Feeling poorly? Happy little ukulele melodies can always make any day bright.
Need more sunshine? Try this:
Need more sunshine? Try this:
Also (if "rock" edge is required) :
12 Sept 2012
3 Sept 2012
Portlandia: Our trip south
(with narration)
We were on the train just shy of 7am. Everything went pretty normally and we
got to see some of the sights (despite being on the side of the train facing
inland…. as opposed to the scenic view Westward of the Salish Sea and Puget
Sound). Mainly trees, houses, industrial
buildings and the occasional scenic shots follow our route southward.
The extra 2 and half hour wait in
Vancouver, WA (just 30 minutes from our destination) was unfortunate. The heat and intermittent air conditioning
didn’t make a great combination… but I guess it was all part of the “experience
of travel”.
We stayed at a hotel downtown,
conveniently close to a lot of the shopping we did (FYI… check out Powell’s Books and Cargo…
both are a must-see)…. But our room was a nice restful get-away. Simple, clean, and a nice view …. It was a
chance to put our aching feet up after all the walking and touring. It gave us a chance to read and recharge.
The early morning walks usually was a
chance to see the local sights (sometimes pre-dawn) without all the trouble of
people and traffic. Downtown is littered
with interesting architecture, great public art and sculptures… and statues
including the famous Portlandia… not too far from one of the Food Cart pods is a
convenient farmer’s market, with great local produce, flowers, and baked goods.
The morning started with a breakfast
at Kenny & Zukes… a cool little delicatessen. Eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and good cup of
coffee... and of course Voodoo Doughnuts.
I’m a little more accustomed to quiet,
subdued, inner national pride
displayed in Canada… so with this being my first American travel spot, I was
surprised by all the flags.
The peaceful retreat of the Japanese
Garden in Washington Park was an unexpected highlight. there was enough shade and cool breezes
throughout the garden to make up for the heat.
The Portland Art Museum was surprising
both in scope and for content. 4 floors
in the main building featuring historical and cultural archaeological pieces,
seasonal artists (here was Ellsworth Kelly),
and the permanent installations by contemporary artists… as well as the
great European masters. Despite the
super squeaky floors… this another peaceful respite room after room. Another unexpected highlight.
But time came to pack up our bags, add
up the pounds of books we’re lugging back… and get onto our train ride home.
A nice ride home, though. We had to sneak a couple of clear scenic
shots… ‘cause, well, our seating wasn’t so great and we sat between windows. But the ride along the coast and following a
slowly descending sunset was a great end to trip. We sleepily pulled into Vancouver and it’s
time to starting planning next year’s trip.
(without narration... for your viewing pleasure)
Winter wonderland
(Originally published Jan 18, 2012)
Finally snow has fallen on Vancouver and area. It’s about 3 weeks too late to be considered
“magical” in my opinion (as I've already mentioned on facebook)… but I’m still
grateful for every snowflake. I’ve been
waiting for what seems like months for an actual feeling of winter to finally
arrive. The extended fall weather was
just making everything wet and brown, despite that this has been a pretty dry
winter for the lower mainland (very little rain at all in the month of
December).
Maybe it’s just nostalgia for the snow heavy winter
months of my youth in the prairies that’s making me want to see more, maybe it’s
a desire to run out and make snow angels and have a snow ball fight, maybe it’s
just nice to see the fresh clean blanket of snow instead of the wet, brown
gardens… this first snowfall is very
welcome in my life.
I made a quick video of a stroll in the area this
morning. Not my best work, but I played
with some sepia tones, tried to give it an old-timey feel (so I apologize for
unintentional blurriness… but some of it was intentional nonetheless). And of course I set it to Carnival of the
Animals’ “The Swan” by Saint-Saens.
Enjoy
.
The Little Ninja Saga - Episode V: A New Home
(Originally published Dec 10, 2011)
I woke up early again that following Sunday,
letting Cheryl sleep in since I wasn’t as confident as I was the day
before. Maybe we’d catcher her, maybe
the trap would work, maybe we wouldn’t have interference from other
neighbourhood cats… or maybe I’d be standing at the doorway watching shadows for
4 hours again. As per the routine, I
filled the food bowl (adding some wet cat food on top for irresistible
yumminess), put the food in the trap, set the trap outside my door and called to
the Little Ninja. And I waited. She never did eat the day before so she must
have been starving. I was hoping this
wouldn’t be a long wait
After ten minutes I finally saw her run right by…
like she didn’t even see the food, like she had better things to do than to
finally eat. And again I waited. Impatiently, I called “Pretty Girl” again
thinking she’d try to come to the food once more. No luck.
