Mister Oroku Saki

I can't get enough of this picture, so, sorry for the repeat.

I love animals and it's not a secret. If it weren't for Brandon's insistence on keeping our cat population down I think we would have reached a large number of animals by now. But alas, the things you do for love. Just kidding.
Anyway.
A little over a week ago I was watching one of our cats out the back window and saw her stalking something. This is a common occurrence so I didn't think much of it until I went out to see what she was after. Well. It was a kitten. Man, that thing sat there until Pita was right up on it, full on attack mode, and with the combination of my screams at Pita once I realized what was going on and the fact that there was a 5 year old monster attacking her, it ran away. I kept my cats inside after that (mean ol' grump) and I started putting food out for the little thing. Turns out there were two of them, about four weeks old by the looks of them, and no momma that I could see. Another cat had kittens a couple of months ago, and any time you walked within 10 feet of any of her babies, Mumma Kitty would come out and let you know what was what. She was sweet and let me pet her, but she was the boss. That's usually how it is, even when you have kittens in your home. Anyway, two kittens and no momma.
The next day I walked out to put more food out and one of the kittens was laying there drinking out of the bowl of water, the other one was nearby, but ran pretty quickly when I walked up. I stepped closer and closer, not wanting to make it run by any sudden movements (I just laughed out loud at the way that sounded), and I walked right up to it and picked it up. Now. Have any of you ever been around a wild kitten? Tell me how many times that has happened to you. I can tell you without you telling me. Never. Ever. I mean, ever. Heck, there are a lot of times I can't do that with my own cats. So I picked it up and brought it inside because it was just skin and bones (and fur). I ran to the vet and got some kitten formula and fed it with a dropper, thinking that I could nurse it back to health. I kept it for a day and ended up taking it to the vet because it wouldn't eat anymore and couldn't walk because there was something wrong with its leg. That poor thing just broke my heart. Well, Brandon and I are not made out of money...and it was a stray that we had only had for a day, so when we took it in and there were all these things they had to do and they offered to keep it, help it and find it a good home, we took them up on it. We wouldn't have been able to help it at home, so we felt like that was the best place for it.
But back at the ranch: I made it my mission to catch that other kitten. If the first kitten broke my heart with everything that was wrong with it, the one that was left broke my heart more because not only does it not have a momma (and at four weeks you need one), but now it was all alone because I took its sibling away. I think everyone and everything needs companionship and it just pulled at my heartstrings too much, so I sat outside and tried to catch it. Well. I sat, and I sat and I sat. I sat there with the crate nearby with food in it for hours, but he wasn't going to have anything to do with it while I was anywhere nearby. Fast forward 2 days and the clever finagling of a cat carrier, a string, a stick, and a bowl of wet cat food, and we had ourselves a caught kitten.

Well, that was about the summation of the next day.

I have to share these videos too because they are just too cute:

It wasn't until the next day that we got a little progress:

I let Brandon name him (I "let" Brandon name him? Yes, I let him name him. Cats are usually my domain and I had already come up with a name for him, but I wanted Brandon to name him. So he came up with Oroku Saki. Now, Brandon fussed at me for not knowing off the top of my head who that was, claiming it to be a "household name" but I call false on that. Falsehood and lies. Turns out it's the real name of the Shredder. Now, if you don't know who the Shredder is, then shame on you. Look it up. I at least guessed the right genre and even the right story just from Oroku Saki! But I guessed the wrong Sensei.
Now, the real trick is for you to guess where the Mister comes from... That's a remnant from what I was going to name him. But looking at him now, he's much more of an Oroku Saki. My little Mister.

So now we have another cat:

He is such a sweet little thing. Oh, and just for good measure, in-case you missed this picture already:

I am such a nerd.
The end.

Some moments

I posted on Facebook today a little complaint about how some of the people I like to follow on Blogger aren't posting anything on their blogs. Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black...
Granted, I don't feel as if there's anything to really blog about. My life is hardly anything of legend. In-fact, I get so bored thinking about my day-to-day life that I often try not to think about it.
But that's not what life is all about, I suppose. It's about the small moments, the little things here and there that make life special. So, here are a few things in the last few (several) months that have been special.

