Walk

 outside

 speak

 Leash

 Bone

 food

 water

 Plate

 sit

 stay

hurry up (go pee)

 Pay attention (heel)

 paw

 grandpa

 Misty (the neibors dog)

 Car

 Ride

 home

 Rat

 roll over

 No

 Speak

*****PICTURES TO FOLLOW sprint is down and they are on my phone.

OK so we had company from out of town spend the night. I have had outdoor cats before bring home extra "food" when there is company. A squirrel tail  or dead bird might greet your guests in the morning when they go out to get the paper. I have only seen this in cats that I have gotten feral and let remain outdoor cats. BUT.......!!!

My cat screamed bloody murder at the back door on Monday morning I opened it up and I swear I thought I was hallucinating. My cat was sitting at the door sill looking up at me and as still as the cat was, a small baby bunny was sitting next to him, with his eyes open looking up at me. Neither of them moved they just looked at me. My minds impression was that the cat had his arm around the bunny and was saying hey mom this is so and so I brought him home for supper... but not the to eat kind of supper the can you feed it supper. That image quickly was replaced with my knowledge of cats. I muttered something and went to grab the bunny. It hopped, I panicked and it took off. The cat gently tried to stop it but at his point I was screaming at the cat and he got freaked out. I finally grabbed the bunny and ran inside and put it in a box.

Now I have been down this road before. You bring it in, you realize it is bleeding or has a broken leg, It is in shock yada yada yada. Next day your throwing it in the dumpster. Once in a blue moon you can nurse one back to health and let it go. I have NEVER had a cat bring one home unless it was injured. ........... until WEIRD MONDAY.

The rabbit was perfectly fine! Aside from being scared of me, it was fine. I borrowed a cage for it from my daughters boyfriend, bought a baby bottle and some hay and got ready to nurse the thing back to health..... or nurse it till it got older. I kept the cat out of the room with the rabbit for the rest of Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday I let him in to see what he would do. Long story short he circled, sniffed, tried to get his paw in thru the holes (and did about an inch). Then he stuck his nose up to the cage. The rabbit and the cat proceeded to touch noses! Now I am not an animal expert but I think this means hiya were friends. OK.....

So Wednesday  night I am thinking about if I should take the thing to a wildlife sanctuary. The rabbit is happily eating dandelions, clover and carrots so formula is not an issue. I feel bad because it is alone in a cage. I start thinking about putting a watch or something in the cage but I dont have anything that ticks. So I drift off to sleep with no solution.

Tonight my husband is on his way out to get the cat food (seriously we were out) and I hear them yelling from outside. I open the window and he is telling me that the cat is herding another rabbit toward the house. I run to the door and sure enough my son runs in with the ball of fur in his hands and we plop it in the cage next to the first one.

So now I have two baby rabbits I am concerned that there is more in whatever nest he is raiding. He might just keep bringing them. I think it is VERY odd that he only got the second one after he saw I had kept the first. CC, my cat, was feral when we got him. He had been surviving on soda and god knows what else in the Comcast center while it was under construction. He was trapped by the University animal control and we adopted him. I have seen little moles dead on the lawn before. Once there was a very large dead rabbit found on the porch and we were not sure but we thought the cat brought it, not sure he killed it because a neighbor said he saw one dead on the street. Of course it could have been the dog but I have only ever saw her kill a rat and she was 7 years younger then. Other than that large dead rabbit the cat has brought nothing to the door ever. If anyone knows anything about animal behavior and can shed some light on this I would love to hear your comments.

Chapter two: Circa 580 BC

Marcus Terentius Varro, the Roman scholar and director of Caesar's library said there were eleven Sibyls, one each residing in the great centers of the world.

In Persia she was Sibylla Persica, and was depicted as carrying a lantern and had a serpent under her feet;

In Libya, Sibylla Libyea held a lighted torch;

At Delphi, the Sibylla Delphica wore a crown of thorns;

At Cumae, Sibylla Cumana had a stone manger;

At Samos, Sibylla Cania bore a reed and a candle;

The Sibylla Cimmeria carried a cross;

Sibylla Erythreia held a white rose;

On the Tibur, Sibylla Tibertina was dressed in animal skins and carried    the fascista bundle of rods;

At Marpessa, Sibylla Europa carried a sword;

On the Hellesport, Sibylla Hellespontina carried a flowering branch;

Sibylla Phrygia carried a banner and prophesied resurrection.

First morning light rose over the Mountain of the Maiden. Outside under a  pine tree Taraxandra began her lessons with her young apprentices. This new batch were all local mostly from Nusco and Avellino. There were three girls and one boy. She had already had a vision about one of them. She would be called the green rose. If allowed to finish her studies she would have become the syble of the rose. This was not to be. The syble of the Rose would be sacrificed for the good of all. Taxandra would teach her all she could be taught and returned her to the town to conceive the child of the rose. Taxandra did not know it at the time but this was the beginning of the line of Natale (the people born of the manger)

Taraxandra began her lesson. She always started with a brief history of  the Sibyls of Cumea. She felt it was important for them to understand why the Tyrrheni were impotant.