After 30 minutes, I decided to take a walk around the block to see if I
could find her. No sign. I then decided to go for drive. I had caught her a couple times eating from
the dish as I drove up after work at the end of the day. I figured, maybe she wanted to be sure I was
away before she came close enough to the house to feed. Still nothing (Note: Leaving an active trap unattended for
20 minutes was not the best decision. I
don’t recommend trying that one. I
could’ve caught another cat, a squirrel, a raccoon or even a small
child).
After an hour, the sun was starting to rise and I
was pretty sure I had missed my chance.
I looked for her again and saw her in the neighbour’s yard; she stared
right back at me. I would always try to
not look her in the eyes, apparently that’s a sign of aggression or
dominance. I didn’t need that mind game,
whenever I saw her I would look away immediately. I did the same here and quietly stepped away
from the fence. I was relieved to know
she was nearby, though. Instead of
leaving the trap by my door, I figured maybe she would prefer to eat someplace
more secluded and away from my prying eyes.
I moved the trap just around the corner, right near the fence where she
would often perch.
Another 10 minutes passed with nothing happening at
all. I cranked up the laptop and was
just about to google again “how to attract a feral cat’ when the loudest,
metallic ‘ching-clang’ made me jump
up from the couch. I opened the door,
with a thick blanket in hand. And there
she was! In the trap! Of course she was freaked out and very vocal
and backing to the rear, away from me. I
put the thick blanket over the cage, hoping that might relax her a bit, might
make her more comfortable being confined.
I quickly ran into the wake Cheryl up.
She jumped out of bed and quickly got ready. I called the vet to give them a heads up we
were coming. Coats on. My heart pounding. Car started.
Cat in the back seat, in the cage.
And so by 7:20am on November 6th, we rescued the Little
Ninja.
It was hard to listen to her sad little mews from
the back seat, she was obviously stressed, and we hated doing that to her. As people, we could rationalize that is was
all for her sake, that it will be better, that we rescued her from a likely
death as winter approached and food wasn’t readily available. It’s really hard to explain all that to a
cat.
Nevertheless we went to the vet and had her checked
out. She seemed fine, if only a little
thin and weighing just 7 lbs. The blood
results that came back the following week were fine as well. A relatively healthy cat. As the vet gave her the once over, I was
surprised to see that she immediately tried to crawl into Cheryl’s arms and curl
up. She didn’t freak out or squirm like
I had imagined. She wasn’t as fearful or
people as I had first thought, she was just a little timid and perhaps just wary
of strangers.
We brought her home in the cat carrier that Laura let us borrow (there was no way we’d get her into the trap for transport). We put the carrier in the room and left the door open, facing the food and facing a little nook Cheryl whipped up (just in case she need a private place to hide). We knew it’d be a while before she’d come out and interact and know that we weren’t there to hurt her… so she stayed in that carrier for the first day. Cheryl was the first the reach her hand in to pet the cat… and the Little Ninja seemed perfectly happy with a rubdown from a disembodied hand. Eventually, she came out of the cage to eat.
And praise the heavens above, she was even
litter trained!!
Cheryl was actually quite a bit ill the following
two days and stayed home from work.
I’m sure this was a blessing to both Cheryl
and the kitty. It provided some much
need bonding time and a chance for the kitty to explore her new home, to be
comfortable at home, and to not feel alone.
The kitty spent a lot of it curled up with Cheryl on the bed, easily the
first time the kitty was warm in over a month.
She seemed quite happy to have a new home.
At first we were going to call for Violet…
personally I like the name and liked the reference to the Series of Unfortunate
Events (which is what led this little kitty to end up in our home). Violet didn’t seem right though. It’s kinda hard to call out and it just
didn’t flow.
After some time, we settled on Charlie. Maybe as a shortened version of
Charlotte. We could even call her Chuck
if we so pleased (like Anna Friel in Pushing Daisies). I’ve always been a fan of boys names for
girls, like Charlie, Sidney, Frankie, or even Fred (a la Winifred). So it was decided, this little cat named
Charlie would become a newly adopted member of our family.
If you are ever wanting to help your own cat
settle down and become more at ease when at home, I wholly recommend Feliway (see photo
below). It comes in both a spray and a
plug-in diffuser, as over-precaution we got both. I’m pretty sure this is what helped Charlie
easily transition into becoming an indoor cat in a stranger’s home. It synthetically mimics the ‘scent’ or
pheromone that cats release when they rub their faces on things. It calms the kitty into believing that ‘this
is home’ and ‘this is safe’. Essentially
it’s an airborne anti-anxiety medication.
Effects are noticeably with hours, but sometimes may take a week. After 3 months of the plug-in, your kitty
should be right as rain. If you are
having issues with spraying or peeing on things or anxiety, this stuff seems to
really work. There, that’s it for the
commercial ad (fyi, I wasn't paid to say this or anything... I just think this
stuff is a godsend for our situation).
