Before & After / Lost & Found

Wow, is that a cryptic title or what?  LOL!

Before & After

I'd been thinking of getting one of my tattoos covered up for a while.  My very first one - gotten at a stereotypical dive outside Naval Station, Norfolk VA circa 1993.  I did actually put some thought into it before I went in - something small that didn't have to show if I didn't want.  So I got a red heart with 2 blue flowers and a scrolly thing just above my ankle bone.  The heart & flowers were each about the size of a dime....so small.  

However, said heart & flowers did not age well.  The flowers were almost indistinguishable as to shape and color and the heart was no longer red.  I had been tossing around the idea of getting a cat pawprint in memory of my beloved Skeeter (RIP).  

So Friday, I got a text from Miss Angela while she was at school and I was at work.  She had been wanting to get her cartilage (upper ear) pierced and since we went to a tattoo place to get her belly button done.....she suggested we go and get both her piercing / my tattoo done!  I did promise her I would take her after her competitions, so I agreed.  But I didn't see the need to her her ears done at a tattoo place when the mall was acceptable for that. 

So early Saturday afternoon, we went back to No Name Tattoo and I put myself at the mercy of Chino, the magician.  He sketched a pawprint over the heart & flowers, but it was too big.  I wanted a cat print, not a lion print!  So he looked at my leg a minute & started sketching.  Once I saw what he was thinking, I was all in. 

I'm quite happy with it!  I like how he touched up the color and updated my previous feather (Naval Station Mayport, FL dive place circa 1994 - it aged much better!) and made the new feathers blend in with it and still kept it girly with the pink & purple.  AND - this is all free-hand.  He drew it as he went along.  It's a small nod to my Cherokee heritage (something like great great grandparents were full-blood)

Damn, it hurt.  At first it wasn't too bad.  First was the drawing, then the coloring, then the detail - each time he went over it, it got more painful.  I was so glad he finally finished, 90 minutes later!  

Then we went to the mall & Angel got 2 tiny diamonds in the top of her right ear.  We decided after that we needed ice cream.  Yup!   

This is my sexy bedtime look now.  Since I'm keeping Vaseline on it for the time being, I'll put a piece of plastic wrap over it and wrap the Ace bandage around my calf.  Woohoo!

Lost & Found

Maybe I should have written this one first, since it happened first?  Oh well.  Last Tuesday, Randy was home from work, supposed to be getting all his stuff together to go to Dayton for the big Hamvention.  It was a nice day, so he opened the windows in the house.  Next thing he knows, he can't find Maddie.  

I'm sure you can see where this is going.  Almost every window in the house is rigged so the screen cannot be pushed out - except for the ones in the kitchen.  The reason there is because I don't want the cats up by my plants anyway, so we only open the top half of the windows in there. It helps let the hot air out while I'm cooking, too.  But for some reason, Randy opened the lower half and little Miss Maddie, who likes to roll around on windowsills, must have fallen out. And of course, this happened right before a lovely storm.  So she was out in the rain, then chilly damp all night, hiding somewhere. 

Luckily, she is microchipped so I went on the website Wednesday morning and filed a 'lost pet' report.  That night while I was taking Angel to dance, I got a call from HomeAgain saying they had a message from a lady who saw a cat on a FaceBook page that looked like Maddie!   I looked at the FB page (shout out to For the Love of Louie *Michigan Lost Pet Lookers*) but I didn't think this cat really looked like her, it was too fluffy & no orange.  But I called anyway.  The lady I talked to was really nice but we decided it probably wasn't her. And once I looked at where she was located - 15 miles away - I knew it wasn't Maddie.  So I decided to post her on the FB page since I was there.  

Now it's about 10:30pm Wednesday night, so I decide to go outside and call for her one last time.  I'd gone out earlier with her food dish and a fork, tapping it and calling "Maddie, dinner" since she knows that phrase!  I stepped outside and as soon as I said her name, I heard a loud MEOW right in front of me, coming from under my car!  I almost had a heart attack!  So I sat down on the step and talked to her.  Every time I said something, she'd meow, so I knew it was her. I needed a flashlight, so I went back in to grab one off the table - the door didn't even get to close fully and when I opened it again, she was right there!  I was so happy to see her!  I had to text Randy, since he left at noon for Dayton. 

Then I had to let HomeAgain know she was home.  And also the FB page, where she was posted for all of 10 minutes.  I offered her dinner, but she wasn't interested.  She did go use the litter box and when she walked back by, she was really thumping, like her front legs hurt.  I decided to keep an eye on her and if her legs didn't get better, I would have taken her to the vet.  She did get up on the bed that night, and she was barely favoring them Thursday and now it's like she never even had her little adventure. 

Funny thing is - the exact same thing happened to Chester, right after we'd brought him home from th Humane Society.  He got in the window & accidentally pushed the screen out.  During a rain storm, of course!  But at least Randy saw him and managed to catch him an hour or so later.  Another reason we open the top half!  

But everyone is home safe & sound.  And judging my the itching going on - my leg is tarting to heal.  

Life is good!