Meet Bizbee- the new kitten...

 This little kitten was the sole survivor of  a litter thrown from a car.  He's just adorable and we waited a week after meeting him, in hopes that someone else would adopt him, but no one did so we went back to the vet's office to get him. He may end up with a shorter leg due to an injury from the car toss, but right now he seems fine and is VERY active, a busy bee, hence the name Bizbee. 

He's very bright and seems to learn something new every hour, like most kittens, I guess.  Our other cats are just starting to get used to the fact that there is an alien in their midst, but these things take time and we prefer to do it slowly.  Right now, the master bathroom is his main room, and he's allowed the run of the office/bathroom, too, so he can really stretch his legs.  He's not allowed any alone time with any of the pets at this time, because he's SO little- when he steps on the bathroom scale, it says "2".  lol  Beez has killed rats bigger than Bizbee! 

He loves to sleep in the top level of the scratching post in our bathroom.  When he lies flat, you can't even tell he's up there. 

 He's so little, his eyes look huge.

 When he finally conks out, he likes a cuddle, either in my lap or on my chest, in the crook of my arm.  It's so sweet, my heart melts.  My arm breaks, but my heart melts.  LOL

 Today he figured out how to get onto the window sill.  First he starts from a small cardboard box up into a rocking chair, then onto the sill.  When he fell off, he went right back to the box to start over, smart boy!

 He loves when Daddy plays with him, that ball can go fast!  And it took 3 days for him to stop being scared of the crinkly tube, but now he's zipping thru it like a champ!

I think his mother must have been a black cat, because Bizbee gets really excited when he sees Sammie, our black cat.  He goes right for Sammie's tummy, which scares our Sammie to death, but he's being really good about the baby.  Sammie always likes the new kids, because he's always looking for a friend, the 2 oldest cats don't like him (or anybody else) and Sammie takes it personally. 

So there you have it- another new addition to our menagerie.  Believe me, we had no intention of adding to the numbers around here, but sometimes stuff happens and you just have to deal with it.  Hopefully he'll fit right in and the others will accept him and all will be right at the zoo.  :) 

Timmmmmberrrrrrrrr! And some bitties, of course!

 We've been having some timber taken off our property and as kind of a favor, they agreed to take an old, messy sycamore down that was too big for my husband to handle alone.  If it fell the wrong way, it could damage our fence so we left it in their capable hands.  Ahem. 

 Click on this 3rd photo for a close-up.  LOL  Poor wood pile!  It could have been worse, but I know they were embarrassed because I picked THIS tree to photograph the removal of, instead of any other tree that I'm sure fell right where they wanted it to.  :)

 The bitty block theme was black/white/and a bit of a bright.  I picked orange.  The only orange in these blocks is the 3D tea bag tag.  Orange Pekoe, anyone?  :)  These blocks measure 3.5" square.  I paper pieced these from this pattern I found on the internet, by Piece By Number,  and reduced it to a tiny 2.25" or so. 

 The other theme was birdhouses.  I made a little leaning birdhouse, bright fun colors.  This one is raw-edged applique which I find much faster for me to do than paper-piecing!  I waste less fabric, too.   I also just found out that using a size 60 needle in the machine leaves cleaner edges on the fabric that is being appliqued!  Tiny needle, tiny holes, no raggedy bits!

 And for the bitty bee swap that I'm in, that has bees for the theme this month, this is the 2nd block I made- a skep on a platform.  I had to use this cute lime green bee fabric that I've been hoarding forever. 

That's it from here, Jim is outside cutting up the remains of that sycamore and getting his wood pile back to order.  I'm going upstairs to sew!  Everybody have a great day, spring is just the BEST time of year, pollen be darned! 

Happy Halloween, shriek! Don't look, Lynz! CSI-Stairwell, again....

Trick! or Treat?

