Well, I have never been a cat person. Not because I don't like cats, they just make me itch and sneeze. And make my eyes water. And did I say make me itch? Well, wouldn't you know that I found a cat that was approx. 8-9 days old at Water World, and I fell in love with him. Jacquelyn suggested that I take him up to Banfield to decide what to do with him, so here I go to Banfield.
When I arrived at Banfield, a lady with Save-a-Pet happened to be there. She said that she had taken in a mommy cat the day before who had lost all of her kittens, and was still making milk. She told me that I could foster the mom, and try to see if she would feed my precious kitten. There is a catch, however...She already attached another orphan kitten to her. I would have to foster the other 2-week old kitten, also. This was sort of a no-brainer, because I would have to dropper-feed the baby kitten every TWO HOURS. Day and NIGHT. I'm not ready for that committment :).
So...At this point I have three cats. Going from 4 fish to 4 fish and 3 cats is quite an adjustment. I decided on names. The cat that I found at Water World was a little boy, and I named him Jedda.
The 2-week old orphan cat was a beautiful little girl, and I named her Cricket.
The mom, obviously a girl cat, I named Lady.
We stocked up on cat food and supplies, and Lady began to feed these two orphan cats like such a sweet mommy. All was going well until Thursday of last week. I noticed that Jedda was sleeping more than usual, and she was acting groggy and weak when I got home from work Thursday. Jacquelyn fed her some formula with a straw, and she seemed to be full and sleepy. On Friday when I got home from work, Jedda could no longer hold her head up. She was meowing so softly, it broke my heart. I called Caleb over (because he had fallen in love with these babies) to hold her and love her. I told him that she was sick, and would probably not make it through the night. He got a little upset, but I think that he did not believe that Jedda would really die. This picture is Caleb with Jedda on Friday night. He held him and loved him and petted him and prayed for him.
On Saturday morning when I woke up, Jedda had passed away. Caleb came over to check on him, and I told Caleb as gently as I knew how that Jedda had died. Caleb cried and cried and cried. He said that it was the worst day of his life. He said that he did not understand, because he had prayed so hard, and why did God take Jedda away from us. Flustered by this question, I told him that God knew that Jedda was hurting, and did not want him to hurt anymore. I also told him that we were lucky to be able to love and help Jedda for a few days, otherwise he would have died all by himself outside in the cold. Later that day, Caleb, Owen, and Levon dug a hole in the back yard, and we had a funeral (Jacquelyn, Tyson, Mother, the boys, and I). I was appointed funeral director. We each talked about our favorite memory of Jedda, and we sang
Jesus Loves Me. It was really sad.
So now I am attached (and allergic) to these two foster cats living in my garage. I guess I have some decisons to make...Will update soon! Meow!
Here are some pictures from my family's annual Christmas week oyster-fest! This year we had it at Ben & Jamie's beautiful house. It is so good to have Uncle Jackie, Aunt Mahi, Chris, Jeremy, and Jessi here for Christmas!! We had fried oysters, raw oysters, and oysters rockefeller...Yum!!
We had a fish fry at the lakehouse on Friday night to celebrate Grandmother and Aunt Jean's 
birthdays. Uncle Jimmy fried lots of fish and hush puppies, and the kids got to take a boat ride and feed the ducks. It was so good to see Grandmother so happy, sitting at the table with her brother and sisters (they were all there...Uncle Johnny, Aunt Sharon, Aunt Jody, and Aunt Jean). They laughed and told stories and had a great time, and Grandmother seemed really happy.
All of the kids were at Aunt Kelly's house Saturday, and it was a house-full (but I wouldn't have it any other way)!! Tyson, Jacquelyn, Kevin, Caleb, Owen, Morgan, Mallory and I got together for a day of football for the adults and playtime for the kids. We had fun watching football, eating pizza and football cupcakes, and coloring. I really love the fall, because my busy summer is over, and I feel like I can enjoy my life outside of work again! Even though I still feel a little under the weather, I can't help but to stop on days like Saturday and thank God for my family and the love that I have all around me. 
We had quite a time getting everyone down to sleep Saturday night...It is so funny to me that a child can be so tired that he can't hold his eyes open, but will put up such a fight about bedtime!! We had lots of talks about why bedtime is necessary and that adults don't have the same bedtime as the kids. I think that the last one finally drifted off two hours or so after bedtime.
