Tough Cookie

I forgot.

I forgot how difficult this was. To be pregnant. For the last three days I have had to eat a Jr. Bacon Cheese from Wendy’s everyday. It is that bad. While changing Mae’s diapers today, as she lay pantsless on her table with one of my hands holding her steady, I dry heaved, cried, stomped on the floor, and spat some weird fluid on the floor.

I think I am being mean to people, and I don’t even know it. All I notice is them acting standoffish and put out. I don’t even remember what I’ve done, even if I finally am told, which I have only been once.

I am happy I am not in school or at work, I don’t know in what condition I would be in then.

We came to awful conclusion that we needed to adopt out our two kitties. Charlie started peeing on the floor where Mae plays, then by circumstance, Jackie followed suit. We tried it all to get them to stop. We had our carpets professionally cleaned even. They both went away this weekend and I am completely heartbroken. I feel like the worse pet owner in the world.

I titled this post “Tough Cookie” because I hope to be that about all this. This is all for our benefit. In no time I will have my second baby, Mae’s sibling, and the family I so desperately imagined. I just got to get through this, toughly.

Miss Bouvier

My stepbrother found a little girl kitten on his property last week. They love kitties, but they already have one, Ben, and his wife is pregnant, due any day now, and they just couldn’t have another cat, if they could avoid it. They fed the little girl, bathed her, let their two-year-old have a hay day with her, then brought her over to my home to see if she would be a good match. See, we have always wanted a little cat, but they have all reached terrible misfortune. Arnie. Boone. They were good cats that we loved. Well, this little girl cat was an instant fit. Mae loves her.

My stepbrother gave her the name Sundae, because of the caramel stripes on her coat. We tried the name out, but it was short-lived. It was just so annoying. Adam kept thinking I was talking about the day of the week. Also, with a baby learning a language, explaining that Sunday is a day of the week (a holy day), an icecream treat, and our cat… it was just too much. We thought of a myriad of names: Tiger-lily, Navi, Buttercup, but none stuck. The next day we finally found the name:

Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis

Sounds like a mouthful, I know, but it is perfect. We have a cat that is named Charles Duncan Gibbons III, and I love that at any point I can call him Charlie, Charles, Mr. Gibbons, or his full name. So, that is the new kitty as well. We have Jaqui, Jaqui O, Miss Bouvier (my favorite), Mrs. Onassis (Adam’s favorite), and much more. Also, Adam has always loved the name because of the Rage Against the Machine lyrics, “…I want to be Jackie Onassis. I want to wear a pair of dark sunglasses. I want to be Jackie O Oh Ooh… Please don’t die!”

This is her meowing at me the entire time I was getting my breakfast together

She is really annoying, but that is because she is a kitten. She meows like mad every time we are in the kitchen, sits on our heads at night, attacked our feats, sits next to me while I am nursing and purrs so loud it unsettles the babe, and much more.

Here is a video of her and Mae playing. They are quite possibly the cutest duo.

I am hoping it’ll work out with the First Lady. We really like her in our life so far.

Boone the little cat

You will be missed, Boone. You were a good cat. You made Django so happy, and Charlie come out of his old man shell. You let Mae grab at your face, then would hide her toys around the house. A potato fell on the kitchen floor and became your greatest toy in the world. Your little padded feet would walk up and down my sleeping body until you decided to lay down right inbetween the too-small-for-you gap between Adam and I. You were quiet and rambunctious.  You were a good cat.

You will be missed.

Boone Smith – The New Addition

When typical people have a baby, and their dog doesn’t get nearly as much attention anymore, they opt to have their dog adopted out. Adam and I are not typical people. When we saw Django moping around the house like a lost puppy, we decided he needed a friend. Django loves cats. The obvious solution was to get another cat, but rather than a big buthhead cat (like Charlie), we would get him a little playful kitty.

Last Monday we found him at the shelter, but he was still in holding, so we needed to wait until Wednesday. On Wednesday they sent him out to get fixed, so I spent the day running around town, signing paperwork on the other side of the valley, then picking him up from the vet on the otherside.

He is perfect to say the least. Not more than three hours after being home, did he let Django teach him how to play with a dog. Just a few lessons and he caught on. They chased each other and fought like brothers. Today they have just been sleeping, so I hope that it is like that again tonight. Charlie hates him, but we didn’t get him for Charlie, we got him for Django.

Our house is pretty darn crowded, what with a dino-cat, a little cat, a dog, and a new baby. But hey, the more the merrier. We plan on filling our home with children, so I got to get used to the craziness.

He is has two namesakes. One is the obvious, Daniel Boone.

The second is Boone Carlyle, of LOST. Oh goodness. He is the only guy who can survive a plane crash only to die in a crashed plane. You pick who you think of when you call my cat, Boone. You can guess who I image, yes, that is right, that powdery fellow up above, rawr.

First Snow of the Season

Finally it has snowed! I love the snow and cold weather, that is why I live in Utah. I love the brightness of a snowy morning. We have been snowless for months. I was pretty darn excited when Adam told me that it had snowed this early morning during a Mae feeding. Later when the sun came up, I went out and took photos of Adam shoveling the walk with the guard dog leaping through the white stuff.

I am excited to show Mae snow… but maybe when she is older.

Ghosts of the Past

I had a pretty emotional experience over the weekend.

Last Halloween everything pretty well came apart at the seems. The straw the broke the camels back was that my cat went missing Halloween morning, and was never seen from again. I remember one night last winter being up way too late, after everything was just terrible, Adam and I were just heavy-laden and exhausted from all the crap we were taking, then I just started crying because even after it all, Arnie was still missing. I knew he was probably dead. A whole gang of feral cats went missing that same weekend, and it was probably all the same cause. Adam comforted me and after a late night walk, we were able to go to sleep.

One year from the last day I ever saw him, this last Saturday, I was busy making dinner for my friends that were coming over for a Halloween get together. Every year we usually have a big party, but after last year, I just couldn’t do it, so we only had my bff and her husband over for dinner. The kitchen was getting pretty warm, with the oven and stove on so I asked Adam to open up the dining room window to let in a come cool air. He went to the window and just stood still.

His voice changed, he became real serious and asked me to come to the window.

There, through the hard water stained window, sitting with his back to us in the garden down at the end of the yard, was a orange and white little cat. It was so ethereal. It looked like a ghost. I broke down in tears. My whole face fell apart and I couldn’t not look at it. Adam finally broke from the shock and ran to go outside. I got myself together and went after him.

The little cat was meowing non-stop and loudly, like Arnie did. He didn’t run away, but wouldn’t let us near. We followed him all the way down the street.

It wasn’t him. His tail wasn’t long enough, his meow wasn’t quite right, his white fur collar didn’t connect in the back, and he had extra markings on his paws. Also, he was younger than Arnie should be. I knew it wasn’t him from the first time I saw him from the window, but I hoped it might have been.

I don’t believe in coincidences. How strange was it that of all days, the one year mark since the last day he was with me was that day? I just couldn’t get myself together after that and I didn’t get dinner in the oven before my friends came, which I felt bad because they seemed real hungry. Sorry guys.

Adam said he thinks it was a final goodbye. I am hoping it is the bookend to all the crap the came to a cusp last Halloween. That it might be an omen of good things to come. Whatever it was, it was something. It was a strange and emotional something.