Cat Hacks - Tunnel of Tuna Cake, an Homage to Tunnel of Fudge Cake, created by Ella Rita Helfrich, and my lifelong friend JB, who always brought Tunnel of Fudge Cake and lots of love and smiles.

If you have never had the real Tunnel of Fudge Cake, sorry, you never will. One of the key ingredients is simply no longer made. If you have never heard of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, I can't believe it. What are they teaching in school these days?! A friend of mine just asked me what it was. Tunnel of Fudge Cake was a rich, moist chocolate Bundt cake, and running in a circle through the middle was a secret Tunnel of Fudge, baked into the cake, not piped in afterward. 

The following information is from the obituary of the creator of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Ella Rita Helfrich. She came in second in the 1966 Pilsbury Bake Off for the recipe she created for the Tunnel of Fudge Cake using the new Nordic Ware Bundt pans. After the contest, Pilsbury was flooded with more than 200,000 requests for her recipe. The first place winner was forgotten. 

(From Wikipedia) The epic desire for the new Bundt pans to bake the exciting new Tunnel of Fudge cake boosted the sales of Nordic Ware's Bundt Pan. To date more than 60 million Bundt pans have been sold by Nordic Ware across North America. 

One woman's creativity took America by storm. She won money at the Pilsbury Bake Off, which may have been her goal to help her family. And she was able to implement her intellect and creativity. Unintentionally she became as iconic of the Sixties as the Space Program. Her ingenuity influenced purchasing, manufacturing and an American Life-Style Choice. So you, you creative individuals, you can do it. You've heard "fake it til you make it"? How about Bake it til You Make it?! You can do it. 

So, I was a kid in those exciting years of Space Travel, Viet Nam, Protests, Cultural Changes and yet our Moms and their friends were cooking three meals a day and putting dessert on the table nightly and at special events. My Mom might have made the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, she had a Bundt Pan. But I especially remember her bff, JB, bringing Tunnel of Fudge Cake to some occasions. I don't know what was the occasion, except the TOFC was present and accounted for. Hmmm actually, I guess my Mom did make TOFC. I can remember nibbling at it, never getting enough. Maybe it was JB's specialty, my Mom had so many great dishes and desserts, talking about them is like listing how many ways you can make Bubba Gump Shrimp. I go down memory lane with my taste buds. My Mom had me cooking, before I could read. I was at the kitchen counter, peeling and chopping, and stirring on the stove at 3. I still love to cook. I still like to joke with JB and her daughters, the BG's about TOFC. 

For this blog I asked JB why was it she liked to make the Tunnel of Fudge Cake so much. She answered, "The Tunnel of Fudge Cake lead straight to my heart, made with lots of love. I hope that your Tunnel of Tuna Cake will lead straight to Lucy's heart also." Awwwww... 

Mention of Tunnel of Fudge Cake also made an appearance on a Will and Grace episode. 

Since I have no one at home to cook for, I like to be creative for my kitten. It's her First Birthday. I would have a Kitten Party, but most of my cat friends' cats don't get out much. 

So, in honor of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, I made her the Tunnel of Tuna Birthday Cake. How awesome is that! Here is the recipe, pics and instructions. As I say in most of my recipes, you can use any brand or style of food that you prefer for your cat's health. When it comes to the rare birthday cake that my kitten is getting, it may not be fancy raw food, but it's probably a lot better for her than when I have high fat, sugary frosting on my own birthday cakes. She will get a little bit of cake for several days, not enough to ruin her kidneys or morals for life. Just a little something special to celebrate my sweet, lil girl's First Birthday. She'd probably rather hunt down a bug or a mouse. But this is fun for both of us. 

Happy Birthday Lucy! Thank you to all of you for joining in online. 

How I made Lucy's Tunnel of Tuna Birthday Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons or 2 Ounces – Rachel Ray Nutrish Tuna Purrfection

• 4 Tablespoons or 2 Ounces – Rachel Ray Nutrish Paw Lickin’ Chicken & Liver Recipe

• 2 Tablespoons or 1 Ounces - Bubble Bee Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore Tuna Packed in Water

• 3 drops - Vegetable Oil, whatever does not cause a health problem for your particular cat. 

Tools needed: 

• "Miniature Bundt Cake Pan" or mold, I used a Wilton Easy-Flex 4 Cavity Mini Fluted Tube Pan.

• Spatula, Small Rubber Spatula and/or Small Offset

• Fork, mallet, fingers or something to mash and blend food to a pate consistency. I used a wood bar muddler.

• A few small spoons, like tableware tea spoons

• Small Plate for the cake, to turn cake out onto and for presentation 

• Small bowls to smooth the cat food and Tuna Fish consistencies

Optional:

Birthday Candles

Canned Pumpkin Puree in a pastry bag for writing decoration, or other edible writing substance. 

You need a miniature Bundt Pan, or you can MacGyver one. I purchased the Wilton Easy-Flex 4 Cavity Mini Fluted Tube Pan from Walmart online for $8 and some change. I only needed single pan, but got tired of shopping. This will work just fine.  

You are also going to need a small flexible rubber spatula and I like to use a small offset spatula for decorating. 

