Hello everyone on this cloudy Thursday in May.  We had a bit of rain last night, not much, but enough to make things smell nice and fresh today.  And it’s a nice mild morning, a real spring morning.  There was another typical spring smell last night.  That one wasn’t so pleasant however.  I’m talking about a skunk.  It arrived at 2 am.  And that smell simply filled the entire apartment.  For about 2 hours.  When I got up this morning I let some fresh air in to clear up the remnant of that smell.

Dogs often have encounters with skunks, which is not pleasant.  I had a cat one time who also encountered a skunk.  He probably thought it was another cat.  And got too close.  When he came back inside, he didn’t stay long.  That smell as I let him in the door.  Nearly knocked me off my feet.  Out to the shed with him.  He was a big cat, 25.5 lbs.(11.37 kg).  His feet were 2 1/2 inches (6.25 cm) across when he was relaxed, he could spread  them wider.  And he had very long legs.  The vet was very impressed with that cat, he said there was no unneeded fat on him, he was all muscle.  He also commented that his father must have been a lynx, he had never seen such long legs on a cat before, or such big feet.  That cat used to chase foxes.  Now, a red fox around here doesn’t weigh as much as that cat did.  He was mistaken for a fox more than once by people. Nice cat.

However, back to smell.  I used tomato juice to bath him.  Normally a bath for that cat was not enjoyable.  Even less enjoyable for me.  I still have scars from him.  But he sat there calmly for his bath.  I think he understood I was actually helping him.  It took 3 such baths and he was fine once again.  At least I didn’t have to worry about him doing that again.  Right.  He didn’t learn.  Later that summer, I couldn’t believe it really.  But I did believe that smell.  It wasn’t quite so bad the second time, 2 baths worked.  Sigh.

Not many birds around this morning.  But that is to be expected.  For those of you who don’t know yet, I have had to give up feeding the birds.  Complaints from neighbors, 2 now.  And my feeders don’t quite meet the law requirements.  One does, barely.  So I can still feed Sir George.  But I can’t put seeds on there for the small birds because the rock doves come and eat it all.  So I use hanging feeders for the small birds.  Those don’t meet the requirements.  So I have to stop until I can figure out how to do this.  Poor little critters.  They still come looking for food.  Sigh.

Even feeding the squirrels and chipmunks is a problem apparently.  It’s okay if I actually hand them the peanut.  But on some days, such as rainy days, I just put some peanuts on the deck for them.  Can’t do that.  Why these regulations?  Deer.  We have a lot of deer in town and people don’t like that.  Correction, some people don’t like it.  The majority don’t mind.  But those few are very vocal.  So the laws come.  Sigh.  I hate to give up.  I’m a bit stubborn that way.  I will get this figured out at some point.  But for now, I give up.

As my title says, this is a new series I will be doing on different adventures over the years.  Today, of course, was my cat.  Oh, his name was Duffer.  Yes, an odd name.  But it’s because he was so tiny when I got him at 4 weeks old.  He was the smallest in the litter. Sure didn’t stay that way!

Well, that’s all for now everyone, thank you all for stopping by again today, it is very much appreciated!  Have a great day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

© 2019 Steve McLeod.