POOR MS. FERAL HAS NO IDEA WHAT "NEGOTIATE" MEANS

We have told her often that we will feed her and all she has to do is take care of the mice.

I think that confused her.  Evidently to her it means to give  mice whatever they want.   I heard "Devious Mouse" recently  trying to negotiate with Ms. Feral telling the cat that if she would only let her survive there will soon be more mice coming in the near future and Ms. Feral could take her pick - not only one but however may mice she would like.    Evidently Devious Mouse is pregnant.

Ms. Feral just sat there looking totally confused and perplexed.  She has never heard the word "negotiate".  She wants to take care of the mouse but has no idea what to do.

SOMETIMES

Sometimes you just need a break.   In a beautiful place.  Alone.  To figure everything out.

So often, Griffin's senses are inundated with cell phones beeping, blenders whirling, dogs barking, trash trucks on the street, birds chirping, mice chewing, air conditioners humming, washing machines agitating and all these noises make his inner life feel chaotic.  He notices all of this more when he is left alone for the day in this tower in the city.

He often dreams of finding himself away from the city and in the midst of a meadow with quiet butterflies dancing amongst daisies.  He longs sometimes  to bust out of his normal environment.

But then, his human comes home ..finally...from... where ever it is she goes and just her pets and rubs and snuggling with him makes everything all right.  He finds sanity again amongst the noises.  He once again, is King of the Castle and he knows this is his rightful place.

SINCE I LAST VISITED THIS SKETCH BLOG THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CHANGES

I have grown in wisdom.  I'm not the dumb lazy cat you might remember from before.  I have redecorated my corner.  I have changed out the pink accents to blue including a new blue window shade.  I am quite happy now.  I have learned many many things as I watch the humans in my life.

The number one rule in life is Relax and don't sweat the small stuff.   It's taken humans a long time but I think they are finally getting it.   I really like this  piece of wisdom.

And, my human left a video running one day as she got out of her chair and I jumped up to watch the video.   This guy I'm watching ...this Alan Watts..  He seemed very very wise.  

I particularly liked this

"Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun." Alan Watts

We cats have always known this.  We suffer nothing - we believe in sleeping, eating, stalking, getting our head rubbed and scratched... and fun.

Have fun tomorrow and don't forget of course, the Catitude, oops...I mean Gratitude.  

By the way, I am Griffin.  

IT'S JAKE - NO IT'S A FROG MORPHING INTO A HUMAN

So as the story goes - when Jake was born in 2010 I noticed something about him as the months went by.  I thought his smile reminded me of a frog - in a good way - a cute smile.  I even collaged two photos together and at the time labeled it "It's in his smile" and put it up on his "blog".  I have blogs for all the grandkids.

He was the cutest of babies and what a personality.  Even say, at six months old, if you held him up towards your shoulder and patted his back, he would pat you back.  I never had a baby do that at such a young age.

So we have been spending a lot of time with the grandkids this summer and we took Mackenzie, Jake and a cousin, Cayden with us to what is called the 'Social Club' at a local outside mall Victoria Gardens.  We played games and played shuffleboard.  After we had fun we went to a place called "Afters" for their delicious ice cream and then I took out my camera to get some photos of them sitting still and  not running around.  Jake came right up to the camera as I was clicking his photo.

There it is!!  I knew he was part frog.  These photos prove it.  Do you think my grandson looks like a frog?

It's been so fun having them around for part of the summer, and of course the other ones also!

And here he is as a normal kid.

AFTER THE RAIN - THE EARTH HAS A SMELL - LOTS OF SMELLS

And I learned the word for that awhile back .  It is "petrichor", the way the earth smells after it rains and another definition is:

pet·ri·chor

ˈpeˌtrīkôr/

noun

1. a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.

   
   

   "other than the petrichor emanating from the rapidly drying grass, there was not a trace of evidence that it had rained at all"

And another word I learned and like is "Pluviophile"....
Any organism that thrives in conditions of heavy rainfall. One who loves rain, a rain-lover.

 (Thanks to a friend named Rebecca I learned of these two words).  I updated an older sketch to show a gramma taking her granddaughter out after it rains and teaching her the meaning of the smells after the rain and repeating the words petrichor and pluviophile so baby will always remember them and not have to wait to learn them until she is a gramma.  I had no idea these two words existed.

I like these quotes about rain and really like Judy Blume's quote.

Here is my updated older sketch I did awhile back.  I cleaned it up somewhat and made gramma holding a little girl in a pink sweatshirt.  Gramma always takes baby out after every rain that falls.

In the southwest we need rain to put out all these fires (thank God there is none by me right now).  South, Central and Northern Cailfornia all have massive fires burning or have just been put out.

Let it rain and rain.  And of course if you are in the east or other areas where there is flooding the opposite sentiment would apply I imagine.  Let it dry out!

And my last image is a cute illustration of why there are no unicorns on the planet today except in our imagination, lol.  (not sure who to credit that cartoon to).