And Not a Moment Sooner (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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I'm a Good Neighbor...After Coffee

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, Sean Jeating is providing the prompts and they will appear on River's blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.visited  

2.chewing  

3.nudging  

4.saw  

5.point  

and/or:

1.side  

2.honey  

3.companion  

4.silent  

5.loudly

Charlotte's colour of the month is Pumpkin Orange.

(Note:  We have had two cats with the name SissyCat.  The older of them was the Tripod SissyCat, and this story is about her.  The younger, The Charismatic Enigma SissyCat, was partly named after Tripod SissyCat because of their similar personality traits.  Enigma SissyCat left for the Rainbow Bridge not long ago.)

Just over 19 years ago, a litter of kittens was born on the mean streets of our neighborhood to a feral mama cat, a pretty calico with white, black and Pumpkin Orange patches.  Some kind people were feeding her, and managed to catch her kittens rather young, then trap her and get her spayed.

One of those kittens was given to #1 Son's girlfriend whose mother told her she couldn't have another cat, so she gave him as a birthday gift to #1 Son!  We kept Horizon for all of his fifteen years.  He was scared of his own shadow his whole life, was almost totally SILENT, never meowing unless in a carrier going to the vet, and never went out of the one or two rooms he chose to live in.

Another kitten went to live with Sam.  This girl cat was already a feisty, mean thing who wouldn't stay in the house.  She LOUDLY demanded to be let out, and to come in when she was good and ready.  She fought every other cat she saw, and though she might accept a tiny bit of petting, she was not a good COMPANION cat, even scratching at her people or nipping them, seeming to not like anyone.

It was our Charismatic Enigma SissyCat's sometimes scratching or biting at me and other females (she always loved men but only tolerated women) which was the reason she was partly named after the original SissyCat.  Once we had both of them at our house, they were sometimes also referred to as Big Sissy and Little Sissy.

At age five, Big SissyCat tangled with a German shepherd.  Her family was living elsewhere by then and after the dog bit off her leg, she managed to run away, get under the trailer they lived in, and claw her way into the insulation under it.  Sam had to dig her out, and they took her to the vet who knew the cat's reputation for meanness.  The vet just sewed her up the wound in her SIDE, filled her full of long-acting antibiotics, and said, "She'll live or she won't."

She lived, and three years later Sam, with HONEY in her voice, called #2 Son to ask if we could "watch Tripod SissyCat for two weeks while we move again."

Of course, #2 Son said yes, not realizing Sam really didn't mean to come back for the cat at all.  As much as Sam always loved the cat, the SissyCat would allow a bit of petting, then turn on you, and it wore on her nerves.  Sam didn't want to put the cat down, but wanted her to have a different home, and I can see her POINT.  Sam was married with a small child, and having SissyCat around was a problem.

Tripod, as we usually called her, came to our house spitting mad, with her paw against every other cat, and every other cat's paw against her.  She swiped at us every time we walked past her.  She would try to bite if you got too close.  She continually tried to escape, and after we'd had her for over a year finally did manage to slip through the door.

Tripod SissyCat was a very smart animal and knew this was her original neighborhood, so she went and VISITED the street where she'd been born, only to find the house she'd lived in was no longer there.  It was a flood home, and was torn down and is now an empty lot in the neighborhood.

The whole time, even when she was mean, scratching, trying to bite, giving us the side-eye, we had all been telling her the same thing:  Tripod, we love you, you are ours now no matter how mean you are, you are in your forever home, and we're going to love and take care of you even if you don't want to be lovable.

Once she SAW her old home was gone, it seemed to flip a switch in her head.  She came back to us and stopped clawing at us.  She quit trying to bite.  She still didn't like most of the other cats, especially Mikey, but she didn't go after them to start trouble.

It was as if our words finally sank in, and she knew she was home, and she didn't have to fight for her survival.

The last five years with her have seen her become one of the sweetest cats we ever had.  A snuggler, she would barely nip your hand to hold it still, then lick at it gently.  

