Ike

Well, Ike came ripping through Western Pennsylvania yesterday evening, and it was a doozy. The winds were gusting up to 65 miles an hour, that's close to the fastest I've ever seen. The power was browning out repeatedly for over an hour, and we had two very brief complete outages. DH and I were watching the football game (Go Steelers!) and just listening to the wind howl. The cats were not pleased. The big guy kept coming up to us and burying his nose in my lap. The little gal, Crick, was hovering close by on a pillow. Fortunately, the baby and his two big brothers were fine, and didn't notice a thing! They slept like, well, like babies. I just can't imagine what it must have felt like for people to live through a hurricane. It's bad enough having the remnants pass through; a 100 MPH wind passing overhead has to be awful.

This morning, Crick brought us another (another!!) present, a chipmunk. She brought one in last week too. I managed to wrest it from her jaw and catch it to put it out. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she caught the same little guy and brought him in again later today. He didn't look too bad though. Just scared, and a little damp from cat drool. We've had at least two birds, two chipmunks, a rabbit, and two mice in the past month. She's gotta cut it out! I'm not pleased with having to remove live and dead animals every week. My dad's theory is that she feels we're inept, incapable, pathetic humans who need to learn how to catch live prey. So, she brings in things for us to practice with. Umm, no thanks, Crick. I'd prefer to leave the catching to you. Just don't bring them in, OK?