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Lois Lane decided to take all the blankets when I got up off the couch - guess she was chilly, too!  Sorry for another dog shot, but I'm not feeling up to par tonight and she was just looking too cute.

Big Worm is our cat, a stray who showed up 9 years ago and decided to stay, thus he lives outside.  He has a heated, insulated cat box on our covered front porch that he stays in when it's cold.  I can put my hand in that box anytime he is in there and feel the heat so I know he stays warm enough.  Today I could tell that he recently left the box due to the kitty trail he left on the porch steps.  (I'll add a link in a couple of days on how to build the insulated kitty box).

How to build an insulated cat box - step by step instructions and photos.

My boss went to Guatemala over the Christmas holidays and brought each of her employees back a hand crafted nativity scene.  The top sits over the nativity so it can be shown or not.  I think it's cute!

This is Sam, one of my mother-in-law's two cats.  We were visiting today and Sam and his roomie Sylvester were all cuddled up together in their heated box.  His ear folds over because had a blood vessel burst in his ear and it filled with blood, which eventually healed.  The ear flop is called a clover ear - thanks Matthew! (This can also happen when they have a bad case of ear mites.)   You can't tell his size well from the photo, but he is one, huge, fluffy kitteh!

The weekend was busy, but good.  We got to spend a lot of time with Portia.  She's headed back home now and we won't see her again until sometime next month due to the next 3 weekends being booked up by her plans and ours.  Blue is improving.  He's still on cage rest and probably will be for a while.  He goes back to the vet on Thursday.

Buddy was out playing in the snow today and I snagged this profile shot of him.  I had a texture that I knew would go perfectly to make a portrait and it turned out just as I'd hoped.  I love my Giant Dawg!  And boy does he love the snow.

In other news, Blue is getting worse. :( He went back to the vet today and they determined that it is not a pulled muscle, but a spine problem.  We're not sure if it stems from his previous back injury or if it's something else.  The vet put him on a steroid medication and we're praying that helps.  If not, surgery is the only option and I don't know that we should (or could) put him through another major back surgery.  He'll be 9 next month and had a 6 week recovery of the previous surgery and even then he's never been quite the same, not near as active.  So we just hope that the medication and cage rest work for him.  *fingers crossed*

This morning as I was starting my truck to warm it up for my trek into work, the moon peeked out from behind the clouds and illuminated the branches of the neighbors tree in a great silhouette.  It was 13 degrees and a few flurries were falling.  So far it's been a very cold year, about 20 degrees below Kentucky's normal average.

Today was Furminator day for Buddy. Giant, hairy dogs, Furminators and winter time static do not go well together, thus I got a smaller pile of hair off of him than usual. Giant Dawg loves to be brushed, but Giant Dawg doesn't dig static.  (As a heads up, you can expect to see quite a few dog shots during this project.  ;) )

Yup, that's my Blue.  Can't pay attention to anything for more than a second or two!

Earlier this week Jason dug and built a new fish pond in the backyard, upgrading us from a 150 gallon pond to a 2000 gallon pond!  It's gonna be awesome once we get the landscaping around it, some pond plants and the fish transferred over.  He even bought a rockin' color changing fountain that is anchored in the middle - oooh pretty!  Once it's complete I'll post up some photos of it.

So with the new setup and the pretty colors I tried my hand at some long exposure photography for the first time.  Not bad results for my first go.  I have some ideas for the next attempt and want to wait until the fish are in the pond for one of the things I have in mind.

So here's a partial view of the new pond, with the purple lights on the fountain at a 15 second shutter.

I can see again! It really is amazing how much better I can read the computer screen with my new reading glasses. Guess you really never know how bad it is until you fix it. I went cheap on the frames this time, but I kinda like them.