like a fine wine

Saffy, what the mousie mousin' mouses do you think you're doin'?  What are you doin'?

No, seriously, ol' brother of mine, what ARE you doin'?  Neighbourhood cats see you doin' stuff like that and we'll be the talk of the town, for sure.

And not in a good way, either.

MOUSES!

Saffy, I asked you, WHAT ARE YOU DOIN'?

MOUSES!

Yeah, yeah, I know you've seen me take a drink of puddle water now and then.  Probably more than now and then, for sure.  In fact, one might even say that I, Seville the Cat, am a connoisseur when it comes to the water of puddles.  THERE'S NO TAP WATER FOR ME!

Okay, so fine, it is usually tap water that I get; but that's not to say my sophisticated palate doesn't appreciate a fine vintage of puddle water, to be sure.

MOUSES!

But the key word there is vintage, my friends.  VINTAGE!  Vintage, as in...

Well...

Well, vintage as in old.  Scratch that, vintage as in aged, to be exact.  Like a fine wine, or somethin' like that.

MOUSES!

But Saffron, you've never, ever, EVER seen me drinkin' from a puddle that was just newly made.  And you've NEVER seen me drinkin' from an artificially made puddle, either.  And you've CERTAINLY never seen me drinkin' from a newly made artificial puddle, for sure.  Never in all my nine lives have I been caught drinkin' from a puddle Peepers just made waterin' plants like...  Like five minutes ago, or somethin' like that.

Five minutes does NOT a vintage make.

FACT.

Yeah, yeah, I KNOW it's been super dry here for ages, and there are no naturally formed puddles to be found.  I know all 'bout that.  I know the province of Nova Scotia has been dry as a bone for goodness knows how long, but still...

Still...  

YOU STILL DON'T DRINK FROM FAKE PUDDLES LIKE THAT.

It's terribly unbecoming for a sophisticated cat.

MOUSES!

***********

Hey pals!  Just to let you know, this here post was written on Thursday when our fair province of Nova Scotia was tinder dry and puddles were practically nonexistent.  Thankfully, since then, we've had rain.  Lots and lots of rain with even more to come!

Just don't get me started on what I observed Saffy doin' on Friday when it started to rain.

Savin' that for a later post.

MOUSES!

*******************************

And remember:

IF IN DOUBT,

DON'T. GO. OUT.

Continue to practice SOCIAL DISTANCIN' measures

AND KEEP WASHIN' YOUR PAWS.

MOUSES!

Remember to mask up, too.

it's rainin'

It's rainin', it's pourin'; the old man is snor....

Actually, it's not.  Not rainin', I mean.  The rain has finally stopped.

MOUSES!

BUT YESTERDAY...

MOUSES!

I'm tellin' ya, it rained so hard yesterday, I thought the house was gonna get up off its foundation and float, float away.

Either that, or sink.

MOUSES!

AND THE WIND?

I'm actually kinda amazed our house didn't lift off the ground and take flight!  The wind blew and blew and BLEW, then blew a bit more.  And it went on like that for hours.  DAYS.  WEEKS!

Okay, so maybe that's a tad of an exaggeration.  The wind blew for 'bout twenty-four hours.  BUT IN CAT TIME, you've gotta multiply that by nine, so by MY calculations, it had to have been blowin' for approximately a week, two days, five hours, and fifteen minutes, give or take a second or two.  Or nine.

MOUSES!

Then this mornin', Peepers had to go out and check for damage in the yard.  I would have gone with her but the ground was all wet and icky, and I like to keep my paws dry.

Heeheehee...

HEEHEEHEE...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You want in on the joke?

Of course you do.

MOUSES!

When Peepers came back inside this mornin' - you know, after her checkin' in the yard for wind damage - her shoes were so sodden, she could have wrung 'em out and collected a gallon of water.

Yup, the ground was that wet.

PUDDLES EVERYWHERE!

Wait.  Wait a minute.  You just hold on there, ol' peep of mine.  PEEPERS!  PEEPERS!  Peepers, there are puddles out there?  PUDDLES?  YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!!!  Puddles are full of puddle water and I love puddle water.  Love it?  No, I ADORE IT, for sure.  I, Seville the Cat, AM A CONNOISSEUR of the puddle water, you see.

COME ON PEEP.  Grab those soakin' wet shoes of yours and put 'em on your paws...  I mean, feet.  There's puddle water out there just waitin' for me.

MOUSES!

 ***********************

And remember:

IF IN DOUBT,

DON'T. GO. OUT.

Continue to practice SOCIAL DISTANCIN' measures

AND KEEP WASHIN' YOUR PAWS.

MOUSES!

Remember to mask up, too.

puddle water!

Whatcha doin', Peepers?  It's like...  two-thirty in the morning.  Little early to be getting up, don't you think?

