Beautiful Day Lily...

Here are a few pictures of a lily that just bloomed in the flower bed near my front porch. I can't remember where I got it from or when... but... isn't it just beautiful! I think this is the first year that I have had it bloom...b/c I don't have any pictures of it from last year! if you were the one that gave this to me... THANK YOU!

they've been moved inside...

Well... it didn't take long. The kittens are now residing in the fireplace room! (in their cage still, of course). The weather men were calling for some bad storms this weekend and Mike was concerned about the kittens being on the deck. I was concerned about bringing them in, as they hadn't been tested for anything. ...and still had fleas. Well... I called my vet and asked it they ever did blood work on stray kittens without doing an exam... YUP! I was in luck. They didn't have any combo tests, but had a Feline Leukemia test. So, off I went with little Cowboy (the black and white male). And.... he tested negative! What a relief! Between Feline Leukemia and Feline Aids... Leukemia is more likely to be passed on from mother to kitten. And, even though they are technically from two moms...they were sisters and were nursed by the one mom for quite some time. So... whatever one tested, it is more than likely that the rest will test that way too! I was also able to round up enough frontline to treat all of them, plus my 5 for fleas (figured we were probably bringing some fleas in on our clothes).

I have also been weighing them, giving them saline nose drops (as recommended by my vet for Emmy when she had a cold). giving them Emmy's left over eye ointment and cleaning out their ears. I also dewormed them... will have to do another treatment. I might try deworming them for tapeworms too... I just did roundworms. Since they all had fleas, there is a good chance they have tapeworms too. But, in all they are getting much healthier. Little Tiny Tot hasn't gained much weight yet... she is only 1lb 4 oz. The three girls from the older litter are just over 2 lbs. They rest are all in the 1 lb 10 oz range.





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I love this shot of Tiny Tot... and the food all over his face! Reminds me of William Hollandsworth!!!

the kitten abode...

We moved the kittens to the back deck... for more shade and for more of a breeze. But... since it isn't completely covered like the side porch... I bought them a beach umbrella! I took this picture early this morning...shortly after they devoured two cans of wet food! Eating makes them playful and feisty ...well, except for Cowgirl. She is like me, she likes to nap after she eats!

kittens....

I have recently taken in 8 (~ 8 week old) kittens. 5 females and 3 males. They were born to a stray cat that has taken up residence at a house in my neighborhood. (actually they were two separate litters, but momma cat adopted the 3 when her sister that lived across the street went missing). They want to keep (and spay) the mom but were looking for homes for the kittens. However, now that the kittens are getting a little more adventuresome, they were climbing through, under, over the chain link fence of the yard where momma kitty lives. Unfortunately, they live on the corner of a busy rode and many of the strays that call that yard home don't make it for too long. While the couple was on vacation for a week, I had started walking in the evenings...and would walk past the house. On sunday, he runt of the litter started to follow me home. I tried to put her back in the yard about 10 times. I got about 50 feet away, only to turn around and find her running after me. I brought her home and got her set up in Tipsy's cage. I wrote a note and went back to the house. I taped my note to their door and got another kitten to keep Tiny Tot (that is what I am calling her since she is the runt) company. I grabbed the next tiniest one (and the one that looked like he had the worst cold). He is solid grey. The people came home the next day and we so grateful for my help. I offered to take all the kittens to my house and keep them in the cage, away from traffic. They agreed that would be best for them. They lady had been trying to find homes for them, but has had little luck so far (and they had been on vacation for a week). She had named two of them already... The little grey one she called Smoke. And the brown and white tabby she was calling Molly. Tiny Tot has a sister that looks just like her, except she is bigger and has a squattier face. I am calling her Tater Tot. There are two black and white kittens, a boy and a girl. I am calling them Cowboy and Cowgirl. There are also two light grey tabbies, a boy and a girl. I haven't named them yet. They are playful little buggers.

I have given them one treatment of dewormer (strongid) and Mike and I gave them all baths last night. They were covered in fleas (made me want to cry seeing all those fleas on the tiny babies). We couldn't use flea shampoo, as they aren't old/big enough yet. But, between the soapy water, our fingers, and flea comb we were able to get most of them off. A couple of them are sneezing and have a little gunk in the corners of their eyes. I have some amoxi-dorps that I will probably give to Smoke and Tiny Tot...as I think they need it most. It will probably take about a week to get them up to snuff!

Cowboy:


Smoke:


Tater Tot:
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Cowgirl:


Molly:


Grey Kitty 1 and 2 (well... they could be pictures of the same kitty, 'cause unless I look "down under" I can't tell them apart!)



and last but not least... Tiny Tot

Hard at work... or hardly working???

Here I am getting one of my rats out of the boxes and then sweet talking him into being a good rat and working hard today! I am not sure if this rat is in love with me or looking at me as if I am a crazy lady?? probably a little of both!!





Here he is working in his box. Every time he presses the lever on the right side of the box, he gets an electrical stimulation delivered to the pleasure center of the brain. With all my rats being males... their pleasure is, well... lets just say I have to clean up their pleasurable experience off of the floor of the box!

My mom and 8 of her siblings...

Here is a then and now (well last year) picture of my mom and some of her siblings. I look at the old photo and I can see so many of my cousins in their parents faces... My cousin Danny has a lot of my Aunt Julie in his face... Stephen looks just like my Uncle Duane and Emily and Kimmy have his cheek bones. Lindsay looks so much like Aunt Kathy... and so on and so on. I don't see too much of me in my moms photos. I guess the Niehaus genes were pretty strong in the looks department. I did get my moms body type though...that is good.



Back Row from the left: Aunt Karen, My Mom (Cindy), Uncle Chuck, Aunt Kathy
Center: Uncle Duane
Front Row from the left: Aunt Janis, Aunt Julie, Aunt Jeanne, and Mary Joe (holding Jeanne)

(my Uncle Fritz is not in this picture... i am assuming he was in the oven!)



From the Left: Aunt Jeanne, Aunt Janis, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Duane, Aunt Julie, Mom (Cindy), Grandma, and Aunt Mary Joe

Crab Racing Champion... that's me!!

Here is a picture of the crab that I raced... and... we won!! Let me tell you... this is one speedy crab! The Tappahanock Ruritan Club was sponsored the crab racing at Rivahfest. Basically, it was kind of like a one of those races you enter at a carnival where you shoot water at a target to make your "horse" or whatever race... well... it was like that, except we were shooting water down onto our live crabs to make them race down a platform. Their were 5 crabs in each race. I wasn't going to race, but when we were leaving, there was a boy standing there waiting for other racers so he could play... I got out my dollar (yup, only a dollar to race) and before long a few other adults joined in. They readied the platform, lifted the gates and we started squirting our water bottles at our crabs... Mine took off like a maniac. Somehow he had turned himself sideways and sidestepped/slide down the 5 foot platform before 3 of the other crabs even moved an inch and the fourth crab had moved like 5 inches. I guess it wasn't that exciting of a race for the onlookers and other racers... but it sure was exciting for me! unfortunately, I forgot to handoff my camera to Mike so he could take pictures of me and speedy the crab during our race. Hopefully next year speedy and I will meet up again.