When I want to write on a cake, I like to craft a makeshift pastry bag for writing from a sandwich sized, zip lock plastic bag, with a tiny hole cut in the corner to squeeze out the writing substance, a contrasting color blended cat food, or pumpkin puree. If you have pastry tips, you can also insert them into the pastry bag, if you want to get really decorative. For this particular cake today, I ended up not writing anything on it. I was running out of time before work to get too fancy, and I made a simple border using some of the extra Tuna Tunnel filling.  














You need small (mixing) bowls for each flavor/color or texture of cat food or canned tuna ingredient you are going to use. Choose flavors that your cat will like regardless. I go for contrasting color. It may or may not be of interest to our feline friends, but I like the visuals. It makes a difference in the textures you are using on how well the "cake" holds together. You want to use or transform your food into a Pâté textured cat food as it will hold the shape the best. You can take a food in sauce or liquid and drain and save the liquid for your kitten to eat another time, or blend in with the other meat to make a Pâté consistency. 

I have done that here with Rachel Ray's Nutrish Paw Lickin' Chicken and Liver Recipe, Tuna Purrfection, and Bumble Bee Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore in Water. I like the Bumble Bee Tuna for rare, special treats as the only ingredient is Tuna in Water, no salt, nothing added. Too much seafood upsets Lucy's tummy, and the Vet recommended against serving all Tuna in general to the cats, because if they ever developed a health issue where appetite was decreased and the cat won't eat, canned people type Tuna fish and the water from the can are about the best enticement you will find for a cat that won't eat. So she doesn't get to eat fancy Tuna too often, ergo calling it a special treat. I think a Birthday is pretty special! 

With this particular Wilton mold, each cavity holds 4 ounces. If you have a mini Bundt type pan that you want to use for your cake, but don't know how many ounces it holds and you don't have a measuring cup or one marked in ounce, 2 Tablespoons equals 1 fluid ounce. I did use a measuring spoon to measure out how much cat food I was scooping out for this recipe and the miniature Bundt pan. (If you just want to eyeball it, guesstimate, go ahead. If I wasn't trying to write down a recipe for others to go by, I would not measure.

You can apply a thin layer of oil that is appropriate for your kitten's health conditions to the inner surface of the mold. Spray, use a pastry brush or apply the oil with your finger tips. I used my finger tips. 

You need 4 ounces of your cat food, blended to a Pâté consistency. 

Lucy loves to work on Projects, especially when she can supervise

I used one container of the Rachel Ray's Nutrish Paw Lickin' Chicken and Liver Recipe and the Tuna Purrfection each, straining off the creamy liquid. I used a small strainer and smushed the catfood through with the back of a plastic spoon, collecting the delectable juices in a small glass mixing bowl. I saved some of the liquid to mix with the Tuna for the Tunnel. 

 

     

I muddled and blended together the Chicken & Liver and the Tuna Cat Foods in a small glass mixing bowl. Next, fill the mold half way. 

Freeze it til firm.  I froze mine til firm, about 1 hour, probably a little less time. It doesn't need to be rock hard, just firm enough for supporting the Tuna Tunnel layer.

While you are waiting for first layer of your cake to set, cover and place the rest of the "cake batter" aka the blended cat food in the fridge. You can make another pastry bag from another zip lock sandwich bag or you can use a spoon or fingers to apply the Tunnel of Tuna Filling. You can blend your Tuna Filling. 

I used 1 ounces or 2 Tablespoons of Bumble Bee Very Low Sodium White
Albacore packed in Water. I pressed the water from the Tuna meat, and left in the opened can. I used my muddler to smush, smooth and blend the tuna to a Pate texture. I blended in some of the liquid strained from the canned cat food. 


(If you use a Pate style cat food, you won't have to do much blending, just smooth the cat food to a workable texture.) 

Now that you have your blended Tuna for the Tunnel of Tuna, retrieve your mold from the freezer. Your cat food should be firm to the touch by now. I made a small cylinder shape with the Tuna Tunnel Filling and laid it on top of the first layer of cat food in the center of one side of the "donut" shape of the tube pan. 



Just keep going around and around until you complete a circle of Tuna filling. You will pop the pan back in the freezer again until it is firm to the touch. I think I had mine in the freezer less than a half an hour. I was busy putting things away, cleaning up after myself and playing with the Birthday Girl. If you have some tuna filling left over, save that for a garnish/decoration for the cake. 

Is it ready yet Mom? Hurry Up! I'm not getting any younger!

 

When the Tuna filling layer is firm to the touch, take your mold out of the freezer and you will spread on top of that layer the rest of the cat food cake batter. And pop the mold back into the freezer for a final time, until the last layer of cat food is firm to the touch. 

My mold generally looks frosty and you can easily peel the sides of the mold away from your frozen cat food cake. 

Loosen the edges of the mold. Lay a small plate upside down, or the serving side against the exposed side of the cake still in the mold. Press one hand down on top of the back side of the plate and flip the whole mold over with your other hand. The cake will flip out on to the little presentation plate. You can use this method with most of your human desserts as well. 

Now you have successfully made your first Tunnel of Tuna Cake! 

You can garnish or decorate it with some of the extra Tuna Tunnel Filling. Or in any other way you see fit for you and your feline babies. Sometimes I write on Lucy's cake with pureed pumpkin, see how to do that in an earlier blog. 

