GUILT TRIPS

I wrote in a previous post about the resident Phoebes who have insisted in making my porch their nest site. I have altered my life to accommodate them but I fear something tragic has happened. In June I wrote about our battle for porch rights that they obviously won.

Since then, I have totally left them alone. However, the eggs still have not hatched. That has been over 21 days ago that the 4 eggs appeared and now mom and pop seem to be abandoning the nest.
 
When ever I go near that corner, one of the Phoebes flies from a nearby tree in apparent distress so I leave.  However, in the cool of the night, no one is on the nest.

Perhaps daddy Phoebe was shooting blanks, perhaps the 100+ heat has hard boiled the eggs, or perhaps my presence put too much stress on the parents. I sure hope it wasn't me but I am feeling the guilt. I'll give it another week.

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Second guilt trip is about my cats. I have two, Mickey that I have had for 13 years. I found him as a baby with his eyes still closed. I bottle fed him and gave him enemas as a kitten. He is perhaps the perfect cat. Affectionate but not pushy.

When I moved to Arkansas,  Minnie came to call by climbing up my screen door as a starving stray. By the time the vet and I got her well, I was kind of attached. However, Minnie is not as easy to love as Mickey

For entirely too long , Minnie suffered horrific gas. It was so bad that  she set off my carbon monoxide detectors. That is no exaggeration.  She drove the oxygen right out of the room. Thank God she is better now due to really high priced cat food.  

Minnie is pushy affectionate. She has to be on some part of your body at all times. During her gaseous days, this was not fun.  

Her favorite thing is to lay on the back of the couch behind my head and flicking either her tail or bat a paw softly into my hair. It is like having something crawling in my hair. Drives me nuts.

The other day as I removed her once more from my hair, I realized that I am her main entertainment. She and Mickey play maybe once a week and both cats ignore the dog.

I live in a very small house, they are declawed and can't go outside so I am pretty much all they have. The only toy they respond to is the laser light.

Now they do have a window seat to watch the Hummers at the feeders and Minnie is fascinated by my fish tank but there is no way they can get exercise.

I hit the web for a cat tree in hopes of giving them both something to stimulate them. Surely they will climb all over it and will help with the boredom.  The one below got the best reviews.

Again I mention that I have a small house so finding room for such a thing was not easy but guilt drove me.

All the reviews on the web site swear cats just love this thing. People claimed they were climbing on it as it was being put together. Well it has been up for a week and this is as high as either cat has gone.

Placing cat nip  and  enticing with feathers  has not increased interest.

I could have put a box over a rug and gotten the same results for a lot less money.

 However it is not a total loss for the times she does go to lie there, my hair is free of that crawly feeling. Now if I could just shake these guilt feelings. Maybe leash training them-----

HOPE YOU ALL ARE HAVING A WONDERFUL, GUILT FREE AND SAFE   4 OF JULY