Professional or Poker Face

A few mornings ago, I walked out of the bedroom and was horrified to see twenty-four stinkbugs on my front living room wall. Yes, I counted them. But seeing my glass half-full, I was thankful that they weren't some other insect. I realize stinkbugs have done tremendous damage to farmers' crops, and the farmers have my sincerest sympathy, but as far as I can tell, stinkbugs have not done any damage inside my house. I speak from experience, since these intruders were here last year--that is, their predecessors were here. Therefore, personally speaking, I was glad the twenty-four bugs were not cockroaches on my wall. One cockroach would have been too many. But looking at the stinkbugs dispersed all over my wall, I was reminded of the cockroaches I had seen in someone's home over three decades ago, when I worked in the field of social services, and I recalled that was where I had perfected my professional or poker face. You see, we were trained not to show our personal emotions, no matter how appalling we found a client's living conditions, and I distinctly recall that particular occasion when I walked into a house infested with cockroaches, all over the floor, walls, and ceiling, and I performed my job without showing any emotion concerning the fear I had of a cockroach falling from the ceiling and landing on me. Thinking about it now, I do not think I could have maintained my professional composure if a cockroach had landed on my head. But I laugh now to think that experience honed my poker face.

In this photo, Quentin is observing a stinkbug in the bathroom. By the way, Quentin does not have a poker face. As for the twenty-four stinkbugs I counted on my living room wall, most of them are either dead or they have scattered throughout the house. Perhaps the stinkbugs know that the cats enjoy catching them in flight, because it appears that they can sit perfectly still for days.

Cured or Endured

What can't be cured, must be endured.

--Proverb

The Best Teacher

Experience is the best teacher.

--Proverb

Gnawing

A rat who gnaws at a cat's tail invites destruction.

--Chinese proverb

Failure

"Failure has no friends."

--John F. Kennedy

Doubts and Wisdom

Deep doubts, deep wisdom;

small doubts, little wisdom.

--Chinese proverb

Brothers, Quentin and Darcy

Go to bed with the lamb,

and rise with the lark.

--Proverb

Not Our Usual...

...walking stick. All of the other walking sticks look like brown twigs, but this one reminds me of a bamboo. I do not recall ever seeing another one like it. Anyway, since it is spider web season, there are a number of dead walking sticks in webs around the house. However, I did manage to rescue one walking stick from a spider's web, and right after that I discovered this unusual light-colored walking stick around the corner.

Early

Early to bed and early to rise,

makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

--Proverb

Aim of Education

"The aim of education should be to teach the child

to think, not what to think."

--John Dewey

They're Ba-ack!

The stinkbugs are back, although they are fewer in number than last year. Since the cats enjoy catching them, I am constantly picking up dead insects. But other than being somewhat of an indoor flying nuisance, I must admit their short-lived presence in our house is preferable to other insects which could be an absolute horror. As for the stinkbugs, they provide our feline family members with free entertainment. And contrary to their name and to what I have heard about them, the dead stinkbugs in our house do not stink, which leads me to conclude that my cats are professional stinkbug exterminators.

Grown-ups

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."

--Le Petit Prince (1943)

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Insect Eating an Acorn

Over the years, I have picked up many acorns and occasionally I have noticed pinprick-like holes in some of them. Well, here is a photo of the culprit presently responsible for many, if not all, of the pinprick-like holes in the fallen acorns in my yard. The insect was so engrossed in boring a hole in this particular acorn that he did not mind being carried around before having his photo taken. When I finally put him down on a rock in the woods, he continued boring his hole while still paying absolutely no attention to me.

Exercise

"I have never taken any exercise,

except for sleeping and resting,

and I never intend to take any.

Exercise is loathsome."

--MARK TWAIN

Doing

Doing is better than saying.

--Proverb

Shoemaker's Son

The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot.

--Proverb

Footprints

Footprints on the sands of time

are not made by sitting down.

--Proverb

Better Be Safe

Better be safe than sorry.

--Proverb

Contentment

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I know this photo represents Mark Twain's idea of perfect contentment, having his best buddy lie down next to him.

Pretty Child

There's only one pretty child in the world,

and every mother has it.

--Proverb

Small

Small is beautiful.--Proverb

A Young Black Bear

While Rebel and I were on the sofa watching Oprah this past Friday (okay, one of us was sound asleep), I happened to glance out the window; it took me several seconds to realize I was looking at a young black bear eating acorns in my driveway, no more than a dozen feet from the house. When I jumped up to get my camera, my action woke up Rebel, who immediately started barking at our visitor. Well, if I had returned my camera to its designated location on top of the desk in the living room, I would probably have gotten some good photos. But by the time I found my camera, the bear had already moved away, due to Rebel's incessant barking. I have no one to blame but myself, since I was the one who had left the camera next to the computer, and so I wasted precious moments. Nonetheless, I am thankful I got this one photo, taken from within the house. Just in case you cannot find the bear in the original photo, I decided to enlarge a cropped version of it in which the black bear is more visible, although blurry.

