# We've MOVED - FINALLY!! Pic Link added



## paintponylvr (Dec 28, 2014)

We closed on Friday December 19th and moved in but the horses/ponies; chickens/ducks & farm cats haven't moved yet!!

SOOOO much to do still.

We live about 25 miles from where we did. Closer to where I work, but further for both our youngest daughter (moved w/ us) & hubby to go to work. Closer to our oldest daughter and our 2 grand daughters (only a few miles down the same main road).

Went from 1100 sq ft home to 2100 (




) ; 8+ acres to 20+ acres; leasing to OURS. No refrigerator for a full 8 days (lived in the hotel for 5 weeks before that)! LOTS of trees w/ leaves down and pine straw. A lot in forest/trees that we won't be clearing - some we will be.

The largest area that is cleared is perimeter fenced in 3' high field fence (didn't even kno it was made that "short"!) and metal t-posts that are short enough to "skewer" mine if they get "stupid"... Too many posts and too much fencing to remove/replace... So we are retaining that for a perimeter fence and fencing inside of it 30' off the current fence lines (far enough to allow big equipment to move thru - even on corners/turns) - utilizing the fencing that we already had.

REALLY need to bring the ponies home!! Got the boys' paddock almost finished today. still need to install the 16' gate (cement the posts in, hang it) and put in some more fence posts and add the panels.

So here is what greeted us when we went to look at the property - and Larry said ..."... this is HOME..."

(Realtor's pic taken in jul/aug 2014)






and the pics I took including Larry's car on Oct 24th (our 2nd visit to the property).





















OK - that's the REVEAL... BASIC. I have got to get some sleep after taking a hot shower that will hopefully help the Ibuprofen that I took to ease the real pain thru the shoulders and neck from doing fencing I haven't done in 10 years!! Will update w/ more info and pics as we go along!!

Photo Album


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## paintponylvr (Dec 29, 2014)

oops - couldn't not put some more pics...

The realtor's pic -






My pic on 24 Oct 2014 - that new roof only has one prob - it completely covers the skylights which I think would have been beautiful. Inside of house/ceiling show no water damage, so have no idea why they covered the skylights.










the "barn" (shed) - will be made into hay storage and feed room. May do part of it into 2 stalls. Have no idea where I will store all our harness, equipment and vehicles yet...











Ok, off to shower and bed now that it's after the Cinderella hour...


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## AngC (Dec 29, 2014)

I like the gate, and the wagon wheels on each side. Nice.


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## candycar (Dec 29, 2014)

So happy for you! Your house looks identical to my new (1 yr now) one! Hope you settle in soon, there is always more to do! We are still getting things situated. LOL!


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## Kim P (Dec 29, 2014)

Love it! Especially the pretty gate entry!


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## paintponylvr (Dec 29, 2014)

AngC - I DO TOO! Think that's a lot of what my non-horsey hubby liked, too. Also, this house is big enough to allow us to have some room while still having all of our stuff. Hopefully we are setting it up in such a way we don't add too much "stuff" to what we already have, but can add some... I will have an extra sewing room/craft room - so maybe when the weathers' bad and I can't do anything more than feed the ponies I can finally do some crafting? We already decided on a lay-out for our leather working stuff too (we are both beginners but both love it!). The office is already set up with cabinets and a desk and allows me to look out to see the drive way and the pastures... NICE.

Candy Car - yep, it sure does!! I like your place... Would love to see how you set up your barn/paddocks - I always love seeing that.

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So, when I described what I wanted to do for inside pastures and started measuring, my family and friends were like - "Why??" "Just thro up you fence and move your critters - just like you did to move them into the temporary leased qtrs (look like crap, didn't hold well, had ponies loose quite a bit when they knocked out posts that weren't set deep enough into the ground or attacked each other over/thru the fences and broke the zip ties on the panels and then were intermingling. Will need to check 6 mares to see if they are preggers after one day of running with the 3 yr old stud)".

Takes forever to set up the string and measure - but the first paddock is almost done and it actually looks pretty darn good... Even though the posts are all different lengths, they went into the ground so that they are all 5' above the ground (didn't use the ones that were only 5.5' long - not enough post in the ground). Made one HUGE mistake - the new panels ended up on the back side of the paddock instead of on the front and I didn't see the mistake soon enough... Too tired to swap them out and really out of time, so they will stay. As ponies create more damage to the ones in full view up front, I'll just replace those instead, sigh... I got some pics, but they will be added later. Camera still in the truck - out in the pasture.

