Meet Theodore

We have a new family member to introduce.  This is Theodore.

He’s about five and a half months old.  We got him back in November.

Over the summer, our vet had two litters of stray kittens born under her porch.  The first litter was in the early summer, and the mom disappeared before Dr. D. could catch her.  She showed back up with another litter, which was the one Theodore was part of.

Dr. D. managed to catch the mom when Theodore’s litter was still pretty young.  She has since been spayed, and Dr. D. has kept her. 

Each litter had five kittens, and Dr. D. wasn’t about to drop them off at a shelter during kitten season, or when the local shelters were struggling after Hurricane Helene, so she adopted them out through her office. 

The kittens from the first litter were adopted fairly quickly, but the kittens from Theodore’s litter took a little longer, so Dr. D. agreed that her office would cover their first year of medical care.  That makes it much harder to resist a sweet little kitten! 

I was at the vet with Tara and saw the sign about the medical care and the descriptions of the remaining kittens.  Of course, I asked to meet the orange male.  I had been without an orange kitty for over a year at that point. 

I was a goner as soon as I held Theodore.  He purred and cuddled up to me right away. 

It took a tiny bit longer to convince Nick.  Ultimately, we decided that even though it had been a horrible year, and we were still in the middle of dealing with hurricane damage, Theodore could be the one bright spot in the year. 

Theodore has absolutely been a bright spot.  He’s extremely friendly and outgoing.  He’s positive that anyone coming to the house is here to see him. 

All of the big kitties have warmed up to Theodore to varying degrees.  Charlie and Theodore have become cuddle and nap buddies. 

I’m hoping to get back to a somewhat regular blogging schedule, so there should be a lot more Theodore pictures coming soon.  

Ice Cubes Are Fun

The letter “i” always seems to be one of the harder ones for me during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. 

I was looking through pictures and videos, hoping for inspiration, when I came across this video of baby Caroline playing with an ice cube.  She had so much fun.  With an ice cube of all things.  And she’s so cute about it. 

So for the letter “i” I give you, “Ice Cubes Are Fun.”

If you’re participating in the challenge, which letters are hard for you?  If you’re not participating in the challenge, which letters do you think would be hard for you? 

 

Throw Back Thursday - Frankie’s First Christmas

There’s just something about kittens and Christmas trees.  They don’t seem to be able to resist them. 

We got Frankie the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2009.  We put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving weekend, so he was fairly certain it was a special toy for him.

Fortunately, he was a tiny little guy at the time, and didn’t damage the tree. 

Do you have any kittens climbing your Christmas tree? 

Throw Back Thursday - Baby Frankie

We adopted Frankie when he was a very small kitten, but I didn’t start blogging until he was almost three.  Frankie will be nine later this year, and he’s a big cat now, so it’s kind of fun to look back and see how little he used to be. 

I don’t think I've shared any of Frankie’s kitten pictures here before, so here’s the Baby Frankie Edition of Throw Back Thursday.

He was so little when we first brought him home!

He spent most of his time exploring.  Everything was interesting.

He also spent a lot of time tearing things up.

His busy schedule left him pretty tired sometimes, so there were also lots of naps.

And bedtime with his favorite blanket.

Throw Back Thursday - Baby Howard

Howard is probably our most photogenic cat, and definitely has the best poses.  My phone is filled with pictures of Howard, and most people who visit our house end up taking a few pictures of Howard while they’re here. 

I’ve realized that I very often include a picture of Howard when I don’t have another picture to go with the post.  He’s adorable, and there’s no shortage of good Howard pictures, but I’ve never shared any of his kitten pictures.  Howard is eleven, and I’ve been blogging for six years, so he was all grown up before I started sharing pictures of him here. 
So, for Throw Back Thursday, I give you Howard’s kitten pictures, while I take a little stroll down Memory Lane.

Howard definitely fit a lot more places when I first brought him home from the shelter:

He didn't mind the incredibly small TV in my teeny, tiny studio apartment:

And lastly, one of the very few pictures of Howard being still when he was a kitten.

Have a great Thursday!  The weekend is almost here!

Innocent Bystander

The innocent bystander

A few nights ago we were watching TV in the living room, and we heard a very ominous sounding crash from the bedroom.  We decided to investigate since it sounded like the kind of crash that should really be checked on.  And Caroline wasn’t in the living room, which meant there was about a 99.99 percent chance she was involved in the crash.  Usually when Caroline is involved in something it includes mayhem and destruction. 

We went into the bedroom to find Caroline watching the water from the gigantic water bowl we keep in there gush across the floor.  We didn’t see her do it, but we’re pretty sure she knocked the bowl over while she was running around doing her speed kitty routine. 

The perpetrator 

We cleaned up the water; lots of towels and sopping, and dragging the soaked dog bed to dry out outside.   We also checked to see if Caroline was wet.  Her front paws were a little wet, so we dried them off and went back to watching TV.  We were a little surprised that Caroline had managed to spill that much water and not soak herself, but she seems to very rarely be the victim of her own misdeeds. 

A few minutes later Howard came wandering into the living room, absolutely soaking wet.  The poor little guy was totally soaked.  Our theory is that he was just hanging out in the bedroom when Caroline knocked over the water, and happened to be close enough to the bowl to get doused.  He probably ran, not wanting to get any wetter, so we didn’t see him while we were cleaning up the mess.

We dried Howard off and gave him some treats to make up for him being the innocent victim of Caroline’s antics.  Howard loves treats, so he seemed pretty happy with how it all worked out.