Update on the baby kits and our other foster cats

Simon and Stephen graduated from bottles to soft food several weeks ago and from soft food to hard within a few days of that.  Small kittens cannot chew standard kitten kibbles so they started out on this stuff:

 

 Which is the cutest, tiniest kibble I've ever seen:

 

Normal cat food is on the right, and the babycat(TM) kibble is on the left.  

Now that you think I'm completely daft for getting all silly over kitten kibble, I'll show you adorable pictures to make you forget how daft I may or may not be.  

 

This is Simon at about 7 weeks.  Simon is a little love.  He likes to climb up on me, nuzzle my chin, sleep under my chin or just nuzzle on me while getting his noggin scratched.  I have never come across so affectionate a kitten as Simon.  

Simon likes to hug, too:

Simon will make someone a very good companion. 

Steven is also an affectionate one, as evidenced by his nap with my son.  

Both Simon and Steven are happy, playful kittens full of love and exuberance.  They have no health concerns or negative behaviours and will be wonderful additions to any home.  

I am so going to miss them!  

 

They burrowed into this blanket themselves and had a nap! 

As for my other foster cats....

 

Allow me to introduce 11-07 ("eleven-oh-seven").  

Odd name, you think?  Can you see why?  

 

Yes, she has very clear 1107 markings on both her sides!  11-07 is a bit skittish, but I think she will relax in a quiet home.  She is used to children as she's been with us since infancy.  While she does spend time with my 10 year old, she could not be bothered with my five year old.  Younger kids tend to be unpredictably loud at times and she does not enjoy loud noises.  

This is Blondie.  We named her Blondie for her blonde-coloured eyes, pale colouring and the fact that she seems a bit dense at times. (In this photo she is stalking and swatting the black shoes.  You can make of that what you will.)  I think she's actually just very skittish and her nervousness pre-empts her intelligence.  She's a funny one, that's for sure.  Blondie is still not fully socialized, despite the fact that I've been working with her for a very long time and she came to me as a kitten.  Blondie will be staying with me a bit longer as I give socializing her one more go before she goes to another home for more intensive socializing.

 

This is Princess.  She is completely black -- not a spot of white on her anywhere!  Princess came to me as a one year old extremely skittish cat.  She hid for the first week in the rafters of our basement.  I decided to cage her when I realized that she would live in those rafters until eternity if I didn't force her hand.  While caged I would daily remove her, hold her, stroke her, scratch her head and talk to her.  At night she would cry and cry to be let out of the cage.  Finally I gave in and let her out of the cage, but barred her access to the basement.  It took seven long months of coaxing before Princess ever let me touch her after uncaging her.  She simply came to me one day, lay down at me feet and meowed at me.  She wanted scratched!  Now she comes to us all the time for back scratching.  She does not like to be held, but will sit next to you (never on! she's not that kind of cat!) on a sofa and allow you to pet and scratch her.  She's a very well behaved, but quite skittish cat.  She needs a quiet home and will most likely have a period of adjustment when she gets to that home.  She will hide and come out only when she is comfortable.  Coaxing will not work with this girl.  If you are a local reader, I would like you to consider whether you or someone you may know would be interested in adopting Princess.  She will make a wonderful pet.  After all the work we've done with her to socialize her to humans, children, and other cats, I would hate to see her sit in an adoption center's cages before being adopted.  I think that would cause her to regress.  I know she will have an adjustment period regardless, but I think it would be FAR FAR less traumatic for her to transition directly into her forever home.  If you or someone you know is interested and serious about adopting Princess, please contact me via the comments section.  I would be happy to facilitate her transition to a forever home.  

Simon, Steven, and 11-07 will be available for adoption this weekend, February 13th at the PetSmart on Vansickle Ave. in St. Catharines. 

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How to Fill a Saturday

(with more free things to do in the Niagara Region)

As always, you can click on individual pictures to view them in more detail.

Start out with a visit to the United Empire Loyalists Park (a playground) with all four kids. (Intimidating name for a playground. I really don't want to know what it means.)

Here, they could pretend to be Spiderman...

or ride a tongue from 10 feet high down to ground level.

Yes, some playground equipment designer has a seriously twisted sense of humour. One, which was not lost on my youngest son. Who, when disembarking from said tongue slide declared “Mommy! It licked my bum all the way down!" Oh, lord.

Next, a short walk over to the Stevensville Conservation Area where we hiked along Black Creek. This I think could be more appropriately named Strong-Coffee-With-a-Touch-of-Milk Creek. But I don't think they'll change it.

Black Creek runs alongside Mud Pond for a while. Okay, it's not really named Mud Pond.
We saw a few mallards in the pond. A few hawks in the sky.

The kids found the most adorable baby turtle between the creek and the pond.

Don't worry. We put him back where he'd be safe and hopefully able to live out a long and happy life.

Next, we headed down the road where an associate of my husband's has built himself a castle - complete with a moat. The building is still in progress but the moat is complete. Why the moat, you ask? The town of Stevensville wouldn't allow the owner to land his small plane on his land surrounding the ‘castle’, though they did note that he could land it on water. Hence the moat. Yes, he had floaters installed on his small plane and that's where he lands it.