She loved being on the front porch, NUDGING one of us on the leg when she wanted to go out.  Once out there, she never left the porch or the grass in front of it, where she would nibble away at her "salad greens" as we called it.

Children walking past would see her on the porch and come visit, and this former "try to attack everyone" cat would let children pet her.  Even our little Annie would reach out and pet her, rubbing her ears or her tail, and Tripod would let her, or would get up and move if she didn't want the attention, but she didn't attack.

The last few days, my Sweetie noticed Tripod seemed to have trouble CHEWING.  He took her to the vet Monday, and the vet noticed what seemed to be an abscessed tooth.  The removal was scheduled for yesterday.

The vet got in there and realized it was worse than an abscess.  She had mouth ulcers starting, and a tumor, which hadn't been there the last time she had a check-up.  At this point, removing the tooth would lead to having to try to remove a tumor, and the mouth ulcers would be a problem, and she probably wouldn't survive anyway, and the vet called.

We decided while she was under anesthesia was the best time to go ahead and let her go.

Tripod SissyCat was 19 and will be sorely missed.

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Today is:

Air Force Day -- India

American Touch Tag Day -- go outside and remember how much fun it is to play tag

Banned Websites Awareness Day -- sponsored by the American Association of School Librarians   

Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day -- at your own risk! sponsored by Susan E. Schwartz of "Teddies Are The Answer"

Cephalopod Awareness Days:  Octopus Day -- celebrating the most intelligent invertebrates in the world; today, celebrate all the eight-armed species

Children's Day -- Iran

Emergency Nurses Day

Feast of St. Bridget -- Sweden (traditional date, others who recognize the saint celebrate on July 23; Patron of widows; Europe; Sweden)

Feast of St. Keyne -- Celtic Saint, patroness of the spring and tree arbor that bear her name; the first to drink of her water after being newly married will have the upper hand in the marriage

Lovable Lawyers Day -- internet generated, and if you love one, good for you

National Fluffernutter Day

National Pierogi Day -- this day in 1952, Ted Twardzik, Sr., produced Mrs. T's Pierogies samples and took them to a local grocery store; eat a pierogi today in his honor

National Stop Bullying Day -- use #NationalStopBullyingDay to post on social media (begun in 2009 by eighteen 6th grade students at St. Stanislaus Kostka School, now a nationwide movement)

Navy Day/Battle of Angamos Day -- Peru

San Ernesto Day -- celebration of Che Guevera as a saint who answers prayers for rain among Bolivian campesinos

SAVE Today -- US (Stop America's Violence Everywhere, a day created in 1995 by the American Medical Association Alliance)

Sergeant Alvin C. York Day -- US (the feats for which he earned the Medal of Honor in 1918 were accomplished on this date)

St. Demetrius' Day (Patron of Belgrade, Serbia; Salonica, Greece; Thessaloniki, Greece; against evil spirits)

St. Pelagia the Penitant's Day (Patron of actresses)

St. Thais' Day (Patron of fallen women)

Tavistock Goose Fair -- Tavistock, Devon, UK (known locally as the Goosey, dating back to 12th-century Michaelmas fairs, this orginal livestock fair is now mostly a fun festival)

Tube Top Day -- if you dare. i don't

Ventiane Boat Racing Festival -- Ventiane, Laos

Anniversary Today:

Ozzie Nelson marries Harriet Hilliard, 1935

Birthdays Today:

Matt Damon, 1970

Darrell Hammond, 1960

Stephanie Zimbalist, 1956

Bill Elliot, 1955

Sigourney Weaver, 1949

Sarah Purcell, 1948

Chevy Chase, 1943

R. L. Stine, 1943

Jesse Jackson, 1941

Harvey Pekat, 1939

Paul Hogan, 1939

Clodagh Aubry, 1937

Rona Barrett, 1936

Faith Ringgld, 1930

Juan Peron, 1895

Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890

Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, 1676

Heinrich Schutz, 1585

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Cagney and Lacey"(TV), 1981

"Sugar Babies"(Revue)< 1979

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"(Radio), 1944

"Capricorn Concerto"(Barber Op. 21), 1944

"In the Shadow of the Glen"(Play), 1903

Today in History:

