Dogs Vs. Cats

I know that I always complain about the number of dogs in my neighborhood. I think I counted 16 dogs within a 150-foot radius of my house. Crazy. Ridiculous.

But lately I've been noticing a larger number of other furry creatures hanging around the block. Cats. Especially along the 600 block of Cleve Street, the next block down from my house.

I own two cats myself and generally prefer the feline to the canine. My cats are solely indoor kitties though. They think they're outside living the life when they get to sit on the open window sill.

But these neighborhood cats. I don't recall noticing such numbers in my almost five years calling Old Hickory home. The regulars include the orange cat, the black short-haired cat, the black long-haired cat and the gray cat. There are other random ones that wander in and out of the picture. Last night at 12:15 a.m., a very pretty calico cat had joined the gang.

In addition to their growing numbers, I've noticed their brazen attitudes. You can catch them lying along the side of the road by the curb, on top of cars, under cars and, my favorite, right in the middle of the road. And I don't mean curled up, sleeping. I mean, stretched out, full length, lounging. The orange cat is usually the one out in the road and he'll see you coming, sit up and stare at you like, "You comin' through here? You think so? Alright, come on, get by."

Where did all these cats come from? And seemingly overnight? And BOLD. It's like they're hardened street cats that have seen it all and then some. And not like I'm aiming for them or anything, since I like cats, but no matter how close you come, they don't move. It's their world and you better not disturb it.

Bizarre. Dogs rule the neighborhood by day. But the cats take over at night. We humans are just there...with food and water.

New pictures!! The superstar Elizabeth!!

Here she is. This is at nine months. She is just over 10 months now. Cute anyway.

Album review, story posted

My review of Hillsong United's All of the Above is posted on CCM's website:

http://www.ccmmagazine.com/music/reviews/11542801/

So is a story I wrote on Candi Pearson-Shelton in May:

http://www.ccmmagazine.com/news/stories/11539946/

There Are No Words

A Pet Hedgehog

My nephews are in Africa and they have a new pet. They found a hedgehog (pictured below, not actual one) and the hedgehog found a home.



Its name has not been finalized yet but apparently "Bob" is a contender, alongside the popular "Fluffy." My sister says that "Fluffy" actually tickles their funny bone (uh, yeah, he's spiky, not fluffy). My younger nephew, 7-year-old Zack, the red head, has named previous pets after the first thing he sees, like "Tree" or "Bush." This time he was trying to come up with something more fierce sounding, but each possibility had about four names in it and just weren't working out. So, he landed on "Fluffy." Pretty fierce, eh?

Fluffy doesn't do much as far as pets go, apparently. When they take him out of his box, he just scurries to the nearest hiding place.

He's living in a microwave box still. My sister is looking to come up with cage ideas. He just goes in his box and they shake him out. The other night Fluffy went out to play American football with them.

He explores a bit but he spends most of his time hunkered down. My sister is looking for a fence-type of cage so they can put him outside at night. Then he can wander and eat and "use the restroom," and then they can bring him inside in the morning and put him in a nice little "house" to be cool and sleep the day away.

Learn more about the hedgehog here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog