My Life with Kittehs

It was 2:20 am when I heard the sound. It was a howl. Like a lone tiger calling for its mate in the Ohio wilderness.
Only it wasn't the wilderness, it was urban NW Ohio. It wasn't a wolf, but my housemate's overweight cat. He wasn't calling for his mate. He has been neutered.
I immediately got up. I guess it would be likened to a mother jumping out of the bed at the sound of a child crying. Yes, it is just like that.

I ran downstairs and asked Fattie, "what is wrong."
He started pacing and howling again. I followed his gaze to the windows. I searched the porch for the source of his frustration. Was there something on the porch that had upset the cat?
I found nothing.
I went back to Fattie Cat. I wondered, what could be bothering him.

Then it hit me. Where was Skinny Kitty? I hadn't seen her since mid morning.
I walked around the house. Looking for Kitty. Fattie followed me in an anxious huff. Then I heard a "thump" on the second floor. It could have only been Kitty jumping down from something. I looked for her in my closet. Nothing. In the yarn room closet. Nothing.

Then I heard her meow. She had been locked in the other roommates bedroom. OOOOOOH.
Skinny Kitty ran out when I opened the door but stopped at the top of the stairs as if to say "thank you" to Fattie Cat.
Yeah, Fattie was just sitting on the top step as I searched for Kitty.

Fattie looked at me and yowled again. Walked over to the water dish that he insists I keep maintained with fresh water. He indicated with his nose that it needed to be refilled. As he usually does.

There have been occasions where he has wakened me up from a leisurely nap to fill his dish. He will crawl under my bed and meow until I get up. Fattie will casually trot to my door, check to see if I am following him then proceed to stop at the water dish. He has trained me well. ..... Oh did I mention that his original water/food dish is kept in the basement. He seems to think that he deserves fresh water on the second floor as well as the basement.

I filled it with water from the bathroom sink. He looked at it, meowed and then looked at me again.

I sighed. He doesn't like the dish to have any cat hair in it when he drinks from it. So I cleaned the water dish before filling it yet again with fresh water. He approached it. Sniffed it and then began to drink. Skinny Kitty cautiously sauntered next to him and drank, too.

For good measure, I gave them some kitty treats before sneaking back into my bed unnoticed. It was now 2:50 am

Crafty Update

I am working on a blanket for my across the street neighbor who is having a little girl this Fall. I am using this openwork pattern with the prettiest pink yarn.

I have almost completed the shawl that I am making to cover my shoulders during the long and cold conference meetings in Charleston in two weeks. Brrrrr.

Mark my text, I will not volunteer for another traveling scarf group. The premise is easy. Start a scarf mail it to the next person. She/he adds to it and mails it on. And so on until it gets back to you. They are nerve wracking when life makes you too busy to keep up with sending/receiving. I have three scarves mocking me right now. Just sitting on my floor. Waiting for me to add 8 inches and mail them to the next person.

I expect to finish the granny square blanket this month. Wish me luck!

My Block is Full of Mystery

The Mysterious Third Can
Yesterday was trash pick up day. After work, I pulled up to my home and found three trash cans.

Two, I recognized. This one is the the mystery. Look at it. It looks like it belongs at my house. It was the only one standing upright in my yard. To the casual observer, it is my trash can. But it is not. The other two had fallen down. Very odd.

Did they mate? And why won't the real owner of this can retrieve it?

I don't know why, but strange things continue to happen.
Geppetto? or Pied Piper? To whom do these kids belong?
The number of children on my block have grown. I remember 4 maybe 6 kids. Now there appear to be twelve. Seriously.
I asked the SAHM across the street to explain it all to me. She assured me that there were only two new kids, as one house had new owners. It didn't add up.
Then I got it.

The kids across the street had been on "This side of the street" restriction until about two weeks ago. Now that they can cross the street, they are all over my yard and my neighbor's yard.

And they act as if they own the entire block. I see them riding their bikes (six to 8 kids at a time) up and down another neighbor's driveway. He recently had it blacktopped so it is smoooooth riding for them. It is like a carousel. They kids ride from the blue house on the corner to the middle of the block, into the driveway and make a u-turn back to the blue house. One after the other. They do this when he is at work.

They are so laid back that one day, I spied a pair of socks and shoes on my front lawn. For several hours. Then they disappeared. Magic.

Often, I come home from work and find the remains of a water balloon fight. In my lawn. On my sidewalk. Everywhere. And the kids have been sharing my name among each other. So now it is, "Hi Frizzy..... Hi Frizzy, Hi Frizzy " about 12 or so times as each child notices me. It is difficult to ignore.

Very funny.
Some stuff, I just don't want happening next door to me.
I was confused when I noticed that the little girls (who previously did not cross the street) seem to visit the next door neighbor, Junior, on his front lawn and try to stand near him. Then I remembered that his voice is deepening. It is amazing. This kid is now a middle school hunk. One gal can't keep her hands off of him. I think she has a crush but he doesn't know what to do. Last week, the kids were serenading thee couple with that classic romantic ditty
"K-I-S-S-I-N-G........."
I write this because I have been sitting on my porch lately. On evenings that I know the mom is not home, I like to stand on my stoop and watch the kids to make sure that he doesn't leave and they don't go in the house. Yeah, I have my eyes on him.
Other stuff, I don't need to know
On Sunday, I saw Junior dragging the house water hose and cart across the street. I think that I saw six other kids following him wearing their swim suits. They were headed to another kid's house. I thought about shouting after him. I know that noone would have approved of him taking the hose cart. But......I changed my mind and went back to my romance novel. There were too many explanations for the hose...I wasn't that curious.

Sounds of the night
In addition to the sound of kids playing there has been a lot of extra noises lately.
The next door neighbors decided to get a puppy just to annoy me. The puppy and the older dog like to play "keep away" with their steel bowls at about one am every night on the cement driveway.
One night, I snuck out there, flipped over the steel bowl, stole one of the driveway paving stones, put it in the bowl, filled it with water, and went back to bed. Mystery of the early morning racket, resolved.