Sunday reflections 9/4/2011

I love fall and today with the sun, light breeze and 67 degree temperature, it feels like fall.  It is the perfect day.  All we are missing are the fall colors.  I'm sure we'll have some beautiful colors around here with the scrub oak and aspen that decorate our yard.  I cannot wait to see the colors that come out.  And the best part about it all is I can enjoy the colors without having to worry about raking the leaves.  That's the kind of yard we have now, a no maintanence yard.  With the home being vacant for 3 years, the lawn has died and the natural habitat has taken over.  If we buy this home, we have quite the yard to tame.
Our cat, Tom, has dissappeared.  The locals warned us that this would happen, that eventually the coyotes would get him, but when Tom survived the great outdoors for three months I thought for sure he'd make it.  Maybe he did.  Maybe he went to one of the homes close by and stays with them.  I did think he had dissappeared earlier, only to have him reappear, so maybe he just found a family he likes better.  We do have some homes close by.  That's how I'm going to imagine it:  Tom with another family caring for him...and he must live inside, because that's the only reason I could imagine him leaving this great family of ours.  It's a happier ending for him than the other.  Anyway, with Tom gone, the mice still here (we do catch a few every now and then and I'd like to whittle the few down to zero) and with the possibility that maybe he has been eaten by coyotes, I started thinking that we need more than just one cat.  We need two and they need to have babies.  So I have been kitty hunting.  Meet cat #2 (Tom was #1), Tom junior:

Only when we got Tom Jr. home we found out that he was actually a girl and we've renamed her Tiger.  The kids are even more smitten with Tiger than they were with Tom.  You see, when we got Tom he was 3+ months old and a lot bigger.  So this is the first kitten that my kids have had and even I'll admit (me, the great animal non-lover) that kittens are cute.  The owner of this one said she was eight weeks old.  Don't forget the owner also said SHE was a HE, so I don't know how much we can trust the owner.  Tiger does seem so little.  I hope she wasn't weaned too early and that she'll survive.  In an attempt to keep her safe from coyotes we have made a comfortable home for her out of one of our tupperware boxes.  During the day it is propped open so she can go in and out when she wants.  At night, we close it over her, so she can't get out and put a 35 lb. weight on top.  That should keep those coyotes out, right?   We're hoping to add a male cat soon.  Then they will reproduce and our little cat family will take care of the mice.  That is the goal.  Am I sounding too calculating?

As for the rest of the week it was kind of a blur.  Things are going great at work for Brad, things are going great at home for me and the kids are loving school.