Why did the crawfish cross the road?

It seems that I am taking a lot of fog pictures lately. It was very foggy again this morning when I walked Zeke down Fouche Gap Road into Texas Valley. I liked the way the trees in the neighbor’s front yard marched away into invisibility.

Fading into the fog

Fading into the fog

It was not a quiet walk. With the recent rain, there was a lot of water running off the mountain, which made a constant rushing sound everywhere. Lavender Mountain is not a large mountain, so there are no large streams, but there are a lot of small ones. Most are dry most of the time. Only a few are anything near perennial.

As I expected, there was no fog at the bottom of the mountain. In the 20 or 30 minutes it took to reach the bottom of the mountain and come back up, the fog had disappeared up at the top as well. These trees had been shrouded in fog a little while before.

Lichen-covered trees

Lichen-covered trees

There are few cars on Fouche Gap Road, and I have never met another walker. But today I had a surprise.

Keep your distance, hub

“Keep your distance, bub!”

He (she?) was close to four inches long, stretched to full length. Why does a crawfish (crayfish, crawdad) cross the road? Maybe to get from the uphill side to the downhill side where the water was. I have no idea why he was on the uphill side in the first place. He was about two feet into the road, but he wasn’t making much progress, so I helped him along to avoid a crawfish pancake in the middle of the road. He was not appreciative at the time, but I fully expect him to save my life at some future date.

Friday Felines

Mark has made no secret of the fact that he isn’t really a cat person. He’s a dog person from way back. But for some reason, Zoe seems to be attracted to him, at least at night. Zoe never sleeps in our bedroom when he’s out of town, and he certainly never sleeps on our bed. But when Mark is home, Zoe is usually in the bedroom. Sometimes he jumps up on the bed and lies down on Mark’s side until he comes to bed. Sometimes he makes a bed out of the dirty clothes he leaves on the floor. Last Sunday Mark left his shoes on the towel where we put the water bowl. Zoe found them and used one shoe for a pillow.

Ahh, a nice pillow for my head, next to good, clean water

Ahh, a nice pillow for my head, next to good, clean water

Mark has a cat voice he sometimes uses so Zoe can have conversations with us. In that voice, Mark is the “Daddy Monster.” That’s more like the relationship they have. But for some reason it’s different at night.

Home again

My mother came home from the hospital last Friday. We brought her dog Lucy back from our house, where she had stayed for the week or so that Mother was in the hospital. Lucy was happy again. She jumped up on the bed and settled down next to her. My mother was also happy to see Lulu. My mother will be sleeping mostly on her back now, so Lucy can’t keep her back warm. But maybe she can keep her leg warm, at least for a while.

Warm dog. Good dog

Warm dog. Good dog

I think we’ll inherit Lucy one day in the not too distant future. I prefer big dogs, but there’s really no one else to keep her, and she has been a good companion for my mother for a long time. When the time comes, Lucy will deserve her retirement up on the mountain.

Friday Felines

Cats like to hide. Sometimes they hide in a houseplant.

Hiding in the fern

Hiding in the fern

Zoe behind the peace lily

Zoe behind the peace lily

Or in a tree.

Help.

Help.

Sometimes they just pretend to hide.

You can't see me. Can you?

You can’t see me. Can you?

Zoe in the tree was taken in my parent’s yard before Mark and I got married. Zeke was not interested in whatever I was trying to tell him. For the purposes of this post, he has been made an honorary feline.