May 31, 2010

We decided to stay an additional night, we have spent the day doing laundry, and going to the store. If we left tonight it would be too late for us to pull into where we would want to anchor.
This place it a trip, there is a bunch of stray cats here. At the restaurant last night there was one cat inside the restaurant, she even went behind the bar. I didn't see them, but Chris said there was a litter of kittens too.
The word on the street is that there is a manatee and her calf that live in this little harbor, I am hoping to see them before we leave in the morning.

May 30, 2010

Wow!!!! Woke up at 2am because it started to rain, as Chris and I were rushing around shutting hatches I looked off of our bow to see a wall of dark grey rain coming straight at us. Literally 5 secs later, we where in a sheet of rain, and wind gusts that felt like 40 knots. The boats were all whipped around and the anchor chain sounded like it was whining for help. We actually got out our foul weather gear. I thought for sure that we were going to start dragging, but after 20 mins of feeling like I was going to throw up, everything got real quite again like nothing had ever happened. Deason and Dahlia slept through the whole thing, Deason even got rained on through his open hatch before we could shut it, and he didn't even stir. (I should start checking his pulse in the middle of the night)

After that Chris fell asleep knowing that if our anchor held through that, then we were OK, I on the other hand stayed awake to look out the window every 10 mins just to check and see if we were moving. I finally fell asleep around 5am out of pure exhaustion. Note to future self....self, leave Florida before Memorial Day so you don't have to deal with these freak, crazy, short storms...otherwise known as squalls!
We were up and ready to pull the anchor by 8:30, we moved out with a good breeze. Winds were out of the SE 10-15 knots, we set the autopilot and barely had to adjust the sails all day.Which left plenty of time to read, eat, and enjoy the scenery. We sailed at greater than 7 knots most of the day. Our course brought us to about 8 miles off shore, where we had dolphins off of our bow twice. By the time I got out the camera and out to the bow they were gone, so no pictures yet.
When we finally got to where we could jibe into St Pierce inlet it was 4pm. I don't like to jibe, it always seems so violent. We probably could have done a better job than we did if we had pulled in the main sheet real tight then let it back out and it would have made it a lot smoother, but with a strong wind it still seems violent. It seems like it would have been easier to turn into the wind.
We cruised to the inlet at a gentle 5 knots, once we got to the opening of the inlet with an outgoing tide the waves got kind of big, but kind of fun. Once in the inlet to St Pierce, on the North side there is an Island that reminded me of Washburn Is. on steroids, there was a floating bar, and at least 200 small boats. I can't be certain but I am sure that most of them were violating safety standards for weight and capacity.

We decided to spend the night at the dock:

1. we wanted to fill our water tank.

2. we wanted to get a few grocery items.

3. the first two were excuses we used for the real reason....we were both so exhausted from the night before that we needed a worry free night tied to a dock!

We looked like pros docking, I was so impressed by Chris's skills. Deason handled the stern line, I was at the bow, and Dahlia was in the cockpit with Chris. She was strapped in her feeding chair with some apricots to keep her busy.

We pulled in and were tied up in less than 5 mins.....sweet success!!! We rewarded ourselves with a fried food feast!

May 28-29, 2010-Leaving the dock!

After our renaming ceremonies we decided to head out. Not far, we just wanted to do a little motoring and get by a few bridges. Chris and I were so nervous we were both on the verge of tears, and I am pretty sure my stomach had moved into my throat. We tried to time everything just right to make the bridges. We pulled away from the dock without any hiccups, but when we turned onto the ICW we were fighting the tide. As we were turning the bend for Sunrise bridge we see it opening. When I hailed the bridge tender to see if we could pass she said we were still too far away. We sadly watched the bridge close and had to wait for the 7:30pm opening. Once we were through the bridge it eased my stomach a bit, having had to talk on the radio was a little nerve racking, but once I did it it was no big deal.

