Noki's New Chair

Our friends K and C were kind enough to give us some nice furniture. I had to work late on Friday, so E went over to pick it up. I got home, and there it was! Noki's new chair!I don't think he's moved since E brought it in, other than to get food, of course! And isn't he sweet, letting Mosa have the ottoman?

Ice Storm

An ice storm hit us here in central MA a little over a week ago. Thursday night E went to visit his parents in southern MA and stayed there over night. The ice had started accumulating on the trees here around 4pm, and before long, they would have had enough.

At midnight, I'd just turned off the light with Noki snuggled up next to me when we heard a big, loud, BOOM, like a rifle shot. Noki looked up and growled, and I told him it was fine and to go to sleep. At 2, I realized the power had gone out, probably at the boom, and that it was possible no one had called the power company. So I called, then crawled back into bed, and heard the loud CRACK-BOOM!! The first tree near the house had toppled. I went and looked out the window, and didn't see anything. So back to bed. And for the next 6 hours, trees were coming down every 15 minutes or so.

At 4:30, I heard another loud CRACK and thought my now ritual mantra - 'Please don't hit the house!' And when the boom came, the whole house shook. I jumped up again to look out the window, and this time one of the close trees had just missed the house. So back to bed.

A long night of not sleeping while listening to trees come down around you leads to some interesting thoughts. Besides, 'Please don't hit the house!' there's the 'I wonder if I should move to a room further from the trees?' And the 'If I move, that's where the tree will end up hitting.' And the morbid 'I wonder if I will be able to reach my cell to call for help if a tree comes in and impales me?'

At 5:30, the mantra finally stopped working, and the first tree hit the house, on the south wall of our bedroom. Again, up to the window, and nothing seemed to be damaged. No sounds of rushing air, no water pouring in the roof, OK, it's OK, I shouldn't call and wake up E at his parents. Back to bed.

At 6:30, the mantra failed again, and a second tree hit the house, this time on the east wall of our bedroom. The whole house shook and I thought for sure I was about to have a tree in bed with me. But no, it luckily bounced the other direction, pulling the wires off the house as it went. This time, I decided it was OK to wake up E and called him. Poor guy, got woken up by a somewhat frantic wife telling him trees were hitting the house.

Aside from the wires, no damage was done, thank goodness. And while the next few hours were stressful, it all worked out OK. E went to the store down by his parents (where they didn't get the ice storm, by the way) and got us a generator. I went out and sawed up the 7 trees across the driveway with my trusty bow saw. And we had the generator for power for the next 8 days, until the power came back.

The only sad part of this story is that, unfortunately, 2 of my fishies didn't make it. Tropical fish aren't used to 20 degree daily temperature changes. Poor little guys. Sniff, sniff.

And now that I've got power back, I suppose there's no excuse for not blogging...

Noki vs. the Vet

Its that time of year again. The leaves start changing, the squirrels devour the seed in the bird feeder to fatten up, and it's time to bring Noki and Mamosa in for their yearly checkup.

Noki hates the vet. Actually, that may be putting it mildly. Noki is TERRIFIED of the vet, and therefore, tries to kill her. And what has the vet done to deserve this? Nothing, aside from being one of the best vets I've ever had.

So, I made the appointment, and brought Noki and Mosa in last night. I got home and pulled out the two cat carriers. Then I grabbed Mosa and struggled to get her into her carrier. Who knew that 8 pounds of cat could put up such a fight? Noki, as usual, came to see what was up, saw his carrier, and walked right into it. Two cats in carriers. So far, so good.

I drove to the vet, and all was quiet. As I got out of the car, juggling the cat carriers and my wallet, all was quiet. And as I stepped onto the porch, the growling started, coming from Noki's carrier. Mosa's was silent. As I walked into the office, a low yowl was added to the growling. I checked in and sat down to wait. And the carrier next to me continued to yowl.