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.  I forgot that Mason didn't come in earlier when you called her.  You goin' out to check on her again?

Nah, I'll just watch from a window.

Little did the peep know, Mason was busy outside, countin' her thumbs.

Just kidding!  Not about the having thumbs part.  My sister Mason does have thumbs. She just doesn't waste her time counting 'em.  Why would she?  She already knows she has two.  MOUSES!

"I'm coming!  I'm coming!  Oh no! MOUSES!"  And that was exactly what Mason cried as she watched the mouse she had been carrying in her mouth, scamper across the driveway, before hiding in a flower bed.

"OH NO!  MOUSES!" And THAT was what Mason cried as Peep #1 swooped down from above, grabbed my sister around her middle, and hauled her up into her arms.

"Let me go!  Let me go!" Mason cried as she did the squirmy-wormy dance, trying to get out of the peep's grasp.  "He's getting away!  He's getting away!  Let me at him!  LET ME AT HIM!"

Needless to say, my sister Mason was brought inside for the night and the mouse escaped further capture.  MOUSES!

"Of all the ungrateful...  MOUSES!" and Mason stomped off into the family room, grumbling the entire way.

"She's not listening to you." I told my sister.  "Be thankful it's two-thirty in the morning and she's too tired to lecture you on the catchin' of critters."

"But I was bringing that critter home for her!" and Mason stomped a paw once more for effect.  "As I said, of all the ungrateful..."

"She's already back in bed, Mason.  Give it up."  I snickered as I added, "Just like you had to give up the critter.  Hehehehehee..."

"It took me a really long time to catch that mouse in the first place," Mason grumbled and lifting a hind leg, she began to give herself a bath.  "Mice are hard to come by in our yard," she muttered between licks.  "We've pretty much moused the whole place out.  And there I was, so exciting to bring the one little guy I managed to catch, home to Peep #1 and..."

"Yeah, yeah...  That's me back to bed.  Night Mason!" and I walked away, leaving my sister still grumbling as she washed her other hind leg.

But to tell you the truth, Mason was right.  It is hard to find mice around our house.  We really have kinda moused the whole place out.

Birds, though, are a totally different story.

You should SEE the birdies out there.

Why just this morning, a small flock of black birds of some kind were playing on my driveway, 'cause Peep #1 had put the sprinkler on for the pansies, and some of the water was hitting the pavement.  Those birdies were splashing about in the water, taking a sip now and then, and then splashing some more.  Fluffing their feathers and preening.  They were having such fun!

Frolicking.  Yup, that's what those birdies were doin', for sure.  Frolicking.

In fact, the birdies were havin' such fun that the peep didn't have the heart to turn off the sprinkler until they all flew away.

Of course...

Of course, the reason they flew off was none other than my sister Mason.

Yup, she sure does get around.

After sleeping in, on account of her late night the night before, Mason enjoyed a bite of brunch.

You know, brunch.  That meal eaten between - not necessarily in place of - breakfast and lunch, although in this case, Mason did miss her breakkies 'cause like I said, she had slept in.

Anyway...  Mason had some brunch before heading outside.  I think she was planning on checking out those flower beds, to see if she could find her mousie from the night before.

No sooner was Mason outside, but she spotted...

Bet you're thinking she spotted those birdies, huh?  Yeah.  Bet you're thinkin' that, for sure.  But if you are thinking that, you'd be totally wrong.

Well not totally.  I'm sure Mason did see the birdies but the birdies were not what caught my sister's attention, and I know this to be true because all of a sudden I heard a cry of...

PUDDLE WATER!

Oh yeah, my sister Mason is a connoisseur of the puddles.  Just as some peeps enjoy a fine wine, my sister enjoys a fine puddle, for sure.  MOUSES!

Doesn't matter how many bowls of clean, cool, fresh water the peeps put out for us in the kitchen and stuff, Mason ALWAYS prefers a puddle.  She says puddle water is tastier and to tell you the truth, I have to agree with her 'bout that.  MOUSES!

Anyway...  The next thing I knew, Mason had raced toward the sprinkler and skidded to a stop next to the largest of the puddles.

And that, my friends, would be 'bout the same time when all those birdies flew away.

Now some cats might be offended by such rudeness but not my sister Mason.  No sirree.  Mason just looked around and grinned happily, "All the more puddle for me!"

After downing 'bout half a puddle, she headed back toward the house, looking for that mousie from the night before.

And if I'm not mistaken, I think I might have heard Mason saying under her breath, "I'll save the rest of that puddle for later, to wash down that mousie. Now where is he..."

MOUSES!

puddle water

I enjoy a good puddle as well as the best of 'em.  I LOVE a good puddle! Nothin' beats a good puddle, if you know what I mean.  A good puddle of an excellent vintage just can't be beaten.  But this past weekend, the puddle situation was gettin' a little ridiculous.

