Innocence

“Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul.”

Francis Thompson

Saving Strawberry . . .

Yet another adventure with the kids today. We've had a stray cat in our backyard. It looked young, very undernourished, and was shivering at the back door today. I took some of Grace's food and some milk out and checked it out. It was very friendly. The kids were interested in what was going to happen. I called our vet and they said to take it to the Capital Area Humane Society.

So I bundled the kids up and we made it a trip! As usual, things didn't necessarily go as planned.

Nora kept the cat company out back (she named it Strawberry) while I put all of the carseats in the car (they were removed last night because I drove my friends to book club) and put the kids in their clothes and coats and got them buckled in. Then she and I tried to get the cat into a basket. This was the funny part.

I am TERRIFIED of cats. This comes from my childhood and my mom's own fear/dislike of cats. There is no specific reason I don't like them, I'm just scared of them. So . . . I did pick it up several times, but it would jump out before I could get the lid on. At one point, I will admit, I did look at Nora and ask her if SHE wanted to pick the cat up. I quickly said, NO, just in case the cat gets frisky, I'll do it. She had said "No." anyway. LOL. So I did get the cat in the basket. It was VERY mild mannered and gentle. It meowed while we were in the car, but settled down and laid in the basket quietly.

Once we got to the shelter, we noticed they didn't open until 2PM. It was 11:45AM. So . . . I saw a volunteer walking one of their dogs and asked what I could do. She went in to talk to the staff and they let us in.

The cat was very friendly, had been neutered before (so it was someone's cat at one point), was a male, and was in good spirits, although severely undernourished (all of his bones on his spine and legs were protruding). I used money I made selling Molly's stereo on craigslist (hope that's okay Mol!!!) to make the $30 donation they ask for when turning in a stray.

The kids were proud that they did the right thing by turning the cat over to someone that could help it. Nora did say that she wished she never got Lucy so she could get that cat:) She renamed it 'Orangey' due to the male gender.

Afterwards we went through the Burger King drive through, and the 'toy' that came with the girls' meals was a little cat:)!!!

Oh, I will miss our adventures.


That being said, we probably all have lice.

Happy Holidays!
Love,
Mag

Sidetracked

So, we've gotten sidetracked in our big plans to start an enterprise showcasing my mom's work. But luckily, we are sidetracked with all good things. Maybe we'll be back on track with the New Year.