Out of the Fireplace and Into the Fire

Kullen was in the living room earlier this evening, and he came to get me saying, "MOM! Something's in the fireplace." He said he saw a small hand, so we thought maybe a raccoon or a squirrel. We called Dad in, after all the is the tamer of all wild things, and when he opened up the fireplace a beautiful bird flew out. But the poor thing was in such a panic. We had opened the door so Travis could get whatever it was quickly out of the house, but instead of letting the bird out, it let two cats in. Travis saved the bird from one cat that leaped up over the piano and was airborne when he caught it by the tail to spare the poor thing. But the first cat frightened it, causing it to fly in a panic across the room to where we were. It hit the wall, and fell stunned on the floor, and in a second, the other cat was on top of it. It was so upsetting. We all gasped, but it was too late for our feathered friend. We are always finding dead snakes, frogs, bugs and other things on the porch from the little hunters, but we would prefer they leave the birds alone. It was a shocking site I don't think will be out of my mind for a while.

Catch-all Post

Nine hours after the first kitten was born, more finally started to appear. This morning I woke up to six baby kittens in my closet. They are beautiful, just like her last litter. We are going to definitely make an appointment to get her fixed this go-round. I am not sure she can handle any more pregnancies, nor can I. I hate to admit it - but I am totally in love with this cat, and if something happened to her, I would be beside myself as apparent in how I reacted to the sight of something unexpected yesterday morning. The poor nurse at the vet's office talked to me three times yesterday! Lord help me when I actually become a grandmother to human babies!
I have 24 personal pan pizza crusts to make today - and thankfully, I found a pizza crust recipe that is really good. It is a Pizza Hut mock pan pizza recipe. I will share it here later when I have a minute to type it up. We are hosting a youth pizza / movie night at our house for the local homeschool group. It ought to be fun!
Yes, Hurricane Humberto did aim straight for our area. There were power outages and flooding all over the area just south of us where Travis works, but we never really even got much rain. It was the most bizarre thing - a hurricane forms one morning over the Gulf of Mexico and makes landfall that night. Very unusual indeed. Fortunately based on the where it developed, it did not have a chance to gain strength. I saw on the news last night where one house with an elderly couple were sleeping had the roof sheared off and the entire house was moved 7 feet off of its slab.
I really don't like these catch all posts - but really none of these things in and of itself make much to post about. Besides I was trying to dump it all out of my head so I can get on with my busy day! Hope you're having a great Friday!

Oh What a Day!

Today has been one of those days. It started first thing this morning when I got up to make homemade syrup and pancakes for Kullen's 10th birthday breakfast. In the bleary eyed confusion of the morning - I added 2 CUPS of water instead of the 2 TBSP the recipe called for, and spent every possible mental resource trying to figure out the obvious. Then, I opened the front door to let the meowing cat in, and when she walked past me into the kitchen, something red was hanging out of her. She is in the "family way" but I had no idea that she was due. This is the same cat that had kittens in May, and while we missed the window of opportunity to have her fixed, the tomcats in the neighborhood are evidently right on their game. I don't have to tell you that when I saw this, I freaked. I ran to the phone and with gasping sobs tried to tell Carrie at the vet's office what I was seeing and asked if I could bring her in. She talked me down out of my tree and said she was likely in labor and that it was no big deal, that we needed to just wait and watch. Kitten #1 was born at 10 am or so, and at almost 7 pm we now have no other kittens in sight. Mama cat seems fine - so we are still waiting. In the meantime, after we figured she was alright, and that my great breakfast plan was going to be a failure, we headed off to Sonic for some breakfast eats and left mama kitty to labor solo for a while. On the way home, I was traveling along the flat-ish, straight highway when I looked in my rear view mirror to see flashing lights. I was being pulled over. The officer that pulled me over was one we have heard was the meanest DPS officer in this county. I think it was the fact that I had on my "Ugly Betty" glasses, and hadn't brushed my hair that caused him to take pity on me and only give me a warning, and asked no questions about the car full of school aged children in.their.pajamas at almost 10 in the morning! Several people since have told me that he doesn't let anybody off. I thanked him for not giving me a ticket on my son's birthday and went on my way. In the afternoon I had an acquaintance unexpectedly stop by, making Kullen and I late for his art class - but I was very cautious about keeping the speed limit after being pulled over this morning! Whew!
Tomorrow is another busy day. Dare I say, I hope it won't be as eventful as this one!

