Missy's Corner: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

And Then There Were 2...

9:11 AM

Yesterday, Schrodinger went home with his new family. A very cute couple came by looking for a playmate for their 17 week old kitten. Melissa let us know that the two cats hit it right off the bat! And now, the farewell video for Schrodinger:

(Poor Mister Monkey; he's starting to feel left out with his brothers and sister getting all the attention. Don't worry, there will be a post coming up soon all about him!)

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Kittens for Adoption! Spread the Word...

6:48 PM

Not to sound anxious by the upcoming adoption of these cute and wonderful babies, its just getting down to the wire. To help get the word out, use this song (to the tune of "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?"). We also have an ad out on Craigslist or ajcexchange (Thankies Mister for showing me how to hyperlink!).

HOW MUCH ARE THOSE KITTENS IN THE WINDOW?
THE ONES WITH THE SCRAGGLY FUR?
HOW MUCH ARE THOSE KITTENS IN THE WINDOW?
I DO HOPE THOSE CUTE KITTENS PURR!

YOU MUST MAKE A TRIP TO MISSY'S CORNER,
TO LOOK BACK AND SEE HOW THEY'VE GROWN.
NO NEED TO CALL UP AND ORDER,
EACH KITTEN IS READY TO GO!

DID YOU TAKE A LOOK AT SAVANNAH?
SHE'S WILEY, COURAGEOUS, AND CUTE
A MISCHEVIOUS LITTLE DEVIL,
SHE'LL BE LEAVING YOU IN PURSUIT!

UP NEXT WE HAVE SCHRODINGER,
HE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FIRST.
HE THINKS THAT HE'S A PARROT,
BUT HE NEVER CLIMBS DOWN HEADFIRST!

AND DON'T FORGET MISTER BELLY,
THE ONE THAT WE THOUGHT WAS THE RUNT.
HE'S ALWAYS SHOWING HIS TUMMY,
HE'LL EAT WHATEVER'S IN FRONT!

HOW MUCH ARE THOSE KITTENS IN THE WINDOW?
THE ONES WITH THE SCRAGGLY FUR?
HOW MUCH ARE THOSE KITTENS IN THE WINDOW?
I DO HOPE THOSE CUTE KITTENS PURR!

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Art work

7:33 PM

As you may or may not know, I am an armature artist and have a bunch of 5x7 and 8x10 pieces around the house. Recently, I decided I'd be daring and courageous and I bought a 11X14 canvas. Now, what the heck do I put on it?! The thought came to me this morning when looking at the pictures of Socks on Christo's Facebook page (thank you!); I'll do a painting of the kittens!

I started by collecting pictures of each individual kitten that I have taken over the past week, and the one Christo took and went to work. Right off the bat, the "Socks" I drew was too big and way too far to the right. I had to come up with a different way to sketch the subjects , so I didn't have to constantly erase and risk messing up the canvas. Finally, it dawned on me! TRACING PAPER! I always hated that stuff as a kid because I never traced my artwork, I always drew by sight. But, in times like these it works wonderfully! I drew each kitten on an individual piece of tracing paper, and pieced them together on the canvas.

After I had all the tracing paper lined up in a way that fit to the canvas, I traced the front side and the back side with a graphite pencil. That allowed me to transfer the whole picture to the canvas one time!

AND HERE'S THE FINISHED PAINTING:

From the top right moving clockwise: Belly, Savannah, Monkey, Schrodinger, and Socks

Savannah was the only one not to be looking up at the camera in her picture; and the way it turned out in the painting, she looks kinda sinister. Schrodinger was the only one to pose on his back and the Monkey picture is actually a mirrored image. As for the dream-catcher at the top center, it represents our lost kitten. If you remember, there were actually six kittens born, one being stillborn. As stated in my first post, I started this blog as a way to put my feelings down and remember number four. A few days later, I made a dream-catcher and hung it close to the tree where the kitten rests; therefore, it was only right to include him in the painting.

Here are a couple of other paintings I have displayed around the house. I started to look into creating prints, too! Once that gets underway, I'll let ya'll know and you can let me know if you want any!

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Its So Hard To Say Good-bye...

2:21 PM

Well, the brood is now down to four. Christo and his adorable son, Camlo, came by this afternoon to pick up their new kitten, Socks. Poor little guy was not happy about going into another carrying cage, especially after going to the vet this morning. But Chirsto let us know Camlo was looking after him on the ride home. "Everytime Socks cries Camlo says, 'Its okay Socks;" everytime." I put this together yesterday, especially for Socks's going away. I hope you enjoy it!

