RIP Guillermo Cat

This was quite a rough day. I certainly didn't expect to be burying Guillermo this afternoon, but we did. I was just happy that I found what was left of him before the kids did. Luckily, they didn't see any of it. Mike was really good about going to get him from our neighbor's backyard and digging the hole and doing it all without me or the kids seeing it.

Jacob was very upset. He had just told me last night that Guillermo was his best friend. He said that he was feeling guilty because he'd been very hard on Guillermo for watching the hamsters. I told him that he shouldn't feel guilty at all.

Hannah was sad because she felt like she should be. She understands that Guillermo's not coming back but she's just not all that sad about it. Which is just fine. I wouldn't expect her to be overcome with sadness. I can just tell that she sees me sad and thinks that's how she should feel. She's too precious.

Daniel just wanted to see what was left. We didn't show him, of course. That's not to say that he doesn't miss Guillermo but he's all into the gross and disgusting right now.

I just wish we could have buried him under the black-eyed Susans in the backyard. It was his favorite spot to sit on warm summer days. There was just too much clay to dig a proper hole there so Mike placed him under the rose bushes on the side of the house. The kids all went around and picked different flowers to place on his little grave. It was so sweet. Even their little friends, Kellan and Mikayla, joined in and placed flowers down.

A little later, I'd gone out to check on the site and I noticed a fluffy little cat toy had been placed on the grave. Jacob later told me that he thought Guillermo might like one of his favorite toys. A little later, I noticed that two other little toys showed up (a catnip squirrel and a neopets toy). We're going to look for a little stone to place there. Not anything creepy that says his name but just a little something.

It's shocking how quiet the house is without him. It hurts to go into the bathroom and not have him yelling at me to turn the water on. Or to go into the kitchen and not have him begging for more food because the dog's eaten it all. Just sitting on the couch and not having him jump up in my lap is wrong.

I do have to say that I'm really glad I let him eat what was left of Daniel's chocolate ice cream last night. Normally I'd have brushed him off of the table but I just kind of figured whatever last night.

I miss my grouchy little guy. He was my first baby.

Bring On The Storms!

I woke up this morning to a thunderstorm. I love daytime thunderstorms. When Jacob got up he told me that he'd been up for a while, just listening to it storm. He's being taught right! LOL! It stormed and stormed until about 1:30. Lots of thunder and lightning and a ton of rain. It's cleared up a bit...enough for the kids to go outside and play.

I got the temporary fence up, for the most part, around the pool yesterday. I thought it would take more fencing than it did so I have a whole roll that I need to take back. I had called one of the code guys with a question last Friday and he called me back this morning. I told him that we'd almost gotten the temporary fence done and he told me that that was great and that that he would stop bothering me now. Yay! I have neighbors that are really mad that someone called the city on us. One neighbor, Aimee, really hates it because the people behind her are calling on them about once a week because of their dog. Oh well, Jacob2 hasn't been in the pool since the weekend.

I was changing the filter on the pool and putting in chlorine last night when I saw Guillermo running across the backyard. He was almost at my feet when I saw he had something dangling from his mouth. I took about 5 steps back and then looked when I saw that he'd dropped it. Of course it was a baby bunny. All cute and fuzzy. He batted it a couple of times and then picked it up again and brought it closer to me again. The look on his face was like "look what I got mom!" I told him to put the poor bunny out of its misery and to put the body in a place where the kids wouldn't find it (and I actually told him that out loud!) and went back in. So far, I haven't found the bunny and hopefully I won't.

School Days

Poor Guillermo. Today was our day at school for Animal Show-and-Tell. He was the animal picked to go. I tried to get Daniel to take the hermit crabs but he told me, "the crabs are boring! I want to take Guillermo!" So, off we went to school this morning.

He howled all of the way to school. And all of the way into the building. Interestingly, he stopped once we got inside. I signed in and headed to Daniel's class. Guillermo was not happy about the 20 kids that descended upon him and tried to hide under my arm. Daniel was thrilled to answer questions about him and found it even more fun to call on his friends to take questions. Fortunately, it was only a 10 minute ordeal and he easily went back into the carrier. Once we got home, he immediately ran from me and hid for about 30 minutes. After that, he was fine and back to his normal self.

