Sara is Smiling

Cat Pranks

Welcome our new Babies!

So the stray we took in recently turned out to be PREGNANT.
Ugh..I was NOT happy about that although the kids were thrilled and eagerly awaited the kittens arrival.
When the time finally came, I let them watch. At first they were bored because they figured it was taking too long. Then things started happening and they got excited. Then they realized it wasn't pretty and were grossed out. A fabulous lesson in biology, though!

We ended up with three little kitties. Minnie, Munchie, and Chip. Minnie is the only girl. She's the black one. Munchie is grey and everybody's favourite. Chip is the brown one.
Here they are at 2 weeks old. Their eyes have opened, but their ears haven't perked up all the way yet. Minnie looks like a bat! Munchie is a lovely little puffball. :-)


I had fun with them yesterday..here are a couple more:



The kids are in love. Quinn calls them "Ows" is in "Meow". She stands outside the bathroom door where they live and pulls on the handle begging, "Ows! Ows! Ows!" until I let her in for a visit.


On the topic of Quinn's developing vocabulary...her newest word is Beebo as in Bieber. She yells, "Beebo!" until I turn a Justin Beiber song on repeat. Oh the price of having a teenage babysitter!

Holy crap! I'm a cat lady!

It kind of crept up on me, but with 4 cats I believe it is now OFFICIAL.
ME. CAT LADY.
A friend sent me this the other day...it even looks like me!

The "love scratches" makes me laugh particularly today. I've been teased by multiple people today because of my "hickey". Umm..no, that's from my cat. Seriously. That's not just some lame coverup.

And yes, I talk to my cats like they're human infants (doesn't everyone?) but more importantly I talk to them in their own language. Again..I didn't even realize that I do this until Rachael pointed it out to me last week.
"I like how you," and you should know that when she says she "likes" she is being sincere as Rachael is also a crazy cat lady, "I like how you meow back at them in their same tone when they meow at you."
I paused in thought, "I......do that?"
I suppose I do.

So cat number 4. I had no intention of ever having 4 cats. A stray showed up 2 weeks ago. The kids begged me to let them keep it. I kept my firm NO stance for 2 weeks. The kids even put up posters all over the neighbourhood.
They had named her Climber for obvious reasons, and Climber slept everynight curled up against the glass of my patio door so I would be sure to see her patheticness. Climber was missing huge gobs of fur from where she'd been in a fight. Anytime we went outside Climber would rub our legs and lick us relentlessly.
NO, I said. We are not keeping this cat. Leave her alone and she'll go home.
But Climber never left. Then one night there was a snow storm. She was pressed up against my patio glass looking more pathetic than ever.
I'm a cat lady. Of course I let her in. Now she won't leave.


Welcome to the family, Climber!

Coolest Cat in Town

So I've talked about my super wonderful cat Mickey many times. She's the perfect cat. I love that she's fighting the good fight against the local vermon, but I wish she'd keep her kill to herself.
I saw this on pinterest today and it reminded me of her:

Except for the tie. Mickey is a proud LIONESS!!

So today we find this:

Here's a closer look at the top level of the Barbie castle...


Ok, ok..she caught a mouse. She brought it home. Why, though? Why did she take it downstairs? Why did she put it on the upper level of the Barbie castle? It seems so......premeditated.

On the topic of Mickey...while we were away over Christmas she knocked Max's covered aquarium to the floor and ate his frogs. He was in love with his frogs so I told him that Emily had taken them home to babysit them. My intention was to replace them as soon as we got home. Well, the store was sold out of them so I've kept up the story of "they're at Emily's" for the last few weeks. Every time Emily would come over, Max would grill her about where the frogs were. Finally today when he started up with her again I decided to tell him what happened.
He was devasted. He cried and cried. Eventually he went behind the couch and curled up in the fetal postion and cried. He said he would never forgive Mickey :-(

lolcats?

Is this truly how old I am? I don't know about lolcats?

Well, I've been introduced. And I'd like to show you some that seriously made me L O L!

K, the "invisible" ones are totally cracking me up right now. If you do not find these hilarious, we can no longer be friends.

Get out your reading specs, this here's a long one.

For some reason I've been getting migraines all weekend and again today. It was so bad last night that I couldn't even go to bed because laying down hurt too much. I went downstairs and sat upright on the couch in the dark holding my head up with my hands and convincing myself that I was having an aneurysm or a stroke. We just got life insurance last week and that would've looked awfully suspicious. These were the things I was thinking about.

