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Preparing for Hurricane Helene


I managed to get home from work just before it started raining this afternoon. We are getting rain from the outer edge of Hurricane Helene. It will continue to move north, closer to us, throughout tonight and tomorrow. We should feel the strongest impact sometime tomorrow afternoon.

We are in a mandatory evacuation zone, which doesn’t amount to much because I know of nobody who is leaving, including us. Where would we go? All the hotels are booked, and many shelters don’t take pets. I’m sure bringing our pets to a pet-friendly shelter would be a nightmare. We probably wouldn’t be able to let them out of their carriers except for potty breaks.

The last time I checked, the storm would pass to the west of us as a category four hurricane. We live between Clearwater and St. Petersburg. The graphic I saw showed our area at the edge of hurricane-force winds. I assume that means we will feel category one force winds, which are 74-95 MPH. I don’t think our kitties will enjoy that too much. The storm might turn east, which would be bad for us, but it could also turn west, which would be a big help.

Of course, Frankie bugged the heck out of me to take him out for a walk. I picked him up and opened the door so he could see the rain. I thought that would be the end of it, but he kept bugging me, so I got his harness and took him outside.

Once outside, he stayed under the carport, where it was dry. I tied up our outdoor furniture, which Frankie found quite interesting.

Hopefully, we won’t lose power or a roof or anything like that. Wish us luck.

Chris Comes Home


I picked up Chris’s ashes from the vet today. I wanted to show you, so I took everything out and set it on a cat perch to take pictures.

Frankie jumped onto the perch, so I quickly put everything back in the bag before he knocked it on the floor. He was surprisingly curious about what was in the bag. It was almost as if he could smell Chris or somehow sense it was him. I don’t know.

This is the first time we have ever received the ashes from one of our pets. I plan on bringing him to our house in West Virginia when we go there in the spring. We have a fairly large backyard. I think that would be a good place to spread his ashes.

Hanging With Mama


Often, when Rose and I sat down to watch television, Chris would get on the sofa and lie next to me. Usually, he would be half on and half off my lap. After a while, he would decide I had enough attention, and it was Mama’s turn. he would walk over to her and lie down at her side. I found this photo from the first of August that shows this. On this day, Frankie happened to be there first, but that was more of an exception than the rule.

Rose returned from her cruise on Thursday. That evening she was saddened to know Chris would not be joining her on the sofa.

Revised Bad Cat Chris Book is Free


After Chris died, I read the book I wrote about him for the first time since I published it over eleven years ago. I’m embarrassed to say I found a lot of errors, most of which were commas. I feel I am a much better writer today, but commas are still my kryptonite. Either I don’t put them where they belong, or I put them where they don’t belong.

I went through the book and corrected the mistakes I found without changing the story. I also updated the backmatter with information about my current books. In addition, I changed the cover. I was never entirely happy with the cover. I don’t know why I didn’t change it years ago.

I decided to offer the corrected version for free today through Saturday. Unfortunately, it is only available on Kindle, so you can’t get it as a physical book. Maybe someday I’ll look into doing that. To get your free Kindle book, click here.

As always, writing a review of any of my books would be very helpful and I would appreciate it.