And We Call Them Domesticated?

I was pondering something this morning. Why do we refer to cats as domesticated? Are they really domesticated? Maybe just a little more so than your average lion roaming the plains of Africa!

When Richard and I woke up this morning, I stayed snug in bed and he ventured out. He let the cats out of their room ( I will explain this in more detail later) and they proceeded to fly about like wild little beasts.

As I'm laying there, both of them proceeded to zoom about my bed. They were flying on and off the bed, jumping on furniture, and soaring over Phoenix as he calmly slept on the floor beside me. As one of them started attacking my foot I asked myself...And what exactly makes these creatures so domesticated?

Sure, they're a good bit smaller than their larger counterparts, but the actions are still the same!

They might not be able to bite my foot off, but that doesn't mean they won't try! Just last night as I was watching Law and Order, Maggie calmly approached me and bit me in the foot! Completely unprovoked I might add!

These two stinkers have their own sleeping quarters at night because they act like crazed, high on catnip, psychocats! We learned rather quickly that they do not sleep like normal cats. No, they prey about the house seeking slumbering heads to pounce on. More specifically, MY slumbering head! It didn't take too many times of me waking up screaming because something had just attacked my head for us to realize this is just not going to work. Hence, their own room complete with bed, food, water, and litter box.

Oh, and speaking of litterboxes...I guess sometimes it's just more fun to poop on the floor. And we call this domesticated!

The old saying, curiousity killed the cat will probably come true for these two. They obviously do have 9 lives, but how many are left?

I think Boomer is definitely the more curious. He doesn't like closed doors. He's figured out how to open one of the kitchen cabinets. It's a constant battle of me closing the door, and him opening it. So if you ever come in my kitchen and notice one of the cabinet doors hanging open, you now know the answer!

If they can stick their head in it, it's there. No bookcase is left unscaled, box left uninvestigated, shelf left upright, hair band not run off with, bug ignored, and in most cases, left uneaten.

They eat, sleep (during the day), play, and fight. I have never seen two 3 1/2 year olds fight as much as they do. They pounce, they bite, they chase, they growl and bite some more!

Don't get me wrong, they do cuddle and love on each other. It's very sweet, but even lions do that.

So I think the word we're looking for here is "ever so slightly more domesticated".

Or maybe it's just MY cats!

This is why I like dogs. Phoenix sleeps at night. He doesn't pounce on my head, bite my feet, or poop on my floor. Okay, well he has but only from being scared out of his mind from fireworks. That's different! He doesn't scale my furniture and he leaves my cabinets alone!

Yes it's true. He is my domesticated angel. Even when he does eat bugs.

Mmmm Good!

This is probably one of my very favorite chocolate cakes! There is only one word to describe it...YUMMO! I made it this Sunday afternoon. Yes, I know it's already Thursday but so what. It's been one crazy week! The best part is, there is still some left! Yay, I think I'll go spoil my dinner and have some.

