On the other hand, grandparenting the foster kittens is the best thing that's happened lately! OMG, the cute is enough to knock a person over with joy. This batch is not so good with the box as last week's, and also it isn't my bed with which they have had
The Runt of this litter arrived badly underweight, undergrown, and with the words "failure to thrive." Barky. Not much interest in food the first night. It's not that the other kittens dislike him, but he's way small for the pouncing and wrestling they like to do. Anyway, we're supplementing with kitten weaning formula, doing small frequent meals away from the herd, and so far so good! He's all perky and eating like crazy. Like right now, he is on my desk snarfing, wildly purring.
We're going a little rogue with the kitten formula. The shelter sent him over with some turkey stock that the last foster home cooked, but that obviously was not doing the trick since he didn't want to eat it. This baby is just developmentally not where his sibs are. But I think the formula is helping.
What is or isn't helping in your life?
67 comments:
Oh, kitten stories! It sounds like you guys are doing a great job with that litter, and especially with the wee runt.
AW: this weekend ended up better than expected. My dad ran the church service today, and didn't make it All About Mom's, and just focused on love for everybody. Our weekend plans had originally gotten overboard (my SIL came up with some big plans that took up most of the weekend, and I got really stressed out about them), and Mr. Q and his mom decided that we would do separate stuff together NEXT weekend. Instead, yesterday I went to a farmer's market and a bunch of independent grocers and butcher shops with my sister, and we spent the afternoon doing fun cooking. Then, I went to a kids' carnival with Li'l E and Mr. Q, at his school, which was the cutest. Today, we went to church, ate the food my sister and I made yesterday, and took naps all afternoon. Perfect.
W: my child is boycotting sleep today. I've been awake since 5:18am.
Seriously. I'd like a clone so I could take a nap
That sounds like such a good idea right now. I think the market for that would be strong, at least among the pixie community.
Sign me up, too.
Clones for everyone!
QWP, sounds like a good weekend! Great idea to break up the festivities.
Runtling didn't eat so much this morning. I think maybe our heat is set too low and he was cold; he is teensy, and as often as not ends up sleeping by himself instead of in the kitten pile. AW: no accidents in the night!
I did just take a nap, and it was delightful. HILARIOUS dream I have to share with you, because I think it was inspired by kathy a's foster kittens. All of a sudden, we had two bunnies, a bunch of kittens, something else I can't remember. The person who brought them didn't bring any food. Poop was everywhere. Baboos were delighted. I was frantically running around trying to keep up with the menagerie.
Oh, and the best part! *In* my dream, I thought, I must tell the whining pixies about this!
LOL! What a great dream, esperanza! And then you wake up -- no llamas or bears or kittens or wild bunnies!
Runty is eating second breakfast like a starving teacup-sized wolf.
I'm writing a lot about cats because so much else sucks. We've recently lost senior cat, a good friend, MIL. SIL's saga. Two friends with stage IV fireplacing cancer -- one has weeks or days; the other just got rejected for a clinical trial because her mets are too small. Family crap. Work abatrossi. Yadda. Pretty much the worst a foster kitten can do is pook in an inappropriate place while looking extremely cute, or mount a daring escape that takes them maybe 2 feet down the hall. By gum, that we can handle!
(((kathy a))) I'm glad that you have a pleasant distraction among all the stress. I especially understand focusing on the kitties when there's such heartache about the friends with fireplacing cancer.
Esperanza, that dream is hilarious!
So, has anyone invented that napping clone yet? I'm having quite the day here.
AW: remember the stupidity of last week? Well, it involved a local, locality-specific organization alienating a person who had been a hugely valuable volunteer in another similar organization in a different locality (she moved to our locality recently). Why is this an anti-whine? I've snaffled her up. She's going to do her particular brand of volunteering for me, and I will be eternally grateful, and shower her with praise.
Related schadenfreude AW, the Powers That Be in a related Parent Organization noticed the brou-ha-ha and are going to send out a clue-stick posse of their own to the jackasses - in many senses - in the local group.
