Goodbye Sweet Callie Cat

I had meant for my next blog post to be about our Christmas... and it's February, of course. However. we've had a bit of drama in our family this week. Our lovely and loving Callie died over the weekend and we've been pretty upset. Writing about it is cathartic and I'd be remiss to not pay her tribute, so here goes.

Some of you may remember when we brought Callie home. We were in love and obsessed pretty much from the get go and that's how it continued on up until her dying day. I feel guilty because she got quite a lot less attention once Luke was born but that's just the way of things. She was always skittish of the outdoors but in recent months she would tentatively go outside if we left the door open. Usually we were very aware of her doing so and would herd her back in when we were done being out. A few months ago I let her out without realizing it and panicked for 24 hours until she made it home the next night. I hugged her tightly and kissed her a lot and swore to be more careful. Well, last Friday she made another escape without our knowing it. On Saturday Bryan and I started noticing she hadn't been around so we searched the house and she was nowhere to be seen. I posted a picture of her on our neighborhood Facebook page and told everyone to keep an eye out. When I checked it again a neighbor had commented to call her. It was 11 PM by then and too late to call so we waited until the next day. I had a weird feeling about it so I made Bryan do the calling. The neighbor said she'd seen a run over cat that could be her. We checked the area she mentioned and found nothing. All the while we left food and water out on our porch and hoped she was just having an adventure and would come home soon. The next day I set about trying to find out who cleaned up road kill-- hoping to rule out that possibility. I called one place who said they didn't do it and to call the Fish and Game Department, who told me they didn't do it and to call the Highway District, who told me they didn't do it and to call the Humane Society. I called and they said we'd need to come in to see if she was there and that they had a book of deceased pets to look through. About this same time I reported her lost through her microchip company. If an animal is brought in by animal control they are scanned for a microchip and if something comes up they call the company the microchip is through who then call you. When she had escaped months ago I reported it as well but had forgotten to withdraw the report when she returned. This time the company almost immediately called me but told me that I hadn't actually registered so I'd need to do that and pay the fee for me to use their services. I had really thought I'd registered and thought it was odd that they'd call me this time and not the first time I had reported her as lost. Bryan got home from work and we headed out to the Humane Society. I looked through all the cats that had been brought in while Bryan looked through the book of deceased animals. She didn't show up in either one so, with some hope, we went to the front desk to fill out a lost report. Bryan left to go change Luke's diaper while the girl behind the counter asked me for our contact information, etc. She then asked me for Callie's microchip number and I was distracted waiting for her to ask me more that I didn't notice she'd gone kind of quiet. A moment later another girl came by the counter and shocked me from my reverie by gently saying, "So we do have the cat. Her microchip number came up. She was hit by a car. I can take you to see her if you'd like." At this point I got up looking for Bryan and my emotions really started bubbling to the surface. They took us to a small room where something lay on a table beneath a towel. They lifted the towel corner for all of 15 seconds to show us Callie's face and paws before covering her back up. They started talking to us about cremation or taking her home while I stood there crying and all I could say was, "Can't I see her again?" So they unveiled her face again for the remainder of our time there. That image is seared into my mind forever and has been the source of a lot of my emotional outbursts since. She lay there, her ears shrunken back and quite obviously a shell of her former self. I had the urge to reach out and touch her paws one last time but I didn't. We decided not to take her body or her ashes home. It felt weird to bury her here in our subdivision which lacks a sense of permanence for us. We asked them if they could make an imprint of her paw for us but that is a service they do not offer. I wish we could have had more of a service for her. So we drove home feeling hollow-- like we were missing a member of our family who would never return. That night was fraught with tears but the following days have been mostly better, save a few emotional moments. Everything reminds me of her. I keep expecting her to walk around the corner or to jump in my lap. How can she really just not be here anymore?

