Easter...and kittens

Chloe continues to heal, and we are looking forward to getting her stitches out later this week. She has learned which of the cats she can sniff and lie next to and which of the cats she needs to avoid. She’s adjusted very well to the household routines and has taken to being spoiled and coddled. She sees Daisy and Jezebel regularly, but it’s always through a gate. They seem to be okay with each other and very curious, but we won’t have the face-to-face introductions until her stitches are removed. We don’t want to take any risks with her. She shows no aggression or tendency to be vicious at all, but she has shown that she takes seriously her self-appointed job to guard me from all strangers. Once she sees that I’m okay with the approaching stranger and I tell her it’s okay, she’s fine, but until then she insinuates herself between me and the potential threat and barks with a deep, scary, big-dog bark. It’s so sweet of her!

We’ve reached the heart-wrenching point where the kittens are ready to go. The ‘twins’ (the two white & gray boys) will be going to their new family this weekend. I’m going to have a rough, weepy week—or more likely several months, and Dej will probably be the same, if not worse. I get sick whenever I think of taking them to their new home, which will be wonderful for them, but we will miss them so much. I always feel the pain of mommy cat, who looks for and worries about where her babies went. I HATE having to put her through that! Breaking up happy families sucks! This is why I don’t like to get involved with or do kitten placements. I always end up heartsick and depressed—even when it’s a ‘happy ending’ where they go to loving, permanent homes. We enjoyed them so much this weekend, and spent lots of time with them, knowing that this would be the last weekend we would all be together.

Saturday afternoon, Logan and Colton came over for a few hours, and the kids had a blast playing. It was a little chilly—in the low 50s but was sunny enough that it was good playing-outside weather. The kids alternated, playing outside for a while and then playing inside for a while. The boys are always perfect for me, and all of the kids got along well. Poor Colton didn’t get his usual after-lunch nap, but he held up well. He brought me a Sports Illustrated magazine at around 3 and asked me to read him the basketball story. I read him a scintillating story about the Tarheels, and he listed raptly until he drifted off to sleep. He took a little 45 minute snooze, and shortly after that, Orinda came to pick them up. Hunter also came over and played with all of the kids.

We had a pretty standard Easter, following the same traditions we do every year. The Easter Bunny came to our house and left eggs inside for the girls to find. The plastic eggs are filled with either candy or money. One egg still remains unfound, somewhere in our house. It will be a late easter surprise for whoever finds it. Each girl also gets a basket (they have each used the same basket since their first easter) filled with more stuffed eggs and a gift from the EB. Luciana dominated the egg hunt at home this year, as she’s a little more highly motivated to search for the eggs than her sister is.

L & M played basketball outside for a little while. We got a new net for our backboard, as the birds had used our old net for nesting materials. When Dej was younger, she played basketball in the driveway and she had a basketball, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. L. asked if we could get her a basketball—preferably pink—so she could play. We actually found a pink and orange ball, and she was very happy with that. Chloe laid in a sunny spot in the yard and watched them play.

We always go to my parents’ in the afternoon for their egg hunt. This was the first Easter in a looooong time that we had nice enough weather to do the hunt outside. My brother and his wife are traveling, so their boys have been staying at my parents’. Dej felt that one egg hunt per day was all she really needed, so she didn’t participate in this hunt—it was just Luciana and the two boys. All of the eggs at her house were found. I think that these eggs all contained money rather than candy. Chloe came with us, and she supervised the hunt.

Dej & Joe arrived at the end of the hunt to join us for my dad's homemade pizza. Joe’s mom, Fran, also joined us. We visited until we had enough room to accommodate the dessert my mom made, orange-pineapple cake. It was delicious! Then it was time to get back home and spend more time with the kittens before they had to go back to Fond du Lac with D & J.

I feel so bad for Dej! She's done so well with being responsible and grown up, but she keeps getting pummelled by life. First Joe was laid off. Then they had some very expensive car repairs. They've still been able to keep it together and stay afloat. Now they are dealing with a bit of a mess in their apartment. The upstairs neighbor left her sink plugged and running and forgot about it while she took a shower (wtf??!). The water began to pour from D & J's ceiling, dripping all over. They now have a wet apartment with buckets and pans all over and a bowed ceiling. She's not even sure at this point if they can stay there tonight. Oh, and her laptop's cable died, so it's unusable until the one I ordered arrives later this week. I miss being able to chat with her online late at night! I wish things could go more smoothly for her, although she's learned really quickly that being a 'grown up' isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be.