DE RAT UPDATE

i am a very big hurry, so cannot stay long..........just wanted to let those few readers that have remained loyal that i have a rat update........

 

            IT'S BACK!!

 

i came home yesterday to find my kitty sitting by the wall under the window in my bedroom where the baseboard is a little loose and there is a crevice leading back into the wall.  i shut off all the fans and air conditioner and listened, and sure enough, there was a faint squeeking noise and rustling around in there.  i marched to the kitchen, got some of the rat poison and brought it back in there and put it in the crevice, which allows it to fall in behind the wall there, and then took white duct tape and sealed up the crevice.  i know it won't keep de rat from chewing through, but it at least gives me a little modicum of feeling secure.  i can tell if something chews on the tape.  i haven't heard it since.  not sure why.......maybe it is planning an attack..............

also, the wild bunch is still with me....well, i am missing a white kitten, not sure if it is whitey or ditto, since i cannot tell the difference unless they are there together.  blacky, the bigger fluffy black cat is there often too.  they had beef stew last night.  not dinty moore, but castleberry's.  i don't eat the stuff..........i like mine homemade.

i have lots more to tell, just not enough time.  i will explain all later.  and i also don't have time to visit anyone's journal, so don't be angry if i don't comment......i will catch up soon, i promise.

DREAM?

the following picture was one of the choices by some photographer on a poetry site that you choose and write a poem about.  i was typing away on this one and at the very end, when i went to push the submit button, it said that i could pay with credit card, debit card, or paypal.  PAY!!??  it was only $5, but i am not paying!!  so, my friends here at j-land get to enjoy it instead.  the picture might come out as a red x due to my snitching it from the site, but it is the closeup of a gray tabby kitten's face, looking like it just awoke from a dream of something nice...................

 

 

DREAM?

Awakened by something, could it have been fish?

Should I alite from my soft bed to check the dish?

 

Do I chance not finding that morsel of delight?

In my bed should I stay?  Oh what a plight!

 

Ok, the decision has to be made as to what to do.

I have decided to snuggle back in and take sleep's cue.

 

At least for now I can close my eyes and dream

of piles of tuna and bowls full of cream.

THE SIGN

the following pictures were taken from my hall entryway window of the church across the street (methodist)  i was smitten by the way the clouds looked like rolls of smoke behind the church, almost as if it were on fire (since it was white smoke, musta been heavenly fire, lol).  after i downloaded the pics onto my computer from my cheap digi cam, i noticed something i hadn't noticed before from just looking out the window, or even through the view finder..........can you spot what i am talking about???????

in the first frame, you can barely see the sign.  in the second and third frame it is very evident............do you see it??????  a big puffy cloud "C".  now, could this be "church", or possibly "CHRIST"??  i vote for the latter.............i thought it was so truly amazing.  it could have been in the shape of anything...........even another letter.......but no, it was a C.  i was so happy to have been there and taken the pictures just when i did.  moments later, the C was gone...............but i know for a fact that Christ is not gone.........for He has a place in my heart forever.

WILD BUNCH AND RAT UPDATE

apparently the rat is gone..............i hope.  it has been about a week since i heard anything from it........or saw any evidence.  none of the traps have been set off, and none of the mouse bait has been eaten, so i can only assume i am rat free. 

the wild bunch comes and goes........whitey is ALWAYS there.......and usually mama kitty.  rocky has been missing a couple of days the past week, but came back.  gray came back, but ditto is the one who comes up missing most.  i think i have found their "upstairs" hiding place.  there is a flap of tin that was put under the eave of the house, which drops down to another roof top, which goes up under my porch.  the flap has an opening about 5 inches wide to get behind it.  i have seen the wild bunch come out of there recently, so i am thinking they hide there to get out of the rain and run from any predators.  mama kitty could get in there too, but she is beginning to fatten up since i have started feeding her, so she might get stuck.

i have new pics from my flash drive, just have to figure out again how to put them on my journal................here goes.............

this is rocky and gray, looking to see if i have anything for them to eat...........

nope, she doesn't have anything in her hands........we will just sit here and wait........peekaboo rocky.......gray......you are getting sleepy...................

ok, we are getting impatient now........where is the FOOD woman!!! gray and rocky. (rocky IS cross-eyed)

skiddish ditto stands over by the edge of the porch to check things out..........

whitey checking things out from the step.

i had other pics on my flash drive, but because they were formated differently, i couldn't put them in.  i have to figure out how to add them.  but these are the latest pics.