Don't have enough panels to fully fence the whole place in them, so will have to go back to using hi-tensile wire on some of the pastures/paddocks. This time, will put up a minimum of 6 wires right from the start - so any that think they are going to crawl thru the fence will think twice. Also, my known fence crawlers won't be in those fences.... so should be ok. I have 4 of the corner posts, need to get more. Still need to get all the fence strainers and springs (going with new since the ones at the old place were a minimum of 3 yrs old and max of 15. Besides - that saves the trouble of having to get the wire (very difficult) off of the previous ones - I gave the old ones to a friend so she and her hubby can add them to their turn-in steel collection project. Still need to decide how I'm going to do the "H-braces" in the corners - using wood poles or using steel? Will have to make up my mind by this afternoon so we can get started - hopefully tomorrow! We'll now see how out of practice I am at putting up hi-tensile wire.

We need to fence off both the well house and the water "stand pipe" - so the ponies can't rub their bums on the "buildings" and/or create any other damage.

Also need to add new gates to the perimeter fence - I don't want to always drive a circle thru/around the front yard between some seedlings that will eventually be too large to allow that. Can't make the hard right turn with a trailer into the pasture w/o circling thru the yard right now. Very obvious the previous owner didn't have big horses or need to account for that... Trying to figure out where the gates will go and at what angles...

The fridge/freezer arrived yesterday - hubby hadn't told me he ordered a significantly larger one than we'd had previously! He's upset though - they didn't include the hose for the water lines and he had to go get those separate (another trip to town) to hook up for the ice and water functions. I am enjoying my coffee with MILK this morning as I type this!! Hate powdered creamer - a necessary evil. Using the old stove that matches nothing (think they'd kept it stored and then put it back in when they took out the one that matched their fridge that they took with them). Still have to order the new stove, it's currently not in stock at Lowe's. Larry is choosing that, which is FINE with me! I do the outside stuff and OMG there is plenty there!!

Because our bed mattress was old (12 yrs) and the bed room suite much older, hubby ordered new bed mattress and we will decide what we want for a bed (head/foot boards) and dressers. Just need to decide what we want... decisions, decisions Old mattress is currently on floor (OMG - that's no longer ez to get up from). Youngest daughter wants the old water bed bed frame (with captains' bed set up) - she will get her own mattress.

We need to fence in the back yard to keep dogs in when we don't want them to run on the whole property. Also want to put field fence on the wagon wheels (hope that doesn't "mess up" the "look") and the other side of our gate, and the front gate - so the dogs can't get out on the road from the front of the property. right now - don't think they'll "get out" from the rear, forested areas ...

Yes, our savings will be depleted by the time we are settled into this home! Some projects that we definitely want to do will be on hold/the list - others may suddenly pop up and need to be done first! We shall see. Eventually, all carpet will be removed (it's clean enuff - but won't be long with our animals and family!) and all hard-wood and ceramic tile will be installed. Also want to finish all the walls to match what the previous owners started - again - $$ and time. Want to enclose the pool with deck, cover it w/ a building that can be heated, deck the back of the house w/ new doors into the dining area (may change the dining area to another use) - but that may be quite some time in coming. Hopefully, this older pool lasts that long (24' above ground). Will also need to have a steep learning curve on caring for the pool - haven't a clue!


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## Minimor (Dec 29, 2014)

Nice! I am happy for you--it will be so nice to own instead of lease/rent, you can fix things the way you want them and know that they are YOURS. I can imagine you will be glad to have the paddocks done and all the ponies moved home. Always so much to do--but so worth it in the end.


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## Marsha Cassada (Dec 29, 2014)

Congratulations! No wonder you are thrilled!

We've been at our present site for 12 years--longest we've ever lived in one spot. Takes a long time to get things the way you want.

I was given some good advice recently when beginning a quilt project--a veteran quilter advised me "to enjoy the process". It works for quilts and properties and even horse training!

Hope you get your ponies home soon.


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## chandab (Dec 29, 2014)

Love your entrance. I'm sure you'll have it yours in no time, with minor tweaking as you go. Hope you can bring the ponies home soon.


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## bevann (Dec 29, 2014)

Beautiful place.I am so happy for you.What a nice way to start off the new year.ENJOY after you get some much needed rest.


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## lkblazin (Dec 29, 2014)

Congratulations!!! That's awesome!!! I love it and can't wait to see it all done. I'm sure all of the animal's will be extatic when they see it.


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## Miniv (Dec 30, 2014)

TOTALLY happy for you and TOTALLY understand your excitement, AND frustration! And all you can do is take one day at a time.

We did a similar move 10 years ago.....same miles apart, similar upswing in acres. And yep, the EASY part was getting US transferred. LOL!!!


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## susanne (Dec 30, 2014)

.
CONGRATULATIONS!