I'm no stranger to pets dying. A few months after Bryan and I got married my childhood cat, Libby, got stomach cancer and was put to sleep. That was an incredibly hard thing to go through because she was also a very special cat which is why we felt so lucky to have found a cat like Callie. It felt like we had her forever while she was with us but now that's she's gone I realize how short it was. She didn't get the long life she deserved. Libby had a good long life-- 13 years. She was an outdoor cat and had many adventures. On Callie's only second escape into the outside world she met her end. It doesn't feel very fair. Luke will soon forget her. Our other kids will never know her. I'm certain we will get another cat but I'm not sure it will live up to her. How could we get so lucky a third time? She had such a sweet personality. She was warm, loving. If our laps were available it seemed like she was always sleeping on one of them. When we came home she would come running to greet us and she always wanted to be in the room we were in rather than on her own. She was such a low maintenance cat and never ever once had an accident in either of the houses she lived in with us. She was so beautiful, with her calico coloring and bunny soft fur. She loved to tease Luke. She'd let him get right up to her before running away a few feet and letting him catch up and then running again. When she came into my life I was in desperate need of something to nurture. We'd been trying for a baby for some time and it had been breaking my heart. She happily allowed me to nurture her and by so doing she nurtured me in return. I hope that she and Libby have found each other and are romping around happily. I'm grateful to know I'll see her again and I'm grateful for the time we had with her. Callie, we love you and we'll miss you. So much. 

Bryan's Birthday

This is going to be a short, mostly picture-less blog post. However, I've always at least mentioned our birthdays on the blog so I felt I'd be remiss to pass right on by Bryan's. His birthday was this past Monday and he turned 27-- woohoo! For one month every year I am older than my husband. I'm glad that month is over-- we prefer just being the same age. We both feel like 27 sounds so much closer to 30 than 26 did but, as everyone says, getting older beats the alternative. Anyway, Bryan was able to take off work for his birthday. He has two floating holidays that he can take each year and he decided on Veteran's Day... and convinced his work to let him take it a week late. Clearwater is so awesome-- great work environment and so flexible and willing to work with you. We sure lucked out in that department. So anyway, we slept in and then had German pancakes and Bryan opened presents. One of his presents was a LEGO Wii game so we spent a bunch of time playing that. I didn't have the day off so I still did my normal Monday duties-- mostly laundry. We also took our car in to get looked at for a squeaking noise it's been making. We want it completely safe before we put to car seat in. That's going to cost some money so that's annoying. Anyway. after that Bryan came with me to my 37 week appointment-- more on that in a bit. It's neat because he got to hear the baby's heartbeat on his birthday just like I did! Then we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel. We love Cracker Barrel-- there is something so great about comfort food. After, we picked up the unfixed car (they need to order parts) and headed home. We had Texas Sheet Cake, the birthday cake Bryan grew up loving. Then it was back to playing our game. He had some surprise visitors from his primary class bring him cards and cookies! I think he was really touched by that. It was a simple day, but it was nice to spend it together. I'm grateful that I married the husband I did. I feel completely comfortable with him and I know that he loves me. We have a goofiness together that is all our own. I can tell he is going to be a goofy dad and that our kids are going to be laughing a lot. I wouldn't have it any other way. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

In other news, we had my 37 week appointment on Monday and they checked my cervix for the first time. First of all-- holy toledo that was uncomfortable! Baby is doing well with a heartbeat of around 148 bpm. Hearing that is always my favorite part of the appointment. Anyway, apparently I am already dilated to 3 cm (almost 4) and am 80% effaced. Um, wow? The doctor said this is not necessarily an indicator that he's coming soon. I have a lot of friends who say they were dilated early on and then their baby still surpassed their due date. Every baby, every woman and every pregnancy are so different, though. There is no way to tell if it will be tomorrow or if I'll end up having to be induced on December 16th! I sure hope it is somewhere in between. I would really like him to stay in until after Thanksgiving. Then we can enjoy delicious food with friends and decorate for Christmas so that when he comes we can really only focus on just him. Also, this Friday Bryan and I have tickets to see Brian Regan that were not really inexpensive and are non-refundable so... really want to make it to that. Also, we're going with some friends to Catching Fire the next day and I'd like to see that before he comes. Callie has been especially attentive and snugly to me lately and I wonder if she senses what is going on. Animals are very intuitive so I wouldn't be surprised. I call her my "sweetheart cat" because she is so loving. I'm grateful we got her when we did-- she was a huge comfort to me during all the difficulty of trying and failing to get pregnant. She gave me something to nurture and she has one of the best personalities I've ever experienced in a cat. Here's a picture of her this morning sleeping with her face smashed against my knee (under a blanket):

Anyway, I guess that wasn't as short as I thought it would be. I have a tendency to ramble. Oh, well. Here's my most recent bump picture at 36 weeks (we'll see if I make it to having a 38 week one or not...):

Crazy Cat People

So, I have a problem. I can't seem to stop talking about my cat even when I realize I have been talking about her to someone for a good ten minutes. Is it normal to be so obsessed with a cat? We find pretty much everything Callie does adorable. Even when she is just sitting there blinking tiredly at us (I like to call this the, "slow blink"). Oh well! Here's a video of Callie being playful, just because:

Love This Cat

Do you want a little insight into how adorable my days are?