We made our way to Las Olas bridge. While we were waiting for the Las Olas bridge, a police boat came flying by, and it couldn't have been a watercraft emergency because a Coast Guard boat was right next to us. The police boat nearly ran over a family in a small inflatable dinghy. It is things like that that make me really glad to be leaving Fort Lauderdale. We will be glad to leave behind the hustle and bustle.
We pulled into Lake Sylvia to anchor for the night, which isn't so much of a lake, it is more like a cul-du-sac off of the ICW. We set the anchor on the first try. I felt that we were too close to another boat so I insisted that we set it again. The next two attempts to set the anchor failed, and I was beginning to feel incompetent. We decided to try a different spot, and it was then I realized that the anchor had swiveled and was landing upside down. Thank goodness we have an electric windlass that raises and lowers the anchor, really easy "up button, down button". Once I put the anchor straight we had no problems setting it.
I have to say that I was nervous falling asleep wondering if our anchor would hold. There was a light variable wind so all the boats in the anchorage were swinging back and forth, and made me nervous. 
When we woke up in the morning, of course we were right where we should be, and there was absolutely no breeze which it made going to the fuel dock easier.
As we set out for the fuel dock, it started to rain, but that's Florida! By the time we got to the fuel dock the rain was already gone. It took us a little longer to dock than most, and after a few laughs from the dock attendant, we were in.
We got through the 17 th St bridge on their 11am opening, a little later than we would have liked to have started, but we're not on any serious agenda. Going through the inlet was a treat, there was so much boat traffic, and it made the inlet really choppy. We shouldn't have been surprised, it's Memorial day weekend.
Once out of the inlet we raised our mainsail, and jib. It was a little hectic getting all of the sails set, but not bad for our first run. The winds were variable at about 7-8 knots, so we were only averaging 3-4 knots. Not that great, but at least we were sailing!
Around 2pm the winds died down and we were barely doing 3 knots, and at that speed, or lack there of, we were getting slapped around by the light choppy seas. Deason started to feel a little green, so with the auto pilot set we decided that he needed some distraction. We played a few games of "Hue Knew" (great game). That seemed to help him a little, but not much. So, I filled the kiddie pool with sea water, and the kids went swimming/sitting. That seemed to do the trick, a little cool down was what he needed. Deason was smiling again.
Around 4:30 the wind picked up from the East and we were able to do 7 knots all the way to Lake Worth Inlet and pulled in by 7 pm. We set our anchor on the second shot, and I made Chris swim down to check on it just to make sure. The current in this anchorage is crazy, there was a decent Easterly wind and the boat should have be pointing into the wind (like we are use to back home) but the current was pulling all the boats so the wind was on our starboard side which made for some strange boat motion. Again, I am going to bed nervous!

May 28, 2010

The things that I thought were going to be a big deal are not, and the things I never considered are. For instance, I never thought about what we would do with all of our trash. This whole garbage thing is a pain! We are at a residential dock so we don't want to ask if we can use their cans, so we have been using store dumpsters. Which requires us to carry our trash bag down the street quite a ways feeling like social deviants as we heave a trash bag into a dumpster. The whole time looking over our shoulders to make sure no one is looking. I hate it!!

Deason, Dahlia, and I were on one of these trash excursions plus Target run, and while on the way home we stopped back at the dumpster to throw out the boxes from the cereal we had just purchased (so they don't fill our garbage). While we were at the dumpster I stepped on a very large piece of glass. It was so big it went through my croc and jabbed me in the middle of the foot. My whole croc filled with blood! Thankfully, we had just purchased toilet paper, and bandaids at Target. What are the odds that Deason saw Hotwheels waterproof bandaids, wanted to get them, and thank goodness I didn't say "no". So, I patched up my foot to the best of my abilities, and walked home thinking that this all might be bad karma because we didn't preform the name change ritual for our boat!!!
I sent Chris to the store as soon as we got back to get a bottle of good Champagne, so we could ask the ancient gods of the sea and wind, Mighty Neptune, and Mighty Aeolus to forgive us, and accept our new boat name. Hopefully, we will have no more bad luck, or no more glass in our shoes!

May 27, 2010

Wow...it is hot! We had to walk to West Marine to get a few things...mainly a new bulb for the mooring light. The one that Chris had sent me was the wrong one. We could have walked straight there and it would have probably been 1.5 miles, but there is no shade to speak of along Rt 1. So we walked in a convoluted zig-zag of back roads and ended up past where we needed to go. We finally back tracked and when we finally got to West Marine we hung out a while to enjoy the AC. Then we hit our favorite bakery "Croissan Time", and then "Whole Foods". We must look so out of place here, Dahlia in a stroller draped with a cloth for extra sun shade, and one of us pulling a fold up shopping cart for all of our goods. We must look like a hobo family.

