Wet

For those of you who are used to having winter “weather”, you know, something other than 70F during the day and 50F at night, with sky conditions either ‘sunny’ or ‘hazy’… just keep on browsing. This won’t interest you at all. Desert area expat types.., you can keep reading. This is pretty wow! stuff for us.

The forecast for this whole week is rain. It started with great enthusiasm last night. Thunder and lightning and windows slamming in the gusty winds. Kids never stirred though, they were tired for some reason?!

It was raining when the kids went to school this morning, and it rained off and on throughout the day. In the afternoon, when I went out to meet the school bus, it started raining again… hard… with thunder and lightning, and BB pellet-sized hail! Good thing I have a porch with an overhang and a giant umbrella. I knew the rain and hail would not show on my camera, but I had to capture a bit of this storm anyway. I miss thunder, and it was so nice to hear the rumbling booms rolling through the hills.

 

After the kids got home, we had to head right back out again. I took Pumpkin to the vet today to get him neutered (we have enough kittens!) and we had to go and bring our poor little guy home. We drove out to the vet’s office – maybe 4 miles away – and on the way, the sky opened up yet again. More fireworks in the sky, and rain by the buckets. Hail too. We ended up sitting parked in the car outside the vet for about 15 minutes, waiting for a break in the storm before making a dash for the entry. It was too much! As it was, although I got the kids out of the truck, mostly dry, on the sidewalk, I stepped out of my door into ankle deep rushing water… not in a gutter or ditch… but the middle of the road, which had turned into a creek. We were in an area about half-way down a hill, and I had to wade through everything coming off that hill, on its way out to the main road. Oh, and no, I couldn’t park elsewhere… the entire street was ‘creek’.

Again… grainy video, sorry. We were impressed with all the hail. The big bits were bouncing off, but the smaller ice chunks were rolling down the windshield. Another reason we decided to sit in the truck for a bit and hope for a break… it looked sorta painful out there!

 

After we got our kitten, we headed out, set sail?, toward the main road. That downhill main road, where the ‘creek’ we were driving on emptied out. What a mess! Water was pouring down the outlet road so fast that waves were splashing up into the air, quite merrily actually, over all the bumps and debris in the road. It was like tubing down rapids, except we were in a truck, and rather than sliding into a bubbling river, we landed in snarled rush hour traffic… but anyway… 

On the main road, cars were flooding and stalling. Amazingly enough, there was a huge puddle (small pond?) formed about half way UP an overpass that was claiming car after car. Fortunately, I did not have to go that way! I was able to drive around and under that hazard, but my path was also underwater, getting deeper by the minute (the extra water from the upper pond was pouring over), and drowned cars were starting to wash up on the shores (aka ‘sidewalks’).

How’s this for a desert road? The water was about 4-5 inches deep on the left side, less on the right - but I was passing stalled cars so I was swimming in the deep end here – and it was pretty cool to watch the waves formed by the cars ahead of me as they spread out from the car tires, tsunami’ed across the road to the sidewalks, then ricochet-sploshed back again. It’s been along time since I last drove on roads wet like this.

Yes, I did take my mobile out and yes I did snap a photo while driving, but I was going very slow… I was waiting to make sure the cars in front of me did not stop in water that I did not want to stop in! Best to let the ones in front go first, get out of the way, then go through without pausing in the deep stuff.

Anyway – here is the reason for our very soggy outing.

Poor drugged up, upset tummy, unsteady on his feet, formerly male, baby. Shortly after this photo was taken, he peed all over me. Poor guy was passed out and couldn’t walk to make it to the litter box. I had tried to lay him down on a bed of towels, to sleep it off, but everywhere I went, poor little guy would drag himself after me. Sometimes you just need your momma. Ah well, after hiking through ankle-deep street run-off, I needed to wash my jeans anyway!