Let me start at the beginning...

A week ago today, we had the blizzard.  Yup, the Great Blizzard of 2014, it was.

Okay, maybe it wasn't all that great.  To be honest, it really wasn't great in any kind of way. Certainly not great as in good and not even great as in size but it did dump about a foot of snow on us and knock out the power for several hours.  That, and the fact that it arrived when we were all gettin' anxious for spring, earned it the name, The Great Blizzard of 2014.  At least, it did at my house.

Anywho...  No sooner was the blizzard over but the weatherpeeps were warnin' us of another storm. "Another one!" I cried but to no avail.  The weatherpeeps totally ignored my cries and sent it anyway.

Late Friday afternoon, it began with a little smatterin' of rain, here and there.  By sometime on Saturday, the raindrops were all fully present and accounted for.  It rained Saturday night and then all day Sunday.  It rained and it rained and it rained.  "Enough already!" cried I but again, to no avail. It just kept on rainin'.

Because of the rain, there were puddles EVERYWHERE.  Now like I said before, I love a good puddle.  I do.  I really, really do but the best time to enjoy a fine puddle of water is immediately after you've been enjoyin' a sunpuddle.  You get up from your nap in the sunpuddle and walk over for a sip or two of puddle water.  But the thing is, it's pretty hard to have a nap in a sunpuddle when the sun has been driven off by all the rain and all the sunpuddles are filled with water and really, are nothin' more than puddles.

Ahhh...  the sweet taste of puddle water.  Cool and refreshing with just a hint of outdoorsy flavour.  Like a fine, vintage wine.  EXCELLENT.

One day, I'm gonna find a way to bottle up puddle water and sell it on E-Bay or somethin'.  I've been tryin' to figure out how to do it but so far, I've been stuck at the bottling stage. You see, the best part of puddle water is the fact that it comes in a puddle.  You put it in a bottle and you've got bottled water.  Not the same thing.  Not the same thing at all.  Not nearly as good.  Back to the drawing board for the puddle water factory for me, I should think.  MOUSES!

But I digress....

It was still rainin'.  Yup, it rained all day and it rained all night and then on Monday, it rained some more.  I seriously expected the peeps to start buildin' an arc or somethin', it was rainin' that much.

But the peeps were too worried to be buildin' arcs and whatnot.  The peeps were worried about tables.

Remember that ol' water table that lurks underneath my house?  I blogged all about it in my post, "tables of water," when it was threatenin' to rear its ugly head a little while ago.

So the hole in the basement was lookin' a little damp early on in the weekend but by Sunday night, it was containin' some water.  The water table was makin' an appearance.  By Monday, it was gainin' strength.  Higher and higher it crept until by Monday night, it was only three inches from the basement floor.

I gave it a full inspection as only a cat like myself can do.  I waved a paw over the hole in the floor and allowed the aroma of the water to waft toward my nose.  "MOUSES!" I cried. "This water has no aroma at all.  It's nothin' but water.  No puddle aspect to it, whatsoever.  What good is that?" I asked the peep but she ignored me.  Rude, I know, but I'm givin' her the benefit of the doubt 'cause I think she was worried we might be in for an indoor swimmin' pool... AGAIN.

But by late Monday night, somethin' miraculous happened. The rain, durin' the day, had been goin' back and forth between rain and freezin' rain and ice pellets and whatnot but by Monday night, it was lookin' like snow.  SNOW!

Yesterday mornin' I awoke and the ground was covered in white stuff as far as the eye could see. Not a lot of it.  Not enough for any sort of shovellin' to be required but it was...  EVERYWHERE.

Personally, I was not overly impressed with the arrival of the white stuff.  I figured it was some sort of cruel April Fool's Day joke on the part of Mother Nature.  Don't mess with Mother Nature, they say. DON'T MESS WITH NERISSA THE CAT, is what they should say.  The white stuff was interferin' with the spring programming of my Bird TV, not to mention the complete and utter lack of sunpuddles for nappin'.

But believe it or not, the peeps were happy about the white stuff.  The fact that the weather had turned colder and the rain was now snow meant that the table of water was no longer bein' fed from above and would be able to sink back into the underbelly of the Earth and leave my house alone.  Of course, it also meant that there would be no indoor swimmin' pool for this year but really, I think that's sort of a good thing.

I am now currently awaitin' the return of the sun and some sunpuddles.  Perhaps if I have a nice little nap in a sunpuddle or two, inspiration will strike and I'll be able to figure out how to bottle up those puddles 'cause I just know that when all that snow melts, there will be puddles galore.

After I figure out the bottlin' aspect, I'll be lookin' for investors. Any takers?  My bottled puddle water is gonna be the best thing since sliced bread, for sure.  Maybe even better 'cause you know...  cats don't eat bread and I, Nerissa the Cat, am a cat and that, my friends, is a fact.