Saturday, April 18, 2009

Friday fun

It's hard to believe that it's been over a month since I last blogged. I guess that's because nothing really out of the ordinary has happened. Just life, taxes, cat poo, and dirty socks which are the complete opposite of exciting.

However, yesterday (Friday) was a good day. It started out well because my first class on Friday is at 10, which means that I can sleep in until 7:30!!! I went to school, worked, and came home. When I walked in the back door, Matt said that we were going on a picnic since Friday was a glorious day (70+ and sunny!!!) and that he already had the picnic packed! So I changed shoes, got in the car, and let Matt drive to the Thomson Causeway . We had our picnic sitting on a bench next to the Mississippi River while watching geese, ducks, and other birds enjoy the day. Then we walked around the woods for a while, and just enjoyed nature. The last time that we were there, baby garter snakes were everywhere which frightened Matt and might have made him scream like a little girl. And being the good person that I am, I did not remind Matt of this fact several times and tease him with snake-like sticks. Nope, I didn't.....

Then on our way home, we stopped at Matt's parents house to meet their new cat. Well, not actually their new cat. They had a stray that showed up at their house and I wanted to check him/her out! She (I think it's a she) is a black and white kitty that is very friendly. Either she ended up lost or someone dumped her because she likes people! Matt ran home to get some cat food for her (our boys won't miss a cup or two) while I petted her. She is very sweet, very matted, and looks to be in tough shape. She's been on her own for a while. I call her "Diamond" because she has a diamond shape on her back. After she ate some and I combed her a bit, she wandered towards the road. We thought she was headed back towards the farm on the other side of the road but none of us saw her cross. I looked around and decided that she must have crawled into the drainage pipe. I looked for her but couldn't see her in the pipe. About five minutes later, she showed up again and this time I saw her crawl out of the pipe. We left some food for her and headed home. Once we got home, we both immediately changed clothes and showered because we don't want our boys to get sick from her. And they both weregiving us looks like "Where have you been and what other cat have you been petting? Cheaters!"

So, this morning, Matt is taking Diamond to the local humane society to be checked out and hopefully put up for adoption. We would take her but I've never seen boy/girl cats get along very well and our boys are kinda spoiled and set in their ways. I think she needs a home with only her in it. And Matt has some silly rule about pets equaling the number of people in the house. Whatever.... If it were up to me, I would have taken her home last night and let her sleep in our garage.......

About a month ago, a Jewish lady spoke in our church about her faith and she said something that really resonated with me. She said that there is a Jewish proverb about helping animals. Helping animals, in this proverb, is the best act you can do because animals can not thank you or pay you back in any way. You help them out of the kindness of your heart. I like that quite a bit although I believe animals can pay us back. Gus is constantly paying his rent by holding things down, attacking killer milk rings, laying on slippers so they don't wander off, and monitoring the closed window situation....

So that was our Friday. It was a good day.

4 comments:

Alaina said...

Glad to see you "back"! What a great day - don't you just love the warm weather? And I totally would have been with Matt on the screaming about snakes thing. :)

What a great proverb and I think animals definitely do pay back in many ways - sometimes just through companionship. Anyway, great post! :)

Jenna said...

Good thing Matt hasn't talked to Reid... I have 2 of everything policy! We now have two adults, two cats and two dogs... perfect! And who knows how many mice living in the walls and snakes under the house (last year a nest of garter snakes hatched under there! Matt would not like it here...)

Alice said...

About time you posted!! About about those boy and girl cats..
you should meet Sarah's two, Linus and Cleo.
And as to people = animals
According to Jay you could do something about that you know!!

THE BOY said...

Glad to see you guys met "Harry the Snake". Don't worry Matt, I believe you wouldn't scream like a girl ... I do, however, believe with all of my heart that my sister is the kind of person to chase one around with a snake-like stick screaming "snake, snake ewww..." (this actually sounds almost vaguely familiar, maybe a repressed memory from our past...). I have learned that the best thing to do with Girl is to avoid direct eye contact, make yourself look larger, and back away slowly in a non-confrontational manner.
Also, you might want to check with Gus on that closed window situation... it could change any second.