Here are a couple of pics to see the Tunnel of Tuna running through the cake. It was probably too bright in the kitchen for there to be enough contrast in the pics. You can see the Tuna ring to the right hand side of the sliced out portion. If you want to cut your cake so that you can see the Tunnel or rings in a mostly whole cake or in slices on a plate, I suggest you hard freeze the cake and then cut it with a warmed, sharp, thin knife. The birthday girl was wanting some cake before I went to work that day, and was less interested in my perfect photos than in a snack and a nap. 

Your cat is probably going to be more interested in the yummy tastes of the cake, than whether or not it won the Meow Bake Off of 2017.

Lot's of love makes everything taste better, and life - oh so much sweeter. 

Happy One Year Birthday Lucy! Love you Always!
Lucy is smartly wary of fire. Good Girl!

You can follow Lucy on Instagram at and YouTube . 

Lucy was bred at the Love Branch Cattery in Toney, Alabama. You can also visit the LoveBranchCattery on Facebook. 

Cat Chat - It was like she had seen a Ghost, and maybe she had...

June 17, So for part of my job, twice nightly I drive a half mile down the road and check a "warehouse," which houses production, sterilization, offices, and warehousing. I enter from the loading dock side, walk through the building in a circular pattern so as not to duplicate my work, checking on people and things. I left my main building at 8:12 pm. As soon as I put my left foot on the ground to get out of my car, a few minutes later, I had a knowing moment.

All my life, I have had these paranormal experiences I can best explain as "Knowings." Sometimes I just know something. Someone has handed me something, or said something to me, or I have seen an individual, or I have just been close enough to a situation without even seeing the situation, but I have this immediate, sudden, unplanned knowledge. There are other examples, and specific examples. 

So as soon as I put my left foot on the ground, I had a Knowing. "I was going to tell my sister that I was not going on the trip, because I responded to a fatality at work the night before." This night being the night before referenced in my Knowing. 

Okay, around June 1st, I decided to take off work on Saturday, June 18. I had a lot to do to get my kitten, Lucy, ready to stay by herself for one night. I didn't want to take her to a kennel. I didn't want a sitter to check on her if I was only going to be gone 24 hours, not much longer than when I work a double shift which she is used to every now and then; if she saw someone else come into our house instead of me, should would worry about me, and/or feel abandoned.

So I just had to install a window air conditioner unit and burglar bars, since the house is single story and pushing in window AC units is a common way for burglars to break in. I wasn't as concerned about the loss of an AC Unit, as I was that Lucy could get hurt if she got out. Or someone might steal or hurt her. So I did the installation and security measures. I also worked, did the weekly mowing, landscaping and household chores. Got the car ready, and presents for family members with birthdays upcoming. Got everything done on all my lists, despite an injury and working with one arm in pain 24/7.

My biggest fears are dying in a traffic accident, driving on bridges and public speaking.

So after that momentous Knowing and wondering slightly, hmmm, I wonder who I am going to find in the building unconscious, who is going to have that fatal moment? I swiped my card, and entered the building, no longer thinking about all that nonsense. I just started through my rounds. I turned out the lights in an office section and came out one of their doors on the other side of the building, where a long, narrow, employee parking lot is separated from a 2 lane road by a small berm, 12 feet wide, with some small pines, about 20 feet tall and other landscaping. I could see 2 marked Police cars and 1 Fire Engine on the road. I wasn't sure what they were responding to. As I could see many other Responders arriving in Police, Fire and Rescue vehicles responding, I knew I should investigate what they were responding to. We are in an industrial area and I thought it prudent to determine if there was going to be anything that would affect our staff or buildings.

Then I saw a white van had crashed. I needed to get close enough to determine that it was not one of our company or contractor work vans. I saw the front end of an older model, white Dodge panel van, crashed into one of the pines with so much force it had pretty much split the front end of the van in two. Paramedics were working on the (presumed) driver lain on our landscaping, giving (him) chest compressions. I thought it looked like he wasn't going to make it. I couldn't see the body of the driver. I could see how the Responders who were working on him were working; they were doing their jobs, but I felt what I was looking at was that they had seen this before, that his injuries were too massive for him to be resuscitated. I could have taken pics to send to the news "as it happens," but that's not right. I informed the bosses what was going on beside our building and we would need to look out for media Friday night.

So I finish up at that building, go back to my other building, struggling with "Is this a sign that I should not go on the road tomorrow?" I was going to have go home, get home around 1 am, take care of my cat. Fall asleep quick, get back up at 5 am, and leave at 6 am. I could leave later, but then I have less time there and also increase the chance of driving in summer thunder storms - ugh. I thought about it a lot, was I using that accident fatality an excuse for me not to go on a trip that I really didn't want to go on? Probably. But what about the Knowing. The accident had not happened before I left to go to the Warehouse. I later found out that the crash had occurred and been called in to 9-1-1 at 8:15 pm. I drive exactly 1/2 a mile from the main building to the warehouse, with two stops signs in between. Plus getting in and out of the car, it is usually between a two and three minutes trip for me. It was occurring on the other side of the building as I pulled up to the loading side. It is likely that the spirit of the individual who crashed, was letting go at the time my foot touched the ground.