And yay to kitties! Yay to hilarious dreams! Yay for afternoon naps on mother's day! Boo to waking and staying awake since before 0600.
INCHWORM. On my arm. No idea where it came from. Hmm, boy, I do not like worms.
Congrats, Liz! Good turning of a bad thing into a good thing!
Liz, that is a fantastic AW.
Kathy a: eep! My skin feels all creepy-crawly, just thinking about it.
AW: I'm luckier than I deserve to be, today. I decided to bake bread with E (cute times!), and didn't check the levels of my supplies first. I used up every speck of flour in the house: the recipe called for 8 cups of whole wheat and white flour combined, and while I had to be creative with the ratio, I had exactly 8 cups. To the crumb. (If I'd just been a little short, I would have ground up some oats for the last bit, but still.)
W: the mess. You guys. Such mess. Such tired.
QWP, cooking with Baboos seems like it would be something fun and wholesome. I almost always end up way more flustered than I would like, and the kitchen is always a disaster. But they love it. Sigh.
In the creepy division: first, I thought I saw a baby snake in the garage. Turned out to be a lizard that moved in a snakelike fashion. WTFireplace, lizard? Then, a for-real-live scorpion in my kitchen floor, right next to Mini. Those things creep me out, bigtime. Ew.
Esperanza wins with the scorpion by the kid. excuseme, need to go breathe.
Yay for kittens and Nap Clones! And good Mother's Day afternoons.
Yay Liz!!!!! That's great news.
A big Eeew! to all worms, lizards, and (gulp) scorpions. I don't even know what to say about the scorpion.
Love the dream esperanza - especially dreaming about pixie whining. Lol!
AW: big day at the vet for the kitteh. She did very well but is still a bit loopy from anaesthetic.
W: everywhere I look in our home, I see spring cleaning - alas, I don't feel inspired to do it.
Let's just say that if we need a particularly well-armed posse someday, we can replace cluesticks with scorpions.
Yeppers on the scorpion posse. You can lead.
Sue, hope the big kitteh girl's doing OK.
Oh, also -- yay for cooking / baking with the short people! Really there needs to be a second shift to clean up, but it's all to the good when they end up foraging and cooking for themselves. True story: my best HS friends had to give me cooking lessons, because my repertoire was -- truly embarrassing.
Kathy a: I understand that very well. When I moved out, I could bake really well (because my Grandma baked with me), but I had no idea what to do with meat. I had to make a lot of panicked phonecalls to friends about what to do.
Esperanza: welp, I was a little groggy, but the sheer horror of a scorpion beside Mini was enough of a jolt to wake me up!
Scorpions: better than coffee!
Re: cooking with baboos. I think I could have fun with one at a time. But while one is kneading the pizza dough, the other is fondling the raw chicken in the microwave. Ya know?
Like herding kittens! It is easier cooking one on one.
Dealing with a safe deposit box I thought I closed 10 years ago. I owe $465 on it.
Is anything in the safe deposit box? what a pain, after 10 years. THIS, you people who want me to have more accounts, is why we don't.
I was sure it was empty...and I was right. I pointed out huge errors with the bill (wrong address of the BANK). They waived the fee. I gave back the key I dug out of a box of defunct keys.
Color me impressed you could find the key.
Me, too. Glad they waived the fee.
Whew! Glad they waived the fee and I too am impressed that you not only still had the key, but could locate it. I am humbled.
W: I took the afternoon off to get my winter tires switched out for my all-seasons today. I have two evening meetings this week, so I didn't mind the afternoon off.
I arrived at 1:00 as I was told, asked how long it would be. They were busy, so 1.5-2 hrs.
Went for coffee nearby with a friend and returned. Waited. Waited. Waited some more. Asked for updates along the way.
Finally at 4:15 the manager comes over and tells me they couldn't locate my stored tires in the warehouse. They had sent two different staff people to find them, no luck.
So - they are coming to my place on Friday morning to pick up my vehicle, change the fireplacing tires and return the car to my front door by noon. Needless to say, I will NOT be paying for this servicing.