Kitty Cat Update

Okay, you're gonna gush! Are you ready for this? Here is my new feline baby. My kids do NOT want me to call her Callie, so we need a name. I'll be taking suggestions. She was inside my bathroom today sitting on some clean linens when I was able to snap this picture. She has the best - absolute best personality of any cat I've ever had - and I am totally in love with her. We have also got homes for all of the others - so it has been a very good kitten experience for all of us. We are going to let this one grow up and have a litter before having her fixed as well - they will probably be absolutely precious!
Help me give not-Callie a name. Suggest away!

A Story About Sadie a/k/a Why I'm So Freaked Out About My Pregnant Animal

Several years ago, we had a dog named Sadie. She was a beagle and we loved her very much. Two of our friends had adopted two of her brothers. When we found out that Sadie was going to have puppies we were all very excited, and I thought it would be a great learning experience for my children.
The day Sadie had her puppies was a very chaotic day. She had five puppies that all seemed healthy and well. We left her to care for them and continued on with errands, etc. for the rest of the day. All day long, I would see her throughout the house in a squatting position. We had trouble with housebreaking her, and I thought that maybe because of having the puppies she was reverting to some old behavior, so when I would see her squatting I would put her outside.
I went to my book discussion group that evening as usual, and came home to find her very restless. The puppies would be crying so she would get in the box and lay down beside them to nurse them and in a second she would be up and squatting again. I started to think she maybe had a bladder infection. What never occurred to me was that she had another puppy stuck in the birth canal. Regardless, I found an emergency vet a 45 minute drive away, and loaded her up with her puppies and took off. The vet delivered the terrifying news - I had been putting her out all day and she was still in labor. There was one puppy stuck in the birth canal that was deceased, and two puppies behind it.
Everything started happening very fast. They said she needed immediate surgery to save her life and the lives of her puppies. They said they could do the surgery, and that I needed to sign this paper and that paper and the other paper, and everything was spinning until the lady told me that I would need to promise to pay them $3000 in 30 days! That cleared the chaos in my head kind of like sniffing one of those ammonia capsules. I KNEW there was no way we could pay them that amount in that amount of time. The only other option they gave me was to sign custody of our precious Sadie over to them, and they would perform and pay for the surgery - but I would.not.get.her.back. The details clarified, I would keep the puppies she had already delivered - but this was the only way to save her life. I was heartbroken, but I did what I had to do for her best interest.
We had these five gorgeous puppies, two of them that I am able to visit at the homes of my friends to this day. We commenced bottle feeding them some formula we got at the local farmer's supply store, and found many friends who were more than willing to help. We loved those puppies, but they did little to diminish losing Sadie.
So if I am nervous about my kitty cat being pregnant, you may have a better understanding now of why. She is a tiny girl, and her belly is getting so huge. I hope that it is a mass number of kittens and not big ones. I know that not a sparrow falls apart from the will of the Father, but in the meantime it is my heart that breaks for the furry friends that I love.

Pet Food Recall

I am sorry I did not post about this earlier - because it had me really upset with our "fat cat" being pregnant and all - but there was a major pet food recall in the US and Canada this past week. I just read some breaking news that the food was found to be tainted with RAT POISONING! Can you believe that? I hope they figure out what happened. If you go to the AVMA website, you can view the complete list of the foods that have been recalled. It is mainly pet food found in pouches - and stretches across the lines from the most expensive name brands to the cheaper store brands. Protect your furry friends!