Cooper

A Day At The Beach Towel

2011-07-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Madeline thought it would be nice to lie out in the sun and read to her injured Roxy (she has a torn ACL) but Cooper was miffed that he hadn't been consulted. As soon as Mad spread the towel on the grass, Cooper nudged his way under it and curled up with no apparent intention of leaving. Mad regained custody of the towel and settled down to read, and Cooper sat down, too -- on the book.

Spring has sprung, fall has fell ...

2010-09-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

Autumn has come, and thank goodness for sedum, zinnia, marigolds, chrysanthemum and Cooper. Hummingbirds and raspberries are sadly behind us and apples fall from neglected trees all over town faster than we can find and eat them. I've seen a chipmunk scoot into a wing of the sailplane that sits in my garden, and wonder if there is a village of them expecting to winter inside. Cooper sometimes parks his furry bum near the port, waiting. Warm days are numbered now. I wonder if Cooper will let me give him a good brushing.

Cooper meets Eddie

2010-07-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

There's a new dog in town. His name is Eddie, and he's a ten-week-old golden retriever. Brenna was babysitting his girl, Chloe, so the three of them took a stroll down to our end of the cul-de-sac. Toby and Roxy (not shown here) were plenty excited about Eddie while they were in the house but didn't know what to make of him once they were outside. Cooper, on the other hand (who, let's remember, is actually pretty new to the 'hood himself), came out from his shady spot under Elisabeth's car to inspect the new arrival and, having stamped his passport, went back to his business of patrolling the grounds. Eddie was duly impressed, having no idea that he will someday soon be bigger than Cooper.

Cabin Fever; or Here Comes the Sun

2010-02-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Our days of late have been filled with combing the want ads and applying for jobs, activities which have become ends in themselves as the applications hurtle without effect into the ether. Luckily, it snowed a little today -- just enough to require some diversionary shovelling, yet not so much as to induce a coronary. After just a few minutes of this wintry activity who should appear but the huge, bright orange ball known as Cooper. We hadn't seen him in a few weeks, and judging from his heft he too has spent too much time indoors lately. We copped a quick squeeze before his Donna called him back inside. Soon it will be spring, old buddy -- just you wait.

Happy New Year from Cooper

2010-01-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

Cooper enjoys the festive winter holidays. After all, what's a little snow when you've got fur like his? There are still birds to hunt and projects to investigate, even if the neighbors aren't as sociable in the cold.

Today Brenna decided to assemble Jack's hang glider in the cul-de-sac and Cooper stopped by briefly to have a look. Scott let him pretend he was flying. Then he waddled to the neighbor's porch where he arranged himself artfully amid their holiday decor. Happy New Year, everyone!

Fall Fun

2009-12-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

It's a beautiful day -- the morning's ice has melted in the noon sun and there are a couple of hours to work comfortably outside sans jacket. Where to begin? Well, despite three prior rounds of leaf blowing there's a full yard's worth again, so I choose that task. Scott gets out the chop saw to cut wood to size for the shed. Who shows up almost instantly? You guessed it! The cat without whom no work can be accomplished: Cooper!

I Know You're Home

2009-11-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

My Name Is Not Bob

2009-10-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

The longest running part of our recent home repairs has undoubtedly been the creation of a concrete slab and extension of the driveway down to the toy garage. After long periods of quiet and at odd times, workers and equipment would show up and then disappear as suddenly, or just hang out at the curb for weeks at a time. The actual work seems to be finished now, but there's a bobcat and a tamping machine still loitering on the premises. To Cooper, they're just more things to investigate. Too bad he doesn't appreciate irony, but I guess that's my job.

Who's that knocking on my door? Who's that ringing the bell?

2009-10-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

It's funny: Cooper will brush right by the dogs to get into the house, but he pretty much leaves them alone when they're outside. Toby doesn't understand. He just wants to play.

Halloween is Coming

2009-10-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

Scott and I chopped some wood this morning. The idea was that I would sensibly build up my chopping capacity while he sensibly refrained from inflicting additional damage on his tendons. We filled a wheelbarrow and declared the activity completed. Meanwhile, Cooper had stayed tantalizingly just out of reach of the dogs, so we decided he owed us some studio time. Scott carried the porcine feline to our Halloween display and I started to snap merrily away. Coop obliged by producing a furball. Happy Halloween!

Kitty in the Dew

2009-09-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

We've been having a lot of work done on the house as a result of the hail storm we had in May. This morning a team of Korean men from Minnesota are fixing the siding. Unlike most of the other workers, these men are singularly uninterested in Toby and Roxy (our dogs) who nonetheless bark with excitement as they move around the house. For his part, Cooper threads his way unperturbed through ladders, workmen, materials and equipment. So here are workers outside banging on the house, dogs inside barking, and Cooper strolls right up to the door and meows.

Oh, incidentally, Roxy had a noisy run-in with a racoon on Sunday. Cooper, where were you???

Cooper Comes Inside

2009-08-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

Normally we don't let Cooper in the house (at his man's request) but this day he stood at the door and simply demanded to come in. We figured we'd let him have a short explore and then send him on his way. Cooper knows what a door is, particularly a closed door. He stuck his paws under the basement and closet doors and tried to pull them open. If it weren't for the humidity making the doors sticky, he might have succeeded. He stopped for drinks, complained about the service, had a brief lie-down and then resumed patrolling the neighborhood.

Cooper supervises replacement of wheel bearings

2009-07-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

We hooked BWII (see Glider Wife blog) up to the van to do a test tow and horrible noises came from the trailer's starboard side. I thought the little boat was having an anxiety attack, but Scott said it was most likely a frozen bearing.

Scott took both wheels off, repacked the bearings on one and replaced the bearings on the other. It was a messy job.

Cooper helped.

Cooper gets into stripping

2009-07-13T11:54:00.001-07:00

Cooper magically appears whenever we go about the yard and makes no distinction between work and lounging. He's walked between the railroad tie and the sledge hammer that was about to pound a nail into it with utter nonchalance. Today Scott applied stripper to the glider he's restoring, and Cooper just had to get up on it. The stripper is environmentally friendly. I sure hope it's specifically cat friendly. And even more specifically, friendly cat friendly.

2009-06-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

no comment.

Cooper and the snapping turtle

2009-06-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Cooper is interested in anything and everything. In early June, snapping turtles come out of the pond behind our house to lay eggs, often in the garden mulch. Here's Cooper watching Mrs. T lay more than two dozen eggs by our front walkway. When he got too close to Mrs. T Scott advised him to keep a more healthy distance. Cooper is a reasonable cat. No one got hurt.

Everyone has a blog -- Cooper should, too.

2009-06-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Cooper is the neighbor's enormous, orange, friendly, curious cat. He might as well have a blog.

That's not him on the right. That's the racoon he chased out of our garden. Go Coop!