Groucho, Baby!

Groucho came into my life just when I needed him.  Well, his mother did actually.  She just appeared on my front porch one day in June of 2016 and decided that she had found her new home.  Little did I know that she wasn't alone.  A month later Groucho made his appearance along with his six brothers and sisters.

Recuperating from my liver resection, kittens were the last thing the doctor ordered, but they provided much needed entertainment.  They also required lots of love and time which helped me to focus on something other than the cancer I thought I had defeated.  Five of the kittens found good homes, but Groucho was mine from the time his personality came alive.

Groucho being creepy, Feb. 2019

 Life with Groucho and Snoball, his brother, is anything but boring.  They love to chase each other around the house and the dog.  They love to follow me around the house all day, watch my every move, and love to cuddle with me whenever I sit, and these days, the fatigue can be overwhelming sometimes.

So much has happened since my last blog.   Click on the link below to get the messy details of what has become my life.  


            Mrs. Michel's Cancer Fund

Yes, life is messy.  No one said it was fair or easy or neat, but I've decided to live each day with purpose, dignity, and positive thoughts and to make each day count.  How will you live tomorrow?

Hello, Again!

Getting to the point...I've been gone for longer than I ever intended, but life got in the way.  I got cancer - twice.  I changed grade levels at school, and a stray cat who turned out to be pregnant adopted me.  Lucky me.  Really!  Lucky me.  

First, I went from teaching 6th grade to teaching 8th graders.  I had actually started my teaching career 19th years ago with 8th graders so it didn't take me long to get back in the groove, and I had a really wonderful 8th grade veteran teacher to help me and listen to me vent from time to time.  Without her, it would have definitely been a bad year because that was the year I found out about the cancer.

Next, meet Groucho.  In the picture, he is about 3 months old.  He is too curious and has a little stubbie for a tail.  His momma turned up in June of 2015 and was just a sweetheart.  She'd been hanging around the house for about a week when she got bit on her paw.  It started swelling up so I took her to my vet.  It got better, and then we noticed she was getting fat.  She had 7 kittens a month later.   Five of them managed to find great homes, but Groucho was mine from the minute he grew a personality.  We couldn't find a home for his brother, Snowball, so he stayed as well.

Then one Friday night, after a long week at school, I had a pain in my right side.  The next morning, it was worse, so we made a trip to my local Urgent Care thinking that it couldn't be anything serious.  They sent me to a nearby ER center for a cat scan, and they found a tumor on my liver.  After a transfer to a hospital and a biopsy, the diagnosis was Intrahepatic bile duct carcinoma.  

So there you are, almost caught up.  More to come later, but yes, lucky!  I'm still here.

Sassy is Just Like a Student!

My favorite time of the year is summer.  Why?  Because I'm a teacher, and I have summers off. Today as I was trying to do some things that needed to be done. I was reminded that the new school year will be starting much too soon.

Do you remember that student in class that always raises their hand first?
The one who always knew best?
The one who always had the answer?
The one you got tired of listening to?
The one who wouldn't take no for an answer and monopolized the teacher's attention?

That's my Sassy Cat. She has to be the first one every time! She's also the one who follows me every time I go into the bathroom. I try to close the door, but she just sits and scratches on the door till I let her in. It's as if she doesn't trust me in there by myself. You'd think I had a back door and was going to escape if she didn't come in with me.

Sassy needs a lot of love being a rescue cat, but I've also had to set boundaries just like I have to do with my students. I've had to show Sassy that she doesn't always get to be the one first, and that she can wait and be patient, and in return every night she knows that she will get to sit on my lap and have one-on-one time with me.

Students also have to be shown how to be fair because students can become outcasts in the classroom if they don't play nice. They have to learn that taking turns is perfectly fine and you don't have to be called on every time, and that if you're patient and appreciative of others, that they will return the behavior. 

Each year brings new challenges for the teacher, but some are recurring ones. I usually have at least one Sassy Cat in every class.

Here's wishing all the teachers out there are getting a good rest before the new year starts!

DIY Cat Condo Anyone?

Got cats?  Get a lot of rain?  Want to give the cats a place to hide and stay dry?

Well, I do, we do, and we did.  So my handy guy with the tools, otherwise known as the hubby, had a new project.  It turned out perfectly.

What I wanted was this:  a place for the cats to crawl into during the cold nights, a place for them to hide from the rain, something that wouldn't take up too much space on the porch, and something that wouldn't be an eyesore.

Thus the cat condo was born.  It is 19 inches wide and 60 inches long.  He built the lid with a frame on the inside so that it fits snug inside the walls and can be lifted up for easy maintenance.  The lid extends past the walls on all four sides by about an inch and a half all the way around.  This offers more stability and allows for the rain to drip off instead of running down the wall and possibly causing it to rot before it's time.

There are openings on both ends for easy access, and it even has a window on the side with a removable plexiglass that slides easily in and out for the different seasons.

On the plus side, he painted it a nice neutral color which goes well with our house.  Since it is 20 inches high, it also serves as a great seating area for both humans and cats.  I usually have a big beach towel folded on top as a soft, nap area for the cats, and padding for humans who don't mind cat hair.    

Overall, a wonderful addition to our porch.  I and the cats love it!

Do You Donate?

This is Champs or as I like to refer to him...Champers!  When he first showed up at our house obviously abandoned, we couldn't tell if he was a boy or a girl cat because he wouldn't let anyone near him.  He did develop a knack for showing up for meals on time though.  Then he would hide again.

