Lewis

We had a sad element to our summer. While we were visiting my grandparents we received news from my MIL that Lewis was at the vet and very sick. He couldn't walk or eat by himself. He was completely helpless. It was obvious from the start that he was wasn't doing well and probably wouldn't make it. But I brought him home and spent a week feeding him and keeping him clean. I wanted the kids, especially Dominic, to have a chance to see that we'd tried and to be able to say good-bye.

By the 2nd week he had begun to be in pain. So we made the painful decision to put him to sleep. I took him to my friend's house (who is a vet) and she helped us say good-bye. She turned down the lights, put him on a soft blanket and let us hold him while he went to sleep. It was so sad, especially to watch Dominic say good-bye to his friend. But we couldn't let him be in pain with no hope of getting better. We'd tried everything and now it was time.

We will miss him greatly. He was a very special cat.

But Dominic wanted to heal his heart with a new kitten. A friend had some kittens so we brought two home. Wouldn't want one to get lonely. =) And with Alex (Caitlin's cat) so big, we weren't sure how one little kitten would adjust alone.

We named them Meme Fox and Katie Ganshert - Meme and Kate.*

They are the sweetest little kittens imaginable. The kids are in love and even Alex seems to have accepted his two new sisters.

*Sadly a coyote got Kate about 2 months after we brought her home.

Gone

Today was rough!

I came home from meeting Jon for lunch to see Lucy (Caitlin's little kitten) just laying in the road. I beeped my horn at her so she would move. Nothing. And then I knew. She was gone. 

She'd always been slow moving, docile, and scared of nothing. Her getting run over by a car was a fear I'd discussed with the kids. Yet somehow I wasn't prepared for this.

I buried her in the back yard and cried. Then I had to go pick up the kids from school. And we all cried. Caitlin begged me to get her another Lucy. BEGGED! Since I know my daughter so well I'd already been looking around and found a litter of grey and white kittens.

By the time we were able to get over to look at them there was only one little girl left. We came home and I belatedly thought to check and make sure she was a she. She is not. She is a he. We have a little boy.

Meet Alex. Named after Alex T Smith, the author and illustrator of several children's books.

I'm still not sure how I feel about replacing our little Lucy so quickly. She was special. Caitlin carried that little thing around everywhere with her. It was so sweet. But she was heartbroken and wanted another kitten to comfort her. And I couldn't tell her no. And Alex is sweet too. It's just going to take a while for me to adjust.

Welcome Home!

We've REALLY been missing our kitty. The kids talk about him every day. The first time we went to the animal shelter we left without picking any cats out. We just couldn't do it. It was too soon.

But Monday we decided to try again. We fell in love with a very tiny grey female (5 wks old) and a sweet little orange male (8 wks old). Since Tolkien was named after an author we decided to name these two after authors as well. After a lot of discussion and a facebook poll the kids chose Lucy Maude Montgomery and C. S. Lewis. Little Lucy and Lewis joined us yesterday afternoon after a visit to the vet to alter some things. Two kittens is more than enough. =)

Little Lucy is a cuddle bug. She's so tiny that she can sit in the palm of my hand. She's a tiger striped grey. So pretty.

 Lewis will cuddle and LOVES to be scratched under his chin. But he also loves dancing around all of the kitchen cabinets we have outside on the porch. He's a ball of energy.

Caitlin picked out Lucy and is claiming her.

 Dominic picked out Lewis and is claiming him.

Since I have to pay for them, I think I'll claim both of them for myself. =)

We still miss Tolkie a lot. But these two little cuties are helping.

Normal again. . .almost!

We are finally beginning to feel a bit more normal. Our house is clean, with the exception of the cook top area. Almost all of our clothes have been returned. And we are back in our own sweet beds. 

But some things aren't the same. We can't use our stove or oven. So meals have been a bit entertaining and creative. I'm slowly putting things back since all of the items were returned in boxes all mixed up together. We have piles of "discard" bags sitting around that we can't do anything about until we get another visit from an insurance person.

