LostWoods Blog

As I said a year ago when I started this blog, from time to time I’ll write about things that don’t have anything to do with cats. This is one of those times.

I am a Christian — some of you may know that already, or have guessed it. No secret, but I don’t go around beating people over the head with “religion” either. I’d much rather live what I believe and bear witness that way than become a street corner preacher.

I have a necklace with three “charms” on it that I wear almost all the time. Each is a reminder of the “things” that are most important to me in life. One is an amber heart — the first gift my husband ever gave me and a symbol to me of my friends and family - the people I love. The next charm is a gold coin from the Isle of Man with a Norwegian Forest Cat on it encircled by a gold, heart-shaped coin holder – obviously a symbol of my furry loves. And the third and most important charm is a gold cross — a symbol of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So… the other day I was in WalMart getting some groceries and stuff when I stopped by the book section to look for a new book or two to read. Why, I have no idea, as I have several sitting here at home begging to be read. But one can never have too many books! I picked up a book to read the back cover and as I put it back, another book fell on the floor at my feet. I glanced at the cover as I picked it up — not nice to leave things lying in the aisles! — and thought, “you ought to see what it’s about — broaden your horizons.” (Yeah, I get in a reading rut sometimes. Romances, Sci-fi, the occasional mystery…) It sounded pretty good and I brought it home. I started reading it Sunday morning and could not put it down.

The book is “The Shack” by William P Young. It is fiction — a story of a man whose youngest daughter is kidnapped and murdered. Yeah, that sounds uplifting, doesn’t it? But more than being a story of tragedy and loss, it is a story of hope and forgiveness. It is a story about faith and trust. And most of all, it’s a story about love and relationship. It is probably the most sensible and LOVING description of God’s desire for a relationship with each of us that I have ever read. I cried again and again, and ended up hoping that some of the lessons were sinking in so I could live my life more in communion with “Papa” (the name Mack’s wife calls God) and with much less worry about the stresses of the world around me.

I will be buying a few extra copies of “The Shack” to give away. I can’t give away my own - I know I’ll be rereading it. It wasn’t very expensive — only about $10 at WalMart — and one of the best uses of $10 I’ve made.

Anyway, if this sounds like something you might like to know more about, you can get more information at www.theshackbook.com

Tomorrow I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled cat programming. God bless!

http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215475508

More later — but it will be non-cat related.

It was a very busy weekend but I did find time to update the website with the pictures of the Warrior Cats that Sondra sent Friday evening and with the one week photos of the Melons I took yesterday afternoon. Sondra’s site (Rockatts) is also updated with the photos of the F-Litter and the Warrior Cats.

As you’ll see in the Melons’ pictures, all of their eyes are opening. Actually, Honeydew’s eyes started opening on the first day and were pretty much completely open by day five. Galia’s were about a day behind Honey’s and are also wide open. I might also note that Honey & Galia are the biggest of the litter and weigh nearly 9 oz this morning. Girls rule! LOL! But everyone is doing well, gaining weight, wiggling around the closet. Yes, I said closet. Kali has finally seen the light and has allowed the kittens to remain in the closet for three days without moving them. The last time they were under the bed was Friday afternoon. All is well in the melon patch.

Something fun for the day — if you like trivia. I get an email every Monday through Friday with a fun trivia quiz in it. Ten quick questions that are usually pretty easy, but I do learn things from it. Just for fun. If you want to play, click on this link: http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215389111 then play. I don’t know if you have to create a login to play. If you want to save your scores, I think you do have to have a free account. Anyway, if anyone wants to play each day, I’ll try to make a habit of posting the link in the blog. Hey! That’s a way to get me to post every day. Well at least M-F. Off to work now.

No new pictures of the Warrior Cats yet. Sondra was in Nebraska until last night and had a lot of catching up to do today. You know how it is when you’ve been away for nearly a week. She says she’ll try to get the pictures done tomorrow, despite the holiday. If so, I’ll get them posted if I have time. We are having friends over in the afternoon and evening — and of course, I have to clean like a mad woman in the morning, plus buy all the groceries for the festivities.

The Melons are thriving. Honey is the biggest of the litter right now, despite being the smallest at birth. She apparently has found the best spot at the milk bar. Kali is allowing the kittens to stay in the closet part of the time. Then she changes her mind and back under the bed they go. But I’ve decided I won’t win the war without moving the bed out of the room, so as long as the babies are doing well, I’ll live with having to wiggle under the bed to retrieve kittens for their daily weigh in.

Oh, a fun thing before I call it a night. Check out www.mybadkitties.com. Probably 18 or more years ago my sister-in-law Susie gave me a poster of the “Bad Kitties”. I loved it ’cause it made me laugh. After a number of moves from apartment to house to townhome to house the poster either disappeared or got so shabby I threw it out. But I always remembered it. While in Chehalis at the cat show one of the vendors had a couple of the Bad Kitties t-shirts, but she didn’t have the one I wanted in my size. So I went on a quest to find them online and found the artist’s website. There are a bunch of different drawings — all hilarious, if you ask me! Brenda and I have ordered some and will be showing them off at upcoming cat shows.

And in case I don’t write tomorrow –

Happy Independence Day!

No, it’s not anything scary under the bed — unless you upset Kali — then she can be a little scary. At least to the other cats. She’s extremely protective of the kittens. And her kittens are under the bed.

Yesterday evening when I get home from work I moved the kittens back to a different part of the closet instead of caging them with their mother in a kennel. The idea was that Kali would have a little more room to stretch out and it’s further from the door, so more private. My plan seemed to be working. Kali left them there and they were all piled up in a sleepy, contented pile when I went to bed about 10. Kali was out patroling around the bedroom, inspecting for enemies.  All was well.

This morning the kittens were back under the bed. I stretched out on my belly and reached under the bed to retrieve them for their morning weigh in. (One definite problem with this is that I end up at work with even more cat hair on me than usual — my front covered from neck to ankles with cat fur.) I weighed them all and put them back in the closet. I’m fairly certain they won’t be there when I get home. So much for my idea of moving them to a “better” part of the closet. At least the bedroom isn’t chilly and the floor is carpeted. So it should be warm enough for them wherever they are. I just don’t like taking chances with the babies health and safety. This evening I’ll try out something Betty suggested. (Thanks, Betty!) 

As for their weights, everyone except Pepino is over 5 oz now. Everyone, including Pepino, had nice gains today — all about .5 - .7 ounces. In between being carried around they must be eating well.

Other stuff… Taiba did just fine with the spay surgery Friday. She spent the night and I picked her up Saturday morning. All day Saturday she avoided me, taking off if she saw me heading her way. Poor thing was probably worried I’d scoop her up and take her to have something else terrible done. But by Saturday night she was sleeping on the bed with us. She’s healing quickly and acting like her usual energetic self.  

And last, my daughter sent me a link to a cat game show which a friend sent to her. So if any of you want to be on tv and maybe win a million dollars, load up your cat and head off to an audition near you.

http://www.meowmix.com/think_like_cat/theGames.htm

All the information about the audition process is in the Terms and Conditions. Good luck!