Ireland

Ireland

Thursday, September 16, 2010

You just never know when.......

You just never know when a photo opportunity will present itself.
Today 3 opportunities presented themselves, before I had my first cup of coffee.
I swear, I need to start wearing my camera on my belt instead of my cell phone.
Last night I found myself tossing and turning in bed at 1am. So I figured I'd get the heck up and watch some late night TV to lull me back to sleep. Reruns of Seinfeld followed by the History channel's "Big airplanes" did just that.

Before I continue, let me share a bit of history. One of our cat rescues goes by the name of Izzy.
To say he isn't a ball of fire is understating it. Izzy has taken up space in our household for about 10 years.
As with most of our animals, there's something just a bit off with Izzy. He has been diagnosed with diabetes, which means we have to give him a shot of insulin each morning and each night.
When I say WE, I mean, not me.
Those veterinary duties fall to my wife and 2 of my daughters. Sorry, I'm a tug boat engineer, not an emergency room nurse. I just can't do it.
On top of that, we noticed a few years ago that Izzy was having sight problems. I first noticed it when I realized it takes Izzy about 12 minutes to walk through a doorway. His head is on a swivel, trying to determine if the couch is a couch or a car.
Like I said, he has issues.
Not unlike the gazelles and wildebeests of Tanzania's Serengeti Plains, pictured below is Izzy, in his natural habit

Now, to my story. While tiptoeing through my darkened family room at 1am, I noticed something odd on my back deck.


As you can see, Izzy is looking at this opossum while his bowl of cat food is quickly disappearing.
This explains why our cat food bill has gone up and Izzy's weight has not.

Something tells me that this isn't the first time Izzy has been visited in the dark of night by this creature from our woods.
But, if I was a betting man, Izzy thinks that creature next to him is one of our other cats.
Remember the sight issue.
I'm just saying.

And then, hours later while heading for my first cup of Ecuadorian coffee my daughter brought home for me from her vacation, I noticed more visitors in the back yard.


...and yes, in the garden.














Thinking about, there are worse ways to start the day.
*
*
Before anyone starts sending donations, be sure to know this spoiled rotten cat is nothing but happy, issues and all.

12 comments:

dcpeg said...

Careful - you may have to get a license for running a zoo in your backyard! ;-}

Loved your story-telling and, as always, your pictures are excellent. Poor Izzy, though. Must be hard being a blind cat in a menagerie of furry critters; tame and wild.

beth said...

wow....i didn't realize you lived in a zoo !

and just fyi....as funny as the cat/opossum photo is and the idea that izzy probably thinks it's just another cat.....oppossums can be MEAN...really mean and they could have a dreadful disease that izzy could pick up if they are sharing the same bowl of food.

i'm sure you knew that, even if you are only a tugboat man and not a nurse.

and the deer. well, i don't care how much damage they do, i think they are fabulous animals !!!

and the squirrels....if you have time to sit outside with nuts of any kind, you'll probably be able to hand feed them in a matter of days since they're busy stocking up for the winter and won't care that you're a human.

but they might care that you're not a nurse.

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

My husband and I went over to take care of my dad's cat years ago...our job was to let him in at night and let him back out in the morning. One night I went to the fridge for a drink while my husband "let the cat in". Said cat was grey and white, to be fair... but... the possum he let in instead was surely NOT a CAT!.. I said.. what's THAT? He said THE CAT?! I said... NO WAY IN H*LL DUDE, LET IT BACK OUT!!!

Jerral Miles said...

Izzy's eyes may not see very well, but they are beautiful. I'm guessing he doesn't care if it's an opossum or another cat. Company is good, even if you have food with it.

Janney said...

How cool! Imagine those in your back yard. And has that squirrel got a nut in its mouth?? CUTE.

Sueann said...

Wow! What sights to see! Poor Izzy! Thinks he has a new cat mate, eh? Ha!!
Love the shots of the deer! Amazing!!
Our Great Dane had diabetes and I had to give her a shot twice a day as well. The disease finally took our gentle giant and we miss her still.
Enjoy your zoo!!
Hugs
SueAnn

Formerly known as Frau said...

It's like tuning into the wild life channel!Great shots...kinda glad Izzy doesn't know it's a Oppossum that can't be good! Have a wonderful weekend in the wild!

Alison said...

Great post! I rather fancy sqirrels, probably because we don't have them here. Possums cause huge amounts of damage and I don'y like them at all!

Alison said...

Aagh! How did I miss that typo? :-)

Marilyn Miller said...

What a menagerie! Too funny seeing Izzy sharing food with the neighbors. We use to have opossums that would come and eat the cats food too (until my husband caught him with the barbecue fork). Oh no, but that's another story.

Dagmar said...

Howdy Mark, seems live on the acre is just fine and about with you. Man what a morning and all this before coffee....tooo darn funny it is.
You might wanna buy some extra stuff for that skinny deer, bet it don't like cat food.
Oh and the squirrel is just bringing stuff you can use in a cake...so don't blame that little one. ;-)
And Izzy poor Izzy he just can't enjoy the bit of chasing all the animals here on display in his garden.

Thanks for sharing loved this first story since I've been back. Missed you.
So got lots of reading to do now.
Hugs D.

Elza Miu said...

It's so cute!)