Mikey and Our Three Visitors

Mikey likes to watch these three deer, a doe and her two half-grown fawns, who have been regular visitors this summer.

The Play

"The world is a stage,

but the play is badly cast."

--Oscar Wilde

Nobody

"Who is wise? He that learns from every One.

Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions.

Who is rich? He that is content.

Who is that? Nobody."

--Benjamin Franklin

Darcy Flushes Toilet

Darcy likes to flush the toilet. He also likes to chew the handle, as you can tell from this photo. But Darcy uses his paw to press down the handle and flush. By the way, his brother Quentin also enjoys this pastime, and sometimes the two of them can be found on the toilet together, even though they know I frown upon wasting water. However, I must admit they are very cute rascals.

Butterfly Cupcakes

Oops! I made these "butterfly" cupcakes for someone who has a strong dislike for insects, including butterflies. Needless to say, had I known this beforehand, I would have decorated the cupcakes differently. Well, it is the thought that counts, and the cupcakes were tasty, even if I must say so myself. Next time, I'll stick to mammals or....

Feel Better Soon

Feeling well or not, this is one of Oprah's favorite poses.

Photos of Harry's Summer Vacation

An Invitation

Yesterday, Zorro extended an invitation for me to touch him, and I graciously accepted, touching his back very gently and quickly. This was the first time this has occurred, despite the fact that I have known the feral cat, who is the son of Pegasus, for several years. However, last month, either his tail brushed against my hand on purpose or I accidentally brushed my hand against his tail in passing, as I was picking up the cats' outdoor food dish. But the following day, when I extended my hand toward Zorro to see if he wished me to pet him, he declined my offer by lightly tapping the back of my hand with his paw. Out of respect to Zorro, who chooses his friends very carefully, I have never attempted to touch him, allowing him to be true to his own feral nature, and so I am honored by his friendly gesture.

Quentin's Cold

Last month, starting with Quentin, several cats in our household came down with a cold. I quarantined the healthy cats, meaning everybody who had not sneezed. Godot got kicked out of quarantine for sneezing, but, fortunately for him, the sick cats were already no longer contagious; Godot, you see, has allergies, but I was not taking any chances that he might infect the healthy cats. The good news is that during their quarantine, Karma, who likes only Godot's company, became friends with Locksley. Since Quentin is strictly a housecat, I do not know how he came down with a cold. But everybody is cold-free once more.

Quentin, Featured Cat of the Month

Quentin, Ginny's fifth and last kitten, was born sometime between 8 pm and midnight on April 17, 2008. He came as a surprise for me because I had completely missed his birth, and so I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I counted five little heads instead of the expected four. Quentin has his mother's gray tabby coloring but his father's physique, including Jeb's short tail.

365 Days

Ponzo, who was diagnosed FIV-positive, has been doing very well for 365 days now. I know this because I have been keeping a record; he gets two smiley faces on his calendar for each perfect day, so to speak. I used to also write down exactly what food he ate plus the supplements he received daily. Unfortunately, I have gotten very lazy, so I have only been writing down his supplements for the past few months. I do know, however, that Ponzo has been on the same dry catfood for the past 365 days. He has been eating Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets: Green Pea & Chicken Formula, Green Pea & Duck Formula, and Green Pea & Salmon Formula. Incidentally, Ponzo is the only one of my cats who really likes Natural Balance L.I.D. Cats tend to be finicky eaters, and so everybody seems to have his or her own food preference. Of course, Ponzo also gets fed homemade chicken soup and, occasionally, homemade catfood.

When Harry Met Buddy

The title has nothing to do with this post. I simply did not have an appropriate photo for the subject matter, which concerns both Big Mac and a black bear, separately.

Regarding Big Mac, I am happy to report that he is alive and well. Since Big Mac is the neighbors' orange cat with the fluffy tail, that means another unfortunate orange cat with a fluffy tail was killed by a vehicle on our road earlier this summer. By the way, Buddy is the name of the black cat in the photo with Harry, and he also happens to live with Big Mac; in the past, I have referred to Buddy as the neighbors' black cat, since I did not remember his name. My apologies to Buddy.

As for the black bear, I discovered he had left a calling card, no more than ten feet from my house yesterday. I noticed that the large pile of scat consisted of black sunflower seed shells, so I assumed the bear must have dined at a neighbor's bird feeder. Well, I later learned that the bear had found his dinner, a fifty-pound bag of sunflower seeds, inside a sturdy container which my neighbors had left outside. Apparently, the black bear either cleaned up after himself or took the leftovers with him, since there was no trace of the bag of sunflower seeds (other than the scat in my yard). Except for the destroyed container, there was no evidence that a bear had even been in my neighbors' yard. (When he discovered the fifty pounds of sunflower seeds, the bear must have thought, "What good fortune!" My neighbor laughed in agreement when I said that the bear probably thanked him for providing him with such an unexpected, large meal.)