National Pet Memorial Day

 

 Journalist Rocky the Squirrel here –

Keeping my paws on the nuts of the world!

 .

Today, September 11th, is National Pet Memorial Day.  National Pet Memorial Day is always the second  Sunday in September.  I think it’s a fabulous day.  This day is an opportunity to remember the pets that have passed away but that are *never* forgotten.  These pets have touched our hearts, brightened our lives, comforted us and now are over the Rainbow Bridge.  They are still in our hearts and always will be.  Today, let us remember them and fall in love with them all over again.

Those that have passed the Rainbow Bridge will *always* hold a special place in your heart.  This year we lost our sweet Mouse Girl.  Although she is no longer physically with us, she is still here watching over us.  We feel her here and daily we think about her and how she touched all of our lives.

Please share your pictures and favorite stories today my friends of your passed anipals.

 

Thank You My Friends

My friends – everyone here at the Hotel Thompson wants to take the time today to say thank you.  Anytime you lose a member of your household, you feel lost and out of sorts.  YOU my friends have helped us with this grieving period through your sweet comments, cards, emails and phone calls.  There are times that we still get ready for bed at night and we call for Mouse Girl without thinking… we give our treats and get enough for her without thinking… there are so many things that we have done for over the years that included Mouse Girl that it’s hard to let it go overnight.  Today, we wanted to share a few things about our Girl in hopes that everyone sees what a special gal she was and still is watching over us.

In early 2008, Hemi’s brother Tybee passed away.  We had gotten Hemi and Tybee from a shelter when they were only 3 weeks old.  We brought them to the doctor, had them tested and bottle fed them until six weeks.  Fast forward three years and Tybee got sick.  We found out that Tybee had feline leukemia and all the testing we originally done was too early for that disease to show.   When he crossed the Rainbow Bridge, not only were we devastated but so was Hemi.  He would through a mourning period as well and wouldn’t eat, at times he wouldn’t sleep and he meowed for his brother.  In speaking with the vet, they suggested we get Hemi another friend since at that time we didn’t have any other anipals in the house.

I called a local animal shelter and made arrangements to meet a Maine Coon named Belinda.  We me and Jim got the shelter, Belinda wanted absolutely.nothing.to.do.with.me.  Can you believe that?  There was just no ‘click’.  However where Jim was standing, there was another Maine Coon that was determined to get Jim’s attention.  She was meowing to him and grabbing at his arm/shoulder through the crate she was housed.

Every time Jim would walk away, she would cry louder for him to return.  I walked over to her crate and she was trying to reach out for me.  We then got to hold her.  It was like coming home – she felt like she had always been in our arms.  She purred and jumped from me to Jim.  It’s true what they say – cats pick their own staff.

But there were other signs that this particular cat was ‘the one’ to adopt.  When I went to complete the paperwork, I found out this princess’s name was Mouse Girl and that she was born the same that my dad had passed away.

Of course, we considered these all “signs” that we were doing the right thing.  And upon getting Mouse Girl home, it was like she had been there for years.  She knew exactly where the litter boxes were, where the food/water was and where we slept.  It was quite strange.

And Hemi went right up to her, purred and started bathing her.  Two cats that had never met but seemed like they had known each other for years.  What are the odds of that?

They quickly became close buds and even drank from the fountain together – because you know a ‘bowl’ of water is just too common for them – LOL.

Life went on and although other anipals came to live here at the Hotel Thompson – Bacon and Houdini – Mouse Girl who was affectionately known to us as OMG (Oh Mouse Girl) was our girl… our princess… our baby because she was the only girl for all of these years

And although she was very loving to the other anipals, it took her time to adjust to me and Jim.  Not knowing her past history of when and how she came to the shelter, we picked up real quick that she didn’t trust very easily.  But me and Jim stood fast, gave her love and let her adjust according to her schedule.

It took her almost a solid year but she finally started coming to bed with us at night and sleeping at my feet.  And then she would come up to you and touch you with her hand as if to say, “Pet me.”

She was a big girl too which Maine Coons often are.  At her prime, she was well over 20 pounds; however, she never pushed her weight around.  If Hemi, Bacon or Houdini came up to her to play, she played.  And although there were times the boys got on her nerves and she had to do was sit on them, she didn’t.  They would squabble on one paw and then all of them would cuddle up together and sleep.

So to our beautiful OMG.  We ❤ you with all of our hearts and we thank YOU for picking us as your staff.  You will never be forgotten.

