Shadrack the Maine-Coon Cat

What is a Maine Coon? Is it a cross between a raccoon and a cat? Not exactly. I found this website (randomly) and thought I saw Shadrack's picture. It was a picture of a Maine coon.
http://www.petplace.com/cats/choosing-a-maine-coon/page1.aspx

It describes Shadrack so well that Jason thought I was making it up. (It even mentions that one of their favorite games is fetch.) He is a silly little boy!

Jewel update

Jenny expressed concern in Jewel so I thought I would give my readers a report. :-) Jewel was not feeling well yesterday. I think she had hairballs. She was real lethargic and didn't even care when Jason petted her. She has snapped out of it and is back to her old self. I guess she saw me type "vet" and decided to get well. Cats are funny creatures.

More Pictures

This is the Ididorod Dog Sled tour. I can't spell it.

This is us in front of a glacier.

This is Lauren, Jason, Chris, Greg and me. (Note: I froze on this trip. Glacier is ice. Ice is cold. Need I say more?)

Us in Seward.

On the train to Denali.

Me in Talkeetna

I went hunting and shot a wolf.......yey right!

Jason at the gold panning sight. The reason it is cloudy is because of the forest fires.

Pictures Part 2

Here are pictures of people. If you don't recognize them, they are members of Jason's family.

This is Jason, Chris (Jason's mom) and me.

Pictures from our off roading jeep tour. We also got to pan for gold. There is a picture of me, but my shirt was hanging a little too low for me to post it on the internet. (It is not porn, but not covered enough.)

This is me at exit glacier.

Alaska Pictures---Part 1

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures....Everyone wants to see pictures. I took over 1000 pictures and Jason took 17 rolls of film. (He used Pa's old camera that takes good pictures. A digital one of those costs almost $5000.) I will be printing some of them to show everybody. Here are some landscape pictures. Disclaimer: These are not even close to how awesome it really looked. I told Pond (aka Jennifer) that it literally looked like a picture from a book or the movies. It didn't seem real.

This was taken near Exit Glacier---near Seward.


This is another beautiful mountain taken at the Widlife Conservation. It was on the route from Anchorage to Seward.


This was taken in Seward on the Resercurrection Bay (They have rocky beaches, no sand.)

This is Mt. McKinely. You can only see it 20% of the time. Jason's cousin said, "Too many tourists, no mountain for you."

Home at Last

Greetings to all! We made it back safe and sound. Though the flight back was a pain. It was 13 hours and we had to make 2 connections. (If anyone can explain how Charlotte, NC and Las Vegas are on the way to Alaska I would love it!) Not to mention us being up for almost 20 hours.

Speaking of time, I am all screwed up! In Alaska, there truly is no dark. At midnight, there was still twilight. Here is a picture I took at 10pm. I also took a picture of my watch. (I will spare you of that.) I was sleep deprived half the time because I went to bed too late. I am used to going to bed when the sun goes down. Not a good idea in Alaska.


Now that I am back, I am still messed up. Besides the fact it is dark outside....so strange....it is technically only 8pm in Alaska. (midnight in KY) Also, Jason and I were so tired that we slept for 5 hours when we got home. The good news is that I don't have to go to work tomorrow. I can't say the same for Jason. :-( Needless to say, I am wide awake. I am still weired out by the dark.

The cats were very happy to see Mommy and Daddy. Jewel was very vocal with her greeting, Shadrack was still under the bed. Jewel actually went under the bed to "tell" Shadrack it was us and he came out. We then gave them their presents: Two Alaskan Catnip pillows. Shadrack has already messed with his. Jewel was ok with it, but she blew it off to sleep with us. (I don't think she feels well. I might have to take her to the vet.)