Despite all of the work that lies ahead, this has to be an enormous relief from the stress of the last few months.


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## AngC (Dec 31, 2014)

paintponylvr said:


> .... Using the old stove that matches nothing ....


I have an older stove; looks nasty; matches nothing. It's probably late 80's vintage. (electric) It is the absolute best for canning and parboiling for freezing. I really doubt new stove models get that hot that quickly.

I know I have to replace it, and it's rather a pain if you want to simmer on low temperature, but. .... 'gonna miss it someday.


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## paintponylvr (Jan 2, 2015)

AngC - I don't really have anything against it not matching or age - but w/ some other things that have gone on - worry about nasty surprises. Don't want a fire. Even though this house is older, I LOVE it and wouldn't want it to go up in flames w/ our newly moved stuff. Might also be hard to explain that one to the insurance company when we don't even make our first mortgage payment for another month!





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Thanks everyone for sharing on this journey. It's been quite an experience already and will continue to be so. There are a lot of plans in the works - both inside & outside the house, in the area of the chickens/other outside critters and with the horses/pastures/barn.

For those that want to see - here's a link to the photo gallery.

Here's the link to the new place. Picasa Web Albums - purplepaintpony - Cameron Home




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Picasa Web Albums - purplepaintpony - Cameron Home Photos by purplepaintpony, Dec 28, 2014 - Our new "Forever" home. 20+ acres straddling Harnett and Moore counties with a Cameron address. Will be fun - setting i...
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I will continue to add pics as we go along. Brought the boys home on Tuesday (boarder's mini stud spent nite in trailer as working by myself, I couldn't get anymore fencing done. "Finished" - still have to install main 16' gate on wood posts set in concrete - boys paddock at 12:30 at night - 2 hours after hubby left for work). Finished his pen on Wednesday - New Year's Eve. Moved 1 horse/pony yesterday to home, combined the middle group of 8 w/ the last group of 8 in one paddock and dropped all the fencing (16' stock panels) and pulled all the rest of the posts and they are in the horse trailer waiting to be unloaded today and start on the next paddock. Was surprised when the local TSC wasn't open yesterday after we received a sales flyer in our new mailbox!! Needed more fencing and hate that I will have to go back today to get what I need. TIME and GAS... sigh. Ah well. It's coming together...

Supposed to get a lot of rain Sat & Sun, so will probably work inside the house those days and the last ponies won't get moved until later next week... Can unpack more boxes in the house if it storms badly.


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## bevann (Jan 2, 2015)

I LOVED looking at the photos of your new place.Lots of projects for you to do, and you are very fortunate to have so many buildings.You sound like a creative person and I look forward to seeing what you do with your new place.I am so happy for you.enjoy it and post lots of photos as you progress.


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## Reignmaker Miniatures (Jan 4, 2015)

Your new place looks wonderful, Congratulations!


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## Ryan Johnson (Jan 6, 2015)

Congratulations Paula, I too love the entrance . Wishing you every happiness there as you start to make it yours





Exciting times ahead as you start to plan all the projects & how you want things set up





Best wishes


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## paintponylvr (Jan 7, 2015)

Thanx everyone! We are totally enjoying the house right now.

BUT everything got held up as we all have come down with nasty cases of the flu. Hard to fence in this up/down weather when you shaking and shivering w/ 103 temperatures yourself and can't even stand up straight. Glad ours are used to free feeding from bulk hay and that I'd backed off feeding feed - just need to keep them in hay/water at both properties for right now. Couldn't even drive out there for 2 days to take care of ponies in temp qtrs - texted a friend who then went out and watered...

Everyone back at work this week - full time. So now things are really SLOW.



And now the other daughter, SIL and grandbabies have this flu bug that they didn't get last week.

Right now, have to figure out how I'm going to break ice on buckets and water tanks at both places. Temps are well below freezing and I didn't think to grab shovels yet out of storage units (which were already supposed to have been emptied too, but that also stopped due to weather and illness). O, yeah, hand held hammer works! Have no desire to dig out chunks of ice by hand, tho. Going to be a long day. I know we dealt with this all the time in MT, CO and WY (U just did it) but I don't remember the constant up/down like these last couple of years and really don't like the WELL below freezing temps here in NC...


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## paintponylvr (Jan 7, 2015)

I am very excited about the paddocks being inside the fence that is currently up. Will give us "tracks" to work ponies around! Most of the pasture is really flat - but there are two distinct mounds of dirt/sand - one will be moved as it's where a planned fence line will be going in the future. Hope to have it solid enough to work ponies on - at least in hand or on lounge line. Looking at some different designs for a bridge large enough to support the wagon/carts over the "water feature"... I get the shivers thinking about my new driving/training "paradise". All great to look forward to!