And our sweet kitty hasn't returned home. The fireman scared the stuffings out of him and he ran outside. He always comes back and we spent that first night in our sooty house. I truly expected to hear him at the door that night. So I wasn't too worried. But as each day went by with no kitty we all became concerned. It is now almost 3 weeks later and no one has seen or heard him. I've asked all of the neighbors, posted notices on lsn and facebook, taken pictures to the humane society, and called the current and previous vets. We even, very briefly, considered getting another kitty. But we still miss Tolkie too much and it just didn't feel right. The kids cried on the way home because they saw all of those cats in cages and felt sorry for them and yet they missed their cat too much to get another one. In the words of Dominic "Someday I might want to rescue another kitty. But right now I can't. I miss Tolkie and I don't want to hurt his feelings when he gets home. Because I'm really praying he comes back home soon."

 

So if you get a chance, please send up a prayer that our kitty comes home. We miss him a lot.

We are moving on with the kitchen as best as we can. We've gotten estimates from all of the local cabinet places and have decided on a company. Ironically enough, Lowes is the most expensive. We have picked out tile, colors, etc. Our appliances arrived and are sitting here waiting. So now we just wait for a phone call letting us know that we can proceed with the demolition. 

I've been posting all of the fire updates here on the kids blog. It happened to all of us and affected all of us. But once the real renovations start, I'll move over to the other blog since all of my renovation pictures are there.

My Friend

"Look Mommy. Take a picture of kitty and me. He's my friend and he loves me."

Age is Relevant

Our cat is amazing. We brought him home five years before Dominic came on the scene. But he has been so patient with the kids and Dominic fell in love. From the very beginning Tolkie could make him smile. 

See this previous post.

When Dominic grew enough to play with him they developed a game of sorts that they would play together.

Dominic would throw a ball and then the two of them would chase it. The first one to reach the ball would then be tackled by the last one. Kitty participated in this fully. I think he even let Dominic win sometimes. =)

Well lately I've noticed our poor little 10 yr. old kitty isn't wanting to play as often. So I tried to explain to Dominic that kitty was getting old and we needed to start treating him a bit more gently.

 I explained the whole kitty years aren't the same as people years thing.

 So, of course, he wanted to know how old kitty was in people years. I had NO idea, but just guessed.

"He's about 70-80 years old."

"Do I know anybody that old?"

"Yes, Grandma and Grandpa G are that old."

"They aren't old. Grandpa climbs trees and plays tag and Grandma plays with me too. So they can't be old."

I was stumped. He's right. So I guess I'll have to come up with someone more feeble for my illustration. =)

The kids

Just a few random comments and pictures that don't really have a theme.

Caitlin has started being very disobedient lately. So she's been punished way more than either of us would like.

We were in the car and she was doing something (I can't remember what now.). I asked her to stop and she didn't. So I reached back and spanked her. In this tearful little amazed voice she said

"You mean to me. You hurt me."

There are some moments that happen as a parent that you never even imagined before you had children.

Explaining to my 4 yr old son why licking his feet was NOT a good idea was one of them.

Caitlin and I were in a bakery today and she starts talking to the lady who owns the store. She pointed to my eyes and said 

"Dis mommy's eyes."

Then she points to her eyes and said

"Dis Grammy's eyes."

She was apparently listening all of those times we talked about who our children resemble.

I walked into my bedroom during quiet time and found Dominic and the cat watching tv on Jon's computer.

Apparently Tolkie needed some bandages. And strangely enough kitty seemed to be actually watching tv.

Experiments

I heard the cat crying from the living room.

Then an "ouch!"

Dominic came running towards me -

"Mom, I pulled the cat's tail to check how sharp his teeth were."

"Dominic, you shouldn't EVER pull the cat's tail. It hurts him."

"BUT MOM! It was a scientific experiment. I HAD to see how sharp his teeth were!"

I quickly sent him outside so my mom and I could laugh with out him seeing. Poor kitty!

Food poisoning and cat food

We stayed for potluck at church yesterday and it turned out to be bad luck. By early afternoon I wasn't feeling well. Pretty soon it was obvious that I had food poisoning. I had eaten something that thankfully the rest of the family avoided. So I'm laying in bed trying to get my strength back.

