De-mise of De Bear

Another craft day today, and a painting day for me. I painted a photo I took of a stained glass window in someone's home. It's actually the "photo" I use on my blog on the left side of the blog under "About Me." I just love that picture and thought it would be pretty as a watercolor note card. I'm about half finished with it, and so far it's coming along well. I hope the painting retains the vibrancy of color that the photo has. My crafty friends, Cathy, Sharon, and Carolyn, worked again on their albums. They are really getting creative and fancy in their embellishments. I love what they've done, and I'm getting jealous. I want to get my hands on what they're doing, but I'm trying to discipline myself to keep working on painting. Cathy had some delicious pastry desserts and tea for us when we got there. And - Toblerone Swiss chocolate!

Carolyn followed me home so that she could see our kitties. She had never seen Tonkinese cats, and she's "cat shopping" now. Originally, she was planning to get 3 kittens in the fall, but her summer travel plans have fallen through, so she's going to go try to get the kittens now. She planned to get Siamese, but I've been talking about our Tonks, and asked her if she'd like to see them. She loved them, as I knew would happen. We interrupted their afternoon nap, so we got a lot of sleepy, blinking eyes and yawns. Nonetheless, they were adorable, and now I've given her something to think about.

No sooner had Carolyn pulled out of the driveway, but Ming Poo made an escape out the open garage door and ran underneath Jim's truck. It was parked in the driveway. After a bit of coaxing, she went back into the garage, and I was congratulating myself on how easy that was. As I hit the button to close the garage door, she made a flying leap under it and ran back outside again. Yikes! This time she ran into the front bushes and gave us a merry chase back and forth, until Jim managed to capture her. Now that the weather is nice, and she's had a taste of what it's like "Outside," I'm afraid we're going to be reenacting this scenario many times over. About a week ago, David came over to help Jim carry the lathe to the basement. In all the door opening and closing, somehow Ming managed to sneak outside unnoticed, and when Jim walked by at some point, there she was sitting in the driveway. We don't know how long she was out, but that was all it took to give her the idea that she should be able to go outside too. Ming Poo is our only house cat, and it's too risky to allow her to go out. For one thing, she's pretty small, and would make a tasty meal for a fox or falcon, or who-knows-what in the woods. Also, we're not sure she would know where she lived, and might end up wandering off and getting lost. She's so friendly, she might walk right up to someone and be cat-napped. All in all, it's best that things remain the way they are now, no matter how gorgeous it is outside.

Tomorrow I need to go in search of a new Teddy Bear for Ming Poo. I found out today that Jim threw away her Teddy. I can't believe he actually did that, but he said it was falling apart. That's true, but that didn't bother her. The more ratty it got, the more she played with it and chewed it up. I should have sewed it back together - he was losing stuffing at an alarming rate - but I didn't, so it's my fault. Bad Mama.

PHOTO: Ming Poo making mischief on top of the refrigerator.