OK, so not quite...

Well, I guess Dad's not quite pastor. There's going to be a vote in two weeks, and I will definitely update then.

It is time...

I haven't posted for almost a month now. I couldn't post because the things I needed to post were too hard to post until now. Other things have been going on, too, so this post is going to be a HUGE update of many important things, yay! First of all, on Sunday the 16th of September, Patteron DeBack died. She had been sick the few days before. On Sunday I came home from church and found her stiff and cold. Sunday was very, very hard for me. I carved her name on a block of wood and put it by her grave. That weekend we went camping (I'll give the details in the next paragraph or something). We left Silver and all the babies, since they could get out of their box by then, in my bedroom with the door shut. We put a huge bowl of water and a huge bowl of food in her room. When I finally returned on Sunday afternoon/evening I found that Silver had not touched her food or water at all and was stiff and lethargic. I tried to get her to eat, but she would absolutely not eat. Mom finally saw how bad she was, and we rushed her over to Judy's house. (Judy is a friend of ours who's a vet technician) She said that Silver was extremely dehydrated and rushed Silver and I to the clinic where she and I drew blood and poked an IV in Silver. That night she spent the night with me so I could monitor her IV. It would beep every now and then in the night and I had to readjust the tube a little bit. In the morning Judy took her back to the clinic where she stayed until Friday. Meanwhile, we had 3 sick kittens to take care of at home, and my school started that Monday. Flazer seemed to be doing the best and was more active than the other two kittens. After having them all in boxes, we decided to move them to the bathtub, which is still working great! Wednesday morning when I woke up around 6 am, Mom and Dad told me Flazer was not doing well at all. Sure enough, he was dead by the time I arrived. That was very hard, too, since Pat and Flazer were pretty much my favorites. But there was no time to grieve because I had to go to school. All this time they could not get Silver to eat. By Friday, the last option was to put a feeding tube down her nose and into her stomach. However, the vet said she wasn't quite in a good enough condition to do so. She had been throwing up, and if she threw up with a feeding tube, it would come out as well. It was time to put her down. My Silver baby! That day was very hard, too. We went to the clinic to say goodbye. Judy got a piece of clay and made Silver's paw print in it. At home I wrote her name, a heart, and the dates on that piece of clay and baked it.

♥ Silver,
8/19/06 - 9/28/07

Turned out, there was absolutely nothing we could have done to save her. Her pancreas had swollen to four times the normal size and had cut off the organs around it. Her intestines in particular (gross but true) were literally dead.

Now I know why God gave me kittens that we didn't originally want to have, and why Pat and Flazer died (I'm sure their deaths prepared and brased me for Silver's). And I know that He gave us Siren and Catapultanian so we can still have a cat. We're going to keep one of them. Thank you God for all the fun we had with all these kitties, even if it was for a very short time. God also provided a distraction on our way home from the clinic. My oldest sister called just as we had left the clinic and we chatted for like an hour, which is plenty of time to get home. Angie, my other sister, knew already because Dad had told her when we borrowed her car (more about broken cars later) and had called Laura, my oldest sister, and told her about Silver. However, the timing of Laura's call, I think, was from God. It could not have been planned. I'm looking forward to seeing more clearly and seeing the reason for all this. For now, I get to take care of our two remaining kittens.

The other things that happened in the past weeks are not quite so traumatic. On our way to the camp ground (I was driving, by the way, and it kinda freaked me out) our car overheated in the stop and go traffic entering the freeway. By the time we were able to pull over, we could see the steam coming out of the hood! We sat between two merging lanes at the entrance to the freeway for what seemed like hours. We left the house at 2:30 that day, and arrived at the campground while it was getting dark! Yeah, I suppose we sat around for an hour or so. Camping was great fun, though! I hiked, sailed, kiyacked, roasted marshmallows, and had a blast! I loooooove the woods! On the way back, the same car once again broke down. However, this time I was driving Angie instead of Mom, and it didn't overheat. Actually I don't have a clue WHAT happened. All of a sudden, the gas quit working, and no pushing on the gas petal would accelerate the car whatsoever. By the time we got to a place to pull over, the engine had died, and with power steering, it was very difficult to steer. We tried to start the motor, but nothing would start. Angie and I waited around over a half an hour before Jon and Jim came to the rescue. On my arrival home, I found Silver...
Monday the next day, I started school. It's been fun at school! Yay! I got a new backpack! I'm so exited about it! Ha! I've never needed a backpack until now, so it's an accessory that I've never really had the chance to have. Well, actually, I do have another backpack, but it's Whinnie the Pooh (which I don't really have a problem with) but it's also old, the colors are not what they were originally meant to be, and the peanut I ate from the bottom of it that the previous owner (I got it at a garage sale) had left behind tasted like the backpack. It was gross! And the backpack is small. This new one rolls along like a suitcase if I want, or it can sit on my back! And it's my favorite color - Red!
Speaking of broken cars, Mom and I drove the blue van to school on Friday because nothing else would work lol! and it broke down while we were on our way to the clinic to see Silver for the last time. We ended up borrowing Angie's car. But now we have functional cars, and soon more will be functional. Yay! Can't wait to get my own broken car! Woooot!