So, anyway…

I have more recipes to post, but I don’t feel like it now, maybe later. Right now, I am annoyed. Just found out that our household goods are STILL sitting back in the US. This smacks of yet another example of not bothering to follow-through on paperwork or a phone call. (update: I guessed it was something about being slightly over our weight allowance and someone needed a 'go ahead, we know, ship it anyway'... duh!... notification - I was dead on.) Seriously. We’ve done what we are supposed to do, is it really too much to ask that others do their jobs – in a timely fashion – without our having to dance on desks every day? Looks like I will be going out to buy a Christmas tree. We own a nice artificial tree – which I prefer over killing trees – but obviously, an 8ft tree is not something we carried in our suitcases! At least I have seen artificial trees for sale in numerous stores around town. I hate this sort of incompetence. Honestly, we can make do when we have to make do… and I actually have no problem doing so, when there is good reason, but this is getting stupid. I’ll try to put a positive spin on it for the kids. We’ll have a second tree. We can make our decorations from paper and salt dough (I do not need to get more!), etc. But it’s a good thing they’re at school because I do NOT feel like being positive about it at this very moment!
So, anyway…
What else have we been up to? We had a long 5-day break. Thanksgiving holiday on one side of the weekend and Eid al-‘Adha on the other. We relaxed. We watched movies. We had friends over and baked cookies and bread. We had tons of great family time with gaming and crafting. Brian is working on his project at school and so he and I had a blast making all sorts of quick-dry modeling clay figures for the book he is reading, “James and the Giant Peach”. Honor and Brian also made a box into a kitty fort.
I had Brad help me move some furniture around too, and merely switching around the formal dining table and the living room set in our big front room has made that area 10 times more inviting for the whole family. The dining table had been in the more dim corner, and by moving it in front of the big window, under a bright light, opened it up for use as a crafting place, a reading and homework spot, and yes, even nicer for meals. The sofas arranged in the corner where the table had been, with the entertainment center, etc. is now a cozy book-nook and play area – and when (IF!) we ever get our household goods, it will be a great place to have our TV, wii, stereo, etc. 
We took the kittens to the vet for their booster shots and de-worming yesterday. Their little personalities are getting so predictable. Pumpkin George saw us take out the box we use to carry them and went back to sleep. Ninja Cat decided to ignore the threat and had dinner. Princess Pixie, who is the most clever – immediately departed the room and had to be fished out from under the bed! She’s no dummy. She’s also the one that was the most difficult to dose with the deworming medicine – she spit it out repeatedly, despite the vet’s use of a tool that plopped the pill halfway down her throat! Pumpkin swallowed his before he knew what was happening, and Ninja had quite a few unladylike things to say about the whole deal.
They really are sweet kittens and are getting very attached to everyone in the family. There are a few examples of favoritism – such as Pumpkin likes to sit with Brad, but sleep in Honor’s room, and Ninja is my lapcat, but often sleeps in Brian’s room. Pixie is an equal opportunity shoulder cat, but she sleeps with mom and dad. We named them well too.
Pumpkin, who has earned the middle name George, is still the big, sweet, roly—poly ball of fluff – just, well, bigger, and his legs are getting longer too, so I guess he’s less of a ball. He’s going to be a big guy. He can be trouble – he’s always instigating wrestle time with his siblings and tipping over glasses because our drinks are obviously much better than cat water. He gets inside the seat covers in order to conduct stealth attacks on anyone attempting to use the furniture. But as big and tough as he pretends to be, he’s such a sweet little angel. He’s got the biggest purr and tiniest meow. He loves to be picked up and snuggled… and is too cute to be denied when he begs for said snuggling.
Ninja is still the tiniest, and definitely looks most like a baby. She’s now, as she often is, on my lap being a momma’s girl. She’s laying on her back, curled in a ball with toes up, chewing on the end of her tail. Big baby-doll eyes, looking so innocent! But she’s the mightiest of hunters – and the reason I cannot leave hotpads, or towels out in the kitchen. She often finds lost toys for the kids, like marbles or little stuffed animals – although I suspect she is often why they get lost in the first place. The buttons on our clothes are not safe – she can tell which ones are evil and must die and makes it her mission to make them dead. Today, as I walked toward the pile of laundry on my bed to do a little putting away, Ninja ran from the other side of the room, up onto the bed, and when I was about 4 feet away, she ran and leapt at me – not to be caught, no, but to bounce off my stomach and back to the bed! Oddly enough, although I haven’t seen this particular move before, I wasn’t too surprised – it was a typical Ninja assault. She’s always training.
And Princess Pixie. She is the littlest human in the family. She believes she should be able to do all that we do, and so we have to watch her when we open doors and things – she was refrigerated this morning. Fortunately, she is loud and regally demanding so we found her fast. If I put the cats’ food down at the same time I am serving our dinner, she will be the last at the bowl because she always attempts to get a plate of people food instead of her food – even though we’ve never given her her own plate. Obviously we are mistaken and will eventually figure it out. She has only recently started heading to bed at the same time I go, and happily tucks me in so she can sleep on my pillow. She’s also starting to figure out my morning routine. Instead of waking up and just playing like she usually does with her sibs, this morning, after giving me hundreds of good morning kisses, she excitedly led the way from our room, to each of the kids’ rooms, so we could wake them up for school. She was prancing along in front of me, so proud that she knew what we were supposed to do on a school day (wish I’d had the video camera, but that would have involved my being more awake…)
So, anyway…
I guess these cats have earned their pay/upkeep. I sat down here mad, annoyed, ticked off etc. … the kittens hopped up and liberally applied purrs, cuddles, distractions, and kisses. I am all better now.

