Good-bye For Now, My Sweet Toulouse.

A week ago today we lost another member of our family. After more than 15 years of being my alarm clock, lap warmer and company on cold lonely nights. Toulouse went to Heaven where I'm sure she is playing with Two-Socks.

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After years of  protecting the house when we were away, leaving wonderful surprises of dead mice at the bedroom door for me to find in the mornings or giving me chest and back massages with the patting of her pretty white paws when I didn't get up at her first meow, her body finally gave out. Countless nights she would sleep on Darryl's side of the bed, and whenever we would leave town I would be the only person who didn't suffer her punishment of swats to the ankles as you walked by her on our return. 

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Her name was Toulouse but we called her Lucy for short.

Toulouse was the finest pet the feline species had to offer and she was the pet we owned the longest. In Cat years she was about 82 yrs. old. 

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After being away for  months on a job I would walk in and say "Lucy, I'm home!" and she would come sauntering in , taking her own sweet time to welcome us back. I will miss her jumping on the bed and with her whiskers and wet nose tickling my face as she purred loudly, then we would play our game of "push & love". I would push her away and try to hide under the covers and she would always come poking her nose in to find me.

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When Lucy started acting old we bought her a kitten to play with. It brought her back to life. The kitten rand off after a few months and Lucy remained her good ole' self until this last year.

She was Skye's cat and it's amazing she survived her first months with us. Two Socks played a little too hard with her and left her temporarily paralyzed in her back legs. My girls wouldn't give up on her and nursed her back to health. Lucy always had a limp, but it never stopped her. I know she loved Skye the most because Skye is the only person she would get mad at and she would swat at Skye's ankles the longest when Skye would come home, but moments later you would find her in Skye's lap purring contentedly.

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Thank you for 15 wonderful years sweet Toulouse. I know you have found our other pets in that wonderful mansion in the eternities. I look forward to saying "Lucy, I'm home" when we next meet.

♥Love you.♥

As October goes......

October in Ordos has been beautiful! I love autumn, it's my favorite time of the year and I was happy that Inner Mongolia didn't disappoint me. October also brought about several firsts for me.
My first haircut in China~ 

A visit from Garrett Griffith, a friend and neighbor from BYU's Study abroad. It was so nice to see him and his friends and see the fun they had while they were here.

I saw my first, 'non-veterinary medicine' dissected goat. Well, actually 2 goats. I walked into the multi-purpose room at work to get hot water for my soup and saw this on the table....

And this entrails and other 'innards' under running water in the sink.

I understand the local crew were preparing a special feast for the Fall Holiday.

My first face mask. No, I'm not trying to be Michael Jackson, but everyone of our crew members, including Darryl, was sick with flu, sore throat and a cold and I was doing everything I could to not get it! (That's dome #3 in the background).

I enjoyed my first acupuncture.....

....and my first hot cup, suction massage therapy. Hillary will have to tell you the official name of this procedure...

I function as a restaurant critic... sort of. Every week I go out with these lovely ladies, Robyn and Echo, and we try a new restaurant! So far it's all been delicious!

We call this restaurant "Grandmother Willow" because of the tree in the center of the dining room.

One of the things I love about Ordos is the familiarity of the climate. It is so much like Idaho that I feel right at home. Darryl and I love to take walks in the warm autumn sunshine through the many different parks. 

I rode my first camel... well, sort of.

And danced with the Mongolian Children Statues...

I had my first fish hot pot, which was delicious!

The only pigeons in this city are kept in pigeon houses. They are turned out each day for a time and they always come when their keeper calls them.

One of our walks took us to Embrace Park. This park has not been as well maintained as the other parks, probably because the apartment complexes nearby are still under construction, but it was still beautiful.

This is the reason it is called "Embrace Park". All the of Chinese words are embracing!

One more thing I love about China. No one cares what this crazy foreigner wears. They don't care if it matches or blends. It's a wonderful sense of  Fashion Freedom! 

More to come.
We took another trip to Hong Kong. I will try to get those pictures up later this week.