Always so helpful

The house smells amazing...the muffins are done. Lights out.

"Thanks for your help, Sierra."

hugs, Deb

"Cheep"ing Robins & Cheap Cat toy

This morning the robins were out in full force. So nice to see and hear them again.
I met up with the new owner of Pampered Pups Pastries for coffee today. Charlene and I try to get together once in awhile just to go over the progress of the business and chat about other things,  too. Charlene also works part-time at a bridal shop and I wanted to ask her about their collection of Mother of the Groom dresses. We'll be having a wedding in the family June 11th so I am starting to shop now.
Here is another gorgeous building in our town called Sinders Bridal Shop.

This is on one of our main streets called Lake Avenue. It runs along the water.

 Cat-tip-for-the-day=^..^=Cheap Toys

I do NOT spend money on cat toys if I can help it. I always make my own. Here is a  really cheap way to entertain your cat. I found this on a blog recently and thought I would pass it on to you. Take a roller from a roll of toilet paper, newspaper and the cat's favorite treat. Stick the treat in the center of roller (I'd put a few) and close both ends with a bit of crumpled up newspaper. Your cat will bat this around trying to find that tasty treat inside. Make them work for their calories. There are similar toys in your pet stores made from plastic for $15.00 but you can make one for $0.

Tonight I'm making blueberry-banana muffins. Cali will guard one for you.


Hugs, Deb

A little more of our pretty town.

The weather is finally what it should be. Warmer and sunny. There's barely any snow left.

Kane and I went for our walk and a half hour into it he was panting from the warm sun. We took a stroll up the well-known High Street.
Many pretty homes on this street.

This is a B&B

I love this street at Christmas

We headed over to Riverside Park where the Mississippi flows by and the Canada Geese are everywhere.

Across from the soccer field you see the Canoe Club where many a race is watched over the summer.

He just loves it here and all the stinky smells of Spring.

There are many gorgeous homes right along the river.

Couldn't end this walk without capturing a cat and look who we ran into again today. Mister silly-pants orange guy who obviously found his way home 'cause he was now sitting in a spot sunning himself and looking rather regal. Today he ignored Kane. Cats! 

And what have we here....a kitty in a window. Gorgeous smokey grey cat. Hard to see but she's there.

We are off to have fish & chips tonight at St. James Gate. I'm starving and pumped. Haven't eaten enough to keep a bird alive for 3 days.


Hope you had a great day!
Hugs, Deb 

A cheezie post

I  want to be the first to announce to all who have questioned just what the main ingredient in cheez whiz might be that it really is cheese. 

I got this valuable information from a friend & employee of kraft foods.She swore that the product is made from pieces of cheese left over after cutting. I have to say I was very relieved and have a new respect for Kraft. Still not sure about all the other stuff in it, though.

Mr. Ed

Sierra sun-worshiping

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the crows are pooping on my car. I have a problem with the birds leaving their signature here. We have a large maple at the end of the driveway and because there are no leaves in it yet the birds sit in it and dive-bomb my car. I have had to start parking it on the street. And I feed these little buggers. Great appreciation I get.

Kane and I headed out after I picked up keys for the weekend cat-sitting. There are so many fabulous spots to photograph in this town. I want to show you a bit more of it tomorrow.

Thought I'd end this post with this picture of 'kitty rush-hour'

(taken from web)

Lots of this going on at my house.
I am looking back on some of my posts and finding that the photos are missing. I don't know why they have been deleted but I will be correcting that over time. 
hugs, Deb

Marmalade mischief

Sick as I am I had to go for a walk today.  No sun but it was warmer. Kane almost flew through the screen door when he saw me put my walking shoes on. Nothing goes past him.
Cats can be very odd. Most often when we come across one on our walk it will high-tail it as soon as we come close to it. I consider those the smarter ones that know enough to be wary of a strange dog. Once in a while,  I will have one come by and sit and watch us not seeming too worried about the dog. But this guy, this ball of orange-striped sweetness,  took the cake.
He followed us. He really was very interested in this hairy-molly of a dog. He would even hide behind the wheel of a parked car and jump out at us. Good grief!

