A New Beginning

I want to thank everyone who sent us your heartfelt words of kindness and sympathy for the loss of our sweet cat, Eric.  He was such a joy to us and he will indeed be missed by all.  Coleen was so shook up that she was not able to go to school on Friday as she was just to emotional and we didn't want the kids making fun of her for crying.  (Which they have in the past).  Instead she stayed home and later in the afternoon we did something special which you'll read about at the end of this post.

 

                                                Eric 2012-2015

His other owners came over on Saturday to thank us for all that we did for Eric and to let us know how sad they were that he had been killed and that Coleen had found him that way in the street.  We talked about him and how much we all loved him and what a special cat he was.  They brought us a cute picture of him when he had his first "hair cut" as a young cat.  I showed them pictures I've taken of him as well.  It really meant a lot to us that they were grateful for the love we gave to Eric.

 

Then we showed them what we decided to get on Friday in Eric's memory.

 

I would like to introduce you to......

 

                                                    Bandit Eric Krause

 

 He likes to sleep on people.  Here he is resting with Mike.

Here he is with Coleen.

 

He's already melted our hearts and while we will never forget Eric we now have this little bundle of joy in our lives and I know Eric would be happy that we gave a home to another sweet cat.

 

You'll be seeing more photos of Bandit for sure and every now & then I might slip in a photo of Eric as I had taken plenty of pictures of him and have not share them all. 

 

Again thank you to everyone who sent us their condolences on losing Eric.

It really meant a lot to know that people understood.

 

My heart is breaking

It hurts me so much to put this news on my blog but I know it must be done.

Sadly tonight our sweet Eric (the cat) was hit by a car in front of our house.  This happened just about an hour before we normally would have brought him inside for the night.  Poor Coleen had went outside for something and saw him lying in the street.  There was nothing that could be done as he was already gone.  I quickly picked up his bloody/limp body out of the street and we buried him with a special blanket that he enjoyed laying on in the winter. 

It hurts our hearts so much that his life ended so tragically.  The horrible part is had he been our cat from the very start he would "never" have been raised as an outdoor/indoor cat. 

Please people if you own cats and live in the city keep them inside.  His other owners loved him as much as we did and tried to keep him inside as much as possible but he seemed to love being outside.

To anyone who may hit a cat (God forbid) but if you do, Please do the owners the courtesy of at least trying to find out who owned the cat and move the cat out of the street.  I am at least thankful I got his body off the street before people just continued to run over it.

We will truly miss his gentle sweet soul.

This was one of the last photo's I took of him about 2 days ago when he was inside for the night.

Below is a collage I took of him playing with a paper towel roll.

I feel horrible tonight and I know it will be sometime before the pain of his loss eases but everyone who knows me or stops by this blog knows how much I loved him and how much joy he brought into our lives from the very first time we met him.

Rest in Peace Eric.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - March 15, 2015

 Welcome! - Gosh it's been quite some time since I've participated in Ashley's (Ramblings and Photos) meme,
SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY and I've missed it.

This week I just happened to have managed to find all the prompts:  Time, On My Plate, Animal, Negative Space and Photographer's choice.

TIME:  You get 2 photo's for this prompt as I couldn't decide which one to use.

This clock tower on the Whitman College Campus gives you a 4-way look at what time it is as there is a clock on all 4 sides of the tower.

It's "Nap Time" for Eric the Cat.

ON MY PLATE:  - Let's make that Coleen's Plate

We had Tuna Burgers and baked potatoes for dinner the other night.  She turned hers into an "Alligator."  She makes food a lot of fun.

ANIMAL: 

This squirrel was watching me putting out peanuts and bird seed very patiently the other morning.  I was so close I could have reached out and touched him.

NEGATIVE SPACE:

I really like how the "negative" space in this shot draws your eye towards that pretty open bloom.

 

PHOTOGRAPHERS CHOICE:

 

I took Coleen to the annual WWCC (Walla Walla Community College) Cowboy Breakfast and Kid's Rodeo today.  After breakfast we wandered through the horse barns and I snapped some pictures.  I took a few in Black and White and this one is my favorite. 

 

I hope you've enjoyed the hunt and will check out the other participants.

Friday 5 and Other Stuff

Happy Friday! 

