Rocket

There I was, slumbering peacefully in the wee hours of the morning on Labor Day.  Eight in the AM is the wee hours on Labor Day.  Anthony, C, H, and K had gone for a morning run. 

Little B awoke and came in to snuggle like he normally does.  And, as usual, the questions started… Where’s Dad?… Why is he running?… When will he be home?

**Front door opens**

The first thing I hear is, “Can we please keep it, Dad?  He’s so cute!” 

Any mom knows what those words mean… it means they found something.  Either a cat, a dog, or even worse… a critter. 

B and I go out to see what all the fuss is about and all the while my mind is already made up. 

NO! 

We were not going to keep ‘it’.  Whatever ‘it’ was. 



‘It’ was a kitten.  We are guessing around 6 months old.  And ‘it’ is a boy.  We checked.  ;)

I still had the NO ready.  We already have a dog and another cat.  But C had a perfect name already picked…

Rocket!

And so, before I could even put up a fight the dumb thing was already named and had food in his face.  They had found the poor little guy on the parkway.  He was starved for both attention and food.  A couple of other people had already come across him.  One couple was going to take him to the shelter and a couple of elderly ladies had gone to get him some food.  They were returning just as the kids came upon the cat. 

And the rest is history!

Never mind the fact that I’m allergic.  We have a cat already so what the heck!  Twice the itchy eyes, runny nose, sneeze attacks, and periodic hives… BRING IT ON!

But really, the kids were attached before they even got in the car to drive home from their run.  How do you say no to that?

We tried introducing Sissy, the other cat, after Rocket had a few minutes to get to the know the main floor of the house.  How did that go, you ask?  Let’s just say… Sissy was not amused. 

Next we brought in our gigantic lab, Moe.  We knew he would be gentle… and he was.  He sniffed, Rocket hissed, Moe backed off, came in for another whiff, Rocket relaxed a bit and then…



Rocket got a slobber bath. 

Isn’t that what everyone wants?  To be covered in dog slobber and wet nose snot from head to toe?  {Yuck!}

Anthony thought he’d take a turn, too.  ;)



But Rocket loved it!  To this day he still waltzes over to Moe and begs for a ‘bath’.  They are good buddies now. 

This kitty is super playful.  The kids are having a blast with him!  Just yesterday he climbed into this empty water bottle package.  C called it Rocket’s ‘portal’.  I’m not even sure where he picked up the word ‘portal’. 





Welcome to the family, Rocket!

 

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In Memory of Harley Ice Cream

How I wish I had more pictures of our Harley.  She really was the sweetest dog you could ever know. 

We first rescued her from the shelter almost 6 1/2 years ago.  Not knowing how old she really was… always guessing.  The people at the shelter guessed between 2 and 5 years old at the time.  The girls wanted to name her Ice Cream.  Anthony and I added Harley and her name became Harley Ice Cream.

I admit to being somewhat afraid of her at first.  She was supposed to be a friend for our then 6 month old puppy, Moe (Moseley Chicken Little to be exact), a black lab. 

Harley couldn’t stand Moe at first and she nipped at the kids a few times.  We considered taking her back but after about a month, she was sweet as pie!  The kids pulled her ears, pulled her lips, rode on her back and so much more.  Moe was still an annoying little pup but they became best buddies. 

She was not a normal dog.  Going potty on the grass??  Why do that when there’s a perfectly good slab of cement to use? 

Harley was also a barker.  We’ve had animal control called on us more than once for her incessant barking.  She would bark, then Moe would start barking, then they would both begin howling.  Oh man it was beyond frustrating but I’d give just about anything to hear it again right now. 

The barking stopped a few weeks ago.  Harley was too sick to even think about barking… however, she would still run around.  Go figure!

Over the past 2 months Harley went from being about 75 pounds to only 40 pounds.  She couldn’t keep anything down and she had problems out the back end, too, if you know what I mean ;). 

I had called around to different vets and found their prices just to walk in the door (let alone the testing) to be more than we could handle.  My mom decided that she couldn’t stand to see Harley in the condition she was in any longer and took her in last Wednesday.  After testing, IV injections of every anti-nausea/anti-diarrheal medication the vet had (none of which phased her in the least), some x-rays, and a three night stay in the doggie hospital, it was determined that Harley Ice Cream had cancer.  It was never officially confirmed because the testing and ultrasound for that would have been almost $400.  But all signs pointed to cancer and there was nothing that could be done. 

Anthony and I made the tough decision to have her put down.  She didn’t need to suffer anymore. 

It was heartbreaking to tell the kids because I had already been telling them she would be home the next day… then it became the next day… and the next.  I thought they would figure out what was wrong and we would bring her home and things would be fine.

Things were not fine.

Please excuse the quality of the photos, they are all taken with my phone.  These are pics of the kids saying their last goodbyes this past Saturday.  **Sigh** Breaks my heart!

