Since the local animal shelter told me I couldn’t have the kitten I’d been promised, we have settled in with the three surviving cats.  At first with Xena who ruled the house gone so suddenly, they were flummoxed. They seemed lost for the first weeks.  Then they gradually adjusted.  They have divided the jobs.  Willow hunts and kills mice instantly by breaking their necks, as Xena taught her. She sleeps with me at night as does Mingus, who always did with Xena but with more cuddling and more wrestling with Willow.   Mingus, the smallest and oldest, herds the other cats.  You think cats can’t be herded?  Mingus herds them and us.  He is a hero in a kitten’s body.  He thinks he should rule, but the others mostly treat him as a cute kitten.  Schwartzie has taken on the job of waking Woody every morning so he gets up and feeds them.  He has also become super-affectionate.  He is the lover boy.  He is a pacifist and if it were up to him, he would keep a bunch of mice as pets. Luckily, it’s not up to him. Willow is also very loving but more on her own terms. She is the most skittish and when workmen or guests are here, she disappears into her condo in the wall of the storeroom.  She is the only cat we’ve ever had who established her own hidey hole.

 Then Monday we found blood in Schwartzie’s urine.  Tuesday at 8 AM I called the Animal Hospital of Orleans and they took him on an emergency basis.  Woody drove to Orleans THREE times Tuesday.  When we brought Schwartzie in @ 8:30 am, when he went to get his appointment for a haircut. Then he was returning and stopped to buy scallops at Mac’s fish market.  At that point, the vet called finally.  He has that problem that some males cat get, of crystals [like sharp little pieces of glass] in his urine.  That was causing the blood.  He was in a lot of pain, as I suspected.  It’s not easy to tell when a cat is in pain, but I noticed him hiding, which he never does.

 He will have to be on a special diet the rest of his life.  That is not going to be easy, to keep him from the food we’re giving the other cats Keeping them from eating his is easy.  They hate it. . We were both worried sick.  Woody was afraid he would die.  Woody loves him a great deal, as do I, but he is especially Woody’s cat as Xena was mine and Willow is. Not that they are one person cats.  They are all affectionate with both of us. Cats are animals that the more you put in [time, attention], the more you get from them.

 The tomatoes are slowing down.  We still have plenty of course for us to eat and cook with..  I have been drying them this week. The peppers are coming in.  I’m freezing most of them except for the frying peppers.  I’ve frozen enough hot peppers already, but the stuffing peppers are the ones I freeze mostly.  Those have just begun to be ready.  At the beginning of the week, I had managed to freeze only enough for one package. Now at least there are two packages.

 I wrote three poems this week and revised a couple. Indira came over Wednesday and we chatted on the sunporch.  I gave her some beans. The beans are still coming hot and heavy.  I’m done freezing them as 29 lbs is more than we’ve ever had.  Fortunately, I know many ways to cook beans: this week, cold bean salad, roasted beans and steamed with Mornay sauce.  Thursday night I made the last zucchini mélange of the summer with three eggplants fried separately and added at the end. I have one last zucchini to cook.

 The Kentucky Oaks was run Friday, the race this weekend I was most interested in.  The Derby was Saturday.  Safe neighbors Stephen and Dale came over for snacks and the Derby.  I tried a recipe for Greek meatballs, and plenty more finger and snack food.  I was very disappointed that Tiz the Law didn’t win. One upset after another this weekend in the horse races. We started cleaning the house this week, a couple of rooms at a time. It continues.  We had been putting all our time and energy [not devoted to our own work] to the gardens and have neglected the house.  Now we’re trying to catch up.  We’d let everything go.

Schwartzie is happy again, very much so.  He sat with us all to watch the Derby. I watched as many of the slew of races that day as I could, with the cooking I was doing. The Greek meatballs came out really good.