The (Other) Babies

So while I don't talk about them TOO often in my blog, my other obsession (besides Lil James) is my cats. They have only been featured in one other blog--my second blog ever. Since then, my cat Thea had been hit by a car and we've acquired four new cats, so I thought it was time for an updated post about them.

First, two falls ago, we got the brothers. There's Loki:

And there's Odin:


We got them and a third brother when they were only 5 weeks old. And more adorable little kittens you've never seen. The third brother got adopted by my friend Jessie, and now is named Daniel Day Lewis.

Loki is secretly my favorite because he is a sweet human-loving baby. He follows me around and just has this way of throwing himself down in front of (or next to) you, wanting his belly to be rubbed.
I just can't resist.

But don't feel sorry for Odin. He has a secret lover.
Monty and Odin are in love.


They are obsessed with each other. They are cat's cats--they wrestle and snuggle and lick each other like it's their job. James and I call it their eunich man-love.


So for awhile, we had Monty and Thea and Odin and Loki. But then Thea got hit by a car, and we just had our three boys for awhile.

But I missed having a girl cat, and I begged James to let us adopt a pair of little girl kittens. But we couldn't seem to find just the right ones for us.

And then, our friend Anna sent out an Email, needing a long-term (but temporary) home for her two cats because her and her husband and son needed to move into an apartment that did not allow cats.

So James and I got Tonio . . . . . . and Sofia!

They moved in with us this summer, but it took a WHILE for everyone to relax and learn to get along. But now, as you can see, they are quite comfortable . . .




So now, while other people think we are crazy--we are a comfortable five-cat home. I LOVE THEM ALL. Sometimes I even want more but maybe a baby will be enough. Hehe. And those are our (other) babies.

Kicking!!

I just saw him kick me!! Like--I saw my belly move from the outside when he kicked. Soooo cool!! As I am listening to other people who are as pregnant as me talk about their baby's movement, I am starting to think that the u/s tech was right and we have a super active baby. He kicks me pretty hard for multiple "sessions" every day, and I can feel him moving and kicking plenty of other times during the day as well. I know I JUST said a lot of this in the last post but it really is crazy.

In other news, a cat just jumped off my boob with full force directly on my nipple and it hurt SO SO SO bad. I've actually had ice on it for like five minutes and it is still aching horribly. OUCH.

Weekend Accomplishments

Wellll, our weekend wasn't QUITE as productive as I had hoped, but I guess I forgot to figure in how much time we were spending feeding the cat, and how exhausting it would be!

We had him on a 12/3/6/9 feeding schedule, and we agreed that we could skip 3 am. But that meant someone had to stay up until midnight to feed him (I think Fri night we both stayed up and Sat I passed out at 8:30. :-/). And then someone had to get up at 6 am to feed him. James got up Sat morning, then went back to sleep, and I did 9 am, and we switched Sunday. But both days we both crawled back in bed until at least 10 because the whole thing was exhausting.

So, we got a late start every morning, in the first place.

We also just had SO SO SO much piled up laundry, dishes, and problematic issues (our basement flooding, etc), that it took a lot of effort to get through so that it appeared to make any kind of dent. But in the end I guess we got a lot done.

James cleaned out and fixed the gutters (hopefully addressing the flooding problem), and wet-vac'd the water in the basement, did a TON of laundry, and cleaned out this mouse nest that we discovered in our dried beans drawer (how a mouse could survive in this house is beyond me--maybe because he didn't really have to leave the drawer for any reason?) I cleaned the entire kitchen (including the top of the fridge that had been accumulating crap and dust for months) and most of the living room, matched the socks, and made pea soup. And it was damn good, I might need to do a separate post about it.

We also managed to go on walks both Saturday and Sunday and Saturday we (well I) also went swimming!

James made cookies last night, which is a semi-accomplishment, except that it is somehow impossible for him to clean up after himself, so the kitchen I struggled to clean is now a mess again. :-/ But hopefully with only a little effort, I can return it to its clean state.

So I guess we were fairly productive, considering the cat, and I definitely feel like I am in a better place to move forward from here--not as overwhelmed at all (even though we did not TOUCH the upstairs and it is still completely insane, but I'm trying to work through that, LOL).

Cat Update

So today for the first time, we tried giving Tonio a can of soft food.

HE WOLFED IT DOWN LIKE IT WAS THE ONLY FOOD IN THE WORLD!!! WOOOHOOO!

So the odds are very good that we can get the feeding tube out on Tuesday!! Yaaay!! It has been an exhausting couple of days, let me tell you.

Crazy Cat Issues!

Holy Crap, this is a story. So for those who didn't know before, we have three cats of our own--Monty who is about 4, and was a barn cat before we adopted him as an adult, and Odin and Loki, who are 1.5, and we got as rescue kittens when they were just five weeks old last fall.

Now our good friend Anna found this really affordable condo in this family-friendly complex in a great neighborhood--only problem is that they don't allow pets. So she needed someone to take her two cats for a year or two while they lived there and tried to save up money for a house.

So we got the cats--Sofia who is long haired, and 2.5, and Tonio, who is short hair, 1.5. We kept them inside for almost two weeks--first in their own room and then we opened the door. Sofia seemed to fit right in and start acclimating, but not Tonio--he was so scared of our cats that he didn't want to leave his room.

Finally we let them outside for the first time, and I hoped that this would cheer up Tonio. Instead, we didn't see him again for four days and I was so worried. We finally saw him outside the window but when we tried to get him in, he ran away. The next day, same thing, finally on the third day (this was Tuesday night)I got him to approach a food and water bowl and grabbed him. But it was obvious from close up that something was seriously wrong with his mouth--it looked like it had been ripped open (and it had been like this already when we first saw him on Sunday).

So Wednesday morning, I brought him into the vet for an emergency visit, only to discover that he was missing like half of his tongue. It looked like it had been cleanly sliced (the long way). It was CRAZY. So they had to keep him there overnight on Wednesday, suture his tongue closed, and install a feeding tube.

On Thursday evening, James and I reported to the Vet's office to learn how to feed him through the tube. Basically, every 3 hours we have to give 5 mls of water through the tube, then 15 mls of formula, then 5 more mls of water. Twice a day we also have to give pain meds and an antibiotic through the tube. Since you can only give like one ml every minute or so, this whole process takes about a half hour.

So needless to say, I feel crazy, LOL! Luckily my friend Anna (his owner) is paying the bill. She came over last night to see him and she feels bad that we are going through this and I feel bad that he got hurt on "our watch", but oh well, these things happen with cats.

So that's our crazy cat issue!

Fur Beans

Our BABIES! Thea is on the left, Monty is on the right. We love them. Every morning, they wake us up and then purr near James' head until he decides to get up and feed them . . . :-)