I have a new foster kitten. Her name is Bobbi. Here is her story…

I scared.

About 10 days ago I swear I saw a tiny black bunny running in the back yard. I watched the little thing try frantically to scramble under the fence and then jump on top of it to disappear. The reason I thought it was a bunny was the tail. Just a little nub. But I soon understood it was a kitten with a bobbed tail. I was very upset that I couldn’t catch her but there was nothing I could do but be sad. The next day I saw her again. This time she ran under my neighbor’s house. I called Traci and asked if I could go under her house to set a humane trap and of course she said yes.  That night Jim set the trap with some stinky cat food and put a warm blanket inside and a heavy rug on top of the trap. We went out to dinner, and when we came home we had a kitten.

I still scared.

We set up the kitten nursery in our sitting room off our master bedroom. There’s a futon in there and she mostly stays under it. Jim has to shimmy underneath (I am not really made for “shimmying”). She was absolutely terrified of us but Jim was able to catch her and hold her tight for some “mandatory love”. It’s the only way we know how to tame wild kittens and it usually works within a few days. Jim examined her and saw she was a girl. He also looked closely at her poor little tail. It’s been broken and it has somehow healed up crooked. I shudder to think how this could have happened and how much she must have suffered while when it was injured. It’s only about two inches long and has a little bend in the middle. Imagine a thumb hitch-hiking.

Maybe not so scared now.

We watch TV in the evenings upstairs and Jim aggressively pets and scratches her for the whole time. She seems to enjoy it and even purrs a little, but as soon as he lets go-BAM she’s off and back under the futon. She comes out to eat and use her litter box (only one accident the very first night). She has no idea how to play. She probably has been using every ounce of her energy to survive for the first eight weeks of her life. We sent in the professional kitten whisperer yesterday for the first time to begin his rigorous kitten-training method.

Listen kid. Here’s how we do things around here.

I thought she’d be terrified the first time she saw another cat, but no. She mewed and ran right up to him and nuzzled her head into his side. Sweet Mulder. He is a cat among cats. I saw a tiny sign of progress this morning when I looked into the sitting room and saw her sitting ON TOP of the futon. Baby steps Miss Bobbi. We’ll make a proper kitten out of you soon.

Brave Bobbi!

My heart breaks for this little girl and you can believe I’m going to use shameless begging to find her a forever home. I can never take her to the shelter because her chances of getting adopted are slim. Open your hearts people. Find room in your family for this little orphan! Please.

I’ll close with a couple of photos of my casa. Here’s the completed front porch…

Looking west toward the lake

Looking east up the street.

And in keeping with the kitty theme today, here’s a picture of my foyer closet.

Actually we don’t have a foyer closet, but these guys do a great job!

More on Bobbi and more house stuff later this week. Thanks for reading!

Do you obsess about the little things? Have you ever pondered the little deely boppers on the end of your ceiling fan chain? Of course you haven’t. But guess what? Jim has. He thought we needed to have some bling instead of the boring kind that comes with the fan. I found some sparkly colorful ones on Etsy and ordered all different colors. Jim put them up according to his particular sense of style and I have to admit, they’re pretty cool.

Blue Room

Living Room

My husband is such a GIRL!  Yes, he’s a bit of a weirdo, but he’s MY weirdo!

He’s also a math genius (OK, genius is a strong word, but he is really smart), so his skills came in handy when hanging the pet pictures on the first stair landing. Here’s the story…When Hannah was eleven she drew a stunning picture of our kitty Boots. This was back in the year 2000. We loved it so much. It truly captured our sweet little cat and we were happy to frame it and hang it on the wall.

This job was not easy since all of the pics are slightly different sizes, plus the hanging methods were different and placed in random areas on the back of each pic. He got out his tape measure and turned up the “Geek dial” to full blast and began calculations.

Adult beverages were required for this task.

Three hours from start to finish.

Three years later she drew our kitty Missy. She continued until 2014 when she drew Dave our little brown bunny. If you zoom in you can see the whole gang starting with Boots at 11:00.

Zoom in to see all the fur babies. Four of them are still with us and eating us out of house and home. The rest are resting peacefully in our pet cemetery.

Boots 2000, Missy 2003, Roger the Wonder hamster 2006 (she gave him “elbows”, hamsters don’t have elbows. 🙂 Buster 2008, Boo Boo 2009, Rowdy & Sam 2012 (still with us and fat as pigs!), Rosie, Daisy & Violet 2012 (my very sweet chickens who were evicted from waters because of a complaining neighbor grrrrrr, Mulder 2013 (still with us, and the strangest cat on Planet Earth), Dave the Bunny 2014 (for a short time we had two bunnies-Dave & Buster)

I love looking at them every time I climb the stairs.

In 2017, I decided that we needed one more pet portrait so I drew Hannah and Tony. Tony came to live with us after she died in December 2015. This little cartoon was modeled after a wonderful picture we took of her on her last Christmas with us.

Hannah & Tony Christmas Day 2014

I tried my best Hannah B.

Stop by any time to see my “priceless” art. Our kid was talented and wonderful. We love all the treasures she left behind.