Look What The Storm Dragged In <----- Dorothy's new blog!!!! Yay!!!!
Leonore over at As a Linguist awarded me an ‘Irresistibly Sweet Blogger Award,’ which I found irresistibly sweet in and of itself! (Thank you, Leonore.)
The rules are that I have to share seven random facts about myself, and then share the award with other bloggers. Like Leonore, I’m going to share it with seven other bloggers.
First, seven random facts about me:
1. I can wiggle my ears. I actually made a short video of myself doing that very thing back in 2006. You’ll note toward the end that I got confused and started raising my eyebrows and then laughed at myself.
2. I can also raise one eyebrow (my left). Frankly, I am so chock-full of amazing skills that I’m aghast that the paparazzi aren’t stalking me 24/7. Or at all.
3. I have been exceedingly lucky in my kitten fostering. Of the 160ish (note to self: update that list already so you’ll know how many cats you’ve fostered!) kittens and cats I’ve fostered, I’ve only lost five. The first was Mia, the mother of my very first litter of fosters, and the other four were a litter of days-old kittens who weren’t given any time with their mother before she was euthanized. They passed on, one after the other, and there was nothing I could do to save them. That came on the heels of our losing Mister Boogers, who was possibly THE most personable cat we’ve ever had, and that was really just a bad, bad time for me. I never hesitated in continuing to foster, though.
I have a picture of the litter I lost hanging on the wall next to my bed and I look at it most nights and remember them with love.
Hamilton J. Porks III, who lasted the longest. I was so sure he was going to make it (all signs to the contrary, in retrospect).
I didn’t write about them as it was happening, because I wanted to make sure they’d make it before I did, and then they didn’t. The two year anniversary of their short lives is coming up in July, and I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately. Thinking about the pain of their passing helps to make me realize just how much joy there’s been in this fostering experience I’ve had over the past six years, and how much more joy is yet to come.
Okay, enough of the heavy stuff! Let’s keep it light from here on out, shall we?
4. I was born in Maine. My father was in the Air Force, and we moved a lot (places I’ve lived: Indiana, Canada, Michigan, Guam, Loring AFB in Aroostook County, Maine (before the base closed)) before settling in Lisbon Falls, Maine when I was 12ish. I’ve also lived in Rhode Island (my first husband was in the Navy) and now Alabama. I consider myself to be a Mainer, and I would happily eat seafood at every single meal.
5. Fred and I sleep in separate bedrooms. He’s a light sleeper and once awakened, has a hard time going back to sleep. He’s also one of those weirdos who only needs about 5 hours of sleep, and I need more than that. I also prefer to stay up later than he does. Also, he can’t sleep with cats crawling all over him, and I don’t even wake up when they do. So every night, we lay in bed in my room and talk and snuggle for half an hour or so, then when he’s tired, Fred goes off to bed in his room (which is right next door to mine). It bothers some people that we don’t sleep in the same bed (I find it kind of odd that it bothers people who aren’t, y’know, IN the relationship), but it works for us.
6. When I was a child, I was scared to death of every bug in existence (I called them “beechies” for some unknown reason) and that followed me into adulthood. When I first moved to Alabama, I was in the shower, and I looked down to see a HUGE spider glaring up at me, and I got out of the shower immediately, shut the bathroom door, and refused to go back in there until Fred had killed it. My fear of bugs lasted until we moved into this house and after about the 50th screaming “OH MY GAWWWWWD THERE’S A WASP!!!!” fit I had, I got over it. These days, if I see a wasp, I grab a tissue (or magazine) and grab it and squish it WITH MY BARE HANDS (that are holding the tissue or magazine). I won’t deny that I’m always afraid, in the back of my mind, that it’ll fly at my face, but I’ve come a long way, baby.
7. This will come as a surprise to some of you and not at all to others, but I swear a lot in real life. A LOT. I find that when my computer is being obstinate, nothing makes me feel better than weaving a tapestry of profanity at top volume. Also, if I get excited about a topic, out come the naughty words. I don’t swear here, though, because I’ve always meant this to be a family-friendly site, and if y’all ever see one slip through, I’d appreciate it if you’d alert me!
This list of recipients I’m passing this award, in no particular order, are as follows:
Your Daily Cute. Cute, cute, and did I mention cute? Very irresistibly sweet.
A Cat Called Freya, and Teego too! Freya and Teego and their new brother Chatzi. All three of them, absolutely gorgeous and just as sweet as they can be. Poor Freya, she certainly has to put up with a lot.
Tails from the Foster Kittens. Connie fosters kittens and has six cats of her own, and I always love seeing that she’s updated.
Daisy the Curly Cat. Daisy and Harley are certainly THE most fashionable cats I know, bar none. Not only sweet and sassy, but also very instructive. I particularly like Harley’s “How Does That Work?” series, because I always learn something new!
House of the Discarded. She rescues cats and kittens from a high-kill shelter and gives them a new chance at life. She recently started her own rescue, and she is one amazing woman.
50 Kittens. Probably the foster blog I’ve been reading the longest – I didn’t know there were other foster blogs before I found Ted and Martha! Love ’em.
Moderncat. I call this porn for the cat owner – they showcase the most amazing stuff, pretty much all of it out of my price range entirely, but I love to go and drool over this blog on a daily basis. Irresistibly cool!
These, of course, are not the only blogs I read and love, they’re just an irresistibly sweet sample of the many blogs I read every day. Go give ’em a try and see if you don’t agree.
Cilantro in the cat tree.
Sweet smilin’ Coriander.
“What?”
Coriander and Clove.
Left to right, Cilantro, Coriander, and Clove. They refused to move closer together, the brats.
::thlurrrp::
“WHOA, whoa, wait. Whatchoo MEAN it’s not snack time yet?!”
Coriander. Don’t you want to just kiss her on her little nose? She’d bite your face off, though. Don’t be fooled by the sweet face.
Coriander in motion, and Cilantro’s all “What just happened here?”
Over the weekend, we started giving Maggie and her babies some time to explore. We were worried at first that Maggie would see one of our cats growling or hissing at one of her kittens, and would rip them apart, so we kept a careful eye on her. And it’s been perfectly fine. At one point, Alice did hiss at one of the kittens, and Maggie went over and got in her face, and Alice backed right down. It’s been pretty calm, all in all.
Macushla saw Elwood and went ::FLOOF::
“HI MISTER, WHAT YOU DOIN’?” (Spanky’s sorry he ventured in to see what was going on, that’s for sure.)
One thing I like about having the McMaos in the guest bedroom is that there’s a bed where I can lay down and pet them, and they can climb all over me.
“HI MAMA WHEN YOU COMIN’ DOWN?”
“Not any time soon, child.”
So for the past few days what I do is let them out of the guest bedroom around 9 and let them run and play for a couple of hours. Between 11 and noon, they all tend to naturally wander back to the guest bedroom and curl up to sleep, so I shut the door so they can have some time away from our cats, and vice versa. Then, mid-afternoon, I open the door again, and they run around and play ’til 9:00, when we gather them up, put them back in the guest bedroom, and then shut them in for the night. It’s working out well, so far.
Loony Jake sure does love his Tommy.
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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: Brudderly love.
2008: No entry.
2007: The kittens continue with their skittishness but last night I got Tina Louise to come over and sniff my hand.
2006: No entry.
2005: And then I see Flossie’s worried little face, and I think “She is just unbearably cute. SHE’s my favorite.”