was wrong with her, but how does a 13 year old justify that instinct? No vet would listen to it.

Casie was always large. For a while she was just fat. Although, she was a bit on the large side to begin with. She was kind of stocky. One thing I had noticed was that, in her later years, she wasn't fat fat. Her belly was huge, but when you looked at her from above, you could see her bones.

We took her to the vet and found out that she had a huge tumor. We decided to operate, but there was nothing they could do. The decision was made to put her down. It was such an awful day, but everything has it's time. You don't have to like it, but you can't spend forever in mourning. My way of mourning was to adopt Cherry. Within a few hours of Casie's passing, we were already filling out an adoption form. Two weeks later we picked up Cherry. I don't regret getting her so soon. Cherry never will replace Casie. Cherry filled the void of not having a cat, but she was not a replacement. She helped me get over the loss of Casie.

RIP Cas, I love you with all of my heart.