Mollie Hunt's Blog, page 11

RECIPES FROM THE GHOST BOOK: Eggs

Category Five: EGGS

Poor little boy! He’s dropped his bag of eggs and they have broken. Now he cries with his little dog looking on. Doggie may be in for a treat after all. Do dogs like raw eggs? I only know about cats, who usually don’t.

What a different time that was! From the boy’s costume to the eggs in a bag. Can you imagine buying eggs by the piece and then taking them home in a brown paper bag? If we still did this, there would be a lot less egg cartons, but likely a lot more broken eggs.

 

The “Egg” category of my grandmother’s cook book boasts six recipes: Eggs in a Nest, Egg Shortcake, Savory Omelet,  Potato Egg Toast, “Eggs, Nellie Kable,” and “Eggs in Potatoe Nests – Boston Apr ’12.”

 

Eggs in a Nest, a short newspaper clipping, seems like a cross between Toad in a Hole and meringue. Apparently this is served with ham, broiled pineapple or tomato slices, and fried apple for a popular Easter breakfast.

Egg Shortcake, another newspaper clipping, turns out to be creamed hardboiled egg and green peas on a biscuit. I prefer my shortcake to be cake.

Savory Omelet was cut from a magazine and includes a black and white picture. A complicated recipe for a relatively simple dish.

Potato Egg Toast is another variation on hard boiled eggs in sauce over bread. The twist here is that the potatoes are whisked into the sauce. Sounds filling.

“Eggs, Nellie Kable” is a handwritten family recipe from my grandmother’s cousin Nellie. Looks to be a glop made of  milk, cheese, eggs, and crackers boiled until thick.

“Eggs in Potatoe Nests – Boston Apr ’12” includes a Dan Quayle spelling mistake, but we won’t fault my grandmother for it. Perhaps she was going to write “potatoes” and forgot to finish. “Boston” refers to the Fannie Farmer 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, of course. I still have my copy. How about you? The recipe itself is vaguely interesting, making nests of mashed potatoes and then filling them with egg and ham.

This chapter held a bonus, though I imagine it was dropped into the book at random since it has nothing to do with eggs. It’s a newspaper clipping headed: The Housewife’s Idea Box.” This handy hint is for cleaning glass with kerosene. Copyright 1924.

 

Next Category: ENTRÉESHappy Cooking!

 

PRELUDE TO SPRING – Photographs of Cats and Flowers

Photo by Rebecca Campbell on Unsplash

Photo by Andreas Oberdammer on Unsplash

Photo by Keanu K on Unsplash

Photo by Thais Lima on Unsplash

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Final Chapter

Part 8: The Beginning

Click on the link to read Part 7: Something’s Wrong

Clarence had no more spasms and continued to improve every single day. When his 7th-month birthday rolled around, he’d grown into himself and become a confident young cat.

Dear Clarence,

I can no longer think of you as an invalid. You are a perfect, energetic, impulsive, healthy seven-month-old kitten who happens to have only three legs. You’ve learned to claw your way up onto couches and chairs and beds. You chase Tyler and outrun him when he chases you back. You take care of all your cat business as well as anyone could hope, especially when it comes to grooming that luxurious tail of yours.

Now it is I who am lacking. Having mostly cared for older cats, I must learn about life with a kitten. Dangling blind pulls need to be secured out of reach, and electrical cords safely tucked away or covered. My hand is not a toy—ouch! You bite! I must learn how to deal with this kittenish behavior before I lose a hand.

Where are you going? Under the table and behind the bench? Out you come covered with year’s old dust bunnies—gotta clean places I haven’t thought about in ages. So that’s where all the sparkly balls got to over the years? How long will it take you and Tyler to send them back into obscurity? A day?

You are discovering firsts—what a joy! Your first sight of birds out the window. Your first snow! Everything fascinates you from the tiniest scrap of paper to the big scratcher cat tree. The most fascinating of all is Tyler, who you inspire to play with toys he’s ignored for months.

You are heaven-sent to our family. The doc says you are healthy and ready to live the best life. I will give you that for as long as I can. Even if you outlive me, which is possible at my age, I have made arrangements for you to go with safe, loving people. I dedicate my life to you and Tyler, who have made such a difference in my own.

Love and whisker kisses,

Mollie

 

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Part 7

Part 7: Something’s Wrong

Click on the link to read Part 6: Forever

Clarence’s final checkup with the OHS doctors had been all good. The URI and eye infections were cured, and amazingly his heart murmur had disappeared. As I understood it, the murmur they’d heard previously could have been brought on by the surgery and anesthesia process. I was just glad it was gone. He still had a few days to go on his ear medication. Sometimes I would see him stop and try to scratch with the missing leg. How frustrating that must have been!

