Dogs, Cats And a Book

We just hit the freezing mark, and I'm back from walking Rosie and Remy.  The wind today is a killer - it was getting behind my glasses, and I frequently had tears running down my face because of it.  And today is only described as "breezy" - tomorrow and Wednesday it will be "windy."  As I walked up to the Silverman house this morning, I was bemused to see three work vans parked in front already. As I walked up the steps and onto the porch, I could see men re-plastering the almost circular wall across from the front door.  As I reached for my keys, I realized there was a note on the door - for me.  It read: "Betty, Please use the back door today."  By the time I read that, Rosie had heard me, and was dancing all around, and ended up giving the wall several brushes with her tail.  When I got to the back door, I had to hold her while Joel cleaned all the wet plaster off her plume; it looked like it had been streaked with blond highlights.   Remy still isn't his normal self, so we took a short walk around the block for him.  Then we returned, gave treats, left Remy behind, and Rosie and I went out and walked and jogged for another 40 minutes.
  I have not seen my cats at such a loss as they were last night.  I had opened the door for Nedi and Lovey to run in and out, and it was dusk.  I came back to the desk and started researching.  I heard a hiss, and then another.  I figured it was just Lovey hissing at Nedi to let him know she was tired of being chased.  But the hissing continued.  I looked up, and Lovey was on the top of the cat tree.  Nedi was hissing in the direction of my feet.  I looked down and discovered a white cat with grey tabby splotches, and a collar, was under my desk.  The new cat boldly walked about the apartment, just totally ignoring both of my cats.  The cat's name tag read "Speedy Taco", so I picked him up, and he rubbed all over me.  I took him out onto the patio, set him down, and came back inside, closing the patio door behind me.  Lovey and Nedi spent the next 90 minutes carefully sniffing anything and everything that Speedy Taco had touched.  I don't think that Lovey and Nedi have ever encountered  another cat that completely ignored their presence.  It was an interesting experience.
  I am reading a very good novel that my niece gave me for Christmas. The title is The Book of Fathers and is written by Miklos Vamos, a Hungarian author.  It is extremely absorbing and very interesting.  It covers twelve generations of men in one family, covering a 400 year time span in Hungary's history.  It is full of ideas regarding music, nationality, astrology, Judaism, and a very interesting, almost looped, actual time relationship.  I can highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to step back and take a different viewpoint of life.