The Little Ninja Saga - Episode IV: A New Hope?
(Originally published Dec 3, 2011)
As I soon discovered, getting your hands on a live
trap free of charge is a little more difficult that you would imagine. The trick was that we would need it for about
a week and this was also going to be a single-use endeavour. I mean, I’m hoping to not have to trap
another live animal in the near future... or ever. For best results, we needed a thoroughly
clean or uncontaminated trap. When an
animal gets caught, there’s usually a bit of pee or more importantly some type
of pheromone related to fear or stress.
It’ll mark the cage as being unsafe.
If little miss scaredy cat could ‘smell’ that something had been trapped
before, she would never go into it and of course we would never catch
her.
I called around to some of the local animal
shelters (specifically BCSPCA and the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue
Association) assuming that they would have a plethora of traps…. and would be
gracious enough to lend them out.
Nope. They had a limited supply
and needed to use them for their own means. That’s fair enough. I
also called around to some pest control agencies (knowing that the size of trap
I was looking for is intended for raccoons).
I thought maybe they would let us borrow one (or rent for cheap)… just to
use their equipment instead of using their services. Annnd nope.
Some would rent them out on a weekly basis for $200, which was a bit
steep for us at the time. Home Depot had
them for purchase (at $100) but they too did not “rent” them out like they do
with some of their other equipment.
Luckily, Cheryl made contact with a gentleman from
a local small pest control company, Green Valley Pest Control, I think. The guy she spoke with had an extra raccoon
trap that we could just simply borrow... for the week… no charge… in fact he’d
deliver it. Too good to be true? Nope, just an awesome helpful guy. The next Wednesday after work, voilà! a live trap was waiting by our
door.
So right outside our door, the cage was left in the
morning with food inside Thursday and Friday.
After calling her name and placed the dish, she came quite quickly the
first day. I stood in my usual position,
behind my kitchen table eating cereal and drinking coffee in the dark… with
barely a view of the cage where I was hoping the kitty would not see me. It
took her about 10 minutes of walking around the cage and smelling it, ten
minutes of waiting, ten minutes of determining if this cage was safe. Fortunately, hunger won and she eventually
went in. Friday morning, she did it in 2
minutes.
Note: We brought the trap back inside just before I
went to work, just in case the trap was stolen during the
day.
In the meantime, we had converted our second
bedroom into a kitty oasis where we can place the Little Ninja in order to help
acclimate to a life indoors. What used
to be (and had been for the last 3 years) a storage room wanting to be an
office, that room was totally cleaned out.
Stuff went to second hand stores, other stuff was “dealt with”, even more
was shoved and configured to fit into our closets. Finally after 3 years, clean floor space was
exposed, closet doors could close, and our desk and bookshelves were accessible
again. But then we filled it up with
kitty litter, kitty food bowls, a climbing tower, and seating for us when we
wanted to try to bond with the Little Ninja.
Cheryl even devised a little hidey-hole under the desk, where Ninja could
escape and feel comfortably hidden… just in case she needed more time to adjust
on her own.
Saturday was the big Kitty Trap Day we had
planned. We figured it would be an easy
start to the weekend just to continue the consistent pattern… I would get up at
5:30am, as usual, get the trap set and get the food ready. Cheryl would wake up and get ready (difficult
to do on a Saturday morning). We would
be fully dressed, jackets on, shoes on, wallet and keys in hand. By 6:10, kitty would try to eat. By 6:10:01, kitty would be caught. By 6:30am we would be at Atlas Animal
Hospital, the only 24hour vet clinic we knew about. Within hours, we would be home and warm again
with a kitty in our laps. Seemed simple
enough… but “best laid plans” and all that, I guess.
Yes, the food was in the cage. Yes, the cage was set. Yes, the house was dark and I sat watching
the cage with eerie suspense. But no,
the Little Ninja did not take the bait.
Maybe she sensed my anxiety, my tension… like how dogs seem to feel that
‘energy’ kinda. After 10 minutes, I did
spot a black shadow walk by the cage… but she did not go in. After 30 minutes, I was a bit hopeful, so I
was going to the back room to check online for the Atlas clinic’s phone
number. While I was in the back, Cheryl
called to me. The kitty had gone to the
cage entrance, she had stepped inside, may have touched the food (hard to tell
in the dark), but did not set off the
trap… and she ran away very quickly.
Maybe she knew it was a trap, maybe not… either way, this was going
through my head for the next 3 hours:
For the next hour, I stood by the kitchen table
watching the cage outside. Cheryl laid
down on the couch a few feet away, wearing her jacket and shoes. Our lights were still off, it was dark
outside, and I couldn’t tell the difference anymore between shadows, leaves
flying about, or an actual pure black kitty.
My eyes were playing tricks on me.