By this time we were into our third week together. I was keeping to his exercise instructions and restricting his playtime as much as I could for a kitten of six months. Everything seemed to be going well. Clarence and Tyler were adjusting to each other’s presence with very little aggression, and Clarence was getting stronger every day.

Then I began noticing something strange. Out of nowhere, he would flip on his back and flop around as if someone had jabbed him with a pin. The first few times, I discounted it as related to his trying to maneuver on the phantom leg, but as it continued, I found it was happening even when he was lying down.

Up until that time, Clarence had been increasingly active, coming to greet me at mealtimes and playing with his toys, but suddenly he didn’t want to move from his bed. I carried him in to sit with me on the couch where he had another one of his spasms. That’s when I contacted OHS and told them something was wrong.

They quickly offered me an appointment for the next day. Clarence spent the rest of that day and night resting in his heated bed. I witnessed no more spasms, but I wasn’t with him all the time so I couldn’t be sure he didn’t have one. The following morning he seemed back to normal, scooting around and curious about everything. Since through his resting period, he had always remained alert, the doctors and I agreed to delay a vet visit unless the issue arose again. I’m thankful to say, it did not.

To be continued…

 

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Part 6

Part 6: Forever

Click on the link to read Part 5: Decisions

I was on the spot. I needed to decide if I could offer Clarence a forever home, but I’d had only a week with him.  It wasn’t nearly enough time. I gave the OHS Customer Care folks a tentative maybe and took him back to my house. I put off the final commitment for as long as I could, but a few days later, OHS emailed me. They wanted to know one way or the other.

I love all cats. I’ve adopted my foster cats before—more than once. (Read my post, Foster Success, for just one of the stories.) But I’d always had more time to make sure the new cat was a good fit with the family. I would be winging it with Clarence.

Cats go into a foster home with the goal of healing and returning to the shelter to be offered to the general public for adoption. There was a further question I needed to answer before I could justify adopting Clarence myself: what could I offer him that another adopter couldn’t?

Then OHS called for a second and third time, asking for a decision. I could put it off no longer. I think I knew all along what my answer would be.

It was official. I brought Clarence back to OHS one last time to sign the adoption papers and have the doctors give him his final checkup. They removed his stitches and rejoiced over his progress. Though I’d driven that road between the shelter and my house more times than I could count, this trip back was different. Clarence was no longer coming to a foster house. When I brought him in from the car, he was home.

A few days later he began having spasms.

To be continued…

 

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Part 5

Part 5: Decisions

Click on the link to read Part 4: The Next Step

There I was, standing in the exam room at OHS Foster Services. The doctor had just officially cleared Clarence to go up for adoption. It was so sudden, so unexpected. I’d assumed I’d be taking him back into foster at least until he got his stitches out, and maybe longer. Now I was faced with a quandary: do I leave Clarence at OHS to await his new family, or do I adopt him myself?

I had no doubt the beautiful kitten with the missing leg would find a new home quickly. Tripods, along with one-eyed or blind cats, have a special place in some compassionate people’s hearts. Those sorts of disabilities don’t worsen or affect the overall health of the cat. They require no expensive medical treatment as do diseases such as diabetes or hyperthyroidism. Cats are incredibly resilient and learn fast to live with their shortcomings, so once a home routine is established, they are no different than any other cat.

The doctor proclaimed Clarence ready to go, but I couldn’t shake the feeling he wasn’t out of the woods yet. With his surgeries only days behind him, unexpected issues could still arise. Though recovery from the amputation and FHO surgery were the main reasons he’d been put into foster, he also had a heart murmur and was still receiving medication for an eye infection, a urinary tract infection, and an issue with yeast in his ears. All but the heart murmur were minor issues in an otherwise healthy cat, but for one whose body had just been through a major trauma, they might not be so simple.

The other option was to adopt him myself. That way I could continue to monitor him and contact the doctors at OHS if there was a problem. He could remain in his now-familiar environment instead of facing a stressful change that could tax his immune system. It would be good for him to stay with me, but it wasn’t my decision alone. I needed my husband’s okay and the assurance that the new addition would work for my other cat companion Tyler.

Last summer, Tyler’s buddy Jaimz crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and I could tell Tyler missed him, but did that mean he would welcome Clarence as a new friend? Tyler, whom I’d adopted from OHS some six years before, was now nearly twenty, big, and could play hard. Would his aggressiveness cause issues for the disabled kitten?