At some point during the rest of my work evening, I came to grips with the trip that I was nervous about taking. I said to myself, well, you have been to crime scenes, murder scenes and you didn't feel that you were going to be murdered by the same mechanism of Death of those crimes. That guy's car accident didn't have anything to do with you. You were just lucky that since you were both on the road in the same area at the same time, that he didn't crash into you. It's sad for him and his family, but had he not hit the tree and kept on the trajectory he was on, he would have crashed into the building and more people could have been hurt, again, also you.

So I decided to go on the trip. I stopped and got gas at WaWa on the way home. I got home about 12:40 am. Brought my stuff in. Checked on my kitten. She hadn't eaten as much as I would prefer she would while I was gone, but she was stretching, so she may have slept the whole time. She hadn't pooped yet, but likely she would soon, her routine. She waits for me to get home. Awwww... She's just so excited to see me. hahaha

She was playful, in great spirits. I gave her her sweet, oat grass to munch on for a quick minute. Then I feed her some lightly warmed wet food, with a little added water for hydration. We played some fetch and catch, and then fussball for awhile. I changed into a t-shirt and shorts while we played. I had a cocktail and my herbal, melatonin tablet so I could get to that rest more quickly. She went to her box to stoically pee, first step in her routine of elimination. Then a few minutes later she ran a few laps around the house and then went to more focused poop in the box. I wiped her feet and checked her bottom, since we both enjoy her hopping on my bed and pillows. Since I was leaving town shortly, and even though I had changed the whole box just days ago, instead of scooping, I dumped the whole box and replaced it with another on already set up. When I got up again in a few hours I had planned to put out a second clean box, she likes to be clean and tidy. I took the used one to dump directly to the outside trash and left the box in the backyard to be hosed out.

Usually I am rapt with detail, but around this time, the order of things is a little confusing even for me. I know that I would have waited to take a shower until after she pooped and until after I had taken it outside. I usually do that instead of scoop the poop in my nice clean pj's. So I was kneeling beside my bath tub. This could have been before or after my shower. I have a little tub (bus pan) that I keep in the tub for Lucy to play with some rubber balls or pieces of ice with in shallow water. She has been doing this since I have had her at 12 weeks. If I don't leave water for her to play with, she will go in her room, and pick up her water cooler and throw it on the floor so that she has water to play in. The little tub stays in the big tub, and I take it out each time I take a shower.

Lucy likes to stay in the bathroom and watch the water in the shower while I am in there, smacking the droplets accumulating and running down the curtain in rivulets. Then she hops in the shower when I am through to smack the water on the curtain some more, or to play with her toys or ice. She also smacks me on the behind when I am getting ready to get into the shower. I presume she thinks this is hilarious, or either she wants me to hurry up so she can get in or so I don't waste water. It hilarious, but I digress. 

So I was down by the tub, either getting her toys out, or putting them back. And suddenly Lucy was going berserk, running in and out of the bathroom. Okay, it must have been I was getting ready for the shower. I had just come back inside from taking the other litter box outside. I would have been trying to keep on my time table to go to sleep a little earlier than normal. I had hoped to be asleep by 2 am, to get 3 hours of sleep. So I was down by the tub getting her toys and I was going to drain her little tub out, and she was running around like crazy. Now Lucy is really athletic and energetic. Play is her life. But she was out of control. A Vet and I had talked about how kittens can hurt themselves running too hard and running into solid objects. I was concerned at first that she might hurt herself. She was more than excited like she is when she is playing or when she sees some wild animal outside.

I said "Lucy, Lucy, calm down." By this time she was in the tub, and I was trying to get a reassuring hold on her shoulders with my left hand, closest to her. She was looking in my general direction, but it was like she was focusing around me, in front of me, between us, over my head and behind me, and imagine this - with a look of absolute terror on her face.

When she was little, she had a high fever and I thought she was (calmly) hallucinating, aurally and visually as she seemed to be looking at something I could not see in the air, focusing on that. My thoughts raced with light speed through diagnostics of what in the heck was going on with her. I thought she was hallucinating. I thought "Lucy, what did you get in to?!" Then I rationalized, she went from zero to sixty in seconds. (1) There is nothing that she could have gotten into in my house that would poison her with those effects. (2) Whatever was happening was too sudden to have affected a change that quickly. I didn't think she had a fever again, and this was different than before, she wasn't running around like a Beserker before, but something was very wrong.

I was worried about her running again and hurting herself, if she hadn't already. I was gently as possible trying to keep her in the (empty) tub. She started attacking at me. She wasn't attacking me, but something in my vicinity. She didn't hiss. She didn't growl. She's generally a very quiet cat. It's like she was saying, "aaaaa aaaa...," like me when I cried in front of her recently, but she was very scared of something. She was absolutely terrified. She's not terrified of me. She absolutely loves me, and I her. I know this sounds crazy, but in my mind's eye, replaying her terror, I can't even say, I was seeing my same cat. In my memory, she was a more black and white cat, black with white paws, some white on the face. There's something about that I will tell others later, but not the nay-sayers. No, I'm not crazy, and I was not hallucinating or dreaming. 

I think the time frame of her frantic behavior was a minute, maybe a little longer. Wasn't timing it. If any of you have ever had to deal with a family member, friend, patient, stranger who is having a meltdown, flipping out from drugs or from a terrible tragedy, it was like that. Of if you cast a kitten to be the screaming victim in some scary movie. Seriously, it was the look of terror.