After an hour, Cheryl went back to bed to wait (she
never did fall back to sleep, though).
Out of sheer persistence and bull-headedness, I couldn’t move. I stood guard for 3 hours, barely moving,
watching the cage, drinking coffee after coffee, seeing no further signs … but
eventually seeing the sun rise. At one
point, I went for a walk around the block to find the kitty. I spotted her down the block, sitting under a
tree next to the school. Odd place since
I have never seen her beyond our yard and the yard of our
neighbours.
By 10 o’clock, Cheryl came back out of the
bedroom. As if on cue, Ani, the cat from
upstairs, came scratching at out back door… like she has every weekend for
years. I jumped outside and grabbed the
trap… hoping Ani wouldn’t set it off accidentally. She was never really food-oriented anyhow, so
there shouldn’t have been such a fear.
Ani came in and we played a bit before she went back out to explore. With Ani loose and defending her territory,
with no new sign of the Ninja, and with the cage back indoors… the Trap Day was
aborted. Discouraged and a bit defeated,
we were uncertain if this would even work.
The next chance would be to catch her at her
evening feeding time. We witnessed her
eating a couple times after I came home from work, so we figured we’d try again
at 5:00pm… just hoping it’d work. We
went about our usual Saturday, with shopping and groceries and a little drive
around town to collect everything else we needed for our second room/kitty
oasis. By 2pm, we were home again. I took a peak ‘round the corner and saw the
Little Ninja on the fence between the 2 houses.
This was her usual perch where she could be “safe”, but was commonly
harassed by Ani and Saffi from the deck upstairs (and just a few feet
away). Those upstairs cats were pretty
good about defining their territory, and this poor little black kitty rightfully
didn’t belong.
Knowing the cat was out, I thought that this’d be
good chance to try to feed her (and trap her).
So out came the cage and the food.
I called her name…. and would see if nature would take its course. But within a minute, freakin’ Wex shows up
instead! Out of nowhere! This hungry, food driven, white cat would
definitely set off the trap and ruin to whole deal. I quickly jumped out again and chased Wex
away (see previous post about the Wex story)
After a couple more minutes, I tried the trap
again. Called the kitty. And now Ani walks by again! So again, I brought the cage back in and
tried to chase Ani away.
Another 15 minutes later, I walk around to house
and I don’t see the kitty… and better yet, no sign of any cat. Hopefully Wex had gone home, hopefully Ani
was having adventures further down the road… hopefully the Little Ninja was
hungry. So out comes the cage…
again. I could see the black kitty
sitting on the fence now… but what I didn’t see was Ani on the deck above giving
her the ol’ staredown. Obviously the
Little Ninja wasn’t going anywhere. I
brought the cage closer…,and freakin’ Wex shows up again! Seriously, it was like the Benny Hill theme
should have been played. With these 2
other guys hanging around, with me jumping in and out of the house, with the
cage rattling it’s way in & out of our yard, the Little Ninja wasn’t going
to try anything at all.
I gave up.
I would have to wait until the next morning and try
this all again.
The Little Ninja Saga - Episode III
(Originally published Nov 20, 2011)
Every morning, I left the food outside our door in hopes of attracting the poor abandoned kitty, the Little Ninja. Luckily it did seem as though she was hungry enough to leave her comfort zone and venture into our territory for breakfast and dinner. I would watch her eat in the morning as I sat in the kitchen with the lights off, sipping my coffee and finishing my cereal. She would come now within about 5 minutes after I placed the food out and called to her. We felt better knowing that she was finally eating properly… but it seemed that she wasn’t the only one who was getting a good meal.
Every morning, I left the food outside our door in hopes of attracting the poor abandoned kitty, the Little Ninja. Luckily it did seem as though she was hungry enough to leave her comfort zone and venture into our territory for breakfast and dinner. I would watch her eat in the morning as I sat in the kitchen with the lights off, sipping my coffee and finishing my cereal. She would come now within about 5 minutes after I placed the food out and called to her. We felt better knowing that she was finally eating properly… but it seemed that she wasn’t the only one who was getting a good meal.
After the first couple days, we noticed a second
cat getting its fill. A white and creamy
looking cat, with some adorable, almost seal point light orange colouring. Cute bugger.
Unlike the scared black kitty from next door, this big guy was possibly
the friendliest creature to sneak into our backyard. As soon as it saw me, when I caught it eating out
our food dish, it came right up to me, jumped up to nudge its head on my knee,
and circled around my feet. Obviously
friendly. Obviously domesticated. Obviously previously owned. Likely homeless
too.
