After a good day of hunting nothing hits the spot like a cold glass of milk.

(Princess was actually a bad kitty, because it was Jimmy's glass of milk

that she found unattended.)

Daisy is feeling very mellow these days

It all started when we found a rather large knot on Daisy's neck which was restricting her being able to bend her head down to take a drink of water. We first noticed that she would only sit in front of her water dish and not drink. Then we noticed that she wasn't eating either and losing weight. That's when we found the knot and rushed her over to the vets office.

We were so proud of Daisy at the vets office...she was so good and stayed completely still as the vet drew three things full of blood for her tests. While waiting for the test results he gave us two different kinds of antibiotics for her to take every 12 hours. That was on a Friday and we were to bring her back in on Monday for a biopsy of the knot, but by Monday the knot had gotten much smaller and all of her tests were normal.

By the end of two weeks the knot was completely gone, but now we had a new problem. Daisy had developed a problem with urinary frequency...going only a drop at a time and most times it was a false alarm. She was in and out of her litter box several times a minute, hundreds of times a day. Poor kitty, I felt so bad for her having experienced that problem once or twice myself.

The previous vet bill had been so high that I called for advice this time and was told that if he couldn't see Daisy, then we needed to collect a urine sample and bring that in for the vet to test. He said he only needed three drops....yeah right! This is the same vet that called us one night and told us that we needed to do an enema on the wildcat we had just brought home from major surgery that afternoon...yeah right!

You have to get creative when you have pets, so I fashioned a piece of aluminum foil into a small spoon-like shape and followed Daisy into the litter box each time she went, and after about 3 hours I finally got what looked like three drops of urine. We rushed the foil to the vet and he found that she had no infection, but found crystals & blood in her urine. He said she was peeing sand, OUCH. He questioned us further about her diet and we told him that she sometimes threw-up her Meow M*x. He said that she was apparently getting too much salt in her diet. Our cats don't eat table scraps, they're strickly cat food junkies.

Jimmy & I walked out of the vets office with more antibiotics, a case of prescription diet canned cat food and Valium (diazipan)....not for us, but for the cat!
Can you believe that....a cat on Valium?
It's a first for us and my mouth must have dropped open when the vet told us because he then began to explain all the reasons that she needed to take the Valium.

Did you notice how relaxed Daisy looks in the picture? She looked really loopy in some of the pictures, but I picked out one where she just looks relaxed. She's funny to watch because sometimes while she's drinking her water she just falls over and doesn't do anything to catch herself; she just keeps on drinking, doesn't miss a beat as if nothing happened.

On the verge of tears

We had a scare yesterday. Daisy was missing all day and we searched every where, in and out of the house, and couldn't find her. We continuously searched and double searched and double backed to where we had already looked several times before. We jumped to investigate every little noise thinking that it might be her, trapped some where and trying to send us a signal. She meows very softly, and sometimes you just see her little mouth move as if to meow and not a sound comes out.

Daisy had laid around all day on Tuesday as if she wasn’t feeling well, and very early on Wednesday morning Jybow & her wanted to go outside. In a few minutes they both came back inside and that was the last time Jimmy remembers seeing Daisy…I hadn’t seen Daisy since the night before. I was asleep and when I got up Daisy was not at my heels. She usually follows me everywhere from the moment my feet hit the floor. I didn't think too much of it at the time, because I thought she was outside.

All afternoon & night we hunted and called for her. Jimmy & I were both very sad thinking that she might have gone somewhere to die. We remembered that she hadn't gotten up to play with the newspaper house and that it was only Jybow & Hopalong who played with it on both nights. Jimmy was sure that it was Daisy who had played with the newspaper and my pictures confirmed that it was only the other two cats. I also remembered that I hadn’t accidentally put my feet on her while I was blogging yesterday. She has a tendency to lie on my feet when she can’t climb in my lap and when I move my feet around I hit her accidentally.

Late in the evening we sat around quietly, pretending to watch TV, both secretly shedding a tear and praying that Daisy was okay and in the hands of God. Then suddenly I heard a scraping on the window screen, jumped up and was disappointed that it wasn't Daisy. The wind was blowing and a branch from the Rose of Sharon Bush was scraping against the screen. I hung my head and went back to my crocheting, and to praying for her safety.

