Caryl Jean Everly Nixon:  

Howdy, Y'all! 1-26-2019 I apologize for having taken so long to update my profile and get back in touch. I will leave my previous comments here for reference. We have 3 cats now. Only Cherokitty, now 15, remains of the five cats we had in Belgium. They all made the trip home just fine, and had wonderful caretakers until our return. Amie, Lisette, Furrankie and Sammie will always have special cozy spots in our hearts. We adopted 2 brothers, Rudy and Bily, age 11 weeks at the time, in 2015. I visited a friend who fostered animals, and as soon as I opened the door to her cat room, this orange kitten came over, sat on my foot, and looked up at me with big blue eyes as if imploring me to take him home. When I sat on the floor to play with the kittens, the kitten perched on my leg while his brother played with the other kittens. By the time I left, the kitten had curled up in my lap and gone to sleep. I scooped him up, handed him to my friend and said, "I shall return." David balked at first, but he knows that while I may compromise on many subjects, he can't argue with me when it comes to cats, and he softened, too, knowing that our aging Sammie didn't have many more years left. Of course, we couldn't break up the set, so we ended up with the two brothers. In Belgium, I had taken quilting and bobbin lace classes from a Czech woman who became a good friend. She had made a beautiful quilt of red and white hearts, but she couldn't sell it to me because it contained fabric from dresses she had worn as a child. When I left Belgium, she gave me a pincushion made of the same red and white material, in a heart design. Fast-forward 4 years, and I asked her for Czech names for cats. Then I had an inspiration: I would name these cats Rudy, the Czech word for red, and Bily, the Czech word for white. Rudy has more red on him than white and Bily has more white on him than red. For good measure, Bily has 2 spots on him that, when he curls up, form a heart. When Rudy and Bily chewed on Cherokitty's tail, he fussed, and I reminded him that he had done the same thing with Sammie's tail as a kitten. Sammie tolerated the little brats very well. If he let out a little grunt, I knew he had had enough and separated them. Luckily, the two babies had a great time chasing each other and left the old guys alone most of the time. They all curled up together for long naps, and Cherokitty, Rudy and Bily still curl up together and keep my feet warm. David and I have enjoyed our retirement and have taken more cruises since our return to the States. We've cruised the Caribbean and South America (Cape Horn and the Straits of Magellan) and joined his sister and brother-in-law on an Alaskan cruise. We have fallen in love with Hawaii and will take our 3rd trip there in December. Our first road trip together, we drove to The Grand Canyon. We have also joined David's sister's family for Christmas gatherings in North Carolina and have basked in the warmth of his loving family. For my 60th birthday, David took me to Bermuda, and for my 65th, he let me go back to Sweden to visit my cousin and her children. My cousin wants me to return for her 80th, and David has already consented to that trip. While in Sundsvall, Sweden, I stayed in the same hotel where my Swedish grandfather stayed when he went back home for visits in the early 1900's! David's brother-in-law passed away this past October; my brother, John, died 11-12-13 (we saw him for the last time on our way to The Grand Canyon); my brother, Bill, died 8-1-09. At our age, we know we will see our circle dwindle. I alone remain of my immediate family, so I treasure even more the closeness of my remaining relatives and friends. I plan to visit Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas in May-June 2019 on my next "Friends and Family Tour." I will stop in Portland, TX, to see our former EHS English teacher, Mrs. Charlotte Barrier, now Mrs. Brown. She sends her regards to her former students. Previous notes: I will update this profile further when I have a minute, but right now I have to make it short while I take a break from...Expand for more