BeTWEEN a Rock and a Hard Place

When I was 11, I was a little girl. I played little girl games and dreamt little girl dreams and had a little girls respect for her parents.

Caitie, on the other hand, is a Tweenie. She is between being a little girl and a teenager. And it comes with all the attitude that a teenager has with a pinch of angst and alot of anger. Everything is so unfair, I'm so horrible, everyone else can do this or that. And when she doesn't get her own way, she throws the most appalling temper tantrums. Bad ones...kicking my solid wood antique dining table across the room bad. Throwing herself against my fridge bad. Destroying things bad. And I don't know how to deal with it.

She is sweet and funny and was fantastic helping out at an Obedience trial the other night. The committee couldn't say better things about her. That, I suppose, is it. Is the one thing I should be proud of. She respects her elders, is polite, goes out of her way to help.

I reckon I can put up withe the next seven years of "I don't like you" if she is good when she is away from home...at least I think I can!


Cin

Cousin It!

A week ago, Caitie asked me to plait her hair. So, being the wonderful mother I am, I obliged...it had nothing to do with the fact that I knew what it would look like after she brushed it out. *snort*

Enjoy,

Cin

Sadness by the bucket load

The problem with breeding anything, cats, dogs, horses, chickens, fish...kids is that eventually your heart will get hurt. Your heart will be ripped out, stomped on, wiped through the mud, torn to shreds and put back in your chest just for the hell of it. It hurts...it hurts alot.
Our first litter of the season was born in a kitchen drawer. Mum managed to squeeze through the back, all two inches of it, and gave birth in the smallest drawer possible. The first two babies died after Mum laid on them. Of the surviving four, the smallest perished after a few days. The remaining three have grown and prospered and taken the hearts of others. They will go to their new homes soon, fat little butterballs they are. Super sweet and naughty too!


Our second was a tabby litter of six. The littlest girl died after a long struggle. Her five siblings, two girls and two boys were doing fine until the choccie girl crashed and struggled to stay alive. I was NOT going to lose yet another kitten so we fought long and hard and she is doing well. She is somewhat smaller than the rest of her siblings but is doing very well. Her brothers are below.


Our hardest litter was born last. We lost one boy at birth. We lost one boy at around a week and a half old and we lost another boy at two weeks old. We had to bottle feed these babies and I fought so HARD to no avail. It really hurt, these kittens meant the world to me.

The last two are putting on weight and are fat as butter. I hoped that was the end of the bad luck...but the kids had other ideas!

Last week Caitie was supposed to be cleaning her room and snuck out. She then went down the road and borrowed her friends roller blades. The first we knew of it was when her friend came running up to the house in a panic. Caitie had fallen over and broken her arm...(sigh)

Can the world just stop for one second? Please?

Cin

Endings and Beginnings

Long before we owned and bred Devons, we were loved by Dax. Dax was a silver tortie tabby moggie of indiscrimanate breeding. Mum was purebred himalayan and dad was lucky. She arrived on our doorstep in an esky, a freebie from the paper. It was love at first sight.

I have a favourite photograph of Tony eating icecream with Dax sitting on his shoulder as a wee kitten, trying to scoop the icecream off the spoon into her mouth. Dax lived through having her jaw broken by a dog, a massive foot infection, abscesses and numerous puppies. She was our resident puppy trainer, teaching them respect for cats. Every Monday night, home from Obedience training with Nell, Dax would meet me at the gate because she knew I would have one leftover treat in my treatbag just for her. She never met me on Wednesday nights because I didn't take treats then! Clever cat.

Thursday afternoon Dax was hit by a car. Dax was road savvy and had been an outdoor cat her entire life. She was found by Caitie who believes if she found her sooner Dax would have lived. The damage was too severe and Dax passed away that evening aged 15 years old. We badly miss our Meow Cat, who never learnt how to Meow completely. She either said MMM or Owwww!.

Yet life goes on and we welcome our new babies. Two litters have arrived, the first a litter of six were born in a kitchen drawer (silly Mummy). Unfortunately we lost three due to complications and being born in a small environment. The surviving three are thriving under the lovig attention of their mum, Titch.

And this morning, at 4am, we welcomed our second litter of six tabby babies! Three girls and three boys. They are doing well but its the first day.

The circle of life in its most heartbreaking and joyous forms,

Cin

Art Appreciation 101

September school holidays have been long and boring most of the time for my kids as I have had to work quite often. We've managed to fit in trips to the beach, the park, the Water Park and today I took the kidlets to the Museum and Art Gallery.

The museum is the boys' favourite place to visit. Aiden and Conor both love the animals and seeing all the bones and gross bits. I love identifying the birds that are around our area. Today they also had science experiments where the kids made whirlybirds and balancing clowns.

We also popped into the Gallery of Modern Art where the kids came across this giant sculpture by Ron Mueck, titled "In Bed". They were all fascinated and you could see them itching to touch and explore. I think we spent a good ten to fifteen minutes looking at this huge woman. Caitlin said that she thought the woman looked cold. Not a bad observation for an 11 year old.

After we came home, I showed them some more of Muecks work and the kids are absolutely fascinated by him and his take on humanity. A little bit of culture for the kids!

Cheers,
Cin

Persistence Pays Off

It was Aidens birthday last month and he had been hoping to get a Ripstick for Christmas. This skateboard on two wheels is very difficult to learn to ride but lotsa fun when you get it right. Aiden told me he had learnt to ride one at his friends place and was really good at it.

So we surprised him with one for his birthday instead and the very first thing he did was fall off in spectacular style! There was blood, there was torn flesh, there were tears...turns out Aiden told me a furphy. He thought a little lie wouldn't be noticed, much.

Anyway, he has been practicing and practicing and practicing...

So, he's not ready for any gnarley jumps or anything and he's no Tony Hawke but geez I'm proud of him!

Cheers,

Cin

One Piece of Tape

They say a picture tells a thousand words. Well, I'm hoping this picture saves us thousands of dollars!

Caitie went to remove a piece of tape from her wall, accidently leant on it and broke the wall. She flew out of her room in tears thinking she had done this horrible thing. In truth, if she hadn't of leant on the wall, we wouldn't have discovered the horrible truth.

As husband went to repair the very small break in the masonite, he turned to me appalled and said those awful words...."We have termites!" Ohhhh, crap! After destroying a fair amount of wall inside as well as removing the capping on the side of the house outside, he determined we had caught them just as they were starting to build. There was no damage, just alot of mud and some really annoyed crawlies. Its hard to have a Happy Sunday when you've just been sprayed with insect kill.

Now the bets are on for how long it will take for him to FIX the wall!

Cin