Thankful for...

There's so much to be thankful for this turkey day. Our family and friends, we can't say enough for all the love and support over the years and being separated over the holidays can be difficult. Our health is very good despite a cold that followed us in the beginning of this years journey, we are strong, mobile and happy. The ability to retire a few years early and get out and see this beautiful land is a true blessing, especially when we have family join us from time to time. And it is wonderful as we make new friends in our travels. It is all good but there are two boys I need to give a shout out to this day. The first is my husband of over 35 years, I can hardly believe it's been this long, I guess he is just another child that's grown old (Bonnie Ratt, thank you for that verse) And the second is to my little traveling buddy, Blue. He woke me up at 2:13 just to play and even though it was earlier than I wanted to get up, he let me fall back to sleep. Then at 7:30, I woke again to a warm wet nose and chirps that let me know he wanted to join us under the covers. He slides in between Gary and I, then spins around to stretch out beside me all warm and furry softness and begins his rumble. This cat can purrrr, I mean it's like magic fingers, the mattress shakes from the vibration and he stretches his paws up to pet my chin as a thanks for petting his chin. And that purr will go on as long as we are both awake without a single quarter needed.

Now some of you might say, OMG she is a cat lover, and yes I am but there is so much more to the story. As a young girl, my mother, an artist would go to shows; cat, dog and horse shows and do portraits of exhibitors animals to earn some extra money. She once told me that cat people could be a bit snobbish at times, dog people were often lovers of both dogs and cats but horse people were true animal lovers. Have I ever mentioned that my mother also had a philosophy that if you could get a stray to follow you home, you could keep it? In our household we had many animals as pets, cats and dogs, many at any given time, horses, a raccoon, a monkey, a squirrel, a coyote, hamsters, mice, snakes, birds... You get the picture. So I guess you would have to say that we are animal lovers. So I am also thankful to have grown up in that home and continue the practice of taking in a shelter animal, in this case, a nice blue cat from the Sedona Humane Society and love them the rest of their lives getting as much love in return. Yeah, we are thankful for so much this day and throughout the year!