As one might expect, people change greatly over the course of a year and a half. After a separation like that, we really need to take some time and get reacquainted. Blogs might be a little short for a few days, although I will try to compensate with photographs when I can. I don't have a whole lot of pictures yet today. I may take a couple before bed, just to be nice.
We have kept the new cat locked in the spare bedroom that I have been referring to as the "transition room." It was the nursery for my still-healthy and strong minions of chaos (the middle two cats), it was where I tried to foster the first set of week-old kittens (who were horribly ill when they came here, and died within the first 48 hours), it was where the baby squirrel lived for a week and died burrowed in the blanket we shared, and it was the room Cricket ran into a few hours before she died. Rabbit has been spending a lot of her free time in there, and today while we took a nap, she got herself locked in the room with the new cat (she dashed in and ran under the bed). We let her stay in there for several hours, inadvertently, but she appears to have acted like an able ambassador. There was no crying, no arguing, no howling. Just a little shredded carpet at the base of the door, but that could have been the new girl, from last night. I suspect she will take to the new calico with a similar devotion as she showed to our beloved Cricket, if this is a sign to come.
We are still learning with the new dog, as well. My daughter and I had a few chances to get him in and out of his magic shoes (the wheelchair), and we learned that doing so usually ends in a paper towel and hand washing moment. Hot Wheels tends to get growly and barky when he thinks he has found a food or chew toy, and another dog is within his line of sight. He has a few odd behaviors that we haven't learned to interpret yet, like when he rolls onto his back, wiggles, and flips his useless back legs up to gnaw on them. Is this a good thing?
Last winter, I got very frustrated with my poor fire-building skills. Several times when I tried, during the polar vortex days that even chilled us in the Deep South, I ended up smoking out the house, setting off the alarms, when I failed to create a sufficient updraft. I blamed it on a lack of instruction. No one ever taught me how to do this in my formative years, or any time since. Tonight, I feel vindicated. The man started another fire tonight, but it didn't take off like last night. It failed to updraft, filled the house with smoke, set off the alarms, and distressed Alfred, just like last winter. You can't imagine how normal I feel now, after seeing the man whose old boy scout troop used to call him "Butane Breath," make some of the same errors I did. It wasn't just me!
Of course, I fell back to earth the moment he and my daughter spanked me in a game of Trivial Pursuit. I used to be unbeatable at this game. I'm going to blame the fact that it's on the old Wii, not the board game with predictable questions. I mean, really, the Sports & Leisure category didn't have a single question about liquor! Bring back the classics.
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