 

DISAPPEARING KITTIES

over the last week that i haven't been online, the kitties take turns disappearing at feeding time.  i was concerned about ditto shortly after i named him/her.  i was afraid that being the apparent weaker one of the bunch that something had gotten hold of him/her or that he/she had been hit by a car.  well, ditto returned, and gray came up missing.  sigh.  gray is the only one that will allow me to touch him/her.  i would like to pick them all up and check them out to know whether or not to call them hes or shes.  mama kitty is still hissing at me, but comes right up to me when fed.

there have been two new cats, one white and black, mostly black, with a bushy tail.  mama kitty nudges it often, so either it is a grown up kitten of hers from a previous litter, or she is "in love" again.  the other cat has been around before.  it is solid black and reminds me a lot of my long time kittyfriend, spooky.  mama kitty nudges it too.  after the wild bunch leaves, i am sure there will be another to take its place.

i wish my camera took pics at night, but it has no flash.  the two newbies don't come around during the daytime.  another reason i feel they are "traveling salesmen" and i am not sure mama kitty needs what they are selling.................

i will try to remember to put all my new pics on my flashdrive so that i can bring them here and put them in the journal for all to enjoy. 

NEW WORK

since someone brought up ADVERTISING lol, i thought i would put some pics of some recent items i have completed.  i need a good camera to get some true shots of these items.  i tried to put them on my jewelry website, but due to my being at the library, there were too many technical difficulties to do so.  so, here they are....................

                        

sapphire chips with heart pendant        

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sterling silver/stone cross pendant

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sterling silver/swarovsky crystal/polished semi precious stone 

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sterling silver/swarovsky crystal watch

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tiger-eye/polished shell pendant     

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swarovsky crystal/semi precious stone watch (interchangeable bands) 

i have to stop working on jewelry and crocheted goods now, and concentrate on my ex-coworker's cross-stitched wedding sampler..............i will try to put a pic of it on here when i am done..............

 

UPDATE UPDATE

for those interested in my RAT story............there is news.........sorta..........

when i got home the day i wrote my last entry, i was expecting to find a very angry rat caught in my mouse trap, carrying the trap around with him/her.  i cautiously entered the pantry, pulled the box of used plastic grocery bags out of the corner, ready to run if i had to.  instead, i found a pile of sugar sweetened cereal balls in a corner surrounded by yellow stains on the linoleum, and little rat pellets........but no blood, no guts, and no rat or trap.  mmmmmmmm........so where was the other trap???? 

i looked in the box of snack sized bags of cheetohs that was also on the floor, thinking maybe it fell in there and was trapped in the trap.  there was the trap......upside down in the box, on top of the forty or fifty bags of cheetohs, but apparently, there was nothing in it (the trap).  i slowly turned it over and nothing.  no blood or even a sign that it had been touched, other than it was sprung.  sigh...........

i scoured the numerous shelves i have in my huge pantry and found what the source of nourishment had been.  i had gotten several bags of cereal that didn't have boxes.  one was a sweetened round cereal.  this little (or rather big) rat had made a small hole in one end of the cereal bag and the balls were slowly falling out onto the floor, where de rat was having a picnic.  when the cereal on the floor was gone, de rat would make another trip up and make more fall out.  funny thing is this..........we americans have become so used to bypassing healthy foods for sugary ones that we have even trained our rat friends to do the same.  there was a large bag of raison bran under the sugary cereal, and it had a very very small hole in it.  and nothing seemed to be disturbed........too healthy i guess.  but the sugary stuff had a nice rat-head size hole.  must be a teen rat, lol.

