From Neil Diamond to Tracy Turnblatt

All weekend I was singing Fee, you'll be a woman soooooon.... but this evening I got to start singing Fifi, you're a big girl now!

Today, one day before her three month birthday, Fiona went in for her spay, the rite of passage that makes her no more a little baby. She barely looks like one anymore anyway. I spent a lovely day Saturday with an old friend and several new ones, and brought along pictures of the whole crew. The two I selected of Fiona were taken just about three weeks apart but showed a striking growth in the little woman.

She's home now and groggy but recovering, despite very clearly needing and wanting some snuggle-with-Mom time when we first got home! She can still get under the door and therefore cannot be contained (without also keeping her from food, water, and a box) even though she's more than doubled in size since she came home (was 1.8 lb is now 4). The boys missed her today and barely knew what to do with themselves while she was gone. (well, Aslan knew, he did what he always does, which is contemplate the frustrations of there being other beings in his world). I've got a little barracade set up so that none of the boys can get into her space but she can get in and out easily, and she's spending time in there and occasionally coming out to make sure I haven't abandoned her yet.

Oscar says "het is over tijd"*!

(he already knows English and a little Scottish Gaelic - he's willing to learn Dutch for a good cause!)

Banning breeds doesn't reduce bites!


He also encourages you to check out this great site and video of a wonderful therapy dog!



(*he says that's Dutch for "It's about time!")

We all pitch in...

Over the years my extremely high quality home has developed water damage (that is to say that sarcasm isn't the only thing dripping around here). For a while I could pass it off as a security device, since only those invited in were allowed to know which areas had flooring underneath them, and which were magically levitating carpet. But with the rain this season, it became clear that if the weight of the dog was causing the carpet to pop through, I didn't stand much chance of making it out alive. So a large section of flooring by my front door has been removed (which happened one day while Oscar and I were at school and freaked us both out when we opened the door), rebuilt, puttied for smoothness (the kitten's footprint is one inch in size, for those wondering) and is being re-tiled right now.

Good times.

So there's been a lot of extra dust and grime and bugs and fun things around, and that means everyone has to do their part, as members of our family, to clean things up. Even wee Fiona has a job.


And for posterity's sake, Fiona, who looked like this at five weeks old,

looks like this at eleven weeks.

Definitely getting bigger. Her body is starting to change, too, face getting a little more angular instead of that generic baby roundness, starting to have actual long hair instead of just puff, starting to look like a little cat instead of a kitten! I don't think anyone else is interested really, but I'm enjoying watching her grow.