Jock (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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It's the time that can strike fear, or at least a huge amount of annoyance, into the heart of every cat in the house.

Dogsitting time is here, as #2 Son has flown on a 10-day trip to Alaska.

Jock, the 4-month-old blue heeler, is having a ball.  He's been here about 24 hours and has had 2 accidents in the house, torn a magazine, and chased all four cats several times each.

The cats have decamped to the tops of the furniture, except Tripod SissyCat who wants to stay outside on the porch all of the time, and they are giving me dirty looks.

The little guy and i are having fun, though -- in fact, it's time for our evening game of chase the ball, at least until he gets bored and i have to chase it myself the last time to pick it up and put it away.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Strike.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

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 It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

High above every grief and care,

it's such a joy to be floating on air.

It never gets old to see this sight,

the spreading Earth in dawn's first light.

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today we are thankful to have Jock here.  The cats are not, but that means they will be thankful when he is gone.

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Today is:

Aizen Matsuri -- Shoman-in Temple, Osaka, Japan (celebration of Aizen Myo-oh, greatest of the 8 Buddhist guardian gods, and is also called the Yakuta Festival; through July 2)

Armed Forces Day -- Guatemala

Crab Races -- Fairy Calendar (Pixies, Elves, and some Fairies)

Day of Aestas -- Ancient Roman Calendar (culmination of the festival that begins the summer)

Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome -- remembrance of the first Christians killed in Rome by order of Nero as scapegoats for the fire in Rome

General Prayer Day -- Central African Republic

Independence Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)(1960)

Leap Second Time Adjustment Day -- if one is needed

Meteor Day -- because of the Tuskunga Event

National Bomb Pop Day -- on the Thursday in June right before US Independence Day, to kick off the celebration with the original red, white, and blue bomb pops

National Corvette Day -- US (vehicle introduced this day in 1953)

National Handshake Day -- US; sponsored by professional development companies on the last Thursday in June, encouraging everyone to develop a good, professional handshake

National Ice Cream Soda Day

Pridie Kalendas July (Day Before the Kalends of July) -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a day when dies comitiales -- citizen committees -- voted on political and criminal matters)

Revolution Day -- Sudan(1989)

St. Theobald of Provins' day (Patron of bachelors)

Tech Support Appreciation Day -- if you can get a hold of them, they can be great to have around

Anniversary Today:

Greg Allman marries Cher, 1975

Birthdays Today:

Michael Phelps, 1985

Fantasia Barrino, 1984

Ralf Schumacher, 1975

Michael Gerard (Mike) Tyson, 1966

Rupert Graves, 1963

Vincent D’Onofrio, 1959

David Alan Grier, 56, 1955

Leonard Whiting, 1950

Patricia Schroeder, 1940

Nancy Dussault, 1936

Harry Blackstone, Jr., 1934

Susan Hayward, 1919

Lena Horne, 1917

Czeslaw Milosz, 1911

William Almon Wheeler, 1819

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Johnny Carson Show"(TV), 1955

"Guiding Light"(TV), 1947

"Brenda Starr, Reporter"(Comic strip), 1940

Today in History:

Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland, 1294

The Spaniards are expelled from Tenochtitlan, 1520

Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery, Ohio, 1794

French  acrobat  Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope, 1859

The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place, 1860

The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal; it arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4, 1886

Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", in which he introduces special relativity, 1905

The Tunguska event, probably caused by a meteor or comet fragment, occurs in remote Siberia, 1908

The Regina Cyclone hits Regina, Saskatchewan, killing 28; it remains Canada's deadliest tornado event, 1912

Congo gains independence from Belgium, 1960

The first leap second is added to the UTC  time system, 1972

The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, known as the Loonie, 1987

East Germany and West Germany merge their economies, 1990

The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, 1997

After nearly 7 years in space, the Cassini spacecraft becomes the first to orbit the planet Saturn, 2004

The Molecule of the Year 2011 is announced, BMP7 (Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7), a potential therapeutic utility for recurrent metastatic disease, 2012

Misty Copeland becomes the first African American principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, 2015

Donald Trump becomes the first sitting US President to set foot in North Korea during the Korean Demilitarized Zone meeting with Kim Jong Un, 2019

American Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest chess grandmaster ever at 12 years and 4 months, surpassing Sergey Karjakin, 2021