The Most Important Things...

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them--words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to where your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear.

~Stephen King~


Guido, Guapo, and the Others they Allow to Live Here


Nothing too heavy today. We were expecting a snowstorm during last night but it went all around us, missing us completely. Places as close as 25 miles away got 8 inches of snow, so we really lucked out. Weather was rather nice for us... mid 40's so Sam and I got in some good work today.

Allow me at this time to introduce the other members of our family.

My mom had a cat that delivered a litter of kittens around July 4th of 2006, shortly before we moved here. During our visit that July, Sheri set her eyes on two of the kittens and after we were settled into our new home we brought home Guido and Guapo.

Guido is an orange long haired cat who will eat anything and everything dropped on the floor in the kitchen. We worried at first if he would leave any food ever for his brother. He has become rather large in stature. He sleeps more than the Guapo and is much more affectionate. He craves attention quite a bit, which includes crawling up on laps and demanding much rubbing and scratching. He has decided that when you stop scratching his head, it's his duty to grab your hand and pull it back down. He will tolerate a good brushing only for a few minutes which is never long enough given the amount of hair he leave where ever he plants himself for a nap.

Guapo is grey and more streamlined than his brother. He has short hair so we don't find as much evidence of his presence here. He is much more independent, allowing a rub on the head when and only when he decides it's appropriate. He is the curious one of the two. Whenever a drawer or cabinet opens, he will investigate thoroughly. He has learned to open the cabinets under the kitchen counters and lets them slam back shut. He likes to escape outside when he sees an opportunity to do so. This usually happens at night and then we are forced to go outside with flashlights and circle the house a few times until we see the yellow glow of his eyes in the beam of light. Guapo has taken to sleeping under the covers while Guido is more like me... on top.

When they first came home, I would roll them on their backs and pat their bellies a little. Over time, the belly pats would get a little harder and harder as they got older and bigger. Now, they seem to think if they don't get a good belly pounding every day that I don't love them any more. Guapo will position himself in front of me on the kitchen floor and roll over on his back... then wait. I have ignored him on occasion and he has repositioned himself in front of me again. Guido will take the belly poundings, but he doesn't ask for them as much as Guapo does.

Dan showed up at my first jobsite one day a couple of months after we were here. He was very skittish at first and wouldn't come close to us, but he wouldn't leave either. At lunchtime we offered him pieces of our sandwiches but he wouldn't take them. Then we threw down a half a sandwich and left. He grabbed it and took it to the other side of the field to eat it. He ventured closer and closer to us for the remainder of the day until we were able to pet him, and then it was all over. He was right there with us all the time.

We could tell that he was very hungry so I took him home to feed him and introduced him to Sheri as "Danog" or Dan for short. He looked to have some pit bull in him, but I'm not sure. I took him to work with me every day expecting someone to show up and claim him, but no one ever did. He became a regular part of our jobsites. I taught him to sit and stay and he loved to play catch with a tennis ball. I thought he would make a great Frisbee dog so we started working on that. He was just starting to get the idea of chasing the Frisbee when he jumped at the perfect time when I was flinging it out for him and it hit him right across the face. Needless to say his Frisbee chasing days were over. He cowered every time he saw it from then on. Besides... tennis was good enough.

Danno loved to go places with me in the Jeep. We would jump in and find his place on the floor or on the passenger seat and would go anywhere I wanted. Sometimes I would let him out to chase cows or go swimming in a stream and then he'd jump back in and we'd continue our journey. He was uncomfortable being in the house so he stayed outside all the time.

Then one day, he was gone. I don't know what happened to him... he just stopped being at our house. I spent some time searching at other houses near by and looking in the ditch that runs along the side of the highway we live on, but I never found any trace of him. I can only hope that someone who needed a good dog more than me picked him up and has given him a good home. I really doubt it, but that's what I hope happened anyway.

I really miss him. Goodbye, my friend.

Another of my mom's cats had another litter of kittens around April of 2007 and we claimed four little kitties this time. Three boys and a girl. We named them Junior (Sheri's favorite NASCAR driver), Gordon (my favorite driver), Frankie (because he had very blue eyes), and Samantha. These were our outside cats for catching mice and keeping other assorted rodents away from the homestead. Junior ended up going to Idaho with Rebecca's friend Sunny last fall, and Samantha disappeared a couple of months after that. Gordon looks strikingly similar to Guido... long haired fat cat, and Frankie is built like the sleek Guapo but has orange hair like the other two. They do their job disposing of most undesirables, so we're pretty happy with them.

Then there's the mighty Baxter.

Sheri got her hands on a book by the famed attorney and talk show host Mark R. Levin called "Rescuing Sprite - A Dog Lover's Story of Love and Anguish" (see Washington Times - Man's worst loss) and said I should read it after informing me (to my great astonishment) that I would need another dog. Well, I did read the book, in one sitting on a day off from work, and immediately agreed with her assessment... I need another dog.

I had learned that very week that the dog that had been hanging around the jobsite where we were working now did not in fact belong to the people across the street from the job, but was in fact a stray. He was a larger dog than Dan, looked to be some kind of shepherd, and was being taken care of by those neighbors, but they had told our foreman Harry that they didn't want to keep him and were looking to get rid of him. Harry told me about this and now he lives with us.

He went for a few days without a new name before we settled on Baxter. He's an indoor outdoor dog, but we have to be careful when we let him out... always on a leash. If he gets loose, he likes to go across the road into a great big field and hang out with the cows that reside there. Now you might think that this isn't all that bad, but let me tell you something... cows do not smell like fine leather as one might think. Cows smell bad. Really, really bad and when Baxter finally does come home, he brings that lovely aroma with him. So we do have to be careful.

Baxter likes to chase balls and Frisbees like Danno did and he has learned to sit and stay, but he doesn't seem to have the loyalty that Danno did from the very start. He has chew toys in the house and has a blanket on the floor in my room where he sleeps at night. He likes to wake me up in the morning by licking my feet (yikes). Guido wants nothing to do with him at all, but Guapo seems curious and is venturing closer and closer all the time. He also drinks more water than any other animal I've ever seen, which makes him very slobbery. A good companion on walks, but he doesn't like car rides which is ok too because he tends to be a little gassy, which can ruin even the best of relationships in such close quarters.

Our animals all have different personalities and are fun to watch. They have different habits and peculiarities and they really do add quite a bit to our lives. Just another trip to the fixins bar, you might say. I'm happy that you've taken the time to get to know them a little.

Until next time...

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2 comments:

Lindy said...

Oh yeah! It was so fun to hear from you! Believe me, I wish we could make it to your BBQ! We still hope to get out there in the Spring. It's so fun that now we have such an easy way to keep in touch. I just finished a post so check us out again for the latest. We miss you guys!

Ben and Kimberly McEvoy said...

Boy Lynn, at first i was thinking this was some kind of border control article about the Mexican influence in Missouri. Just looking at the title alone, I was thinking you might have some especially strong opinions on the matter. Anyway, glad it was a nice cuddly cat article. Thats all, i just thought that was kind of funny.