I also had Hannah's parent-teacher conference this morning. Hannah adores her teacher and it seems like the feeling is mutual. Mrs. M just gushed and gushed about Hannah and what a great girl she is. Apparently, she has some of the best fine motor skills in her class (she was able to cut out a tracing of her hand...I thought Mrs. M had cut it out for her!) and does well with the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors. She also has lots of friends in every class. Mrs. M said that most of the kids know the other kids in the school but aren't friends with them the way that Hannah is. She is, indeed, a little socialite. It is so nice to come out of a conference feeling good about it all.

Some Bunny Has a Death Wish

Poor Guillermo. All he wanted to do was take a nap. Ruby thought it would be fun to walk back and forth across the couch...right over Guillermo. Guillermo only snapped at her once. Poor kitty. Ruby needs to watch herself!

Hannah fell asleep (in her princess dress-up dress) on the couch last night...snuggled right next to Guillermo! I thought it was cute.

Our New Addition

We stopped by the pet store this afternoon to get Jacob's toad more crickets and walked out with a new bunny. I know...I know. We just couldn't help it. She was just too cute. This one's a regular Dutch bunny...our last one was a dwarf Holland lop-eared. She's all of 9 weeks old. We will definitely get this one spayed (we didn't neuter Bumper and we should have). Her name is Ruby (her name would have been Max if she had turned out to be a boy...get it? Max and Ruby. Daniel and Hannah came up with that. LOL!). Guillermo's been very interested in Ruby but has been nothing but playful with her. Considering Bumper and Guillermo used to curl up together, I'm not too concerned. Here are some pictures of our new girl.

Hannah and Ruby
Jacob and Ruby

Daniel and Ruby

Guillermo tries to snuggle with Ruby

Weekend Gardening

It is so sad and dreary outside today. It is trying to rain but it just can't get it together to do it. Humidity is at 88% so it's not fun to be outside. I'm hoping we get some thunderstorms (there's a chance) today but I'm not counting on it. We had some storms roll through the other night (around 2am) with very little rain. The lightning was amazing. It was so constant that it looked like someone playing with a flashlight.

Friday and Saturday, I spent a lot of time weeding and tending to my gardens. My back rectangle looks awesome and the day after I weeded in there, it seems like the plants doubled in size. So cool.

I almost lost one of my tomato plants. I usually water them about twice a week unless they look like they need more. Thursday, they really looked like they needed water, so I watered away. I discovered the hard way that I forgot to pull the drain plug out of the bottom of the container when I planted them and Friday, I woke to very wilty tomatoes. I really wanted to cry. I pulled the drain plug out and it emptied for about an hour. Saturday, it still hadn't perked up but the main stems were still nice and green. I figured I couldn't hurt anything so I grabbed some shears and began cutting the heck out of it. I only left the stems that looked like they were getting blossoms or had the start of tomatoes. Sunday, I checked it and not only had the whole thing completely perked back up but there were tons of blossoms on it. Apparently, it liked being cut back.

Jacob's beans and my green peppers are also doing really well. I have one pepper that's about half done and several others that are coming out. Jacob's got a bunch of beans on his plants that are just going and going. I thought we'd lost one of his plants, too, because we had a big windstorm last week and it bent the main stalk to the point it cracked down by the dirt. Jacob was really upset about it. I told him that I would try to save it but couldn't guarantee anything. I packed more dirt up and around the area that cracked and secured the plant really well to the trellis. I figured if the plant was going to die, we'd know in a few days. Well, not only did it not die but it's putting out more and more blossoms and is doing better than it was before. I just wish I knew what kind of beans they are! LOL!

Here's my back garden. It doesn't look like much now but some of the stuff has yet to bloom.
Yellow roses I planted because I couldn't plant a redbud
Jacob's pink roses.
One of my tomato plants that's going nuts.

Guillermo got himself a baby bunny last week, as well as a robin. We found the bird carcass but I have no idea what happened to the bunny. The only reason I even know he got one is because I saw him running across the yard with it. So sad. I'm just shocked that at his age and with no front claws he's able to hunt so skillfully. I did have to laugh yesterday when I saw him running across the backyard while three sparrows were dive-bombing him. Apparently, they've had enough of Guillermo. LOL!

The "lion" sleeps!