StrangeRanger

The Mantle

We have windows on either side of our chimney.  Daisy often likes to hop up on the mantle and spend some time looking out.  I think she feels that it is a safe and sheltered spot from which to survey her queendom.

Lace camouflage.  Nothing better to provide both elegance and concealment!

When she's tired of keeping watch on the side yard, she looks for more athletic pursuits.

Hmmmm.... sheer painted El Capitan-style wall?  Probably 5.12a?  If it's a gloss paint that'll make it a 12d...  Maybe I'll just hoick a dyno-move to the picture rail.  That'll get me my Patagonia sponsorship for sure!

She'll usually take the easy way off.....

yeeeaaahhhh, that way looks safer.

.....and hike the summit ridge to the exit ramp (in this case, my wife's Nordictrak) and climb down that way.  Sometimes she stops in the middle of the mantle and lets us all enjoy the view.

Go ahead.  Admire me.

Sometimes I'll get a request.  Not verbal, but I understand it.

pssst!  Hey!  Buddy!  You wanna sherpa me down into the papa-san?

Easiest, most pleasant duty I'll do all day.

Have a great week ahead all!

Out of the cloud....

Daisy is gray.  Really gray.  She's even got long fur so her reflective blue and silver collar almost never show.  She's really, really gray.  She's like a little cloud sometimes.  Perhaps a wisp of mist off the mysterious and forbidding moors.  Given her active and occasionally turbulent personality, a little gray storm cloud, sometimes.  And sometimes, through the mist, out of the cloud, we catch a glimpse, a flash of pink lightning as she licks her chops or has a bath.

omg, you are a hopeless sap.....

I'ma just ignore you, you weirdo....

Probably the best idea, dear.

Have a great week ahead, all!

Sunpuddles are not just for napping

Daisy is still too young and active to be much of a nap-cat.  She is a very playful beastie.  She plays well on her own.  Her games of cat-hockey are really spectacular.  She can throw a catnip mousie like Willie Mays.  She does seem to love engaging us in her games, too.  Many and many's the time we've been sitting at the computer or having a read or preparing for bed and in comes Daisy dragging a toy on a stick.  Sometimes we're too old or tired or busy to indulge her, but sometimes we get up and give her a good play.  I recently managed to combine a play with our old favorite, the sunpuddle.  When you add the fact that I gave myself a nice camera for my last birthday, well, you get these results:

something's up there!!

ahhhhh, springy-toy, my old nemesis.  We meet again.

THE BATTLE BEGINS!  HAVE AT YOU!

LE MOULINET!!!

LUNGE!!!!!

OPPOSITION-COUNTER-PARRY!!!!!!

PRISE-DE-FER RIPOSTE!!!!!!!!!  

JE TOUCHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, she's a fencer, like I used to be.  Sabre, too.  Daisy's way better than I ever was, though.  Might be the cat-like reflexes or the fact that she's packing multiple sabres on each paw.  Either way, she's a gold-medalist in our house!

Have a great week, all!