"The first ones to come to Cumae were the Rasna, whom we call the Tyrrheni [Etruscans] because they were led by Tyrrhenus; They were fleeing their homeland far away. They came by sea. This was two generations before the Trojan War.".......

As  she droned on she pondered her vision of her green rose and whether or not she should send word to Erythreia. Perhaps she would gain more insight later. When Amelthea came for her visit.

"A Sibyl, Symmachia, daughter of Hippotensis, departed with them from Erythrae. They traveled far and wide before they decided to call Cumea home. After the great war, Ulysses came to consult her, and she led Aeneas down to Tartarus."

Her pondering had itself become a vision it seems. "Amelthea is coming!", she thought She finished the lesson as quickly as she could.

"About one hundread and fifty years ago the Euboean Greeks were led to this place by a dove sent by Apollo Archagetes [The Founder], where they established at Cumae on the Tyrrhenian Sea the first Greek colony here. One of their first actions was to build a Temple of Apollo on the acropolis overlooking the Crater [Bay of Naples]; It was built by Daedalus himself, who was then in flight from a certain Minos of Crete.

 The Cumaean Sibyl established herself in a cave under this temple, for Apollo is the principal God of Prophecy. She was Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus (the Blue Man), and she was a priestess of Hecate and Apollo, who are both guides through the infernal fires of Tartarus. In this there is balance, for one cannot worship the sun and not also the moon and all must worship the earth mother."

"That is all for today. You are all to report to Barte and tell him that we are expecting Amelthea before sunset and that you are to help him prepare".

Taraxandra busied herself inspecting everything in the temple. Everything had to be just perfect. It was not just the priestess from Cumea coming for a visit there was something going on something she herself did not foresee but could only feel. Aimlessly she polished the three legs of the brass chair in her chamber. "Perhaps I am to be transferred off this forsaken mountain she mused." She never could understand why she was sent here. She had always felt that Amelthea favored her above all the other Priestesses around Rome. No one who was in high esteem, would ever be sent here, she smirked.

Amethea was the sibyl of Cumea. In Traxandras view she was the most important of all the sibyls. But in truth Traxandra knew they were all equal in power. Although she was just a priestess Traxandra was sure she would one day be a sibyl. She already had the gift of prophesy and had begun her own book. In addition to the books she kept of the others.

All manner of food and drink had been prepared as well as a comfortable bed. Taraxander pondered on the trip Amelthea would have to make from her temple on the north shore of the bay, it was considerable to say the least. It was a wonder that a woman of her age even attempted it.

The roads were well maintained and not to difficult from there to Avella. However the winding road up the side of the mountain from Avella took forever to climb and was very steep in many places. Then there was the horrible zig zag road leading to the temple. That alone took the better part of a day to climb. Taraxandra often marveled at the peasants who would crawl up the entire road on their knees to beg for an audience. All who made the trip of course were blessed with fertility however it was only a preshice few who where allowed to consult the Sibyl. Those were the ones she knew were coming, like she knew Amelthea would soon be here. Taraxandra giggled. "Amelthea of course would never ask for a reading", she thought.

Taraxandra looked up to find one of her priests at the doorway. Barte was wearing a rather fancy robe and seemed a bit over dressed even for him. One of the things that kept her sanity was the devotion of her priests. They gave up all that made them men to serve her and yet they never seemed to regret it. "Priestess Taraxandra, beg your pardon, I have a letter here from one of your sisters." Barte moved a bit into the temple sanctuary and handed Taraxandra the letter. The bi-folded wooden missive was tied tightly with ribbon and sealed with wax. It was written in the language of the Tyrrheni only a very few could write in this language. And less and less were speaking it. Every sibyl could read and write Etruscan, it was the only language allowed when a syble wrote in her books of phophesy.

"Thank you Barte. How are the preparations coming? Is everything well?" Barte responded as he left the room; "Everything is fine Priestess please do not worry we have it in hand." Taraxandra opened and read the letter.

Dearest and most beloved sister,

Suddhodana, the ruler of the Sakya people has fathered a man who will change all of history. Events now conspire along with the stars and have set his son on his way to his fate.

May this find you in high spirits and good health. How I long to see your face before I must depart this earth. It is however not written. May you find peace in all things.

Erythreia

Just as she finished reading she heard the meal bell. She carefully refolded the letter and tucked it in a chest by the door. She would have to scribe it into her book later, there was not time even for something that important. As she walked out of the temple heading for her midday meal she thought, "Will I ever find the time to grieve for you, my sister?."

