One Year Ago Today

The wife was put on a modified form bedrest in early September.  Owing to the bedrest, our schedule was our own, get up basically whenever we wanted, do what we needed to do when we needed to do it, all assuming the wife was horizontal most of the day.  Stress was relatively low, and for the first time in our lives, regimentation had no concrete hold over us.

Our three cats, two biological sisters and one hanger-on have totally different personalities.  The two sisters couldn’t be more different - Tiger is our rough-houser.  Speckle is a tortoise shell, who could stand to lose a few pounds and is mostly inert.  Mittens is the later addition, and is the Wife’s cat, without a doubt.  All three have different schedules, with Tiger’s and Speckle’s being the closest.  Very rarely are they all doing the same thing at the same time, unless I’m doing something to rile them up, like play with a laser pointer.

October 24, 2007 at 3AM, our feline family found something very interesting in our Master Bedroom.  Awakened in the dark by the ruckus, you could hear the ebb and flow of the cats stampeding from one side of the room to the other.  Curiously, we turned on the light.  Hanging upside down from the cat tree was a little squirrel!  The light spooked the squirrel and it ran up the front of a wardrobe and clung on to the fabric of the drape in front of it for dear life.  Our rampant kitty, Tiger, climbed up an alternate path to figure out what the story was, and perched on top of the wardrobe above the squirrel like a vulture peering down at the chattering squirrel.  Tiger’s kitty toys don’t normally talk back, so this was plainly a source of some bewilderment to her.

Imagine if you will, a woman 8+ months pregnant, uncomfortable in her own skin.  Sleep wasn’t consistent, nor was it easy to attain.  Fleet of foot for the first time in months, the wife launched herself out of the warm bed, braved the arctic tundra of the cold wood floor, and sealed herself in the master bath with the vague directive of “Catch it!”

A surplus rubbermaid container was handy near the kitchen, so I emptied it out, applied a dollop of peanut butter that I remembered had worked when I was a child trapping a chipmunk with my Father that had made it into the house.  Baited rodent capturing apparatus in hand, I sprinted back to the master bedroom, all midnight haze purged from my head.

When I returned, Tiger and the squirrel weren’t where I left them.  With just a quick scan, I spotted my three ferocious wild cats cornering the squirrel in the corner of the room adjacent to the bathroom door.  Had it had a mind to, the squirrel could have pinned the Wife in the bathroom by crawling underneath the bathroom door!  Foolishly, I mentioned to the Wife that the squirrel was right there.  She shrieked, and started stuffing towels underneath the door.

Total mayhem.  Cats cornering an unusually chatty and mobile toy, the Wife hermetically sealing herself in the bathroom, a chipmunk not looking too thrilled and looking for a direction to bolt in, it was time for decisive action!  I shooed one cat away, and she left, but not without complaint.  Placing the rubbermaid on it’s side, I let the cats approach the squirrel from the front.  Fortunately, the squirrel ran into the rubbermaid, and I clamped the lid down tight.  Victory was mine!

Ultimately, the Wife came back into the bedroom to see the vanquished prey.    Google was our friend as always, and we researched what to do with our prisoner.  As it turns out, you have to release them far, 5+ miles, for them to not come back.  Very pregnant wife and I loaded into the car, captive in tow, drove near a relative’s house, and released him or her into the woods near the house.  No more sleep was to be had that night for us, or the cats.

We found out the next day when we called the professionals to come check out the house that it was a flying squirrel (yes, like Rocky of Rocky and Bullwinkle), and not a baby squirrel like we thought.  Nice.  I didn’t even know the United States had flying squirrels before then.

Fairfax Sightings

Fairfax has made it back to my original hometown!  There’s a barbershop in the center of town.  Been there for ages.  The front window is used to promote things small-town Massachusetts. 

Not today.  Today, it’s for Marissa.

Battleship Cove in Massachusetts

And Karaoke in Flushing, NY

Fairfax antics in NYC.  I like the Zebra’s sign!

Halo Blogger Hawty McBloggy has the halo bunny.  She’s taken the time out to snap some pics.

Thanks to everyone who’s taking pictures with Fairfax!