Once we got back to the boat the kids used their imaginations to "swim" in their pool, and for me it was time to go back up the mast to replace the bulb. This time we were prepared! I had a nice little pouch to put the bulb and lens cap, and an extra line with a foot loop so I could hoist myself up to see. We found out that it wasn't the bulb, it was the fixture that was screwy. The bulb wasn't making contact. After that was fixed we had light, and a little clear silicone for the broken cap and we were good to go!!

May 26, 2010

I hate learning things the hard way! I had to climb the mast to change the mooring light, but the main halyard (the line that holds up the main sail) didn't quite bring me up as high as I needed to go. So, I was up there trying to feel around with my hands on the very top of the mast to get the cover off of the light. I must add that there was about an inch of bird poop up there as well! So, I got the cover off and the bulb out, and this was where I started to think that a little more planning should of been done before going up. I had on a sports tank top, and shorts with no pockets. I had no where to put the light bulb and cover except in my tank top....why Chris or I didn't think of this before hand is still puzzling to me. So I had to describe to him what the bulb looked like so he could send up another one in a baggie using a different line. The line that he used didn't come up all the way to where I was, so I had to bend down to reach for it and guess what happened? The cover of the light fell out of my tank top...what a surprise! I should have been lowered down to where the bag came up to, but we didn't do that either.
As I watched the plastic cover falling from 66ft up, I yelled "OH MY GOD"! Chris said I should have yelled "CATCH"...and I would have yelled that if I had thrown it, but I didn't throw it, I dropped it. The plastic cap hit the boat, bounced to the dock, and finally landed in the water. We recovered it, it has a big crack in it that we can hopefully fix, and on the bright side it was just the cover and not me that tumbled! Next time we will be a little more prepared!!!
We finally got the decals for our boat, and it does look good, but I am a little disappointed! The transoms look great, but I wish the lettering on the bows were bigger!

May 25, 2010

New decals tomorrow! We are going to wait till we get to SC or NC to get the watermaker, if we order it now it will take at least a week and a half to get to us, they test all the units first before they send them out. We can get water anywhere up the East Coast so it won't be a big deal to not have it.

Deason finally gave up on the lures and started using shrimp as bait! It has been a whole different fishing experience! He must have caught at least 20 puffer fish today, as well as two different kinds of small snapper. If only they were bigger! It was very exciting watching him catch the puffers, but after the first 10 times I started to feel bad for them. They make this really sad/funny noise when they are blowing themselves up, and a bellyflop sound when they hit the water. They have really sharp teeth, so they kept biting through the fishing line, and sometimes right through the small hooks. He would just drop the hook in and up they came and I am sure he just kept catching the same ones over and over again. Although, Deason strongly disagrees with me about that.
The bummer of the day came after he had cut up his bait with his knife it got so slippery, that it slipped right out of his hands and into the water. We will have to see if we can see it during low tide tomorrow to attempt a retreival.
I found a great way to deal with our still leaky hatches.....diapers!! I just happen to have some of them around...thanks Dahlia!

May 24, 2010

We want to leave ASAP, we are all ready to be on our way. We are waiting for new hatch locks to arrive, and for Franco to build some shelves for us. The lady who is suppose to put on new decals seems to be very disorganized, we are still waiting for a quote that was suppose to be emailed to us last Thursday. She is also one of those people that does that "dramatically long pause" thing when she talks, you think she is done talking so you start to say something and then she continues....very irritating. I think we might have to leave here with a no name boat. I think the Coast Guard frowns upon that though.

The other thing we have to wait on is the wind. It has been a NE wind for the past few days, and it is suppose to continue through the week. It is supposedly very rare for this time of year to have a Northerly breeze, and any time you have the wind out of the North against the gulf stream the waves can get pretty nasty. It does make the beach a fun place to be though. We have been going just about every night, Deason has been having a blast in the waves, and Dahlia has been enjoying a new delicacy....sand. Not fun for diaper changing.
Speaking of Dahlia, she is 8 months old today!!! Where does the time go.....eight whole months without getting a full night of sleep, I can't even remember what it is like to sleep for 5 hours straight. Oh well, it will make the overnight passages easier. She can be the wake up call for watch changes!