Ethan's Blessing

This Labor Day weekend Bryan and I were able to drive to Utah to be part of Ethan's blessing. Whew, we have sure made a lot more trips to Utah this summer than last! Ella had just had her 3rd birthday so we were able to celebrate with her on Saturday as well. It was a very busy weekend filled with friends and family!

I feel like I am always taking pictures of other things so I wanted to get something of the two of us. Bryan and I still love each other a year and four months later! :)

We decided to go to the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden. On the way there I helped Ella put together this fabulous birthday crown. What a cute smile she has!

The museum has tons of different sections from music to politics, even. Check out my very presidential husband! Watch out, Obama!

Ella loved running to all the different places. The museum was surprisingly empty this day so she mostly had free reign of the place. Bryan and I thought it was a pretty awesome place too!

We all attempted to the pull the sword from the stone but I suppose none of us were meant to be king.

Ride 'em cowgirl! She loved it when we'd rock the horse back and forth really fast like she was really riding a galloping horse!

Bryan thought he was giving me antlers here but it looks more like jazz hands to me... This ended our fun at the museum. We then stopped at Super Target (we don't have any here in Boise, unfortunately!) and ate dinner at Taggart's. I was full for the rest of the night and what felt like in to the next day!

We got up incredibly early the next day and drove down to Lehi for Ethan's blessing. It was a great experience and a beautiful blessing.

Ella decided in the middle of the family festivities that she really wanted me to take a picture of her wearing her apron that I made her. Glad she liked it!

Ethan is such a sweet little baby. I got to hold him for a very long time and it was really nice.

Uncle Bryan held him a little as well! He started squirming at one point and Bryan, unsure of what was going on, handed him back to me. I thought this was just kind of funny.

We spent the entire day there at Shelley's and it was a lot of fun. We played games and laughed a lot. I am so lucky that I married into a family that I feel I can be entirely myself with and whose company I truly enjoy.

The next day we had to leave to return to Boise but not before meeting up with the Pfaffs and Jasps for lunch at Kneaders in City Creek Center. What an awesome place!

We brought Callie as well and left her at Bryan's moms. She mostly stayed in the basement with us and had free reign of that, which I think she enjoyed. We tried to have her come upstairs a few times to socialize with the dogs but she was pretty wary of them. Hopefully she will eventually be able to be friends with them. You can kind of tell here that Callie is ready to escape should Guinevere try anything but Gwen is just being a happy dog. She was the most interested in Callie of the two dogs.

Well, this September is going to be a very busy month for us! We'll be in Utah again for Bryan to do recruiting at BYU for Clearwater Analytics. It will be crazy to be back there! Then we will go to Maryland and be a part of Sylvie and Jack's blessings. I'm excited to meet those two!

For now, I think its nice to be back home in Boise. We sure do love living here. 

So Long, Farewell

This weekend our friends David, Weston and Alicia came up to Boise for a visit. David and Weston are moving in a week across the country so its unlikely that we'll see them even as often as we could with us in Idaho and them in Utah. We had a fun time going to the Farmer's Market, eating a lot of food, adoring Callie and playing one million games. It was sad to see them go. Hopefully Alicia can visit some, at least. Here are a few pictures I took from their time here.

I am covetous of that shirt. Here is the aforementioned Callie adoring.

Playing "Say Anything" and "Loaded Questions". The boys also played a lot of video games and Alica and I played Skip Bo. For those who have played, are the very low numbered cards blue or purple? This was a very big debate.

David didn't want me to take a picture of him.

For some reason David's abs became a recurring theme in our jokes over the weekend so of course we had to take a picture (clothed).

It was really hard not to spend 100% of the time adoring Callie.

