Mother's Day

I try to keep this blog on topic about my life in rescue, but the rest of my life does play a part in all of this and there's no denying that my first responsibility is as a mother to things that walk on two feet. As any mother knows, there are times when things aren't going to go according to plan.  As a kitty foster mom, I'm dealing with a couple of cats that have upper respiratory infections (bad colds) and trying to keep the rest of them healthy.  With my human baby, she had a fever and some cold symptoms and had to stay home from school yesterday. 

This did not please me.  With only a month left of school, I'm trying to make the most of my child-free days.  I had an appointment to pick up some donations and needed to check the Heartland mailbox.  I always try to find the bright side, so I thought at least she's feeling well enough for me to take her along on my errands and let her stay in the car.  I even got to do my weekly indulgent visit to McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin and got the girl some hotcakes. 

The donations were awesome!  A local retailer lets us come once a week and pick up broken bags of food and litter and whatever else they deem suitable for pets.  There's a new woman in charge and she loves us!  I told her that we'd take anything that could be used as a door prize or silent auction item.  Well we hit the jackpot yesterday!  We got a cd-boombox and a wine refrigerator - both had cracked boxes but both work just fine (yes, I tested them). 

Things were looking up, I got home, unloaded the car, sorted everything and was ready to get back to cleaning the house.  Since the girl was still outside with me, I had her gather up the garbage and put it out at the curb with the rest of the week's trash.  The middle of the day was fairly uneventful, just trying to rediscover the kitchen counter tops in what seemed like an archeological dig!  I also managed to get all the cats taken care of before my husband got home and that always makes him happy.  So after bleaching out 5 litter boxes I was ready to make dinner.

Hubby wasn't eating dinner with us, so I indulged the kids in fish sticks and Ore-Ida french fries.  We'd been having quite a bit of pizza lately and I was worried about the smell of the cheese that had hit the bottom of the oven, so even though it was raining, I had a couple of the safer windows open for ventilation.  Little did I know we were about to open every window in the house - the good thing is that the rain stopped right before the oven caught on fire.  Flame grilled french fries didn't quite do it for my kids.  Luckily my brain was working quickly and I turned the oven off and shut the door and without their heat source or oxygen, the flames put themselves out. 

On the bright side, the house didn't burn down, the rain had stopped so we could air it out, I got to talk to the kids about fire safety and it looks like the oven still works.  See, I told you that I was good at this!  We even tried to laugh about it.  It was stressful, but not the end of the world.  No, that came soon enough.

The youngest just got her braces off and has a retainer.  The attitude at the Orthodontist was don't lose this, you don't want to know how much it costs to replace.  It's been two months and she's been really good about putting it in a good place while she's eating and generally wears it for at least 3/4 of the day.  She forgets to put it back in after eating sometimes.  Remember that trip to McDonald's?  Remember me being on top of the game and taking the trash to the curb on garbage day?  Any guesses where that retainer was?  It's certainly not in the car anymore, believe me, we looked. 

I was having a hard time finding the bright side last night.  We're looking at fencing the back yard (see previous posts about my dogs for that one), the wash machine is broken, so I'm probably getting a new one for Mother's Day, the dog had just cost us a bunch at the emergency clinic and I haven't blogged about my dear old cat Max who now has crystals in his urine, the oven had just been on fire, I need to sell 400 more tickets to the Rascal's Game before the end of the month (you do want to buy some, right? - visit our website www.heartlandhumanemo.homestead.com for more information) and I was facing an If-You-Have-To-Ask-You-Can't-Afford-It visit to the orthodontist.  I tried my sunny outlook, but just couldn't get it going.  I tried telling myself that we're all alive, healthy, it's only money, but I was stressed.  I woke up this morning after having every stress and anxiety dream in my arsenal (yep, forgot there was the final exam and had to sit and take it without studying and then there was something about Harry Potter, dreams are so weird!)

And then I read this email.  I laughed and found my happy place again.  I called the orthodontist and it'll be $235.  Not money I want to spend, but not the end of the world. It's all part of being a mother.  I'll keep looking for the sunny side and stop letting the stress make me lose track of what's really important.  So I'm off to the vet this morning to get 2 more kittens spayed/neutered and they'll be able to come to PetSmart tomorrow to get applications on them.  And that's what it's really about.  My life is arranged in such a way that I get to be a full-time mother and I get to play a part in saving these cats and those are my two dream jobs.  Not every day is going to go smoothly, but that's ok, it's not supposed to.  

I hope you get a kick out of this email and that it can brighten your day just like it did for me!

A Mother's Day Moment!

So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.
Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on
him and nothing ever bothered him.  He used to hang out and nap all day
long on this mat in our bathroom.

Well we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years
old,  3 years old and 1 year old.  The middle one is Eli.  Eli really
loves chapstick.  LOVES it.  He kept asking to use my chapstick and then
losing it.  So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my 
chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he
needed to  put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around
and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on.  My
two  boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box.  I am trying to
nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. 
Everything is  a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day
to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally have the older one and and the baby loaded in the car and
I am  looking for Eli.  I have searched everywhere and I finally round the
corner to go into the bathroom.  And there was Eli. He was applying
my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . . . rear end.  Eli looked
right  into my eyes and said "chapped."  Now if you have a cat, you know
that he  is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped.  And, frankly,
Jack  didn't seem to mind.

And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was
the  FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds
us  that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little 
creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've
been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.