Except maybe....TWO of them. Yep...First there was George...but then we thought he needed a playmate so tonight - as we were picking up and paying the monster bill for fixing our van - when the wife of our auto repairman said she had kittens, we just HAD to see. And this one latched onto me...up on my shoulder...kissed me and wouldn't let go. I begged my husband, "George needs a playmate!". He relented. And now, here is Chloe. George hates her so far and picks on her, as can be seen here, here, and here. Right now she is sleeping on my shoulder...but I need to get to bed. Maybe with the lights out they will entertain each other rather than pounce on my feet all night...yeah, right...he he I did the thumbnail photo with Adobe Photodeluxe, and "posterize"'d it. I love this feature. I think it looks as good as any portrait picture of a cat...or maybe one of those paint-by-number pictures...what do you think?

You never know what is just beyond your vision...what lies down the path that disappears into the dark edge of the woods ...

Paisley is a wonderful little town in Northern Ontario that I had the priveledge of staying in a couple summers ago while visiting my cousin. Here is the building that we stayed in - in the apartment to the right upstairs. This is a firehose drying shed from the days when fire hoses were made from canvas. And here is that shed just a bit closer. On our way to visit we saw neat things too...like this old train station and a group of cows that seemed to be saying, "HELLO!" Finally, here is a photo of our family's Crown Land Grant from 1797. This is the original document that has been kept in our family for many generations.

I took these on a short trip a couple of weeks ago. The fog had frozen to the trees and created an eerie scene. Here's another one in natural color, and in sepia. I'm not sure which one I like best. But anyway, here is one last parting shot...

All right, I promise, no rat photos for awhile...lol...instead, how about this beautiful start to a great sunset? And here is further to the north...what pretty fluffy clouds! I even got to see the full moon. A few minutes later, the sun looked like this.

Well, the boyz are settling in nicely. First, here's Caleb being Cute, Serious, even HUNGRY! Now here's Gizmo getting a little scritch. He doesn't like to sit still...can't you just see him saying here, "Oh Mom, do I HAVE to pose???" These last two are a bit, um, DIFFERENT. ADULTS ONLY!!! RAT ANATOMY!! Caleb shows us his furry nads, goolies, nutbutt, whatever you want to call it...I call it hilarious! This was a TOTAL accident; I swear I was NOT pointing to them on purpose! Lastly here is Caleb again giving me a kiss. He's such a sweetheart. I played around with it in Photo Deluxe; the original was too washed-out from the flash being too close.

Here are my new babies, Gizmo and Caleb! I got them on Monday. They are Beige Hooded rats, both boys, 10 months old. Originally intended as snake food, they were rescued by Heather from Happy Endings Rat Rescue (http://www.petfinder.org/shelters/IN227.html) and I adopted them from her. They are my first rats. They are shy because of the way they were raised, but I am working with them. Caleb is the shyer one, and protests more when I pick him up; his eyesight is extremely poor, and when he is trying to see something, he bobs his head from side to side. It is so cute! Gizmo is a bit less shy and doesn't protest as much when I pick him up. He is very curious and loves to have his head scratched. They are both very clean and cute and just so sweet! Plan on seeing more pictures as we all get better acquainted!

This is my first post, so please bear with me as I try to show you pictures from our recent ice storm!  Here are some things that make you go "what the...?" after an ice storm...and even mundane things look really interesting... Like a fence... and again... strange perspectives appear... and all you thought was out there was that poor tree... or that poor frozen leaf.