Everyone knows it's windy....

....(as the words of that old song goes.)

Very, very windy today. So many small branches have fallen from the pecan trees by the gazebo that it's comical. (Or it would be if I didn't have to pick them up and carry them to the brush piles.)  On windy days, those little branches drop off the trees like toothpicks, landing in the grass at haphazard angles to form crazy patterns in the grass. As I picked up the branches this morning, a squirrel sat on top of the gazebo roof and just watched me going back and forth, back and forth.

The orange cat has been making himself quite at home in the kitty-coop this week... sleeping in the sun on top of one of the cat-sized wicker tables in there, along with both Gatsby and Mickey.  Which is funny when you think about it, because at any given time of the day, either Gatsby or Mickey will hiss and spit at that orange cat, and Gatsby has been known to just plow into the orange cat when he doesn't want that stray up on the porch.  So when I see all three cats in the screened-in part of the coop, sleeping less than two feet away from each other, it just makes me wonder why they all can't just get along all the time.

Since his return, the orange cat has been more tolerable... just one tiny scratch on my hand as I was filling up the bowl with Meow Mix, and one scratch on my husband's wrist when he tried to pet that cat.  My husband calls him "Pumpkin Kitty" because of his color, and I suggested to my husband that perhaps that stray cat didn't like that particular name, hence the scratches.  As for me, I'm still calling that stray by the somewhat-name of "Orange Cat."  There are days when I've called him "That Blasted Orange Cat," and that seems to fit him as well.

My husband thinks this cat is just here to stay... he has chosen our porch as his own, he has his favorite sleeping spot, and something tells me that no matter where we take him, he's going to find his way right back here. If I do ever get to catch him in the carrying crate again, I can tell you this... he's going straight to the shelter to be fixed and vaccinated.  The 'fixing' will tame him down some, the vaccinations will keep him healthy.  And after those two procedures are done and paid for, then I guess there will be no denying that Orange Cat is indeed our cat.

Give me a blessed break.

It's still extremely windy outside. I can see the lower branches of the pecan trees dancing around the gazebo out there, and I can hear very small bits of branches hitting the roof of the gazebo as they fall to the ground.  More little branches to pick up. But not today. I've already gone back and forth to the brush pile five times this afternoon.  Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett.