Amboy Quick Visit - Revisited

Finally, I may have figured out how to make a video upload properly.

This short sequence had Monya laughing so hard she couldn't hear what the boys were saying. I had to play it over four times.

Livestronge Challenge

Today Lief rode 116 miles to support the Livestrong Challenge. So yesterday BeeBoo and Arthur helped me paint a sign to encourage Lief. Arthur is polishing up his signature here: a set of traced hand prints.

This afternoon, Monya and I waited, holding the sign at a "power stop" in Renton.

Lief arrived an hour later, after riding about 100 miles, fighting off leg cramps, and climbing two of the "stoopidest" hills in the area. After this photo, he endured the downpour of a thunderstorm. Notice the tributes to cancer victims he posted on his windshield.

Quick Visit in Amboy

Yesterday I spent a whirlwind day in Amboy. I arrived in time for breakfast, played a round of tennis, helped paint a sign for Lief, helped set up a huge swimming pool, and filmed some amazing trampoline techniques. I slept in the car, then drove home at O-dark forty-five. I needed to be home by 0700 so I could see Lief in Newcastle, riding 100 miles for the "Livestrong Challenge" bike ride.

So check out the cat tail sticking out from under the flattened toy tent.

I have an excellent trampoline video, but that will have to wait until I can edit the original into a reasonable upload size. (The cat tail video took 30 minutes to upload.)

In Memory of Pompi

Pompette Kartoffelpuffer, aka "Pompi" aka "doodle" was an unsociable cat. You were only allowed to touch her on the head, neck or back. Never, ever touch her tail. She would scratch or bite anybody who violated that rule, and especially knew when she could get away with scratching children. Children were fascinated with her, probably because she was so fluffy and soft looking.

She preferred to stay outside all the time, except when it was freezing or heavy rain outside. She would come inside only to eat, then meow a request to open the door so she could go back outside.

She was always finicky about eating, and was always skinny under all that fur. When I gave her a flea bath once each summer, I was always surprised at how thin she was.

Over the last two weeks she was more finicky than ever. She seemed to be thirsty all the time, and only wanted to sleep in one of her hiding places in the yard. I found her several times, picked her up gently and carried her to the water and food dishes. She would drink some water and then wobble off to another hiding place.

About four days ago she disappeared. I have searched all of her known hiding places to no avail. The last time I saw her I didn't understand how she had enough strength to wobble away like that, so I'm certain she died in her sleep in some secret hiding place. She was about 18 years old.