After she quit flipping out, she was breathing hard, and her heart was beating hard. I got her to lay down in the tub with her front legs in front of her, her back leg to to each side, the lion pose. She was pissed off, she would toss a look over her shoulder at me, but her look said she was really mad at me. She was making eye contact with me. She is rarely mad at me. She was being a Queen, not a little kitten anymore. I kept telling her, "It's okay, Lucy. It's okay, Sweetie. I love you Baby. Calm down. Calm your breathing down." She was calming down. I kept my hands near her, but not on her, not yet. I just kept talking to her calmly. I was trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. If I hadn't seen this, I wouldn't believe it. I thought about the symptoms. Trying to figure the time line, the events leading up to the experience. I was talking to her and calming her down. "Calm your breathing down Lucy." She was calming down some. She was letting me rub under her chin, her favorite spot. She let me gently probe her body and head; I was search for any tender spots looking for any bug bite or injury she might have caused to herself, but found nothing. I was still going through things, thinking it through while monitoring her de-escalation, contemplating calling my neighbor to drive us to the Emergency Vet.

Going through the things I didn't think it could be. The symptoms. Having the conversation in my head that I would tell the Vet if we went: She ate & drank, we played, she peed and pooped, and then it was if she saw a ghost.

Oh.

So, now it all made sense. It may or may not have been the same spirit of the driver who died in the crash. I have this relationship with Spirits. They do come to see and help me from time to time. I don't have anybody else in my life to count on all the time, so the Spirits show up to help me, guide me, give me some message, but I have to do the work to interpret and figure out. Sometimes the Spirits are also in the form of living humans, we call them Friends, Angels, maybe they are Angels. We're all Spirits, whether on this side or the other side, in a body or Mr. No Body, my childhood Spirit Friend. But some Spirit did not want me to go on that little trip. I was supposed to get that message with "Knowing." And then I talked myself into disregarding a message from Beyond. So I think that the Spirits knew that I needed another message and they knew that if I thought something was wrong with Lucy, that I could not leave her alone and go out of town. 

From the time I decided to go out of town, I told Lucy I was going to go, and for how long, and that she would be okay. I'm pretty sure she understood that I was going somewhere without her. She's a smart girl and probably realized my suitcase meant I was going somewhere. She was not eating as much as I would like her to eat. She's not starving to death, but she wasn't eating her favorite food from her Snacky Mouse. So I was a little concerned.  

I don't know how long we sat in and beside the tub. If you have dealt with someone who has a meltdown, it was like that; it will leave you both exhausted. So much energy was spent; her being frantic, mine responding and trying to be an external calming force. I know that eventually I could hear Two and a Half Men on TV in the front room. It comes on at 2:00 and 2:30 am. I don't know if it was the first or second of the 1/2 hour episodes, but I think the second. 

I know I decided I could try to go to sleep at 3:35 am. I looked at the clock when I turned out the light to go to sleep. The alarm was set for 5:00 am for me to leave at 6:00 am. 

I remember seeing the talk show Harry on briefly and it comes on at 3:00 am. I think I got her out of the tub and wrapped her in a big towel gently, probably giving her a sponge bath with a wash cloth and cool water. She is quite amenable to that. I would have towel dried her off, and then she would have helped licking and smoothing her fur, because I don't do it as good as she does. I would have taken her to her water fountain to get her to drink a little. I likely gave her a treat or got her to eat some of her food or both. I felt that she was back to normal with her breathing, heart rate and disposition for me to take a quick shower. Then we went to bed. 

Well, right before I went to bed, since it was almost time to get up, I was thinking about this 2nd Paranormal Message received in such a brief span of time. I'd say the message was urgent in that case. I was thinking my Mom would be disappointed, but my Mom would not want me to drive with no sleep and if I was worried about Lucy. My Mom understands it is expensive for me to take off work; I have no benes or PTO, and the City keeps taking more and more money like I have an endless source. I think when I was headed to bed I was consigned not go on my little trip. It shouldn't be such a big deal, but it was. So big, the Spirits had to come a calling, twice!

So, we went to bed. I woke at 5:00 am when the alarm sounded. I shut it off, went back to sleep. I don't believe I reset the alarm for 7:00 am, but I got up then and decided, no, I'm not going to go. I texted my sister not to expect me. I texted my boss and asked him if I could work Sat night since I was not going out of town. 

While I slept, Lucy brought me 4 toys from her toy tent, and even put one of our Foosball golf balls in my slipper. I had put the cash for my trip in my shoe by the door so that I wold not forget it in the am. She was watching. She had eaten all of her Snacky Mouse food and was excited that I got up to play with her at 7:00 am. She was back to normal. I was tired. We played, and went back to sleep before I went to work in the afternoon. I was tired for days. I think that the intense metaphysical presence of the Spirits affected my energy level at some other than the normal physical level. Like I wasn't back to normal. I guess I was still connected to the Paranormal until Tuesday night. I think I connected with the Spirit the moment my foot touched the ground. Like you might get the current, get shocked if you touch a surface a live wire is touching, the energy flows. 