Forest Fires are Freaky

I know I said I wouldn't blog, but we are waiting to catch the bus to the train. Anyway, a few nights ago there were thunderstorms in the area. Several fires broke out and some continue to break out. There is one close enough that it looks really weird. Though the sun is not down, it looks dark. The sky is orange and it smells like a giant campfire. (My clothes smell like a campfire.) Its looks like it will storm any minute, but the clouds are smoke, not storm clouds. They say there is one 3 miles from here. We are leaving in about 30 minutes, so maybe I will catch a glimpse. Its funny, the first day we were here the mountain was out and people made such a big deal of it. Well, I understand. I have not seen the full mountain range since we got here on Wednesday. Hopefully it will rain and it will go away. See you Monday or Tuesday.

Shadrack's name

Yesterday my mom called with exciting news. It appears that our son was not just named after his Uncle Meeshach. In fact, I have an ancestor named "Shadrach Dial." (According to the genealogy, it is spelled with a "k" or "h") He died in 1832 and had 23 children. My Shadrack will no have any children. I obey Bob Barker. :-)


I will continue later!

Another Alaskan Update

Ok, so I said I wouldn't blog in Alaska. Mostly because I didn't know if I would have access a computer. But hey, I do so I can up date you.

Today we went on a off-road jeep tour. Jason got to fulfill one of his wishes....off road in a four wheel drive that WASN'T his. (It tears the cars apart.) At first I thought it was another wilderness tour...BORING. (If you've seen one moose you've seen them all.) But then we got to go off road and it was so cool! We (I say we, but Jason drove along with another guy) got to do the typical off road things, like splash through water and mud and go over big bumps.

After 2 hours, we stopped for lunch. I got to pan for gold!! I also learned that you don't pan for gold for the money. (Sounds weird, huh?) It is the way the identify where the gold is. The more flakes, the further they start move upstream to find the source of the flakes. If the flakes disappear, stop and dig. If there is a fork in the stream test both sides to decide which side is the path to the gold. I did find gold, but the flakes were so small that if wasn't worth my time, energy or effort. (It took me 15 minutes just to pan out a lot of stuff. The flakes are so small it is hard to filter them out.)

Once again, I so want to post pictures. :-( The cord is nowhere close. If I can't blog until I get back, see you all next week. Tomorrow is the last day here, then I travel back to Seward where it is almost impossible.

Greetings from Alaska

We have now been in Alaska for several days. It is SO pretty. If you have never been up here, it is hard to imagine. (Especially if you have never seen mountains.) You stare at the sky thinking, this is out of a book...it can't be real.

We have been to Anchorage, Seward (a small town along the coast) and now we are at Denali State Park. (Or as we biased Americans call it "Mt McKinley.") They changed it back because it means "Great one" in native Alaskan. It is really neat. (Open a book and look at it. That is EXACTLY how it looks.)

We are not leaving until Sunday, so we are still here for awhile. The weather has been interesting. They say dress in layers. When we arrived, it was in the upper 60s/70s in Anchorage. We went to Seward and it was overcast so we FROZE! It was only in the 40s and 50s. (It was really cold on a day cruise.) Now we are in Denali where it is in the 70s and maybe 80s. (Who would think to bring shorts to Alaska???)

We have a cord, so I may try to post pictures in the next few days. You can only use the hotel computer for 15 minutes at a time, so this is limited. See you when we get back!

PS Our wonderful, lovely, gracious cat sitter says the kids are doing well. Jewel says hi and Shadrack is nowhere to be found. Go figure.

Catnip.....The legal drug for cats

First, let me be clear. I am against the use of illegal drugs. Any information I know I have learned from the media and books. I am also a high school teacher. (need I say more?)

However, in the world of cats, there are no illegal drugs. In the human world, some use pot or other drugs to get a "high" feeling. In the cat world, they get a high by catnip. You can buy the plants (or dried) pretty much anywhere.

As in the human drug world, there are different qualities. My cats prefer organically grown catnip from Alaska. (Thank you aunt Lauren.) I also grow catnip in the backyard. When it is in season, I will pick a leaf from time to time and rub it on their toys and carpet. It makes them go crazy! They also have two toys, the duck and carrot, that have a pouch to put catnip. I put the fresh leaf in there and it is a lot of fun for them.

They do not like the cheap stuff. I bought some catnip at the flea market in one of those cat stockings. I ended up throwing it out b/c they could care less. The more expensive, the better.