I’d had Clarence for a little under a week, mostly spent recuperating in his room. Clarence and Tyler had barely met each other. It wasn’t nearly enough to predict what the future might hold.

To be continued…

Tyler

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Part 4

Part 4: The Next Step

Click on the link to read Part 3: Healing

Five days after Clarence came into foster with me, he was due for a recheck at OHS. I told the doctor of his progress. She checked him over and to my surprise gave him the medical clearance he needed to go up for immediate adoption. I was shocked. Even though he had been doing well, I couldn’t imagine him going to some stranger’s home without more time to heal and adjust to his new disability. There was still a week to go before he’d even be getting his stitches out.

Would his adopters make sure he didn’t overdo? Would they keep up with his exercises? Would they understand this sweet being was going through the biggest challenge of his life? I begged the doctor to delay it, to let me keep him in foster at least until after removing the stitches, but my appeal was denied.

I understood their reasoning; it would be best to get him into his forever home as soon as possible. He’d made so much headway already, and there was no reason to think he wouldn’t continue on the path to recovery. Still, I had the nagging feeling it might not be so easy for him. As it turned out, I was right.

To be continued…

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Part 3: Healing

Part 3: Healing

Click on the link to read Part 2: Adapting

 

Clarence was making strides forward each day. His gate was a hunched scamper, but it seemed to carry him wherever he wanted to go. Since his surgery had been only days before, I limited his exercise as instructed by the doctor at OHS. I also was given a set of range of motion exercises to help the remaining leg grow strong muscles that would serve to keep it in line. Clarence enjoyed sitting on my lap with the hot compress that came before the exercises, and he was okay with the muscle massage, but the PROMS themselves were a challenge. He was a kitten after all and preferred to play-bite my hand as I tried to rotate his leg.

A kitten, he was! As he grew stronger, I allowed him more space to run around with a limited amount of ball chasing and string batting. His favorite toy was the Turbo Scratcher, a cardboard scratcher inside a track where a ball spins around. Clarence could spin the ball to his heart’s content without getting out of bed.

He spent a good amount of time in bed. Sometimes he’d be sleeping but others I’d catch him looking at me. Those soft eyes, full of wonderment. I took up quiet projects I could do while keeping him company such as organizing my embroidery threads. When he wanted to sit on my lap, he’d try to raise his front legs but would fall. I’d lift him up, then we would watch movies on my phone or listen to NPR. When he was curled up next to me, I could feel his trust growing.

To be continued…

 

CLARENCE THE THREE-LEGGED KITTEN, Part 2

Part Two: Adapting

Click the link to read Part 1: In Foster.

Clarence was shocked to find out he no longer had a back leg. I’ve rarely seen cats react with that sort of complete panic. It’s usually caused by a loud noise such as fireworks or something unexpectedly crashing to the ground. This was different. This was Clarence’s own private terror.

Once I got him back in his kennel, he curled into a tight ball. I petted him, and he relaxed quickly. Then I turned out the light, leaving only the natural glow from the window, and left him to rest. When I returned a few hours later with his dinner, he was perky and ready to go.

Lifting him from the kennel to the floor once more, I set him down near his bowl. I kept my hands where I could catch him if he fell, but this time, without a moment’s hesitation, he scooted on all-threes up to the food and began to eat.

I watched him enjoy his dinner, then sat down to see what would happen when he finished. Would he again be disoriented by his lost leg?

He ate a good portion of his meal, then turned and walked in his funny hunched gate to his floor pillow by the scratching post. He carefully got in, curled in a circle, fluffed his tail so it lay just right, and gave me a love blink. No panic or disorientation whatsoever. Clarence was already learning how to navigate a three-legged life.

To be continued…

Sleepy kitten.

REBLOGGING: The Impact of Childhood Pets on Career Success in the UK

 

Katzenworld‘s recent post, The Impact of Childhood Pets on Career Success in the UK: Survey Reveals Insights, was insightful to me, so I am reblogging it for my own followers. It’s a short read with irrefutable statistics, revealing that  growing up with a pet may be responsible for career success in later life.

For me, the two cats we cared for while I was a kid made a significant difference to my later years. What would I write my cozy mysteries about if it wasn’t for cats? I mention Two, the big Maine Coon family cat, many times in my writing.

Do you feel your childhood pets made a difference to your success as an adult?

Source: The Impact of Childhood Pets on Career Success in the UK: Survey Reveals Insights