It came back every day afterwards. It would come to our door in the evening,
whimper out a ‘mew’ and sit and wait for me to come out with more food… or just
to give it some company. I would sit
outside with it. Rub its cute little
ears. Play with it a bit. And it was so vocal. Mewing and mewing all the time. We let it into the house a couple times, just
to see what it would do. It would sneak
around, smell stuff, and at one point just sat on the couch to clean
itself. It was almost too friendly and too vocal. Cheryl understood that some pregnant cats get
super friendly, and noisy, and super hungry … but is this what was
happening? Were we feeding a pregnant
cat too?
The question was now… do we save 2 cats. Still unsure if we can even trap the black
kitty, we knew that this white cat would jump at the chance for a new home. Cheryl and I threw the thought around of
trying to raise two cats… especially trying to keep them indoors since the other 2 cats that lived upstairs had
full right the territory outside our door.
I was actually kinda excited about having 2 cats, one black and one
white. It lent itself well to matching
names like “Amos & Andy” or “Checkers & Chess”, but all that was running
in my mind was the song “Ebony and Ivory”…. and I’m pretty sure we would be hard
pressed to make them “live in perfect harmony”.
We didn’t know what to do really, with 2 cats. Should we get them both? Do you capture both but send one to
SPCA? Do we rescue one and leave the
other to fend for herself? If so, which
one? The needy or the possibly
pregnant?
In the end, we decide that the black one needed our
help the most, but it also needed a quiet stress-free life indoors… which meant
no other competition, no other cat. We
would rescue Little Ninja and take the cream one to the SPCA. She was friendly enough to quickly be
adopted. She could easily fall in love
with anybody just willing to pet her.
The black one, on the other hand, would be a challenge… and we were already willing to accept that
challenge. Any possible, unsuspecting,
future owner may not be as willing or as ready to deal with it. So the decision was made. Trap them both… one to keep, one to give to a
new home.
Something was nagging me in the back of my mind,
though. This cream cat that we had been
feeding was just too friendly. Was it
really an abandoned cat at all? Or was
it just a lucky sneaky bugger looking for a free meal away from her real
home? There was only one way to tell…
try to find her owner. A couple options
for contact seemed possible. We could
post on Craigslist, something like a “cat found” ad… but that would depend on if
the cat was really lost and if the owner somehow managed to specifically look
for her on Craigslist. We could also put
up some “cat found” posters… but I had a lot of trouble getting a good picture
(always blurry, and too dark). And was
getting discouraged with having a suitable poster,
A light bulb came on when we realized the best
chance of finding this girl’s owner… if there was any. The only connection between us and the cat’s
owner would simply be the cat. We had to
send a massage with the cat… like a carrier pigeon. I went out and bought a collar (since it
didn’t wear one already). Cheryl wrote a
nice note on small piece of paper. A
simple note to the effect of “We have been feeding your cat; are you the owner;
we are about to adopt it; call us at … “.
That evening when the big white cat came by again, I went outside to play
with it, collar (with note attached) in hand.
It took a couple of tries, since she got a bit squirmy, but the message
was placed and I let her go home. It was
just a waiting game now.
20 minutes later we get the call. Seems this white cat did in fact have an
owner. Cheryl had the pleasure of taking
the call and was able to explain our situation.
What we thought was a pregnant cat, was actually a male named Wex. Wex had been a rescue already, back in
Seattle. The owners were a couple who
had recently moved to town. It seems his
current owners welcomed him into their house after his life as an alley
cat. He was never one to stay indoors,
but he was good at finding his way around the neighbourhood. I guess his skills in the alley helped him
find the batch of free food we happened to leave out for him every
day.
With that little mystery solved. We opted to take better control of the food,
in an effort to ween him off of our friendly meal. We also had to redouble and focus our efforts
in trying to trap the Little Ninja and bring her into our home.
To be continued…
The Little Ninja Saga - Episode II
(Originally published Nov 17, 2011)
So now we have decided that we have to save this
poor helpless abandoned kitty that our neighbours left behind when they moved
out. Our first obvious major obstacle
was going to be catching it. She had
been alone for a couple weeks already, fending for herself (with the help of
some dry food the neighbours did happen to leave). She was so scared and skittish. Simply by making eye contact she would run
away to her secret hidey-hole by the neighbours’ garbage cans. This is where google came in handy… if only
to help me & Cheryl to set-up some type of time line for attack, and to take
advantage of all the little tricks that seem to work for others (meaning less
trial and error on our part).
As anybody would expect, food was apparently the
easiest way to trap a live animal.
Knowing that this poor little kitty probably hasn’t had a full prepared
meal in a while (now that the bag of food left behind was depleted), we figured
she’s gotta be pretty hungry. Laura
& Immanuel had already made a couple successful attempts to feed the Little
Ninja. Laura used some of the extra cat
wet food her cats, placed it on a dish and sat in the little side alley between
our house and the next. The kitty was
hungry enough to overcome her fear of people, and after some time decided to
munch her way desperately through the wet food with Laura only a few feet
away. Immanuel had done the same and
apparently managed to stand only 1 foot away!