Taming Of the Chipmunks

All that same summer my grandmother had been explaining to me how to get the chipmunks to like you. All the animals seemed to like her. I thought of her like the Italian Snow White of New York. One day she armed me with a box of Cheerios and sat me by the well. There had been many chipmunk sightings there.

We lined up cheerios all in a row leading up to me and I was told to sit there very quite like until they came for the Cheerios. I was the kind of kid that parents dream about I did what I was told and suffered through it without flinching, until I was a teenager anyway. This took a long time but the sounds of the birds, trees and weird bugs kept me occupied and the time went by pretty fast. Stay perfectly still she said, and dont move at all.

Sure enough a chipmunk came and stole a few cheerios. He did not come very close to me but my heart was pounding with excitement. They are so cute! On the cute scale chipmunks are a ten while squirrels are like five or six. I did this every day for about a week. Each day he would show up and each day he would get a bit closer.  By the end of the week the chipmunk came right up onto my hand to eat his cheerios right there on my palm. For me it was the most wondrous thing to have that cute little orange thing with his delicate little paws sitting on my hand and eating. He would even look up at me like he was smiling. Most of the cheerios got stuffed in his mouth and his cheeks got huge. He looked very silly and very happy. Off he would run to pack them away for winter. I became very good friends with this chipmunk. He would show up sometimes when I was doing stuff in the yard and just watch me. I did not feel like he was begging it was more like he was just saying hi.

Years before we found a nest of Jack Rabbits in the very tall grass in front of the house. 5 little babies an eleven on the cute scale! Parents and me were pawing the little things and cooing having a wonderful time. When my mom called my grandmother out the pure ecstasy of the moment changed to something else.

Oh my god what have you done! My mother looked at her in shock. Put them back! No one asked why they just did it. She saw me looking sad and she came up to me and said, These are just little babies they need their mother. If you touch them their mother will smell it and be afraid and might leave the nest and the babies and run away I told her We can take care of them. Please can we keep them grandma? No, they dont want us they want their mommy. But if their mommy does not come back then we can take care of them, OK?  I slowly and sadly dumped my bunny back into its nest.

She glared at all of us Now I dont want to see anyone go near that nest. I will  watch to see if the mom comes back. She made a waving motion with her hands and we scattered like scared rabbits.

She was always up with the sun, before anyone else. She carefully checked  the nest each morning. She would let me watch from the porch for any movement in the grass. Two days went by no momma bunny was sighted.  I got very sad. Grandma did we kill the babies? How are they going to get fed?  Well it looks like the mother bunny must have died and cant come back. The nest is so close to the road look I bet she got run over. I get the feeling now that she was telling me this so I would not feel bad about scaring the mother away. She looked at me. I must have had one of those sad kid faces on because she took my hand and led me over to the nest. No mother, we are going to have to take care of them are you ready?. Yes!, I squealed. We went and got a cardboard box. She carefully picked up the nest and put it in the box.

 Ok now we have to feed them. Lets go We walked up to the general store. My memory fails me as to what we bought for them to eat. I do remember that they would not take anything not even water. My grandmother got very frustrated and she drove off in the car. She returned with a bunch of little plastic bottles with nipples on them. They looked like they were for a doll. She filled them with water and the bunnies drank from them! The bunnies were the best dolls I ever had and we fed them through those bottles every day. What she gave them I cannot remember but they thrived. As soon as the bunnies were able to hop she made us put them in the yard. She insisted that if they wanted to go we had to let them. She explained they knew we were here and if they needed food they would come back. They did come back but only for a little while and then they were gone. Every so often there would be a rabbit sighting. For at least the next 6 years, we saw rabbits on the property. They would stop pop their heads out of the grass and look at us and calmly, then go on their way. I saw a rabbit this morning was always an exciting phrase and it made my heart jump. They seemed to disappear when the chipmunks disappeared they were replaced with squirrels, just like we had at my home in the city. That was after the general store burned down and around the time they decided to pave our road.

AHHHH NO, NO, NO! MANAGA JESU CHRISTO MIA My grandmother never taught me Italian, however I learned a few of the expletives that were in the broken dialect of her familys home in southern Italy. They were from a mountain village called Nusco. She was born here however and grew up in Pennsylvania.  This was a bad one she sometimes used it on my grandfather when she was very mad. I heard the scream; it came from behind the house.

I ran thinking the boulders had won and grandma was hurt. There she was next to the big mama with a huge gaping hole in the earth next to it. She was hysterical and crying. She saw me and she said oh my god, look what I have done! So I looked and there spilled out into the hole was a huge quantity of cheerios, nuts and other strange items. Things that did not look like food but like the things you keep in a jar when youre a kid; Shiny stuff, little balls, a broken wooden toy, very weird stuff.  She had broken the little chipmunks nest in half. She started screaming, Ok, ok, help me, help me!  She was in a frenzy she said I couldnt touch it the smell would scare him. I wanted to look at it and examine it, it fascinated me. I started thinking what goes through a chipmunks mind why would he want that trash. He cant eat it

We were so panicked that I didnt get a good look at it. Careful not to touch it she used cardboard to pick it up. We took the nest and all the contents to the well and laid it out. Maybe he will find it and have time to rebuild his nest.

