Mr. Gierhart's Blog

About eight years ago in the summer, Mrs. G and I drove to my friend's mom's house. She had taken in a cat who had just delivered three kittens. We were going to adopt one to live in our new house that we had just bought in Geneseo. First, we pulled up to her house. She opened the door and invited us into her basement, which was full of her many cats. When we got down there, we immediately saw the three new kittens. Two of the sisters were playing together and rough housing. The third was more clumsy and played by herself. This kitten was as small as a stuffed animal with a tail that was striped like a tiger's tail. When we picked her up, she smelled sandy like a litter box and felt as soft as a cloud. Mrs. G and I noticed very early that she was super cute. In fact, her feet and belly were as white as Olaf the snowman while the rest of her fur was brown, gray, and black.  Then, she nuzzled my cheek and it felt damp like a sidewalk after a rain shower. We knew ri

In the little pond at dusk, Ducky was wading in the still water with his brothers and sisters. Mother Duck was watching them nearby. The pink hues of the sunset were fading into the engulfing darkness of night and the emerging stars twinkled at their reflections in the pond. The nearby canal that connected to the pond babbled and flowed beneath the fluttering bats and slithering snakes that were just awaking from their daytime slumber. Mother Duck called to her ducklings, "Let's head back to the shore and get snuggled in for bed!" All of the ducklings followed Mother Duck  🦆 ...except for Ducky. His little yellow tail wiggled back-and-forth as his webbed feet kicked and paddled towards a cluster of flitting dragonflies he had spotted across the pond.  When he turned around to make sure he hadn't gotten too far from his family, he was startled to see that they were gone. As he frantically turned his orange beak and eyes in each direction, he realized that he cou