On down the road and we get to Windmill Point Beach. Alas, no windmill. (We've been searching Windmill Point for the windmill and haven't found one yet.) The beach is a gem on its own. It’s small, quiet, and rather private. So much so, I’m almost reluctant to blog about it. Much of it is rocky -- great slabs of rock with spaces between where water has gotten in and been warmed. The beach was covered in small shells and the boys filled their sand pails with them. The older kids jumped from rock to rock in the surf, letting the cold water break against their feet and legs. Everyone had a blast. The younger two explored and found treasures. We all got our toes wet. The water's not quite 40 degrees yet, but where it was shallow and still it was warm from the sun….which on this day in April had us at 65F. If the wind weren’t so strong over the lake, I’m sure it would have been in the lower 70’s.

Happily, I was wearing my Propet water shoes, which my son got me for Christmas last year. Those rocks didn't hurt my feet! These are the MOST comfortable water shoes I've ever had. They're like second skin. I don't think they'll work for both hiking and water, as they seem to be made of a material that would break down from heavy wear. They're wonderful for the beach, though. My feet get sore too easily and I certainly couldn't walk on rocks bare footed. If you need water shoes, I highly recommend these. They feel like a cloud, lots of spring and though necessarily tight, not binding at all.

Each of these places is less than 10 minutes from our home. There are several more beaches for us to explore in this area yet. I think we'll be able to fill every Saturday without repeating an outing this year. Don't worry. I'll share!

Our day wasn’t finished yet. We headed home for a barbecue. With that, the day was done.

That, folks, is how you fill a Saturday.

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Movin' to the Beach

Soon to be our new home town. (Love the boat full of snow by the sign, don't you?)

We're moving. Thought I'd post a couple pictures of our recent packing escapades.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes it's far simpler to NOT ask the resident teenager to lend a hand with anything at all than it is to actually extract a bit of work from said teenager?

This is Marissa helping to pack:
It took two of us to pull her butt out of the box. Seriously...it was her butt that was the problem. It's a big ol' butt and gravity was working against us. Once we got her out of the box, she disappeared. That's okay, I have a revenge in mind (keep reading).

You see, we really have our work cut out for us. This is just one stack of boxes yet to fill:



After hours of moving heavy furniture, carrying, lifting, dragging, packing everything he could, hubby took a break for a few. Soxxy immediately decided to crush his arm and pin him to the couch. Roy called me to see what was causing the tingling sensation in his arm. Really. He deserves the moniker Fatty McFatCat:



Had some things to do regarding the house and we popped down to Crystal Beach for a quick visit while we were there. Here's how Lake Erie looks today:
Sure, it looks cold in this picture, but it really doesn't come close to describing how cold it really was. We were out of the car all of five minutes before we just could not take it any longer! I'd say there's a 20 degree drop in temp right on the water, and there was a -18c windchill off the water. Just chilled us to the bone in short order and the bitingly cold wind took our breath away!

How windy was it, you ask?

Does that answer your question?

Now, the thing with having very textured hair is that hair really holds whatever style you put to it and very well. Let's see what this blow job did for Miss Marissa once she got out of the wind....

HOLY!

I probably won't post again till we're all settled into our new digs ... so check back in about a month. Right now, I need to go change my daughter's facebook profile picture.... (yes, I am that evil.)

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Our Earth Hour 2008

Coincidentally, Earth hour fell on my birthday this year and thankfully gave me a reason to get excited about it instead of that creeping dread I had been experiencing.

As it turned out, since it was my birthday, my dear husband, Roy, was taking care of the house, the kids, dinner, baking me a cake from scratch and even washing dishes, we hadn't eaten dinner before 8pm! So we had a candlelit dinner with the whole family. We talked and told stories and we ate really well too because we were all darned near starving.

We have family meals every night, but this one was a little different. With the glow of the candles and no background noises from televisions or radios or humming computers, we just enjoyed each other. We lingered in the glow of the candles. Had some extremely delicious carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting of course) and took a couple pictures of our night. No one asked to be excused. With no computer to run off to, or tv to return to...who would want to leave a table laden with candles and scrumptious home-made carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting of course.)

We've decided that candle-lit dinners will be a nice change of pace, so we're going to do them regularly. Life slowed down for an hour. We payed attention a little better for an hour. We listened a little better.

And every single one of us noted just how many things we had to turn off to plunge our home into darkness. It was a lot, actually. Nearly every light in the basement. Nearly every light on the main floor. Two computers. Two televisions. Clocks and the microwave.

We took a look outside and only one other house was completely dark. That was a tad disappointing, though our city did participate. The Standard reports that electricity usage was 9.2% lower than an average Saturday night in March for St. Catharines. I think that's significant, considering how many houses I could see ablaze. Good job, St. Kitt's. Let's see how we do next year.

Change begins with one, though, right? One change I think is appropriate in this case. If we could make one change...it could start a domino effect of singular changes for individuals around the world. When you add that all up...that's a difference.

Sure, one hour one night a year of darkness isn't going to halt whatever path we're on now. Noticing one's own unnecessary waste is the first step in reducing it.



As a bonus, it was an enjoyable time in this household. I doubt the kids will forget it. Should it become a weekly tradition, I know they never will.

Coming up next....all that yummy stuff I've been teasing you with for the past several days.

And maybe soon I'll share Roy's carrot cake recipe with you. It's delicious. And you know what, he doesn't even like carrot cake. But I love it! And I haven't made one in at least 10 years. (Go ahead, guess how long we've been married.)

Enjoy!

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