Spring Break ain't for sissies

Friday - Multi-age sleepover. All three kids had a friend over. It actually went well. I was shocked. That works WAY better than one kid having friends over and the other two tormenting the hell out of them.

Saturday - Fiddlefarted around the house. Mom watched the kids while Paul and I went to see 10,000 B.C. And loved it.

Sunday - Kady woke me up because she sounded like a baby harp seal. Took the two big kids to church while Kady and I hung out here and did breathing treatments. By Sunday evening her fever was 103.

Monday - Early morning phone-in to work, then early morning call to the PA to get appointments for both girls, then call to orthodontist to cancel Ab's appointment for that afternoon. Both girls are now on antibiotics for the crud that has settled in their sinus cavities. Oh yeah, and it rained. A lot.

Tuesday - More rain. On my early morning trek to pick up the sitter, I thought I was going to have to break out the oars. The road to our house was covered in four places. Yay.

Today - Work. No more rain, but lots of flood water. Not as bad as July, but still not pleasant. Work is busy and amicable. Better than last week, for sure.

Before we left the house this morning we noticed the cat was pacing and acting strange. I had a feeling last night that she was going to have her kittens during the night. Abby got back where she was nesting, but there wasn't anything back there then. When we got home I had Ab check the nest. She said there was one kitten, but Mamacita was nowhere to be found. I figured she was in the process of moving her usual four kittens to the barn. But instead, here she came around the corner, still fat and very obviously still pregnant. She wouldn't go back to the nest, so I had Sam feed her while Ab grabbed a rag and picked up the kitten which was not moving. Instantly Kady started bawling, Sam wiped back some very manly tears while Abby and I tried to determine if she was still alive. It wasn't looking promising, but then she opened her mouth and gasped, mewed a little and went still again. By this point Abby was now crying and I did what I do best - call someone who knows more than I do, in this case, my husband. He told me to put the kitten and a blanket in a box and put it where Mamacita could get to it and that if anyone was going to get that kitten to breathe and move it was going to be her. Ab put Mama in the box, but she didn't do anything more than sniff the kitten which made Kady bawl and squall and made Sam so angry he went out and sat by the basketball goal and cried alone.

I'm perplexed. This is Mama's probably 8th litter, so she's obviously not a novice, but I've never seen a cat only have one kitten and then stop for a break. I mean, it's not like she was going to the kitty spa in between or anything. Agh. If anyone out there reading (All two of you who haven't given up on me and my frequent absences) is a cat expert, please comment or email me.

Abby's still morose, Kady is singing "This Little Piggy" with a Joe Scruggs CD right now, but in 5 minutes or so she'll be back on my lap bawling about the kitten because that's what she's done for the last hour (I'm thinking bi-polar....) and Sam is watching Game Plan. I'm trying to wade through a week's worth of emails and figure out how to win back my readers who are sick of me flitting in and out of their lives at random like a herpes outbreak.




Spring Break used to be a lot more fun.