I may be freezing my butt off in Michigan but I know just where to go when it's too cold outside, other than getting on a plane and heading back to Florida. I am sitting in the recliner in the parlor room right next to the big glass doors that face East. The sun is actually visible today and it feels wonderful shining through the glass on my frozen body. I sitting here in the sun practically purring like a big old Cheshire Cat. It's only 10:19 in the morning but the sun is pretty high in the sky so my "window" of opportunity will close shortly and I'll be left freezing again. But that's not a problem because all I have to do is step through the French door into the main part of the house and I will be sitting in a sauna, minus the steam. The Man has the heat in the house cranked up to near 80 which makes me wonder why we bothered to leave Florida in the first place.
The Man is back home after his mad dash to escape the heat and humidity of Florida. We have dashed straight out of the oven that is Florida and into the refrigerator that is the UP. When we woke up this morning it was 31 degrees and the ground was covered in a blanket of white frost. That was all I needed to see before I dove back under the covers for another 2 hours. This body DOES NOT DO COLD any more!
As I sit here in the sun the eagles are all sitting around the pond enjoying the fleeting rays of sun shine before the clouds move in. (At least it's not raining like the first 2 days here.). There have been as many as 17 eagles around the pond since we returned. From this spot I can also see the barn and the back field. Running from the barn to the side property line are 4 posts on which are 4 blue bird houses. The Man had 2 out there up until last year when I gave hime 2 more for his birthday. (He loves the Blue Birds) I happened to look up a few minutes ago and could see a large brown lump of something sitting on top of one of the bird houses. (My distance vision is crap, even though I have my eyes examined each year I still can't see things clearly if they are more than 20 feet away.) At first I thought it might be an eagle perched on top of the blue bird house but although the eagles will sit on the fence posts I have never seen one on any of the bird houses. As I tried to focus on what this brown lump was I decided it was Miss Kitty ! Sitting here in my pool of sunlight I feel like a big old cat, AKA "Miss Kitty", but do have a real "Miss Kitty" who continues to roam the property.
About 4 years ago when I first came to The Man's house there was a small cat who would show up several times a day for food and tickles. The Man had adopted her when she first started hanging out around his house in the spring. He would never let her in the house but would put bologna and bread out for her along with any leftovers from his dinners. The cat survived on this for a year, even managing to survive on her own the first winter we were in Florida together. Some where that first winter "Miss Kitty" got pregnant so when I returned to MI during the summer there had been a bunch of kittens which mysteriously disappeared except for one black and white one who wouldn't come near us. By the end of the summer the first batch of kittens were gone and Miss Kitty was pregnant again. That's a whole other story. Bottom line, one of the neighbors took all the kittens to the pound and had Miss Kitty spayed. That neighbor has since officially adopted her so Miss Kitty's official home is across the road but she loves to roam The Mans property looking for birds and mice. She is fatter every year we return to MI so obviously she is well fed and cared for by the neighbor but her instinct to hunt is still sharp as ever.
So . . . . when I looked up a few minutes ago and saw the brown blob sitting on the bird house I knew it had to be our bad ass Miss Kitty out on a hunt. But that wasn't going to happen on my watch ! I threw on my jacket and stomped across the yard yelling at her all the way. (Seriously, in the back of my head I was thinking,"OH Crap, what if it's not the cat but a raccoon or something?", then what am I going to do? I finally was close enough to see that it was indeed the infamous Miss Kitty perched quite contentedly right on top of the blue bird house just waiting for one of the birds to be dumb enough to try to fly in or out. As I got closer to her she had her back up and fur standing straight up until I called her by name. At that point she jumped down and started purring around my legs for me to pet her. Damn cat almost killed me walking between my feet as we went back across the yard to the back steps to sit down and get reacquainted after a long winter.
This is quite a unique cat. She is as independent as any other cat I have know but she also knows exactly how to get what she wants. Earlier this morning she had been sitting on the steps outside the kitchen looking for love but we chose to ignore her. It was too cold for me to go out and sit on the cold concrete steps in order to pet a cat. So she went to plan "B". She knew if she was on top of the bird house I would come out to chase her so that's exactly what she did. Once we were sitting outside on the back steps she rubbed and nudged me to give her a back rub and lots of scratches. The entire time I was petting her she was moving and shifting position. (She is not one to sit quietly in my lap.) I talked to her the entire time, mostly asking her about her winter and how she was doing. When I commented that she must have had a very good winter because she was looking quite fat she turned around and bit me ! Damn cat ! I had to apologize and explain that I realized she looked larger because she still had on her LOVELY winter coat and was looking wonderful, FLUFFY not FAT !! After my apology she continued to accept my petting for a few moments so I would know there were no hard feelings. After that she just stood up and walked off around the side of the house without ever looking back.
She certainly put me in my place and has now established just who runs this place ! Smart ass cat !
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