Constantine, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, defeats Licinius, Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, at the Battle of Cibalae, 314

Great standing on the Ugra river, a standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, which resulted in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and eventual disintegration of the Horde, 1480

The supernova "Kepler's Nova" is first sighted, 1604

The Massachusetts Bay Colony forms its first government, 1633

First recorded eruption of Galunggung (volcano of West Java, Indonesia) sends boiling sludge into the valley (this volcano would later erupt at such a time as to cause passenger jets to be damaged and forced into emergency landings), 1822

The first Hawai'ian constitution is proclaimed, 1840

The telegraph line from LA to SF opens, 1860

A gas explosion causes the Peshtigo Fire, in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, which killed between 1,200 and 2,500 people and consumed the entire town of Peshtigo and surrounding forests and several other villages -- the deadliest fire in American history, it covered 1.5 million acres, and occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, 1871

The Great Chicago Fire, which consumed 4 square miles, killed 200, and destroyed the original Emancipation Proclamation, began, 1871

The first women's prison run by women opens at the Indiana Reformatory Institute, 1873

Dow Jones begins reporting an average of selected industrial stocks, 1896

Edmonton, Alberta and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan are incorporated as cities in Canada, 1904

New York Yankees' Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series; one of only 20 perfect games in MLB history, 1956

Algeria joins the United Nations, 1962

Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia, 1967

Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60mph at Blowering Dam, Australia, 1978

A deadly earthquake hits Pakistan, 2005

Australian mare Black Caviar ties the horse racing record set by Phar Lap with an unbeaten run of 14 wins, 2011

Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, 2014

The Noble Prize for Physics is awarded to James Peebles for his work on evolution of the universe, and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of planet 51 Pegasi b, orbiting another star, 2019

American poet Louise Glück is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2020

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks," 2024

New Shoes and Old Messes, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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Sad update on  story below, Tripod did not make it through the surgery.

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

First, a bit of an announcement:

This Is My Post #6,000!

It's one of those weeks, and yesterday proved it.  Carl had the day off, and will be off Thursday when i go back to clean the rest of the house.

As is always the case, he wanted to sleep, which is fine.  He wants to sleep with half of the bedclothes and pajamas i should wash.  That's not so fine, and i reminded him he would be responsible to wash whatever he slept with and in.  He looked at me sideways, but i repeated my i can't wash it if you are wearing it or sleeping in it mantra and he seemed to get it.

Then i moved on to his room.  Glory be, what do i see?

He finally got some new shoes!  He's been wearing old shoes so broken down he has been using 3 or more corn/callous pads on each foot for a bit of a while, with those showing up in the washer, dryer, stuck to the floor, and everywhere else you can imagine.

His mess was as usual, the same old messes.

As i was sorting the washing and cleaning, Carl came in 3 times to brush his teeth, once to tell me he needed a razor, whereupon he went in the bathroom, rinsed his hands and walked out with no razor, once to tell me he needed more sleep, which he got, and once to show me where his fingernail split.

I also found this.

No, i do not know how you get a pair of pants on a hanger like this.  Talent, pure talent, is my guess.

Nor do i know why one of his fiber pills was in the bottom of his cup.  I'm pretty sure he knows not to dissolve it before consuming.  If he didn't, he'd only make that mistake once.

His fridge was, um, interesting.

He's been told to stay away from so many sweets.

No, he's not doing it.  Yes, most of what's in there is sugar in some form.

While he was napping, between rain showers, i also ran to Ms. G's house and took care of her cats.  

Also yesterday morning, my Sweetie's music friend who is also an exterminator came to do our annual termite inspection.  I had to be called and consulted as to payment, even though every year he sends the invoice to the same email and i pay online.

Just before i left Carl's, as i was mopping, he asked me if i could wash his pj's and whatever else he was sleeping with.