May 22, 2010

Our first official day as carless walkers. Although, we have been walking to the beach, knowing that we only have the option to walk makes it feel different. Dahlia and I walked to the Whole Foods on route 1, which is a rather busy road. The sidewalks are great, but you don't often see people walking on them. We got quite a few odd looks, I think people might have been thinking I was clinically insane walking with a stroller loaded up with grocery bags! Oh well...we enjoyed our walk, or I did, Dahlia slept the whole time.
Deason and Chris cleaned the dinghy for most of the morning so they could take it for a spin, they didn't go that far, the ICW is apparently very busy on weekends! Off to the beach now and then to the Italian bakery...its a tough life!

May 21, 2010

We had an exciting day yesterday! All started out as usual with projects that turned the boat upside down, when we got a call from a guy who was looking at our truck in the driveway out front. He was in a brand new black Mercedes AMG. He didn't even drive the truck, he just said he needed it, and wanted it, and would pay cash! Can't get any better than that, right? Wrong, he even let us use it for another day to run a few errands, that we wouldn't be able to walk to. So sweet!
Later in the day we decided to have dinner at the beach, which included free beach entertainment as well. An older African American couple, (I am assuming that they were foreign) came down to the beach to fill some containers up with sea water (I have no idea what for). The gentleman was wearing jeans that he had rolled up so he could wade into the water, and yes, he got soaked filling up his bottles. His wife (a larger sized woman) stayed on the sand watching, once he was finished she proceeded to strip down to her LARGE white silk panties, and nothing else, and go into the water. Why she didn't fill the containers up herself is still a mystery! Then the police show up to explain to her that she needs to put some clothes on, now I assumed they were foreign because they seemed very confused by all of this! Thankfully, Deason was well on his way swimming to the Bahamas at this point so he missed all the excitement. Just another day in Fort Lauderdale, what an education we are giving our kids!

May 20, 2010

We are starting to get anxious to leave. We have someone coming next week to put in shelves for us, and the name change is going to be done next week too. Then we can leave the dock. Well, right after we sell the truck, but we have had a lot of interest in it so it is just a matter of how little we will take for it. For now we are being stingy, plus we still get to drive it around.
We are getting much more comfortable on the boat, all of our stuff is unpacked, we have been cooking meals, and I even did laundry yesterday. I had anticipated all of these sort of chores being a big deal, but its just like a house, except for the rocking. The only real difference is everything is narrower, which makes navigating around a little cumbersome at first, but now my bruises are going away, and I am not accumulating more of them.
Today, we will go to the beach after a few minor tasks are completed.....it's hot today.

May 18, 2010

We had a great time in Naples, we went to the Collier County Water Park. I love water slides, especially when you go backwards down the tube slide, and you are all by yourself laughing like a little kid! Plus, the kids had fun too!
So, we are starting to plan our get away. We are basically just waiting until we sell the truck, hopefully sooner rather than later. We are suppose to be North of Cumberland Is. Georgia by June 1st for insurance purposes. Not that we will turn into pumpkins if that doesn't happen, but if the boat gets totaled south of there after June then we will be bummin'.
We will probably head to Lake Worth in the Palm Beach area for our first trip, it's a pretty good anchorage, and not that far for a first trip. It will be nice to finally be able to swim off of the boat, and the water line needs a good scrubbing too. Where the boat is now, is not the place for swimming. Yesterday, was our first real rain storm since being on the boat, and we watched all the street trash run into the inlet through the drainage pipes....gross!
The good thing about the rain is that it cleaned off our boat, the bad thing, aside from the trash in the water, was that we realized some of our hatches still leak. More silicone.....temporary fix, they really need all new seals, but they are special order, and we don't want to wait for them.

May 15, 2010

We decided to take a trip back to Naples to check our mail and take care of a few other things, its weird being off of the boat. I still feel like I am on the water.

The one great thing about being on land is taking a long shower, we have been taking what Chris calls military showers on the boat. Turn on water, get wet, turn off water, shampoo, soap, scrub, rinse off...end of shower. We only have a 100 gallon water tank, hence, the need for a water maker. Although, even with doing dishes three times a day, showers every night, etc., we have only been using about 20 gallons a day. I think that is pretty good, and it makes the long showers on land so much more enjoyable!
The kids finally got their passports in the mail today, Dahlia liked hers so much she wanted to eat it!

