Busy Week

I think a quick "diary" update is in order.  It has been a fairly busy week (actually, it might have really started last week when the television personality came in for an interview).  

Yes, I was interviewed based on my "tweets."  I gather than not all folks on Twitter use the media to unload their daily frustrations like I have.  I signed up several months ago (not really knowing much about the site) and gave myself a "handle" rather than using my full name (Bandit 91 - what else?).  The evolution of my use became my daily entries related to the job hunting and the rejections.  I figured there were no secrets there and used the company names in my tweets.  A local TV station reporter picked me up and decided to interview me.  Last night I was the lead story on the 10 PM news.  Very amusing.

This week also provided me with my first visit to the Home of Superman - Metropolis, Illinois (the only city with that name found in the postal zip code registry).  I had an interview for a Safety Manager position at a plant owned and operated by Honeywell.  The history of the site is too much for this entry, but suffice to say the challenges there are enough to keep a new person satisfied and busy for the foreseeable future (like until the cows come home and then some).  The plant is the only one of its type in the world and one of a handful that make their product (which is used in nuclear power plants and weapons).  The interview day was fun and I am waiting to see if they liked me as much as I liked them.

Today it was back to the job hunting (yesterday was slim with only two resumes sent to "unknown" companies).  Again, two resumes were sent out.  Then late in the day I received two phone calls - one to set up a site interview in two weeks (October 12 to be precise) and one for a phone screen on Monday (at 8:30 AM).  Must be either Mercury is now behaving or there is something new in the Fall air.  Then again, the recession has ended according to the news reports this week.

"Ability is of little account without opportunity."  ~ Napoleon

Evening in the Yard

Last evening Blondie went out for one last bit of "salad."  I was at the computer when suddenly I heard the distinctive sound of a deer - "snorting" to get the scent of another.  I looked out and there was the brave deer trying to determine just what the little "fur ball" in the yard was.  After all, Blondie was in the middle of the best grazing area.

I had to get a closer look and one not impeded by the sliding screen.  To anyone who came along, I am certain it was quite a sight.  I was lying on my stomach with the screen parted so I could get a clear aim at the encounter.

 Blondie remained her cool self.  She looked at the deer (there were five including one fawn), and then calmly sauntered to the deck and inside.  But then, she went back outside before I could stop her (Buddy had been observing the meeting from the deck and came inside when the deer appeared to be too close).


Blondie then casually wandered over to the bush in the back yard, ignoring the deer.  The deer kept huffing and stomping as she timidly approached Blondie.  Then our darling Blondie decided it was time to relieve herself - in the midst of the deer grazing area.  What a hoot!

Trying to get Blondie back in was another challenge.   She wandered over to the middle of the yard, stayed while the group approached, and then put her tail in the air and ambled toward the garage.  I dashed through the house, opened the door in the garage, and managed to convince her it was time to come inside.  The deer wandered off, to be replaced as the light faded further by a young buck and another doe.  I really enjoy evenings like this.

"Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will."  ~James Stephens, The Crock of Gold

One Week Later - Eulogy

The first week without BK (except as he protects the house from his vantage point in the backyard), and the hole in my heart is still there.  I wake in the morning and reflexively look to the door just to make certain there isn't a little black kitty waiting to be let inside.  From time to time in the evenings I find myself looking out the living room door to the deck to ensure "he" isn't roaming there as well.

It is getting better now.  I have a spot in the back to go out to and "talk" with BK.  I think I will plant some trees there.

"Now take back the soul of ... (BK) ... whom you shared with us.

He brought us joy ... and we loved him well.

He was not ours.

He was not mine."

~ Karen Blixen in Out of Africa

The Next Day

June 2009 - BK Enjoys the Front Porch

BK is keeping the yard free of mice - at least the "ghost" mice. 

I woke up at 4:48 and actually listened to see if BK would call at the bedroom door (he would do that when he spent the night out - and would meow about 5 AM to be let inside).  The two "girls" were in bed with me - side by side.