It is a mind altering drug. When Shadrack is "on" catnip, he will growl and hiss at you if you try to pet him or take it away. I would post a small video of him "high", but I don't know how to do it. Please let me know if you know how to post a video on the blog.

NOTE: The picture of Shadrack by himself, he is holding the pillow with organic Alaskan catnip. That is why he looks so attached to it.

Ode to Molly

As I mentioned in my blog before, the Kemp family had a great dog named Molly. I told my family she was on the web and they were not pleased. I barely mentioned her. So, this post is dedicated to Molly, the funny dog.

I'll back up and give you a little history. When I was in 7th grade, my younger sister Emily (or Hoagie) wanted a dog. My dad's cousin had a poodle he wanted to give away, so we drove down to Greensberg and got Lanette. She was a faithful, smart dog, but died of cancer when I was a junior in high school. We watched her die in my room on a spring night. (Might I add, that if you have a hippie animal lover teacher, you get all sorts of extensions. Like, I was SUPPOSE to have finished a book for English, but didn't. I got out of French class to go read. Thank Mme Tuck.)

Anyway, we were saddened by the loss of Lanette. Mom planted a rose garden and we put a little poodle statue in the garden. Mom said she didn't want another dog. (hahahaha) A few months later, the vet called us and told us of three poodles that were brought into the office en route to the humane society. My dad said yes and we talked about which ones we wanted. (We couldn't have 3 dogs.) We went to adopt the puppy and his mom, but only the mom was left.

Since it was Mom's birthday present, we let Mom name her. Thus where she got the name Molly. Over the next 7 years, Molly would carve a space in the Kemp family forever.

It was a rough start for Molly. She was "house-trained", but that was a lie. She only went out if she wanted to go out. After several times of pooping in the house, we had enough. She would only go if you took her on a walk. If you let her out back, she would turn around and come right back in.

What were we to do? Well, we found out they make DIAPERS for dogs. Technically they are for dogs in heat, but hey it might work. Mom bought a package of cheap disposable diapers. The only problem is the lack of a "tail hole." We cut one out and slipped it on the dog. Molly DID NOT like her diapers. She would try to take them off, but we would only take them off when she went outside. She rarely went in the diapers. (Only pooped.)

After awhile, it seemed to work. She graduated from the diapers. I modified a diaper /pull up commercial for Molly. "I'm a big dog look what I can do. I can wear big dog pants too. And I can take them off without putting them back on. Doogie Mommy, WOW! I'm a big dog now."

I only got to live at home full time for a year before going to college in the fall. But when I came home, it was a royal welcome from Molly. She would run around the house barking and going crazy. She insisted to be picked up and held for an HOUR. If I tried to put her down she would jump all over me until I picked her up. Since she was only 7 pounds, you could hold her in one arm while doing other things.

I will continue the Molly story later. Next post.....Molly is a funny dog. All the ways Molly was funny. (I think it will take 2 posts.)

Who am I?

To quote Les Miz....."I am Jean Valjean." (or 24601)

As look over my site and admire what cute cats I have, I realized that no one knows what I look like. (Or my sexy hubby for that matter.)

This is me at a cookie decorating party with my in-laws.

This is the official family photo. Since you can't pose cats, this is as good as it gets. They are both looking at the camera. I have tried to duplicate it in another setting, but it hasn't been as good.

On June 2, Jason and I went to Lisa Harshman's (now Blair) wedding. This is our picture.

This is my husband's family. I am lucky to have good in-laws.

This is my sister, Jennifer, and me. Note: I never call her Jennifer and will never call her Jennifer. She is more known as "Pond" or "Oh Pond". Typing Jennifer is just too weird.

These are the girls of the Kemp Family. From left to right, Rebekah, Mom, me, Emily (Hoagie), Jennifer (Pond), and Neleh.

Sharack is so BAD!

My husband can attest to the fact that if our "kids" were human they would be emotionally scarred. We often insult our cats from telling Jewel that she is not the sharpest tool in the shed to telling Shadrack that "you're always bad, you're never good." (Ok, I say that the most.)