I finally got to bed and was woken up by the lovely Quinn for one of her midnight snacks. Then later somebody had a dream they were sitting on the toilet..only..they weren't sitting on the toilet. Up again to clean up the mess.
Oops, I just reread that - I wasn't mentioning which child it was so as not to embarrass them, but it kind of sounds like I'm talking about myself. Just to be clear - I am not talking about myself. Although I think we can all relate, am I right??

We woke up this morning to the first snowfall of the season. The kids were excited, but especially Charlie. She's been checking the weather online for weeks waiting to see snow on the horizon. I'd bought them winter jackets last week, but realized this morning that nobody had any boots that fit or matching mitts. I loaded everyone up and headed off to school with the plan of going shopping with the babies this morning to restock our winter gear and also to get some much needed groceries. I just barely scraped up enough stuff to pack their lunches this morning.
Back at home I got wrapped up in a work project. Neither I nor the babies were dressed yet when the school called and said Charlie was sick. I wasn't really buying it, but said I'd come get her. She'd have to come with us to do the shopping, and this might be good because I could use her help.

Nooo way. I don't know how she went from totally normal to looking like death in the matter of an hour or two. We went straight home to begin our marathon of puking, shivers and fever. No boots. No groceries.

And did I mention that we lost our cat today? Percy went outside yesterday - as usual - and never came home. This is very much against his nature and I don't expect he'll be back. Charlie blames me. We ran out of cat food yesterday. We're so low on groceries because when I went to the store this weekend a migraine came on quite suddenly and dramatically. I felt like someone walked up behind me and cracked me over the head with a baseball bat (this seems to be a theme with my migraines..does it happen this way for anyone else??) I had to drop everything and rush out. So the cats went half a day without food while I suffered in misery, and I went to the corner store that evening and grabbed a bag. The last time we saw Percy, was when we were leaving for the store. We opened the door to go and he ran out. Charlie claims he gave her a dirty look as he walked away because he was mad about not being fed.

The kids aren't the only ones upset about losing their kitty. Mickey has been pacing today. She wants out, she wants in, she wants out, she wants in. She's been very clingy with all of us. She hasn't been this way since she was a kitten before we got Percy.

I can't get another cat to keep her company because Max just got diagnosed with asthma last week, but don't worry all you hockey fans he's still on the ice.

I'm getting long winded, but it's been a really full day. I'll wrap it up.

Back to the first snowfall..Max and Elly decided to go out and build a snowman after school. They had so much fun and wanted to come in and tell Charlie all about it. Charlie, who has been waiting and waiting for this day and who was laying on the couch unable to even sit up, was not so thrilled to hear about their snowy fun.


And lastly - to the baby who hasn't slept longer than a 15 minute stretch today and has earned her title of Queen of the Crabby Baby Club a dozen times over, I'm sending you back from whence you came.

Bye bye, baby!

Animals were harmed during the making of this blog post.

So Elly is a maniac, that's a given. Elly and her cousin Aidan together are maniacal times a gazillion.
Today they dumped my entire box of laundry soap into my dryer along with all the clean clothes that were folded on the ground next to it. This is becoming an ordinary occurance.
But that's not what this entry is about.

I was babysitting Aidan for a while this morning. He and Elly went out back to play, but not before stripping themselves naked and picking out new outfits whilst destroying my laundry room. (Yes, I said "whilst". I thought this story could use some classing up.) Aidan chose a bathing suit 3 sizes too big, and Elly picked out one of Charlie's toques. But that's not the story either.

I was happy they were outside because they couldn't destroy anything out there.
The bunny wasn't quite so happy. This is how I found her:

Not harmed as in hurt or injured, but I'm willing to bet she's sustained some emotional trauma from her home invasion. And that yellow tube she's munching on is a big 'ol sucker candy. Bunbun was none too happy when I took that away. I wonder if she'll ever eat her dried up pellets again.

Oops, she did it again

I was about to jump into the shower when my girls came screaming into my room.
"He caught another baby bird!!" Charlie yelled.
"BAD MICKEY!" Eloise added.

I went downstairs and there was Mickey sitting patiently by the door waiting to be let in.....with a full grown robin in her jaws. There was no way I was letting her bring the carcass inside, and I also didn't want her abandoning it there on the deck.

I went out a different door and walked around back to dispose of it. Mickey had laid it in front of her by the door and was still waiting to be let in.


As I approached, suddenly the dead robin flew up toward me and started squawking. I flung my arms over my head, started squawking myself and ran hysterically off the deck. Where's Quincey the bird whisperer when you need him??