I just wanted to document the video game playing. Poor boys-- they grew up together playing video games and this probably the last time for a long while that they'll all be together doing it. Of course, I'm the one being sentimental here. The boys are probably like, "Uh... yeah. Okay." Oh, boys.

I made this delicious cake. Seriously, this is some of the most moist chocolate cake I have ever made or had.

Anyway, goodbye friends! We will miss you a lot!

Lastly:

This is probably the best thing I've ever found between the couch cushions.

Our Recently Adorable Life

This post is mostly about cute things. What can I say? A lot of cute things have been happening to us lately. For one, we got Callie about a month and a half ago. She is a joy to have around. I realize the next two pictures are almost identical but I couldn't help myself.

Believe me, I have taken oh so many pictures of this sweet girl. I'd say 90% of the pictures on my phone are of her. Woops. Am I turning into someone who talks about her cat all the time?

She is pretty much a hoot, too. She does the silliest things. She is easily transfixed by lights on the ceiling or floor. She used to arch her back and prance around like that whenever she saw her reflection. She tries to be very sneaky. This is just one video I happened to get of her being her silly self.

I also have started trying to get into crafting. I decided to make one of my nephews a baby blanket. It mostly turned out great.

Except for the edging... That's going to take some practice to get down.

 

I also stabbed (not pricked, stabbed) myself in the hand with a quilting needle while putting these ribbons in. Don't worry, I didn't get tetanus but Bryan was worried.

Here is baby Jack (my sister Natalie's new baby) modeling the mustache pacifier I made for him. Unfortunately, baby Jack lives across the country from me and I've yet to meet this sweet little thing. That pacifier seriously didn't seem this big when I saw it. He is just a tiny little guy.

Last week, Shelley had her baby as well so we drove down to Utah this past weekend to meet baby Ethan.

He was a very sweet thing as well. We got the opportunity to see him and hold him several times while we were there.

There is nothing like holding a sleeping newborn. So precious and innocent.

It was a nice weekend but, sadly, we had to leave on Sunday. Check out this gas station we stopped at near Twin Falls on the way back. There was basically no one there. I felt like it was a scene out of a movie or something.

We are just awaiting one more adorable little addition to our family! She should be arriving no later than Wednesday!

Callie

I'm pretty sure the word 'smitten' was invented to rhyme with kitten because that's what I am. As I type this blog, I have a sweet little kitten napping in my lap, purring so serenely. I can think of only one other thing sweeter than this.

We pretty much always had cats growing up. I would say I am both a dog and cat person but, as cats are pretty low maintenance, we seemed to have them most. Just last summer, we lost my sweet cat, Libby, to stomach cancer. It was pretty heart breaking-- I'd had her since I was eleven. I knew I wanted to get a cat of our own but we'd just moved to this new place and signed a lease saying we wouldn't have pets. If we did, I was sure we'd have to pay a lot extra on rent. I was pretty resigned to the fact that we probably wouldn't have pets for a while. I also thought Bryan wouldn't really want one for a while but, to the contrary, we both kept bringing up the possibility of a kitten. Last Thursday when I was picking Bryan up from work he told me he had a surprise for me. He had called our property management company to see if it was even a possibility. They seemed completely fine with it and said all we'd need to do was pay a pet deposit that was refundable and it would be fine! We were overjoyed and were going to go to the Idaho Humane Society the next day.

A week or so before we moved out of Utah our friends, the Pfaffs, started fostering some kittens for the Utah Animal Adoption Center. We hung out with them one night and were able to play with all the cute little kittens. There were two there that they had named Calvin and Hobbes that had orange/black/white coloring. Since Libby was a calico, I've always had a soft spot for cats with this coloring. All the kittens were cute but I was especially drawn to these two. Perhaps this visit was why we started thinking about the possibility of having a cat.

At the end of their time fostering, Jewel and Pfaffy adopted Hobbes for their own. After initially thinking the pair were boys, they found out they were really girls. It was around this time that we found out that we could get a kitten and told them. They kept telling us we should drive down to Utah to adopt Calvin so we could have matching "friendship kitten bracelets." I thought there was no way we'd drive all the way to Utah for a cat, even though in the back of my mind I kept thinking about how drawn I'd been to her and how I was worried I'd be disappointed in another cat from a humane society here. Bryan told me I should call the store they were at to make sure she was still there and when she was he surprised me and told me he really thought we should go! (He hates road trips even more than me!)