Kittens in my kitchen

We weren't going to bring these guys in. Not yet. But we'd been watching the kittens, and for some reason, the momma cat wasn't coming around. When she finally did, she didn't feed them - and they were yowling and obviously hungry! When she quickly left again, the kittens started trying to climb up the high wall after her, which was scary enough, but then they started eyeballing the ledge, with the obvious intent to commit bodily harm, all over their little fuzzy faces. I called Brad at work and told him I was worried about them. He picked up some food and litter on the way home, and we went out together to see what was up.

The kittens, by this time, had wised up and not jumped out, but momma had not come back to feed them and they were sad kitties. We'd have known if she had come in. We were making sure no-one leapt out, and the window was open. The mere sight of momma always set the kittens to mewling loudly! They were snoozing in the plants, but curious when they saw Brad. One even approached Brad. I brought out a small saucer of squished up canned food, and apparently, their hunger was more powerful than their fear of us. We decided to go ahead and bring them in. We only want two of them... it is difficult to travel with pets.. but we didn't want to leave one. Feral kittens don't have a good life. Best we try to get it a home. We had said we'd wait to this weekend, no matter what - that if these guys were gone by then, then we'd go to a shelter. But we like these kittens! Earlier, when Brian and I had been watching the kittens as they contemplated leaping to their doom after momma cat, we decided that we really didn't want to take chances!

We weren't fully prepared, but we had a plastic container to contain them. Extra beach towels for cushion. A shallow box for the litter. And, most importantly, FOOD! They chowed down a whole envelope of soft food.

The kids were thrilled, and wanted to be able to hold and pet them, but they understand the need to move slowly. After our dinner, and after the kids went to bed, we gently let the kittens out to explore. They were very scared, but we gave them a little bit more food, and some peace. They quickly found a little fort under our counter, and spent some time under there, getting used to sights and sounds. At bedtime, Brad scooped them up and put them in the box. That's when they started mewing at us! Come back! Fortunately they calmed down and slept.

Kittens in the kitten corner:

... and to think that most people would waste this spot on a dishwasher?!