Let's join Tanya (Around Roanoke) for
WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE.

I thought today I would take a peek back at some sunnier, warmer days with my photos.

        Coleen enjoying her first summer trip through the sprinkler in June.

1.  Have you had enough of "winter" already even though it doesn't officially begin until Dec. 21st?  -  Perhaps you might enjoy traveling then to these destinations to escape the winter blues.  Bermuda or the Bahamas sounds good to me.

    Some pretty pink lupines I spotted in someone's garden this past summer.

2. How about some summer time music?

 

                           A summertime song bird in some reeds.

3. Well today we didn't have "icy" road conditions - Hip, Hip Hooray.  There is still ice in place so you have to be careful but it's warming up a little.  Should you be stuck inside due to bad weather and have kids I found this really neat sight with tons of activities to try.  I'm thinking Coleen might enjoy some of these during her Christmas break.  Check it out HERE

                    Some summer berries on a tree I thought were pretty.

4.  Something "artistic" and amazing with leaves.  My good friend sent me this link and I'm sharing it with you.  http://www.boredpanda.com/leaf-cutting-omid-asadi/   Can you imagine the patience it would take to create stuff like this.

 I spotted this fun little storage shed this summer when I was taking pictures of the Pelicans.  I think it's cheery.

5.  There was a little blurb in our paper the other day that caught my attention.  I'm a fan of the book/movie, Gone With The Wind and thought this was pretty cool.  Apparently it was worthy enough news to be shared in People Magazine.

Also joining Adrienne (My Memory Art) for Six Word Friday.

 
 

 This weeks theme: Season

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Now for some Feline Friday fun I'm sharing this photo of Eric stretching this summer.  I just love the curvy tail this cat has.

That's it for today.  I hope you've enjoyed your stay here.  Have a great weekend.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - November 16, 2014

Welcome -  It's time to join Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) for SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY.

This weeks prompts were:  In a Row, Salty, Sweet, Sitting Down, and Just Because


Lets get started on this hunt:

IN A ROW:

 Coleen and I stopped at the High School this week so I could take a picture of something else and then I spotted this out in the field and figured it would work great for the "In a Row" prompt.  This is one of those things they use for football practice.  I have no idea what they are called though. 

SALTY:  This one is a BIG stretch...

Tiny little flakes of salt or rather snow on Eric the cats head remind me of salt so that counts, right?

 

 

SWEET:

 



Coleen is a sweet little girl and her she is holding a very sweet lookiing turkey cookie.  Which I might add she said was so hard (the cookie) that she ended up throwing it away after eating about half of it.

SITTING DOWN:

I snapped this shot of Helix sitting down in the snow this week.  He doesn't seem to mind being out in the cold but then again that's all the life he's ever known as his owners don't bring him in out of the cold and no he's bascially on his own.  We feed him and try to make sure there are blankets in our shed to help keep the outside kitties warm during the winter.

JUST BECAUSE:

I spotted this tree when I took Coleen to her piano lessons and had to snap a picture of it, "just because" it was so gorgeous.

So that's it for this week.  If you want to join in the fun next week here are the prompts.

1. Double

2. Friday

3. Memories

4. Busy Day

5. Where I Stand

So Many Memes...Friday Fun

Gosh Friday seems to have a ton of different memes that I want to participate in.  I hope you don't get over loaded here but let's get started.

WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY 5

FELINE FRIDAY & FELINE ART

SIX WORD FRIDAY

FOLLOW FRIDAY FOR FILL IN FUN

The statements:

1. If___ then___
2. ___ reminds me of ___
3. I think of _____________ when I ____________
4. _________ is the most special thing ________ has given me

My Answers:

1.  If  I wished for anything then I would wish that no one had to suffer in pain.

2.  The Yarn in the photo below reminds me of Cotton Candy.

3.  I think of my dad when I see sunsets for some reason.  I'm not sure why either.

4.  Eternal life is the most special thing God has given me.  I have that to
look forward too.

1.As promised in yesterday's Good Fences post here is the rest of the story of Eric (the cat) and where he went after he hopped up on the fence.

 
 
 
My mom has a storage shed just a few feet away from the fence so he hopped up there and laid down.  Isn't he adorable.  I snapped this shot of him as I walked out of her yard.   ---     Sharing this for Feline Friday and Willy-Nilly Friday 5  - See below for different versions.

