Wild Things!

             I’m a believer now. I watched several videos about pet Bengal cats and all they said was true. These are the wildest, fastest, loudest small kittens I have ever lived with, and they’re just tiny yet!

            I don’t think they are even all Bengal either. Even a half-breed Bengal cat is a wild thing.

            But, in addition to that they are utterly sweet and I believe that local hillbilly I bought them from, and his family socialized them very nicely. Thank you, William and family!

            So, I promise not to write about Booker and Sweetie every day for the rest of time, but I must say that I have fallen completely in love with the little infant predators.

            My beloved Granddaughter, who made the connection for me, tells me that the guy does in fact breed real Bengals. So, maybe they are Bengals! Time will tell!

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Ha Ha, Suzy!

 

It's very hard to get Suzy to sit for photo!

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            As you know, Suzy took a rather ambivalent attitude towards Booker and Sweetie. She did not run to them with licks, purrs, or open arms, so to speak, when they first came into her world. If anything, she wasn’t sure what they were, apparently.
            So, anyhow, I was supposed to be asleep yesterday, but I wasn’t. I was silently watching because there had been some noise in the area. And what I saw was Suzy playing with one of the kittens. I’m not sure which one because he was behind the door. He kept sticking his paw out from under the door or around its out edge. I saw Suzy swatting at it in a playful, friendly manner.
            Later, when she strolled by my desk, I said, “You don’t fool me, Suzy. I saw you!”
            “Hm?” she said. “Saw me what?”
            “You were playing with one of the kittens!” I said. “Behind the door!”
            “Oh, was that a kitten?” she said, evasively.
            “The only thing around here with furry paws, beside you or Mr. Baby is a kitten!” I crowed.
            “Oh, p’shaw. Pfft! I thought it was a snake,” said Suzy, continuing her stroll.
            “That’s really nice, Suzy! I’m glad to see you warming up to them,” I said.
            “I don’t know what came over me. All of a sudden I just felt like playing!” she said. As she walked off, tail high, she seemed a bit surprised at herself.
            It seems as if she has fallen right into her natural role as a lady cat!

😹

He Steps Forth

 

 
            Millicent Price, and all of her devoted readers of her columns in the Milltown paper, know that Ralph sings. He sings for pleasure and to please too. He sings as a form of prayer. Things really move when Ralph sings because he knows what’s what, and Who’s who.
            To the dwellers in the Great Forest, this is only natural, he is the one they look to, and he does his best to look after them. Ranger Rick probably hasn’t seen this in practice, but he wouldn’t be surprised after everything he has witnessed.
            A reader from Darrington, a cashier at the grocery, a little more up on things than most, sent a question in to the paper, directed to Ms. Price.
                        Dear Ms. Price:
                        As one of your most devoted readers, I felt free to send
                        you a simple question about your forest buddy, Ralph.
                        Does he dance too? I can only imagine.
                        Maybe you can elucidate?
                        Thanks, Emma T.
 
            “Well,” thought Milly, “If that’s not an opening, there isn’t any such thing!”
            As usual, enlisting Maeve, she set up an appointment to pick Ralph up for an interview. She had what she thought might be a fun idea for the meeting. She packed a big lunch. Deli Reubens, Gummi bears, obviously, bottled tea, Nanaimo bars too!
            Milly was pretty sure he would go for all of that.
            When she picked him up at the usual wide spot on highway 20 she said, “How about we have a picnic at the place we first met, Ralph? The beach on Camano island? Sound good?”
            “Sure, Milly. It’s been years. I’ve never been back. I wonder if it looks the same or if they built new park buildings or anything,” said Ralph.
            Ralph did that thing where he shrinks down a little to fit into the big green Escalade, put on a Cabela’s cap, and kinda looked a little obscure. He was thinking that a jacket might have been a good idea, but a jacket his size would have to be custom, and he didn’t want to bother Thaga about a jacket. Then he started paying attention to the ride, looking out of the window at the cool cloudy day passing by.
            Nobody was parked in the parking strip at the beach. A cool spring day with cloud cover doesn’t pull in the picnickers like a sunny one. An abandoned park was just what they wanted. Ralph noted that there were no new buildings. It was just as beat and shabby and comfortable as it had been the first time he had seen Milly.
            “I brought lunch!” said Milly, indicating a bag.
            “I know,” said Ralph. “I can smell it, looking forward to it!”
            The same picnic table waited for them in the same spot.
            Over lunch, Milly said, “I have a reader who wants to know if dancing is part of your repertoire. I got to thinking about it, and wondered myself. Do you dance? Why, if so? Do you sing to accompany yourself? I’ve heard about your singing, though I haven’t heard you, Ralph!”
            Still in his Cabela’s cap and in his smaller form, he was a very large presence across the table from Milly. He smiled. “Yes. In a word, sometimes I dance. I’m not sure it would look like dance to human people. There’s usually a good solid reason for it.
            “Like when I was setting up the Home Clearing. The Great Forest has always been there and always great, but I made it a little hard to find by certain steps. It’s such a physical thing that it’s hard to explain how it works. Thanks for the Gummi bears, by the way! Hard to beat a Gummi bear! And the sandwiches! And those bars, wow!
            “When I sing I try to square myself with what’s right, you know. I search for words to reveal truth, if that makes any sense. When I dance, it’s the same but maybe the postures seal the deal in my mind,” said Ralph, lapsing into silence, looking at Milly to see how she was taking all of this.
            “You know, Ralph. Maybe I’ll just tell the lady that yes, you do dance. I don’t feel like I could adequately explain what you just said. Or, I could tell her that it’s a form of prayer. How about that?” said Milly.
            “Pretty much covers it, in a word or two,” said he. “You know whatever you decide to say is fine with me!”
            “Some of them believe that I am writing about an actual person, but most of them don’t. They think it’s amusing fiction,” said Milly. “I think this lady knows something.”
            “Would you like a little lighthearted demonstration?” asked Ralph.
            “I think I could take it,” laughed Milly, but she looked a little tense.
            “OK, you watch me. I’ll do a little bit, and then you won’t have to drive me home. I don’t do this all the time, but it’s sure possible, if I want to,” he said, standing up. “See you next time, dear friend.”
            Ralph seemed to be humming a little bit, almost sub vocally. He winked, and began a little series of very smooth steps going backwards in the direction of the big Cadillac SUV. There was some arm action too. Soon between Ralph and Milly’s car there was a sort of shimmery area in the air like looking through rain spattered glass. It got more distinct and Ralph did his smooth stepping thing backwards right into it.
            Then he was gone. The beach was empty, except for Milly, her Escalade, and the leftovers from the picnic lunch, most just wrappings and a few Gummis in the bag lying on the table.
            “Wow,” said Milly to the air, the beach, and whichever gulls and such might be around. She stuck the remaining Gummis in her jacket pocket and walked the rest of it to the trash can.
            Then she drove back to Milltown with her mind full of wonder. She would tell Colin, but probably no one else.