Now I know my dog and although he is fine with OUR cats, he thinks nothing different of a strange, outdoor cat than he would a squirrel. I would have had to intervene here. So luckily, this cat dropped and rolled at this point and we continued on our walk. He was one block from his home. 

As always, these two were waiting to be admired.

Finally, some signs of spring.

That is our beautiful Town Hall of Carleton Place. Our town has a population of 10,000

Everything looks so dead. This field will be green soon. That is the Mississippi River that flows through our town.

This is the other side of the bridge. Morphy Falls is a restaurant.

We walk by this church as our home is just behind it. There is always music playing every afternoon from the tower. Gives me goosebumps.

This really is a beautiful town and has been our home for 21 years. 

Now for the Cat-tip-for-the-day=^..^=Adopt an Orange Tabby Cat

Fun info about orange cats

Here are some fun morsels of information about the orange tabby cat.

--What is a tabby cat? Tabby is not a breed and it’s not a color. Tabby refers to a coat pattern. So a tabby cat has a distinct fur pattern that may include spots, stripes, swirls, and whorls. Tabbies come in different colors, including orange.

--Tabbies come in four patterns: classic, mackerel, ticked, and spotted.

--Most orange tabby cats are male, but you will find a few "red-haired" female cats.
--Why are most orange cats male? Genetics is responsible for that. Let me explain. The X chromosome carries the "orange" (or red) gene. Male cats have one X chromosome while females have two. While a male needs only one orange gene, a female needs two. So males have a higher chance of being born with flaming fur.

--Orange cats have freckles on their nose.

--Orange felines are also called red cats, ginger cats, and marmalade tabbies.

--Orange and white is a common color combination among orange cats.

--There are no solid-orange cats! They’re all tabbies. Some "red cats" may look as if they have no stripes or spots, buy they do. You just have to look very closely.
Hmmm - interesting!

So, with that in mind, perhaps you should all go out and visit your local shelter to find a lovely orange tabby cat to bring home and love.

Hugs, Deb

Traitor

I've been out of commission for two full days now. Luckily, the weekend kitty-sitting was over this morning so  I can actually have a 'day off' where I will rest like I've never rested before. I dragged myself out the door this morning to feed Jewel & Angel. I felt awful. I drove the back roads at 40 and just hoped to God no-one would recognize me. Remember...the cat dragged in analogy. I couldn't speak so I just smiled and petted them. They were giving me looks since I am normally chatting away at them. No voice, head pounding, felt like death. Duties done and an apology for not playing this morning they were happy to eat and go back to the sun-filled windows.On return, I went back to bed.

                                  This is what I see when I open my eyes.
Now, my dog is very spoiled and spends the day accompanying me everywhere I go. He also gets a 1 hour walk at noon. "Not today, Buddy. Today it is the yard and that's that." So with big, sad Collie eyes he kept me company and snoozed most of the day. Me...I coughed.
So, when Gary got home he came straight upstairs to see how I was and if I needed anything. Yah, he is nice like that. Kane was lying as close as he could and never budged. "He's your Florence Nightingale, I see." Seems to be. He won't even go out to the yard today."

Kane is a very smart dog and I only have to say something to him once and usually he understands. "You are a good dog, Kane. You would never leave me, would ya?" He snuggles closer.
"BEEP" the microwave goes off.