After my morning shower, the usual ritual includes the girls lapping the water trapped in the shower door rungs (glass door).  Today Buddy was patiently waiting while Black Beauty finished the ritual.  Then Buddy wanted a cuddle.  We haven't had our morning cuddle in months!  It was very nice.

The temperature at 7 AM was 53 outside.  The girls were in the kitchen for breakfast, and for the first time in days they ate with gusto.

I went for a walk with my neighbor (who had lent me a pick for my afternoon labor yesterday).  I started missing the little fella all over again.  After the walk, Blondie went outside.  While I washed dishes I watched her in the "garden" - she went to the upper fish pond for a drink, and then the lower.  Then she sat on the bridge and looked around.  I think she was waiting for her pal, BK.


I poured a cup of coffee and went out on the deck.  Blondie sniffed around (in all the spots where BK would lie), and then came to be picked up.  We sat together - she purred while tears rolled down my cheeks.  I drank coffee.


Buddy came out and also sniffed around. The two of them "marked" the area using paws and the sides of their faces.  We came inside.  The girls wrestled - for the first time in months!


I think BK was sick longer than I knew.  Bandit was sick for a while and didn't respond to the treatments.  She didn't leave the vet's office the second time alive.  Her ashes are still in my dresser.  BK is in the backyard by the tall grasses.  I hope he likes it there.  

"Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road." - Karen Blixin in Out of Africa.

Rest in Peace

Buddy, BK, and Blondie - Summer 2008

I remember the day we first saw little BK.  It was the first winter we were here - probably January 2007.  He was talking the entire time he walked up the front walk.  There was a yellow tiger cat that year as well (with a chewed ear).  I put food out on the front porch for them.  Later I "built" a little shelter on the deck to ward off the snow and cold winds.  BK would enter the shelter (a tarp under which I had placed a wooden drawer with a towel).  He'd use it from time to time.  

I must admit for a little guy, he was a scrapper.   He'd go away for several days (once for two weeks), and then come back skin and bones or with small wounds.  I always figured he'd been courting the girls, but since he was so small he likely got the left overs.    Eventually he adopted us as his colony - I think it was the summer of 2008.  One day the other three went outside, and he just walked in, looked around, helped himself to some food, and snuggled down on a chair.  He came and went ever since.

BK (for Black Kitty, naturally) was the best mouser I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  He taught the others to roam along the edges of the tall grass and then pounce.  I only wish I could find a photo of BK in action, because he was terrific.   I would love watching him sit patiently beside the grass and then suddenly fly almost vertically to pounce on the unsuspecting field mouse.  They certainly were tasty treats in his mind.

He started spending more time inside than out, but then the "kitty rut" would start and off he'd go - leaving us for days or even a week or more.  But he always returned, with that distinct, plaintive cry of his.  We'd welcome him back, he'd head for the food, and then snuggle on my lap.  Who would have thought that noisy kitty of the first winter, the one who would never let me within 10 feet of him, would become a lap kitty with a terrific purr.

Today was a very sad day.  BK could not even stand up, he shook and his legs gave way.  He stayed in the cat carrier, where he'd been laying for the past two days (since Buddy's return from the vet).  He's been sick.  I knew this would be his last day.  We went outside and I put him on a towel.  After an hour or so he stood up!  He as on very shaky legs.  He didn't want to be on the towel, and left it for the boards of the deck.  

I had a couple errands to run, and returned to his shallow breathing.  I put him in the shady spot of the deck where he used to love to spend his afternoons.  His breathing slowed and his temperature was really dropping low.  I went out several times to stroke him and talk to him.  Then I went out and read to him.  He quit breathing.

Rest in Peace little one.  When you get to the other side, Wally has a big lap for you to sit in. Give my regards to Bandit and BB Gato.

"'The Masai,' he wrote,'have reported to the District Commissioner at Ngong, that many times, at sunrise and sunset, they have seen lions on Finch-Hatton's grave in the Hills.   A lion and a lioness have come there, stood, or lain, on the grave for a long time. ... After you went away, the ground around the grave was levelled out, into sort of a big terrace, I suppose that the level place makes a good site for the lions, from there they can have a view over the plain, and the cattle and game on it.'" - Isak Dinesen,  Out of Africa