My hubby usually insults Jewel (or as he calls her the "bat faced mule") and I tell Shadrack he is so bad.

As I mentioned before, Shadrack likes getting into icky things. He is also quite smart and resourceful. Jason often says "We trained our cats not to get on the table....when we're around." So this morning, I am in bed listening to the noises of the house. Note: Teachers don't have to get up before 10 during the summer. The shower was running, the A/C was humming and then I heard a plastic bag. Now Jewel likes to paw at a plastic bag on the litter box and Shadrack likes to lick kroger bags. (don't ask---he is icky!) The sound I heard was neither.

I jumped out of bed and grabbed my glasses. I came into the kitchen and CAUGHT Shadrack in the act! He had managed to get to the top of the 5 ft shelf and get a baggie with a stale crescent roll. We keep them there so Shadrack COULDN'T find them. (I guess I will be finding a new place.) He was sitting on the floor chewing a hole through the bag and had started to nibble on the roll. The funny thing is that he just looked at me. Usually if he knows he has been caught, he RUNS under the bed. I did my normal thing...grabbed him by the collar and yelled at him.

Jewel was a spectator and witness. (If she could speak English, she would have told me in detail what he did.)

As I write this, Shadrack is chasing a lightening bug that got into the house. He is chasing it around a plastic bag. He has it into a corner. Once again, Jewel is a spectator. He is too cute to put it into words. I'll predict the ending...................Shadrack catches it, plays with it, and eats it.


UPDATE: While I was spell checking (as I have to do) Shadrack caught it. He also played with it. By playing, I mean letting it try to fly away and pouncing on it about 5 times. Jewel has watched it the entire time, including a quick cat nap. He has disabled it so it cannot fly and it tried to hide and "die in peace" but Shadrack caught it again.

Jewel is now involved. By involved I mean she moved to get a better seat and the lightening bug came within an inch of her fur and she jumped 2 feet.

Jewel and Shadrack meet their Great-Grandparents (with a side about Molly)

Some people are fortunate to meet most, if not all of their grandparents in their life. Every so often, you get people who are fortunate enough to meet their great-grandparents. (My nieces have actually met their great-great grandmother.)

My "kids" got to meet two of their great-grandparents. One of the downfalls on having cats as kids (as opposed to humans) is they are not very portable. So, the chances of them ever meeting their great-grandparents is slim to none. (2 are in Fl, 1 in NE, and 4 in Lexington, KY)

However my mom's parents, known as Granny Pat and Pa, made a stop into Louisville tonight to meet the kids. Shadrack is not one to like strangers, so we tried to trap him so they would at least get to see him. He was ok, until they got out of the car. As I held him, he started to scramble......after a few claw marks, I gave up and he ran under the bed.

Jewel was social. I was a proud momma. She did not try to bite or hiss at them. They liked her and said she was very soft. She even gave a courteous hello to Granny Pat. She sniffed them and then acted like such a lovey cat. She was even good when Jason held her.

Jason and I were pleased since we got a free meal out of the deal. (Thanks, Pa!!!)

Now the cats have met most of their human family. (Their grandparents (including Dad), their 3 aunts (I guess Bill is their uncle), their 3 cousins. They really haven't met any of the feline cousins. Jewel was fortunate to meet Molly, the Kemp family mascot, before Molly went to doggie heaven.

This is Molly. She is a funny dog!

The History of Shadrack

On June 4, 2005, we invited a young kitten into our house that would change our lives. Actually, on June 3rd we went to Feeder's Supply to look at the kittens. There were two kittens, a boy and a girl. The boy was so energetic. He was bouncing all over his cage and "dive-bombing" his sister. When we held him, he tried to crawl into my purse to come home.

We tried to adopt him, but we couldn't that night. His soon-to-be sister hadn't had her yearly shots. We had to prove that Jewel was going to get her shots. We came back the next day and brought him home.

