Bye Bye IKE & A Hurricane Survivor

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"After every disaster, God shows us a ray of hope"

A hibiscus from our broken tree after the storm.


Hi every doggie, kitty cat, hammie & your parents. This is the Mommy writing tonight's blog. I got a call from my neighbor this afternoon at work telling me that the power was back on....on my side of the street. Mona is not home yet and she isn't very happy about it. The house was a mess, lots of dust from leaving the windows open for almost a week, a refrigerator that needed to be cleaned , grocery shopping to be done, so I decided Mona would be underfoot and Jody's Mom said she would keep her another night. Everything has been done and I miss my little girl. Chris said not to worry about it, that Mona was having a ball playing with Jody, the other dogs and her daughter Emily. Mona slept with Emily last night....I sure hope she hasn't forgotten the Mommy.



As Mona previously reported, we had very little damage, except for the garage and Ike destroying my hibiscus plants. The flower picture tonight was taken several days after the storm. Someone commented once that hibiscus must be a very hardy plant and it must be because I saw lots of hibiscuses all around the neighborhood thriving. Like the quote says "After every disaster, God show us a ray of hope".

After the storm when I finally let Mona outside, she walked all around checking everything out and kept going to the gate, sitting there looking out at the street to make sure everything was OK.....I think she looks bewildered.





These pictures were taken last Saturday in the early evening just as it was starting to get dark. It was amazing to me that the sky could be so beautiful after almost 12 hours of being pitch black and howling winds. I don't know where they were during the storm but the birds were back as you can see.

I have been getting comments from people at work that I must be crazy because I had Samantha's ashes with Mona & me during the storm. Samantha was my baby just like Mona now is and it is nobody's business but mine how I choose to leave this earth....thank goodness it didn't happen but I wanted my girls with me...."Am I crazy?"

SAMANTHA ANN (my favorite picture)

Just to show you how tough the hibiscus plant was that cracked, here is a picture of what is left of the pot. The pot has been in the same spot for so long that the roots have grown through the hole in the bottom of the pot. The wind couldn't get the pot out of the ground so it settled on cracking the pot. We are going to leave it just the way it is & see what happens.

And here is the crack.

I have to say that Mona was very brave during the storm. She never once barked and stayed on the mattress the whole time. I think I was more scared than she was. Friday Mother Nature decided to take all the cool air she had blessed us with all week and it got very hot. We went to Highlands to stay with Tippy, remember she is Mona's poodle cousin and her Mommy is my cousin Shirley.

Shirley and Tippy had evacuated to Arkansas but came back after Ike left. Highlands was hit very hard too but Shirley was lucky and had no damage and her power came back Tuesday. Before they came home, Tippy got a haircut from a friend of her Mommy because they were afraid she would be too hot since she is so fluffy. She looks naked like when Mona gets her summer haircut.

TIPPY'S NEW HAIRCUT

Mona wasn't very nice to Tippy while we were visiting. Mona does not want any other doggie to be on my lap so when Tippy got on my lap she would growl at her. I tried to tell her that we were guests and she had to act like a lady but what can I say. Here are a few pictures I took of Mona & Tippy modeling their new harnesses that Judy made them. BTW....Judy and all her boys made it fine through the hurricane, except their beautiful yard took a beating. Last night she cried when I left her at Jody's house and I cried too.





Begging for bacon!!

Napping after their snack -- notice they are not touching!!

One last thing to share before I sign off tonight. Right after the storm, the hospital found a little cat wandering around in the parking garage. Everybody has been feeding him, hoping he will let someone pick him up but whenever they try he runs away and he is very quick and disappears. Unfortunately, there are some heartless people that have tried to run him off and he is scared and doesn't know who to trust. This morning on the way into the crosswalk from the garage, he came over to me and actually started purring, rubbing against my legs and I was shocked......he actually let me touch him. Just as I started to pick him up one of those jerks I mentioned started yelling at him and he took off and disappeared again. Neil was at work today and he said he saw the cat but it wouldn't come near him. When he left, he took a frozen TV dinner and left it for him. As I was leaving to come home, he was eating from the tray Neil had left and since I had my camera I took these pictures of him. He didn't seem to be scared of me but again ran off when someone else tried to approach him. Sorry these pictures aren't very clear but they don't have all the lights on in the garage yet.

I did find out where he has been hiding. In the very last picture, if you look very closely in the extreme left hand corner at the top is a small crack.....that's where he runs whenever he wants to hid. I tried to get a picture of him sticking his head out of the hole but it was too dark. I am afraid he will get run over if someone doesn't catch him soon. I wonder if he is trying to tell me something. I was very tickled that he would come to me. Someone named him "BABY IKE". Appropriate don't you think?

Well that's it for tonight. I am counting the hours now until I can go get Mona after work tomorrow. I just hope she will forgive me for not picking her up tonight and want to come back. The big bed will be very lonely tonight.

As Mona would say if she were here......Love, kisses and (((huggies))) to all!! ... the Mommy