Trisha's Story

My daughter, Trisha is a constant source of amusement to our family.  I have told her often she needs to write this stuff down and yet with four children, I'm pretty sure she has no time for that.  So maybe I'll tell you a couple of stories about her and she'll have them recorded, even if it's by her mother.

If you have brothers and sisters or children of your own, you know that they are each different, even when they are brought up in the same environment.  You have to figure when the environment is the same, genes must come into play in regards to your way of acting or thinking.  I fear Trisha is a lot like her mother, that would be me........  Sometimes she even surprises me!

Trisha has a very strong dislike of mice.  Not due to anything that happened at home, although the cat that our kids grew up with was a great mouser and would insist on hunting a night.  Upon stalking and catching her mouse, she would bring it to the girls bedroom and play with it awhile and then proceed to eat it.  Trisha would tell me of the event in some detail, I will spare you the descriptions.

Trisha's dislike of mice came when she was in college.  First she found the sofa she was using had a mouse hole under the cushions.  Don't think she ever saw a mouse there, just the hole.  The second event occurred when she and her friends rented an old house together one year.  As I recall the story, Trisha fell asleep on the bed with a bag of chips and a book.  When she awoke to the noise in the bag of chips and was confronted with mouse on her bed.  She then discovered mouse droppings in her closet, the kitchen drawers and wherever else.  I will never forget her call to me that morning, she was very upset and needed to know what to do. 

Trisha was off to the store for traps, bleach and poison.  She bleached the silverware for days before she would use it again.  If a mouse was caught in the trap, the trap and mouse went in the trash, there was no way she would touch that thing!  Oh, the days of knowledge didn't all come from the college class room.

Trisha and Bill and their four children live in a very nice new house.  They have a very old house cat that stays in the house, unless she can find a way to get outdoors.  Greta, the cat, has very cleverly learned to open the screen door on the sliding glass door and escapes on occasion.  Upon these joyful escapes, she hunts.  Greta, being a generous cat, brings her mouse to the back door to show her family what a great hunter she is and then she proceeds to eat it on the step, leaving blood drips behind. 

This event sends Trisha, the girl who grew up on a farm, in an old farm house, over the top!   The first time this happened, the cat was allowed back in the house, only after Trisha had thoroughly wiped her clean with Lysol bleach wipes.  It then occurred to Trisha that the cat might get sick from cleaning herself with the cleaning solution on the wipes.   She then proceeded to give the cat a bath.  

Greta the cat still gets out, she still finds mice and Trisha will only let her back in the house when she has had a bath.  Both have accepted the this fate and life goes on.  (oh, except for the mouse)

I requested permission from Trisha to post this and she gave me the latest update.  I found out that if Bill opens the sliding glass for fresh air and the cat opens the screen door and gets out, then he has to give her a bath when she decides to come back inside.  Bill has also accepted this fate.   Word is that he had to wash the cat before leaving for his job as school Superintendent the other morning.........


Photos:  Gray cat - Spirit Kitty (the Queen)
              Punkin' Patch (the hunter cat)  
               my studio cats...........