Little C couldn’t understand at first why we were all crying walking into the room.  There was Harley and we should be happy!  It made me realize how simple life is for little children.  We tried explaining to him that Harley was going to go live with Jesus in Heaven. 

I took the kids back to the car for the actual ‘procedure’.  Anthony stayed with Harley so she wouldn’t be alone. 

We went to the park and got some ice cream to hopefully make the day a little brighter for the kids after leaving the vet.  We didn’t want them to go home immediately and just dwell on the fact that she was gone. 

Once we finally did make it home (after it had rained) there was a beautiful rainbow right above our house!!  (This pic doesn’t do it justice at all… remember it was taken on my phone)  We decided that it was Harley letting us know that she is ok.  She’s happy now and no longer in pain and I’m sure she’s not starving anymore.  I wonder what they serve in heaven…

And we know she’s in heaven because… All Dogs Go to Heaven, right? ;)

C was so cute about the rainbow.  “That’s Harley, huh Dad.  She made a rainbow with her magic!”  He wouldn’t come in the house until the rainbow had faded completely. 

We all miss her but poor Moe misses her the most, I think.  He’s lonely, and kind of lost.  Poor guy doesn’t know what to do without her.

We love and miss you, Harley Ice Cream!!  

Welcome Home, Sissy!

This is Sissy.  She’s naughty!

She adopted us a year ago this past December.  There we were (Anthony and I) getting ready to go on a date.  A REAL date!!  That, my friends, does not happen often.  We had a babysitter and everything.  We were going on a real date!

Focus, Brooke.  We’re not talking about dating… we’re talking about Sissy.

Anyway, our ride had just shown up.  We were headed downtown to see Savior of the World (Awesome show, by the way!) with Anthony’s sister and her husband.  Anthony and I had last minute touch-ups going on. 

Dating is kind of a big deal for us.  Touch ups are necessary! 

As we were just about ready to go, I heard a loud mewing coming from outside. 

“What IS that?”

My brother-in-law replied, “It’s a cat.  It’s out on your porch.  We just saw it.”

I looked out the window in the door and sure enough, there she was.  Tired, hungry, FREEZING!!  It was so cold that night (if I remember it was about 8 degrees) and she was absolutely nothing but skin and bones. 

Like an idiot I pleaded for Anthony to grab her a can of tuna.  He warned me that if we did that, we’d have a cat on our hands for good.  I was sure she’d eat, move on, find another schmuck, and we’d be good to go.  We would have only done our good cat deed for the year and that would be it.  I’m sure they give ‘good cat deed points’ in heaven. 

We got home that night and there was no kitty to be found.  Phew, I was right! 

But the very next night, there she was, mewing at the door. 

I caved.  Yes, it took no time at all.  We let her in, fed her and attempted to find her a good home.  Anthony had tried to convince me to keep her but I was not going to give in.  NO WAY!  We tried for a few days.  And after our half-hearted attempts were a no go…. well, she’s still here! 

And then we named her.  I thought her name should be Stray.  We even called her that for the first day and a half.  Anthony decided to change it.  PUNK!  What kind of name is Sissy, anyway?  Whatever.

She’s put on a lot of poundage.  She’s not a fan of the dogs, the boys (they chase her and pull her tail), and she’s even a little skittish around the girls sometimes but we’ve never had a problem with her biting or scratching anyone.

And she LOVES me!  That darn cat won’t leave me alone.  And I’m allergic!  She gives me hives when she touches me with her wet nose.  Lavender oil fixes that problem. 

She only LIKES Anthony.  Sorry Mr. Head, I win this one.  She looooooves me.  Remember?  All the kids love YOU more… Hmph!  (“I wish Daddy could stay home and YOU could go to work, Mom.”  Gee thanks, I love you too!)

Speaking of Sissy again, she decided to go on a little escapade outside this past New Year’s Eve.  We searched for her for days!  Even put an ‘ad’ on facebook.  An ad on facebook… that’s funny, no?  We were all worried!  Little A was devastated and checked for her at the door every 5 – 10 seconds. 

There was no sign of her…

Until last night!  She showed up again and she is never allowed outside again.  She’s in big trouble!  Worrying us like that… how inconsiderate! ;)

My favorite part about Sissy showing up again is the one way conversation H had with her.

“Sissy, where have you been?  Are you dating?”  She better not be!

Then she proceeded to ask me if cats get married.  After all, “They know how to talk to each other.  So maybe they DO get married!  And maybe they wear little bowties and wedding dresses and stuff.”

Maybe so.  Anyone ever been invited to a cat wedding?

Dogs

Q:  What do you get when you decide to be nice and let your dogs come into the nice, warm house for the evening while you are away? 


A:  A pair of nice kitchen shears that look like this!  *Stupid, good-fer-nothin', naughty, poo-poo dogs*  GRRR!  That's all I have to say about that.  I'll introduce you to the mutts later.  I'm too upset right now to give them the satisfaction.