Crazy Cat Lady?

I'm afraid I'll soon get that title if I'm not careful!

This cutie (since named Gracie) showed up on our doorstep with two other tiny kittens.  The kittens were terribly frightened and we never could get them to come to us.  Gracie had to have been around humans before because she was as friendly as could be!  She was happy to come into a warm house and be snuggled!  We took her to the vet and got her all checked out and shots given.

This is Jamie.  Believe it or not, he was a feral cat.  We've been wooing him ever since we moved into this rental house.  He used to come steal fish out of our fire pit in the summer.  He eventually took to eating out of a bowl on our back porch.  We moved it to the front porch and made him a bed.  It took him a while, but he got used to that.  He went from running away when we opened the door to gradually getting used to us and letting us be on the porch at the same time.  He would rub up against "us" through the glass door, but wouldn't let us touch him otherwise.  We kept saying he wanted so badly to be loved!  

                            

Well, one day recently he came to the door with an injured paw - bleeding a little.  I decided maybe it was time to try to trap him.  The trap was out for a few days before I finally caught him with some yummy salmon!  Unfortunately, I caught him on a Friday night and wasn't able to get him into the vet until Tuesday!  Thankfully I found a kind, local gal who loaned me a larger cage than I had.  I was able to fit a litter box and food and water in it.  Interestingly enough, I think all it took was being caged to have him realize that we weren't going to hurt him.  He morphed very quickly into a super loving cat!  He drools when you are petting him!!

Sadly, the two kittens were never seen again after a few days.  Hopefully they didn't spread the word. ;)

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My little man!

Nicholas was quite excited that Grandpa showed him this big, dead tree that needed chopped down.  Of course Grandpa could have grabbed the chainsaw and had it down in no time flat, but how proud Nicholas was to be able to use an ax and do it all by himself!  I think Grandpa thought it was going to take a little longer to get as far as he did!

Later that day, Nicholas also got to try driving the Ranger for the first time!  He was quite the little man!  Not sure who was prouder - him or me!  :)

It's crazy to have such mixed feelings about loving to see them grow up and prove themselves but wanting them to stay little!  :(

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Groundbreaking!

Driving up the driveway to Grandpa's house today we saw that they had finally broken ground for his new house!  We are all pretty excited to see things progress, although Nicholas is a bit sad to see some of our trees go...  My little conservationist.  :)

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Not a simple spider!

Now I really am all about living in the country, don't get me wrong.  I don't, however, enjoy certain aspects of it - like snakes and bugs and spiders!  But I get along.  Until this day...

We have this really cool tool that we all love.  I love it because it keeps my distance from any bug or spider that I need to dispose of.  The boys love it because they feel like hunters with a big gun!   It's called a BugZooka.




So, when Michael was cleaning out our coat closet and said he found a spider, I simply told him to grab the BugZooka and get it - which he did.

Two days later, Nicholas picked up the BugZooka and was looking in the capture tube because, well, he just likes bugs and likes to see what was caught.  And when he said, "Mommy, did you know there's a black widow in here?!," I was dearly hoping he was wrong!  But looking through the tube, this is what I saw!

I found some old bug spray in the garage and sprayed it into the tube.  When we were very sure that it was dead, we finally took it out to get a little better look at it.  ICK.  

Now I'm just pretending that there are no others like it anywhere in our vicinity - much less our house!  We will all be pretty careful to shake out our coats and shoes when we get them out of that closet!!

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