Socks with his happy new family:

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Here it is!

3:19 PM

At long last, the promised kitten post! Now that I got the boring parts (yeah right!) of my mundane life out of the way, its time to start writing about what you really come here for: Mister and Missy's Adventure in Raising Kittens! Its been more then the two weeks promised, but hopefully its worth the wait.

Lets start with when we got back from Flagler. When we picked up the crate of kittens (and Kitty) from the vet, it was obvious these guys had grown. Even in the four days we were gone, the kittens looked like they had doubled in size! It was time to buy new toys again! While the "ribbons on a stick" was still a useful toy, they were starting to out grow sleeping behind the recliner; so we went out and got cubby holes and another toy. Now they have a place to lounge, pounce, and ambush each other!

These guys have also taken to sleeping on and around us! Monkey does most of the cute sleeping and Belly says "Thanks Mom and Dad for the new Wii game! The box is most comfortable!"

Since these guys are now nine weeks old, and the gate doesn't seem to do much anymore, they now move freely around the house. The bonus room serves as our kitten playroom and the kitchen serves as the relaxation room-since the tile floor stays so nice and cool. They also have free range in our room, which has turned up some interesting hiding places!

Belly found a nice hiding place in old stomping grounds. On top of our old wicker laundry basket in our bedroom closet.

Socks managed to find his way on top of my dresser, then fell into the trash trying to get down!

I think by far though, the hiding place these kittens found when I was vacuuming last week, takes the cake. Take a look!

That's right! They somehow managed to find away to get underneath my dresser! The next video is of Socks trying to fight with someone, I think Savannah, who is underneath the bottom drawer. The way she pulls her paw back under in the beginning is very reminiscent of the Witch's feet curling under the house in the Wizard of Oz.

After a few days though, it went from cute to obnoxious. Now I had to check under the drawer every time I wanted to leave the house or close the bedroom door behind me. My solution was to pull it out; now there was nothing special to my dresser. WRONG! Wednesday night, while Mister was coming home from work, I couldn't find four of the kittens! I looked everywhere, even behind the washer and dryer! Somehow, these little rascals bypassed the bottom drawer-that wasn't there- and climbed into the next one! We opened the second to last drawer and found Savannah, Belly, and Schrodinger sleeping in there!

Not only have they been finding new places to climb in the room, they've really taken to climbing us. Monkey and Schrodinger like to be parrots. When we pick them up to hold or snuggle, they will walk across our chest or back to sit on a shoulder. I enjoy watching Mister with a kitten on his shoulder; it reminds me of watching him and his parrot Bogey.

I was going through my pictures for this post during the week and I came across one of Savannah sleeping and thought, "Wow! Doesn't she look like her mother!" So I put two pictures side by side (the blog is really helping with my photoshop skills! Still not perfect though... thanks Mister) and you can be the judge!

She also managed to make the jump from the top of the dresser to the bed.

Sadly though, tomorrow our brood will become four. Socks is now old enough to go and live with his new family, if the vet clears him tomorrow. I have a special post planned and hopefully it will work.

LOVE FOR NOW!

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Beautiful Paradise

11:36 AM

It seems I'm going backwards in my posts! Yesterday's was about my graduation on June 11th and today's will be about our vacation to Flagler Beach, FL during the first weekend of June! Before the summer started we made plans to go somewhere to take a load off. Thankfully and luckily, Mister's dad allowed us to use the condo he owns and rents, in Flagler. I really want to take this time again to say thank you from the bottom of both our hearts!

Since it was the last week of classes, I had to leave Mister to drop off Kitty and the kittens for boarding while I went to class. He later told me it was the hardest thing to hear them crying when he left. When we got home to start packing to leave, there was an eerie silence through the house; you don't realize the chaos and noise until its gone!

After a long drive down and pockets of terrible rain, we finally made it to the condo; it was gorgeous and the smell and sound of the ocean was overwhelming! Although I lived in South Florida for eighteen years, I never noticed the constant breeze or ocean smell until moving to a landlocked city!

