Southerner in the Northwest: A SAD DAY ~~ FIRST SNOW ~~ PARTING SHOT

A SAD DAY

You might think this is Summer Girl in the picture below, but you'd be wrong.

This is Oz, Emily's kitty (he got his name from the poem Ozmandias <--link). He traveled over the Rainbow Bridge on November 29th, the day after Thanksgiving. We got the word from Emily early that morning, and we were heartbroken. It is always a sad event when this happens, and no amount of words can console you, as this was your beloved pet, a member of your family. At this time you must call upon memories to carry you through. It is a fact that we will surely miss Oz when we go to visit Emily, but we have lots of memories of him. He was usually hanging around and didn't try to hide like his sister Tabitha (Tabby) sometimes did. I remember he always made himself available for pets, on top of a counter or table, patiently waiting to be scratched. If there was an empty box anywhere around, you could find him there. I so enjoyed Emily's pictures on Facebook of him sitting in various boxes (or things resembling boxes), and I will surely miss those. It seems like our family just keeps getting smaller and smaller. However, we are thankful he was a part of our family for 13 years. Here are some Oz memories:

Tabby is missing her brother

FIRST SNOW

We had our first snow here in Yakima on Sunday, December 01. It wasn't a huge snow, but was enough to cover the ground and make things pretty.

Our little critters look cold!

Since I was in need of some pictures for the blog, I suggested that we drive up to Tahoma Cemetery and take a walk. Linda is always up for a good walk, so she readily agreed. We hopped in the truck and drove the few blocks to the cemetery. On the way I momentarily forgot that I didn't have the snow tires on the truck yet, and we slid right through the stop sign onto the middle of the main road. Luckily for us, it was early on Sunday morning and there was nothing coming, but it scared the crap out of me. Needless to say, the snow tires got put on the next morning.

We walked down to the Japanese Garden so I could get some pictures of the progress they have made on it. There is a large stone memorial plaque there now, under a shelter, but I couldn't get a picture of it because it was covered with snow. Still, it is evident that a lot of work has been done, and I am sure there will be more done in the Spring.

The memorial stone under the shelter

View from the bench in the cemetery

On our way to the garden area, we saw some cute little tracks in the snow, and even came across bird angel wings.

Of course, I had to take at least one "arty photo" so I got this shot of the trunk of an old tree covered in snow.

Back at home that afternoon, Linda just happened to walk into the living room and noticed that we had a bunch of visitors out front.

We were so happy to see that our Quail friends came back to visit us. Linda counted 8 Quail, and we were astonished to see a Mourning Dove along with them. We also received a visit from one of the two Scrub Jays that we have seen lately. And, as usual we have a boatload of finches and sparrows. We are so glad our little bird friends are showing up. I am keeping my eye out for the Varied Thrushes that we had last year. So far, no sign of them.