By morning, they were hungry enough for more food, and because they'd made a mess of things in the box, I let them out. They immediately went under the counter again - until time to eat - they are so messy that I have to feed them a spoon at a time or they'd end up wearing more than they'd get in their tummies! We decided to let them stay out as they had showed they could use their litter box well, but it was good that they stayed hidden as we got ready and did not get underfoot, yet.. The guys left for work and school. Honor was still asleep, another day home sick, although mostly recovered (finally), so I spent some quiet time alone, on the floor, talking to them and watching them play. They were curious, but kept their distance. The kids donated some little toys and the kittens appreciate it. Here's Ninja Cat practicing her attack skills - looks like we'll be ok if we're ever invaded by giant plastic spiders.

They play together - a lot! - and even toilet time can be a team sport. The big fuzzy guy was assaulted while using the box by a sibling who decided that chewing on his ear (or something) might be entertaining. Well, this turned into a 'poo incident' - a term that I do not have to describe to any parent, but for non-parents... let's just say this is not something a kitten could clean up by himself. He was highly decorated. Even though he was scared of me, I put some warm water in the sink, and gave him a very quick bath. He ran and hid as soon as I put him down, but amazingly enough, I was able to coax him out. I had a damp paper towel and started dabbing his fur like momma cat would wash him... and he loved it! Soon enough he was on my lap trying to climb up and rub his head on my chin. Even more amazing, the whitish cat decided her brother should not get all the love, and she climbed on my lap for a bath and snuggles too. The third cat was too scared. After that, we were buddies. And that rule about not having the kids handle the cats... yea... we forgot to tell the cats! By last night, all of the cats were playing with toys, and the two brave ones would climb on anyone sitting on the floor.

The two brave cats are incredibly sunngly too. They play, eat, bathe, play some more, then snuggle. Here's a photo of the pale girl having a wash on my lap, while her brother, who had been running around like crazy, decided to stop - half on, half off my leg - and fall asleep with his head in my hand.


This morning, we fed the kitties and sat with them more. They are so much fun to watch. Eventually they tired out. I caught the scaredy cat to wash off some food - like it or not - and she wasn't too traumatized. When the two brave ones lay down on my lap to rest, the little one lay down on a towel next to Honor. Honor started petting her, and she tolerated it. After a few minutes, play time started up again, and I became an obstacle course. Slightly painful to have kittens run up and down my leg! I was sitting on the floor with my legs stretched out and I only had thin pj's on (I'm definitely changing into jeans!) but I let them romp and torture me because this was the first time that the little scaredy cat wanted any human contact (not behavior I'll encourage in future though!). Soon enough she even came up for snuggles and cuddles, and when the whitish cat decided to attack my foot, the little one defended me and kept knocking her off. We're calling her 'Ninja cat' now.

We haven't named the cats officially yet. We called them Rosy, Posie and Thorn when they were still plants. Now that they are 'picked' and are housecats, we're trying to figure out who they are and what their official names will be. The whitish, pinkish, grey cat... not sure what color to say. She's the color of cinnamon sugar.... we've been calling Spooky, for her color and the season. But it doesn't fit her. She is the smartest and sweetest, so we'll see... The big fuzzy guy we've been calling Pumpkin because he's orange and roly-poly. But I'm thinking we ought to call him Hellboy, because he's the wild child of the bunch. He's the bravest and snuggliest, and the first one into trouble! Then of course, little Ninja cat. She's the most cautious and wary, but she's also a fighter and very adventurous. We're still deciding. I'd have posted a couple videos, but our upload speed is complete garbage right now. Maybe soon!

We took them to the vet today, the Vet Zone, and they were prescribed eye drops, given flea spray and collars, and had their nails nipped. They'll get their shots next week. The vet seemed to think they were healthy looking, and he guessed that they were about 6 or 7 weeks old. The kittens were a bit nervous when we opened their box, but the vet poured in some free sample kibble and it was pure kitten crack... good stuff! Yes, we bought some on the way out. Better for them anyway as all we've had to give them was adult food. We also picked up some jingle balls and a brush. They had some complaining to do when we got home, but are doing fine now. They got tons of pets, two curled up in their nest under the counter, and Pumpkin is asleep on Honor's lap on the couch.