There's a table next to the window on the front porch that Daisy uses to peek inside while taking her paw and lightly flicking the window screen. She does this to get our attention if she sees us inside the house, and we run and let her in...It's her way of knocking and she has trained us well. If we don’t hear her the first time, she flicks the screen harder, poking holes in it. When she was a younger and much smaller cat she used to jump on the screen with all four paws…Jimmy had to install a new screen every year just because of her…thank God she’s grown up.

Sometime after midnight I heard that same faint scraping on the screen and almost dismissed it as that limb blowing in the wind again. I turned around and thought I saw the little yellow & white tomcat, that looks so much like Daisy, peeping through the window. He’s a smart kitty and has watched Daisy, but it never gets him inside, but he still tries. In the dark they look similar but I took a second look just to be sure, and it was that sweet face of Daisy peering back at me. I quickly unlocked the door and let her in. She was so happy to see me. She greeted Jimmy & woke Hopalong & Jybow to let them know that she was home & happy to see them. We were so relieved and happy to see her too and although she was only gone from early morning until after midnight, it seemed like an eternity. She is never gone like that, but maybe with the warming weather of Spring she decided to go off exploring and got momentarily lost…or chased up a tree by the neighbors pack of dogs…or maybe since she wasn’t feeling well she just decided to find a nice quiet place, hidden away from everyone, to rest up & sleep. Someone may have even accidentally locked her up in one of their buildings, who knows?

Before she showed up you would have thought that we were mourning the loss of a close relative…or a lost child. Our cats have become our children…when did that happen?

So...what's new?

Well...there's no snow to report for today although we had some flurries yesterday that were rather pretty, and just about 3 days earlier the temp was in the 70's. This is a picture of Sharon out hiking in the last snow that we had. It didn't last long and melted away the next day. Today the skies are sunny and there isn't a cloud up there, just an endless sky of blue. It looks like it's going to be another beautiful day here in paradise.


This cardinal was outside my window peeking in at me as I was trying to compose my post. He looks a little shy.


It's become a habit with me now to crochet each time I sit down. My lap gets rather crowded with my project and with Daisy. She's learned that if she wants to remain there, she is not to playfully grab at the dangling yarn. Each time she grabbed my yarn, I simply put her down off my lap and she soon learned not to touch the yarn....Of course, she turns her back on me now so she isn't tempted. Smart kitty.


I haven't got passed making rectangles yet and look what I made with one. Yep...these slippers are made by making two separate rectangles, folding each in half and stitching them up leaving only a hole for your foot to slide into. Then I added a cuff. They were too loose, so I also had to make some slippers strings ( you know....'shoe strings'). I laced them in and out and drew them tight and tied a bow. Walaah.... cozy warm slippers.
They need to come with a WARNING though...
"DON'T WEAR THEM WHILE CLIMBING STAIRS!"

A close-up view

Here's Sharon preparing an Easter Basket for Megan. She's adding lots of extra goodies to a pre-made Easter basket. When she was finished Sharon tried to hide it under Megan's bed but it wouldn't fit, so she just hid the card under there with a hint for Megan on where she could find her Easter Basket. Megan is Sharon's baby...she's barely 18....not months....Y.E.A.R.S.

And...

while Sharon was busy with Megan's Easter Basket, I was playing with Megan's hats and generally snooping around her room. And, NO! I didn't snoop in closed up areas like drawers, cabinets or closets. I just looked at everything that was out in plain site. I was being good, hehehe.


Matt gave us a new in the box medicine cabinet, and it was so timely as Jimmy & I were just talking about one the day before. Jimmy attached it to the bathroom wall and we love it. Now I have a place to put my two prescription bottles in, plus all the other stuff you fill them up with.


Daisy found a strange cat wandering around the living room and had to stop and take a good look at it. I'm not sure if she liked the kitty or not, as she wasn't too sure about approaching it.

I really can't remember everything that's happened since I blogged last unless I took a picture of it. As I get older I need picture reminders of events that happen so I try to keep my camera handy, to everyone's dismay. It's a well known fact that the first topic of conversation when being introduced to someone is to warn them that," grandma has a camera and will use it to put embarrassing pictures of you on her blog....so watch out."

Hope everyone had a nice Easter and didn't eat too many chocolate bunnies or marshmallow peeps as I did. I found out that if I eat a WHOLE box of peeps at one sitting...make that two boxes...that I get mean & cranky from the sugar over-load. Now I know what Laura & Brian go through. Sugar never bothered me before, but I tried it a second time just to confirm the meanness, and I got cranky again. No more sugar for me...anyway not in large amounts.

