Surprise for ML!

Thank you ML for everything you do to keep the Cat Blogosphere going. We appreciate you very much!

Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs and tail wags and {{{HUGS}}} from all of us at Tiger Lily's Pad

~ Zeke, Sushi and Tiger Lily

Finding Happiness in the Sadness

Dad holding a photo of Mom and him while they were dating.
This Buick Roadmaster carried 17 people to church once!
All of these photos were taken by Dad's granddaughter, Kate Saler

Mom and Dad on one of his good days not long before the end.

Dad and Mom holding hands a few days before he passed. They had been married almost 57 years.

Right up to the last day Dad loved to read his Bible.

John 14:1-6

My Dad was promoted to Heaven a week ago today. His heart gave out after serving him well for 78 years. He had lost a lot of weight over the past 18 months ~ he weighed just 130 pounds. He was on oxygen at home and he could not speak easily because of fluid on his lungs. He never smoked but his docs think he might have had lung cancer. They didn't do a biopsy or drain the fluid because of his frail condition.

Dad was at peace about his death ~ he knew the Lord was waiting for him with open arms. Two nights before he passed I spoke with Mom and had to apologize for snapping at her (I had a tension headache, nausea and a bad backache). About 10 minutes later Mom called back, said Dad wanted to pray with me and put me on speaker. It was beautiful listening to my Dad, who loved me so much, pray with complete assurance that even with his halting speech his prayer would be heard and answered. I cried.

Most of the funeral arrangements had already been made. Some of Dad's pastor friends were at his house recently ~ discussing the service and praying with him. They were able to have a short communion service with Dad and Mom, which everyone appreciated.

I'm very glad that I was able to attend the last Sunday morning service (in July '09) that Dad was able to lead. He had been my pastor since I was 7 or 8 years old and I still compare every preacher I hear to Dad.

There are many reasons I'm blessed to have had this man as my Dad. I'm crying again now but I know he doesn't want us to be sad. Dad was gone before I made it to his home again last Friday but I know he'll be waiting for us with open arms when we go Home.

Tiger Lily's Mom

Getting to New Yuck

Mom has purchased bus tickets to go see Grandpa and Grandma later this week. It is a 2-day trip by bus but the green papers required are within our means. Mom says it is a 2-day trip by plane anyway unless she wants to max out her plastic. Since she wants to be able to go back again when she needs to she thinks this is the best way.

Zoolatry is temporarily closed because of family reasons. Please prrrrrrrrrr and wag your tails and purray for Maggy and Zoey and Ann too.

Phooey!

Well! We are very disappointed tonight. The Syracuse Orange did not play very well and they lost to Butler. (What Mom? Oh OK if you insist.) Mom says I have to tell the whole truth and say that Butler played very well and they deserved to win. We will have to see who wins the other games before we decide who to cheer for during the rest of the tournament.

UPDATE: Grandpa was not carried into his house. He had some people who made sure he made it in OK but he was able to walk in on his own! (Mom misunderstood something Grandma told her.)

Grandpa went home from the hospital today. He did not have the fluid drained because his people VET said it would be too invasive too soon after the last time and he did not think it would do Grandpa any good. So he is home now. He needed people to carry him into the house and then some other people came to set him up with oxygen. Mom is really concerned. It will take too long if she has to drive there by herself and my Daddy will not be able to go with her. The airline ticket will cost too many green papers if she tries to go right away. Please purray that she will recognize the right door when the Lord opens it.

Thank you to everyone who is keeping us in your thoughts and purrayers.

March Madness!

So when I woke up on Saturday morning there was snow on the ground! It covered the whole back porch even though it was not very deep. By the time I talked my Daddy into taking me outside around noon the snow was all gone already. It was so muddy though that he did not let me stay outside for very long.

Then yesterday it was 84 degrees outside! Today it was cooler and tonight it might snow again. I am very confused. It is a good thing I am not a weathercat.

I would appreciate it if you would purray and prrrrrrrrr and wag your tails really hard for my Grandpa. He is having a very hard time breathing and is in the VA hospital again. He will have fluid drained from around his lung tomorrow but he said he does not know how many more times he will be able to let them do it. Mom is waiting for a phone call to know if she should go see him soon. It is a 3-day drive or a very expensive half-day plane ride.

March Madness in the weather and in health problems and in ~ basketball! The Syracuse University Orange have made it to the Sweet 16 (whatever that means). Well OK it means Mom and Grandma and Grandpa are very happy. And it is true that when Mom is happy we are all happier so that is a good thing. Now we hope the Orange are able to play really well against Butler on Thursday. If you are cheering for another team I hope they play really well too.

And no I do not have any pictures to post. (It is all Mom's fault of course.) Maybe next post.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

There are no pictures of me wearing green so I decided to give you a puzzle as my St. Patrick's Day greeting. Click on the puzzle to go to Jigzone.com and enjoy!

My Daddy put a corned beef in the crock pot this morning and he will add potatoes and cabbage this afternoon so they will be cooked just right for dinner tonight. I am sure a piece or two of beef will make it into the woofies' bowls but I do not have any interest in trying it. I think I might get an extra spoonful of stinky goodness though.

Mom says she will have shepherds pie and potato soup and crunchy asparagas spears with dip and mint chocolate cheesecake and green lemonade pie and lime punch and maybe even some more corned beef and cabbage at something called a Pot Luck at her day hunting place tomorrow. I think she might not need to eat dinner after that so I am glad the Pot Luck is not happening today.

The Roswell Zoo

Last week my Daddy went to the zoo here in Roswell. Here are some of the photos he took: The bison have one of the largest pens at the zoo. They really are majestic (this is a new word I just learned). I think they will look just a little bit better when they have lost all of their winter coats though. We call this guy Speedy. He did not move around very much so it was easy to take his picture. Hmmmmm ~ I wonder if peacocks taste as good as they look. This peacock scraped out a hole in the ground but I am fairly sure he did not lay any eggs in it. The temperature has been in the 70s already here ~ it looks like he just wanted a cool place to rest. The sun makes his feathers look very beautiful!. These are the feathers the peacock always wears on his head. They are very beautiful too. This is the only albino peacock my Daddy has seen at the zoo. Albino means "A person or animal lacking normal pigmentation, with the result being that the skin and hair are abnormally white or milky." (Mom helped me look up this word in the dictionary so I could tell you what it means.) I think that the white one does not like the blue one very much! It was just a little bit hard to get a good picture of this one 'cuz he kept walking away. In this pic you can see how pretty the feathers are with their fringe. My Daddy calls this picture "Drinking a Star". The sun and the water were just right!

There are not very many animals at this zoo but I will ask my Daddy to try to get pictures of some of the ones who are there. I know there are some mountain lions and some bobcats. It might be hard to get good pix of them because they like to stay in the shade. Maybe I will be able to post their photos later. There are some very beautiful big birds besides the peacocks too.

Mom is still not feeling very well. She said when she swallows it feels like someone sticks an ice pick in her ear. There is something bad going around and a lot of people here have been sick as long as she has. It has been over 3 months! I hope you are all feeling much better than she is!