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Busy Kitten Days Continue

             The kids seem to be doing well. They run like crazy and then sleep a lot!
            They seem to be willing to eat anything edible, even cheese. I only gave them a sliver of white cheddar. I'm not sure it's good for baby cats.
            In low light it's difficult to tell them apart, but in good light Booker's face is lighter and he has stripes along his nose under his eyes, and Sweetie doesn't and his face is a little darker.

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February 19, 2026 - Open Thread

There's sunshine just down the road.

Spring is coming!

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Getting Ranger Rick Into The Picture

  

            Those four wagon loads of sand lay in a nice pile right in the middle of the alder trees. The project never left Ralph’s mind, but he wasn’t one to push a thing out in front of its time. He’s pretty Zen that way.
            One morning he felt like seeing how his old friend Ranger Rick was getting on at the Ranger Station and maybe shooting the bull with him about things, things like the Alder Tree House and so on. Things like that.
            Ralph knew Rick would most likely be in his office since it was after 8AM, not that Ralph had any truck with clocks. He just kind of knew when Rick went to work. Rick was a very dependable fellow, and he often had doughnuts in the office kitchen nook. A visit was definitely in order.
            It was still pretty early in the morning when Ralph broke out of his forest domain into the Ranger Station parking lot. He noted with satisfaction that Rick’s truck was parked in its usual spot. Perfect.
            Ralph knocked on the office door, just to alert Rick, then opened it and stuck  his head into the room.
            “Hey, Rick, you in here?”
            “That you, Ralph? I’m in the kitchen. Sit! I’ll be right out,” shouted Rick. Then he came out with two mugs of coffee and a large Tupperware box of homemade chocolate chip cookies.
            For a pleasant quarter hour they drank coffee and ate cookies, talking about almost nothing, like the weather and the number of early spring campers in the camp ground.
            Finally, Rick said, “So why have you come out of hiding?”
            “By the way, how’s your new camp host working out?” said Ralph, as a delaying tactic.
            “She’s good. She’s not quite as tough as Marge was. But she does well with the campers,” said Rick. “I wonder where Marge is these days.”
            “Well, therein lies a tale, old buddy. By a round about way, that’s why I’m here this morning eating your cookies and drinking your coffee. Are you ready for this?” said Ralph.
            “Sure. I can take it. I think, no matter how out of this world it is,” said Rick, and he laughed.
            “Funny you should say that,” said Ralph.
            “OK. Tell me,” said Rick.
            “This is the short version. Marge was reborn as Leely, becoming sort of a Forest Woman. Ramona dipped her in the river and renamed her. This allowed her to marry Twigg. See you’ve missed a lot recently!” said Ralph.
            “Wow,” said Rick. “I didn’t know that was even possible.”
            “We didn’t really either. But it was to be. They had loved each other since they were kids, Rick,” continued Ralph.
            “I don’t know if you can handle this, but they are off planet having a long honeymoon on the planet of that Mak guy who shows up in a space-going vehicle once in a while. It’s quite a story but it’s a true one.
            “Before Twigg and Leely married, Twigg had been working on building his own house based on living saplings up in the meadow with their Gifting Stump. It was to be similar to the bee’s house he made, but a lot bigger of course. But once he was married and off on his honeymoon, we realized that the little sapling house he had in mind wouldn’t do for him and a wife, his own Fire Keeper to be,” said Ralph.
            “Oh man, Ralph. That’s a lot to take in! But, how does that bring you here this morning?” said Rick.
            “Oh, I’m not really sure. I just wanted to see what you thought I guess. After they were gone, I got an idea. I thought of making a house on the same general plan, but with full grown alders in the same general area. I located a likely group of trees and talked them into growing together at the top into a sort of dome. They’re doing that and it looks super.
            “Next, me and Ooog figured a way to make a floor in the house. We carried a lot of sand from the riverbank, and piled it in the middle of the trees. We figured on laying rocks into it to make a strong floor that wouldn’t rot or anything. I’ve been thinking about river rocks, but I don’t think they are the best idea. We need flat rocks.”
            “I can see that,” said Rick. “I wouldn’t want to lay a floor with river rocks either. Maybe it would be done, but shale would be a whole lot more stable, I think.”
            “Shale! That’s a new word for me,” said Ralph. “Nice flat stuff, is it?”
            “Nice flat stuff,” said Rick, beginning to smell the metaphorical coffee.
            “Does shale exist anywhere around here?” said Ralph.
            “Outside Darrington, where the river cuts through, on a forest road. Of course I will help you collect some shale, Ralph. I’ll take everything out of my truck, and we’ll fill it with river shale. How about that?” said Rick, folding his laptop. “Let’s do it now. I’ll put Dexter in charge for the day. Be good for  him.”
            Rick got on his phone and called Dexter, who was up at the camp host’s mobile checking things out with Hannah, for the second time already that morning. “Hey, Dexter,” he said, “Something has come up and I need to take off for a while. I want you to come down here and stay in the office until I get back.”
            “He’s doing better with this camp host than the last one,” said Rick, laughing a little.
            “Oh, good,” said Ralph.
            When Dexter came back, he and Rick unloaded all the stuff in the back of Rick’s truck into the office.
            “You can call her on your phone if you have to, but stay here,” Rick told Dexter. “We’re going to Darrington for a few hours.”
            Ralph squeezed into the passenger side seat, shrinking a bit because he really had to, and they drove out to Darrington, then they took the forest road Rick had mentioned. The road ran near a moderately sized mountain river. There was lots of shale lying around where it had fallen. It was easy to fill the back of Rick’s service vehicle with enough to cover a rather small floor such as in the Alder Tree House.
            Driving back to the Ranger Station, Rick said, “I’m only worried about one thing. How are you going to move this stuff out into the meadow? I can’t drive there.”
            “I have an idea,” said Ralph. “We can try it right now. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to think of something else.”
            “OK, Ralph. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but OK.”
            “OK, Rick. Let’s try it! Park, then close your eyes, but hang onto the steering wheel,” said Ralph. “Keep ‘em closed until I tell you to open ‘em!”
            So, Rick parked on the verge beside the highway, grabbed the wheel with both hands and shut his eyes. Ralph began to hum a little. After a bit he sang a song about the meadow and the Gifting Stump and Twigg and Leely and the Alder Tree House. It took a good ten minutes. All the while Rick kept his eyes closed tightly and hung onto the wheel.
            Finally, Ralph said, “You can open your eyes now.”
            When he did, there they were, in the loaded truck, not parked along the highway, but in the meadow with the back end of the truck facing the Alder Tree House.
            “I’m afraid to believe this,” said Rick, still gripping the wheel.
            “Have I ever told you wrong, Rick,” said Ralph with a grin.
            “No…” said Rick, looking all around in amazement.
            “Let’s unload this shale, and get you home!” said Ralph, "the same way you got here!”    

🍀

A Conference With Suzy

 

Booker

            She seems to be experiencing some anxiety today. Rather than guessing, I figure I had better just ask her why she’s so clingy and/or stand offish. Here goes:
 
            “You obviously have something going on up there beneath the ears, Suzy,” I said. “You may as well admit it.”
            “Monsters..” she whispered.
            “Oh?” I said. “Please elucidate!”
            “They look somewhat like cats, but there’s something wrong with them. I don’t think they can really be cats. I think you got bamboozled by that slick hillbilly. You paid a lot of money for some little gnomes or something!” she blurted out in a rush. “They might even be some kind of Fae loosely based on a cat’s form.”
            “Have you ever met a kitten, Suzy?” I asked her. I knew she hadn’t.
            “I can’t remember,” she prevaricated.
            “You’ve been a kitten! But of course, you can’t remember how silly you were either,” I said.
            “I never felt silly. I did everything as well as I could! Willie was silly though,” she said. “I watch those two little things. They don’t seem to know anything at all!”
            “Examples?” I said.
            “Cats should know certain things, you know, and they don’t! Also, they don’t have proper respect. I think they can’t be cats,” she said. “They must be something else.”
            “Maybe, Suzy, they need your help. Did that ever occur to you?” I asked her. “Hey, you can help name them! How about that?”
            “Me? They need me?” said Suzy.
            “Yeah! You’ll  help them turn into smart cats!” I said.
            “OK. I’ll do it!” she said.
           
            Things are looking up in cat world! I’ll keep you posted!

Sweety

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