Winston Churchill and his Love of Cats and Me!

Here is the story of my family home, Winston Churchill and a famous cat called Jock!

Winston  Churchill’s mother was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother.  

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas one year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back
because of the presence of U Boats. He did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip well.   The woman had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house,,,the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named for Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one of Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.

Great piece of history don't you think...

Please help us get the funds to spay and neuter this years drop offs go to our go fund me page or mail a check to 4 Community Cats inc. a charity 502 3 c.

https://gofund.me/7356f605:

Cats, Cats. Cats!

This has been another year of trying to find homes for strays that have shown up in the winter with their young in our area.  I know the only way to stop this is to educate the pubic on getting their animals neutered or spayed, but How!

Most all of these cats are just drop offs that people can't take care of...many times because they moved and other times because they haven't the money to take care of them after getting them.

Getting a cat "fixed" costs a fortune and more than most poor families can pay.  Another hard point to make is these cats are not feral and struggle to survive with their young. These cats who just have kittens and stay close to where they can find food.  Feral cats or barn cats also need to be fixed or one years population would multiply expeditiously...programs or vets that will fix or take strays or feral cats is hard to find.

There is a difference between a community cat that stays in one area and is friendly with the area cats and a true feral cat that can support himself.  Community cats roam from place to place for food and    or for shelter.   What is really needed is a way to educate the public and the "powers that be" on the importance of programs to address these issues.

Families who take in a kitten for their kids need to understand the cost of veterinary care.  Even a local farm vet has to charge for his services and medicines...a Animal Hospital of any area charges in excess of $300 plus for such a service.

Our little community group has formed a not for profit to try and raise not only awareness of the problems in rural and poor areas but also raise funds to continue our quest to educate the public and connect them with programs and to raise funds. You can find our Facebook Page at 4 Community Cats and Rascals Find Home for Strays!   The two pictures below show our latest cats...Blackie, Jack and Dipper.

You can contact me at backstreetmary@yahoo.orcom.

Some Fun History and Mr. Wood's House,,,,

Picture I took on a trip to London
of Churchill's statue with
Big Ben in Background

I thought of some fun that might make you readers smile, especially since so many people on TV have been talking about Winston Churchill's wise words so.. here the story of home and a famous cat called Jock!

Winston  Churchill’s mother was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother.  

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas one year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip.   They had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.

A special history, a Stray, and Winston Churchill's love of Cats

Here the story of home and a famous cat called Jock!

Winston  Churchill’s mother was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother.  

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas one year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Picture I took on a trip to London
of Churchill's statue with
Big Ben in Background

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip.   They had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.

Great piece of history...please help find this new stray cat a home or its owner!

Cat Dilemma, people, Second Chance Thrift Shop, WRHS and the costs of pets

Rascal my original pet

This week the cat situation took a turn for the worst as I discovered another set of little kittens.  I have been working for a year and a half to spay or neuter the kittens and cats that someone dropped off at my house because someone told them I love cats…I don’t!   The cat that was dropped is not feral…it was a pet and it had kittens so many months old and was pregnant. 

I have put up a site on Facebook to try and help and all it has produced is people calling wanting to drop off their cats to me.  The comment I hear most is that they got a kitten so that their kids could see all about childbirth…dumb, by 8 their kids probably know more about everything than they do.

The complication that sets in are that they do not have their animals spay or neutered… and so the cycle continues.  Many just can’t afford to have it done…why get an animal?  I sure can’t afford this and humorously, a couple came over recently and we discussed that is was more expensive to take their cat to the doctors than for them to go.

In the past Wander’s Rest in Canastota issued certificates for $42 to $47 to help with the costs… but on the average to have the cat altered, the legal rabies shot, wormed and flea medicated costs about $180.  It is cheaper to have them put to sleep…although that can run $120.  This year Wander’s Rest has no money for the certificates, which, is why I have the kittens since I had waited for 2 promised for the oldest of the strays.

The Second Chance Thrift Shop now located in the former dinner building on Route 20 in Morrisville has been raising money to help the various animal agencies (see article http://www.oneidadispatch.com/20140706/your-neighbor-thrift-shoppe-given-second-chance-to-help-animals-in-need-of-homes).  “Several thousand dollars have been raised and donated to various local animal rescue programs, including Wanderer’s Rest” and it hurt nobody’s pocketbook since the items for sale are at a great price, in good condition and a boon to people who cannot afford new.

The Thrift Shop that is open on Friday and Saturday from 10:00 to 4:00 needs volunteers, since it only through volunteers that they are open.  This is a total not for profit situation.  The volunteers can work as little as one shift per month or more and the shifts are only 3 hours long…so it seems many people could donate their time if available.  For more information you can call 315-480-0336 or email rsmith@twcny.rr.com or stop in.  This is a case of need for all of the community. If you can’t volunteer, then shop there for something before purchasing it new.

