Madeline (Giles) DeJournett is the Advance writer for the North Stoddard Countian. A retired high school English/history teacher, she spent 32 years teaching in 5 schools in Missouri and Alaska. These days, she lives quietly with a menagerie of wild and domestic animals on 52 secluded acres in the remote Tillman hills south of Advance. She graduated from Dexter High School in 1960 and Southeast Missouri State in 1964. She can be contacted at advancensc@sbcglobal.net.

Yellow cat Renovation Project #1

Posted Thursday, June 25, 2009, at 1:44 PM

My son Matthew and daughter Kristin were an important part of making the yellow cat's vision of a new DeJournett kitchen come true.

The Death of Harvest Gold

When most people remodel some aspect of their homes, they rely on advice from experts, friends, or family members to give them advice on what they should do.

However, the recent remodeling of the kitchen in my rural Tillman home was begun by none other than my large yellow cat Louie, who began the project several years ago by chewing on the 70's style fruit wallpaper every time he got hungry or frustrated.

Louie wasn't around to help choose the wallpaper when my husband and father-in-law built the house in 1975, so I suppose his latent hostility began at some point after my daughter and I brought him and the black cat Tybalt to our home.

Lest all you cat-haters jump on me and say, "You shoulda known better!" let me explain. When my husband died in 1997, my house was so incredibly sad that my 15-year-old daughter talked me into spicing our lives up with a pair of cats. My husband, a dedicated cat-hater himself, would never have tolerated such a move, but he forfeited all choice in the matter by dying.

We must have taken Louie from his mother and his rural Painton home too early, as he had all sorts of adjustment problems - one of which was that he wanted to eat all the time. When I tried to force him into a schedule, he sought out loose pieces of wallpaper upon which to vent his frustration.

In my defense, let me say that I liked the cat better than the wallpaper, which was perfectly matched with my Harvest Gold refrigerator, stove, countertop, and tile.

I might also add that my darling daughter positively hated both the wallpaper and the Harvest Gold (and loved the cat)--- so one weekend she came up from the Armpit of the South with paint samples from Home Depot.

"Wouldn't this look nice, Mom?" she said. Things moved quickly from there, and since my children and my sister came to help in "The Great Wallpaper Weekend," I can't complain. They can paint the walls chartruese, for all I care...

Now I have a lovely pale yellow kitchen with a rooster theme going on. Yes, yes, I know that roosters are a bit corny, but this is a COUNTRY home, after all. I have every right to use a chicken theme in my kitchen. We raised the creatures out here for years.

As for Louie, he has already started another project -- two of them, in fact. It seems that the vinyl floor covering in the kitchen and laundry room is BORING, so Yellow-Cat-With-Too-Much-Time-on-his-Paws has already begun the second phase of the DeJournett country home update. He has chewed a hole about four inches in diameter in the kitchen floor....just to test out his theory that it can be done.

In the laundry room, he's taken advantage of the loose seams in the vintage 1975 yellow brick pattern. He got a good start on this project during one of my recent trips to faraway places.

"Can't you stay a little longer?" my sister complains.

"Sorry," I reply, "My interior decorator has already begun the excavation of my laundry room. I must return home before the project gets totally out of hand. (or out of paw)"

From the sweltering green hills of Tillman, Missouri, this is your rural reporter Madeline, looking forward to a glass of iced tea in her lovely new Yellow Cat Kitchen!

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Mercy lady,,,,,,,,cats, roosters, harvest gold,, and Memphis is not the 'armpit' of anywhere,,,,my daughter lives there actually (Cordova) now incorporated in city. My late wife has a full-sized red rooster in kitchen, if I ever have a yard sale you may have first choice to bid,,, he looks real, like he's been stuffed and mounted by taxidermist.

-- Posted by changedname on Thu, Jun 25, 2009, at 7:39 PM
It was Yellow Rose who called Memphis the "Armpit of the South," Dexterite. There are many beautiful parts of the city. I love the old, old trees and the old homes. The trees in Memphis make Dexter's trees look small (no offense here - I love Dexter's trees, too!)

I hope your rooster doesn't have feathers! I can not understand why people want to have stuffed animals in their houses!! How NASTY!!!

-- Posted by goat lady on Fri, Jun 26, 2009, at 2:15 PM
This is the year for the rooster kitchen. I recently bought new curtains--and every store in town had at least one rooster curtain on display. My curtains are just fruity--after the death of our pet rooster, the rooster curtains were not the right choice. Chester was one fine rooster--especially fond of M and Ms.

-- Posted by GONENOW on Fri, Jun 26, 2009, at 3:08 PM
Always a treat to hear the happenings on the farm. We once had a chihuahua pup who thought anything he got close to was a chew toy. I was a teenager, working at Magic Mart and had bought the cutest pair of dress sandals with 3 in cork clad heels... need I say more. How Andy got them off the shoe rack in my closet is still a mystery, unless of course my baby sister who was 6 at that time had been playing dress up. Anyway the shoes were ruined. He also chewed the corners of the the couch and chair in the living room.

-- Posted by SKDellinger on Sat, Jun 27, 2009, at 7:39 AM
MD, Sounds to me as if your big(golden tabby) baby boy has very good taste in expressing his opinion as to the remodeling needs at Chez Tillman!! Just thank your stars that the big black baby boy hasn't expressed an interest in Goth couture for your abode!!! Enjoy the boys and scratch them both behind the ears for me, my Bear is happy in Padre Island, sleeping on his Mommy's flip-flops, molater, kk

-- Posted by kkcaver47 on Sat, Jun 27, 2009, at 8:31 PM
Hmmmm...so you're saying my Great Pyr has been wanting me to remodel my couch and loveseat? Not that she chews on them...they're just her own personal snot/eye booger clothes. She does have a good idea though. I only bought these about a year ago, but the cloth turned out to be a nightmare (especially with dog claws abound), and even a slip cover would be a much needed improvement.

-- Posted by mrsdolphin on Sun, Jun 28, 2009, at 10:51 PM
Hahaha! You guys are a hoot!

Gonenow, when I was a kid, living on the farm, we had an enormous red rooster that we kids named "The Count." The Count very obviously ruled the roost, and he sometimes even chased my younger brothers, which definitely endeared him to my heart. I had a very irritating cousin a few months younger than I, and he came to stay with us for a much-too-long visit one summer, wearing out his welcome the first day. He took it upon himself to buck my normally-unquestioned authority by chasing the Count all over that farm!

In other words, my obnoxious cousin challenged the pecking order in more ways than one! It's funny now, but it sure wasn't funny then!

-- Posted by goat lady on Mon, Jun 29, 2009, at 8:05 AM
You're lucky all your yellow cat does is chew. My darlings like to redecorate by leaving regurgitated deposits. It seems they think it improves the look of the carpet. They try to create such artistic patterns. Mean old curmudgeon that I am, I fail to appreciate their efforts.

-- Posted by Ducky on Wed, Jul 1, 2009, at 12:13 PM
GROSS!!!

-- Posted by goat lady on Wed, Jul 1, 2009, at 10:13 PM

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