Let Me Introduce .... Montgomery C Cat aka Monty

You see, it's been six months since our gorgeous old Jarmie left and Max was lonely.  A work colleague volunteers at the local Animal Protection Society and she has been taking to me for ages and ages about fostering a cat (plus the beautiful Kristin from Wanderlust) has been sharing so many photos of the different beautiful cats she has been fostering on facebook that we finally did it.

We decided not to foster but to adopt.  I went along thinking I was going to bring home a ginger tabby, I have been craving a ginger tabby for ages and yes there were a couple of beautiful boys there but they were just too large for Max.  Max is a small cat and I didn't want the new cat to overpower him in size.

There were also some beautiful tortoiseshell cats that I loved but none of them connected with hubby and me.

So after more than an hour of siting with, touching, watching many, many, many cats, I was starting to despair that we would find a companion for Max.

Then I happend to walk into the last large room that the cats could sleep in, it was mostly empty but I suddenly spied a little silver tabby, curled up asleep on a tower.  Now I didn't want another grey/silver tabby as that's what Max is, but there was something about this little sleeping bundle that drew me over to him.  I gently touched his foot and one eye opened and then he started to purr.  The loudest purr I have ever heard.  He jumped up and virtually landed in my arms, put his head on my shoulder and looked at me with his large eyes and that was it.  He was ours.  He bought tears to my eyes and I walked out and said to hubby, it's this one. And he had a little tear as well and said yep, that's the one!

I'm sure the volunteers thought we were strange, but there is something about this little cat that reminds me of Jarmie.  The fact he was born only days after Jarmie left this earth has me wondering about the possibilities of a little bit of Jarmie being there within his soul.  I know, I'm weird!!

He is going to be a big lanky cat, he's got big feet and long legs and the longest, longest tail you have ever seen.  But he is just the right fit, small enough now for Max to be the boss, but with enough spirit that he won't let Max dominate him and eventually be big enough to stand up to Max if he needs to.

We pondered over a name for days.  He has an M on his forehead just like Max, so I wanted an M name.  Lots of facebook friends and family came up with suggestions and we nearly settled on Milo, but for personal reasons decided that wasn't the right name.  So we officially registered him at our vet today as Montgomery C Cat.

He and Max have taken a day or two to bond, Max being a little put out, and Monty not really caring if Max hissed at him once or twice.  Monty has an extremely laid back attitude to life and is the perfect spoil for over sensitive Max.

It's nice to come home and find the two boys waiting for us now, to see them playing chasey down the hall and around the corner down the other hall.  To hear Monty's loud purr every time you pick him up or touch him.  I'm waiting for the day when I find them curled up together on a bed or a chair, then I will know that the bond is complete.

Thanks Monty for choosing us, we feel very priviledged to have you in our home.

Thanks for popping by xxx

Did You Expect a Golden Pot at the End of the Rainbow? Well Ours is Green!!

As a mother there is only one thing I have ever really wanted for my children, and that is their happiness.  So as mentioned in other various posts on my blog, finding out that two of my four children were gay begged the question what if they wanted to get married?  

What if that getting married was they wanted to be truly happy?  

It is not legal in the country they were born in and grew up in, nor was it in many countries anywhere else in the world. 

Sure they could live in a defacto relationships both here in Aus and in a lot of places around the world but not have the same equality as heterosexual defacto relationships.

These are the sort of things that mothers mull about, and with four children I do a lot of mulling!!

But then the practical, logical part of me says well they have to find someone first, just like everyone does, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Many years pass, all my children are adults, all have had various relationships, one has even got married twice.  Most of them are happy to some extent most of the time, just like all of us.  Life goes on.

Then one day out of the blue my youngest daughter (the gay one, not that I think of her like that at all but it sets the scene for all that follows) announces she had met someone online who she was in love with.

It took me a long, long time to accept that you could fall in love with someone you had never met face-to-face.  I mean Skyping, how is that the same?  And yet she was convinced that she was in love and that she wanted to be with this woman for the rest of her life.

After nearly two years of daily hours of Skype time (most of them in the middle of the night here or there given the time difference) they decided to meet.  B was to fly to Seattle and meet the woman of her dreams.  To say I was worried would be an understatement.  Who was this woman on the other side of the world who had enchanted my daughter. 

Sure I had said hello to her a couple of times on Skype, but that was all, I didn’t really know her, not like if B had been dating someone here, someone we could build a relationship with.

But sure enough B was determined to go and in some ways it was a time to see if this relationship was real. So off B went, to return 2 weeks later engaged and with plans to move to Alsaka as soon as she could.  Throwing away her very well paying job, leaving her rental apartment and selling all her furniture and a lot of her possessions and packing up the small amount of her life that was left to be freighted.

Do you think this mother had reservations, yep in a BIG WAY.  There was lots of mulling and talking and worrying.

And you know what it seemed the Universe was going to bless B.  Her working Visa was approved without the slightest of fuss, in fact she was granted a 2 year Visa.  Her future in-laws owned and ran a couple of business that could employ her and allow them to step away to retirement. And before this mother was ready and really, really sure this was the best thing, B flew the nest.  Jumped into the unknown so full of confidence that this was going to work, that K was her soul mate and that all would be good.