Enjoy having the ponies that are here so far. Just need to move the last "group" - actually two groups totaling 16 critters... Right now they are doing a lot of chasing around in an enclosure that's way too small for them...


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## lkblazin (Jan 9, 2015)

I love it!! Hysterically laughing that you can see where they hung things. Now I gotta check under a couple of frames :-D lol. The property is incredible and the animals seem to be enjoying it.


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## paintponylvr (Jan 20, 2015)

HEHEHEHe!! That cross has been covered by Larry's Star War's movie poster (framed in glass). Other dragon type pics around the living room, and one print of the original cover of the book - The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey (now deceased) - love the Dragon Rider books.

I ended up writing a bunch of stuff in another post on the main forum. Brought home the 17 equine still left in temp qtrs on Friday, pulled out fence and brought it home and put it where I needed it to start putting it up. Then back to bring the temp feed room and what was left of the two round bales. Since the fencing isn't done here yet, the larger gelding was turned out w/ the boys in their finished pasture, the arab was put in the blue panel pen w/ the NSH(Jazzy) and Taff (shet mare) - the other 15 are loose in the short fence.












Picked up the last chickens today, and my 3 barn cats as well. Don't have a barn, per say, here. They will be kept in one of the chicken pens for right now - then turned loose. Not sure if they will stay in the chicken area or if they will migrate out to where the 2 stall shed row is in the pony pasture...

Had adopted a rescue (puppy mill producer) mini aussie the first week of January and then on Friday - adopted a rescue Pom. Both have to be altered - the Aussie (ZuZu) has settled in pretty well, the Pom (Ludo) is just now starting to not hide under the couch or to get defensive or run when reaching towards him... Both have gone out on lines (we don't have a fenced in dog area yet that will contain them) and done ok. Monkey (our Finish Spitz or Finkie) and Goblin/Gobbles go out to the pony pasture during the day. Monkey, like me, has lost weight doing so much moving around. He's constantly after the "underground critters"


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## lkblazin (Jan 21, 2015)

Lol adorable dogs!! Haha and I haven't heard of the dragon rider series. Is it like eragon??lol star wars poster covering the cross hahaha!!!


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## paintponylvr (Jan 21, 2015)

hmmm, not really?? I don't remember being overly impressed with Eragon... Maybe I need to re-read it.

and OH BOY< OH BOY - hadn't seen this site before - Pern Home

Wikipedia definition Wikipedia list of Pern Books

The Pern Museum & Archives

Amazon - The Dragon Riders of Pern (1st 3 books in 1)

Hmmm, I now see that there are a few books which I neither have nor have I read. Will have to rectify that!!


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## lkblazin (Jan 22, 2015)

Lol ill have to look into those. I never read eragon , just saw the movie.


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## paintponylvr (Feb 2, 2015)

Actually I think I liked the movie (struggling to remember it, maybe can find it?). The movie rights to the Dragon Riders of Pern have been purchased and resold - but so far no movies or animated films. They could do a lot with it OR it could be really messed up. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to see it made into film...

On the home front - for everything we get done - something else doesn't!! Still don't have all the fence up or the mares separated! Have gotten hay and will be hauling again this weekend (no longer just a couple of miles down the road), have to get the trailer in to find out what's going on with it, have gotten more boxes unpacked (no where near all of them), taken the dogs in to have vet appointments done and then treated them for various things (mostly worm treatments - hmmm - catching up our regulars now that we have the new rescues) - takes time. I know we had plenty of laundry at the other house - but geeze - seems like I'm doing laundry EVERY DAY right now! The barn/pasture set up seems ssoooo faaarrr away from the house... Also amazing how long it takes to walk out to the "barn" (the red shed set up)...

I've lost quite a number of chickens since moving them to the new place. Not sure if it's the stress of the move (2nd one in 3 months), the fact that I had to combine the youngsters w/ the older hens, the extreme weather changes or maybe something left in the ground here??? Hmmm, makes me wonder how I'm going to go about purchasing new chickens...