Oh, and my birthday's this Thursday. :D

Bedroom Makeover!

On Thursday this week, I took Silver to the vet to get her spayed... again! And they also gave her some medicine to kill all the fleas. The medicine seems to have worked, for the kitten's box is now full of dead fleas! It's gross, but it's definitely better to see dead fleas than live ones. I've heard of pets that have gotten fleas maybe once in their whole lives, but I suppose Silver is mighty tastey to the little bugs. I'd better change the subject before I give myself the heeby jeebies talking about bugs! The kittens are so cute! They all have open eyeballs now. We've recently noticed that Patteron DeBak is quite a bit fluffier than the rest of the kittens. It's not obvious, and we had to look at her face and tail to see the difference. She is sooo cute! She will probably win the cute contest later in her life, and any buyers (which sounds weird because we'll be giving them away for free) who are looking for a cutie will probably pick her first. They are all now just about halfway from the brand new kitten stage to the curious kitten with the tail straight up, big eyes, big ears, and pouncing all over the place stage. How fun it will be! Their legs are stronger now. They no longer have to scoot themselves accross the floor, but their legs will get stronger. They still are not standing up all the way. They still squeal when I pick them up. They're also a bit bigger. Not much else has changed, though.

While Silver was at the vet on Thursday (we picked her up that afternoon/evening), all day yesterday, and today, I worked on my bedroom! Woa, it's a huge job! I cleaned out like ALL my stuff!! Though I didn't go through my clothing, but that can wait a little bit at least. I have 3 dressers, one for toys (especially in my toy playing days), one for clothing (and one drawer has all my computer games... trust me, it's a lot), and my art desk. All three were full, until now. I emptied two drawers in my toy dresser... one had barbies, and one was the second drawer of horses. Haha! I have so many horses! The barbies are now tucked away in a box in a closet somewhere, ready to wait forever. The horses, even the ones on the 3 level shelf on top, are now split into a drawer, a bin for storage, and just a few on display on another shelf. I can't put them all away yet, though, because I still play with them with my cousins ect. The shelf that was full of horses now has little treasures on there and some art. The few best horses like the horse statues are now on the shelf on the other side of the room, and under them I have put art supplies like paper because that's right by the art desk. The art desk just took some organizing and tossing!!! And some things from it I'm going to give away. Voilla! Only one shelf in use! Well, actually two now, but one is almost empty and I could move the stuff in it somewhere else at any time! Those drawers are perfect for school that's coming up! I'm going to try my best to keep them empty. One drawer from the toy dresser is now used for childrens' ministry stuff. Yay! I now have a place to put some of it! My puppets don't all fit in there, and are still in the closet, but my costume stuff, or what collection of costume stuff I have, is in there. I even cleaned out my closet!!!! Wow! That thing was stuffed FULL of stufffff! I got rid of a lot of stuff, moved some out of my room, organized a little bit, and now I can actually reach some of the clothing in there from the left side instead of the hard-to-reach right side! I'm so exited!

On top of alllll this, I just returned from the store where I got some red sheets, red fluffy and textured pillows, red pillow cases, white fluffy accent rug, and a cute flowery lamp!!! (all this for a budget even I can afford, and without being too pink or over-the-top girly! Now all I need is some red curtains to go with the red bed, and voilla! a red room! I'm also dreaming of getting a red area rug. It would be so cute with a red area rug with the white fuzzy thing on top! Ah, well, perhaps later I can. It looks great, though! Oh, and I also cleared out my computer and clutter that was on top of surfaces like the art desk, the clothing dresser, and the piano!!! That's a HUGE improvement! Well, that's my bedroom makeover. Boy, it would be nice if I could force myself to keep it this clean! :P

Wooot

The kittens have now opened their eyes!!! They're so cute with little eyes and little ears!!! And they can purr already! Well, actually they've always been able to purr. They purr quietly, though, so I have to put my head really close to them to hear it. They mostly purr when they're nursing. And they wiggle their little ears while nursing, too. It's so funny. Back to the eyes... Flazer's eyes were the first to open all the way. Catapultanian and Siren opened their eyes all the way or at least most of the way by now, but Patteron DeBack only has one eye open all the way. The other eye is still mostly shut, and that plus her strange fluff pattern in her hair that looks slightly like a mohawk makes her the most interesting little girl I've ever seen! Ha! She's still cute, none the less. They all are, actually. They still squeal when I pick them up. But as long as their feet are on something like my hand, they stick to mumbling or grunting and mewing. When they squeal, though, mamma comes runnnin! It's so cute! She does a good job of taking care of them, though she mostly only hangs out to nurse them then change their diaper so to speak. Hmm, I'm very close to the overshare line... I should change the subject.

