by Joyce finally did the right thing and took Po Kitty to the vet to have her neutered. Po Kitty is what we call the stray calico I’ve mentioned before. When she first started showing up I lobbied for taking her to the pound. We’re never going to get down to one cat if we keep accumulating them. Then as she started growing on us I suggested the SPCA. Joyce made excuses: The cat was only around in the evening and she didn’t want it to have to stay in a cat carrier overnight, things along that line. One morning I saw the calico around the house when I walked to work and resolved to catch her, which I did, and she was waiting for Joyce in a carrier in the garage when she got home from her morning walk. Law, you’d think I’d sold one of the granddaughters to the gypsies! I turned the cat loose and worried about it producing a litter of kittens and how I’d enjoy living in Needles, California. As I said, Joyce finally took Po (it was given a name by this time) to the vet where, after examination, it was determined she had already been neutered. I’m greatly relieved. At least all five cats aren’t in the house or the shop and their population increase is limited.
We had a guinea rodeo Friday evening. Chris wasn’t around to help Joyce corral the guineas that wouldn’t go in guinea tower so I got the call. Fortunately it was a pleasant evening because we spent about an hour chasing one guinea. They are hard to catch, particularly in the dark. It didn’t help that all five cats showed up to watch and it’s hard to tell the difference between a cat and a guinea in the dark until you get up close. After losing the guinea in the dark, I sometimes took after what turned out to be a cat. No doubt they all thought it was great fun. We finally caught the fugitive and stuck it in guinea tower. Joyce told me yesterday that she found a little white guinea egg in GT the next morning and speculated that the one we chased around for an hour Friday evening was the culprit. She thinks the reason it was so hard to get in GT was because it was wanting to nest somewhere. They aren’t supposed to lay eggs in the dead of winter, but this bunch we’ve got don’t seem to follow the guinea rules we’ve read in books .
We must be living right because we had a beautiful calm, sunshiny day yesterday. Wednesday last week a cold front blew in and the temperature dipped down into the teens a couple of nights. Friday was a pleasant day, also. We’re very fortunate to get the bad weather out of the way during the week and have nice weather on the weekend. We need it to work around the place. I expended most of my energy moving a bunch of dirt from the dry creek bed excavation in the front. I’d thought I would use it as part of the landscape, then decided I didn’t like the way it looked, so I loaded it up and piled it on a number of the tree stumps around the place in the hopes that it will speed their rotting away. Joyce got some help from Abigail and Chris in beginning the process of cleaning up the garden. It will be planting time before you know it.