to catch a chipmunk

I'm trying to get better about posting here; however, I don't have much motivation lately.  I figured I would tell a funny story--something that happened this week--and make it easy on myself.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a lot of cats. Like, A LOT--11 at the moment. Yes, 11. Double digits. Having 11 cats means my house is sometimes a circus. The cats chase each other, play together (usually), sometimes fight, crowd us out in bed and hog the covers, step on my boob, cry for their dinner two hours early, and do various other cat things. (One of my favorites is when they sit and stare at the ceiling for no apparent reason. I know they probably hear a critter in the attic; however, my house was built in 1735 so I tend to wonder if they're seeing a ghost. Freaks me out.)  Sometimes they leave me all-natural, homemade "gifts" that I sometimes don't see until I've stepped in them, which is always fun. And occasionally the one indoor/outdoor cat I have, Lou (above), brings me outside "gifts." These "gifts" are typically dead mice, dead birds, and once a dead chipmunk. Key word here is "dead." He leaves them on the door step to show me what a good hunter he is and how proud he is of his kill.

Earlier this week I was getting ready for work–getting ready to step into the shower, actually–and Lou was crying to come in the house. He was using his weird cry, which means, “Ma! I caught this cute, fuzzy animal and killed it for you! Come look!!” When I hear that cry, I know to check and make sure it’s dead and laying on the patio, and not in his mouth and alive. That was followed by normal cries, so I didn’t check like I usually do. Well, I let him in and he’s got a live chipmunk in his mouth. He trotted in like he’s all that and a bag of chips. The other cats were VERY interested. 

(Now, before I go on, keep in mind that I was just getting into the shower, which means I was naked. Seeing what was about to happen, I panicked for a second and then threw on a sweatshirt and underwear. For some reason, I couldn't find my pajama pants.)

Lou proceeds to drop the chipmunk on the floor in front of me. It promptly plays dead for a few seconds while the others look on--chipmunks are smart like that. Then it gets up and runs around the house, starting with the living room.  So there’s a chipmunk running around with no less than six cats chasing it. Bailey (above) catches it and runs off in another direction and the others follow. Bailey drops the chipmunk in the den and they all race to get it, but Bailey is too fast--there's no way he's giving up his prize. So Bailey gets it again and runs into the family room. Luckily the family room has a door and  I thought to close it so at least the situation is contained in one room. I then had to figure out how to get the chipmunk out of the house without getting bit (those things have jaws like a vise and very sharp teeth!). It then occurred to me to throw a towel over him and the chipmunk.  So I grabbed a bath towel and flung it over Bailey, who still has the chipmunk by the tail, then picked them both up and brought them outside on the back stair. (Yes, in nothing but a sweatshirt and underwear. Luckily it was the back stairs and the neighbors aren't too close.) Since Bailey is an indoor-only cat I couldn’t just put him outside. He wouldn’t let go of the chipmunk, so I did the only thing I could think of--I shook him until he dropped the chipmunk…and then the chipmunk grabbed on to the towel! Rather than put the towel on the ground like a normal person would have, I started shaking the towel until it let go and ran away. I tossed Bailey back in the house and I got on with taking a shower.

Took me just a few minutes to contain the situation. I got on with my shower and got to work on time. :)

Wondering what other live "gifts" I've received from various cats over the years, and which made it into the house?  Mice, birds, and a live snake. Yes, a snake! And now a live chipmunk. I'm not sure what was more fun, though:  the live bird that flew around the house while multiple cats chased it, jumped in the windows, trashing the blinds and knocking stuff over, eventually catching it and giving it a bath (nope, they didn't kill it!), or this chipmunk.

Best ever dead "gift"? A dead catfish from the pond behind my old house. It was delivered to my front door and was sitting on the Welcome mat.

weekend in review

Hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend.  It's a gorgeous day today and the temperature is in the 70s.

Bob and I went to the Beekman 1802 farm in Sharon Springs, NY, this weekend.  It's a goat farm owned by Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, the winners in season 21 of The Amazing Race (2012).  They've opened the farm up to tours during the town's Garden Party weekend and this year I got the chance to go.

