Letters to Blessings: Here Kitty, Kitty

Well Dears,

This morning as soon as Animal Control opened, I called to see if they had any black cats.  "Oh sure, we have a ton of black cats!"

Esther on the window ledge. The paint is "nicely" scratched off by her and our other kitty we used to have.

I found out the fees for retrieving our kitty if she was there, and Daddy said I should head out quickly since there is an additional charge for each day your cat is there.  So before anyone even got to eat, I headed out with Cherished of God, whose turn it was to go with me (I rotate taking each child with me on errands to spend one-on-one time with them).

We maneuvered through the roads because of the detour by our house and finally arrived at the pound.  All of the children were so hopeful that she would be there.  I was as well and thought we would soon be returning home with Esther.  The man at the front desk informed us we would have to go up the stairs at the back of the building to see if our kitty was indeed there.

We made our way past barking dogs...and more barking dogs to the cat area.  We looked in all the cages to see if our Esther was there.  Cherished of God excitedly went up to a black kitty and said, "Oh hi, Esther!"  Indeed, the kitty did look a lot like Esther, but this one was smaller as it was only 6 months old.  The only other all-black cat was a big fluffy one, nothing like Esther.

As the realization that our kitty was not at the pound after all set in, Cherished began to cry.  Oh dear, oh dear, I'm sorry honey.

We went back to the front desk to fill out a Lost Cat report, but I don't know what good it will do since they said they will not call us.

Now I have made some fliers like Daddy suggested, and soon we will go post them around our neighborhood (and hope we don't get any weird phone calls).

Husband suspects Esther is dead, as he has seen coyotes around our neighborhood before.

Love you.

Letters to Blessings: Where Oh Where is Esther?

Dearest Blessings,

Today is the second day that we have not seen our kitty, Esther.  Oh, she is the sweetest, kindest kitty and you love her so.  She has never ever done a mean thing to any one of you.  She lives outside though due to her repeated pursuit of naughtiness whilst indoors.  Outside is where kitties love to run and jump and roll in dirt (and of course chase all manner of smaller animals and insects).






Normally Esther will always come when we call her, (except on occasion when she is just too far off on a kitty adventure), but it is quite unusual for us to not see her for this long.  She will almost always follow us down the street to our mailbox, meowing along the way.

When I expressed concern today to Husband that we had not seen Esther, Cherished of God (9) began to cry.  She was worried about her much-loved kitty.  Esther is a bit partial to Cherished and I.  She loves to sneak up behind us and jump onto our backs if they are in reach like when we squat down to pull weeds in the yard.

I told you girls that after Creative was done washing the dishes and after Cherished of God was done with loading the dishwasher we could go look for Esther.  I thought perhaps Esther had gotten stuck in a neighbor's garage that we have sometimes seen her come out of.  I really hoped we didn't have a repeat of what happened to Elijah.

The girls finished quickly, and all but the baby got ready to go search for our kitty.







I told you all to call her and then wait to listen for her meow (for she would always return a meow when she would hear us calling).  We walked and called, walked and called, down a few streets.  Down past the neighbor's where Esther sometimes snuck into the garage.  The lady even came out just as we approached, so I was able to ask her about Esther.  She checked her garage for us but did not find our kitty.

A couple of neighbors we know came out to talk to us, but they had not seen our kitty.  They did, however, inform us that a man up the street owns a pond.  He has fish in that pond.  Sometimes cats come and swat out his fish from the pond.  So the man has been catching the cats and then taking them to the pound.

I did not want to take the children to the doorstep of a man's house whom I do not know and who takes people's cats off to the pound...so in the morning I will have to call animal control and see if our kitty is there.  We did not find her anywhere else.

Love you.

Letters to Blessings: When There's No Fresh Air

I am going to start writing some posts that are like little letters to our blessings, (our children), so we can remember things that have been going on in our lives.  This will be the first such "letter".


When There's No Fresh Air

Dear Blessings,

For almost a week now, our usual bright blue skies have been covered in a smoky gray.  The fires burning in Arizona have sent smoke towards us that has filled the air with the smell of something on fire.  At times we cannot even see the mountains at all!  Thankfully, we sometimes get a break from the smoke and can open up the windows to let in fresh air and run the cooler.

We had such a time this morning, and we even got to go outside to play for awhile.  We saw a hummingbird and the usual doves around our yard.  Creative found a locust and we enjoyed making him jump (and fly) to new spots for a little bit.

Cherished of God "planted" a dead tree branch in the sand in our backyard.  She noticed that our sand has started to actually resemble soil a little bit because of all the dead leaves and weeds that have mixed in with the sand over time.

I brought the baby out with us too this time.  It was nice for her to get a little sun, but I had to carry her the whole time since I can't get shoes on her yet and there's no way she could go barefoot in our yard!  I'm sorry I didn't take our camera with us when we went out to play, but I do have a few pictures of our smoky skies from the last few days.

A little bit down the road, smoky gray skies

A smoky sky across the street

Above the rooftops~gray, gray, gray

Oh and praise God, everyone is finally feeling so much better from the bought of sickness and ear infections.  Last Sunday we got to go see some of our church and homeschool friends perform in a play called "Cheaper by the Dozen".  It was the first play for you children, and Cherished of God wondered how there were couches now in the church we used to go to, and I had to explain the concept of stage props to her :)  You had a fun time and got to pet the puppy who was in the play afterward.

Love you.