A second thought is that something should be done to have clinics for the neuter-spay operation.  I am working with a few people on thoughts about setting up a special program for rural areas that use a mobile unit for veterinary school grads to serve as a summer clinic that would defray the costs of their education if they participate.  This is something New York State should get involved with…other states have them although they might be privately sponsored...it is needed.

If interested in helping or in commenting email me at backstreetmary@yahoo.com and I will get back to you...although it will take a bit as I am off line.

Stray cat of my attic cat bed and breakfast!

Wu - Chi marker in the Eaton Cemetery for a dog!

Well this has been a tough week; I finally caught the little sight-impaired cat that has been living in my attic for three years.  The cat came in with another Siamese cat who was very elderly and  died in the attic, which is how I found out that they were there.

I could never get close to her she just seemed to stare out at sounds and finally I realized that she could not really see.  When I called KIT-TEN she learned that food was being brought to her.

So I took the time to insulate the attic area she used that has a window and heat from the woodstove located in the kitchen below.  I tried unsuccessfully to get her to come closer… but no dice.  I had someone who would have adopted her …but she wouldn’t come to us.

She made friends that year with the old stray the neighbors called Curly, and for two years they lived in the attic together in the winter and she would come down and sit with him on the porch in the summer… unless something approached and then it was up the stairs to the attic room. 

To get there she had to jump through a missing windowpane, up the stairs and through another little cut out in the door.  For me to get there however, I had to go out the kitchen door, through the side yard to the garage doors, and up the stairs to her abode.

Each night I brought her (them) food, water and each time she would hide in the corner and wait until she heard me close the door and my foot hit the step, only then would she come out to eat.

Old Curly had to be put to sleep last year in the terrible hot summer…a truly aged and wise cat who had found a good retirement home in my attic. 

Then this horrible long winter came and Kitten never came downstairs.  She used the little box I put up there for her and appeared to love laying in the basket next to the little ”safe” electric heater I installed.  Then I noticed she got diarrhea.  I tried to catch her but could not, until I guess she finally knew she was in trouble.

This week she came down to the porch on her own to beg for food.  After two failed attempts at catching her, I finally got her, and took her to the vets.  Unfortunately it was too late.

And so the little stow-a-way in the attic…is gone.  This cat had been someone’s cat -she was fixed.  I assumed the two cats that had come in together were strays lost by summer people or…worse yet… dumped by someone where they had belonged to an old lady or man who was taken to a nursing home.  Yes, the friend or family says they will take care of them...but they don’t.  They just put them out with some food down and by winter they are helpless and hopeless.  It happens a lot down here. 

Wish people would understand that old cats don’t become feral after living indoors all their life…especially after being spoiled by their owners. 

So the attic is empty and this year I won’t have to worry about keeping the heat up for the upstairs cat and going out at 20 below to make the climb to the second floor attic room with food… I have boarded it up…the last occupant has left the “attic bed and breakfast.” 

I have to admit it though ...I feel terrible about her passing.  

A miserable week of dealing with cold, wind, and a Hawk!

Well this has been an unbelievable week….  It has been horribly cold here in old Eaton with temperatures and wind chills far below zero.   I unfortunately live on the lowest spot between hills at or below the level of the Chenango…in other words damp and cold.  I also live with the back of the house facing north and facing a wide-open valley.

I have spent the week trying to stay warm as the woodpile has dwindled to nothing much.  So I am burning pieces of the gnarly old Maple tree that fell on my house this summer and the old wood from my bridge.

My cat Rascal has been a real bother also, tired of staying in but not wanting to go out…and Kitten, the sight impaired stray that has chosen my attic to live in, has been keeping close to the woodstove’s heat in her comfy room upstairs.  (She still won’t come out or let me near her.)

So the other night with the wind and creaking and cat noise upstairs I thought Kitten was getting cold and wanting to be fed.  So I left the kitchen with her meal...(scramble) hearing me coming of course, she then hides until I’m gone.  I went out and up the stairs to her little insulated loft area. (Yes, I made her a room.)  Her room is over the kitchen but you get to it by going out of the house, through the garage and up the stairs.

As I got to the top of the stairs I suddenly heard a crashing, something flying against the window…and banging into the ceiling.   Startled I thought it was a small bird that got in under the roof...But it seemed terribly big...but it was dark!

So I went back to the kitchen, picked up a flashlight and a lightweight blanket to try and catch it with if I had to …and returned to the garage.  To my amazement when I got to the second floor and turned the  light on it…it was a Hawk!  A big beautiful Hawk!  It just stared at me!

