Here to Stay?

Well, we haven't come up with much of a solution for the new found kitties. We've contacted the Humane Society. They will give out 1 voucher a month for $15 off of a spay or neuter at a participating vet clinic. We talked to our regular vet, Doc, and he will give us a discount also so we're looking at about $30 off each one. That helps in our decision to keep them or not. The kids of course want us to keep them all and it really doesn't cause too much trouble for the everyday stuff. It will basically be an extra bag of food each month and the annual vaccinations that we purchase and administer ourselves. I don't mean to be harsh, but also with the way they seem to throw themselves under tires around here, by next fall we'll be down in numbers again. I know that sounds mean, but they are farm cats here to keep down the population of rodents. Sorry if that offends anyone.

So, we're now at the point where names are coming up. I think the Mama kitty is JoJo. You know from the song I quoted last time, "Where did you come from cotton eye Joe". Our kids have named one baby Rascall and another Oreo. We've decided to let our niece name the last one since she found them first. They also can't have any indoor pets because of allergies at their house, so she has to play with the animals here when she comes to visit. I'll let you know what she comes up with when she decides. And I'll have to figure out who is who of the babies and try to post more pictures later.

Thank goodness Jon bought the thermostatic controlled bed for the cats. It is a really cool appliance and it gives me a piece of mind that the cats aren't freezing to death in this major cold weather we're having. Even the heated water dish has to be refreshed daily with this cold to be sure it isn't freezing.

Stay warm!

Where Did You Come From?

Sorry it's been so long since I've had a post. Life has been kind of busy the past few days, but before that, I couldn't think of anything interesting to write.

So - the title of the post... On Saturday I looked out our window and saw (what I thought was) one of our kitties sitting on my parents' driveway with a tiny baby kitty. I looked closer and saw another baby kitty and a third baby kitty and realized it was not our bigger kitty but what looked like the mama cat to these babies. The babies can't be more than 6 or 8 weeks old and the mom is obviously nursing them. Jon was able to approach her and the babies and lead them to the spot where we have our current feeding and bed spot set up for the cats we already have (in what we call the Garden Shop). The babies chowed down right away.

Our three cats were in the garden shop, too and didn't seem phased at all by these new guests. As the whole story unfolds, we realize that my niece, Kaia, tried to tell Nate on Wednesday that she saw Chip in the outhouse. Well, he quickly told Kaia that she couldn't have seen Chip because Chip just got run over last week. Kaia tried to tell Karli, but Karli was still recovering from her tonsilectomy and didn't go to check it out. Sorry Kaia! Nobody listened.

On Saturday morning Jon and Nate were shoveling and noticed the outhouse door was unlatched. Jon went to close it and saw a fleece blanket that does not belong to us. He didn't think much of it being full of cat hair, just figured it was our cats hanging out in there. The outhouse is right next to the garden shop so not too much of a stretch of the imagination. After seeing this mama and her babies, we figured out that they must have been the ones in the outhouse and we are wondering how long have they been around and how did they get here? It would explain why our cats are not completely ticked off at having guests. Also, when I went to look at the blanket to see if I might recognize it, I saw a small dish. Someone must have left this little family on a blanket with a little food or water.

We are waiting on naming them in case someone comes forward to claim them, but it doesn't look promising. It's a little scary to know that someone we don't know has been in our yard. The outhouse is pretty tucked away, so either someone knew it was there or kind of searched around for a somewhat secluded spot to drop these guys. And if it was someone we know, why not just say something to us? We would help find a good home for them.

My only concern with keeping them is that we have a strict spay/neuter policy in our yard. There are way too many "extra" animals in this world that just get dropped off in someone's yard. (i.e. this family) If we are to keep them, we want them fixed. I am planning to check with the Humane Society to see if they have any grants or assistance programs for something like this. I'm not opposed to the costs of shots and feeding them, it's just the $200 per cat to have them fixed that I have a problem with. I'll let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, if you know of anyone who wants/needs a kitty, just let me know. Or if you know of a program to help with the cost of spay/neutering.

So, finally, here are a few pictures of the little cuties on the heated bed. Enjoy!

PS - Karli is recovering very well. She now has a bit of a stuffy nose, but is back to eating normally for the most part and back to dance and PE today.

Outta Here

Karli's tonsils are officially gone. Her surgery was this morning. It took about 30 minutes. We had to stay at the Surgicenter for a couple hours after that so they could see that she was able to drink and go potty. All went well. We are to expect several days of feeling yucky. Here are the photos we took with my phone (I forgot the real camera, sorry.)

This was taken before the nerves set in:

She took a picture of my booties. I was able to stay with her until she fell asleep.
Twins!

Sleepy girl...

Happy Half Birthday, Megan

January 9th is Miss Megan's half-birthday. She will be 9 1/2 officially tomorrow. Yahoo!!! She's bringing treats to school and she is also the Student of the Week for her class. Here are her favorites:

Color: sky blue

Food: corn dogs

Sport: dance

Subject in school: science

Thing about herself: her drawings & her talent for dancing

I Love You!

Wii the People

I think all five of us would say our best Christmas present this year was the Wii. I think someone has played every day. I have only missed a couple days at most since Christmas. It's nice that we can all five play. Nater is our best bowler with a high score of 223. I earned a 219 with a six-pack (strikes not abs, like Megs suggested).


We all created Mii's to look quite like us. Here we are:

(Megs, Karli, me, Nater & Jon)

For New Year's Eve, we went up to Minot and brought the Wii with us. We hooked it up to Mel & Jay's tv, and when Matt and Tara arrived with their kids, we set up a Mii for each of them. Matt was very creative with his Mii. He is always having fun anyway, but here is what he created for his character named "Affropuff":

Toothless

Nater finally pulled out his first loose tooth. It has been hanging on for the past couple weeks. He bumped it with a book tonight right before bed time. That sent him in to a holy fit because he was so scared that it would hurt to pull the tooth out. It was bleeding a little, so he had a wet paper towel and he decided to try to pull it out. Ta-dah! "Wow, that didn't even hurt." He's going to a birthday party tomorrow at Snooper's so I'm glad it came out at home instead of trying to find it in the maze of play areas.

Now we'll have to see what the Tooth Fairy will bring for him.