Sorry, i told him, the washing is done, you will have to catch these yourself, and the washer is empty so you can start them up now.

I guess i will find out on Thursday whether he did or not.

After Carl's, i went across the street to Ms. S.  Once there, as if to prove life will lay it on thick this week, my phone hardly stopped ringing, or pinging, or whatever.  The messes in my life are the same all over, too.

First it was #1 Son.  He'd had to jump his car twice that day and once the day before, could my Sweetie meet him at Kevin and Lenny's and get him to work while they put in a new battery?

Sure, if anyone could get in touch with him.  He'd decided Tripod SissyCat needed to go to the vet, and getting no answer to repeated phone calls, he drove over there.

Their phone system was down, but they told him to go home and get the cat, which he did.

Once he got back home with her, he saw #2 Son in the driveway telling him #1 Son had been trying to call him for almost an hour.

He had his phone turned off again.

Between them, they got #1 Son situated, he now has a new battery.

Sweetie called me to say they'd solved that problem, but Tripod SissyCat needs a tooth removed.

Did you make an appointment? i asked.

"No," he told me, "I wanted to talk to you first, you can call them an make an appointment, I'm going to be out of town with The Big Boss tomorrow, we have farm work to do."

While working for Ms. S, every time i turned off the vacuum cleaner, i tried to call the vet.

My Sweetie had forgotten to tell me their phone system was down.

I finally called him just as i got a text from Ms. Genie.  I told him to call me back in a moment and read the text.

Last Thursday, Ms. Genie called all of us in the ladies' circle to remind us of our meeting (which is today).  I asked what i'd signed up to bring.  She said, "Nothing."  I asked if she was sure, she was.

Then yesterday the text, "You signed up to bring the cards for the homebound this month."

Thanks, Ms. Genie.  Good thing i was going to the store on the way home, anyway.

Back to calling my Sweetie about the vet.  He finally told me they were having phone trouble, so he agreed to drive back there and make the appointment.  She's having the tooth removed today.  Otherwise, for a nineteen year old cat, she's doing very well.

Also while at Ms. S's house, her husband came in.  He'd been at the casino, like he is every single Monday unless it's a major holiday, when it would be too crowded.  (Ms. S and Mr. D have a system, they each get an allowance she calls their "sin money."  She spends her on her card making, he spends his on cigars and a trip to the casino each Monday.)

Mr. D and i exchanged the usual pleasantries and he told me the boat had taken his money that day.  "Of course, I only take the little I take, and I call it entertainment, so it's really okay."

I smiled and told him as long as he was entertained, that was fine.

"Oh, I was," he said, and then added, "I know!  I'll borrow some money from you!"

Why not, i told him, my name is mom and it means 'made of money,' right?

We both had a good chuckle.

I stopped at two stores on the way home to get everything, and when i got home, things weren't done.

Brother-in-Law came, as he does each evening, and his news is not so good.  His car probably needs a major repair.  He's going to apply for a credit card, even though he's been out of debt for over 10 years.  He figures he has to keep his car running and work at least 3 more years before retiring.  Ah, well, it keeps him busy and out of mischief, and he's the only person in the library who knows how to properly catalogue any more, they don't teach the new librarians that part!

How about some funnies?

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Bathtub Day -- can't confirm this one, but it's as good a day as any to be glad you have one!

BOL Foundation Day -- Laos

Feast Day of Ma'at -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Full Hunter's Moon/Full Blood Moon/Full Sanguine Moon (some also consider this the true Harvest Moon, if last month's came too early)

     Boun Ok Phansa and Ventiane -- Laos (end of "Buddist Lent" and a traditional boat race festival starting tomorrow with hundreds of decorated candle-lit floats made of paper set adrift in the rivers)

     Kojagrat Purnima -- Nepal (end of Dashain)

     Thadingyut Full Moon/"Buddhist Lent" ends -- Myanmar (begins at sunset, through tomorrow)