Catching Up

Well, it appears that it's been a while since I've blogged. I'll try to update you on this and that going on in my corner of the world.
I serve in the baby room at church twice a month. Last Sunday was my first scheduled day for July. It's always interesting in there! We are outgrowing our room, we had 7 babies and it was tight. Thankfully we are getting ready to move soon. They are putting new carpet in our new room so as soon as that's done we'll have a lot more room! Yay!
Monday was kind of interesting I guess. Life always seems to be interesting when you have a Husky. I had cooked a whole lemon pepper chicken the night before. I put all the bones in the garbage, bagged it up and tossed it outside so it wouldn't stink up the house. It was late and I was tired so I just tossed it out the back door thinking I would take care of it in the morning. You know, I really should know better. Monday morning I was behind, had a couple minutes before I was supposed to start work and sent Phoenix outside and ran to start work. My first call was the most difficult person ever. I was sure he was just trying to be aggravating, but I had to deal with him. We can only hang up if they are cursing, insulting, obscene, things along that nature. He was just being difficult. I finally got off the call and ran to bring Phoenix in. As soon as I went to open the door I saw the trash all over the place. Grr!! Then here came Phoenix...his face COVERED in dirt! I knew he must have buried the chicken bones somewhere. I quickly wiped him off and brought him in. I had to go back to work, so I ran back in and finished my shift. Thankfully I hadn't scheduled more than a half hour.
Afterwards I marched Phoenix outside and gave him hydrogen peroxide. Note to all pet owners, this stuff is great! If your animal ever eats anything they shouldn't give them a teaspoon of HP per 10 pounds of body weight. It induces vomiting so they don't get sick. He did his thing and I started cleaning up the trash, only to notice a strange car pulled up in the grass by the side of the house. Naturally, I freak out not knowing what on earth was going on! I tried calling Richard and he wasn't answering. Great. Not to mention I was in my pajamas! I ran and changed and walked back out to see if anyone was in the car. Nope. Called Richard several more times to no avail. Meanwhile Phoenix did his thing , got everything out of his system and I started looking for his buried "treasure". Richard called me back and let me know it was his helpers car. Whew, everything is okay. He was actually done for the day and on his way back to take care of our yard. Once he got there he helped me look for Phoenix's buried treasure. He found several bones and I found the motherload. He had buried the whole main chicken bone up next to the house. He had buried that thing deep too! We dug everything up and got it thrown away properly!
It was funny because later that day when Phoenix was outside he went looking for it! Bad little boy.
So that's basically been our excitement for the week so far. I have babies again this evening. Hopefully all will go well. Last Wednesday was awful so I heard! They are usually hard as everyone is tired and cranky...the babies I mean! LOL!
Well, happy hump day to all. Hope you're all having a fabulous week.

The Fish

Well, here is a pic of the ever elusive Plecostomus. He's quite active nowadays and is finally doing his job and cleaning the tank! I guess we won't need a snail afterall! However, everytime I whip the camera out he hides!! Definitely camera shy. He swims around with me standing there, but pull out the camera and he's gone. This is the best pic I've been able to get of him.

Our Day Trip

This past Monday we decided to take a little day trip to St. Mary's, Georgia. We were originally going on Sunday, but literally at the last moment changed our minds!! Anyhow, Monday morning we headed up to St. Mary's and had ourselves a nice little day. It started pouring rain and cut our trip short, but we still had a good time!

On our way!



Crossing into Georgia. It's nice living so close to the border.



Orange Hall, one of our first stops. We stopped at the Welcome Center, only to find out it was closed for renovations. A lot of things were under renovation. We talked to a nice elderly lady who gave us the scoop and recommended a good lunch destination. On the way up to the house I stopped Richard and told him to listen. He didn't hear anything...my point exactly! It was QUIET there! A big change from the bustling city.



Marianne's, a great recommendation. The owner originally lived here, lost her husband and moved away, only to come back and open a small cafe...which eventually turned into this. She's received several awards, been written up in magazines like Southern Living, and obviously done quite well!




The bathroom. The whole place was very cozy.

Richard perusing the menu!

And his choice, Crab Cakes, they were featured in Southern Living.

And my choice; chicken salad, baked beans, and potato salad. Delicious!

Another view of Marianne's. They made you feel like you were coming home.

The garden's at Marianne's.

Pretty flowers.

This was a little shop called The French Quarter. It was a really neat shop with a huge assortment of this and that. The prices were huge too! That's why they call it window shopping!

A view of the St. Mary's River.

Another view of the St. Mary's River.

Getting rained on! I love Richard's "Huh" face!

We also stopped off at The Oak Grove Cemetery. It wasn't nearly as elaborate as the cemeteries in Savannah. Our next stop was the Howard Gilman Park. It was a beautiful park, unfortunately it started pouring as we got there. Too bad. One of our last stops was a little museum. I didn't get any pictures there either.

It's kind of interesting. St. Mary's is a totally different way of life than here in Jacksonville. It is a very slow pace of life and people are friendly!

I was excited to go to a place called the Golden Pineapple. It was a huge gift shop and looked really neat. Unfortunately, it was closed. I guess regardless of store hours, if you don't want to open shop you don't! Like I said, a very different way of life!

So we headed out of St. Mary's and got back on the road. Richard wanted to check out fireworks so we stopped and he got himself something, which he promptly set off last night! We then decided to take US 17 back to A1A and head through Fernandina Beach on the way home. We completely missed Fernandina.

And we are home again! The view of downtown coming off of the Dames Point Bridge.