Furball Central...not a crafty post!

Today's post has absolutely nothing to do with paper crafting at all!  I thought I would catch all of my bloggy friends up with my ever changing family.

Many of you know Shadow, our Black Lab & my foot warming crafting partner, but I'm not sure I ever posted about his kitty, Midnight.  Midnight started as my parent's farm cat and personal kitty to Corky, their rat terrier/chihuahua mix.  Well, Corky got older and didn't venture outside as much and then they added Abby, an incredibly sweet but ultra hyper border collie to the mix.  Abby thought Midnight made a wonderful toy and terrorized her at every opportune moment.  Well, Midnight had enough of that mess and quickly relocated east to our property where she could sit safely across the invisible fence line and sashay safely out of reach.  It didn't hurt that Midnight intimidated the crap out of Shadow and he gave her plenty of space.  Over time they became friends and Shadow actually chased off the stray cats that would attempt to eat Midnight's food.

Midnight was a very old kitty when she adopted us and shortly after summer vacation began, we noticed she was really starting to show her age.  We had just made the family decision that if she got worse, we would step in, when she disappeared.  I'm pretty sure she wandered off somewhere and is no longer with us, but my youngest likes to think she left us so we wouldn't be sad about having to make the choice for her.  I kinda like that thought... Gives her a lot of dignity...

So we had some pretty sad weeks and my parents decide that the girls needed another cat. This was not brought on so much by our emotions as the persistence of one of their cats to constantly sneak in the house which drove my parents crazy.  So we were given a tomcat who was quickly named Zazzles (Big Bang Theory anyone?).  He sounded like a fine tuned engine as he purred and swiped our legs every chance he got, and after one face to face encounter with Shadow, stopped trying to sneak in our house.  Imagine our shock when we came back from our camping trip, and our oldest found Zazzles dead in the yard.  We have no clue what happened, he didn't show any signs of being attacked or hurt and once again, we had some very heartbroken girls...  I was pretty much finished with trying to keep a cat, until our house was built and it could come inside, but apparently there was a higher power at work.  I'm still not sure if it was divine intervention or my mother, but I'm not willing to argue with either...

My parents have several farm cats roaming around and the girls love to play with them when they go down to visit.  Princess who recently had kittens is one of their favorites, and since she is also trying to get in Mom and Dad's house, she was another consideration for the one who needed to go. She suddenly began appearing on our deck begging to be loved on, and since she had two kittens, they became part of the package. Hmm... three new cats...  We brought the 'dog' house of Princess and family up to our house and proceeded to spoil them rotten.  We must have done a fantastic job because Buddy and Ruby (the two remaining cats) began to visit as well.  So at any given time, there are 5 cats on our deck! For all of the Big Bang Theory fans, we officially have a clowder... While Shadow enjoys sniffing certain areas that shall remain nameless on the kittens, he's not so sure about the adult cats. They still scare him a little!  I'm just hoping that they still have several of their lives left. I am not sure we can deal with any more losses!

To end this post on a more positive note (God knows there was enough sadness...), I'm sharing some photos of our new permanent residents...

Katniss-quite sassy and always up to something, she

sneaks in the house on a regular basis.  Shadow really

likes her since she doesn't attempt to claw his eyes out!

Black Beauty-a little more shy, but will pounce without 

warning.  Shadow does not like her at all and the

feeling is mutual.  She is in perpetual hiss 

mode when he's around.

Princess-proud Mama and very sweet.

She head-butts Shadow all the time and 

seems to know that he couldn't possibly

hurt her.

Now our days are filled with purring furballs, side stepping said furballs as we attempt to leave the house, and bracing ourselves for the sneak attacks that happen when we return home.  Not such a bad way to live...

Well, that's it for me and my ever expanding fur family.  Have a wonderful week and may all your crafty projects contain pet hair! I know mine will!