So we knew it was possible to lure the little kitty… like an ice cream
truck driving by a school yard.
 |
| Just a simple trick to lure in the hungry |
Our first step would be to put out some food. We had an extra food dish laying around
already from the year before, when we thought the neighbours were originally
going to ditch and leave the kitty behind.
At the time, we would just put out a couple of pieces of Temptations… but
that never really worked and the kitty never fed back then (it still had a home,
so why would it come over to us?). I
picked up some dry food, just your middle of the road high-protein bag of
Whiskas. I didn’t want to be cheap, but
I also wasn’t sure if this plan would work so I limited my investment, I
guess. I could’ve gone more expensive
and get the really delicious stuff, but the kitty was probably hungry and
hopefully not too picky.
Apparently, the key to a successful trap was
consistency. Every morning when I got
out of bed and got ready for work, my first task was to fill a bowl for food,
another for water and take it outside.
We weren’t sure where to put the food though, where to keep the food so
it’ll be visible, where the kitty would be comfortable eating, and where we can
easily keep an eye on it. In the end, I
got a bit lazy. I knew the cat had
sometimes wandered past our front door… so our area was a little on her daily
route. So, yep, I opened the door and
plopped the 2 bowls right in front of our door where I can just stand back and
watch the feeding begin. The other
helpful trick was knowing that her original owner (the crackhead girl) would
often call the kitty “pretty girl” (but we never confirmed any ‘real’
name). Every morning at 6:00am, I would
open the door, rattle the food, call “pretty girl” and step back to continue
with my day (shaving, ironing and such).
Nothing was witnessed the first couple of days… but
since we did leave the food out all throughout the day, some food was definitely
eaten before we got back from work.
Only half empty after the first couple days. Later, it was completely empty. After the 3rd day, I did see that in the time
between setting the food dish out in the morning and me going to work (about 45
minutes), some food was even eaten then.
A couple more days of food being eaten right after I place it outside, we
knew she was waiting for it, expecting it.
That is why consistency was the key to this all, I guess. On the 5th day, I even saw her eating from the
dish, in the afternoon after work as I pulled up the car next to the house. I didn’t want to scare her, so I just sat
there in the car waiting for her to finish.
Only took about 10 minutes, but I was happy to actually see her
eating.
The really unexpected part about this whole
endeavour (but we really should have seen it coming)… was that the poor
black Little Ninja was not the only cat we attracted. I guess word got out that there was a free
meal sitting outside of the door all day long.
That was how we met the mysterious and friendly white cat.
To be continued...
The Little Ninja Saga - Episode I
(Originally published Nov 3, 2011)
Let’s backtrack a couple of years to around the
time that Cheryl & I moved into the house, into the suite beneath Laura
& Immanuel. It’s a nice little
ground level suite with mostly good neighbours, near a school, close to highway
access, the bus stop, and near my work.
Sounds like a great place to hunker down and spend some time living,
huh? So of course, Cheryl & I have
been doing that without issue since 2008.
Let’s take another look at the qualities I just mentioned, particularly
“mostly good neighbours”. That’s pretty much true, but the one
consistent exception had always been a couple that lived in the basement to the
west of us.
I’m a little iffy on the details but as I
understand it the house was owned by what somether have termed a bit of a
slumlord. He rented the place out as a
low income housing option or kind of a half-way house (without actually being a
half-way house), but seemingly didn’t take care of repairs, of neighbourly
complaints, or the well-being of the tenants.
The tenant who lived upstairs had some mental issues and was a great
super nice guy. We’d chat in the front
on occasion and he’d tell me about his day, tell me about work, tell me about a
movie he saw. Just a super nice
guy. I think his name was Jeremy (I
swear that was how he introduced himself to me and Immanuel). Cheryl on the other hand had been given the
name Trevor. His true name was an
ongoing debate in our house that we never did resolve be actually asking his
name… like some eternal mystery.
The 2 who lived downstairs, though, were another
breed altogether. They were your typical
crackhead couple who had serious addiction issues, money troubles, relationship
explosions, and never really seemed happy.
We would often catch them coming home drunk as hell and yelling. They would often fight out in the backyard
(Laura had the worst of it since her bedroom overlooked the yard and she would
hear the night-time fights that I always missed). The would crank the music and sing wildly…
which is fine, I guess, but super annoying when you’re trying to have a nice
quiet dinner 20 feet away. Occasionally
he would be kicked out by her at night, and the dude would just go into their
open-air carport to sleep… and by “sleep”, I mean drink beer and smoke meth and
stay up all night yelling at her to let him back in to get his
smokes.