12/19/2008 – 05/08/2016

 

Bacon’s Tales of Terror

Welcome my friends to my monthly Bacon’s Tales of Terror.  Not only is it the thirteen this month, it’s Friday the 13th.  Does that make it scarier for you?  Are you afraid of Friday the 13th?  You might want to buckle up your seat belt my friends.  Today’s Bacon’s Tales of Terror is coming straight from the Hotel Thompson.  A true story that will make you second guess what you are looking at in your own home.  A story that might make you shake and shiver… and run to your mother.

You see when mom and dad first got married they had two purr things, Hemi and Tybee.  They were brothers from the same mother and one would never think so.  Hemi is a Hemingway, you know a polydactyl purr thing, and he is orange and white.  Tybee was grey – long haired and definitely mom’s purr thing. Tybee passed away in 2009 from feline leukemia.  It was totally unexpected as he had been tested twice for the disease.

Well the other morning, I was calling for mommy to wake up for work and to feed me.  She gets up, feels and sees Hemi between her and dad in the bed.  She also feels Mouse Girl (our other purr thing) at the bottom of the bed near her feet.  Gets up and walks around the bed seeing Mouse Girl and then walks out of the bedroom shutting the door.  She opens my bedroom door and we proceed to the front room where she turns on lights.  Once she turns on lights, she sees Mouse Girl lying on the couch fast asleep.

Now this fully wakes her up.  How can Mouse Girl be asleep on the couch when she saw and felt her asleep on her feet?  This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.  Mom and dad both have felt a purr thing rubbing against their legs… like Tybee used to do.  Mouse Girl and Hemi don’t do that.  And once, mom took a picture in the bedroom of the bed and there was an outline of a purr thing in the picture on her side which was not on the bed.

Do you believe in anipal ghosts?  Have you ever experienced an anipal coming back to visit with you?

 

National Pet Memorial Day

 

 Journalist Rocky the Squirrel here –

Keeping my paws on the nuts of the world!

 .

Today, September 14 is National Pet Memorial Day.  National Pet Memorial Day is always the second  Sunday in September.  I think it’s a fabulous day.  This day is an opportunity to remember the pets that have passed away but that are *never* forgotten.  These pets have touched our hearts, brightened our lives, comforted us and now are over the Rainbow Bridge.  They are still in our hearts and always will be.  Today, let us remember them and fall in love with them all over again.

Bacon’s mom was able to share some pictures with me of some of her pets that have crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  They will always hold a special place in her heart.  Please share your pictures and favorite stories today my friends.

You’ve heard Bacon speak of Tybee (a purr thing, brother to Hemi) and Honie Bear and Luckie Bear (the two pooches) that used to live here at the Hotel Thompson.  Here are their pictures – enjoy.

 Tybee dressed up for Christmas

Luckie Bear                                                                        Honie Bear

 

Hemi Hi-Jack

Hemi here.  I don’t know when this little oinker will learn here not to leave his computer logged on – HA!  I thought I would Hemi Hi-Jack the oinkers blog and tell you a great story.  That’s me in the picture above.  Mom and dad adopted me and my brother Tybee in June of 2004, right before they got married.  Awesome huh?  Instant family of four.

My full name is Hemingway – but everyone calls me Hemi.  I’m a polydactyl cat – I have more than the normal toes on my paws.  I come from the Hemingway cats in Key West. Cool huh?  Trust me, you can ask that pig – I *know* how to use this big paw of mine.  I swipe that pig on the butt every chance I get.  Shrugs shoulders.  It’s what I do – LOL.  You don’t think this paw of mine would hurt?  You want to see it, don’t you.  Okay – here you go for your entertainment.  It’s big huh?  I told you so.

When mom/dad adopted us, we were three weeks old.  Can you see the pattern here?  They adopted that pig at three weeks too.  The only difference is that he could actually eat food and still does by the bucketfuls – HA!  Us on the other paw, we had to be bottled fed.  Mom actually took us to her worky place so that she could feed us during the day.  It was really awesome.

All of these manly men, bulked and ripped would come into her office to help with our feedings.  It was really neat.  I took to the bottle really quick.  Heck, I could just about hold my baby bottle.  Tybee was the opposite.  He had to be persuaded and fed his bottle.  He was a trooper though.

This is Tybee to the left.  He was mom’s little dresser.  He let mommy do anything to him.  He was actually Santa Tybee in this picture – cute huh?  That Christmas, mommy had bought daddy his graduation ring from college.  She had tied it around his neck and he pounced in dad’s lap with his costume and the ring.  It was cool.  I think dad almost cried.

