My First Video Post

OK I do not know if this will work but I will post it anyway. My Daddy took this video of me eating grass in our back yard. It is very exciting because it is of me!

Tomorrow the university where Mom works is closed in the morning so everyone can go to the fair. She thinks that is funny. I think she should spend that time petting me.

Whew (again)!

My Daddy was stung on his foot by a scorpion that was trying to take a shower with him a few days ago. He is very allergic to bee stings so Mom and I were really concerned for him but he did not have any bad reaction to it except the pain of the sting.

That was the 4th scorpion we have found in our house this summer. Mom stepped on one early in the summer. It did not sting her. Instead she got the fly swatter and smushed it flat and threw it in the trash can.

I spent a lot of time staring at one but it did not want to play with me. And no one grabbed the flashy box to take pictures of any of them.

Mom will be very happy when the weather cools off enough that the scorpions go away again until next summer.

Labor Day 2010

This is how I would have spent my day if Mom had let me go outside. Instead all I could do was dream about being outside.

Do you see the feather?

I did get to eat one of my favorites today though ~ Fancy Feast® Elegant Medleys White Meat Chicken and Cheddar Cheese Soufflé with Garden Greens. Yummmmmmm!

And now I ask you ~ does Sushi know how to relax or what?! My Daddy set up the hammock on our back porch and Sushi took it right over.

I am pretty sure that is a grin on her face.

She had just a little bit of trouble getting out again but she made it eventually. (She had a little help from my Daddy.)

We hope you had a relaxing Labor Day! Zeke and Sushi and I spent most of it being lazy. Mom wants to know how that is different from any other day for us so I told her the difference was that she was home relaxing with us!

Independence Day 2010

Declaration of Independence

Philadelphia July 4, 1776

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shown that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them and formidable to Tyrants only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and the Convulsions within.

HE has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migration hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislature.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

FOR protecting them, by mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burned our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the Inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is undistinguished Destruction of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton.

YUCK!!!

Well! Today just stunk! I planned to talk about hummingbirds and owls and I even had pictures almost ready to go but instead ~ this morning the prisoner transport unit (PTU) suddenly appeared.

You probably have already guessed what happened and do not need the gory details but I will tell you anyway. After Mom climbed up on the step ladder and took down the PTU she stuffed me into it and locked the door and threw away the key shut the door so I could not get out. Then Zeke and Sushi both had their leashes attached to their collars. Then the traitor my Daddy put the PTU in Mom's car. Then Sushi jumped in the car all excited about going for a ride. Then Mom went back into the house and picked up Zeke and made him get in the car. Then Mom asked my Daddy if he was going and he said no.

Then Mom drove us to the VET. I am glad the PTU has a place for the seat belt to hook in or it would probably have been on the floor from all my demands to be taken home (no Mom I was not bawling like a baby ~ they were demands).

So the bad news is that I had to get stuck with that stupid needle. The good news is that I am beautiful and healthy and beautiful and my teeth are fine and I do not have to go back again for another whole year and I am beautiful. You may have figured out that the VET had a lot to say about how beautiful I am.

Zeke and Sushi got stuck with needles too but they both are healthy. Zeke's heart has improved ~ the VET said there is no sign of his murmur. They both should have their teeth cleaned but Zeke is old enough that the VET said he does not have to have it done. This is the first time Sushi needs it which is very good because she is already 8 years old. She has to go in next week and she should come home the same day. Oh and the VET thinks Zeke and Sushi are cute and sweet.

So I decided to skip the hummingbirds today and tell you all how cruel Mom was. I have not let her touch me since I came out of the PTU. At least she had to make 2 trips into town because of us ~ it was too hot for us to be in the car so she was not able to go grocery shopping until after she brought us home. It is a good thing for her that she remembered to pick up more stinky goodness on her second trip.

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