Lilies Everywhere

Whew! I said it wouldn't take me 2 weeks to get back... but it almost did!


I have to show you this...



Our summertime lilies. They're everywhere...

...in people's yards, outside of banks and restaurants, and flanking every kind of private and public driveway.




Mostly, though, they're along the roads!

They line the highways and fill...and I mean FILL... the medians.

The state of North Carolina even planted some in front of our house... we have about a 2000 sq. ft. area filled with yellow and gold lilies.

Thank you North Carolina. We love them.

- - - - - - - - -

Joe and I have been animal caretakers and undertakers the last 2 days.

Yesterday while I was enjoying my morning coffee on the patio, I saw Tahra (our timid, hide-in-the-garage, don't-pick-me-up, cat) scurry toward the bushes. While I thought her posture was a little peculiar, I didn't think much of it because she has been, to our surprise, spending a great deal of time outdoors lately.

Moments later, I saw her hustle back toward the garage with something in her mouth. "Tahra!" I yelled, "put that down... Tahra, No!" I chased her to the garage and saw that she had captured a chipmunk. She dropped it but it was bleeding badly and couldn't get away, as much as it tried. "Dang it, Tahra!"

I grabbed a pair of Joe's work gloves and picked it up. I couldn't let it just lay there, bleeding on the cold garage floor with the wicked cat looming nearby. Poor little thing was frightened, at first, but then relaxed and just breathed deeply. I held it gently as it's breaths became shallower and in about 10 minutes, it stopped breathing. {hmpf}

Then, there was the cottontail rabbit. It was also yesterday morning that we discovered a little baby bunny lying on the garage floor. No visible signs of injury, but she was just laying there on her side, barely breathing. Geez, Tahra, what the heck?!

We scooped her up and wrapped her in a soft washcloth. She wouldn't eat anything or take any water, but she laid in my lap, seemingly contentedly, all day. She seemed to get a little stronger, lifting her head and moving her front paws - we thought she might be okay. At home yesterday evening, she laid on my chest while I watched TV. She never came out of it, though, and died this morning. {groan}

Sorry... I should have saved the cheerful lilies for the end of the post!

We do have a happy ending, though. Fifteen minutes after Joe buried the bunny, he came home with a stray dog. Fortunately, ........

....... pardon the interruption.........

Okay, now I'm crying. We just reunited the stray with her mama! It was precious.

What I started to say was fortunately, she had a collar with a current immunization tag. We called her vet and the vet contacted her owner, Anne. Anne called us and we learned that the dog's name is Diva and has been missing for 12 days. She was a long way from home! When Anne came for her baby, Diva, it was a happy, tearful, licky, waggly, roll-around-in-the-grass-together, reunion.

We're happy. So is Diva and Anne!