Utah Animal Adoption are the ones to actually adopt out a pet but they are housed in pet stores. Our little kitty was at a Petco in Farmington, UT. I called ahead and asked if we could reserve her and they said no. I explained that we were coming from Boise, ID for this cat and it would be a six hour car ride and could they please do it. She said they could hold her just for the day but we had to get there before the store closed. I said, "Okay, do you need my name or anything?" and she said something like, "Oh yeah, what is your name?" That felt a little fishy but I decided to just go with it and picked Bryan up from work. We hurried and packed and were out the door on our quest for kitten!

Five-ish hours later we got to the store (so much easier to type out than to experience) and I said, "I called earlier about reserving this kitten here." The employees hadn't heard anything about it (I told you it felt fishy!) but they hadn't sold any kittens that day so she was still there. They started on all the paperwork and then this girl started taking us up and down every aisle showing us what we could get for our cat... (Generally, I like to be left to my own devices when shopping...). The Pfaffs met us there and we headed to the register to buy all our kitten supplies and kitten!

Bryan rang up all the supplies while I was chatting with our friends and then the girl at the register said something like, "This is weird. I keep trying to ring the kitten up but it won't let me." They got the assistant manager, who said we couldn't use a debit or credit card because the money needed to go to the UAAC. We didn't have cash but I happened to have some counter checks so that wasn't a problem but then he said, "Actually, you can't adopt this kitten today. We need a signature from either the manager or someone from UAAC and neither are here right now. You will have to come back tomorrow at 9 AM." We were a bit taken aback and disappointed but Bryan and I are the types to just go along with it. We were ready to leave and come back the next day but the Pfaffs thought that was ridiculous, especially since they'd been the ones to foster the kittens in the first place. Jewel thought that possibly she could sign the paperwork since she volunteered at UAAC so they got her on the phone with someone from there to see what they said. That person referred her the person in charge of the cats at UAAC, someone who Jewel actually knew, who told her that it would be fine to go ahead without the signature. We told the assistant manager that, who looked unconvinced and went to call his manager. The other employees thought this was pretty ridiculous as well.

The guy came back and said, "Unfortunately, we can't take a check." We thought, "Oh, good, they're at least going to let us adopt the kitten today," and then he continued, "but it doesn't matter anyway because you can't adopt her today." Pfaffy and Jewel were very displeased and it was pretty evident on their faces. They said something to the guy like, "Why have cats here to adopt if you can't actually adopt them? That doesn't make any sense! Does it make sense to you?" The guy squirmed uncomfortably and said, "Um, no?" but he didn't really have any control so he couldn't do anything about it. We left disappointed but ready to come back first thing the next morning.

On the drive back to the Pfaff's house, Bryan and I talked about the whole thing and discussed what we wanted to say to the manager when we went in the next day. We wanted to tell her that we understood the process but that the employees should all know what it was and wouldn't get so far as to get most of the paperwork done and have us up to the register, ready to adopt before finding out we couldn't.

The next morning we came in and said, "We were trying to adopt this kitten yesterday but we didn't have a signature or something." The employee had no idea what we were talking about. Then we said, "We were supposed to get the signature of the manager-- Jeannette, or something?" A light went on and she headed to the back to find the manager. When she came back she had the paperwork signed and we never even got to meet the manager but we were, finally, able to adopt our kitten. Suffice it to say they will be getting a less than pleased review on the internet.

Anyway, we were very glad to have that drama behind us and to now finally have our new kitten! We decided to name her Callie since she'd previously been called Calvin but now we knew she was a girl. We took her to the Pfaffs, then Bryan's mom's house and then finally on our five hour car ride. Poor Callie had a lot of change over the weekend! She was so good in the car and didn't make a peep--she slept most of the time. Here are a few pictures I snapped on the ride:

One thing I love about Callie is how interactive she is. She plays with us and comes to find us to do so instead of keeping to herself. As I wrote this post, she woke up and started climbing all around me. I set her on the ground but she just kept climbing up into my lap. She loves being around us and we love having her around!

Yeah, my kitten is pretty much really adorable.