Life Without Facebook

What Would Life Be Like Without Facebook?

April 27, 2012 is the day I decided to join Facebook. The phone shop said to play with the mobile phone I received on a 2-year contract in September 2011, so I did - YouTube [personal concerts were lovely, although the sound quality on a phone is poor]. Then came Emails and, finally, Facebook.

Facebook, to my mind at the time, was exciting but due to limitations just wasn't like that. Initially, my friends were all family in the UK then a male cousin in Australia became friends. I had met him several years ago when he came over and spent time with my Dad, even taking him on holiday. Towards the end of May my life changed drastically - in a nice way! In my news feed there was a post from an Oz blogger - don't think I'll ever know how that happened. From there I tried to support over 60 bloggers, but eventually had to be a lot more selective about what I wanted from the experience, as I just didn't have the time to cope with that number. Now I support AND receive support from 13 bloggers. One of my lucky numbers!!

One thing I do miss is reading. Have at least 20 books untouched as yet, and I am going to make sure I have at least two hours for reading. Unfortunately, I tend to find other things to fill my time other than reading - word searches mainly! Have to be stricter with myself or the pile of books will grow - charity shops are hard to pass by when I know they will have some of the books I need to complete collections, etc.

Bracken has been posting her own blogs - crazy cat! Don't really mind as it has given me the break I needed. Still do not know what will be next, but know writers from all aspects experience blocks, when the time is right the muse will take off her gag and I'll know what to say.

Bracken's cat house!

The box was one Bracken played with regularly for well over 15 months, but I moved it to the bottom of the stairs - and she jumped in of her own accord. No doubt she will take over more of the blog as time passes, just hope she doesn't try to use the keyboard while I do as her claws are very sharp!!

Until the next time - with purrs from her and love from me! xxxxxxx

The Boy!

WARNING - SOME SEXUAL CONTENT!!!

Juniper - the Boy

I was reminded this morning that when strange cats were nearby Juniper used to sing a yowling song, meaning he was frightened and needed back-up - me! Then as I arrived the "go away" cries took over. My beloved scaredy-cat!

A very large cat, he wasn't a lap cat - but would sometimes stand on my lap, which was very painful. He preferred to sleep at the bottom of my bed and, while he didn't mind my listening to cds or the radio, any attempt to watch tv in the bedroom resulted in very loud snorts! Luckily it was a rare occurrence as trying to watch a portable tv from about 16ft away was very difficult. I never encourage my cats to mix with humans - to save them from being taken by miscreants - but Juniper had three human friends from whom he would accept attention. [Bracken is much more reluctant].

Over the years he lived here, we had some funny times. Especially about 6-7 years ago, when he started trying to mate with Bracken - both were neutered at 6 months - and he didn't really know what he had to do! Stretched out, Bracken was too long so he developed lots of ruses which failed. On the whole, I let him do what he wanted but when he tried the Missionary position, he had Bracken's throat between his powerful jaw so that was quickly stopped. He hadn't had a miraculous regrowth of the necessary, I put it down to gonads! And was pleased to discovering he wasn't delivering anything, but 'shooting blanks'! He sometimes 'humped' the blanket on my bed, and there was nothing untoward there afterwards. Thank goodness.

Unlike his sister, Bracken, Juniper didn't care to have his photograph taken very often - so those I have are all quite special. I took lots of snaps of him shortly before he went to the Rainbow Bridge, but only for my private viewing.

Trying to escape without anyone seeing!

Juniper loved suet cake, so would eat whatever the starlings and jackdaws dropped. One day he decided to help himself from the holders, but discovered it was too difficult for a big cat! Cue a slow escape, pretending he wasn't interested in the cake at all.

My Sponsored Daughter

FLORENCE - A JEWEL IN MY LIFE

In the early 2000's I became the proud sponsor of a young girl in Uganda. A shy 6-year old, Florence was the only child of peasant farmers, and my sponsorship meant she would be given supplies for School, a uniform and be able to attend School. Florence, and her parents, also had access to medical treatment and help with sanitation projects, plus help with drought-resistant seeds. Amazingly, the children have to walk to and from School, which can take 45 minutes each way! The whole community decide what they need help with, in conjunction with the Ugandan representatives of the Charity. In the years I have known Florence, a Health Centre has been built - very modern looking, and a borehole to provide safe water was developed.

Florence in her School uniform!

The very first photograph I received! She looked cute and very wary at the same time! Later photos show her in ordinary clothes, a nice change from the uniforms. Probably the only decent clothes they had to wear initially.

Children have no access to drawing equipment until they go to School!