i cleaned up the mess, poured full strength bleach around the corners and let it soak, then mopped it up, and then got a ladder and cleaned the shelves.  upon closer inspection, de rat had been all over my food in the pantry............i have numerous cans, boxes, bags, etc. and there were telltale signs all over the place.  either little pellets or yellow stains, or even worse, gnaw marks.  i had a full canister of malt for malted milk, which i had only used once........and de rat gnawed the plastic lid enough to get a good taste of my malt.  i threw the whole canister away...........ewwwwww. 

i put everything that would go into water into a sink of soapy water and washed it all down.  the items that were in bags that might have small holes in them were tossed, and the thicker bags that didn't have holes were sponged down with bleach water.  i still don't feel clean in there.  i scrubbed the kitchen again and placed all the traps in places where de rat would have to step on it without seeing it first.  then i put out poison pellets in the nesting areas.  so far, nothing.  but i think i know why............

another rat tail........i mean tale.............

a few days ago i was watching  tv and noticed my kitty doing some odd maneuvers over under the front window.  i have a couple of boxes of crochet yarn over there, so got up to see what she was doing, and to make sure she wasn't batting around a ball of good yarn.  she has her own yarn, lol.

when i got over to the window, she looked frantic, and kept sniffing around under the window sill.  there was once some really bad water damage there, and was "repaired" in a ghetto style, meaning it was sorta piecemealed together and plastered over and painted.  the plaster is very thick there, and there is a small gap in the baseboard, about a quarter of an inch.  nothing but a spider or small bug could get through there.

i pulled the boxes back, expecting to see something running along the baseboard.  when i got closer to the floor, i heard something..........at first i thought it was baby birds chirping, and figured maybe a mama bird had come up under the tin roof and layed her eggs.  but then, the sound moved a little further down the wall.  mmmmmm, baby birds don't usually move till they are ready to fly.  i listened intently as my kitty paced.  it then sounded like a ............oh no..........a...........RAT!!!  it WAS a rat.  i am only assuming that it is DE RAT!  i figure the snapping of the traps with all the goodies in the kitchen had frightened it and it decided to find something else to do.  so it made its way all the way around from the kitchen to my bedroom.  then again, it could be one of a large family living in the attic.........over my head..........that came down to visit.  either way, it IS A RAT!!!  it sounded trapped, and momentarily i felt sorry for it.  then i thought about how close my bed was to that window, and how much i would hate for a rat to be sleeping with me.............so............i started stomping my foot, and beating on  the  wall, then realized i could beat  a hole in the poor plaster job, so stopped.  i got my hammer and went back to the baseboard and whacked it a few times.  it remained in the wall. 

then.........i thought of something that may or may not do any good, but it was all i could do.  i went to the kitchen, poured some bleach into a container, grabbed a small tipped funnel, and went back to the bedroom.  i put the funnel tip into the small space in the baseboard and poured the bleach water little by little.  i have no clue where it ended up.  it may be dripping down the wallpaper in the living room in the downstairs apartment, but i was hoping that at least the smell would run de rat or his/her family member away from my bedroom wall.  it worked..........it left.....or drank the bleach and died.  either way, doesn't matter, it isn't there anymore.  if it starts stinking, i can spray aerosol or burn a candle, as long as de rat is gone. 

i would tell my landlord about it and he could have pest control come out, but i have my kitty to think about.  i am not supposed to have a kitty, and if they come, they will put out poison and my kitty might get hold of it.  i would die myself.  she is my little devilish guardian angel.

i have more or less succumbed to the idea that i have new "friends" living with me.  i was hoping the wild bunch living on the back porch would keep rodents away, but so far, it hasn't worked.

speaking of the wild bunch...........i got some pictures of ditto and a really cool picture of a cloud formation over the church across the street from me.  but i, being the dummy i am, forgot to put them on my flash drive and bring them with me.  so i will have to do that some other time.

ok, i better close this entry before it becomes a novelette..........oops....too late, lol.