I have seen "Ghosts" a few times. I believe they let you see them. One Spirit communicates with me through lights, because now she can that she's on the other side. I did NOT see the Spirits that night, I just got messages. It was Lucy that the presence was shown and it terrified her. She was probably so mad at me later, because she figured I had brought them in or they attached themselves to me when I was outside throwing out the litter. But they were probably already around me, and when I threw out the litter and replaced the box and was getting ready to take a shower so early, the Spirits knew I really planned to go on the trip, and they made themselves known to scare Lucy on purpose. Mean Ghosts! Scare a little kitty like that! Hmmmph! 

I say them, but I don't know which Spirits or how many were involved, or even why I was to stay. 

Tuesday night is my Monday. I was back at work at the building where that happened on Friday night. At about 8:30 pm, I went out the same office door side of the Warehouse building and there was a glorious sunset. And there was a rainbow. I could only see one side of the rainbow, but the arch ended at the spot where the man had crashed his van and given up his life on Friday night. I was not the only employee who saw that. Another gal was out there, saw it and remarked on it. I think it's a sign that he's all right with things now. I didn't take a picture then. It's painted in my indelible memory. I hope that his family is finding some comfort in his Peace. 

I know some of you won't believe this story. That's okay. The Paranormal doesn't happen to people who are not going to understand it. I just thought it was a crazy story that just happened to me, so it's kind of fresh on my mind right now. And I could explain a little of my Paranormal experience to you. 

Sunset 06.20.2017

Cat Chat - Random Stories

All Cat people have random stories about their wonderful kitties. Hmmm, sometimes maybe I have more, or to some - too many. But we can't help it, our kitties are too adorable with everything they do. 

I even tell my boss my kitten stories. I don't recall that he was a cat person before, but he has fallen in love with the thought of my kitten, because she is just so awesome. 

So... 

Inspector Lucy on the Case 

I work at night. Sunday night, early Monday morning, I finally got to bed about 4:30 am. Lucy, my kitten, and I were playing, drinking and eating, watching reruns of Cagney and Lacey or Cagney (me) & Lucy. I had a lot to do on Monday and had planned on getting up early, by like 10 or so. For some reason I woke up at 6:30 am. I wasn't sure why I was awake, so I decided to use the restroom. It looked like Lucy had outlasted me and stayed up all night. I coaxed her to come to bed shaking Pink Jingle Feather, come hither. 

So we went to sleep, until... someone was ringing the Freaking Doorbell at 7:30 am. WTH?! Did they not see the NO Trespassing Signs?! Ugh! Then the bell rang again more agressively. I got up and I couldn't see through the peep hole; I guess my eyes weren't open enough. I peeked out a side window to see a Police Officer get back in his marked unit in front of my house, drive down the street and turn around. I opened the front door and flagged him down. I grabbed a ball cap from the coat rack near the door to cover my crazy hair. 

He explained that there had been a car stolen down the street at 6:30 am. and he noticed my security cameras and wanted to know if I recorded anything. A suspect had been seen walking down the street with a backpack right before the car was stolen and did I get any video of him. 

Well, the whole time he was talking, Lucy who had jumped up on the table beside the front door was standing facing me and meowing while he was talking. She pawed my arm and was trying to get my attention. I told the cop that she was saying she didn't do it. Afterward I thought about how she rarely meows and only talks when she has something to say. She was probably saying she saw the guy walking down the street that he was talking about. She saw it all. That was when I got up and opened the curtain for her. Didn't I see him too... Inspector Lucy on the Case. 

Inspector (Baby) Lucy on the Case  

Inspector (Baby) Lucy on the Case reporting in on her Wrist Mic 

 

Happy Mothers' Day

I never had kids, never could afford them was part of the decision. I also didn't settle down with anyone or anything long enough. I was always what my family called a Free Spirit. I had some pets, but not much as an adult. I had a cat in my twenties, but I still considered myself a kid then. And I fostered a Eastern Slider Painted Turtle, but then I set him free with a colony of other Sliders. I felt it was wrong to keep him away from his kind. I cried and cried after I set him free. He didn't even wander away from me toward the lake on his own. I had to give him a few nudges and pushes down the hill. My heart still breaks as I recall seeing him look over his shoulder at me before he took the final steps into the lake toward the other of his kind, laying on logs and swimming around, looking at us curiously.


He used to come when I called him. He was very smart, interested, followed me around. When he was first bestowed on me, he was the size of a quarter. He ran around so fast I called him Scooter. When I released him into the wild, he was the size of a big hamburger. So I returned to the Lake later on and called, "Scooter, Scoooooot-errrrr..." I was crying and people on the trails were looking at me with concern. A turtle came up out of the water, his body partially floating under the surface, his cute face pointed up, his eyes focused on me. I prefer to think it was him. 

Last year I got a kitten. It was love at first sight, I think on both our accounts. 

My brother-in-law used to always comment on my great maternal instincts. I was like, who me, what-the-what?! But having this wonderful kitten and the opportunity to care for her, I guess he's right. I have known that I am my best when I have the opportunity to help others. I am a better person for serving others. 

Just a like a Mommy, I have to clean her paws and her little bottom sometimes. I have to carefully clean her ears at least once a week. She doesn't like that, but I have to do that so that she does not get ear infections. I have to trim her nails, check inside her mouth and teeth. Clean her up after we have been playing outside. At times give her medications and treatments that she might prefer not to have, but I am always soothing as I firmly administer to her needs. I believe that she knows I am doing Mom things for her benefit. She might try to hide her face when I clean her ears, but she lets me. I tell her if she wants to cover her eyes and it makes it easier, "It's okay Sweet Pea." 

