let's hear it for Evel

...who was cool enough to nearly make a cat-person out of me. Almost.

This past week, I sadly yet peacefully re-gifted my stray cat to a woman with whom I work and her 19 year old son who has autism. I was gobsmacked by the smoothness of life events; Evel (yes, that's right -- I changed his/her name from "3" to Evel after watching it fly around my home like the original Evel Knievel, occasionally crashing and burning) came into my world one very cold night at the start of 2010 and helped me to stay planted on the planet through some tough nights and mornings. Of course, when the woman was considering the adoption and asked me its name, I responded "Precious."

The morning after the adoption I phoned to see how the first night was: she responded that cat and son were bonding nicely and she snapped some shots of him with his head on the cat's belly as he/she slept on the stairs. All is well.

In honour of the beast who made my life sweet for a few short months, I'm putting some shots from our last couple of days together. Sometimes life seems to distill down to memories and photographs.

For two weeks I have swapped 8lbs of cat for 150lbs of drool and muddy paws. These last two pic's are of Wiley (sheep dog) and Red (chesapeake) whom I am dogsitting while Becky and Harry are out of town. Maybe it's not about being a dog-person or a cat-person but enjoying what is. Perhaps I could apply this lesson to my work.... and to people.

happy as a pig in....

Spent this weekend visiting my friend, Greg. He operates a lambing and hog operation in northern Vermont and, while I can still smell the poop in my pores, the fine memories will no doubt last longer. I don't want to spend too much time writing tonight but I thought it was time to add a note of update.

My internal weather patterns continued to roll with some storms for a while but March came in like a lion last Monday and since Thursday this week it has been unseasonably warm and sunny. Today I drove with June's sunroof open (and, of course, the check engine light still ablaze). Last Wednesday I moved through a particularly interesting experience with work and I was left buzzing awake through most of the night -- apparently my wiring has become unaccustomed to the excitement and high of doing what I love to do, therapeutically. More to follow on this when I feel more inclination to write about it.

I have stabilized some, it helps to be around tonnes of animals, some of them just a day or two old in the world, others topping over 500 lbs with personality to match. I also got to run a chainsaw (thank you Husqvarna) and cut some felled trees into logs, ....nothing makes me so happy as power tools in the outdoors with sunshine and trees all around.

I'm attaching some shots from the weekend so you might better comprehend why I'm feeling the inclination towards sheep farming.