May 14, 2010

We have had an eventful morning. We had someone come to the boat to tell us about water makers, if we get one we will be able to make fresh water for our tank from salt water. The guy said that it will actually make great drinking water out of sewage if we had to, but we won't be trying that. Now we just have to sell the truck so we can buy one of these great inventions....anyone want to buy a truck!!
The other exciting thing that happened today....Deason and I were going to take the dinghy out for a spin. While we were letting the dinghy down from the davits, (Deason had let down his light end, and I had the heavy side with the outboard on it) I let my side go without having the line wrapped around the winch!! Not real smart! I have beautiful rope burns on my hand to show off my stupidity! After I got my hands all neosporined and bandaided up, we got back to the dinghy to try and start it up. Chris was giving me instructions from the cockpit while holding a yelping Dahlia, and I couldn't seem to pull the darn cord hard enough to get the thing started. Chris put Dahlia down only to have her yell louder, and came to start the dinghy. Once it was started he proceeded to tell me "if this happens"...."if that happens"....and I couldn't stop thinking...why would I take this thing out if I can't even start this thing? Finally, I felt defeated, gave up and said "why don't you go instead". I don't think I have ever felt more like a girl!

May 13, 2010

We have spent most of the day in complete shambles, stuff all over the boat, while Chris repaired the supposedly fixed outboard on the dinghy. I saw my first carburetor today! It always amazes me how much Chris knows and is capable of fixing. So......dinghy is in good working order and we all got to pile in for our first boat ride!!

May 12, 2010

Dave Tethers visit went well, Chris feels much better about the system. Sometimes it is good to have someone confirm what you already know! I think he thought it was more complicated that it actually is.
I have a love/hate relationship with Fort Lauderdale. I like that we found our boat here and it was relatively easy. I love that if we need to acquire anything that we need for the boat it is only a 5 min drive away. I love that we have discovered our favorite restaurant/bakery, which is called "Croissan Time", and it is right next to the West Marine Store. I am always willing to make the trip out there, so I can get some pastries. The house that we are docked at, turns out has the nicest family here and they have offered to let us use their pool, and for Deason to use their trampoline, and Cujo, his name is Chip, and he isn't so bad either. I wouldn't leave Dahlia in a room with him, but I am no longer intimidated by him either.
With that, comes the bad, the people here drive like their all crazy! I haven't seen many people NOT on their cell phones, and two houses down there are some kids!
So, Deason heard some kids playing outside two houses down from where the boat is, and he asked if he could go and play with them. Chris and Deason walked over to the house and when they rang the door bell (this house had a small octagonal window next to the door).
A child came to the door, looked out of the window and ran away. Some time went by and a woman finally came to the window (but didn't open the door).
"Can I help you" she said
Chris said "Hello, we just bought a boat two houses down and my son heard your kids playing, and was wondering if he could play too."
The woman looked them up and down and said "sorry, no"
Deason was crushed! Who would say "No" like that?
There is nothing like seeing your kid get their feelings hurt like that. There are not many things that can make you feel as if you want to physically hurt someone else, but that is one of them. I won't go into details on that!
So we made a Deason fishing video instead!

May 10, 2010

We got back to the boat late in the evening, on our way we saw our favorite Fort Lauderdale signage. I can't think of anything witty or funny to say about it, but it makes us laugh.

I have to admit that it has taken me much longer to clean the boat than I would have thought, and I am covered in bruises! I don't even know how I got most of them, and they are in places that I have never had bruises before.
We have a busy day tomorrow, this guy Dave Tether is coming over to the boat to help explain the systems to Chris. The boat is a hybrid electric propulsion system, and Dave designed the system, and tests different components on his own catamaran. Chris already understands most of it, but there is some things that don't have straight forward answers and hopefully Dave can fill in the gaps. It is just one big gap for me, and I am hoping over time Chris will be able to help me understand the whole system as well. For right now, I am ok with him being the only one that gets it.

Mothers Day

It was a good day, we ate at this great french bakery for lunch, you can never eat too many croissants! Then we went back to the boat and hung out with Dad and Jo! Deason finally got his hands on all the fishing gear, and Grammy caught the first fish off of our boat! I think it is called a Jack fish, whatever it was, it was pretty cool.

The dock we are staying at is in the back of a private home, there is a sketchy dog there, that I am convinced wants to eat Chris. So, we have set up this plank to the next dock where there is an abandoned home, that way we don't have to deal with Cujo. I am sure by the time we leave this place one if not more of our belongings will end up in the drink.... when we walk the plank.