Now working on setting up a program to work ponies - had planned on starting tonight - but the gusting wind prevented that ... I've never conditioned ponies for halter nor kept them up before (our performance show ponies lived on pasture year round- no probs). Have had a couple people recommend that I change my feeding program completely - yet I've never gone w/o using water/soupy beet pulp feeding when feeding here in NC for the past 15 years. Since arriving here (the new house) - this is the longest that I've ever gone w/o feeding concentrates and I don't agree that all of them look "good". The winter hair is hiding beginning weight loss that I will struggle to off set again. Feeding is impossible when you don't have tie spots or places to hang buckets set up and I just can't deal well w/ the fighting if I just put the buckets on the ground. UGGGHHHH!! The weather isn't helping - seems the good days are when we are working (at the jobs that pay the bills) and the "bad" days are when we are able to do the outside work - while the rain/wet makes it easier to sink posts into the ground, it's plays havoc w/ my own body being able to do the work (and sorry, wind combined with bone penetrating cold is much harder to deal with now than it was just 10 short years ago). And the up/down temps play just as many problems here as they are through out the country...



It's slow going. I'm worried about pipes freezing tonight and the wind is affecting the temps in the house. May have made a mistake taking the blinds down so soon (I hate blinds) - the temp diff in the house is amazing. I never realized that!

I do LOVE the property and I'm still excited - just taking longer to get settled in than we'd expected. Hours keep changing at work too - for both hubby and I. While more hours mean more pay (& for him overtime), it plays havoc with the work at home/on the property. It's actually further to go to feed store(s) (not horribly - but that adds to driving time away from home) - not on the way home anymore for either of us.

And neither of us seem to be able to completely shake these colds/constant drainage/coughs. With the wind today - I'm finding the way my chest hurts to be a concern...

OK, done complaining for a bit.

O - and I'm constantly on the hunt for easy recipes!! I've used our big crock pot more than I've ever used a crock pot in my life! AND OH MY IS IT EVER GOOD, FILLING food! Will do a pork roast tomorrow...


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## paintponylvr (Feb 3, 2015)

OK - no new pics of the ponies (will work on that this week) and have to get to bed very soon. BUT here's pics of the dogs that I wanted to share!

I think I already intro'd the two new rescues - gotten just a week apart. Zuzu is now spayed - after getting her 7 yr old self a blood and heart workup to make sure she'd be ok during/after the surgery. She was in a "false pregnancy" and had started "nesting" and doing a LOT of licking - I didn't realize until the day of her surgery that she was making herself produce more milk. Think it may have been a nervous habit - and if she was "nursing herself" - it explains the two large, misshapen teats she has... Vets say they won't reduce in size, but the milk will eventually dry up... For now, she'll have the "woe is me" look till the milk dries up!






Check out my new "Didy" slipper!! O, wait, that's not a slipper - that's me dawg!! (favored position of Didy - AKA Sir Didimus - when Larry not home or roughhousing with Avalon, the house kitty). Reference is the You Tube vid - "That's not my boots, that's my cats!"






This is also a common site once we've eaten breakfast and we are relaxing on a Sunday before going outside or after coming back in...






& the next two are IMPORTANT as Ludo is a recent rescue. When he first came home - he hid and the only way we could get to him was to "drag" him out by the dragline I left on him for a reason. If you picked him up, he became a "fainting goat" - going stiff as a board and even his eyes would seem to freeze in his head. His legs would stick straight out and you had to be careful with them. I like reaching for a dog with my hands - I have to work on that. Ludo is very defensive and though he's never offered to attack or bite - I'm learning to remember to keep my palm down and start low to reach "up" to stroke him. NOW - LOOK!!! He's on the other couch and I'm standing up in the middle of the LR!! YEAH!!! He came w/ the name of "Onyx" but almost immediately he responded to "Ludo" - one of the many factors that made us keep him when at first we weren't sure and my hubby was ready to kill me for bringing him home. (happy tear...)











Let's see if it will let me post one more. Yep, we do have a smorgasbord of animals. This is Larry holding Galifrey (anyone a Dr Who fan??) with Didy and ZuZu. ZuZu still curls up pretty tight every time we stand up or move. She's started relaxing a bit in this pic. This pic a couple of days before she was spayed.






Our animals have a tendency to be named after holidays (Goblin was born Halloween week), other animals (Monkey) and either characters or places in movies and books (Sir Didymus, Ludo - Labarinth; Avalon - many books; Galifrey - Dr. Who). Not sure where "ZuZu" came from. She came with the name Zuma - neither Larry nor I could seem to get it right but didn't matter she didn't really respond to it... Became Zoom Zoom (she's a mini Aussie and FAST & "SLIPPERY") - didn't really fit and almost on the same day we both started calling her "ZuZu" ... great minds!!...


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## lkblazin (Feb 3, 2015)

Sir didimus, that is the coolest name. He looks like he has taken the task of being the Hoffman households foot warmer (fluff dry only) lol. Sorry just couldn't resist. Reminds me of my Devon Rex cat, Dalia aka daldal or dal-e. She will sit on my lap curled up in a ball. I guess if I were a partially hairless cat I would look for a warm lap.


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