Here's something I wrote like when I was um... not sure exactly. Perhaps I was even nine years old when I wrote it, but like I said, I'm not sure.

Full as full can be

There are four types of fullnesses. The first of which is full as full can be. If you eat until your stomach says "Stop!," you are full as full as full as full can be. I just ate two bowls of cereal which makes me full as full as full can be. The next is when your dinner is something that you don't like as much. You end up not as full as full can be. Not as full as full can be is called not as full as full can be or less full as full as full can be. I am not less full as full as full can be. If I were less full as full as full can be, I would have eaten one bowl of cereal to be less full as full as full can be. The next, full as full can be only more, comes only in one circumstance; after eating Macaroni and Cheese. It is officially called fuller than full as full can be. Fuller than full as full can be comes with a price: pain. Luckily, I am not fuller than full as full can be, less full as full as full can be, or the last: empty. Empty can't be explained, especially not by full as full can be (give or take a few words), because nothing is there. That is the worst level of full as full can be (not that it is a level of full as full can be), but it is eaziest to fix: by making yourself full as full can be. Thanks for reading and happy fulling yourself!! ;-)

The End

More kitten update

Can you tell by now I like my cat and her kittens??? They're so cute! I can totally hold one in my hand! By now they can yawn and stretch their little paws! Their paws are only the width of my pinky, but already they can stretch their toes out! They tend to clamber all over each other and stay in a little clump of fur when mom's not around. When they realize she's not there, they go to sleep. They can even fight eachother a little bit!

Mamma Baby lets me hold them, too, because she has incredible trust in me. They scream for a second when I pick them up, then they sniff around trying to find someone familiar like their siblings or their mamma and keep sniffing back and forth until I put them down. They don't wander around very much. Their bed is about a foot by two feet, and they've stayed in that general location all their lives so far, except when I pick them up.

I can't wait until they grow into the little curious critters with big eyes and tails straight up! It'll be so fun to have 4 little kittens chasing a string together! Maybe even mamma will play a bit, too! She's not playful now, though. Four kittens to take care of is a lot of work!

We still haven't gotten batteries for the camera. I do have pictures of the kittens, though, but they're on my phone and I can't figure out how to get them to the computer.

It's official!!!

The names of the kittens are now official!
In order from oldest to youngest:

Catapultanian - boy - grey tabby with white underbelly and neck
Flazer - boy - grey/gold tabby
Patteron DeBak - girl - dark grey
Siren - boy - black with white underbelly

Catapultanian has always been more outgoing, mobile, and talkative than the rest.
Too young to tell what character traits the rest have that will make them distinct. But I'll know eventually since I'll have them living with me until November.

Kittens Names...

Woohoo!!! I gotta name the kittens! But what??? The naming of cats is a difficult matter... Ooops, I gotta be careful lest I steal some words that someone else has said.

The Naming of Cats

~~T. S. Eliot~~

The Naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Johnathan, George or Bill Bailey -
All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

So, without further adoo, here are the names I've created that run along the lines of that poem:
(Anyone feel free to use these names on other cats and dogs)
Short (Long)

Herbie (Herbazina of Nascar) or (male: Herbazino...)
Zip (Zip Zip du Outer Space)
Flazer (Flying around and Flashing his Light Saber)
Heliopatter
JubJub (Jub Jub Descrumptinano)
Kam (Kampetuous Neliance)
Forelumpaheado
Catapultanian
Tweezerpie
Pat (Patteron DeBack) or (male: Pattimon DeBack)
Sticker (Stickertape Fusion)


But after contemplating which names of this list to name them, I came up with some favorites:

Catapultanian
Flazer
Patteron DeBack
Siren

And I have decided what to name them, though it is more like a complicated system of what gender they all are. The oldest boy is Catapultanian. I think it's the oldest kitten -the grey and white one- that's the oldest boy. The youngest -the black and white one- whether boy or girl is siren. For the middle two, it depends, and It'll be a while to know which one is Flazer, and which is Pat. And these names are only until we find new owners for them and they name them something else. Though, if the owners would like to keep the names, that's great, too. :)

The naming of cats...