What's New....

The newest addition here is this little camera, very much like my old camera...handy, small and fits right into the pocket of my jeans. This little camera is slightly thicker than my old camera, but this only makes it easier to hold. Although I would REALLY love to have a much nicer one with a big lens and great zooming abilities, that's not practical for me and I know that I would not carry it with me at all times. Since I've always carried my little cameras in my pocket I sometimes use them to take pictures of the row I'm parked in, or of some item I want instead of writing it down...you can even record something you want to remember when you don't have pencil or paper handy. I also use it to take pictures with...that's another benefit, hehehe.
These next two pictures (above & below) are of mufflers or scarves to keep your neck and ears warm in the cold winter months. I've been using some of my left-over yarn to make these with because it doesn't take much to crochet them...one 7 ounce skein.
Jimmy says that they are much too long, and maybe they are, but you can wrap them around your neck a couple of times, including your face & ears. Suzanne is prone to ear aches, so the blue & white one is for her and I told her that it was an "ear blanket" that I made for her to wear when she goes down to the barn to feed the horses.

This is the beginning of another baby blanket and since I'm crocheting baby blankets we probably will have a dry spell of babies. This one I'm making for Megan. It's to put in her "Hope Chest" for the future. Megan is barely 18 right right now and my youngest granddaughter and by the time she settles down, gets married and decides to have babies I might not be able to crochet her a baby blanket at that time. You just never know what the future holds, so I'll make what I can now, while I can.
Megan's blanket is complete (above) and ready for its final inspection by Jybow. Jybow says, "It's Purr-fect," and gives her okay.

Hostile take-over of the blanket.

Daisy wants the blanket and Jybow is telling her to get off of Megan's blanket, and to get off of it RIGHT NOW!

A couple of days ago Sharon sent me this picture of Megan and her brother Zac on their skiing trip. They go skiing once or twice a year, usually around Christmas, but it was delayed this year. They always have fun and I don't think anyone has ever broken any legs or anything...not even their mom, who is accident prone like her mother. hehehe

No more news except to say that Jimmy & I have gotten over that lingering cold that we kept exchanging between us. It finally got tired of us and left...probably thought we were too boring. Since we have been bug free now for several days, we can now have visitors. Whooopie!

Peanut is here watching U.K. Wildcats play basketball with her dad and Megan will be coming over after the game for a visit and a bite to eat. Chris is still hanging on to life, but a decision is waiting to be made to remove her from life support. Her husband does not have an easy decision and I wouldn't wish that decision on anyone having already been put in those circumstances myself. Please pray for Chris and for the decision that is being placed upon her husband's shoulders.

Gift bags & boxes

Here it is, 17 days after Christmas and we still have a cardboard box and a gift bag, still on the floor left over from Christmas. I wanted to buy the cats each a special Christmas toy, but Jimmy said no, that they already have enough store bought toys that they don't play with as it is. And as much as I hate to admit it...he's right.

Just as soon as the house emptied out after all the Christmas hoopla the cats began jumping in and out of this box and gift bag and having a great time. I'm still waiting for them to get tired of them and go on to something else, but as I walked by them a few moments ago I snapped this picture...so today is still not the day to throw out these items that we have been tripping over on a daily basis.

The cats have managed to tear out the side of the gift bag and make themselves a side opening...probably for a quick escape when one cat blocks the main entrance don't you guess? All three of the cats take their turns hiding and jumping out at each other and it's really quite a show and keeps us amused. I think only cat lovers can probably appreciate and understand how Jimmy & I can be amused over watching the cats play.

I just went into the kitchen to peer out the window to check the outdoor thermometer. It's 50ºF and wet outside. While looking out I saw a large flock of doves foraging for seeds on the ground below the bird feeders. Our bird feeders have been another joy during these wintry gray days. Every type of bird that comes to the feeders now are coming in large flocks and it's a sight to see a flock of bright red Cardinals, especially on that one day that it snowed. They really stood out against the white snow. A couple of times I think I have spotted quail under the feeders. I do know that they live beyond the creek and in the fields behind our house, so it's very likely that they would come up to get the cracked corn and other seeds that fall from the feeders.

