ZuZu

Meet our newest family member, ZuZu.

We adopted her yesterday through Rescue Angels, a group that helps place dogs in need of homes with forever families. She is a little love and we are so happy to have her join our family.

Home

Our kitty, Lewis is home, after being missing for two weeks. We are so very thankful to the thoughtful person who called the local shelter to report a stray cat. To say my children (and I) were devestated is an understatement and after two weeks of tears we are so thrilled to have him home. He has been snuggled and petted and snuggled some more and could now very well be the most spoiled cat ever.

So far we've been able to keep Lewis, our bird-rodent-bug hunter extraordinaire, from the chicks, who have grown so much I hardly recognize them as the little fluffballs who came to us two weeks ago. They have feathers and giant chicken feet and a chickenish look in their eye now.

We've enjoyed the last (hopefully) of some very rainy weather by staying in our pj's late, snuggling up with good books, and cooking some delicious breakfast food. I saw the baked oatmeal at http://www.soulemama.com/ and after realizing that life is too short to go without this, decided to make it one morning. I found the recipe here :
http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2011/04/baked-oatmeal/
It was a delicious accompaniment to my usual green smoothie.

Lewis

The big news here at our house is that (drum roll please) we adopted a kitten! There are no words to describe how happy this makes me and my children - I will simply let the pictures speak for themselves. But I must say that little Lewis has been the one ray of light for us in an otherwise terrible and dark month. I've always been a cat (and dog, horse, turtle, fish, wounded bird, mouse that survived being fed to a neighbor's snake and was covertly rescued by a 10 year old me until it bit my finger ... but I digress) person, but I have a special connection with Lewis. On nights when want to cry myself to sleep over the loss of my brother Lewis is there, snuggling up under my chin and purring like crazy, and he makes me smile.

I first saw a picture of Lewis on Facebook that was posted by a friend from high school who fosters animals. (I must further digress and say that I have so much admiration for anyone who helps animals, especially my two Cathies/Kathys). She posted photos of a young mama cat with her three babies, one of whom looks exactly like my old cat, Phaedra. I was pretty much sold at that point. Despite DG's prior reluctance to bringing another animal, let alone a cat into the family, he pretty much melted like butter on a 90 degree day when he saw Lewis' picture and they are now fast friends. Lewis especially enjoys climbing up DG's leg, just to remind him how sharp his claws are and who the man of the house is.

In addition to being quite the lover, Lewis is also a feisty boy who plays with D, J, and K goodheartedly and tolerates their relentless ministrations. They play with him whenever they get the chance, and scoop him up onto their laps when he is sleepy and they want to read or watch a movie. Our 6 year old pug, Sophie, however trembles with fear whenever Lewis is within view. She is absolutely terrified of this 3 lb. bundle of black and white fur. It doesn't help that Lewis channels his inner lion whenever Sophie so much as looks at him, and that he views Sophie as his target for pouncing practice. I think it's simply that he knows he is little, and he's trying to establish some respect and hierarchy since he knows that Sophie could pretty much sit on him and end his brief life beneath her impressive behind if she so chose. Nonetheless, I'm giving Sophie lots of extra cuddle time just to be sure she is still feeling the love.

Wow, I have written so very much about my pets. More than I have about my children in quite some time...hmmmmmm.