Our deck is screened in so the bird couldn't get out. He went back and forth from one side to the next flying into the screen, falling back to the ground and then getting swept up in Mickey's jaws again. This went on and on and on.

I held open the door just waiting for him to find it. I was definitely not about to go back in there.
Eventually the bird found the door and flew up into a nearby tree.
Mickey curled up on a rug for a nap, and I finally got my shower. :-)

RIP Baby Bird

Last night Mickey tried to slip past us to her basement lair with a baby bird in her jaws.
Quincey - the guy who will catch and release a spider rather than kill it - wasn't about to sit back and allow this. No way. Not on his watch.

He sprang into action. Mickey ran back outside and dropped the bird in the grass, but she wasn't done with it yet. She grabbed it in her claws and her and Quincey did battle.
I was reluctant to get involved because all the neighbourhood birds were suddenly circling and squawking overhead. A few were even bold enough to dive bomb.
I'm no idiot...I've seen the movie.
But Quincey looked like he needed a friend out there as he tried to scoop up the baby bird onto his iPad while Mickey was swiping and no less than a dozen birds were kamakaze. When I saw an opportunity I ran out and grabbed Mickey and locked her in the basement.

With the immediate threat gone and the birds still circling, Quincey placed the bird down in a safe spot on the grass. We watched it for nearly two hours. The birds retreated. The baby bird had moved a few inches onto the rocks, but nothing else.
Quincey got a pot and made a nest in it then fed it water through and dropper and mushed up corn. (He looked for worms but couldn't find any.)

Then I was left to care for it forevermore....which is reminiscent of the situation I'm in with all these kids running around my house. (oooooo....I love a good burn on my husband!)
I kept the baby bird in his pot-nest on my desk with me all day. I (with the help of my mom and Eloise) fed him water and mushed up corn all day. It was like having a newborn. He'd cry, I'd feed him. He'd cry, I'd feed him. He'd cry, I'd feed him. On and on.


Then at about 5pm Charlie came to check on him.
"Why's baby laying like that?"
"Hunh? ... Oh dear.."
He had rolled onto his back and was taking slow gaspy breaths.
"I think he's dying." I said.
She spun around so she wasn't facing the pot anymore and immediately started crying.
"It's OK!" I assured her, "he was very sick. We were hoping he'd get better, but he just didn't."
"I don't want to see!" she said through sobs, "I'm scared!"

I let her call Quincey and then we went out to bury it in the garden.
Max blamed me for the death, "Why did you let Mickey get him!?!"
Quincey also blamed me, "You didn't feed it, did you."
Eloise had no idea what death was. She was happy to help me bury him, but afterward said "Birdy out now!"
"No, Birdy is not coming out. Birdy is dead. Birdy isn't breathing. Birdy doesn't work anymore. Mickey killed Birdy."
"Mickey bad kitty!" she said as she started running toward the cat, "Mickey! Bad! Bad!" Then she tripped and fell flattening poor old Mickey under her big barrell toddler chest.

Charlie wanted to mark the grave. I wasn't quite expecting the huge flag, but I let her erect it anyway. I'll take it out in a few days and blame the weather.


Birdy!!!
Yup, what more is there to say?

Cat Lady

I was wandering aimlessly around a home decor shop a few weeks ago looking for something "cute". I didn't know what..just something "cute" that I could use as a photo prop for an upcoming event.

I felt like I was being watched, looked down, and our eyes met.
A sweet little kitty who was just begging to come home with me, sit outside my front door, and greet all my guests with her cute little french mustache of whiskers.

The kitty immediately had two fans:
Eloise, who wrapped all four paws in Dora Bandaids because she thought the seams in them were oww-y's.
And Mickey, who crept up behind her and sniffed her out. No worries, though. She ultimately gave her two paws up.

The thing is..in retrospect, the fact that I purchased this "cat ornament" makes me slightly nervous. Is it the first step? A gateway drug of sorts? Will my house someday be filled with tacky little kitty cat knick-knacks? Will people start buying me little porcelain cats batting red balls of yarn to display on my piano..my bookshelves..my dresser..on top of my tv? Will I start buying more and more shelves just to display all my cat things? Will I go to the grocery store in a sweatshirt with a larger than life cat face on it? Will I replace photos of my family with posters of kittens hanging from branches?

If you ever come to my house and see ANY of these things, PLEASE..organize an intervention post haste before I end up on the front page because my house has been condemned and my 500 cats seized.

I'll leave my cute little outdoor kitty where she is. I like her. Let's just work together to keep me on this side of crazy.