November:
I hosted Thanksgiving. This is the third year I've done it and I love it. Even in the moments leading up to sitting down for dinner when I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, rebuffing all help because "I can do this, damnit!", getting irritated because my brother doesn't put the crackers on the plate right, fussing at the food because it's not doing exactly what I want it to do and wondering why I chose to do so many different dishes...even in all of that, I love it. After all, it's once a year, not every day. Goodness knows, if it were every day, I probably wouldn't do it.

December:
Christmas. I'll keep that one to myself, I think.

January:
Justan and Shana Slagle got married. I love these guys.
Also-
I went to the Cape Fear Museum with Isabella and Kayla. The #1 reason I wanted to move down here to NC was to spend more time with my niece, Isabella, and any moment I can spend with her is special. Especially when ice cream is involved. And the river.

February:
Bonfires, pancakes and a little dusting of snow.

March:
Family dinners, Easter decorations, Brandon's ## birthday (complete with Swamp Thing cake), Amanda's baby shower (which was preceded by an all-nighter so I could finish the crib set that I may or may not have procrastinated.

April:
A life change that I don't think I'm quite ready to talk about on the internet, if at all. No, I'm not pregnant.
The discovery of termites!! Have you ever experienced a termite swarm in your bedroom?? DO NOT put that on your bucket list. It's disgusting and terrifying at the same time (not terrifying because I was scared of them hurting my person, but scared that they would find their way into all of my furniture and eat it!) This was followed by the death of all the said termites. (Note: if you -do- find yourself in the middle of a termite war in your bedroom, your greatest immediate weapon is a Swiffer Vac)
A lovely trip to Elizabethtown, NC with my husband, complete with: a plaster statue factory, a tour of downtown, a farmer's market that wasn't very farmer-y, a lock and dam (I'm still not entirely sure what that is), a furniture store (I love love love love love looking at furniture), and lunch at an awesome little spot.
Amanda had her baby - sweet little AJ.
My cat brought me a snake into my dining room... yes, still alive, but fortunately very small.

May:
I discovered An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor and I fell in love. Thus began my small Irish obsession (and by small, I mean short, I never obsess in a small way). Which I haven't entirely given up...but I have toned it down a bit. After further thought I -do- think I'd rather live in GB and just visit Ireland on the odd weekend.
We finally shed our top blanket off of our bed.

June:
The tree frogs emerged! I love 'em. I guess I had forgotten about them... It's funny the things that you grew up with and somehow became part of the background and that you never missed until you came back and realized "Oh! I forgot about those!" I didn't miss the mosquitoes. Those came out in May/June too.
Blueberry Festival. Strawberry pickin' (which, strawberry season is before blueberry season, so the pickin' was quite sad). Beach time! Family time.
I made rice crispy treats with Isabella. This is the first time I'd made them in years, if not a full decade (or two), and...they didn't turn out quite perfectly... haha. They were a little...crunchy, not just crispy.
I went though the arboretum with Brandon. That is always one of my favorite places and it makes me want to have a huge garden (complete with gardener, of-course, because that's just too much work for me).
Ingram Family Reunion in VA. Good times.
I made bread for the first time in...a very long time. Over 10 years I'm sure. Gosh! It's surreal that I'm that old. It's been more than 10 years since I was in high school!  I graduated on May 23, 2003. Goodness. Thank goodness... I wouldn't go back to high school for anything in the world.

July:
Independence Day. Did you know that it wasn't until I was in college that I learned how to spell independence without trial and error? I was in a class with Dr. MacDonald, he had it up on the board and somehow it just clicked. I remember saying to myself "Oh...all the vowels are e's, okay" (except for the i, of-course). True story.
A horrific sunburn. Man. It hurt for 2 weeks. And it -still- itches!
A lovely (mostly) family vacation to Atlantic Beach, NC. A yearly tradition that is always a joy (mostly).

And that brings us up to speed... I will try to post more regularly, if for nothing else to avoid the trap it sets for me that I don't want to post because there's so much I haven't posted about.

Oh!  I almost forgot Oroku. He's my new little Mister.

I know, I already have four cats, what am I doing with a fifth? Well, I'LL TELL YOU!  In the next blog post. Because he deserves his own.