I managed to get the window open and shoo it out…it flew swiftly away unharmed…but it left me wondering how it got into my garage area… and how it got to the second floor???? Better yet why????

I have been told that my totem is the Hawk and that the Hawk brings a message….hmmm.   So for the past 24 hours I have been asking myself what could that message could be???

Since there is no birdfeeder in the area…though my back yard does back to a field…he could have come from there...how did he get in…but…never mind.  He was beautiful…and I cursed myself for not bring a camera with me… But how many times do you find a Hawk in February on the second floor of your garage!  Really!

Attributes & symbolic meanings of the messenger hawk: Attention, Vision, Power, Energy, Leadership, and Intensity

For more on a Cooper’s Hawk..from Cornell

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Coopers_Hawk/id

Thoughts on cats ...Winston Churchill, History.. Eaton & Me

This week has been interesting with its weather to say the least...and I really wondered what to blog about until a deep fog fell over Eaton tonight.  The fog always reminds me of London, it also reminded me of my latest present from some friends.. a poster.   The poster was a copy of a historic poster put out just before Britain’s anticipated entrance into WWII in 1939.  Humorously, the poster was never publically displayed and recently was found and has become a new symbol...one I love… “Keep Calm and Carry On”.  What could be more British...perhaps only thoughts of Winston Churchill!

That brought me to Churchill’s mother who was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother. 

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas this year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Picture I took on a trip to London
of Churchill's statue with
Big Ben in Background

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip.   They had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.

Here is one of his most famous speeches....

Rascal the cat with a Facebook page and Cattatude!

I have had so many people ask why Rascal my cat is so spoiled...he get angus steak bits as a treat and has a plush heated sage green bed and beachcrunch any time he wants....and now a Facebook Page...so I decided to write Rasc's story.

On the Fourth of July many years ago now -  Mike Curtis came to my house and said that he and his daughter stopped at the top of Hamilton HIll on his motorcycle to view the scene and out of nowhere came a mother cat and a bunch of little kittens someone had dumped. 

He couldn't pick them up because of being on his bike and having his daughter with him.. so Mike and I jumped into my car and went up on the hill.  By the time we got there we saw no cats....as the wind whipped we called and walked the field, but could not find them.  Suddenly Mike's "kitty, kitty" was answered by a faint meow..and Mike search a hole near the road and found this ity, bity little grey furball.  We took it back to my house and gave it to my friend Chris (who was dying of Cancer) and she held it and tried to feed it while we went back to find any more that might be there.

The next day I learned that a couple stopped up on the hill and picked up the strays and had them..and we had Rasc.

Rasc became Chris' companion night and day... even the nurses that came to visit said Rascal would come in the house and jump right up on the sofa where Chris was and watch them intently....and slap at them if Chris seemed in discomfort.  After Chris' death Rascal's attitude toward me changed and the vet said she might not understand where Chris went when she died, and blamed me for taking her...so a progression of me spoiling her started.

Then Rascal became attached and extremely bossy to me..an alpha female that I refer to as "Mr. Cat" sometimes..... 

In December 2 years ago I became ill with the flu, caught it no doubt at the college where I had been using the computer.  I was staying between Syracuse and my families house that I was cleaning and fixing (since my parent's had both died)  and Eaton.  I laid down that night and had only the wood stove for heat..was very sick....did not wake up to stoke the wood stove and the temperature bottomed out somewhere in the 20 belows....all I remember is PAIN...Rascal had been scratching my face and chest..digging trying to wake me up. (I was bleeding) I remember not being able to function, and to this day I have no idea how shoeless I got Rascal and myself to my car and turned on the heat..I was confused... shaking and my feet were quite frozen but I somehow made it to Syracuse and the heated house there......My feet are still quite bad today...but the fact is Rascal SAVED MY LIFE and hers.

Today she sleeps next  to me for the most part...and should the house dip to 59-60 degrees she wakes me up.....relentless in her efforts.

So I spoil her and put up with her bad attitude..but somehow everyone likes her spunk and single mindedness ...and the truth be known they spoil her with little treats and gifts too..

PS..... for all those who like steak..Rascal will only eat Wegman's sandwich steaks (Angus) Top Round.  Cathy Nagle could not believe it..one night I was making steak on the grill for a summer treat and I proved Rascal's gourmet taste..I offered Rasc the sirloin we had..she sniffed and walked away..I then gave her some Angus I had in the Refrigerator for her treat and she gobbled it down......maybe we should think about that...she also will only eat Asiago Cheese......

Visit Rasc's Facebook Page, she is History Star's Mascot....  send a picture and story of your favorite pet to post..I have been receiving more input on Rasc's Page than mine....go figure!

PSS..she also loves her picture being taken.....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rascal-Messere/122877904487921