The Boulder Wars

The land my grandfather built his house on, like most of the land in that area of the Adirodacks was rocky. The plot had many large stones some taller that most men a very wide. For some reason unknown to most of us my grandmother waged war on all the rocks in the area.

Once a week she would take all the dead wood around the forest by the house and she would set a large bond fire up against the largest offender. It was the huge boulder that sat between the plot the house was built on and the plot next to it, which was also thiers.  The fire would rage for hours as she happily burned tree after tree. The smoke she claimed kept the mosquitoes away, which she was also at war with.  Some times live trees, which were in places that offended her, were sacrificed to the bolder wars. On more than one occasion the sheriff had to come down just to check if it was her and her doings or if it was a real fire. The watchtower on the mountain would report the smoke and he was forced to check on it. Regardless of how many times he came down I dont think she ever notified him once that she was going to build a fire. Her fires were large. Yet, somehow they never got out of hand. Leaves were also disposed of in this way and the smell would delight me mixed with the fresh mountain air. When the fire got very hot she would draw a few buckets of very cold water from the well and throw bucket after bucket on the boulder. This would occasionally cause the rock to crack in places and she would point to it and say, see! I am winning! when the fire was gone, sometimes if she were feeling particularly warrior like she would pound away on the stone with a chisel in the cracked spots. I never saw much rock come off, but when it did we both would beam with a sense of triumph.

In the back of the house was an area that she felt should be cleared for a picnic table. Every year mysteriously trees would disappear from this area. This was much to the chagrin of my uncle who wanted it wild.  Wheelbarrows full of small stones where removed from the picnic area. The small ones we used to repair the dirt road. The rest were secretly dumped on the property across the street that belonged to the Golf course.   In this area sat several very large stones. Only one I would call a boulder as it was about the same height as my grandma. Now my grandma was 4 feet 11 inches tall and if she were any shorter then technically she would be a midget so no matter what, she insisted she was 4 foot 11. However when I was 25 she only crested the top of my bosom and I know I am 5 feet high. I think she shrank a bit. When I was young she seemed to tower over everyone.

There came a day in the boulder wars when there were no more stones that were small enough to move and all that was left, was just too large, to be moved. I remember dynamite being argued about at the dinner table. My grandfather forbid it so close to the house and said you needed a permit anyway. Grandma tried every way she could to convince him it could work but in the end gave up. 

Waking up in that house for me was and adventure I was never sure how it would be done, on this day she changed the sheet I was sleeping on and when I woke up she said Oh I am sorry I didnt mean to wake you up but I had to roll you over so that I could change the sheet.  She was always up with the sun. I always slept as long as I could.

That day I went out back and there she was in her alfit. This consisted of a pair of overalls and a long sleeve shirt, big work boots and a large, old straw hat that had mosquito netting draped over it and tied up under her collar. She was there with a shovel and the wheelbarrow and there was a very large hole dug under the boulder. Very large! She saw me and smiled. I dont need dynamite! She hissed.  Watch!  She came around to the other side of the boulder and took some sort of bar and began to pry up under the rock with it. She worked very hard and I offered to help but she wouldnt let me. She told me to stay back. All of a sudden the rock moved and plunk it fell in the hole. She was grinning from ear to ear. She told me I could help bury it, so I did. We worked until the rock disappeared beneath the soil as if it never was.  This magical feat was repeated a few more times and then all that was left was the big moma boulder. It was late in the fall when this was tackled. And there was a small incident that occurred during the funeral for this large stone. That story is part of the taming of the chipmunks.

The sunset

When I was a little girl and time was something that went very slow my grandmother taught me to do something that has been a treasure to me ever since. She took my hand, as she often did, one night when the sun was going down and she lead me down the dirt road that leads to the lake. She started to walk into the yard of the big house down the road that sat on the lake. I said, Grandma we cant go in there. I was scared. She said, no dont worry, I talked to the people that lived here and they said it was all right. Now granny did not know these folk and did not care if she did. But she said that to make me feel better. No one was there since their camp had not been opened yet. We called all the houses on our road camps. She dragged scared little me to the lake and sat me on the most beautiful swinging bench that looked out over our lake Socandoga.

We started to swing and talk as the sun went down. I said grandma This is so pretty I wish we could take a picture. The sun was starting to make its way down and had turned the whole lake and the whole sky orange. She said, Well you CAN take a picture. Close your eyes and try to see the lake in your eyes and when you can see it there click the picture. When ever you want to see it, it will be there.