We had a 20º drop in temperature in the last couple of days and some very strong wind gusts. On Wednesday some large trees were blown over on our road, but other than the trees falling we didn't see where any of them caused any damage. Last night we had very strong winds & heavy rain that made our driveway look like a raging river and the lightning and thunder caused one of our cats who doesn't mind the rain at all (Jybow) to seek comfort on Jimmy's lap. Usually Jybow heads for a bed and slides up under the bedspread and stays there until she feels it's safe enough to come out again. But last night she wanted Jimmy to hold her as the thunder was extra loud & booming. Jimmy said she was trembling...poor kitty.

Yesterday they delivered more wood to the barn site during the "tornado watch" so Suzanne & I covered it up with more plastic and anchored the plastic down with 6"x 6"scrap pieces of the posts. The new barn structure is still standing today after all that wind last night and that's good. The old barn hasn't fallen yet either and that's another piece of good news because the horses would be injured if that barn fell...it's really in bad shape and hence the reason for the needed new barn.

Megan & Sharon stopped by on their way to church on Wednesday afternoon and we played Phase 10 until it was time for them to leave. We managed to talk Jimmy into playing with us and while playing Sharon came up with an idea for a 'Special Hat' with a large "L" for those to wear when they can't move forward for three hands in a row of play. Can you guess what the "L" would stand for? (Loser). Of course she was just kidding, sort of, but she might introduce her new hat design when her sister plays next with us and keep it hid until her sister fails to move forward for three hands in a row. Then she'll plop that hat right on her sister's head.

I'm still waiting for Brian and his family to come over and play some games with us. It's really lots of fun and sometimes we order pizza. I promise I won't cook! hehehe.

Taking It Easy

I jumped out of bed this morning and got ready to go somewhere. I couldn't quite decide which way to ride today and while I was making up my mind, Jimmy said we needed to go to the W-M Supercenter...we were out of food for the cats among other things of necessity. So off we went.

By the time we got home it was after 1:00 p.m. and I was hungry...I hadn't eaten any breakfast so I fixed myself a bowl of cherrios without any sugar. I always eat them that way. And by the time the cat feeders were filled I was no longer in the mood to go anywhere, so we just stayed home and relaxed in the yard. We rode all day yesterday anyway, so staying at home today seemed like a restful thing to do. My muscles could use the rest anyway.

While resting in the yard I took some pictures...I always take pictures and everyone who knows me knows that I carry my camera in my pocket so I won't miss anything...That is, anything that's not moving too fast! The Poppy below opened up this morning and the orange petals don't look quite real. They look like crepe paper to me, don't they? I'd love to have more of these but they don't last long. They bloom and then the plant dies...that sucks.
I took a break and went inside to catch a soap opera which I haven't seen in some time, just to see if anything has happend and of course, not much had changed. I think you can miss them for months and not much changes. Anyway....when I came back outside there was Jimmy, no doubt telling the cats one of his stories. The cats look mesmerized, don't they? It must have been a really interesting story because they all look so relaxed and are smiling, hehehe. I took this picture through the glass of the back door before I stepped outside.

Of course when Jimmy saw me with the camera, he just had to poke at Jybow and as you can see in the picture below, she had something to say about that and didn't like it much. She jumped off the hammock and left. I really think Jimmy didn't want to seem like he was sitting there enjoying the company of the cats so much. But he can't fool anybody...we all know he loves them...Especially Jybow!!

A Cardinal came to eat while I was within camera range. The pictures aren't as crisp & clear as I would like them to be, but with the help of the computer I was able to bring the bird in a little closer.

Here's another picture of the Cardinal.

I even managed to get this picture of a woodpecker. He was very cooperative and let me take several pictures of him. Of course, here again the computer came to my aid in cropping the pictures to bring the woodpecker in for closer viewing. He's getting to be a regular here at the feeders and he doesn't like to stand straight up and eat. One of the feeders is large enough for him to stand right in the feeder and eat in an upright position, but he just won't use that feeder even though it has the same kind of feed in it. The Cardinal above is eating from that feeder and will eat from any of them, no matter what kind of feed are in the feeders...He's not picky.

The woodpecker also likes to sit on top of this feeder. He used to peck around on the Ash tree, but since I hung the feeders up, he doesn't bother the tree anymore. He does go back to the creek and we can hear his loud rapid pecking on the trees back there. My daughter Suzanne is having a problem with a woodpecker. It seems to want to constantly peck on her roof and when it's not pecking there, it's pecking on a piece of metal on the telephone pole.

The woodpecker is hungry again. Jimmy calls them "Peckerwoods." I think that's really funny, but I've heard several other people around here call them Peckerwoods too. That must be some sort of country slang...kinda like the lightning bug and firefly.