As he started to get braver, he would climb on the porch for small periods of time, but before you knew it, he was gone again!

It took time and patience, but now he is much more trusting.  He's still a big fraidy-cat and loud noises tend to send him scurrying from sight.  I believe there are some bad memories hidden away that come out to plague him from time to time for he will find a dark corner to hide sometimes.

These days Champs is doing great!  This is a recently picture of him napping on the diagonal counter that separates the dining area from the living room.  It's become his favorite spot!

Cats are wonderful, loving creatures if you just give them a chance.  It's too bad that many are abandoned when they get too big or inconvenient to have around.

Every time I go to PetSmart, I make a point of donating a dollar to help the PetSmart charities when going through the checkout line.  Can you imagine how many cats and dogs could be helped if everyone donated just one dollar?

Introducing Blondie

 

Today, it's all about the cats.  Cats are the best pet ever, I think.  This is my favorite picture of Blondie Cat and Connor Cat.  Aren't they so cute!

Blondie's story began one day when she just showed up.  She acted like an ex-pampered kitty who must have either gotten lost or was abandoned.  I tried to find out if someone was out looking for her, but I couldn't find any news, and no one came around looking for her.  

Blondie came around for a few days to eat, but she would leave at night.  I still had hopes that she was finding her way home again, but then one night it was forcasted to freeze.  I couldn't take the chance that she was not returning home and might be stranded out in the elements to fend for herself so I put her up in my laundry room.  The next morning I let her out, but she never left again.  She's been here ever since, and this is her home now.

She and Connor really hit it off, and they spend many days cuddled together grooming each other.  She's not much for roaming so she spends a lot of time sleeping on the front porch.

Connor, on the other hand, will only stand the lovey-dovey stuff for so long and then he's out hunting and stalking prey.

Here's the latest from WIKINUT, an article I wrote about my hunter cats:

http://www.wikinut.com/the-best-reason-for-having-a-cat/aybb5hjb/3rq_uo44/

I hope you enjoy it!

No Rest for the Working!

 

Life as a cat would be grand, wouldn't it?  Kitty seems to think so.  Just laying around sleeping all day after the gruelling job of finding just the right spot to monopolize, and me?  Well, trying to maintain two writing sites and my blog and still finding time to manage five cats and a dog and a family is like running a marathon on my knees.

These people actually expect me to fix 3 meals a day and clean the house!  Can you believe that?  They're lucky that the frozen food department and I at my local HEB are good friends. It's summer time. and it's my time to relax and write!  Right?

Well, WIKINUT is going well, so far.  Here's the newest article I wrote about one cure for the summer slide that some students experience:

http://www.wikinut.com/the-best-writing-activity-for-the-summer/2y7fjvnx/2yqur5h6/

Hope you enjoy it!

A Brighter Path

Today the melancholy is gone and replaced with renewed hope for a brighter future.  I've never been one to dwell on disappointments, that only leads to me trying to find relief in the refrigerator, and my waistline cannot handle anymore of that.  So the right thing to do is find a way down a new path.

My new path has found me on WIKINUT.  So far the journey has rewarded me with connecting with old YCN friends and renewed awareness of my writing.  I've published my first piece with WIKINUT.

This poem is the story of Sassy Cat who was an abandoned cat and who somehow has wormed her way into our home and into our hearts.

http://nut.bz/1s3us4h3/

Please read and let me know what you think.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What if?

Sassy Cat used to be fearless.  She used to stand up to dogs and if a cat got too close, a well aimed swipe of her paw usually took care of ‘em.  About two weeks ago something happened though.  I don’t know what.  I just know that it happened at night and that the Sassy Cat I knew and admired was no more.  She is now afraid…of everything.

Fear is a disease.  It can cripple lives and stunt growth of happy personalities.  If left uncheck, well, it’s not pretty.  It is the reason we stay in relationships we know are doomed.  We are afraid to leave.  We are afraid to try something new.  We can’t quit our hated jobs because we are afraid to look for something else.  We are afraid we won’t find something else.  We don’t move to a new place because we are afraid.  We are afraid of the unknown and of change.

Yet, change is inevitable and unavoidable.  We must be able to grow with change and adapt or we fail to thrive.  We have to accept that we will make mistakes, but we learn from mistakes and grow wiser…more savvy.  I am working with Sassy everyday to restore her sense of balance in the world, but it will be tough.  For me, the biggest fear is the “what if” syndrome.  I don’t have fear of change.  I like challenges.  What I don’t want to do on my death bed is have regrets about those things that I was too afraid to do.  I don’t want to wonder how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t been too afraid to do the things I was too afraid to do.

Compromise is not a four letter word!

Love.  It is a choice.  It is a way of life.  It is a hard road to travel sometimes.  On the best days, it is easy and fun and wonderful.  On the worst, well, you have to work at it.  We are all different.  Opposites attract.  The key is compromise.  It can't always be my way, and it can't always be his.  Sometimes, we have to make "our" way.  He gives; I give.  Sometimes, I give more and sometimes, he has to give more.  In my younger days, well, I used to say, "It's my way or the highway!"  I remember feeling that if I gave an inch, then I would continue to give in, and I'd wind up losing all together.  As I've grown older, I've discovered that in a true compromise, there are no losers.  When we get along, we all win.  I've realized that a relationship is worth only what we each put into it.  It's only as hard as you make it.