I'm a foster Mom!

Look what showed up on my door. Well, it was my neighbor who showed up with her. Pretty little kitty followed neighbor Cindy and her hubby home from their morning walk. They own rottweilers, and in Cindy's words, they don't know "nothing about kittens". They knocked on many doors asking if anyone is missing a kitty. No takers.

Cindy knows I have cats and came here asking if I was missing one. I'm not, but that doesn't mean I wasn't curious. So I said I'd take a look at her (Lost Kitty was in a dog cage in the back of their van). Cindy opened the cage and this sweet girl almost leaped into my arms. She was filthy dirty, loaded with fleas and terribly skinny. As soon as I saw how bad she was I told Cindy I'd take her.

The plan is to canvas the neighborhood to find an owner (personally, I think someone dumped her hoping some smuck *points to self* would take her -- people have always dumped their unwanted pets in this neighborhood). I've already called the Humane Society to see if anyone reported her missing. No one has.

Right now she has a full belly, has been combed with the flea comb, had Frontline applied, and is sleeping on the bed. If I leave the room she howls until I come back. Clearly she has been around people and is not a feral cat.

I can't help but notice she came to me on Father's Day. I think my dad had something to do with this. Cindy knew my dad and when she found her Dad was probably whispering in her ear..."take her to Augie. Take her to Augie". My dad was the biggest softie in the universe.

She's been with me all afternoon and I love her already. I'm hoping no one claims her. Like I need another cat, but hey! What is one more? Her name is Baby Girl until I find her family or until I officially adopt her (which in my mind is when I take her to the vet).

Small bed in the front of the house, to the right of the front door. It gets late afternoon sun so it's hard to find different things to plant. Last year I had lantana, so this year I thought I'd do sweet potato vines, petunias and snapdragons.

Close up of the vine and petunias.
More of the calla lillies. This is about 3 feet tall. The color is a lighter pink than the other one (posted below).

This one is not as tall, but the color is a deeper pink. Kim -- see how close they are to the house? If you plant yours just as close, in a sunny spot and mulch well I bet you won't have to dig them up each fall.

For Kim...

Kim asked for flower photos..

Calla lilies under the front picuture window. I have two bunches, and am thrilled that they keep coming back each spring. Calla lilies should be dug up each fall, but these are so close to the house that they survive the winter. Will plant a ton more this fall. Love them!

A view from the southeast corner of the house. This gets full on sun each day and the rose bush seems to do well. I planted it last summer in Dad's honor. He loved roses. Just behind the rose bush is my lavender that has been there forever. I don't even remember when it was planted (I think before I moved to Florida in 1996). Right in front of the rose is a japanese maple (it was a freebie! It just started growing from seed so I left it there -- might have to relocate it in a few years, but for now it likes this spot). You can see the back deck here. After the second blizzard in February the snow was piled above the top of the railing after I had shoveled all the snow off the deck. Not fond memories.

This is a close up of just to the left and below the rose bush. The japanese maple is to the right. The darker red plant is yarrow (LOVE yarrow! -- it blooms all summer long), and the yellow is tickseed. Just behind and between the tickseed and yarrow is my favorite flower of all time...lantana. This one is a yellow/orange/red combo. LOVE IT! You can also see a few sprigs of lavender popping up.

Another new rose bush. This is a climbing rose called "pinata". It starts out yellow/pink, then morphs into orange then red. It's gorgeous. I should have taken a picture when I planted it last month, but forgot to. Roses bloom better in cooler weather, so normally the first bloom in spring, then the last one in September have the best colors.

More of the pinata rose...

I planted orange/red lantana and a salmon/reddish small pansy right in front of the rose. This area is just to the left of the back deck, and just to the right of the lavender and yellow rose bush shown above.


My chore today is to mulch. Or maybe that will be tomorrow's chore. I've told Breezy the last three weekends I was going to mulch. LOL! I'm a big ole liar. Hopefully this weekend I'll be telling the truth. Maybe.

More pics to come!

Found!

I found Mable! She was the daughter of my Dad's Uncle Hannagin and his wife Mary. She was born in 1907 in Oklahoma. The last record I have of her is from the 1920 census when her family lived in Texas. By then she had a little sister Lucille (I cannot find any pictures of Lucille). I have no idea what happened to her, but I'm determined to keep searching.

Meet Great Uncle Hannagin and Aunt Mary, Mable's parents. Hannagin was born in 1881 in Tennessee and died in 1969 in California. He was 89 years old. I don't have any other information on Aunt Mary other than she was born in Texas around 1883. Aren't they a nice looking family?

Part of the problem with researching family members is the earlier census were all handwritten and therefore misspelling can be rampant. In addition, many people gave nicknames to the census workers instead of their given names. In my Dad's family, most of his siblings all went by their middle names (Aunt Roberta - as I knew her - was actually Mary Roberta. Aunt Veola was Opal Veola. I never knew this about either of them until I joined ancestry.com).

Great Uncle Hannagin is a perfect example of name misspellings. In the first census he is listed in -1900 - his name is spelled "Hanagam". In the 1910 census his name is spelled "Hannagie". On both the Social Security and California death certficates, it is spelled Hannagin. The only reason I finally found him, Mary and Mable was by searching for all people born in Tennessee in 1881 with just his first initial and last name. About halfway through the search I found his California death certficate and I knew it was him. California lists the person's state of birth and mother's maiden name, and it was a perfect match. Finally! My very next search gave me the 1910 census with Mary and Mable! SUCCESS!

The picture I posted of him and Mary above has the inscription on the back "Mr. H.... AugiesLast Name and Mrs. Mary AugiesLastname". It was written in pencil and is faded, and I just could not read the first name. I thought it might be Uncle Hannagin, but at that time I was looking for Uncle Hanagam. And I wasn't sure his wife was Mary, so I didn't really know who they were. Once I found the census with Mary listed as his wife, I knew the picture was of them.

It's like being a detective. I love it. As of today, Ancestry.com does not have any census records later than 1930, so I am hoping once they get the 1940 and 1950 census records I can find out what happened to Mable. But for now I'm happy to know her place on the family tree.