The waves were huge and the water was nice, cool, and perfect for boogie boarding. We spent most of our mornings walking along the shore looking for seashells and taking advantage of the waves. The most relaxing thing about the beach was how different it was from Hollywood or Miami Beach. The only people on the sand or in the water, were people who owned or rented the condos along the shore; there were no banner planes flying around to rudely shove advertisements in your face; and the traffic was so scarce, you couldn't hear the cars going by. At around noonish the rain would come and we would relax in the condo. I think the prettiest thing about nature, is when the rain falls on the ocean.

Mister would also use the mornings to try out his new camera. The bottom left picture is the view from the condo balcony. Just to the right of the telephone pole is a small white speck. That speck, is the shrimp boat in the next picture, again taken from the balcony. You can almost read the name off the side!

Friday night was the most romantic night of my life. We decided to head down to the beach with some light to spare and wait for the sunset. This is east coast Florida though, so no actual sunset. Instead we were treated to the biggest and brightest full moon and a beautiful pink and purple sky.

(Its a video!)

Sunday and early Monday morning we traded the waves for hooks, lines, and sinkers; off to the intercoastal to fish! The last time Mister and I were at Flagler, it was a pit stop on a different long drive home and we were able to fish off the pier. Unfortunately, the pier is closed due to replacing pylons; but we went just around the corner to the High Bridge Park, where the bridge - pause for dramatic effect - was broken! It had be struck by lightening recently and it fried all the systems. On Sunday, all the fish were biting, for everyone but us. The guys next to us caught a type of fish they called croakers; the obvious name for a fish that literally croaks while dying! I caught 2 crabs that weren't anything special and Mister caught one. On the other hand, the small pod of dolphins that went by were beautiful! Supposedly, there were manatees too, but we didn't see them.

(More Video!)

In my opinion though, and Mister is going to laugh when I say this, the best part was finding the comic book store right across from the pier! No, I'm just kidding, the whole trip was amazing! But, if you are a comic book fan/obsesser/devotee like me, you should swing by there the next time you are in Flagler Beach. And besides, their logo and website is awesome!

Oh and Sorry for all the corny "Its a video!" and "More Video!" comments. It turns out that when I publish the post and the system e-mails it off to you out there, it makes all my videos regular pictures. You'll have to actually go to the website: http://www.decaturmissyscorner.blogspot.com/ to see the actual videos. And trust me, they are really worth it! I also promise kittens will come sometime by the end of the week (hopefully, tomorrow right?!).

FOR MISTER:

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Monday, June 15, 2009

I DID IT!!

5:05 PM

For those of you out in the blogosphere that didn't know I graduated, or was unable to make the ceremony, I've got a special treat for you! Thanks to Mister's amazing and awesome new camera, he was able to capture the ceremony wonderfully!

To give you an idea on just how amazing this new camera is, the blue "X" that is in section 121 is roughly where Mister was sitting and the other "X" is where I was. Enjoy! (P.S. A kitten post is coming up next!)

There were 428 graduates walking, you would think it would be hard to pull a needle out of a haystack. Or is it?

<--- HAYSTACK

NEEDLE (AMAZING!) --->

JUST A BIT OF POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE

TURNING OF THE TASSEL

LEAVING THE ARENA AS A GRADUATE!

Mr. Palma stalling the line by hugging all his former students. Gonna miss that goofball!

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Addicting Kitten Toy without Catnip!

2:54 PM

Since having kittens, Mister and I have been looking everywhere for toys to play with. Most kitten/cat toys in stores all contain catnip or come with catnip, which can be addicting. I didn't want these babies to become addicted to the catnip, but to each their own. Finally, last weekend we found the perfect toy. Its not yarn (sorry Papa!) but its pretty darn close when it comes to kitten and human amusement!

Also, this past week we've been able to see more and more of their individual personalities. Miss Savannah has taken up sleeping on the back of the couch, like Kitty, and climbing the baby fence even though its propped up against the wall; Socks learned there is a space between the kitchen counters and the dishwasher that leads to the kitchen cabinets under the sink; Schrodinger has somehow managed to get to the third shelf of our living room book shelf; and Monkey tried to go through the taped hole in our TV box fort. These kittens are also starting to purr when they are happy! Mister was able to take a recording of all the kittens purring at once while nursing.

Well, that's the post for this week! There probably won't be another till 2 weeks because Mister and I are going on vacation this weekend. The kittens and Kitty will be boarded at the vet for the weekend; lets hope everything will work out and go according to plan! Till then, enjoy the cuteness!