The Kase of the Kidnapped Kitty

Stumpy is a two-legged Siamese cat that lives at an animal hospital in Keystone, near Bream Lake. He is much loved by the people in the town. About a month and a half ago Stumpy disappeared. Where he went nobody knew. Needless to say, this caused a great sensation in Keystone and, indeed, most of the surrounding area. The community searched high and low (mostly low) for the kitty but he was nowhere to be found. Approximately four weeks after he left he came back. He was left in a cage at the vets, flea-ridden and bedraggled, but none the worse for wear. There was happiness again in Keystone. Pussy had returned.

O'Bassum

If you have looked at previous blogs on this site you already know that Bream Lake is blessed with all manner of fauna. Be they of feather or fin, the creatures of the lake are abundant and diverse. Until several nights ago, I was certain that I had seen everything that Bream had to offer regarding the Animal Kingdom. Imagine my astonishment when, on a post mid-night stroll around the perimeter of the lake, I happened upon the peculiar entity you see here. It was lodged in the branches of a cypress tree and, upon the flash from my camera, immediately scurried away. I have not seen it since. One can only imagine how such a creature came into existence. A chance romance of a lonely bass and adventuresome opossum? Intelligent Design with a slight relapse? Regardless, I shall always be on the lookout for this charming little oddity that I have named the O'Bassum.

Pickup Paradise

On the road leading to Bream Lake one will pass a row of three pickup trucks. They are of different ages, models and sizes. They seem to be there for no other reason than display.They are gracefully rusting away the remainder of their time here on earth- rather like the retired humans at Bream. The denizens around Bream love their trucks. Virtually everyone here has at least one truck, sometimes two or three. The dominant brands are Ford and Chevy, but the foreign models are making an impact. The bigger the truck the better. Money seems to be no obstacle in the purchasing of these vehicles. The loan on the family wheels must surely outweigh the mortgage on the doublewide. The joke around here is : A robber meets a lake citizen and , pointing a gun at him, demands "Your pickup or your wife!" After a long pause, with no answer forthcoming, the robber repeats the question. After another lengthy period of silence the victim replies "I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin."

The Road Taken

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"...well, not exactly a yellow wood. The roads I speak of are in the tract of land known as the Four Lakes Community and they exist in two counties of North Central Florida: Alachua and Putnam. One road is paved (Alachua) and, when it crosses the county line into Putman, it turns to dirt... well not exactly dirt. It becomes a hellish concotion of sand, clay and limestone rock that will jolt the fillings out of your teeth when traveled upon. Sadly, this is the only way to access our Bream Lake. It is our purgatorial route to Paradise.The rich banker that developed this area named all the streets after members of his family (mostly women), so we spend our tortuous transit on lanes called Ashley, Sally and Dixie. It is not until we get to the masculine Benjamin that we are given respite. To call these thoroughfares washboard roads would not give them justice. The ridges that populate these bucolic arteries are monumental. Our goal, however, is Bream Lake and the gauntlet is well worth the peril. After all "I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference".

Lewd sing

Bream is shutting down. With the cold Winter setting in, the animals and the plants are lying low. Our ducks have becone too fat to fly any further south. This, I fear, is due to my constantly plying them with whole-kernel corn. Instead, they cower under our dock at night, wondering what to do. We no longer have to worry about mowing the grass as God does that for us by lowering the temperature and stopping the rains. People from town are scarce at the lake. No one (save our Scottish son-in-law) wants to jump into the gelid waters . Wuthering Heights comes to Bream.