Time to get out!

After over a year of near-isolation and/or crowd avoidance followed by a couple of months of various illnesses, Randy has been feeling pretty good for a couple of days. So we threw caution to the wind and went to Texas Roadhouse with Dan, Debbie, Rich, and Kim. Such a great evening!

Simone

We have been engaging in the risky business of looking at pet adoption sites and sure enough, we got caught. Our new little girl is a beautiful 6 year old tortoiseshell named Simone.

We got her from Sheltering Hands rescue, and their adoption process is almost as thorough as adopting a child! We had forms to fill out, phone followups, and background checks. They asked who would get the cat if we died (?!), then called him to be sure he would be an OK pet parent! Eventually they agreed to let us have her. 

She's a long, tall cat who jumps effortlessly onto cabinets but we are working on that. Shorty and her ignore each other. Sometimes she pretends to be startled when she walks by him but she's really doesn't care.

This is what our home needed.

But there are adjustments to be made. Nobody declaws cats anymore but Simone likes to pull her claws on anything. We have scratching posts and are working to make other areas less attractive. I used cats' well-know adversity to aluminum foil to convince her to stop scratching on the bed frame. It looks tacky but it works.

Her real job is to cuddle. So far she does great!

Randy says I'm the one who spoils her, but I think it's him.

Night visitors, at an awkward time

Our Ring camera was busy last night! It didn't notify us so we didn't know it at the time, but a little after midnight some bears visited us. First they checked out our garbage can. Unfortunately for them, the garbage had been picked up earlier and the only things in the can were little bags of dog poo and cat poo.

So they walked up between our house and the truck to cross right in front of our porch steps, before walking up towards other houses and other garbage cans. The whole family was here - Mama bear and her three big cubs from last year.

But....a just a few minutes after this happened I came out onto our front yard with Shorty who has been having diarrhea. I always look for bears, alligators or coyotes but this night I didn't see the bears until we were by the road. And then I saw 4 bears milling around in front of those houses with street lights. Time to scoop Shorty up and get back to inside! Since Shorty had to go outside, I ended up taking him out on the far side of our place while Randy stood guard, ready to alert me if they came this way and to fire a warning shot at them if needed. 

Everything turned out fine and I still LOVE living where bears and alligators roam!

Good thing I didn't go outside last night

Last night when I was getting ready for bed I thought I heard something outside. Like an idiot I opened the back door to look outside. Didn't see much but there seemed to be dark, moving reflections on the truck's shiny bumper. A moment later I realized that of course, that meant there was a bear!

The outside screen door was still between us and I quickly ducked inside the house. I quickly pulled up the Ring video and there she was, helping herself to our garbage can.

But as she drug it off I saw her little cub behind her!

Right about this point was when I had interrupted her so she left the can. It's a good thing because she shouldn't be checking cans but it makes me a little sad, she's just trying to feed her youngster.

We are really, really careful what we put into the garbage can but occasionally we underestimate what will interest bears.