Gray. Rainy. Lights on all day long. Impossible to get a good photo.

Since I have two more pieces from my smallish Roseville collection to share with you, I’ve had to resort to pulling older photos from the bowels of this blog. Bear with me.

You’ve seen the cornucopia on the left. But I also have the green dish in Apple Blossom. Both of these pieces live on my dresser, which, I might add, is a heck of lot more cluttered than this older photo would indicate.

(I just deleted the other photo because the code was acting strangely. I’ll take a photo of it another day.)

We’re all caught up!

Today, all of the furniture is being removed from my parents’ condo. Meredith found an organization that works with the homeless that is willing to take everything, so we feel very good about that. Meredith has had to spend some time there in the past few days doing some clean-up and I know that has been hard on her. Too many memories.

Once everything is removed, she’s going to meet with a realtor later in the day to see just what we need to do, if anything, before we put it on the market.

Our biggest worry was what to do with the cats. Luke is gentle and lovely, so we knew we would have no problem finding him a home. But Lydia can be mean, is very territorial and protective of everything in the condo. We promised my dad we would try to keep them together, but for a while there, it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen. Stacy, my dad’s caregiver, volunteered to take them, but she already has 3 cats and a couple of dogs and four children and she was about to move to a different apartment and I was worried that these 2 cats who had only lived in a quiet condo with my parents would not be able to cope with other animals.

Meredith has a friend who has a true gift and can communicate with animals. She has also been involved with cat rescue in the past, so she really knows cats. We asked her to talk to Lydia and tell her that Dad was gone and he wouldn’t be coming back and that we wanted to find a happy home for her but her aggressive behavior was going to keep anyone from adopting her. Once that conversation happened, Lydia started to change. Stacy, who was helping pack up the condo, spent time with her while she was there and assured us that Lydia would be okay. It was clear that Stacy, who had promised my dad she would adopt the cats, wanted to make good on her promise.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when Stacy picked up both cats and took them home with her. And then to a week later, when she sent me pictures of her daughter petting Lydia. She even sent me a video of Lydia clearly loving all the attention. She was a cat transformed. It’s an ongoing process, I know, but the change is evident.

I sat there and cried. Thank heavens for Stacy. My dad is somewhere smiling, I know it.

Happy Friday.