Getting Ready for Halloween and Our New Kitten

Wow, the last two weeks have been busy! There have been lots of fun things going on to help us get ready for Halloween and in the spirit of the kicking off to the holiday season. Lets start with some pumpkin baking!

Last Sunday Nikki and I baked up a newly acquired recipe of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I got the recipe from a friend at church. They turned out good except we decided next time we'll put in less chocolate chips. They were a little over powering.

Nikki and her friend Angie have been needing to dye a jacket for Angie's costume and they were running out of time and chances to do it since both of them have after school jobs. They had to do it last Sunday evening. They started in the garage using my grandma's hot plate but we had several issues with power and then it just wouldn't heat the pot of water up to boiling. Reluctantly we had to move it inside to the kitchen.

I didn't want to get splashes of black on everything so we covered the floor and counters with brown paper bags and black plastic bags.  When they were done boiling the jacket in the dye we got another black bag and cut the other end open so we could poor it through the kitchen drain without splashing dye.

Unfortunately the next day I did discovered some tiny black spots on our microwave. I used acetone to wipe most of it off but I had to be careful because it was taking the white paint of the microwave off also.

Angie's jacket started out white like Nikki's. They wanted it to be black but this was as close as we were going to get. They were a character from a TV show called Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz (two different versions of him)

We also went and picked out pumpkins for carving from Walmart. Unfortunately we didn't get around to carving them until the day of Halloween.

My friend Whitney recently discovered some kittens and a mother cat that were living in bad conditions and took it upon herself to find homes for them. Since I knew we are going to be giving Stardust back to my brother Colby in a couple months after he gets married I started to think about maybe taking one of the kittens. Nikki had already told me that she would like to get a kitten after Star leaves. There were two black females, 1 white female and 1 male tabby. The mother was white. These poor cats have been locked in a crate and not getting fed.  I showed Nikki the pictures of the kittens and of course she started begging me to get one. I then told Whitney that I was thinking about taking one and she said I could come look at them. 

We scheduled to go look at them Wednesday afternoon but then right before taking the girls to preschool/PE I got a call from Whitney and she said I better come right away because the gal who owned the cats was going to get rid of them (dump them somewhere). So I dropped the girls off and the older kids and I drove over to Whitney's place to look at the kittens. I originally liked the look of the black kittens when looking at the pictures. Then on the way over the kids and I were thinking we would probably take the white one because Whitney said she liked that one. So we started thinking of names for a white cat. 

The room that these cats were being kept in smelled terrible! Not only did this lady and her daughter keep these cats in a crate but they also had dogs. There was poop on the floor. It was disgusting! We started looking at the cats and Whitney let them out so they could eat the dog food. One of the black kittens seemed a little more interested in us and seemed lovey too as we held her. We decided she was the one for us and got out of there as quick as we could. After getting her home I went to the store and bought some cat shampoo. After what she was living in even though she looked pretty clean there were a few greasy looking spots. I gave her a bath which was actually the first time I've given any of our cats a bath. I think it was a little easier with her being a kitten. She still didn't want to get bathed and I even got a couple scratches from her but she did pretty well for a cat.

We originally named her Poppy because we wanted to pick a food related name to go along with Sage. We didn't like Rosemary or Thyme though (to go with the Simon and Garfunkel song). Even before we went to see the kittens and I was thinking of getting a black one I was looking through the cupboard at our herbs and spices to see what might work as a name. I saw poppy seeds and since they are black I thought that would be a cute name, Poppy. However, after we got her home I wasn't so sure I liked that name for her even though the kids were all calling her that. Then after Curtis got home he said Poppy sounded like poopy. He didn't like the name and since I wasn't totally sold on it either I decided we needed to change the name. So I looked at black cat name possibilities online and Nikki and I decided we liked Cocoa and hey, it goes along with our food names too, lol! We asked everyone in the family if they liked that name and yes they did, even Curtis. So we named her Cocoa. She's about 6 months old and so fun and lovey.

She fits perfectly in the bed that came with Stardust (which Star never uses).

She's so cute and we love her!

She loves to cuddle in our laps. (She's cuddling with me right now as I type this. I'm sitting on the couch.)

As for animals, one day Charlotte got crafty and built herself a saddle for her stuffed horse out of paper. She still really wants a real horse. It gets tiring sometimes but cute at the same time.

Sage is not too happy with having a new kitten around. She has been spending more time outside because of it. Stardust hasn't really been around long enough to know what she thinks of the kitten. We did show the kitten to her once and the kitten was the one who growled and hissed. Star and Sage were the same way when Star first came to us but now they are friends. Star will be out all day hunting and bring back mice for Sage, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. If she brings a dead one home I usually throw it away as quick as I can but sometimes I don't know about it and she gets to it first and eats it. Yuck! Any time she eats a mouse and I know about it she then gets to stay outside for a few hours to make sure she doesn't puke it out later, since it happened once (thankfully outside).  

While Sage was playing with the mouse that Star brought back Star was kicking back relaxing and watching Sage. I think she feels proud about helping Sage.

Kittens definitely have more energy and are a lot more fun. The kids were getting Cocoa to jump up on the cat scratcher by chasing a toy.

Last year we had to go through the process of keeping Stardust and Sage separated until they got used to each other, starting with getting used to their scent. Now we have to do the same thing with the new kitten. It gets a little tricky sometimes with having 3 cats but Star is gone most of the time anyway. We had to force Sage to have specific meal times again instead of free feeding. When we feed the cats it's usually Sage and Cocoa. I close our family room door and put one on each side, their food bowls about 3 feet from the door. Then slowly we'll move them closer. It's a slow process introducing cats but it will be worth it. After all, Sage and Star eventually became friends.