Being the concerned neighbours we are, we of course
didn’t do much and never really complained.
But our hearts sank when we realized that they had 2 cats. One hefty big guy I nicknamed Tubbs, and a
tiny little kitten I had taken to calling The Little Ninja. We all knew that the home that these cats
were in was not a safe or stable household… they probably weren’t fed regularly
and were often just kept outside and ‘mew’ed for hours at the back door to be
let in from the west coast wet winters we have.
Little Ninja was quickly a favourite of mine, and most of my concern was
towards this little kitty. Just a tiny
little thing. She (at least we think
it’s a she) was this sleek, obsidian black, cool s.o.b. who could hide anywhere
and you were never able to catch her.
She was likely afraid of people and would tear off just at the sight on
anyone approaching her. She could
disappear before you even knew she was there… like a ninja, right? So awesome.
After some time and our concern grew and grew, we
watched Little Ninja and Tubbs grow up and quickly learn to fend for themselves…
as best they could in our alley and with the inconsistent affection the
neighbours gave. Last year, though,
there was rumour that the 2 crackheads were being kicked out. Not sure why… but I heard it was a rent
issue, as in they weren’t paying it. Not
quite sure when, either though. Our
first worry was “What happens when they don’t take the cats”? And “How do we
catch and adopt the cats”? And “How do
we become the owners they deserve”? And
“How can we possibly make them indoor cats”?
These were questions that bothered us for weeks and we were always
waiting for the hammer to drop and we’d have to act quickly to be some kind of
kitty heroes. We were waiting for the
crackheads to be kicked out.
The hammer never fell though. We started to notice a change in the
behaviour of the crackheads. Things got
really quiet. We didn’t see the girl for
a long time. There weren’t many
fights. The cats weren’t seen too often
either… perhaps even kept indoors often enough now. One day the girl came home in a wheelchair
and the guy seemed to have his act together a little bit. We never did find out what ‘officially’
happened. They would be out in the
backyard with their music, but there was more laughing than fighting. Maybe this was the change everyone wanted to
see… maybe the tide shifted (and hopefully in favour of the kitties). We stopped worrying as much about the cats
and started to worry about our own lives (this was the time my dad’s health was
declining, and so was Cheryl’s mom’s).
One year later… one month ago… the landlord, I
believe, realized he could get more money if he rented to people who weren’t
living on low income restrictions, and evicted all the tenants… even the nice
guy upstairs. I’m not sure if he evicted them per se, but I know rent was
increased above an affordable level for everybody. And as quickly as the news hit, everybody was
gone… except Little Ninja. The
crackheads left a phone number to be reached if there were any issues with the
cat, and they left a bag of food out of the back doorstep. Immanuel called them a couple times to let
them know the Ninja was at the home and waiting for them (the place was still
vacant), they said a couple times that they’d stop by… but they never
showed.
We realized the poor Ninja had been abandoned and
we’d have to the right thing and bring her into our house. It’d be in her best interest, right? And so a quick & simple Save-The-Kitty
Operation was put into effect. Much
easier said than done.
To be continued…
Everyone's (not so) secret crush
(Originally published Oct 1, 2011)
Everyone loves Helen Mirren, right? How can you not fall in love with her million
dollar smile (which has a trusting quality, but a little fun smirk to it)? She carries such a grace and elegance with
every role she plays that I’m always awestruck at how awesome she truly is.
 |
| The iconic film star (courtesy of Getty Images) |
 |
| And she knows her way around balistic firearms. |
Whether she plays the queen (or several queens for that matter) or
Nick Cage’s mother… she’s usually the incentive for watching any film in which
she appears. I mean she’s just awesome,
right?!
