Meet Pooka

 Pooka was well sought after.  We decided that a kitten for Christmas would be the ideal idea.  It had been 6 months since Miss Moppet died and the house construction had reached a stage where we could 'safely' take on a kitten.  Sooo,  the entire week before we headed to Utah we were searching online for a kitten.... BUT... each one we asked about was already gone or spoken for.  Sometimes the listing would only be 2 minutes old and the kitten would already be gone.  Finding a kitten didn't look promising.

Whittaker spent the entire drive to Utah reading any new listing he could find from 3 different sites.  Late that evening we managed to contact one that still had a kitten available and made arrangements to meet at a 7/11.  

Apparently meeting someone at a 7/11 to pick up a new kitten is a family event.  Caleb and Sarah, joined Jim, Whittaker and I to meet Pooka for the first time.  She was so sweet, petite and snuggly.

Fortunately, she was also a VERY good traveler.  We had 24 more hours before we would be home.  We spent the night and she slept between Whittaker and I.  The next day we were in the car essentially all day.  She spent 90% of the time on Whittaker's lap.  A few times we had to put her in her kennel.. hoping she would use our makeshift litter box in the end of the kennel.

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Once home... she has rarely been put down.  There is no shortage of people willing to hold her.  She doesn't appear to mind.  She is such a chill cat... Sooo docile.   (except at 11pm) 

She loves to be in a box by the fire place... and the cookstove and she's taken over the crochet couch that Noella had claimed.  

In fact,  she seems to want to be anywhere Noella is.  The feeling was not mutual though.  Noella made it known that she could be close but no closer.

As soon as Noella's back was turned... Pooka stole all of  Noella's spots.

Unless Emerson intervened.   It was an exhausting task to keep Noella and Pooka from hissing at each other.

Eventually Noella allowed Pooka to join her... 

as long as she stayed behind her and didn't play with her tail.

Noella has plenty of reprieve from Pooka's attempts to make Noella into her kitty equivalent of a BFF since... well... she is rarely put down!

Minor Setbacks

 

At first glance this is just the space behind the fridge.  A few weeks ago this was a delightful sight.  It meant that the fridge was in its new location and the waterline has been hooked up to the fridge so there is now water and ice available from the fridge.

However... this particular view at this moment is not such a delightful sight.

It is only a minor setback... a bump in our road to renovations.

The kitten, in a frisky mood, discovered the coil of hose behind the fridge and it's tendency to wobble when touched.  Irresistible to a kitten... a wobbling hose.  She pounced.  We are not certain if she bit at the hose when it wobbled back at her or if it caught on her claw, but we do know that a tiny hole created a large wet mess.  Had I not been standing on the other side of the fridge at the time and heard an 'odd sound', I wonder how long this tiny prick of spray would have gone unnoticed.  It could have been so very much worse.

I called out... HELP... how do I turn the water off to the fridge.  Faster thinking than I had, Jim just turned the water off to everything in the house... then we mopped up the mess and realized there must be a valve under the sink.

All is well that ends well.  Patrick repaired the hose.  The water has been restored.  The fridge is now pushed back closer to the wall with items blocking a kittens entry.  We will be more aware of this hazard when we need the fridge moved for drywalling and painting and for flooring.  

Covid Update

 Patrick is sleeping. 

[He still has headache, body aches, cough, fatigue but seems to have more energy in short spurts.]

Emerson is playing operation, knocking down the fortress of the pigs and listening to a magic treehouse book.

[No actual symptoms]

Duncan is listening to a book, playing computer games, eating day old pancakes and pining over the lack of cookies in the house.  He is keeping the fires burning and has taken over spelling and other school tasks with the boys via zoom. (Wishing it wasn't a week off school so there would be more to occupy his time!)

[No actual symptoms]

Whittaker is listening to Nancy Drew mysteries, and arts and crafting.(He has created a pen catapult launcher, many Christmas ornaments and some random sketches.)  He looks forward each day to time on the computer and the chance of a chat with Ava.

[Angry rash on his hands, sore throat and a tightness in his chest, but good spirits and plenty of energy to make frequent requests for more tea, for paper, paints, glue, empty toilet paper rolls, a new book, water refills, any snacks?]