I haven't heard from Florence herself for a few months, apparently she is studying outside of the community. Initially she wanted to be a nurse, but of course her parents will decide what she does. I am desperately hoping that she is involved in some training to do with a medical career of some type, but worried about what may have actually happened.

Until about 2010 sponsors were able to send small gift packets to 'their' children. However, the children themselves requested it be stopped - apparently the number of children who even received letters from their sponsors was really, really low - to stop jealousy. Apparently some sponsors never wrote at all, not even upon receipt of annual review and new photographs! And, of course the powers-to-be were concerned about global footprints - a lot of the items arrived in the UK from China, and then were being sent to Africa, Asia, etc. Luckily, there is no embargo on sending a sheet of stickers, blank paper and cards attached to a letter. Or postcards with all the contact details, so the children can still feel special.

Health Centre, built 2007

Several years ago I made up a folder of vegetables we grow in the UK, and explained the [old] importance of crop rotation. A local shop allowed me to take photographs of their wares and Florence was really excited when she received it - said she would like to see the items up close and in person. If I had won the Lotto I would have sponsored her to come to the UK and learn about various methods of planting and nurturing vegetables to improve the yield in Uganda.

Borehole - no more trekking miles to rivers!

When Florence turns 18, I shall no longer be able to sponsor her and I think we shall miss each other a great deal. I don't think I shall sponsor another child, it will be time for me to retire.

June 2015 - my last correspondence from Florence! She was 18 last year and I thought a mistake had happened with her date of birth. Not to be! Along with the letter, etc, there were details of a young girl [around 7-8 years old] in Senegal, who is my new 'daughter' in Africa. There was a huge surprise - a lovely smile!!! It is very rare to see anyone smile - not even Florence did in all our years together!

I was very pleased to learn she is studying to be a Nurse - she wanted that from the very beginning!

Life Begins at

Life begins at 63 years and almost 3 months of Age!!

For several months I had a desire growing in my mind that I would like to be a Blogger! Accidentally - as accidentally as things can be - found myself on a form to set up a blogging account. Did I think twice? No! Quick brainwave on the name and [dreaded] password, filled in all parts but then a question  about having the account come straight up when logging onto Facebook or an alternative choice. What are they talking about? Every time I tried one of the options was sent back up to password. Left the form and went back to my Timeline where, of course, I passed a message on to Techie Mum for help. As one does when totally clueless!

The following morning, light dawned - the password choice wasn't accepted! Why can they not say that?? Decided to wait until I knew more about what I was doing to try again. Which meant Techie Mum could download lots of helpful advice, which was read and better read. Aha! Need to get the email account on a different browser - all the messing around had caused problems on my mobile's account!

This extra time has meant the original name had to be replaced as it wasn't quite right, devised another password and worked out my About : This and that and a Pussycat! Also prepared some blogs, which was very useful as I'm currently experiencing writer's block!!

The first blog almost wrote itself - Gratitude Greetings
 - see http://www.kopskattery.blogspot.com/2013/04/23/gratitude greetings 

I still owe all those mentioned big time! Especially Techie Mum for marvelous headings! Need to send her a container of best quality champagne!!!

Once I had a few more blogs written, I decided to have a mini launch to see if people liked my work. No adverse comments, so need to get prepared for the link. Comments needed verification, so have hopefully sorted that so any comments don't have to go through the ordeal of proving they are not robots.

On Sunday, 5 May, I was supposed to be arrange the Facebook link to get my blog out into the blogosphere. I Flunked it, was worried I'd have no support and would never have more stories to tell. Luckily at 1 pm UK time yesterday, I decided the time had come to launch Kop's Kattery - it was so easy I was embarrassed that I had left it so long!

If you know a blogger who may be interested in what I write, please pass my details on. Thank you very, very much.

Techie Mum's hard work to have a header which really appealed to me, using a photo I supplied as  the basic idea.

New header, bearing in mind the 20% rule. Then we lost the words to fit in with some writing on the blog page. I love them all - so difficult to choose!!

Sometimes a story wont wait!

The Tail of the Kattery!

A year or two after Juniper and Bracken joined my family, the friend needed to go to stay with her youngest daughter somewhere overseas and it wasn't possible for me to be at both houses, so the Kattery was opened with the three cats coming here!

We had ups and downs, my oldest cat Shushu - full name Princess Shushila from MM Kaye's book 'The Far Pavilions' - wasn't pleased about Trivy, a beautiful mix of browns, wanting to be close to me in bed. Matters came to a head when Trivy jumped onto the bed and landed on Shushu - who gave her a quick slap and the lesson was learnt. Trivy was a very loving cat, so we made sure there was time for attention away from Shushu. Juniper and Bracken's litter sister, Bluey, went upstairs in a neighbour's house, and took some persuasion to let me bring her out - the furniture and orientation was the same as at her home and she thought it WAS home. The middle visiting cat was Lucy, all black. She didn't mix too well, even with the cats she lived with, and Juniper wasn't welcome in her life because he was a tom, albeit neutered.