I was a sickly, little kid. I was at the doctors' office for treatments every few days as a kid. I probably had just as many treatments at home as at the doctor. I really hated the administration of medication. I can remember lots of eye infections, laying on my Mom's bed, a white bedspread, laying on my back for long minutes at a time while the eye drops did their work and getting a half an Almond Joy bar, a section with two nuts, when the time was up. My Mom didn't want to hurt me. She just wanted me to feel better. In taking care of my kitten, I have understood more of just how good my Mother was to us, was to me. 

Now my Mother who just celebrated her 88th Birthday has age related Dementia. One of the things about Dementia is that one tends to go backwards through time, living in further away from the present moments. Some people tend to dismiss the capabilities of those with Dementia as not being able to grasp what is going on. I personally believe that you don't know just how much the affected person is comprehending, if they cannot express something back to you. They may be receiving, they may be only partly processing, but unless it is your mind, you really don't know what they are getting. 

The time regression has actually helped my relationship with my Mother. My Mother didn't really like me from teenage years on, until she started forgetting that she didn't like me. I think we both have started remembering just how much fun we had when I was a little kid. Most people who know me, would say I have always been that free spirit, that I never grew up. I'm not looking for my inner child, I haven't found my outer adult yet. We live in different towns, 300 miles apart. When I went to see her last year, I took pictures of us when we were both much younger, and we could both relive those memories. Age related dementia cuts into short term memory, the long term memories are usually the last to go. So we have renewed our early Mother - Daughter Love. 

But she still has some other good sense. She will tell me she misses me, and I should come visit more. If she couldn't understand what's going on, she would not come to the conclusion that I had not been to visit recently. Although when I have been visiting, left her room for a few minutes and returned, she has asked me when did I get there. Dementia will break your heart, but the alternative of not having a Mother still on this Earth that you can see and touch, and never enough tell, how much you love and appreciate them, well someone forgetting some things is no big deal. We all need a little help every now and then. 

I love that when I first got my kitten last Fall, and I was calling my Mom up to chit chat on my night off, and I was ironing and talking on the phone and I was dealing with the new challenge of trying to keep my kitten from pulling on the ironing cord or the ironing board cover drawstring, telling my Mom this. And she who others dismiss for having dementia, told me I also have to be very careful to keep her away from the iron when I am through, so she doesn't get burned. Hmmmm Thanks Mom. For all of my single adult years, I don't have a worry about anyone being burned on a hot iron except myself and I have put the iron on the table to cool down. Now I have to put it away out of reach so a kitten can't get burned. She was right. 

I thought about how good my Mom was not only to me as a kid, she really took good care of us. But she also took care of my childhood kitten when I was too little to do as much. He was mostly an outside cat that did get to sleep in the garage, basement or landing when it was really cold or bad weather. I remember in an ice storm and the power was out, my Mother let him sleep in front of the fireplace by us on a little yellow rug. In the winter she would cook him a hot breakfast of a scrambled egg. She would cook up or serve raw those innards they used to pack away inside a whole chicken back in the day, chicken broth soup, gizzards, heart... I wish she gave him my share of liver - ugh - I became a vegetarian probably because of just the smell of liver. What is one of my kitten's favorites? You guessed it, Liver! I gag every time I serve it to her. But I love her. 

One of the bad things about the regression of Dementia is that when one starts living their life in reverse, they are going to have to relive the bad moments as well as the good. My Mom was exceptional to us in light of the life and struggles she had. She would probably die if if she knew I was airing her dirty laundry, she certainly never aired her struggles with her children or many of those who thought they knew her well. Some knew of her struggles, but we were all from an era where you just shouldered the burden, didn't ask anything of anyone else and carried yourself forward. My Mom was born in the year of the Great Depression and sometimes things were worse. 

Her Mother left her and her brothers and her father when she was about 13. Yet my Mother never shared any of that with us children growing up. And I have only heard bits and pieces in recent adult years of her disappointment, broken hearts and trust, the fracture of all of their lives. I can see the impact her mother leaving the family made on my Mother, her desire to be a good mother. My parents NEVER fought or raised their voices at each other around us. So, I guess there was probably some fighting between my grandfather, that I never knew and my grandmother, who I did know. He passed away a few years after she left, when my Mother was going to go to college. An uncle gave her the money to pursue college. Then the uncle died and she gave her endowment from him to go to Graduate School to her younger brother to pursue his Undergraduate Degree. My parents didn't drink. My Mother said that her parents drank and that caused the problems between them, and her father began drinking (more) after her Mother left. 

In the formidable years that my grandmother was living in the home, she did a number on my Mother and her two brothers. Mom was the middle child. Both uncles passed away in recent years, and this had to be explained more than once to my Mother with her declining mental acuity. It broke my heart a few times when my Mom would say something in these recent years about her Mother and how she was, (demanding and meticulous), as if she was still around and my Mother did not know if she could meet her expectations. I began to understand why my Mother was like she was, demanding of herself. My Mother was rigid, and I always thought that was just her, and I was so free form and opposite, only recently realizing it came from her mother and probably her mother before that. My grandmother lied about her age and left to get married at 13, or so she told me. Anyone who wants to leave home and be a child bride, had some worse reason to want to leave home I suspect. 

