Day 30 Count Down to Funky 55

Today was a holiday in America - Memorial Day where we honor our dead. It was a lazy, dreary, rainy day and I played the lazy bone very well. I did get up and buzz around the house cleaning with some home made mixtures of vinegar, water and essential oils. My fridge was nice and sparkly and my stove top too. Then I dressed in an odd mix to dart out to get a bite to eat.

I have this tank top that is a peacock feather print, but because it was dreary and rainy, I didn't want to have bare shoulders so I wore a popcorn shirt underneath. You can't really see the popcorn shirt - it was white and it has little puffs in it that remind you of kernels of popcorn. The whole thing pulls up very tiny looking but it will spread out big enough to cover a rather good size person -- like me. LOL  As extra layers, I have my black and white shawl draped over me to knock the chill air.  In this photo I am posing with Sir Sable El Gato -- he has been the cat of the house for nearly 17 years. When we got him, daughter had declared she either wanted a brother or a kitty from the box in front of Wal-Mart. We got a kitty. And the lady told us they were all girls so it was a bit of shock several weeks later when Miss Sable Kitty turned and had very male parts protruding from the back side. Daughter and I had spent all those weeks thinking of ourselves as *the girls* and now suddenly we had a *boy* in our midst. It was a weird grieving process that seems silly looking back but we had to adapt to our kitty being a boy. The first step was to re-dub him as Sir Sable El Gato. Once we got acclimated to him being a he, life went on without a hitch. Almost. When he was about 8 months old he came running through the house screaming, did a weird flip and landed real crazy on the carpet and laid there screaming and howling. I had no clue what he was doing. When I approached him he gave a horrendous growl and snarl that was shocking. I had to throw a towel over him and wrap him up and rush to the vet with him to see what was going on. Seems he had kidney crystals and they had blocked him. Had we not taken him to the vet, he would have died in the night a horrible death from what the vet told us. They were able to clear his crystals and unblock his urine. What we got out of the deal was a life long aversion to the litter box. To this day, he will secret himself away and urinate on soft things whenever he can. It has been a very trying time living with him over the years and all the things he has destroyed with his pissing problem. grrrrr! But look at that adorable face. He really is a beautiful cat and sweet as can be when he isn't wreaking havoc with his pissing issue.  Being an elderly cat now and could have failing health at any time, I try not to gripe too much about him and I try to love him as much as possible. My husband is a cat lover deluxe so Sir Sable definitely gets his pets and purrs as my hubs calls it.

Here I am bent down petting my little *Dorgi* -- a daschund/corgi mix. I love that little rascal. His big ears get attention where ever he goes. His hair looks a bit rough in this photo because I have rubbed him down with virgin coconut oil to deter fleas and to help him with a rash that fleas caused on him. He had a wonderful flea free winter and then suddenly, it was spring, a few hot weeks and POW! He was tearing at his hind end like he was going to rip himself apart. I felt so bad about the slip up not having him slathered down in advance of getting bitten. He really is allergic to flea bites and I know exactly how he feels. They drive me wild also if they happen to get me. I do everything I can to make certain I don't get bit by fleas. As a child, I crawled under a house and got fleas all in my hair. They bit me so badly that they made sores that caused my lymph nodes to swell. A round of antibiotics knocked it out but I was pretty sick for a while.  My father cured the flea problem at that house by building a fire just outside the hole that went under the house. All the fleas jumped into the fire and that was that. Of course, I never crawled up under the house again so I really don't know if it got all of them. As an 8 year old child we are fearless and it never crossed my mind about fleas, spiders, snakes and centipedes that could be under there. I shudder to think of all the creepy creatures I exposed myself too not knowing any better. But getting sick like that sure taught me a lesson -- no more crawling under the house.

On this Memorial Day holiday, I honor the following relatives that have passed:

My Dad - William Leon Hollingshad

Grandpa Hollingshad - George Thomas Hollingshad

Fat Granny - Minnie Lena Fulton Hollingshad Remy

Uncle Charles - Charles Thomas Hollingshad

Granny (Aunt) - Jeanetta Collins Hollingshad

Aunt Dot - Dorothy Louise Hollingshad Bachlund

Cousin Robert - Robert Bachlund

Cousin Bruce - Bruce Bachlund

Uncle LeRoy - George LeRoy Hollingshad (my Dad's twin)

Aunt Helen - Helen Marie Brumley Hollingshad

Aunt Pickle (cousin) - Thelma Louise "Pickle" Hollingshad Badgett

Uncle JC (cousin) - JC Badgett

Cousin Rodney - Rodney Dwain Duncan

Granny Connor - Charlotte Temple Craft Connor

Grandpa Connor - Elvis Verdo Connor

Grandma Dean - Virginia Lucille Connor Dean

Uncle Richard - Richard Alan Dean

Uncle Ronnie - Ronald Eugene Dean

Uncle Randy - Randal Keith Dean

Aunt Ann - Virginia Ann Henderson O'Neal Finney

Counsin Alecia - Alecia Rena Dean

And this concludes Day 30 Count Down to Funky 55.

Bright Blessings and Blessed Be!

Rayven Michaels

Wiccan Witch of the Midwest