Category Archives: Animals

Loss Is The Hardest Thing

 

Anyone who has ever lost a beloved pet, especially a pet who was more like a member of the family than just a pet, knows how hard it can be to deal with that loss.

 

I mentioned earlier this year that my best friend of nearly 17 years, my cat Tigger, passed away in January.  Tomorrow will mark three months that she’s been gone and I’m still finding it difficult to accept.  It still doesn’t feel real in a way, like I’m going to wake up some morning and find her napping in one of her usual spots.

 

And looking back through all the pictures I have of her, it makes me even more sad.  I have several photographs, but so few of them are actually good, clear, and proportioned.

 

Saying farewell, be it to a friend, a family member, or a beloved pet, can be one of the hardest things any of us has to do in our lives. That’s why I prefer not to say “goodbye” but “until we meet again.” It’s still difficult to deal with loss like this but I choose to hang onto the belief and hope that our souls reincarnate and that, in the next life, we’ll meet our loved ones who went before us.

 

 

Tig on Purple

 

 

Rest in Peace, Tigger.  I will always love you.

Rest in Peace, Tigger. I will always love you.

 

 

Until next time…

 

[-_-,]

 

~A.M.

“Whatcha Doin’?”

 

I’m sure those of you out there who have pets (namely cats) have experienced at one point, your pet getting in the middle of an activity or important task you’re trying to take care of, searching for attention.

 

Well, one of my cats feels that I shouldn’t be writing without her presence.  She comes into the room, and if I’m sitting too close to my desk for her to hop up into my lap (which is most of the time), she’ll jump up onto my desk and get between me and my laptop.  She knows she’s not supposed to do that, but she does anyway, to get my attention and let me know I need to pay attention to her.

 

So, I push my chair back, let her get into my lap and when she’s bored with that (more accurately, I think she feels that I don’t give her the amount of attention she wants and she just gets annoyed), she climbs onto the arm of my chair then up onto the back where she perches and looks over my shoulder.

 

Now, I wear headphones to listen to music while I write and when my cat does this, I can hear her purring in my ear over the music, that’s how close to my head she sits.

 

Sometimes, when she stares over my shoulder, she sits there so long that I start to wonder if she’s actually reading what I’m writing.

 

Proof.

 
Abby Perched on My Chair

 

I wish she would give me a neck massage while she’s back there.

 

Anyway, I feel kind of guilty when she wants my attention (even though a good third of my daily attention is devoted to her already) while I’m busy writing and I only stop to pet her for a few moments before going back to writing.  So, I try to time it now so I sit down to write when she’s off napping.

 

What tasks do your pets get involved in, or try to distract you from?

 

 

Until next time…

 

[^_^]

 

~A.M.

Chickadee

 

It always amazes me how such a small bird as the chickadee can survive living in Maine during such cold winters.  They’re tough little birds, that’s for sure.  Maybe that’s why they’re Maine’s state bird.

 

Chickadee 1

Anyway, I saw something recently that I’d never seen before.  A chickadee basically mining for birdseed after a snowstorm.  He wasn’t just daintily pecking through the snow.  This little bird got right into the snow bank.

 

Chickadee 2 (In the snow)

I’ve never seen a bird do that before.  Kind of interesting.

 

 

Until next time…

 

[^_^]

 

~A.M.

Ravens

 

It borders on strange how often (and how many) ravens decide to hang out in my front yard.  They arrive pretty much every single day, rain or shine.  Wind or snow.  They show up without fail when I throw out stale bread or cereal (they really like fruit loops!), but mostly they just hang around my front yard, picking at whatever falls on the ground from my bird feeders or the huge pine tree in my yard.

 

I managed to catch a shot of one raven hanging out on a branch.

 

Raven on a Pine Branch

 

Until next time…

 

[^_^]

 

~A.M.

A Winter’s Worth Of Snow

It’s nothing out of the ordinary here in Maine to see a foot or more of snow fall in a single storm.  But it seems like we’ve been hit with an entire winter’s worth of snow in just a few weeks.  There’s been a storm almost every other day, dropping anywhere from five inches to over two feet of snow at once.  And cold… Don’t get me started on how cold it’s been.

 

Anyway, during the most recent storm that passed through my neck of the woods, I happened to look out my window and see a raven perched on a tree across the road.  I thought he (or she) looked pretty neat sitting at the peak of the tree with snow falling all around it.

 

Raven in a snowstorm

 

If you live in a region that doesn’t see snow on a regular basis (or at all), consider yourself lucky.  I could use some sun right about now.

 

 

Until next time…

 

~A.M.