NO ADVERTISING WITHOUT MY PERMISSION

i just had to delete an advertisement from my comment section.  it is bad enough that we have to endure the ads that aohell puts on our journals, but to have someone put an ad in my comment section!!!!!!!!!!!  i was going to put the ad here to make it known who did this.........but that would be further advertising.  so, the person, or persons, who put their pet web site and an ad pertaining to that web site in my journal comment section, DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN!!!  i will not report you this time, but i have deleted you and will block you from commenting again if need be.  i own an online business as well, and if i want to advertise on my own journal, then that is MY prerogative...........but you cannot do so without my permission.  so blazi0n26 don't put your advertising on my journal.  thank you.

THE KITCHEN MYSTERY

i have had a kitchen mystery of late.  several weeks ago i thought my ghostie had returned and was causing havoc.  i had placed a couple of quarter loaves of bread, in their wrappers, on top of a little gas heater that sits next to my pantry door in my kitchen.  i had planned on putting the old bread out for the birds and squirrels.  i usually sweep my kitchen floor daily, since it is beige and shows every little thing.  i don't always put the swept up pile in the garbage though.  there has been some palmetto bugs and a few small cockroaches (not due to my lack of cleanliness, but due to the house being so old) who had succumbed to the bug spray the sprayer put down several months ago and i had swept them into the pile as well.  i went into the kitchen one day and noticed the dead bugs were gone and the piles of lint and dust were disturbed.

a couple of days later i noticed, disturbingly so, that one of the quarter loaves of old bread was in the floor, about a yard from the heater, and the dust pile was drug over with it.  ok, my ghostie is hungry.  should i make it a sandwich??

i keep my broom next to the heater in summer when the heater isn't in use.  i thought maybe the landlord, who had been there earlier that day sweeping off the front porch, had borrowed my broom.  then i saw the porch broom on the porch......mmmmmmmm.  ok, what is going on?

that night i let my kitty come into the kitchen with me, and she sniffed every inch of that kitchen floor.  and then she sat down next to the sink unit and stared at the space behind it.  mmmmmmmmm.  roaches???  or something larger????  after i took her back to the room, i came back in and looked around the kitchen.  there were little turds in the corner and by the planter.  mmmmmmmmm.  mouse?  squirrel?  chipmunk?  RAT????  it had to be bigger than a chippie or a mouse because the droppings were a little too big for them.  i have never seen squirrel droppings, but there are numerous squirrels around.  i was sure it was big because it had dragged the bread out into the middle of the room.  i started having visions of wharf rats.........YUCK!!!!!!!!!! 

while i was putting up some dishes in the drain board, i noticed behind the drain board, on the table, were pieces of bugs, legs, antennae, wings.  omg, OMG!  the critter had been sitting on my table eating its bugs next to my clean dishes.................

i grabbed the whole table and moved it, then took everything off of it, cleaned the table with bleach and then proceeded to wash everything in the drainer, as well as the drainer, in bleach water, and then rinsed in hot water.  ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

the next day i went to the dollar store and bought four small mouse traps for a dollar.  i put some hot dog on each one and set them.  the first night one was triggered, but no sign of a critter.  i noticed a spot on the floor that was reddish, but thought it might be some pasta sauce from spaghetti i had the night before.  i left it on the floor to see if it turned dark.  that evening it had turned dark brown, like blood does.  so i knew i had gotten something, but it had gotten away.  it could have even been a large palmetto bug,  but there was no trail.  i reset it, and for the next week, nothing.  then a palmetto bug triggered one, and got its little rear end separated from its body. 

then one night i went into the kitchen pantry to get something out of a box in the corner, and i heard rustling.  i looked quickly at the box of used plastic grocery bags i keep in the pantry, and there, running DOWN the wall, was a rat.  at least i think that is what it was.  it wasn't really big, but big enough to change my mind about what i was going to get out of the box.

i reset all the traps with fresh food and went to my room.  later that evening when i went to the kitchen for a glass of tea, i saw the rat run across the kitchen from the door of the pantry to the sink unit.  sigh..................