Jon had taken Dominic swimming to get him out of the hotel room and I was laying in bed trying to keep an eye on Caitlin and get some rest. She disappeared for a few minutes and I heard a crunch, crunch. I went to investigate and found her in the bathroom. She had pulled the litter box out from under the sink and used it as a step stool (it has a cover) to climb up onto the counter where we keep the cat's food bowl. She was happily eating the rest of the food from his bowl and had her hand in the bag ready to get some more when she'd finished. Ewwww!

Customers

"Mommy, I want to be a customer when I grow up."

While I was trying to find an answer to this strange comment -

"Because the customer is ALWAYS right!"

Took me quite a while to stop laughing and explain to the little guy what the comment meant.

Last night Dominic was having a hard time going to sleep. After he'd fallen asleep I went into the bathroom and couldn't find the cat food bowl. We keep it on the counter so Caitlin won't think it's food and try some. After searching everywhere, I found it under Dominic's bed. He had filled it almost to the top and put it under his bed. He was trying to entice the cat to come sleep with him. I put the food back, but found a ton of cat hair in his bed this morning so I'm guessing it worked. =)

Poor Kitty and other things

A couple of cute pictures and some of Dominic's thoughts.

One day when asked why he was whining so much -

"I'm whining because I need more Legos so I can build my house. I'll have to spread the world to everyone so that I'll get some more as a present." This was followed by a very pleading look to me.

When told to eat some vegies -

"I'm getting to be a strong boy and I don't need to grow up to be 5 so I can stop eating this."

"Daddy, are you a pilot?"

"Yes."

"When I get to be 5 can you take me up in your airplane so I can touch the sky and the clouds?"

Apparently 5 is the age to be around here.

A bit of back ground on Tolkien, our cat -

He weighs around 15-16lbs. He's chased off large dogs and can catch prey (even birds) even though he's declawed. We brought him home when he was 1 yr old, almost 7 yrs ago. So this 9-11 he will be 8 yrs old. If you upset him he will bite you since he doesn't have claws. So technically he's old and ornery. But when it comes our kids it's another story.

Our poor kitty is so tolerant of the kids. Caitlin is very gentle with him and just follows him around petting him and squealing. But Dominic has always been a bit more rough in his loving.

His favorite thing is treating Tolkie like a dog and laying on his stomach to read a book or play with something.When Tolkie has had enough he'll get up and leave. But, strangely enough, he keeps coming back for more. This picture is of Jon and Dominic reading the worship story and Tolkie climbed up into Jon's lap.Caitlin caught in the act of trying to steal something.And very proud of herself for getting it.

Guard kitty.

Several months ago we put in a cat door and let our inside cat out into the great out of doors. He doesn't have front claws and we were a little worried about him, but it was getting so hard to keep him inside. We put him into the garage at night and he can come and go outside all he wants. He's a much happier cat. If you've read my previous blogs you know that we live in the country and have a bit of a dog problem. Well, yesterday was beautiful weather and I had the windows open. I heard two dogs start barking that bark that means they've found something to chase. I knew it was Tolkien. I ran to the window planning to yell at them and I saw Tolkie all puffed up. Those dogs got close and he flew at them. One was a lab mix and the other was a medium sized mutt. He attacked the smaller one full force and those poor dogs took off at full speed w/ their tails between their legs. I guess Tolkie had finally gotten enough and decided to defend his home. I told him what a brave kitty he was and he actually strutted around like he was proud of himself. So now we have a guard kitty!

Poor little kitty!

Dominic loves his kitty very much!!! He is always trying to hug him and carry him. Dominic weighs about 30 lbs and Tolkien weighs about 15 lbs. So it is very difficult for Dominic to hold on to him for long. We try to rescue kitty as much as possible.

Not sure if you can see kitty. He's being squished.

A couple of days ago, Dominic decided that kitty needed to have the Bible read to him. Dominic sat down beside him and every time the poor cat tried to move, Dominic would put him back on the couch and say "No, kitty! I'm not done reading yet!"