And just to impress you, please see her extensive series of roles below for film, theatre, and television (as of the above date):
Film (Date) Role
The Debt (tbr) Rachel Singer
The Door (tbr) Emerson
Arthur (2011) Hobson
Brighton Rock (2011) Ida
RED (2010) Victoria
The Tempest (2010) Prospera
Love Ranch (2010) Grace Bontempo
The Last Station (2009) Sofya Tolstoy
State of Play (2008) Cameron Lynne
Inkheart (2007) Elinor Loredan
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) Emily Appleton
The Queen (2005) Elizabeth II
Shadowboxer (2005) Rose
The Clearing (2004) Eileen Hayes
Raising Helen (2004) Dominique
Calendar Girls (2002) Chrissie
Gosford Park (2001) Mrs. Wilson
Last Orders (2001) Amy Dodds
The Pledge (2001) Doctor
Monster aka No Such Thing (2001) The Boss
Greenfingers (2001) Georgina Woodhouse
Teaching Mrs Tingle (1999) Mrs Tingle
Some Mother’s Son (1996) Kathleen Quigley
The Madness of King George (1994) Queen Charlotte
The Prince of Jutland (1994) Getruth
The Hawk (1993) Anne Marsh
Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) Lilia Herriton
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) Caroline
Bethune, Making of a Hero (1990) Francis Penny Bethune
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) Georgina Spica
Pascali's Island (1989) Lydia Neuman
When The Whales Came (1988) Clemmie Jenkins
Mosquito Coast (1986) Mother Fox
Heavenly Pursuits (1985) Ruth Chancellor
White Knights (1985) Galina Ivanova
2010 (1984) Tanya Kirbuk
CAL (1984) Marcella
Excalibur (1981) Morgana
The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Man Chu (1980) Alice Rage
The Long Good Friday (1980) Victoria
Hussy (1980) Beaty
Caligula (1979) Caesonia
O Lucky Man (1973) Patricia
Savage Messiah (1972) Gosh Boyle
Age of Consent (1969) Cora Ryan
Play (Date) Role, Theatre
Phedre (2009) Phedre, National Theatre
Mourning Becomes Electra (2003) Christine, National Theatre
Dance of Death (2001) Alice, Broadway
Orpheus Descending (2000) Lady, Donmar Warehouse
Collected Stories (1999) Ruth Steiner, Haymarket Theatre
Anthony and Cleopatra (1998) Cleopatra, National Theatre
A Month in the Country (1994) Natalya Petrovna, Roundabout Theatre, NY
A Month in the Country (1994) Natalya Petrovna, Albery Theatre
Sex Please We’re Italian (1991) The Young Vic
Two-Way Mirror (1989) Angela, The Young Vic
Madame Bovary (1987) Madame Bovary, Watford Palace
The Roaring Girl (1984) Moll Cutpurse, Barbican Theatre
Extremities (1984) Marjorie, Duchess Theatre
Anthony and Cleopatra (1982) Cleopatra, RSC
Faith Healer (1981) Gracie, Royal Court/The Roundhouse
The Duchess of Malfi (1980) Title role, Royal Exchange
Measure for Measure (1979) Isabella, Riverside
Henry VI (1977) Margaret, RSC
The Seagull (1975) Nina, Lyric Theatre / Lindsay
The Bed Before Yesterday (1975) Ella, Anderson Company
Teeth 'n' Smiles (1975) Maggie, Royal Court & Wyndhams
Macbeth (1974) Lady Macbeth, RSC
Man of Mode (1971) Harriet, RSC
The Balcony (1971) Elayne, RSC
Enemies (1971) Tatyana, RSC
Hamlet (1970) Ophelia, RSC
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1970) Julia, RSC
Richard III (1970) Lady Anne, RSC
Bartholomew Fair (1969) Mrs Littlewit, RSC
The Revenger’s Tragedy (1969) Castiza, RSC
Troilus & Cressida (1968) Cressida, RSC
Much Ado About Nothing (1968) Hero, RSC
All’s Well That Ends Well (1967) Diana, RSC
Anthony and Cleopatra (1965) Cleopatra, National Youth Theatre
TV (Date) Role
Prime Suspect VII (2006) Jane Tennison
Elizabeth I (2005) Elizabeth I
Prime Suspect VI (2003) Jane Tennison
The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (2002) Karen Stone
Door to Door (2002) Mrs. Porter
Georgetown (2002) Annabelle Garrison
The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999) Ayn Rand
Painted Lady (1997) Maggie Sheridan
Losing Chase (1996) Chase
Prime Suspect V (1996) DCI Jane Tennison
Prime Suspect IV (1995) DCI Jane Tennison
Prime Suspect III (1993) DCI Jane Tennison
The Hidden Room (1993) Sarah
Prime Suspect II (1992) DCI Jane Tennison
Prime Suspect (1990) DCI Jane Tennison
Red King, White Knight (1989) Anna
Cause Celebre (1987) Alma Rattenbury
Coming Through (1985) Frieda von Richtofen Weekley
Cymbeline (1982) Imogen
Mrs Reinhart (1981) Mrs Reinhart
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1981) Titania
The Quiz Kid (1979) Joanne
Oresteia (1979) Cassandra
Blue Remembered Hills (1979) Angela
As You Like It (1978) Rosalind
The Country Wife (1977) Margery Pinchwife
The Collection (1976) Stella
Caesar And Claretta (1975) Claretta Petacci
The Philanthropist (1975) Celia
The Apple Cart (1975) Orinthia
Bellamire (1974) Bellamira
The Changeling (1974) Beatrice-Joanna
Little Minister (1975) Babbie
Jackanory (1974)
Coffin For The Bride (1974) Stella McKenzie
Miss Julie (1973) Miss Julie
Cousin Bette (1972) Valerie
Behind The Scenes (1972)
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