I have several pictures that I took on our ride yesterday (Mother's Day) which I'll post some other time. I hope everyone had an enjoyable Mother's Day and that you got to spend it with your children.

It rained buckets today

Today I woke up, looked out and thought that this would be a great day for a ride. I took my time, drank my morning cup of coffee, ate my cereal and proceeded to take my shower but when I started out the door to tell Jimmy that I wanted to go for a ride, a BIG black cloud appeared. While waiting I checked the bird-feeders and killed time pulling some weeds waiting for that cloud to pass over and when it got directly over head it cut loose with buckets of rain. I think that it even hailed for a second or two...very tiny little bits of ice.

*

I hobbled quickly into the house as fast as I my legs would carry me just as it started to rain and decided to check my email. It began to really come down at this point and I watched, from my window, as a group of motorcyclists passed the house. They didn't look like they were having fun and one woman was covered with a plastic bag over her head...NO she wasn't driving...she was the back seat rider, hehehe. When the shower stopped Jimmy came in and told me that he counted 85 bikes in all but that they were not UBAD, our local Christian group (United Bikers Against Drugs) but another out-of-town Christian group.

Daisy stayed dry under the frog's umbrella between showers, while Hopalong sat in the chair behind her.

Despite all the rain we got the temperature was in the 80's and the sidewalks and rocks dried off quickly. There were large deep puddles of water in the grassy areas and pulling weeds was much easier. Jimmy & I took advantage of the wet soft soil in the flower beds and pulled all the weeds we could between showers and we even got wet...but it was fun working out in the rain. I took some pictures between showers, but these pictures were taken before it started to rain. My flowers are starting to bloom but they aren't as big as they should be because they had a lot of catching up to do. They were killed by that mean April freeze and had to start over.

Here's a close-up of one of the flowers that Jybow is standing near in the picture above. It seems that everytime I get set to take a picture, there's a cat in the way. They have to come and see what I'm doing and those of you that have cats, I'm sure understand what I mean.

Only one of the Rhododendron bushes is blooming and it's not very full of flowers. I think that the freeze also damaged some of the buds although this plant stays green year round. You can't see my azalea very well from here, but it's on the other side of these bushes and is very brown. I think most of it is dead and it's not recovering very well. It has VERY FEW green leaves on it...I think I can count them on both my hands & feet. Any suggestions on how I can save it? Should I prune it, cut it down, cut it back, give it food & water???

Here is a close-up of theRhododendron flower...Isn't it beautiful.

My neighbor has three Mountain Laurel's that are in full bloom...I don't think you could possibly fit another bloom on any of her plants, but todays pounding rain took its toll on them and knocked some of the old blooms off and soaked the rest. They kind of look water-logged. I wanted to take some close-up pictures of her Mt.Laurel's but I waited too late...maybe they'll perk up tomorrow.

*

On another note: While I was writing this post, I happened to look up at the 11 p.m. news and saw my grandson Matt aiding in a horrific auto & tractor trailer accident on the interstate. Matt works for our county's ambulance service, but he wasn't there as an EMT, but as a fireman. He was using the "jaws of life" to cut someone free and the newsman said that I-75 had been closed for hours this afternoon due to the accident and clean-up afterwards. Matt is such a good boy and I'm so proud of the work he does. The pays not that good, but as Matt says, "It's not about the pay, but about the people you help."

Walking & Thinking

As I walked in the yard today, I noticed that my plants and flowers are starting their recovery. The trees are budding again and there are signs of small leaves making their appearance once again...I was beginning to give up hope for a recovery although I knew that one had to come.

Our plum tree needed a good prunning and we have always put it off because we didn't want to destroy any fruit, but this year there will be no fruit, so it was easy to do the much needed prunning. I'm sure that the tree will do much better and now it will be much easier to mow around it. It had gotten so bushy that it was hard to get near it with the riding mower and that left Jimmy with a lot of weed-eating to do around the tree.
At the moment these are the only flowers that are blooming in my yard and where they came from I don't know. The orange flowers look like Sweet Williams but I don't know what the blue ones are. They're growing in three separate locations in the yard and I'm assuming that the seeds either blew in from someone else's yard, were carried in on the bottom of the cat's paws or by bird droppings. My neighbors, on either side of us, don't have these flowers in their yards, nor did they have them last year. Wherever they came from, I'm happy to have them here and it looks like Daisy is too. It gives her another place to hide and take her little cat naps.And while I was browsing looking for the picture of the flowers I took today, to put on my post, I stumbled across this picture of Jimmy, Suzanne, Matt & I and I couldn't believe that it has been almost 10 years since we took this trip. We had taken a three day white water rafting trip that was really a lot of fun. I remember how sore my bum had gotten from all that bouncing around in the raft...but boy, was it fun. We had always planned on doing this again on other rivers, but the time just got away from us...You know how you just always put things off and then one day you realize how many years have passed. Matt is now married, he's the child on the right wearing the red shorts. I'm sure his wife would love to go rafting, she's very adventurous and loves the outdoors, but am I able now?? I've gained 80 pounds since then and I'd probably bounce right out of that raft and into the water...As I think more about that, it might even be more fun to go rafting now.

