Sunday Lounging

Marley and Maxine have switched beds a few times, it is pretty funny. This is them Sunday afternoon after playing all morning outside while we read the Sunday paper, then hanging out with us inside while we did chores, and then outside again for the planting of four more herb plants. They were a little bit pooped out!

Marley, however, has never lost her vigilant watch for black cats! She will chase after them if given the opportunity but the gatos are not really afraid of her. Oddly enough Koof has been the most MIA - both Felix and Simone will come right up to Marley if Jimmy and I are in the room. However, if we leave the cats are fair game! And she will chase!

The Egg

Tonight we all grilled steak and assorted vegetables on The Egg (our grill). Marley was very obedient waiting for us to give her a taste of the meat but she had to go unsatisfied! She is a very intense dog and slightly needy, although very obedient. She never even tried to jump up or whine for food or anything.

The remaining photos are gratuitous food pics for Brett! We grilled up an assortment of chilies and then some asparagus, green onions and squash. All from the farmer's market. Delicious! We had some apples sitting around so we cooked them up with cinnamon and sugar - all ready for some apple pie!

Herb Garden

Marley helped me plant an herb garden today! She was very excited about it. Well, at least she liked eating the basil pieces and then later the mulch!

Jimmy built this little A-frame to house the garden in since last time we had herbs squirrels came in and feasted on their roots. This time i

Some Cats Just Don't Care

Meanwhile, Lulu has found a new spot!

Right in the middle of Marley's bowl stand!!!!

What a little nut.

Felix and Marley

Marley loves cats and can be quite obsessive about them (please see past posts!). The black radishes do a pretty good job of staying behind the gate or up in the loft where Marley cannot get them.

But Felix hates restrictions. So here is Marley watching Felix, and Felix watching Marley. They did this for quite some time (with close supervision) until Felix determined he was safe to venture out past the gate. With encouragement, Marley stayed put and Felix was able to come out and get on the leather chair.

Marley Time

Maxine's friend Marley is staying with us for a few days. Today is day 1. She and Maxine had a bone in the back yard after dinner. They both ate outside, with supervision. Marley is a dog that really likes to be around the pack - this picture is of her outside looking in at us. We let her in shortly after this picture was taken, she was just too curious to be left outside any longer.

We all four went for a nice walk and will hopefully settle down for a good night as a mini pack. I know Marley misses Sherif and Leslie but its great to have her here. What a treat.

Paw Print

Can you see the big paw print?

That's Maxine's friend Marley. They came over Thursday night for a much needed play time for the dogs. Marley's people still do not have power but are using a generator for the tv, fans and refrigerator!

Marley and Max played outside for quite some time and then Marley wanted to come in and find the black cats! Our real cats were in the bedroom away from the canine action, but Marley is fixated on these little fake cats we have on our doorway right above where this paw print is!

Snugglers

As much as Maxine has been pretty distraught about the storm itself and the aftermath which has completely thrown her schedule off, the cats haven't missed a beat. They just kind of rolled with the whole process.

Here they are cuddling like little snugglers. Lulu is still the littlest but she is not that little. They really stretch the limits of this cat bed. In fact yesterday, Koof snuck into the bed with Felix and was trying to get really small so she could curl deeper down into it but in reality half her back side was hanging out of the cat bed. Jimmy and I were working (I have to work from home, no power at work) and all of a sudden heard a big THUD. It was Lulu dropping from the top of the tallest piece of furniture we have right out of the cat bed!

Blown Out by Ike

Maxine did a scope out of our neighborhood on one of her walks. All the streets are packed to the brim with tree limbs, trees down, fences busted out, power and phone lines down. The whole entire city is like this, everywhere. Houston is totally blown out.

Waiting for Pick Up

Everyone is waiting patiently for debris pick-up!

This is a rare moment with Lulu and Simone actually sitting next to one another without any gargling and hissing.

Depressed

Hurricanes make Maxine depressed. Here she is sweating it out with us on the couch with her head on a little pillow. Poor thing! She had enough of this mess, she wanted everything to be back to normal.

Yesterday Jimmy woke up to Maxine yelping and biting him right on the bottom! Since then she is not allowed on our bed with us when we sleep.

She is not very happy with this arrangement!

Cats in the Hood

We took a long walk in the neighborhood today and found a number of lone cats trying to make the most of the storm. This is SOCKS (my nickname) who was strolling in a neighborhood a few blocks away, a neighborhood which already has power.

This is a pretty content cat on the porch of hopefully their own home. We have been feeding neighborhood cats who are homeless.

This last picture is a tree that brought a whole transformer down, meaning that a whole neighborhood is whithout power. For a LONG time. Someone has to come out for the tree and find a way to take it down safely and THEN the utilities come out to fix the lines and restore power to the 4 - 8 blocks this transformer effects.