I wish I had known all those years about my grandmother and my Mother. When I first started learning the history, I thought my Mother didn't say anything not wanting to taint our perception of our grandmother, but I have grown to realize that probably wasn't it. I know that my Mom still tried to do things for her Mother up until she died back in the 90's and she was in her 90's. I have also come to realize that my it felt like my Mother tried to do everything she could to get some approval from her mother, which I don't know if she felt that she ever received. That's just horrible. 

We all seek approval. I know I was a big disappointment for both my parents. But as a kid I think I was in such an ether, that I really didn't care about approval from anyone, especially my parents. 

I think my Mother didn't talk about her mother leaving her and her family because of the shame, pain and embarrassment. Had I known that, I probably would have been a better daughter. 

So, now I can just try to be a good enough daughter, to thank my Mother for all the good she did for me, for her children and grandchildren. I know that I am a good person who loves and respects all living creatures. I'm an excellent Earth Steward due to both of my parents. I am an excellent cook due to my Mom. I have her Irish, dedicated, hard-work ethic. I was pretty like her. I have her much sought after wavy hair. I have her love of long walks. I have her cheekbones and small build. I don't have her studious focus, but I have resolve.

I enjoy taking charge with a calm focus in crises. There was no 9-1-1 when we were kids. Seat/Safety belts were not mandatory.There were no street lights on our windy, suburban, hilly road. Several times a year some young driver out late at night crashed into our stalwart pines in the front yard. (Thank God we had those big trees, or the cars would have crashed into our house.) I recall one night my Mom going out to investigate a crash and my Mom ran back into the house. She had to get towels and told me not to come outside. A young girl had gone through the windshield. I don't mean a child, my Mom called a young female driver a girl. My Mom would have been in her mid to late 30's. In retrospect, I now wonder if the girl didn't survive. I am sure I didn't ask her if she died. My mother said that she went through the windshield and I asked her how did she know. She said because she left her scalp on the windshield. I had to think about that then for awhile. I did not know about exsanguination or ejection injuries. My Mom left a lot of unanswered questions when I was a kid that I was supposed to figure out on my own. Replaying the sounds from that night, the look on my Mom's face later that night after she came back in the house... it wasn't like the other times. I guess back in those days you dialed "O" for Operator, to call the Police and report the accident. But I think about my Mother being first onscene to that and many more vehicle accidents in front of our house. And how she would have been a comfort to those in dire need, who had lost control of their vehicles, crashed and been injured waiting for their folks or Police or an ambulance. 

We lived in a time and place where neighbors helped neighbors. I knew that the other Moms on the street or my Mom's friends would take care of me in a heartbeat. And my Mom was a sympathetic and supportive Mom to all as well. If you have ever heard someone cry with the broken heart that only the cold and surprising hand of Death can coax, you have heard the sound of grief I heard one afternoon. It was just after we got home from school one afternoon. I was maybe 10. My neighbor who was about 3 or 4 years older than I, who I had known since I was a little kid and she sometimes babysat for us came across the street to our house. Immediately my Mother sent us upstairs. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong this time, but we went upstairs. And from there I heard the most heartbreaking wailing I have ever heard, until I cried those same tears of grief some years later. My neighbor's mother, one of my mother's best friends, had been in the hospital to have a common, cosmetic surgery performed, removal of varicose veins. It was safe enough. Her husband was a doctor, but not doing the procedure. And her mother suddenly died during the procedure. My neighbor was the only child living at home, still in high school. Her older brother and sister were away at college I think. And she was all alone. My Mom already knew that her Mom was going to be at the hospital for the procedure, and I think I did too. 

My Mother was there for that girl when her mother died suddenly and she was devastated, absolutely heart broken. I'm glad that she was there for her. I however could never go to my Mom with problems once I became a teen. I don't know what happened. The disapproval?...  

Does my kitten bring me toys to get me to play with her for herself or for me? She does bring me toys when she can tell I don't feel so well, or when she just wants me to wake up to play with her. And I get out toys to instigate play with her as well. It's the love and fun we have together. I have read that in training a cat, a cat will perform for your approval. I don't know how I want to feel about that, wanting her to do things so she feels that I approve or disprove. I prefer she knows that I love her. I think she does, why even though weekly ear cleaning is not her favorite thing, she knows that I care for her with great kindness and Love. We would both rather run obstacle courses in the house, play Cat-Fight-Club, catch or hide-and-go-seek, sleep, go for walks in the park, run in the snow, play tag or ambush, okay play anything or with anything. 

When I go see my Mom now, she may or may not be making new memories of the new times we are together, but I am. As long as the memories of those you love live on in your memory, you keep those you love alive. My Mom can still laugh with me the way she did when I was a little kid. She still loves me, and I her, and we aren't real concerned about approval these days. 

My Mom gave me a happy childhood. I can try to give her some happiness now. So, all of you out there, don't worry so much about not giving your kids the material things. Give them happy memories. Give them the tools they will need to be self-reliant, responsible citizens who will stay out of jail, help others and be good Stewards of this Planet Earth, Mother Earth. Give them Love. 

You can follow Lucy on Instagram at and YouTube . 

Lucy was bred at the Love Branch Cattery in Toney, Alabama. You can also visit the LoveBranchCattery on Facebook.