For the love of fuzzy ducklings, don't you think you would get the client's tires to the shop BEFORE the appointment time??????
Disclaimer, it took me all morning to find the box with the defunct keys in it.
It's a big box. It's marked "Old Keys".
AW: I found the keys to the bicycle locks. This is why we keep all the keys.
W: Old other stuff that is not keys were also in the box. Not cool, Millers, not cool.
Sue, that sounds fireplacing frustrating. To the point of I'd maybe get a different mechanic before next winter.
Yeah, I'm putting off the horrible stuff that needs doing...
But yay! Since Friday night, the Runt has shot up from 12.5 oz. to 13.5! (The largest sib is 2 lbs., so Runt is pretty severely tiny.) He's all social and exploring!
In fashion news, I got a sleeveless dress today that is pretty wonderful. Daughter says it makes the rememberings pop out, but the big selling points for me are that it shows off (relatively) decent shoulders and doesn't make the belly look prominent. And a good color.
Sue, glad they'll make it right! But they owe you, seriously. Lotta hours to wait for mis-filed tires.
Oh, Liz. At least you had a box marked appropriately. We have the junk drawer; and beloved's personal junk drawer; and the pot where I put misc. things; and who knows how many other places a small thing like a key might go....
Bleah, upset tum, possible fever. Supposed to be a hundred gazillion degrees today.
oh no, kathy a. That's no good. I wish I could send you our weather.
AW: turned the corner on the chair project. Staining is finished. Moving inside to reupholster. You are welcome to schedule your trips to come and sit a spell sometime around Labor Day :)
Espranza! Great work.
Y'all should see this baby cat chomping down! Fierce eating, I tell you. He's more or less on the Hobbit feeding schedule: breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, mid-afternoon snack....
Sorry about the feeling icky kathy. :(
Yay esperanza for the chair progress!
I'm glad to hear the Hobbit kitten is coming along well.
W: Woke up GRUMPY.
AW: Listened to Sweet Caroline and discovered it is impossible to remain grumpy when this song is playing.
Thanks Neil!
...off to find Sweet Caroline...
I cannot recommend foster kittens too highly, as a grumpy repellant!
Tiny's poppin' the scale at about a pound now. They have to be 2 lbs. to be adoptable. We're keeping them all another week before a check-in at the adoption mothership. Tiny will need longer to complete the SuperCatGrowth program, so one of the sibs will stay with him while the other two go for adoption.
Still icky feeling. More heat today. Bleah. On the up side, some progress on a project -- and it's due a day later than I thought, yay!
Mini running fever. Her teacher notified me this morning that she has probably been exposed to hand/food/mouth disease (coxsackie virus). It lasts a week. On the calendar for the next week plus (because Sweet is likely to get it too, yes?): I'm preaching on Sunday; water play day at preschool; my 40th birthday; Sweet's "graduation" from preschool; I'm preaching the next Sunday too; grandparents arrive; Daddy has elective surgery.
Sigh. I stink at being a nurse. Trying not to catastrophize, but ugh. Her only symptoms right now are fever and headache, so I suppose it could be something else, like the plague.
Hand foot mouth -- who needs the plague? Also, lot of other stuff upcoming, Esperanza. You need a good break for the 40th! xoxo
Thanks.
AW: my only non-church-related local friend already said she's taking me out for dinner on my birthday while Daddy stays home with the kids, even if they're sick. That would be after the kindergarten parent meeting at the elementary school.
It's all about the glamor, I tell you.
That's a lot to juggle esperanza. And by a lot, I mean, a LOT! Do take care of yourself in the midst of it all. Birthday dinner with your non-church friend sounds lovely!
On the upside, I will have lots of time to work on the upholstery project, and Baboos to help me. See me cheering myself up? They helped hammer in tacks today. They really stink at it, worse than I do, which is saying something.
Esperanza: wow! That schedule, along with hand-foot-mouth disease, is award worthy indeed! I hope that the dinner with your friend gives you a good break for your birthday.
W: uh, we're allegedly moving in nine days. I've packed nothing. There is a lot left for the builders to finish.