And you know what?  It was.  Sure there were a few hiccups along the way, families meshing and adjustments to made on all sides.  But suddenly I saw a happiness in B’s face I hadn’t seen in a long time and K was always there beside her, even though sometimes out of view when we Skyped but always there.

This mother still fretted though, what if the Visa wasn’t renewed, how would they cope if their dreams were dashed.  Would B have the strength to come home and start again?

And then another miracle happened, DOMA was repealed in the High Court of America and suddenly individual States could vote to allow same sex couples to wed and a lot of them did. 

Another door had opened as if by magic.  Not in Alaska where they lived, but Washington State, just a short 2.5 hour flight away.  Even better, you didn’t have to reside in the State to be eligible to marry, you could fly in and be married.  So the girls again jumped in with confidence and arranged their wedding.

Of course there were still obstacles to permanent happiness.  B was still on a 2 year Working Visa which was due for renewal in 2014 and there wasn’t a guarantee that because you had married you would get a green card.  That was one way heterosexual and same sex marriages run in parralel in the USA.  It also was not a recognized union in their home State, but one big step had been taken.  We spent a wonderful two weeks with the girls and this mother truly fell in love, just the way her daughter had and left them knowing that indeed two soul mates had been united from different sides of the globe.  Of course, being me there was still the worry about B getting a green card.

Again, in a show of confidence that I could only admire, K and B filled out the countless reams of paper forms, B had blood tests and Doctor's appointments and all sorts of stuff and they sent off the paperwork to apply for a green card!!

There was no guarantee, but the time was ripe, Obama was pro equal marriage rights, Green cards are federally awarded so it didn't matter whether the state in which you resided was for or against equal marriage rights.

Before they even seemed to take a breathe they had an interview date in Anchorage!

Again this mother mulled all the possible ways this could go, including what would happen if they said no!

But you know the rainbow, the one that is a symbol of gay rights, and the symbol of sunshine after rain?  Well it had a pot of gold right at the end for B and K, yep a 2 year Green Card and another interview then with the promise of a 10 year Green Card and then after another interview the possibility of applying for citizenship in the distant future.

This mother's heart is truly happy, although she misses them both so much being all the way over there, but hey what's a 24 hour flight in the scheme of things??

They were right to wear their rainbow socks on the day they were married, there was a Green Pot of Gold at the end

Thanks for popping by xxxx

The Best $5 Ever Spent

Around 15 years ago (maybe a little more), I spent $5 at Woolworths on a small rose.

It is still small in structure and now grows in a medium-large sized pot.  It gets full sun in the morning, it gets regularly battered by strong easterly winds, sometimes cooked in scorching summer conditions, only watered every other day, but it delivers, year after year.  The best $5 I have ever spent.

 It is called a Chameleon Rose, and as you will see, it's name is well deserved.

It starts as a sunny yellow bud with a touch of hot pink on the edges

Before turning almost apricot in colour

 A few days later the pink begins to over take the apricot which is softening to cream

 

Before the cream turns to white and the pink is at full intensity

Then the pink slowly fades towards the end, leaving a delicate aging white bloom

And the best thing, is that at any given time there are all the stages on the one rose bush.
Isn't it beautiful?

Thanks for popping by, hope you are having a great weekend. xxx

So What Do You Do To Cheer Yourself Up?

Well I go shopping for handbags it seems.  Went to the doctors this morning about my bung knee, she was not happy Jan and is really worried about my inflammatory arthritis ... so off this afternoon for xrays on knees, ankles and feet.  Should that be cankles?  My ankles are so swollen (so are my feet and knee) from the arthritis it is a little scary.  Good news though was my blood pressure was 123/76, woo hoo.

So, feeling a little flat, I decided to take my worn out body for a quick shopping trip, and just because I can, I went to Strandbags looking for some luggage (I will blog about that soon).  They didn't have what I wanted, but they did have the most divine buttercup yellow handbag ... it called my name from across the shop and just jumped into my hand.  It was fate I am telling you.

Now while purchasing said bag, I spied a laptop bag that was so beautiful it just had to be mine.  Black embroidered and embossed leather, 3 compartments, just to die for.  So I bought that too.  Well tomorrow is my birthday after all!!!

It wasn't until I got home that I realised I had bought a Kardashian bag - horror of horrors, but it is just so beautiful, I can ignore that, and just hope no one else notices.

See, isn't it something to covert???

The photo just doesn't do the colour justice, it has a black gusset underneath the bag
and black handles and shoulder strap.

The offending brand - lol 

Lovely yellow accents inside the bag

And 3 compartments - bliss

How divine is this laptop bag, my Mac is going to be so happy tucked up inside.

Embroidered and embossed leaves and flowers - so gorgeous and this
photo does not do it justice in any way.

Moments in Time

Siting here in my study on a weekday - late afternoon, sunny blue winter's sky, with a gentle breeze rustling through the climbing rose, window open so the breeze can waft into the house, cat sitting on cane chair in the corner that used to be my grandmothers, no dogs barking, car sounds away in the distance, small honeyeaters playing in the rose flitting from branch to branch while they court each other - quiet solitude. It was worthwhile sneaking away from work early today as this is peace. A moment in my busy life to be savoured - so sweet.