My Wonderful Life: Family Visits and Moon

Dianne and Terry, Dwayne's parents came to visit us this weekend. They came up Friday and left Sunday. Friday, Dwayne still had to work so they spent the day with us at our house and played with the kids. We had an easy dinner by having pizza and I left early to go and get our new kitten. (More on that later.) Saturday we started early by all piling into the van and going to a garage sale that was raising money for Relay For Life. I got a couple more VeggieTales movies for the kids and found for myself a couple more quilting books. (Not that I need any more.) Dianne found kid-size folding chairs of different colors for the kids. They like them a lot and are the perfect size for their little bodies. We then swung by the Farmer's Market in Olympia since we were only a few blocks away. I didn't find any fantastic deals but we did come away with a homemade triple berry pie and cinnamon swirl bread. I also walked by some shellfish and decided that oysters sounded good for some reason. I'm not a big fan of oysters but I like to have them once or twice a year. Especially when they are grilled on the BBQ and eaten immediately out of the shell with garlic butter. Terry bought a pound of buffalo jerkey so all of us were quite happy. When we got home that night, we BBQ'd steak, oysters, and I also grilled some fresh asparagus. For dessert, we munched on the pie and cinnamon bread. Sunday was spent just hanging out at the house a bit. We did take a walk to the store and grabbed some fried chicken and JoJos from the deli for lunch. Around 2:00 they took off for home. It was a great visit and it is such a delight to see Sam and Evie start to recognize and enjoy all their relatives.

Since Bubba died, I have been waffling back and forth on if I wanted another cat or not. Especially knowing that Dwayne has a small allergy to them. After my grief had mostly passed, I decided that yes, I did want another cat. Now how to convince Dwayne? He didn't seem too opposed to the idea at all which surprised me. I promised to take care of all the cat's needs including the litter box this time and I also figured that it was only fair that if I get a cat, then he is allowed to have a dog. (Though it will mostly be my dog since I'm the one home all day.... LOL) I have been scouring Craigslist trying to find animals that need new homes since we don't have hundreds of dollars to dish out for a new puppy. We also have to consider our children's ages and what we are allowed to have in our community. We are still looking at this point and we may just have to wait a while to get our perfect companion. But I'll keep looking since I did promise.

I found a posting on kittens from a lady who takes in orphaned kittens and with her own time and expense, bottle feeds them and finds them new homes. If she didn't do this, all those kittens would be euthanized as the shelter she lives near does not have the funding or facilities to take them in. I really liked what she was doing and even though I wasn't necessarily looking for a kitten (I was considering adopting an older cat) I decided I would support her and take in one of her kittens. We emailed back and forth and I waited another week for the babies to get old enough to be eating solid foods. Friday night, I drove out and looked at the kitties. She wasn't going to let me have the one I want because he was still being bottle-fed and she didn't think he was ready. I finally convinced her that I had experience with the little ones and because she was starting to get overwhelmed with all the rescues she had, that I would be helping by taking this one off her hands. So I am happy to say I was able to get the kitten I wanted.

We have decided to call him Moon for now but we might change that as we get to know his personality. He is a little rough around the edges and really needs some tender care. He has caked on food on his feet, belly, and mouth which is causing hair loss which is making him look even worse and he has slightly weapy eyes. I'm going to have to keep an eye on those cause he may be getting a respitory infection. The good news is that once he was away from the competition of his littermates, he is eating like a champ and doing fine on that front. We've also given him a couple of baths which has helped his appearance (and smell.) He still needs some work but I think he will be gorgeous once his hair fills back in and he grows a little. I have a soft heart for kittens and I was able to give him a good home and clean him up so I couldn't say no once I saw the situation he was in. It breaks my heart that I couldn't rescue them all. I'll post more pictures once he grows a little and his hair fills in.