January 2011 The Beautiful

We've enjoyed the fire so much we had to add some comfortable "in front of the fire" type furniture. The World Market had a leather recliner on sale. I tried it in the store and thought I might have to sleep there. They also had some beautiful faux fur mink throws that called to me. It took some maneuvering to get the chair out of the car and into the house, but it was worth every grunt. Of course, I am not the major user. Yes, I have to scoot a protesting cat out of the chair before I can enjoy it. Sometimes the devil cat takes revenge. He jumps onto the arm and casually grabs your arm in his teeth. He has a hard time with the leather though, his former owner had him declawed on all four feet. It makes for interesting slides across the chair arms. I guess it is like an ice chair to him.

December 2010 The Good

Overall, we had a good holiday break. The weather was cold, Bubba was home and we added a few amenities to make hearth and home more comfortable. Bubba's cat flap is of the insulated variety, so no more cold drafts from leaving the door off the latch so he can push his way in. This was a bad idea in hot or cold weather, trying to get the door closed in a timely manner was a goal not often achieved. He loves the flap and he can go in or out at will anytime I am home. Since it was the holiday break, those opportunities increased to dozens of times a day.

The boldest of the new amenities was replacing the old English style gas fire with fire logs. The first few weeks they were set up to be operated manually, but then we added the remote. Point and click and the fire roars to life! Life has never been this easy. Bubba loves it and often tries to tell me to light his fire.

Here's the old and the New:

December 2010 The Ugly

December has been an interesting month. Most of the drama has been centered around Bubba Perves, the cat. First, his cat flap was installed. He learned to use it very quickly and he really thought he was the King. Then, the drama increased. He developed a hematoma of the ear. We tried treating him at home with semi-weekly visits to the Vet. This course of action was a total failure. It was finally decided that he needed to be admitted to the vet facilities. He stayed for two weeks. He was very glad to be released after this ordeal. You see he was abandoned by his first owner and was found by a real estate agent. He had been alone in the house for an unknown amount of time and had no food or water left. The agent took him to the vet, where he spent months sitting in a cage at the Vet clinic waiting to be adopted. Since then he has had abandonment issues. The trauma to his ear has left it disfigured. Here are the before and after pictures.