So I have these bedbugs – they are even so brave as so crawl right on my clothes with me right there in them. I tried another spray which was better but it must make contact to kill the bedbug. I thought I was bug free until 4 days later when I killed one running across my pajamas.

The next line of attack is that my apartment is going to spray the whole building for bedbugs.  It’s taking them 3 months to get it done.  First they have to get all the tenants signatures allowing the apartment manager to spray.  Of course this is a slow process when one tenant is on vacation for a month.

So to get ready for the sprayers I have to take several steps including washing all clothing, sheets, blankets,emptying out all 3 closets, turning over all upholsered furniture and  completely stripping the bed and get the bottom covering of  the box springs torn off so he can spray inside there, and taking down all wall hangings.  The apartment maintenance men will be loosening all the trim boards around the edge of the carpet and taking off all wall outlet covers.

I still don’t think it will work.

On this blog site I seem to write much about animals – cats & dogs.  I’m not really an animal person.  I seem to attract them like a magnet.  Everywhere I go cats adopt me and everywhere I go there are either cats or dogs that need help.  I just take it in stride and do what I can.  I have 2 Lovebirds, also.  They don’t call for much care but I get great enjoyment out of them.  

I fear I have wandered.  Let me get back to the dogsitting.  Elle (the medium size one) and Prince (the small dog) like to bark at invisible-to-me noises.  So I don’t care.  They do this more so when they are left out back.  The neighbor lady complained to me.  She told me not to put them in the yard in the morning while she is asleep.  Seems that she’s a light sleeper and they wake her up. Thank  goodness they didn’t bark in the middle of the night in the house.  I think I would’ve freaked out.  So that is the story of the dogsitting adventure-the barking and the walking and the peeing.   I like to pet them, too.

If any one dog is my favorite it has always been the Labrador Retriever with long hanging down hair on their tale and underbellie.  Oh, and they have beautiful golden coloring.  There are different shades of reddish golden hair ranging all the way to whitish.  If ever I have a large place to live I will have three of these dogs because they run together, and they play together, all the while looking beautiful.

Well, Saturday at the Dog Festival there were about 20 people with their Labrador Retrievers by their side. About another 40 people were there as onlookers, myself included.  Some were playing catch with bright green tennis balls and others were playing disc toss and retrieve (Frisbee) with their pets.  The other ones were on a leash and looking around with their masters.  Looking around at what you say?  As is the nature of festivals, there were a very few vendors giving out samples of dog treats, dog shampoo, and  ink pens and reusable bags.  The unique event here was the silent auction of dog related items.  That’s nice and so was the raffle for a new TV.  (I didn’t win.)  Plus, there were the grassy and shady areas of the park they walked their dogs through.  Some dogs got a bath from the dog bathing business.  Others went for a swim in the man made pond.  When one dog started barking, 3 or 4 others joined in!  It was superb.

My favorite was watching the dogs but my 2nd favorite was watching the band.  It was “Cypress Station” out of Huntsville, Texas.  They played original songs and I  think they are going places.

                                                        The     End

The first two kittens she left behind when she went into hiding.  The kittens followed one another into a narrow space away from the Mama and stayed there.  Then I left home and got 15 minutes down the road and realized those kittens will never find their way back to Mama and will get cold and hungry.  I turned myself around and got home and had to cut off what I believe is the long umbilical cord of each.  But in hindsight I wish I hadn’t done this.  I think Mama Cat would’ve done it.  It was kind of bloody but no trouble.  I put the 2 newborns over by the Mama.  They went right to town finding a tit

A couple days passed and I found one had died and Mama Cat set it over to the side.   Then a couple days later, another one.  I wondered if she was feeding them enough hours in the day because she was out a lot in the kitchen.  She wants to eat constantly so I keep feeding her, sometimes hard food, other times canned soft food mixed with hard food, and plenty of clean water.  Maybe those are the 2 that were originally left behind by Mama that I rescued.

They’re 9 days old today, and I still don’t know how many there are because they’re off in such a dark spot.  I think there are 3 left.  I have a home for 2 of them out on a ranch in La Grange.   I kind of hate to think  about that though because hungry cayotes live out there.  I hear little tiny meows coming from the kittens now and then but they don’t walk around much yet except to get into the kitty pile where they all huddle to stay warm.

My main concern is that no more die and they hurry up and grow and come out and play.  Oh, I love kitties!

Vendors of craft items and the other people giving out samples of hot sauce, chili and salsa and trying to sell jars and bottles of it were set up under big tent canopies.  Most of the stuff was safe from the rain but a few of the craft vendors closed up shop.  Other saw fit to cover some of their things with plastic tarps.  Either way, it was really fun snacking on chips and dips out in the rain.  One hot sauce group even let me come in under their canopy to get out of the downpour.  I felt like one of the gang.  They made me feel right at home.

Zydeco Dots – the name of the band that played.  Guess what type music they played. Right – zydeco, which I believe is something originating in Louisiana.  One man had 3 accordions he took turns playing on different songs. There were 2 guitars, a drummer, and I still don’t know what these things are called but they look like a metal washboard in a way.  That guy had a really easy job.  He just had to scrape the metal ridges to the beat all day.

I didn’t get a festival T-shirt this year because I didn’t like the picture on it.  Sorry whoever drew the design but it looks like the logo for an action movie.

Anyway, another great festival and the Hot Sauce Festival in Stafford, Texas, U.S.A. is an annual event so I shall return, God willing.

She wants to be petted frequently.  She will even come up by the computer and pussy foot around the keyboard until I have no choice but to stop what I’m working on and pet her.

She wants extra food in her food bowl. She won’t eat all her hard food but she’ll meow and meow until I put more in her bowl.  This behavior I do not understand.  Does she want fresh smelling food fresh from the bag?  Or does she want a surplus in the bowl in case I’m out of the apartment and she wants to eat a lot?  She is mysterious.  If I go out  she’ll eat all the food, but when I am home she turns her nose up at the older hard food.

She sleeps 98% of the day and night up on top of a dresser.  I don’t know why she wants to sleep up in the air. It might be so she doesn’t get stepped on  or sat on.  Before she was  pregnant she slept on a sofa or bed.

She won’t go outdoors for days at a time.

Anyway I just wanted to share this with you because it’s fascinating to me how her behavior has changed since she’s become pregnant. Oh, her name is Mama Cat. Fitting, don’t you think?

Oh it was so fun because everything was free…coffees, teas, root beer, beer, and soft pretzels.  I even joined in with the children and made a colored tissue flower craft. And then I wore it the rest of the day on my shirt.

There has to be music at a festival, don’t you know?? And there was! Dressed in traditional German outfits 2 couples danced to German music played by a guitarist and an accordion player.  And those were truly the sounds of autumn.

So that is my new job.  It’s a really great job.  I figured out a cure for tardiness…I’ll wake him up earlier and be a little stern when I tell him it’s time to get ready for school.