There was a problem....his name was Arnold. What an awful name for a cat. We knew we needed to rename him. But what. Actually that was easy! My in-laws have a cat named Meeshach. In case you don't know, there is a story in the Bible about Shadrach, Meeshach, and Abindigo. (They wouldn't bow to the king and were put in a fiery furnace. But b/c they were faithful to God, he stood with them in the fire and saved them.) There is also a Veggie Tales episode called "Rack, Shack and Benny." So we decided on Shadrach. But he is not your typical cat. Thus, his Momma decided to spell it with a "k" instead of an "h". (Truth: I spelled it wrong at the vet, but it kinda fits his personality.)

Back to Shadrack. He was a BABY when we got him. He didn't even know when to retract his claws to play. (Which made Mommy really made.) He had a huge forehead. As he grew, he grew into his forehead.

He has always been bad and getting into icky things. The first day we had him, he hid behind the toilet. We thought he was scared when it flushed so he wouldn't move. Ironically, he just likes gross things and the bathroom. (It is still his favorite room in the house.) He got into so much trouble as a kitten. He dumped his water bowl all over the floor and tried to lick the water out of the toilet. (He was so small it looked like he was going to fall in.)

He made me mad enough, that I stuck him under the kitchen faucet. Didn't work....he started purring. I gave up.

As a grown-up, Shadrack has had adventures by the age of two. He has eaten lunch with Daddy at work. (I took him to work to see Jason on his lunch break. He doesn't like the car.) He has been to Feeder's Supply and seen the fish and birds.

On a normal day, Shadrack keeps himself busy sleeping, chasing his sister, watching birds, catching bugs (if there are any in the house), knocking things off the coffee table, playing fetch, eating yogurt, getting pets, and making noises. He make little "meer" noises as well as humming noises. If he can't find his sister, he will call for her.

Shadrack is such a cute cat. He is 14 lbs of cat. We looked it up and he is part maine-coon cat. Not full bred, but definitely has some. My husband has had many cats growing up and he says that Shadrack is his favorite. (Sorry Meesh.)

I will keep you updated on Shadrack's adventures.

Here is his sniffing the Christmas tree.

The History of Jewel

Jewel is MY cat. I say MY because she does not like her dad. We got her when she was only 9 months old. (We thought she was a year, but then we got papers from the city saying she was born in september.) She loved her mom and her "soon-to-be" dad. (We were not married, so she was a bastard kitty.) Everything was happy. However, my husband wanted his OWN cat. So we got a little kitten named Arnold. (Which we thought was an awful cat name and changed it to Shadrack.)

Now my loving husband wanted to make sure the newest member of the house felt welcomed. He neglected Jewel. I couldn't stand a little kitten with sharp claws, so I loved on Jewel even more. The rest is history. Jewel loves her momma. She talks to me, complains about Dad, purrs with me, yells at me when I am outside....etc. She only lets Jason hold her when I am around OR if I am literally gone for several days she warms up to him.

I will keep you updated on Jewel.

Jewel is playing with an Alaskan catnip toy.

Summer for teachers

It is 11:30 and well, I should be in bed. But hey, I am a teacher and there is no school tomorrow! Some people complain about teachers and how little we work, but that is because they are jealous. I thought about pursuing another career at one point, but once I realized I only get 10 vacation days PER YEAR (and not just for Christmas) I decided to suck it up.

Also, the "little we work" is so bogus. I don't know many teachers that actually stop working at the final bell. I am not going to mention teacher pay, since that would be beating a dead horse.
(On a side note, I kinda enjoy it when politicians are trying to bail themselves out and give out teacher raises. Thanks Fletcher!)

At least my kids are happy to have their momma home for the summer.

What is a blog?

Blogs....what the heck are they? Being a math teacher, writing and I are not friends. (Reading and I are getting reaquianted.) Spelling is not my friend either. I am doing this so Emily D can keep up with what is going on. I already miss her.



This blog is named after Jewel and Shadrack, the best kids a mom could have. I have included their picture below. Aren't they cute?

Jewel is the brown and black cat reclining. Shadrack is the larger tabby-looking cat. (For all cat lovers, he is part maine-coon.)