Cat Woman

Patrick's mom managed to somehow get a chipmunk trapped in her bedroom. We went over to attempt to catch it and spent about two hours chasing it about.

Normally I'm excellent at catching small animals (growing up with lots of cats I had to learn to catch them to re-release them once the cats got them in the house/cornered outside), but being 6 months pregnant kinda puts a damper on my abilities. I couldn't jump and chase and crawl about on the ground or lay on my stomach like I used to so I had to rely on Patrick, who is not nearly as stealthy or quick.

When we got there we had no idea where the chipmunk even was in the room, and his mom is in the process of getting her house ready to sell so it was kinda cluttered in the room with boxes and papers and various things. After about 15 minutes I laid on the bed since I was exhausted (I'd meant to nap but didn't get to) and told Patrick to be quiet while I listened for any hint of noise he might make. After a few seconds I told Patrick to look somewhere off to my left. There was a blanket on top of a bag and some other things and as soon as he moved the blanket the chipmunk shot out. We chased him and attempted to get him out of his new hiding place but we never could seem to catch him even when we ran him out, there were too many good hiding places. We'd lost him several times and about three or four times I had to stop and listen for him again (and he wasn't loud). Finally, I accepted that I was exhausted and of little help to Patrick. I was hungry as I'd had a light lunch and my stomach was aching (I ordered belly bands the other day so that should help with some of the aching (from my jeans being a bit tight), if I had thought it wouldn't be a terrible idea to chase a chimpunk about a room while pants-less I would've totally done that). We left and got dinner and I went to bed as soon as possible.

Patrick and I joked when we started dating how my cat, Dumbledore (Dumbles) is our child from the future since he's a tall, lanky, ginger-blonde cat. I'm a blonde and Patrick is a tall, lanky ginger, but I'm also a cat. The fact I could hear the chipmunk moving was impressive to Patrick as he couldn't make it out (and I often worry my hearing got messed up in cosmetology school). I can hear quiet noises for some reason, perfect mom ears. I can even tell when my pets/children in my care are up to something because it's too quiet. I have great vision, notice small details and move quickly despite what my size might make people expect. And of course currently I have the smelling abilities of a drug dog. My personality is also pretty cat-like, although I won't go into it today at least. Needless to say, this just reinforced my assertion that growing up with so many cats has basically turned me into a cat.

And now, because I love photos and have a million, I will show off our beautiful son, Snumbles.

Found him in my sock drawer one morning.

Mommy and Snumblesnore

Proof that he's a ginger.

I guess I should give more of a backstory on Dumbles--he found us and at first my mom tried running him off for fear he'd beat up our cats. One day she was out and he came running up to her and after that she just couldn't help but feel sorry for him. When I finally saw him we sat on the porch and petted him and I wound up bringing him in the house and pulling several ticks off him. We fed him and decided to take him to the vet in the morning to be sure he didn't have feline lukemia or anything (he was missing fur in places and we thought it might be mange but it was just he'd had a rough life 'til then). We were holding our breath waiting for the results of the feline lukemia test to come back as we'd lost our beloved cat, Bamboo, to lukemia a few years prior after we had been late on his booster by just 3 months. Thankfully it came back negative and the vet was so impressed with Dumbles that he even offered to fix him for half-price, just to ensure he found a good home with us (he didn't want him spraying or causing trouble and getting taken to a shelter... which he still does these things two or so years later but we still love him). Dumbles was very skinny at the time, but we didn't realize it 'cause he's just a big cat. They told us he'd weigh about 12lbs once he put on some weight (the majority of our cats have always tipped the scale at approximately 6lbs) because he was so skinny and they were absolutely right. He's a gorgeous cat, though... fur like a rabbit's. And all this happened right around the time when Patrick and I started dating (shortly afterward), so mom teased that Dumbles reminded her of Patrick because he was a tall, lanky ginger (he actually got his name from the Harry Potter character--which was my mom's suggestion (surprisingly) because his face reminded her of the pictures of the character she had seen somehow. I agreed because Albus Dumbledore had auburn hair himself and it just seemed perfect to me to have an excuse to name my pet after a Harry Potter character). We joked that he's our son from the future, come to keep an eye on us (and now we tease mom if he disappears when the baby is born it's 'cause he's our future son). 

Oh, and that fear that he'd beat up/bully our cats was totally uncalled for. He is the biggest wuss, a total lover. Here's a picture of him with my baby boy that passed away after getting hit by a car, Tucker.

Dumbles and Tuck, bff for life.

Cats, cats, cats

We ran out of dry cat food yesterday but we have a stash of wet food we keep to spoil Abel randomly and feed my feral cats with (I only do this in the winter as I heard it's better at keeping them warm). So I woke up at 7:30, which is breakfast time for the animals and I went ahead and fed them and gave Abel wet food before going back to bed. Two hours later Patrick gets up and before I realized it he had also fed the animals. Lupe didn't eat her food (since she'd already eaten) but Abel never turns down a meal, especially wet food. I suspect Lupe got some of it, too. These spoiled animals think they're so smart, tricking Patrick.

My feral cat, Stache, let me be on the patio with him for a few minutes today. He was sitting there, he's learned if I see him I'll feed him so I think he was waiting for me. I opened the sliding glass door and carefully came out and I got two feet away from him before leaning over to pour the food and he ran off to hide in his bush he normally goes to 'til after I've gone back in. The bush is only about 8 feet away so it's not bad, and he'll sit in it and stare at me when I talk to him so I think he's getting that I don't want to hurt him, I just want to feed him. I hope so, at least.

Here's a pic of him 'cause I realized I never posted one:

He looks like a black tuxedo cat but he's actually a beautiful dark brown. Almost like chocolate but with a red tint in the sunlight.