Speaking of things we want to do...Jimmy wants to take the mule trip down the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River below. I'm not so sure that those 'sure-footed' mules could carry me safely down those narrow trails. I'll only agree to go if I can lose some weight. I went horse back riding last year and I felt soooo sorry for the horse I was on...And besides that, I had a hard time getting off the horse and needed help. Getting on wasn't so bad, but trying to slide off was another thing. One of these days I'll post the picture of me riding on a camel...I couldn't get my leg over one of the humps to get off and also needed help. The camel kept trying to stand up while I was trying to get off.

When I started writing this post it was sprinkling rain outside and very stormy looking. The sun just popped out, although the weather alert is still flashing, "Tornado Watch." I wanted to ride my bike today, but I don't feel like dodging storms....been there, done that and it's not fun. As I've said before....I'm a 'fair weather rider.' Hope the sun is shining wherever you are and that you are enjoying the day. If you need rain, I'll do a dance for you...and please, please pass a smile along to everyone you see today, whether you know them or not. :)

Daisy & Tigger, twins?

This picture is being posted for Darilyn of Tropical Screamer & Tropical Dreamer. Daisy was preparing to pounce on Cucoo in this picture. Darilyn, I hope this helps in answering your question about Daisy.

NOTE TO MY BLOG FRIENDS
I'm going to Georgia to look for Cucoo...I heard of a possible Cucoo sighting there. I will be leaving early Wednesday morning and returning on Saturday night...hopefully with Cucoo. Wish me luck.
I don't have a laptop (yet) so I will not be posting during this time.

"Cucoo" scares Daisy

As you probably already know, my son and his family were here on the weekend and they gave us early Valentine's gifts. I got a large coffee mug with hearts, a balloon and candy and, from my grandson, Brandon, I got a stuffed dog that whistles and a long pen with a purple, fuzzy headed bird on the eraser end...which we quickly named "Cucoo." My husband received a great big chocolate heart...yum, yum.

After they left I decided to have some fun with "Cucoo" and insert him into pictures and make up sub-titles about him to send to Brandon. I sent him several pictures of Cucoo's travels. On one particular picture, I wrote, "Cucoo and Pillsbury Dough Boy join forces to buy the Hostess Twinkies Company for 2 gazillion, trillion dollars."

I received an email from my daughter-in-law saying, "We loved the Cucoo pictures and we got a good laugh out of them...but, I just have one question. How did you get Cucoo to stand up between the twinkies and doughboy?"
I quickly typed out my response and said, "I had to bribe him."

I went on to say that, "Cocoo said that he wasn't standing next to no 'fat boy' unless Jimmy gave him the chocolate heart. I explained my dilemma to Jimmy, so he gave me the chocolate heart to give to Cucoo, so he would stand by the Pillsbury Dough Boy."

Down farther on the email I was preparing to send a small picture of how I really did get Cucoo to appear to stand...but first I had to take the picture with my camera. As I was preparing my subject (Cucoo)...my cat, Daisy, approached...got frightened by Cucoo and bolted!!! Files & discs went flying in all directions...my yellow, dancing chicken went flying up in the air and landed on the surge protector strip, shutting down the power to my computer, causing me to lose everything I was working on. One of my Hallmark Card disc's even got scratched.

After I turned the power back on, my email server wouldn't let me look at the email because, it thought it contained a virus...because it had shut my computer down. But actually Daisy and that flying chicken had shut it down, but the computer didn't know that...so,
I had to start all over again.

I started out laughing...because I thought I was giving her a witty answer to her question...and I ended up laughing...And when I think about the whole thing, I start laughing again.

This wasn't a "Cucoo Story," this really happened.