We were called into an exam room by a tech. And as we walked in, the yowling and hissing got louder. I've learned from past experience, if Noki can't see anybody but me, he's quiet. So I put his carrier on the floor, and he was silent. I asked the tech about bringing home Noki's meds, aside from the rabies (by law, the vet has to administer that). She said she'd ask the vet, and left. The vet came in and checked out Mosa. Every thing's great, she's in wonderful shape, and her rabies shot went off without a hitch. Everybody at the vet's office loves Mosa. So the vet gave her a little cuddle, and then we let Mosa go back into her carrier and set it aside. Then it was time for Noki.

Noki is quite adept at putting all 4 legs out and no manner of dumping and shaking will get him out of the carrier. And nobody is going to stick their hands in to get him out, I tried that the first time and he had all 4 legs out then too. Did I mention he's still yowling and hissing? So the only way to let the vet see Noki is to take the carrier apart. Thankfully, there are wing nuts holding the top and bottom together, so this is fairly easy. But the second the top comes off, Noki's yowling and hissing goes up another notch. You'd think someone was torturing him, the noise he makes.

At this point in the visit, the vet always remembers Noki. And a crowd comes to the door to watch (he's that loud).

The vet tried to get closer to him and out came the teeth and claws. Not attacking, just letting her know what would happen if she got any closer. So the vet called for a tech to come and distract Noki so she could give him his rabies shot. Yeah, like that's going to work (it didn't).

Next, out came the wild animal gloves, you know, the gloves that go all the way up to your shoulder and you could use them to weld? The vet donned the gloves and petted Noki to try and calm him down, and managed to pick him up and weigh him (18 lbs, 9 oz, big guy). Then the vet distracted Noki while the tech gave him the rabies shot. And Noki attacked the gloves, but the tech had gotten the shot in. Whew! And then guess what? They agreed to let me take his other shot home, and I could give it to him here. And back on went the top of his carrier.

All I can say is, thank goodness for 3 year rabies shots!

Of course, as soon as we got home, he was his usual, lovable, mommas boy self. Go figure. Maybe next year I'll give him some Valium...

Noki the Hunter?

Mosa is a great little hunter, if for some reason she ended up on her own again, she would be OK. And then there's Noki. He understands that little critters are interesting to cats, but he doesn't understand how it is one catches them. He sees a squirrel under the bird feeder, trots across the deck, and then launches at a run toward the squirrel, to watch it scamper up a tree.

So, it was with a lot of surprise that I found Noki had caught himself a vole. Noki was really surprised too. I had noticed that Noki was watching something in the leaves pretty intently, and figured it was a bug of some sort. I watched for a minute, and he pounced on what ever it was. And then he looked up at me, and again at his paws. He picked up one paw and out scurried a vole. Noki pounced on it again, and stood there looking confused. He couldn't figure out what to do with it. After a minute he picked up his paws again and off the vole went. By this point Mosa had come to see what was up. Mosa and Noki tracked it across the driveway and into the brush. After a few minutes they came back up the driveway, without the vole. And Noki went back to the leaves to see if another vole would scurry into view.

What is it?

We live in the middle of 8 wooded acres. Its wonderful being surrounded by trees and nature. And often, it produces new and exciting furry critters that E has not seen before.

This morning, as I was reaching for my first cup of java, E said "Look, look, look!" grabbing my shoulder and trying to push me toward the window. I turned with the bleary eyed gaze of the early morning, to see... Nothing. I had just missed "it". E was excited, describing something that "moved like a weasel", but was "bigger than the mink we saw last time". After I had some of my coffee I was able to get E to describe what he saw, and it just might have been a fisher. While I love my wild animals, I'm not as happy to have a fisher around, because they think cats are tasty treats. I'll have to keep a closer eye on 'Mosa and Noki.

Speaking of the kitties, you should meet them. This is Noki, our 6 1/2 year old monkey:

And this is Mamosa, our 10 year old little lady:

And for those that are wondering, no, Mamosa's not named after the drink. My father's a forester, she's named after the tree!