Fresh Air

The gatos have been overcome with the increase of fresh air and all the new scents that come with a hurricane. They could not stop sniffing the air through the screen and later through the gate we put up on the window.

Elementary School Tree Down

There is an elementary school down the street with two HUGE trees down. I thought Carolyn and Lupe may appreciate the photos. How/when do you determine an elementary is ready for its little ones after this kind of destruction? The tree went down in the middle of a play ground.

The second picture was the same school, different tree and playground.

Radio & Steak

We totally appreciate radio in a different way than before the storm! We have no idea what the TV coverage is but we have relied on radio for our information about the storm, damage and recovery.

For Brett's sake we did photograph our steak and bacon sandwiches meal we had via grill on Saturday, the day of the storm. It was awesome. We had to eat all our perishables anyway, the rest got trashed. We are on strict Cup-o-Noodles rations at this point (Monday night).

Post Ike Wreckage

Maxine did not like the hurricane. She actually doesn't even like post-hurricane life. Which for us, for now, still consists of excessive heat, marginal meals, lots of water, a few baths a day and a lot of heavy labor removing tree limbs and leaves from all over the neighborhood. This is Maxine in her newly cleaned up back yard with our new limb in the middle of the grass.

The rest of the pictures are of our home and the major damage we have from the hurricane: gate busted, house "peppered" with leaves, patio destruction (on the list to upgrade), and a large tree in our backyard where we did not plant it.

Our other place has a busted chimney and the entire backyard gate is down. No leaks, no major structural damage which is all we really care about at this point.

Koof Meets Ike

This picture was in the middle of the worst of the hurricane. Behind Koof in the window was raging wind, torrential rain, and anything not weighted down including large parts of trees flying frighteningly across the "screen."

Does Koof look like she cares!???

Heck no! She is sleeping like a little lamb.

Ike Strikes

Early AM Saturday, right in the middle of Ike. This was the worst of the flooding. Unfortunately, you cannot capture the strength and speed of wind in a photo. It was pretty incredible.


This limb was stabbed into the top of our patio with the strength of the storm.

I heard a big THUD just prior to taking the above pictures which was that huge "limb" (a limb the size of an aged tree) in the background of the picture which fell against the roof of our porch and onto the backyard. Interesting note: the garage would have been smashed by this tree if it was still there!

Big Sky

As night falls there is a lot of rustling of trees in the wind. The one behind Maxine, the little wee one, is our new tree that we are hoping makes it through Ike. There is a large tree behind the gate and house which is rustling like crazy! It is hard to capture wind in a photograph . . . .

Maxine looks thoroughly bored with Ike, even before he strikes!

Ikes!

So here is Maxine at about 6:00 tonight. As of 9:00 PM we still did not have any rain (I mean NONE!). I talked to our mothers around 7:00 and literally saw some blue sky to report. All is well.

We are still about 6 hours away from the beginning of the hurricane but at least we are not inundated with rain at this point.

Do you remember the penguin from hurricane Rita?????

Can you see Maxine?????? She is in her sand box!

Hurricane Ike Gazing

KOOF! The hurricane won't be here for another 12 hours!

What are you looking at outside?

Keep Hunkering On

This is the Black Radish version of getting more seriously committed to hunkering down!

Goon Before Ike

And for some acting "business as usual" means acting like a total goon! Felix looks 1oo% vampire in this first picture.

Gatos Before Hurricane Ike

Everyone is "hunkering" down for Hurricane Ike. The Mayor has closed all non-essential businesses tomorrow and Saturday so the town is going loco. The cats . . . well, they don't seem to have a sixth sense about the coming storm. It is sort of business as usual.

Maxine is just antsy to go over to her friend Marley's house and is not sure what all the fuss is about.

Anyway, this is a good pre-hurricane picture of the back yard. Hopefully all the post pictures look the exact same! I am a little worried about the little tree . . .

Cats Love Boxes, Installment 534

How many times can I post about the simple, inexpensive hours of pleasure cats get from boxes? Apparently as many times as a cat gets pleasure from boxes! It never ceases to amaze me.

This first picture is Sicky in the box. The second one is Koof getting into the box. The last is simply the tail . . .

Watching

Rarely do you get to see the world from the cats perspective . . . here Jimmy caught Felix watching Lulu up in her crows nest.

Our Enlightened Cat

Alas, Felix would look quite the cat of enlightenment perched upon a book about one of the Master's of art and being if it were not for that little fang hanging out the side of his mouth that makes him look immediately goonish. If both choppers were hanging out he may look a bit vampiric, but without them he simply looks a bit strange. Perhaps even disturbing.