AW: Long weekend approaches! And I've been doing some deep cleaning, so that the move-out cleaning isn't as drastic (in case we get delayed until the end of the month, and then have to move out and have the place clean by 2pm).
W: moving with a toddler. Who might be suffering the ill effects of her third molar having just cut through. She was pretty high maintenance and tired today.
AW: in spite of her dramatics, I purged four small garbage bags full of baby clothes today.
(((((Esperanza)))))
(((QWP)))
I'm meeting today with chair of the local committee from my anti-whine above, at her request. I am guessing that it's not going to be pleasant. Husband and I practiced various scenarios. I'm thinking of making a bingo card.
Bingo cards = excellent way to get through a difficult meeting.
AW/W: I've made an executive decision. The kid woke up at 5:30 this morning, and has a very short fuse, and so she's not going to library time today. During that time, we'll be winding down for her nap.
Bingo card--yes! Some subversive friends and I have done that for churchy meetings.
Good call on library time. Take it one day at a time.
So Mini is fine this morning. Update from teacher is that the other kid probably has chicken pox instead. So...hm. Aunt Rearrange the Silverware is in the Big City near here. We could meet up with her, but I may just use the fever as an excuse not to. I wouldn't mind seeing her, but I don't really want to tote the Baboos to the tourist part of Big City, which is only fun for grownups.
(P.S. We have had both chicken pox and the vaccine, so surely we are covered).
Stay home, your plate is full enough
I'm with Liz: a fever is an excellent reason to stay home! (Of course, I love having reasons to stay home.)
AW: I just heard news that the has been more progress at the house than expected. We just might make it in on time!
Bingo cards - Yes!!
I hope the meeting goes well Liz - or at least as well as possible.
I'm with the others esperanza - there will be other times for visits. Your plate is overflowing - go with the fever reason for staying home.
Yay QWP - for more progress on the new place than anticipated. Good for you for getting a head start on the cleaning/purging.
AW/W: My Dad has a cell phone. Good, right? Not so much. He doesn't know how to use it, so he calls on the landline when he can't figure out the cell. Sigh. I give him points for trying though.
Esperanza, staying home for upholstery adventures sounds good.
QWP, happy packing!
Sue, at least I'm not the only one who has trouble figuring out the cell phone! (I can dial it; virtually every other feature confuses me, though.)
AW: daughter has a 2d interview this morning!
LIZ, best of luck with the meeting from heck! Good work, doing a practice session + scenarios. Probably a bad idea to yell BINGO out loud, though. ;)
ooh, 2nd interview sounds good.
Mini has fever again (not surprising). Energy slightly down. Whining slightly up. No appetite. We have a case of Mystery Fever. She is currently singing while on the potty.
Ugh, mystery fever. I'm on day 3 of yuck, with bonus melted mind. But singing on the potty is pretty awesome. ;)
..then, of course, the most frequently uttered phrase in our house, "Mom! I need to poop! Can you please read me a book?!?"
A voluntary nap, which is a sure sign of illness. Still a teeny fever. A pitiful, "The only thing I feel like doing is watching tv."
(((esperanza))) mystery fevers are pooh. But singing on the potty is good.
AW: The meeting was not terrible!! In fact, it was pretty good. I think she may not have realized how much backing I have from the statewide organization.
Heh! Yay! Doing a little victory dance over here, Liz!
*Cheering* I'm so glad that the meeting went better than expected, Liz! And hooray for statewide backing!
Esperanza, I'm giggling about the potty singing. But mystery fevers are worrisome!
AW: I packed two kitchen boxes today! This is giving me the illusion of being organized.
Mini was fever free and full speed ahead...at bedtime, of course. We'll see what the morning brings. (And don't fret too much--remember the wonderful pediatrician who lives across the street is there, and I have his cell number. And we have a family doctor on speed dial, too.)
Yay for fever free!! Yay for boxes packed!!!
Why hello Aunt Flo! Back so soon?
Yay for fever-free Mini!!
Happy dancing here too Liz!!! WooHoo!
Awards may or may not happen later. Please feel free to continue!
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