Dinnertime... 

We are exploring the porch... 

Kittenpictures: Cute Alert! 

Kittens!

So aside from all the awful things happening to us from Sunday on (see The Husband's post here for details)...one of our outside ferals, BeeBop brought out her kittens Sunday morning. We thought she aborted her litter as she was REALLY preggers one day and all of a sudden VERY thin the next about 3-4 weeks ago. And she kept hanging out for long periods of time on our porch, so we thought: "Well, if she'd had kittens, she would not have left them alone for that long, so she must have miscarried."
Boy, were we wrong.

So: Sunday after we discovered that the Jeep had been broken into and the stereo stolen ON OUR FRIGGIN'DRIVEWAY...:grrr:: The Husband comes back and says: "There's a kitten in the hedge with BeeBop." So we think: "OK, another hobo kitty to feed, because, well, BeeBop clearly has miscarried, so it cannot be hers...." So he fishes out kitten from bushes, brings kitten to house while our neighbor The Lizard Queen runs to the store to get kitten formula, and feeds kitten from baby bottle while kitten hisses and spits and makes ewok noises. So we name her Wicket, naturally--after sexing and determining she's a she, this was a bit confusing but Miss Vilya, our houseguest and friend, was most insistent about the name, and rightly so.
Now about the time The Husband finished with Wicket (who is really pretty, by the way: almost black smoke-obsidian fur with a white ascot and white mittens), Miss Vilya comes back and says: "Well, there is BeeBop meouwing up a storm in the bushes and there's another kitten."
We look at each other with The Husband and sigh: "Oh. Okay. That means these are her kittens, she had a litter of two...and she is bringing them here one by one to introduce them." I recognized the pattern now: my grandma's cat Mitzi used to do that with each and every one of her litters. She gave birth up on the shed loft amongst last year's corn (LOTS of mice for nutrition) and after 3-4 weeks she brought them down one morning to the doorstep. You stepped out and there they were: on the doormat, four to five squirming little furballs, with Mitzi looking on with great pride. Being that she was the village minister's half-Persian tabby, the kittens usually had owners by the end of the weaning period. It was a status symbol, plus she was a fantastic micer as well.

So: at this point we let Wicket back to BeeBop, who proceeded to vigorously lick her as if saying: "Hey, you smell like those humans..." and snatched up the other kitten. This one proved to be a MUCH bigger baby boy, with smokey-gray long fur with tigerstripes on head and part of the body, and white mittens. And a LARGE head. And a great appetite, and much less hissing when Wicket. We still haven't named him, but the privilege probably will be granted to Vilya who fed him first and fell in love with him at first sight.

Okay, so we thought she had two kittens, right? Um...Monday morning, we peeked in the bushes, and there was BeeBop, with FOUR kittens. Two more with the lighter gray fur and tiger stripes and white mittens. We haven't sexed those yet, I think one of them is a girl, as The Husband fed her last night from the baby bottle after we got home from having our other car towed which DIED on me at work...::grrrrr::

So: soon we will take pictures and post them here...they can bumble about, jump on each other and they are really cute...we think they are about 4 weeks old now (walking, playing and having little baby teeth helps in determining). They should remain with Mommy for about 6 more weeks...so if you want a kitten, let us know, please! We will socialize them heavily, so being around humans should not be a problem.

While You Wait...

...here is a really good summer dessert recipe that I recently discovered and adopted slightly for my own taste:
Summer Strawberry Madness

1 box of strawberries: rinse, slice
1/2 cup yogurt (I use full-fat, adjust if you are one of those people allergic to milkfat)
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (Italy's take on fresh cream cheese; you'll find this in your specialty cheese/delicatessen section)
1-2 teaspoon of good quality cinnamon
1-2 tablespoon of sugar, if desired (I tried it both with or without sugar and liked it both ways. YMMV)

This makes 4 servings.

Grab 4 glasses from the cupboard; rinse.I used whiskey-on-the-rocks glasses, 'cuz they are pretty.
In bowl, mix yogurt, mascarpone, cinnamon and suger (if used) until well blended and creamy. You can do this with a spoon, just scrape it down from time to time.
Place a layer of strawberries on bottom of glass; layer dip on top.
Repeat until glass is full.
Refrigerate before serving until it's pleasantly chilled. If impatient, and every ingredient was sitting in fridge for long so it's still cool, you can serve it right away.

The dip would also be delicious with peaches or blueberries. Or all three. I can see this as a finishing course to a small summer dinner party- easy and very elegant, especially if you can put your hand on some fresh mint and you leave some small whole strawberries to decorate the top.

Enjoy!

On The Mend

Just a quick update; still kicking...the meds are still on for this week, so hopefully by the weekend I can wave this thing good-bye. I sure hope.

I have a lot on my plate this week catching-up-wise, so bear with me while I churn through, and you might see an un-review of Kingdom Of Heaven here by the weekend. One advice in advance: do NOT see this with me. Or with any medievalist, for that matter. But see it if you want to discuss it because there's much to discuss, and this bunny here can foam from the mouth for hours about this one.

Sick again.

Sorry for the long blogsilence; got walking pneumonia, at home until next week. You know, you never realize how serious these can be until you find yourself sitting on the couch panting from exertion and coughing your lungs out for two hours after a trip to the kitchen to fix something to eat...
::sigh::
AND I have drugs...

Off to Michigan...

Well, the last of the Great Spring Travelogue has come; we are off to Michigan tonight, so blogging should be almost nonexistent until next Monday, unless I can log in from WMU's campus computers. Hopefully this head cold will go away by then...