last night i went back into the pantry to get something, and once again heard rustling.  so, i said "THIS IS IT!  I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!"  i got all the traps, reset them each with cheese, and put them in the pantry, closed the door, and stuffed bags up under the door so it couldn't just "walk" out.  i let my kitty in the kitchen and she checked out every nook and cranny again, and double sniffed the pantry.  i went to bed..............

today before i came here to the library, i checked the pantry and the traps.  one was sprung, with nothing in it, and one was unsprung.  and one was missing........................... MISSING!!!  does that mean that whatever sprung it is still attached, walking around???  i didn't have the stomach or the courage to move the box.........but i have to when i get home.  i will let you know what i find...........if i don't pass out.  i am sure it is a SUPER RAT.  you know, glows in the dark, bright green glowing eyes, long fangs and claws..............OK OK, ENOUGH, I AM SCARING MYSELF!!!  lol

i thought i might dispose of the critter by putting the trap on the back porch and letting the kitties learn how to strip a rat...........but i am sure mama kitty has already taught them that.

i am sick at my stomach now, so will end this entry.  gee, that library bathroom is sooo far away..........................

UPDATE

i have an update to my last entry..........there is a fourth kitten........white just like "whitey", but looks more like "mama kitty".  whitey is smooth and fluffy looking, where the new white one has coarser hair.  i was going to name it "mkj" for mama kitty jr., but decided i liked "ditto" better.  so..........ditto has joined them, but is quite skiddish.  gray came up to me, almost, last night, and rocky doesn't run as fast or as far now.  i didn't see mama kitty last night when i fed them, but i caught something white out of the corner of my eye in the neighbor's back yard, so maybe she was hunting field mice.  as soon as i am able, i will take pics of ditto with its family.

THE WILD BUNCH

i just wrote a long story about my new friends.............but aol ate it.  so here is a condensed version...........(aol also ate the condensed version, and all the pics, so i am going to try one more time....grrrrr)

"mama kitty", the stray cat that i featured in earlier pics sitting on my roof and on my back stairs, disappeared for awhile.  now i know why...........yesterday she reappeared with small furballs in tow.  over the course of the day, mama kitty realized i was trying to help her and the babies, so she allowed me to access my back porch to feed and water them, hissing the whole time, letting me know she was prepared to "take me out" if she had to.

i am trying to load the pictures from my flash drive, but not being very successful.  so be patient.  i may have to do one picture at a time..............

enjoy them.............

 

mama kitty preparing to protect her kittens if needed.............(notice the look in her eyes)

mama kitty looking a little more relaxed, knowing i am not opening the door, just looking out the window at her.

this is "whitey" (i know, not very original, but it was "mama kitty jr", then i figured it was too long) turning to run from the leftover spaghetti, frightened when i opened the door.  the other two and mama ran immediately.......guess whitey was a little hungrier.

that is where whitey retreated........along with "rocky", the only one that looks true siamese.  isn't rocky adorable?????

another shot of whitey and rocky.

later in the day i noticed they were all still lounging around on the back porch.  so i went to find something for them to eat and cut up a couple of hot dogs for them.  they were getting more used to me by then, so didn't run when i tossed the meat out and snapped this shot.  left to right is whitey, mama kitty and "grey", who has the markings of a siamese, but they are grey instead of brown.

here is whitey again, making sure i am not putting out more food..........looks like whitey is winking at me lol.

now this one is priceless........mama kitty is starving and wants food, but is giving me that look that she can and will shred me if i mess with her or her babies..........she came toward me instead of running, but hissed the whole time, lol.  i guess the babies have still been nursing when they can't find food, so mama kitty is a little dehydrated and thin.  it has been so hot and dry, and there is no watering in our community, so they haven't had much to drink.  they do now.............fresh water every day.

this is my favorite...........mama kitty grabbed a piece of hot dog and moved away from the plate...........but rocky is still a little wary.............look at that little face.............

ok, that is my cat story..............yep, i have officially become the old cat lady, lol.  heck, i love all animals...........i even feed a mangy ole 'possum................