We stayed in Albany and then drove an hour to Sharon Springs yesterday morning for the tour.  It rained most of the way there, of course. There's no public parking at the farm, so we had to park on Main Street and then take a shuttle bus from their store, Beekman 1802 Mercantile.  (Actually, it was a school bus, but it got us there.)  I checked out the store before the bus came.  It was a lot smaller than I pictured, but they had some good stuff.

It was a short 10-minute ride to the farm and as luck would have it, it stopped raining when we got there.  But that was short-lived.  The first stop was the mansion, built by William Beekman in 1802.  It's beautiful.  We weren't allowed onto the porches, because it's John and Brent's full-time residence.  Next was the crypt.  It was kind of creepy knowing the purposed it served in years past.  When a family member passed away in the winter, they were put into the crypt ("cold storage") until springtime when they could be buried in the family plot.  Next was the pool area and then onto the formal garden area.  The grounds were beautiful with over 60 acres of rolling hills, a pond, and weeping willows.  The final stop was the most anticipated (for me):  the barn.  They breed goats and use the goat's milk in many of their products so there were lots of goats.  And one llama, Polka Spot.  I got to see Faintly, the runt of the goat litter last year.  She came back to the farm for a "guest appearance."  There were also some baby goats, or "kids."  So cute!  I got to hold one. His name was Hans.  He was so warm and soft!  I just wanted to sneak off with him.  My new house does have a barn...  Just as we were thinking about leaving the barn, the skies opened up and it downpoured.  That was OK with me.  It gave me more time to pet the goats.  Many of them were trying to grab my shirt and umbrella.

The tour was fairly short, maybe 45 minutes total, but we were free to roam afterwards and decide which shuttle bus we wanted to catch back to Main Street.  We walked around a little then hung out under one of the huge trees to get out of the rain.  About 1:30 PM the shuttle bus arrived, but the driver drove into a ditch and couldn't get out.  It was Farmer John to the rescue!  (Farmer John is the one that tends to the goats.) He brought out the tractor and was able to pull the bus out of the ditch.  We were on our way pretty quickly.

When we got back to town we browsed around the Garden Party vendors on Main Street for a bit.  We picked up some real maple syrup and maple cotton candy for Bob, and some flavored oils, cherry balsamic vinegar, and fresh made goat cheese for me.  I snacked on lots of samples, too, since I had run out of water during the tour and was getting pretty hungry.

Then it was back to Albany for a late lunch, then on to the hotel to relax and catch up on my magazine reading (I'm about 6 issues behind on Cooks Illustrated).  Bob napped and then watched some Pawn Stars on the iPad.

Then it was back to reality today.  The drive home was beautiful, unlike the drive to Albany on Friday night, which was rainy the whole way.

Here are some pictures of our trip to the farm:

Front of the mansion.

Back of the mansion and formal garden area.

Back of the mansion and formal garden area.

Goats!

Hans and I.  I wanted to steal him!

Faintly, the runt of the litter last year.

Kids!

Bob petting a goat.

Lunchtime!

Faintly.

Polk Spot (the llama in the back).

Front of the mansion.

Headstones in the crypt.

The crypt.  Yes, those are real bones.

Doorway to the crypt.

Grave marker for William Beekman and his family.

The bus, stuck in a ditch.

Farmer John to the rescue!

Alpacas at the Garden Party.  We saw a pig, too, but I didn't get a picture.

some funny stuff...

I was browsing through the blogs I read and came across something I just had to share.  Apparently Martha Stewart tweets pictures of her food on Twitter and some of them look like something my cats dragged in from outside or regurgitated, or both.  You might want to wait until your food has settled before you look at this link.

From The Kitchn: Martha Stewart Takes Unappealing Food Photos Just Like Everyone Else


Here's another link I thought was amusing.  You have to scroll down a bit once you get to the website.  Read the captions under the pictures; it's pretty funny.  I may not be into cooking that much, but at least my meals don't look like the ones in these pictures.

Dimly Lit Meals For One


And this one, because, well, it's cats.  'Nuff said.  Multiple pages of funny stuff on this site.

Cat Shaming