On my last blog, I mistakingly ommitted my son

Jeff as a runner. Indeed he was, he could run from base to base and slide in with
the very best of em.
Jeff was also known to run up the stairwell from the basement white as a ghost as if the Grim Reaper was in pursuit. Fact is Jeff would be running from his older sister
Melanie who would be right on his tail frapping various parts of his body with her
bony knuckles. He always thought he could hit the door and then the gate and make
his getaway which rarely happened unless Melanie deemed it to be.
Perhaps this is where Penny got some of her outlandish strength, endurance and speed
in witnessing just what could happen using such powers to the male species.
Well one day it all culminated and Jeff bet Mel that he could beat her in a footrace of all races
around the block. Blocks in Ely are somewhat shorter than in perhaps say SLC.
Neighborhood kids gathered round on that fateful day plus of course Penny and I. Jeff and Mel, both in top form shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk, the gun goes off and away they run
screaming and laughing down the block and out of site. Well a few minutes later here comes Mel down
the last leg of the race which was our home, hardly drawing any excess breath. Jeff was nowhere to be found and remained so for several hours not wanting to be razzed by
Spanky and Our Gang.
I'm sorry Jeff, but you didn't really believe this skeleton could remain in the closet forever. Now did you? It's been literally begging to get out.

Love, Light, Oms and Stinky Fleet Feet
The Dad

The Other Mangy Moose Plural

Was just thinking and I use the term loosely, Penny isn't the only one in the
family to have a head on with the Moose. We were walking one of the high Unita
trails around a beautiful and calm lake when Susie said quietly, ''look a moose
at water's edge" Wow, here I am not 50 feet from the gargantuan moose when a
strange but familiar feeling comes over me. I began to feel At One With The Moose.
Susie sez lets get out of here which she did leaving nothing but dug in footprints.
I on the other hand armed with the 35MM Olympic felt more and more that a connection
had indeed been made as the moose just watched me as I slowly advance on it with love in it's eyes. I mean
lets face it, I'm not entirely stupid when it comes to wild life even if you are
connected, a person could get badly hurt just by the animal love nudging you.
Which it didn't. It just faced me as I became more and more in tune. Closer I got
to the point where I could just about reach out and pet the one of nature's most wonderful creatures.
Just then moose raised it's cute head and then started thrashing the
water with its hooves and throwing its head around, bellowing, a noise I never want
to hear that close to me again. I made a run for it. Penny and Mel are not the only
runners in the family and when you combine that fact with utter fear you have something akin to meeting up with Big Foot. With the monster in pursuit, The only thing
that saved me was my sense of self preservation racing amongst the very thickest
trees the hillside had to offer. Try as they will a moose cannot get you if you are on the other side of a two hundred year old pine tree. Unless it has a large rack.....and your luck has been on the decline.
The thousand pound crazed creature finally gave up and lumbered back down toward the lake. It was at this point that it occurred to me that
thou I was "At one with the moose, the moose was possibly not at one with me"
Lesson learned! Sometime I must tell you the story of another moose gone mad
at a popular ski and hiking resort and all the people with their children fleeing, picnic baskets flying into the lake, running madly for the visitors lodge as the Bull Moose came thru the water at an unfathomable speed, lurching itself onto the boardwalks down the walk ways throwing it's horn around while we just sat few boardwalks down, me almost pissing myself with laughter. You know, I think I did.
Just tell you.
It's all too good.
Mudflap McMoose

Metric

Metric had quite an unusual start on Planet Earth. He had wandered into a farm when the temperatures were starting to dip past the freezing level. Some teenagers who lived at the farm were able to corner and capture him and put him in a big box with thier own kittens that they had to give away or be taken to the local pound which isn't a very nice place and the life span there is approximately one week. They were giving them away at our local grocery store and Susie came home with these two kittens one already
plumping out and a starving black and white white wild kitten no bigger than a large mouse. Once gaining entrance to our house he looked for the lowest place with a roof which happened to be my dresser and there he stayed. Until I talked
him out. From there on, Metric belonged to me. I would take him with me everywhere in my coat pocket and he was starting to show signs that he just might make it. You know, some canned food, some milk ect. But be aware, anything left on any surface that he could make it to, ended in his starving stomach. Totally wild, must have been the only survivor from a wild cat family or perhaps went looking for food and got lost. Who can tell. Metric thrived in my coat pocket and we became as one, well at least as much as a cat and a person could possibly be. He wouldn't let Susie get anywhere near him and if anybody came over he was gone. Good example of this was when Susie's son Eric came over for a few days on the Christmas Holliday. Never once did Metric show himself and actually Eric thought we were pulling his strings. This could be a leftover thought from when we came back from Burning Man, yes I shared a few days adventure with Eric who became somewhat freaked out on the night trip home as I was dodging floresent objects and pink bunnies. The kind of stuff one normally sees after spending 35 days at The Burning Man. When we got home, I forgot Eric was locked in the camper and went on in the house and fell into a deep and dreamy sleep. Eric had to dissassemble the door to get out but I see I am getting off track. Of all our cats we left Metric with his front claws as I never knew for sure that he wouldn't go wild again and being wild it is good to have claws. Anyway Metric liked to sun himself on the large garbage can or if there were boxes on the can of course these became his roost. Now I am using roost not in the normal sense as I know that roost pertains to chickens and the such. Well, one day Metric is no longer with us. We hate to think the worse but both knew deep down that he had been in a box I had on the Garbage Can and had been dumped into the Garbage Collection Truck and smushed. And he was my favorite cat. We looked for him in vain even going as far as the garbage site and dimly hoping that by some chance......... Then one day, swear to God, Fathers Day, this was at least two months after his dissapearance I walk out to get the mail and I see this thing that I believe to be an airborne skunk cause it was flying thru the air between posts on the railing on the porch and four paws and claws stuck firmly into my pants and leg. Yup Metric had beat all odds. He somehow avoided being totally smashed cause that is what they do with the trash with powerful hydrolic cylinders that keep smashing and smashing till they finally can get no more into the truck then dump the thousands of pounds of trash over a dump site. Don't ask me how or how he found his way home after so long , about 6 miles or so and intact to boot. Well he was quite a bit worse for wear but didn't take long to get back to speed, heal up from numerous fights he had been in and give a final growth spurt as if in defiance of the trash system. To this day he is My Cat but will let Susie get around him. This came about from her feeding all our cats, five at the time before we gave one to Eric, canned food. And to think that it happened on Fathers Day. You tell me there is not a God that looks after animals too. He will no longer have anything to do with the garbage can as you might imagine. Other than run like hell when the truck makes it's stop at the house.