Christmas Truck and Other Feral Thoughts

 The beloved red truck that we purchased at Big Lots is no more. The orange cats along with the help of Baby and Bootrey or maybe it is Boodos, attacked it this morning. Since Baby and one of the younger Boos spent the night accidentally in the garage, might be payback for the night being warmer, indoor facilities, food and water. This is why we can't have nice things. 

In the above picture Baby and one of Strawyer's sons are in the midst of playing in the truck. The other orange cat in the chair watches and Bootrey is out of range but he is there helping. 

The end result of playing, in the words of the beloved Patsy Cline, 🎶, "it fell to pieces"🎵

When it warms up a bit, I'll go out there and play the part of all the kings men (women) and try to put the truck together again. Yes the truck had a great fall...with some help of mischievous kittens. 

We had a cold night with a hard freeze. Some of the more shaded spots in the backyard still have snow. I usually take pictures of the first snow, but I had to be out the door and into Asheville and after fixing the gate to get out, I was running out of time to snap a few. It certainly was dusting to trace amounts of snow. This was a higher elevation snow storm. Some places in Madison County had 10 and 1/2 inches. 

Gone are the days of hardly watching TV. Roy introduced me to Pluto, a free streaming channel, and their classic TV channel plays Laverne and Shirley everyday, so far. Back in the day and even in the now time, I loved watching that show. The comedic writing was brilliant, the physical stunts award winning and mostly the chemistry of the actors, except toward the end...the California episodes should never be aired, is so watch worthy to me. Yesterday afternoon when I should have been working, I watched several episodes because they were some of my favorites. The dentist episode was on yesterday and Roy and I quote from it so often. 

The electric bill came and while Duke had predicted the bill to be around $87.00 they did not take into account the Roy factor and the bill jumped to $135.00. The electric bill is like a game to me, just like I play when filling up the truck and car getting the amount to stop on the even dollar amount. I mean I am not freezing or sweating here but when they send that prediction, in this area of game playing or just plain ol' playing, I become an overachiever from my normal chiever status. I was turning out lights behind Roy cause he has a habit of leaving them all on and turning down the heater before we leave but I missed some heater settings cause I had no clue he had jacked up the temps. Yes, opposites attract and he runs colder and I am certainly affected by heat. Thus, I did not win this round with the electric bill. That's okay, it's just a game. 

The feral fam, when not tearing up Christmas decorations, are so happy with their heated homes. I wish I could find a cover for their area that doesn't take up a huge amount of room. So far, not successful in the search. Once it warmed up yesterday, they were out in the back frolicking and playing. They play with toys as well as a piece of mulch. I should have got out the fox urine and sprayed that truck out front. Dang...oh well, can't cry over a deconstructed truck.  

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So far, the mail box barn has held the truck. Several were giving it a go to trying to dislodge the Christmas truck, but that gorilla tape did its job. 

I really enjoy this group of related ferals. They get along, well except for Punky who seems to always be in a bad mood. She is not around much and it just came to me while thinking about this, she is especially moody toward Junior and Jazzy, who are Strawyer's offspring. Radley, Bobsey and HP look after Baby, Gramps and Biggio. I've seen HP wrap them up in a full body hug to keep them warm. Mama Cat doesn't act like she feels well or maybe being a feral and age is slowing her down.