Roanoke

COME FLY WITH ME FOR SAMMY

Wow, we are so excited to be hosting our very best pal, Sammy (onespoiledcat), in our city. We are off to show him the Mill Mountain Star. It is the largest neon star in the world. As Sammy is in his hot air balloon, we must visit during the day time, so it won’t be lit up. But if you ask us, it is pretty darn impressive anyway.

 

Come Fly With Me

 

We thought we might need a special permit to put up our welcome sign, but when the mayor heard who was coming, he said we didn’t need one. You see, Sammy, the King of Baconia, is known throughout the world, even in our little city.

We featured our famous star on the blog once before when our honorary brofur Bailey‘s friend’s, Sharkie and Blue, traveled all the way from Rome (via Florida) to visit us for Christmas in 2014. To read more about the star, click here.

Sammy will also get a great view of the entire Roanoke Valley from the Star. A photo of the valley taken by Dad Tom actually stumped everyone on Sammy’s Tuesday Teaser just a few weeks back.

We know Sammy has many places to visit today and won’t be able to spend time visiting with us, but Cat Scout Master Baker Mauricio wanted to make certain his best pal had a little treat to sustain him on his journey. Mau baked some special maple cookies with chocolate frosting and topped with bacon, of course!

FriendlyFillInsToday is also week 30 of the Friendly Fill-Ins hosted by Ellen (15 And Meowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). We are hoping they will forgive us, but today we have selected to complete only #4, as we want our post to totally focus on Sammy.

4. One of the best gifts we ever received was the friendship of Sammy and his mom, Pam. We cheated a wee bit and changed the “I” to “we.”

Come Fly With Me for Sammy was planned by Madi and Easy (before he went to the bridge), and it is being held today to honor Easy as well as to celebrate Sammy. This is also a blog hop. To join the hop or follow along with Sammy on his adventure, visit Dory’s Backyard and click on the Hoppity Hops tab in the menu bar.

“Hey, Sammy, can you see us waving at you from the base of the Star?”

Blowing kisses and waving at Sammy as he zips by, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Mom Janet and Dad Tom

 

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SHARKIE & BLUE VISIT THE STAR

Have we piqued your curiosity?

Are you wondering if Sharkie and Blue flew off to Bethlehem?

Maybe they took a ride on a spaceship?

Nope, they visited our famous Mill Mountain Star yesterday. It is the World’s largest man-made star, and it is right here in the Star City…Roanoke, Virginia. You can read about it below.

 

star

 

We visited during the day, so the star was not lit, but if you Google, Mill Mountain Star photos, you can see oodles of photos of it lit up.

 

star

 

Not only did they get to see the star, but also a panoramic view of the Roanoke Valley. The photo doesn’t include the entire valley. You can see our downtown in the distance on the left side of the photo. We live about one mile from downtown to the left and beyond the scope of the cropped image.

We’d like to give them one additional adventure before they return home, but that would involve snow, and we don’t have any in the forecast for the near future We might have to save that for a future visit. We know our brofur, Bailey Boat Cat, is missing his furiends.

But stay tuned, you never know what they might get up to prior to winging their way back to Nocturne.

Se y’all tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

FLOOD PHOTOS

I know this is a blog about cats and ninety-five percent of the time it actually is. Though this post appears to have no connection whatsoever to felines, it actually does. I will explain at the conclusion of this post.

After days and days of it raining cats, dogs, otters, guinea pigs, squirrels, parrots, emus and flamingos, the Roanoke Valley, VA, flooded for the third time this spring/summer. We are currently running 12 inches over the normal rainfall for the entire year.

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This is the Roanoke River. Tom took this photo three blocks from our house.

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This bridge is in the same area. It crosses over the river about 20 feet above the river bed. It is part of the Roanoke Greenway and on our tandem route.

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Another view of the bridge. Though the water has receded, this bridge is closed due to buckled and broken asphalt leading to it.

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This is one of the low-water bridges we normally cross. The word on the part of the sign that’s underwater is “FLOODING.”

Unfortunately, one person lost their life during this flood. That person was the husband of Sara Stein, the President of our area TNR organization (Barn Cat Buddies) with which I am affiliated. He drowned Thursday while trying to clear a culvert drain in an attempt to keep the rising waters from reaching their home. Craig Ricker leaves not only Sara but also three step-sons, aged 10 to 18.

Please keep Sara, Sam, Jesse and Charlie in your prayers. Anyone wanting to make a donation to help Sara and her family or any of the foster kitties, can do so on the Barn Cat Buddies Facebook page.