     Vap Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

If At First You Don't Succeed Day -- in honor of Frank Sinatra, whose CBS-TV musical variety show debuted on this day in 1950; it and the other two shows that followed didn't succeed, but he never gave up and had a great career

Lepanto Day -- Greece

Monkey King Festival -- China (a celebration of this popular character in East Asian stories, with the best place to see the rituals being the Monkey God Temple at Po Tat Estate in Sau Mau Ping, Kowloon)

Nagasaki Kunchi -- Nagasaki, Japan (harvest festival, through the 9th)

National Flower Day -- US (anniversary of President Reagan signing the bill, in 1986, that made the rose the US National Flower)

National Frappe Day

Nobel Conference 61 -- Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, US (annual two-day symposium, this year, Sugar, Bringing Sweetness to Light)

Nones of October -- Ancient Roman Calendar; other observances

     Festival of Juno Cutitis and Jupiter Fulgor

     Victoria, Lady of Victories Day a/k/a Pallas Athena -- also celebrated by the Ancient Greeks

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary -- Catholic Christian

St. Justina of Padua's Day (Patron of Padua, Italy; Santa Giustina, Italy)

Sukkot -- Judaism (began at sunset yesterday, through nightfall on Oct. 13)

Try To Start An Argument Over Which Is the Best Muppet Day -- Kermit, hands down (argue below, if you wish)

You Matter To Me Day -- because the phrase "you matter to me" can make a profound difference in someone's life    

Anniversaries Today:

Larry King married Julie Alexander, 1989

Dow Jones makes the first report, in the Wall Street Journal, of an average of the prices of 12 industrial stocks, 1896

Birthdays Today:

Toni Braxton, 1967

Simon Cowell, 1959

Michael W. Smith, 1957

Yo-Yo Ma, 1955

Vladimir Putin, 1952

John Cougar Mellencamp, 1951

Joy Behar, 1943

Charles Dutoit, 1936

Thomas Keneally, 1935

Amiri Baraka, 1934

Bishop Desmond Tutu, 1931

Al Martino, 1927

R. D. Laing, 1927

June Allyson, 1917

Vaughn Monroe, 1911

Andy Devine, 1905

Niels Bohr, 1885

Thomas J. Wise, 1859

James Whitcomb Riley, 1849

Caesar Rodney, 1728(O.S. date)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Independent(Newspaper, first issue), 1986

"Cats"(Musical), 1982

"Route 66"(TV), 1960

"Your Hit Parade"(TV), 1950

"One Touch of Venus"(Musical), 1943

"Eve of St. Mark"(Play), 1942

Today in History:

The epoch of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar), BC3761

The first public burning of books in Louvain, Netherlands, 1520

Ralph Wedgewood patents carbon paper in London, 1806

The first chartered railway in the US, the Granite Railway, begins operations, 1826

Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba, 1886

Henry Ford institutes the moving assembly line, 1913

Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland college in the infamous 222-0 football game, 1916

160 consecutive days of 100*F+ temperatures begin at Marble Bar, Australia, 1924

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco, 1955

U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the far side of the moon, 1959

Nigeria joins the United Nations, 1960

Oman joins the United Nations, 1971

Cats opens on Broadway and begins a run of nearly 18 years, 1982

The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, 1993

Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten, 1998

The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins, 2001

A Southampton University research fellow discovers a long lost Antonio Vivaldi flute concerto at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, 2010

Scientists Stefan Hell of Germany and Eric Betzig and William Moerner of the U.S. share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing 'super-resolved fluorescence microscopy'; the technology can be used to observe molecular activity in living cells, 2014

Jodie Whittaker debuts in her first full episode as the 13th and first female Doctor Who on BBC television, 2018

The Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology is awarded to Peter Ratcliffe, William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza for discovering how cells sense oxygen, 2019

Zanzibar born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2021

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to the Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, 2022

Hamas launches a major air and ground attack on Israel from Gaza, killing over a thousand people and taking hundreds of hostages, sparking a state of war, 2023