I'm out of yellow crime scene tape, thank goodness we still had chalk. ;) It was a busy night for those boy cats, apparently. Thankfully, dragging these in through one cat door and up a half of flight of stairs wore them out before they actually got them into the house. 2 dead rats and a shrew on the garage steps. Dang. Busy, busy. And so lovely to wake up to on Halloween morning! I know the girl cats are innocent because they are locked in the bedroom with us at night, they are not allowed out after dark. So this is a boy thing.

I wouldn't really say that it's becoming a habit, but it has happened before. Last time it was just mice. The boys have expanded their horizons, I guess.

Sammie, Beeswax and Murphy are very good hunters and would-be providers. Ugh. lol It's that time of year, though, when the rodent population seems very large, but I think it's dwindling as we speak. :)

I had a little helper this week, as I was making little quilt sandwiches.

The best place to play is where Mom is trying to get something done.

And she can't mind when you're THIS adorable. Gravey can go from zero to 60 in 2 seconds! I did get 2 of these sandwiches made, though, now I just need to quilt and bind them so I can give one to my Mum and keep the other on the sofa for me to use when I'm cold, which is pretty much always.

But that does tend to take it out of a girl. Plays hard, sleeps hard. She's a really good girl, though, stays close to the house and doesn't think that being outside is really all that exciting. That might have something to do with being abandoned at that cemetery when she was about 4 months old, bless her little heart.

She and Nosey Parker are really good sleeping/grooming buddies, now. They groom and tussle on the bed for about 30 minutes every night and then sleep together there, smashed up against me and try to cook me and then shove me right out. I love it. lol They're good little buddies for me, too.

Happy Halloween, people! Hope your morning isn't as gruesome as ours!

More madness, how much more can we stand? lol

So 2 weeks ago he brings home Quigley, the yellow lab pup. One week later she was spayed and 2 shotgun pellets were removed. While we were at the vet's picking Q back up, I spotted a calico kitten in a pen, needing a home. Well, 8 years ago, nearly to the day, we had our calico, Tess, put to sleep. We loved that cranky girl! This little girl was so sweet and affectionate and darling, I fell in love with her, too. Mr. Meany said "NO, no way, no how, we don't need a 5th cat!" Oh, fine. He can find and bring home big ass dogs, but I can't have a puny little kitten that was abandoned and found in a cemetery? No fair! I groused about it all weekend but then I got over it and resigned myself to dealing with the current chaos.

Quigley's stitches didn't look so great on Tuedsay morning, so he took her in while I took a nap, I'd been up since 3 AM because of HIS new dog and her licking and carrying on. Grrr. I slept from 7 until nearly 10, got up, had some cold coffee and then he got home. When I asked him what they said at the vet he said they had said congratulations. HUH? For what? And he turned around and opened his jacket. "Congrats, you're a new mom!" lol

Holy cow, that's the last thing I expected! I was stunned. This is his MO, though, I should learn it. Last year I wanted Nosey Parker and he said no until he spent some time in the waiting room with her a few days later. Boom, we had a little white kitten! Same thing this time- he said no and then relented. What a nice man I'm married to!

Isn't she precious? Since she was found in a cemetery, we named her Gravey. lol A friend of mine thought that up, she who shall be called "Auntie Jodi" from here on out.

Looking out the window, it's a big scary world out there! I love the little chubby phase she's in right now.

Playing in the busted basket. What a flirt!

"Lady? You're not gonna make me wear that collar thing are ya?" (She doesn't really know me as Mom, yet.)

It's like "Where's Waldo?" only different- in her cat bed.

We're having lots of fun with her. Nosey Parker is actually handling this a lot better than I thought she would, they play together upstairs and you would think there was a herd of wild buffalo up there, the way they run and crash and make all sorts of noise! The other 3 cats, all boys, are withholding judgement for now, but I think one will come around and the other 2 will disregard her entirely.

So, it's officially nuts around here, but we're getting lots of laughs out of it. :) And Quigley is healing nicely now and learning the ways of our schedules and settling in. Still a little too crazy and exuberant, though, but what can I expect, she's a pup. A big 40 pound pup. lol