2.  I've always admired Deanna (Snippets from Springdale) gorgeous berry photos.  So while I was out and about this week I snapped a shot of some berries and am dedicating this photo to her for inspiring me.

3.  Remember the reluctant school girl.  Well I'm happy to report that so far she's loving the 4th grade.  This was a shot for the 1st day of school where she was goofing off before she left.  It's a much happier shot then the ones I shared earlier.

4.  We've had some lovely sunsets this week.  Here is one.  This is also my entry for Six Word Friday.  The theme this week was the word:  Sure.

5.  I like to include forgotten photos now & then and this is one that I took when Coleen and I visited Ft. Walla Walla earlier this summer.  There was a demonstration there on dyeing yard with Kool-Aid (you can read about how that is done HERE) and this is some of the dyed yarn they had on display.
So Debbie (It's All About Purple) this one is for you.

Now for some Feline Art.  See the photo of Erick (the cat) above.  I played around with it on iPiccy and came up with these two art pieces.  The first is Pop Art and the second one was something called Fiery Image.

So there you have it.  Does it bother you to have several Memes in one post.  Let me know if you'd rather I posted separate posts for each meme.

Good Fences - Cat Walk

Good Morning! - It's time to join in on a fabulous and fun meme known as GOOD FENCES and hosted by Theresa from the (Run-a-Round Ranch Report.)

Today's fence is one you've seen before. This time taken from a much different perspective.  You may recall this post  where I shared pictures of the fence that borders the back of our property. 

Today I'm sharing a view from the top of the fence.  I was outside trying to get pictures of a neighbors turkey that they have in a pen and had to climb up on some boards inside the dog pen in my mom's yard.  As I did I glanced sideways at the top of the fence line and snapped this shot...

Click to Enlarge Photos for a better view.

  I added a little bit of sun light effect courtesy of Pic Monkey just to jazz it up a bit.

As I was snapping away I heard a soft little meow and looked down to see Eric the cat on the ground behind the fence line.  That didn't last long though as you will see...

Here he is just popping up on top of the fence line.

Just about over the top.

Walking towards me.  Remember I'm in an enclosed dog pen that is butted up against this fence.

Here Eric (the cat)*  is trying to figure out how to hop from the top of the fence over that chain link fence into the dog pen where I'm at.

I love how he's balancing on all 4 paws here still trying to figure out how he can get to me.

There is more to this story but you'll have to come back on Friday to see where Eric (the cat)* went from here.

Don't forget to stop in at Theresa's blog and check out all the other Good Fences. 

*  This cat was named Eric by his owners but he pretty much lives around our house now.  We often refer to him as Eric the Cat because my step-son's name is Erick so that way we can distinguish who we are talking about.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday and Song-ography, June 8, 2014

I will be joining in today on SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY hosted by Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) and also SONG-OGRAPHY hosted by Kathy (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out.)

First up for the hunt:  The prompts:  Denim, Light, Watch, Perspective, Fuel.

I'm going a little out of order here because I want to use one of the prompts as part of Song-ography as well.

Click to Enlarge:

LIGHT:  This was the sunset here on Monday the 2nd after Coleen's Piano Recital.

I love everything about this photo.  The light was just amazing.

WATCH: 

Hubby was husking corn and it caught their attention.  (Snickers in the back, Spooky-boo on the Left and Harley on the Right.)

I also have another one for this as we went to a street concert tonight and these dogs were there with their owners (watching) the concert.  I'm not sure this fellow was enjoying the music though.

PERSPECTIVE:

From Eric the cat's perspective here I'd say the world was upside down!

FUEL:

Part of one of the exhibits at Ft. Walla Walla.

DENIM:  (This is also part of Songography) where the Song was, Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band.

                                ~A Pair of Jeans that fit just right.

 (You can see mine are well loved.  The darker ones are brand new jeans that hubby just bought.)

                            "It's funny how it's the little things in life

that mean the most

Not where you live or what you drive

or the price tag on your clothes

There's no dollar sign on peace of mind

this I've come to know."

 

 

This is the side of a semi-truck I spotted in the parking lot at the grocery store one day.

 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.