That is the weirdest thing about Fort Lauderdale, on this one street, there is some really nice homes, but right next door there are these abandoned falling apart disasters....so strange!!

Living aboard!

We have spent two nights on the boat, and each day gets better and better, or should I say cleaner and cleaner. We are starting to figure out all the little things. For instance, we wanted to watch a movie the first night on board,we knew there was a DVD player, but couldn't find it. The next day, during a vigorous scrubbing episode, I found the DVD player, screwed in way under a shelf in a cabinet. Not even where I would have thought to look for an appliance.
So far we have one hull entirely clean, and the saloon cleaned. We have also unpacked the car, and have most of our stuff on board. It all fits, with room to spare.

The old owner left some pretty cool stuff on board too. We have 7 new fishing rods, Deason is thrilled!
Dad and Jo are headed over today to celebrate Mothers Day with us on the boat, can't wait to finally share it with others.

Happy Mothers Day!

First day on the boat!

Well...we are on the boat and Deason is back in Naples. It doesn't feel the same without him here. He wanted to stay to do a fishing day with Grammy, and he caught another bass. Which is more fun and more exciting than cleaning.
We did get a fair amount of cleaning done today, lots of stuff that the old owner had on here went in the trash too. We won't start to bring our stuff on until we get everything cleaned. We have done some Dahlia proofing, great thing about boats is all of the cabinet doors already have secured latches, so no worries there. So far a good day, the only thing that could make it better at this point is if Dahlia sleeps through the night I am hoping that the gentle rocking will help....I don't have high expectations, but a girl can hope.
The boat is still in need of some serious organizing, but this is it all the same.

It's official!

We are now proud boat owners! We will head over to the boat today to start to clean her up, baby proof, and outfit her to live aboard! Happy Day!

The Good Ship Dahlia

Deason decided that he would be a better captain than Chris, so he has been captaining the laundry basket. Dahlia is his only willing passenger. We are unsure if his ruler anchor will be able to secure the ship, only time will tell.

Dahlia has been a trooper (aside from being a captive passenger), she has sprouted her first tooth, without any real change in her demeanor. She is a funny kid, even before the tooth, she refuses to eat off of a spoon. She will only eat foods that she can pick up and eat, or tiny pieces that I feed to her. She is growing up way too fast.

Patiently waiting!

So....we are waiting to get onto our boat, although, technically it is not our boat until our check clears. In the mean time I am making the whole family dress up in foul weather gear, and pretend we are on the boat. I think we all look pretty cool. Thanks Dad and Jo for the great gear!

I hate banks!!

So apparently Citizens won't let us wire money unless we come into the branch that we started the account at and sign some papers, which is impossible, as you all know, we are in Florida. So we are driving over to Ft. Lauderdale to give them a check, which won't clear for about 10 days. Sadly this was our fastest option. So we are not boat owners today! :( I am so mad, I have lost my appetite, which is saying a lot, because when I nurse I am always hungry. Hopefully, everything will workout just fine!
On a lighter note, Elvis is going to be a Daddy!!!! Deason discovered this morning that Elvis and his mate had made their nest right under our bedroom window, which would also explain the wake up calls! They have eight eggies! Even more impressive, while doing some research about Muscovy Ducks online I found out that male Muscovy ducks have spiralled penises that can be up to 20 cm in length and can become erect in one third of a seconds. Wow! I feel bad for Elvis's mate!

Master Angler!

Whaaahooooo! Deason has been fishing everyday, has caught a few small fish, but today he put the Bass Masters to shame! He used a Walmart special lure, and caught a 4-5lb bass in our tiny pond! I've never seen anyone so excited to catch a fish, jumping up and down..... oh wait, I am describing what I was doing! He is ready for the big time on "Never for Granted"...watch out Mahi Mahi....here comes Deason!

New hat

Dahlia got a new hat today, it is great! It has sailboats on it and light houses!! She won't keep it on for longer than 2.5 sec. Just long enough to get a picture!

Resident duck

We will be leaving this condo soon, so I would like to share with everyone this brazen animal that violates our personal space. He likes to wake us up in the morning, and will often stand in front of our screen door making it rather uncomfortable to exit. He is not aggressive, but he is not quite trustworthy either. Deason has grown fond of him over these last few weeks, and has named him Elvis. We will miss you Elvis!