Call out the bucket brigade, ’cause I’m on fire

Just chillin’ under the family room ceiling fan

I don’t know what the weather’s been like where you live, but here we had quite a hot spell with high temperatures and humidity.  Given my dislike of that kind of weather, I felt like I could just have burst into flames.   Spontaneous combustion anyone?

Thank goodness for air conditioning, otherwise I would have been calling out the bucket brigade to douse the flames of heat.  But this week, the temps have fallen into more doable digits (at least for me) and thankfully, cooler nights have returned.

I admit I moaned and groaned a lot inside my air-conditioned house because I couldn’t open any windows to get fresh air since doing so was like living in an oven.  I really covet cool, fresh air to sleep well at night.  Yes,  I wilted and whimpered when I had to be outside for any length of time too.  As it turns out, I was on fire anyway; I just didn’t know it!

Yesterday as I read some of my favorite fellow bloggers’ posts, I learned that my blog has been awarded the “Blog On Fire Award.”  Whew, last week during our hot spell, that really would have been appropriate!  But even though my blog was named ‘on fire’  this week, I’m quite comfy and happy with both the award so graciously given to me by my good friend, Dianna, over at These Days of Mine, – thank you so much! –  and the cooler weather at my house.

This award only requires me to link back to the person who bestowed the honor upon me, list eight interesting facts about myself, and pass the award to some of my favorite blogs.   Dianna invited her calico cat Sundae to ‘write’ her acceptance post and list eight facts about her kitty life.

I thought that was a fun idea,  so I asked my prima donna calico cat, Callie, to ‘write’ this post and let you learn fascinating tidbits about her.  So here’s Callie (in italics) with her two eight cents:

1.   I am definitely Mama’s cat — I hate the heat as much as she does!  Papa always feeds me first thing in the morning, and then I’m ready to go exploring outside.  But just because I don’t come running when one of them calls me, they leave me outside when they go to work!  When Mama comes home in the afternoon, I’m roasted! I can’t wait to get into the air conditioned house,  plop down on the cool kitchen floor, and wait until she brings me cool water to drink.  Or sometimes, I just situate  myself on the coffee table under the ceiling fan in the family room.

2.  I know it seems beneath my dignity as a cat because it’s a ‘dog’ thing to do, but I will do tricks for treats.  I will sit on command, dance in a circle, beg, and then get my own treats out of the treat jar – I try to grab a big paw full.  I love those treats!

3.  I’m the official yard guardian.   I see those pesky other critters that try to sneak into Papa’s vegetable garden.  I keep my eye on them in case they get too close, and then POW!  I’ll pounce on them or chase them.  Just the other day, I caught a mole and proudly deposited it right outside the French door on the deck…right where my humans would see it.  Well, Mama almost stepped on it…in her bare feet….I’m still not sure why she got so mad about that.  I mean she sure seemed happy when I caught all those dumb field mice that were nesting under the deck.

Me with one of my fun, young ones

4.  Sometimes I have to admit it gets kinda lonely around here with all my fun humans (the young ones) gone.  I really like it when they come back home to see me.  I get so excited I twirl in circles, rub against them, and even lick my boy’s ears.  (Well, he’s all grown up now so I guess you would call him a man.)  Gosh, I miss them!  When our Grandpa person was still alive, he mowed our yard and I was so afraid of his big green tractor.  I liked him a lot, but not that noisy tractor of his!  I wouldn’t go near that thing.  But now that he’s gone, and we have his green tractor in our garage, I like to lay on it a lot.   Mama thinks I miss Grandpa, and you know what?  She’s right.

5.  I love being outside in the dark, but Mama and Papa won’t let me go out at night any more.  Just because I’ve been sprayed a couple of times by a skunk, I guess.  I really didn’t see what the big deal was about that and why Papa gave me a weird bath — twice!  I really don’t like baths – weird or otherwise!

What does he see in that thing, anyway?

6.  Sometimes I get irritated when Mama pays more attention to that strange box thing she puts on her lap than me.  So I just jump up on her and walk across the part where she makes her fingers go.  Sometimes I lay down right on it, so she will pet me.  But then, how rude!  She just shoves me off.  Papa seems to spend a lot of time on his box thing too, so I climb on the back of the love seat to try to attract his attention.  If he ignores me, I jump on him.

7.  I love bling! The shinier, the better.  If Mama takes her jewelry off and forgets to put it away, I always find it and carry it in my mouth to a place where I can play with it.   I’ve tried to pull  bracelets off her arm, earrings out of her ears, and one time even hid her diamond engagement ring from her for two days!  Shiny jewelry makes such a fun toy!  I don’t get it when she calls me a ‘cat burglar.’

8. I’m such a lady, I don’t like to make much noise, so I don’t meow very loudly.  So unladylike to howl, if you ask me.  My litter box is in the garage, so when I need to ‘go,’ I sit at the door and stare at my people.  If they don’t see me, I go find them, slap them a little with my paw, and then run back to the door.  Finally, they get the drift!  Humans really can be so dense sometimes!  Since I’m a very quiet meower, I used to scratch at the garage door when I wanted back inside the house, but boy, did that make Mama mad.  So a few years ago, she hung a big jingle bell on the garage door knob.   When I want in, I just ring the bell.  They come running to let me in, just like Pavlov’s dogs!  HA! Yep, Mama and Papa think they’ve ‘trained’ me, but I know who’s the boss.  Just don’t let Mama know that I told you that.  She likes to think she’s in charge around here.

So now that Callie told you all her little intricacies, it’s my turn again to write.  As for naming blogs who deserve this award, several of my blogging friends already seem to have it or they are not that into awards.   So I’m deviating from the norm here.  I think if you’re a reader and you’re also an avid writer, you’re already “on fire” as writing is probably one of your passions.  So please accept this award if you’d like it.

As for me, I know I’ll never throw a bucket of water on my passion to be ‘on fire’ to write, but I sure hope to stay cool while doing so.  And on that note, I’m off to get a nice tall glass full of ice cubes and iced tea.  I may be on fire, but I know how to stay cool.

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