A to Z: H is for Hope and Horizon

Oh, you're here again.  Hello, I'm Hope, and you can learn a bit more about my name and about Horizon if you want to click over here.  The big man of the house belongs to me and Horizon and Kida.  We mostly share well especially since Kida doesn't come up the stairs any more, she's so old.

I'm happy right here!

I have only been out of the bedroom about 3 or 4 times since the last time I talked to you.  I get so confused out there.  It's better in here where the mama lady and the big man sleep.  I don't have to see any other cats than Horizon and Link and sometimes Little Girlie.  The rest aren't allowed in here, and I like that.  They are too much for me.

No, I just want to stay here where I can eat and sleep and sit by the window and see the bird things.  Sometimes a bug gets in the room and I get to chase it and eat it, and that's always fun, too.

The big man still leaves the water dripping for me, even though the mama lady turns it off when we are done drinking.  She turns it back on a lot too, now.  She says she might as well, especially since the "incident."  I don't like to talk about it, I had to go to the vet because I got "stopped up."  It was awful, and what the vet did was awful, and now I'm on different food so it won't happen again and I like this food much better.

It also means I have to drink a lot of water so it won't happen again, so the mama lady cooperates better about turning the water on and waiting for me to drink.  She says we shouldn't waste water.

Well, I guess it's time to get Horizon over here to talk to you.  He's going to be scared, but it's okay.  He's a bit less scared this year than he was last year.

Yes, I'm Horizon, and I do get scared.  I'm scared to drink the dripping water if anyone is watching me.  I'm scared to go in the litter box if I think another cat might see me go in or out.  I'm scared of outside the house.

I'm ready to dive under the bed if necessary!

But, well, I'm not as scared as I used to be of everything.  I've figured out that Mikey won't hurt me.  The first time I saw him after he moved back in, he ran up to me the way he does to every black and white cat to make friends.  He really does that!  It spooked me, but now I know he likes to be friends with every black and white cat he ever sees, so I sit with him sometimes when I go out of this room.

This room with Hope is where I spend most of my day, but I'm not as scared to leave it as I was before.  I go out every day now, at least once or twice for a little while.  I'm not thrilled about most of the other cats, but I have learned to knock on the door to be let back in.  The mama lady makes me wait sometimes, but the big man always lets me right it -- he's a well trained pet.

I still hide under the bed when someone I don't know well comes in the room, but last year when he went away (they call it vacation), Bigger Girl came in and spent time with me every day, and so did #1 Son.  That was good, I wasn't so wild with fright that I had been abandoned because they did that.

So that's about it for an update.  Maybe we will do this again next year.

Today is:

Appomattox Day -- US (marking the end of the US Civil War on this day in 1865)

Astronauts' Day -- web generated by someone who wants all these brave people honored

Baghdad Liberation Day -- Kurdistan, Iraq

Bataan Day/Day of Valor -- Philippines (Araw ng Kagitingan)

Dita e Kushtetutes -- Kosovo (Constitution Day)

Dry Milk Day -- the first patent for powdered milk was issued this day in 1972 to Samuel Percy

Feast of Jalal (Glory) -- Baha'i

French Quarter Festival -- New Orleans, Louisiana, US (celebrate all that makes the Vieux Carre special, antiques, food, and 275 hours of musical entertainment; through Sunday)

Independence Restoration Day -- Georgia (formerly Day of National Unity)

Martyr's Day -- Tunisia

Name Yourself Day -- an internet holiday allowing you to change your name for a day, if you want to.

National Alcohol Screening Day® 2014 -- US (find a way to get screened if you need to)

National Cherish An Antique Day -- hooray for old fashioned quality!

National Chinese Almond Cookie Day

National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day -- US

Observation of the Nazi Occupation -- Denmark (anniversary of the Nazi invasion)

Public Library Day -- US (anniversary of the opening of the first "publicly funded" library -- i.e. a tax based, free library -- in the US, in 1833 in Petersborough, New Hampshire)

Remembrance for Haakon Sigurdsson -- Asatru/Norse Pagan Calendar (Haakon the Great, one of the Jarls of Hladhir)

St. Casilda's Day (Patron against sterility)

St. Mary of Cleophas' Day (one of the Marys in the Bible who was present at the Crucifixion)

The Masters Tournament -- the matchup for the Green Jacket is the first of golf's major championships in 2015, running through the 12th

Verruca Day -- Fairy Calendar (Goblin Celebration again)

Vimy Ridge Day -- Canada

Winston Churchill Day -- commemmorates his becoming an honorary US citizen

World Konkani Day -- Goa (Official language of the Indian state of Goa; on the death anniversary of the pioneer of modern Konkani literature, Vaman Raghunath Varde Valaulikar)


Anniversaries Today:

Sophia Loren marries Carlo Ponti, 1966
Wayne Newton marries Kathleen McCrone, 1994
Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Camilla Parker-Bowles, 2005


Birthdays Today:

Elle Fanning, 1998
Kristen Stewart, 1990
Jesse McCartney, 1987
Leighton Meester, 1986
Taylor Kitsch, 1981
Keshia Knight Pulliam, 1979
Rachel Stevens, 1978
Gerard Way, 1977
Austin Peck, 1971
Jacques Villeneueve, 1971
Cynthia Nixon, 1966
Paulina Prizkova, 1965
Dennis Quaid, 1954
Michael Learned, 1939
Avery Schreiber, 1935
Jean-Paul Belmondo, 1933
Paul Krassner, 1932
Tom Lehrer, 1928
Hugh Hefner, 1926
John Presper Eckert, Jr., 1919
Ward Bond, 1903
Paul Robeson, 1898
Efrem Zimbalist, 1889
Frank King, 1883
Eadweard Muybridge, 1830
Charles Baudelaire, 1821
Tamerlane, 1336


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Ticket to Ride"(Beatles' single), 1965
"Diamond Lil"(Play), 1928
"Shadow of a Gunman"(Play), 1923
The World, the Flesh and the Devil(Film), 1914


Today in History:

The Mongol hordes defeat the Poles and Germans in the Battle of Liegnitz, 1241
Robert Cavalier de la Salle reaches the mouth of the Mississippi River and claims all the land drained by the river and its tributaries for France, 1682
The African Methodist Episcopal church in the US is formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1816
The oldest audible sound recording of a human voice is made, 1860
Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the US Civil War, 1865
Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska, 1967
The Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada, 1869
Jumbo the Elephant arrives in the US, 1882
The Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland for NYC, 1912
The first full color film, "World, The Flesh, and The Devil", premiers in London, 1914
Mae West makes her NYC debut in "Diamond Lil," 1928
The first Japanese built aircraft to fly to Europe, the Kamikaze, arrives at Croydon Airport in London, 1937
The Suez Canal is officially opened for shipping, 1957
NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven", 1959
In the first game in the Astrodome, Houston beats the Yankees 2-1 in an exhibition game, and Mickey Mantle hits the first indoor home run, 1967
The first British built Concorde makes its first flight, 1969
Georgia declares its indepedence from Russia, 1991
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at Westminster Abbey, 2002
Facebook purchases Instagram, a photo sharing application, for $1 billion, 2012