With lightening speed, well, for an almost 11 year old dog,  my Florence Nightingale flies off the bed, races down the stairs in anticipation  that dad had a snack to share. OK, then. At least now I could move my leg that had fallen asleep under his weight. "Traitor."

hugs, Deb

Death warmed over

I feel like something the cat dragged in tonight. Correction...my cats wouldn't give me the time of day right now. Other than cat-sitting I am doing little else. I had a great time at Temple's this morning and then *WHAM*.   I know I just need a few Contact C's, Vitamin C & maybe a little more maple syrup. Right now, I feel like a piano fell on me.
That being said, after returning from caring for my charges tonight, I dragged myself into the kitchen to find some magic in the cupboard to numb my throat and was met by 6 of the 10 glaring eyes that I would recognize in a line-up. They were hungry and mad because I was moving too slow. I cracked open a can of salmon because I couldn't face the regular mush and split it between the 3 greedy guts. I expect that when I finally lie on the couch tonight these three will blanket me with their appreciation.
Here are a few photos from this morning with little Riley. Then the piano fell.......

If you look real close you can see some teeth. :) And Riley has some, too.

Riley was more interested in the fire in the fireplace than the pancake offered to her. She is going to be a fire-freak like her dad. She eventually loved the pancake 'cause she's one of us.

Our son, John, Riley & Brittany

Riley is just over a cold so she'll be ok.

We are enjoying lots of sun here these days.

Do stay away from people with colds.....the devil sent them.

Hugs, Deb

Sugar and Spice...I'd rather eat mice.

When it comes to food, our feline friends are only interested in one thing....MEAT. The following is taken from an article written on this subject.

Sugar and spice and everything nice hold no interest for a cat. Our feline friends are only interested in one thing: meat (except for saving up the energy to catch it by napping, or a round of restorative petting) This is not just because inside every domestic tabby lurks a killer just waiting to catch a bird or torture a mouse, it is also because cats lack the ability to taste sweetness, unlike every other mammal examined to date.

Whether as a result of this dietary choice or the cause of it, all cats—lions, tigers and British longhairs, oh my—lack 247 base pairs of the amino acids that make up the DNA of the Tas1r2 gene. As a result, it does not code for the proper protein, it does not merit the name gene (only pseudogene), and it does not permit cats to taste sweets. "They don't taste sweet the way we do," says Joe Brand, biochemist and associate director at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. "They're lucky. Cats really have bad teeth as it is."

Ferocious Meat Eater....ROAR!!!

Well, lucky them but WE do love sweets so we are off to the sugar bush tomorrow with the family to delight in some pancakes and maple syrup. We are a family of Maple Syrup worshipers . You can't fool us with the fake stuff. While living in Calgary, Gary would bring his own syrup to our local restaurant for his pancakes because they DID serve the fake stuff. Gary would show up with his syrup-filled flask and take great pride in drowning his pancakes in front of any and all that showed interest.


I'll send you over, once again,  to Knatolee's blog to see how the Nectar of the Gods is made and bottled right here in Ontario.http://knatolee.blogspot.com/ I find it all fascinating. She has a fun blog and she is known as The Chicken Whisperer. She also has bee-hives, dogs and most importantly, Cats. You'll love her blog...follow along 'cause she is really funny, too.

It was -7 here today. Isn't that sad? But it didn't stop us from taking 'our boy' to his favorite spot, the local graveyard, to have a run. He loves it there. Look at all the snow. Sad...sad....sad

Spring shouldn't mean bulky sweaters and frozen cheeks. 

hugs, Deb 
(I have a question....Does anyone know why pictures would not show up on some of your past posts? I was told that if you put them first up on facebook and then later delete from facebook your pics will also be deleted from your blog. That makes sense but what it you did not delete them from facebook?

Was that an easter egg I saw fly by?

I'm bringing out the Easter decorations 'cause I am fed-up with cold weather and lingering snow everywhere.

Sierra 

"She's getting a bit 'nutty' here and expects us not to touch stuff.  Yah right!"

"I'm gonna eat this one"

"She says it's for the grand-daughter and we are to respect that. HA! HA! HA!

And she thinks she knows cats ....Pffft!"

"You are the instigator, Sierra."

hugs, Deb