Jim is bored, and inventing new covid symptoms like, bruising easily, inability to heal after a burn and the need for frequent urination (may be tied to the constant supply of tea I've been providing).  He is productively working in spurts and suggesting activities like charades from our respective doorways.  He has thrown caution to the wind and decided to eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. In other words, it's not a no sugar week!  He has lost self-control and eaten an entire container of peanuts in two days.  

[metallic taste in his mouth, had a slight headache, had a tickle in his throat, had a tightness in his chest, sporadic heavy limbs.  All symptoms are in past.. mostly.. very minor and isn't eager to do any exercise.. is winded easily after simple exertion.]

I am creating a symptom chart (None of us can register a temperature at the normal range... we all have unusually below normal temps.  Whittaker winning with 95.3) and I'm justifying ice cream for breakfast since I had lots of leftover heavy cream by adding granola and berries.  I'm paranoid that the mice will have a complete lack of respect for my days of cleaning and rodent proofing efforts.  I'm catching up on years of neglected slothfulness and am not getting dressed until noon... if I get out of my p.j's at all.  

[metallic taste in mouth, fatigue, body aches, slight cough, cold sores, nagging headache, stuffy nose, swollen throat glands and hands that constantly smell of bleach]

Figaro has increased her efforts of laziness and when she isn't lounging on Emerson's bed or meowing annoyingly at the door to be let out for 3 minutes, she has taken up residence on Patrick's side of the bed.  She also sneezed twice last night so I charted it and we'll monitor it closely. 

Noella is baffled by the lack of interaction by the humans and has quarantined herself to the couch by the front door.  She is afraid to make her presence more publicly known due the shame she feels for NOT capturing the elusive kitchen torturing mice!

Myth Busters

The boys like to watch cat videos.  They saw a few that showed that cats can walk through a room filled with items like dominoes or other small items, evenly placed close together and the cat won't knock any over.  The boys were rather amazed.  So obviously...

They had to build a test out the theory course.  

Figaro just turned around and went the other way so we had to fetch her and force her to do it.  She carefully walked along the edge but did knock down a few.

Noella as you see left a disaster in her wake and was so unimpressed by the noise of the items falling over she simply sat down (on some) part way through the course, baffled why we had left such a mess in this small area of the house.

So, myth: that cats won't knock any down.. BUSTED! 

Just proves, you can't believe everything you read or see on the internet.

Filling in the Details

Daddy worked in Hawaii for a few weeks and brought back a few fresh pineapples.  

While we gobbled away, slurping the dribble off our chins, we filled him in on all that had occurred while he was away this trip.

Friends went to Brazil and brought us back and new hammock as a thanks for taking care of their pets.

A neighbourhood cat has been stalking me.

It's quite disconcerting to be stared at while washing the dishes.

(I know the solution is to just stop doing dishes!)

Emerson became stuck in a bucket.

It took two people to get him out.

He got stuck a few more times before we confiscated the bucket.

Miles spent days and days in one spot finishing up his extra courses that he took this semester.  Fortunately he enjoyed them.  We often would peek in and seeing him grinning away and when we glanced at the screen, none of us saw anything amusing or pleasant... 

Chemistry, Graphic Design and Microsoft Office Specialist.

To each his own. 

Sarah claimed there wasn't enough space in her room for all her shoes.  Rather than pare down her shoe collection, she opted for opening up a wall and creating new shelves.

On a particularly quiet afternoon, I thought Emerson was napping and assumed Whittaker was playing legos with Duncan.

I was wrong.

Duncan was voraciously reading Harry Potter and the little boys... well, they were stripped down in the sandbox.

Having the time of their lives.

Until it began to rain.  Then they were dancing on the deck trying to rinse off the sand.

Emerson discovered that other people have water bottles identical to his.

He was relieved when we returned home and his was still on his hook.

We spent an ENTIRE saturday doing Scouts.  Miles performed his Native American Hoop Dancing.  Duncan earned two merit badges.  The boys and I played every carnival game known to man, and participated in the dance demonstration, and climbed rock walls, and played on bounce houses, and sawed a tree in half, and generally had a good time.

Unfortunately, as we told Daddy all about our activities... 

His red eye flight and jet lag caught up to him.

Dream Big

"In dreams I can fly!"

"In my dreams, my classes are over!  And the cat knows all the answers."