I told you we were three weeks when we were adopted.  We were so small that both of us could fit into a coffee cup together.  We were so small that mom/dad didn’t want us running around the Hotel Thompson by ourselves.  So at night, she put us in a kennel in their bedroom.  In the morning, she would open the kennel door and we would both run down the halls towards the kitchen for breakfast.  Every day like clockwork, I would throw Tybee into the wall.  He fell for it every time – HA!  Dude that cat could take a push.  He was the greatest.

Dad would pick us up at mom’s worky place and take care of us in the afternoons until she got home.  He would feed us and then work on his master studies.  He was a hoot.  I gotta say my dad is so creative.  He created what we refer to here as the Thunder Dome.

He would invert a laundry basket and put us under it so we could play around without getting loss.  Over the weeks, me and Ty learned how to push it around so we could explore but yet still be trapped in Thunder Dome.  We finally figured it out but it was a lot of fun.  <<It was very similar to this picture to the right.  Cool idea huh?>>

There was one time that stands out so vividly in my mind with those parents of mine.  We were all watching television together and mom had let us run in the front room.  They were keeping an eye on us.  Mom went to the bathroom and dad was suppose to be watching us – LOL – you know all about dad’s and watching children huh?  This can’t turn out good.

Well, mom came back in the room and dad was in the kitchen.  She sat down and started to look around.  She saw Tybee but not me.  She asked daddy and he said the best words ever, “Uh oh.”  They started the hunt and find mission looking under sofa’s, behind sofa’s, in the bedrooms, throughout the house and in the hallways – no Hemi.  Where did I go?  Mom and dad were mystified.  And then the internal mother kicked into mom.  She jumped up and ran to the kitchen.  She opened the refrigerator and there I was hanging on a shelf.  I looked at her and was like, “Wazup mom?”  Yep, I think (A) mom almost lost it right there and then in thinking she was a bad mommy – I say thank goodness she started with us kitties and not a real child – HA and (B) I think I might have lost one of my kitty lives that day.

Every since the day in the fridge, my ears and paws stay cold.  Mom and dad started calling me their Fear Factor kitty.  I guess that kind of clicks with me.

And I know you are probably asking about Tybee.  Tybee went over the Rainbow Bridge in late 2009.  He got really sick and we learned that he had feline leukemia.  It really broke all of our hearts here.  I went through a lot of testing during the time and I was fine.  But after his death, I have to admit I got depressed.  It just wasn’t the same without my bro.  Mom and dad decided that I needed a friend.  So in 2010, they adopted Mouse Girl.  Well, that’s a whole entirely different story we shall save for another day – LOL.  Hope you enjoyed the story my friends!

 

Foodie Pictures

You all should know by now that I am a hardcore foodie. You ever wonder where I get that from? My mom and dad of course – snorts. Now those humans know how to snarf. They ate some wonderful food last week on vacation at Tybee Island. And of course, they took pictures to share with me. I’m passing them along. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 🙂

I know a lot of you know who Paula Deen is – she is southern gold here in the south. Mom and dad try to go to her restaurant every time they visit. She has an awesome southern buffet bar. This is a picture of moms plate from The Lady and the Sons.
Her buffet has everything – greens, Mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, rice, mashed potatoes, baked and fried chicken and BBQ just to name a few. And they had buttermilk cheese biscuits.

Mommy said daddy even had two hoes – hoe cakes that is – snorts.  I told you they get into trouble unattended!

What you might not know is that Paula Deen has a brother who also has a restaurant. His restaurant is called Uncle Bubbas. Mom and dad went to his restaurant one night as well. His restaurant goes towards more seafood which is something you kind of crave at the sea, right? Mommy always gets the same thing – shrimp and grits. She says it’s totally awesome and loves it. Daddy always gets the full Bubba which has a little bit of everything.

Mom and dad said a couple of years ago they even met Uncle Bubba. They have a picture somewhere. I’ll have to find it. When they met him, Uncle Bubba asked mom what she did for a living. Daddy told him that she was a big girl stripper. I’m not sure what that is but Uncle Bubba seemed totally smitten with it.

They also loved the food at a local breakfast place called The Breakfast Club. Mom would have coffee on the balcony at their hotel room watching the sun come up over the ocean and then they would walk down to this restaurant. This is an absolute favorite place to eat. It’s almost like a dive from the outside but inside the smells make your tummy start rumbling for some food. The first day they went, dad had to get eggs benedict and mom got chops. That picture scared me at first until she explained it was a different type of oinker. Still scary though – shivers. And mom says this restaurant is the only place that knows how to do hash browns proper…well done and crispy. You judge.

So what do you think of these food pictures so far? There’s so much more to share later. I’m so excited to share those with you – more tomorrow my friends.