Over the course of alternate summers when my friend went to Mexico [twice] and other places, the cats were a regular feature of our lives. The last time all three came was hellish. Shushu had gone to the Rainbow Bridge, and my two kept out of the way as much as possible. After the second night when Juniper couldn't come on my bed - Lucy kept him out - I decided that the only way he and Bracken could feel comfortable in their own house was to sleep downstairs. A single bed isn't very comfortable with 3-4 cats getting up and down all night! Added to that was the drawbacks of different lifestyles. I don't like light in the night and always close curtains, my friend didn't close them - so Trivy decided Juniper was deliberately hiding from her. Cue her jumping onto the dining-table in front of the window - biffing Juniper through the curtain and Juniper in distress. 

When the cats had arrived, Trivy was suffering from kidney problems and wasn't able to jump onto beds so to see her jump directly onto the table instead of using the cat tower was amazing. The flip side was that all night she drank water as though it was going out of fashion. [All the cats refused to use a bowl for water, preferring a plastic beaker in the fill-hole of a watering-can. Yep, home of crazy cats!] So, I had to keep a jug of water nearby to refill the beaker after Trivy emptied it - then she used the catlit tray, came back for more water all through the night. I had to move the cats' biscuits into the rear hallway, someone crunched as noisily as possible. To add to the nightly mayhem Bluey decided to slurp cat food!!!

That was the last summer for Trivy to visit us for her holidays, but my friend knew how fond I was of her oldest cat - over 20 years. So, she called in en route to the vets and I had the privilege of some lovely interaction on our way to the vets. Had the carrier on top of my large shopping trolley and needed to hold on to the carrier door, cue loving from Trivy for the last time. Since then there were fewer cats to attend the Kattery, the last being Lucy. Who only came on her own once as my friend's daughter returned to the UK from Canada. Around Christmas she went to the rainbow bridge A new Lucy lives with my friend, but the Kattery closed a few years ago - no need for it any more.   

The Runt of the Litter

Almost 15 years ago, a friend gave me the chance to add a cat to my little family - self and two cats. The cats had been with me for a long time, having lived with me for several years in London until we moved to the North in 1993, when I retired on medical grounds.

The friend's daughter looked after her then boyfriend's cats and one had given birth to 3 kittens. A grey and white queen went to live with my friend. I saw a photo of the two remaining kittens - large white and black queen who I called Juniper, and  a small tom cat, black and white, who I decided to adopt as well, called him Bracken. Within the first 30 minutes I checked the relevant body parts with my existing cats and discovered that Juniper was a tom, and Bracken a queen - wrongly sexed but the names suited them better! By accident they had the correct names!!
Since then there have sadly been losses, February 2012 saw Juniper on a one-way trip to the vets. The grey and white cat had already done that a few years earlier. Now, Bracken is the sole survivor of the triplets - yet she was the runt of the litter!

Bracken posing

Bracken loves to roll on her back inside and outside - and is camera-mad. She is a cheeky and spoiled companion. Very loving - especially if she sees me eating something she wants - and a bit of a bossy cat at times. I think she missed her brother when he went to the Rainbow Bridge, but didn't pine as some animals do. She probably knew long before I did that he was ailing.

Juniper

I noticed recently that Bracken rarely looks into my eyes, unlike her brother, Juniper, she looks at my lips.

Gratitude Greetings!

Welcome to my blog page - you are all extremely welcome!
Firstly, special thanks to Margaret, Techie Mum, and Lisa, Two Point Five Kids - without their technical expertise and assistance this blog would never exist. THANK YOU, VERY MUCH!! And Lisa who gave me the spur to pull my finger out after I emailed four photos to her so I could pick them up; need to recover them from my personal page's browser!!

Second firstly, have had lots of moral support from bloggers I support from my personal page - Elisa, With Grace and Eve, whose wordsmith talents are nonpareil; - Claudia, Little Cottage Big Ideas; - Alicia, Alicia's 365 Moments of Gratitude; - Kate, Kate Says Stuff. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!! Your support gave me the spur to fight obstacles put in my way - especially those I put there myself!

This blog has a long way to go before it is as inspiring as those I have followed in Australia in 10 months. Partly because the only thing in common is that I'm a woman - oops, and a blogger - two things!
The next post just happens to be about my cat - despite the blog name I shall not be bombarding everyone with stories and/or pictures. MY cat is a vital part of my life, but is not a major part of blogland.