August

By August, we finally got some summer weather in the UP! We visited with some CWRU friends and their families in the Traverse City area, lost a first tooth, made a couple magazine covers thanks to AP, hit the County Fair, were visited by Uncle Rick and ate some blueberries. Still, when people ask what we've been up to, I can't think of anything. 

July

July in pictures:

:: St George Island and Appalachicola, FL

:: A bumper strawberry crop

:: A Storycorps appointment 

:: Ladies Mtn Bike Clinic in Copper Harbor

Cricket the Bold

In June, Cricket went to the vet to try to reverse his deteriorating condition. Despite amazing care, he came home on a Friday night and died Saturday morning. We buried him with flowers and toys, and with wet eyes and a heavy heart began the drive to Pittsburgh. It is 5 months later, and I still miss him terribly. There's a void in our lives that he created when he left. He was an Awesome Cat. 

He rode in canoes.

He sat on people (or pants) while they used the toilet. 

He watched movies like a person, on his back, paws on top of the covers.

He crammed into us hard when we came back from a trip.

He converted non-cat people. 

He was a neighborhood ambassador. 

He kept the short tailed shrew population in check. 

He rode shoulders. 

He went on hikes and walks. 

He challenged Golden Retrievers. 

He won the affection of Golden Retrievers. 

He had 4 adult canines. 

He had some trauma to his eye (still unknown) that ultimately caused it to be removed. 

He was loved by the vets, and is missed by them yet. 

He had a little white bow tie. 

He had a lousy sense of smell. 

He was a little Houdini who became a poster child for Invisible Fence. 

His escapades include escaping through a house window, hanging himself by his harness and tether from a tree, escaping a City police car, alluding a bear, walking a half-mile to the neighbors only to be sent to the shelter, and singeing his whiskers on the woodstove trying to get closer to heat. 

He was an Awesome Cat. 

June

June was full of emotions and doings. We spent a fun weekend with friends, we lost our beloved Cricket (and he deserves his own post), Etta had her first visit to the dentist, Oliver graduated Kindergarten (!), we scurried in a trip to Pgh, and had a long weekend visit from great friends.