Posting from the Memphis airport to get another state under my belt in case this blog isn't over. I dunno, I haven't felt like writing in a while. We still have the foster cats, but now that the holidays are over the itty bitties are going to get neutered and all three are going up for adoption.

I'm in the airport for my connection home from Washington. I spent a few days taking care of my mom. I don't think I mentioned it here yet, but she is having another, but much worse bout of cancer. This time it is bone and liver. She went through three rounds of chemo last summer and told me over the phone that it was "stable," meaning not getting rid of the tumors but they weren't growing either.

Unfortunately she is much worse than she let on over the phone. Unless she can find a new treatment, I don't expect her to survive more than a few months. She can barely eat anything and has lost almost 100 lbs from her normal weight (which was, granted, overweight, but she is getting skeletal now). She just left for an alternative treatment at a clinic in Texas...I am pretty skeptical about the place, but they claim that if the treatment is successful, she will start improving within a month or two. So if there's a miracle, this thing in Texas will work, but I'm hoping that she lasts long enough to try another round of chemo with a different combination of drugs. In her mind chemo is chemo is chemo, and her body really didn't like it, but from what I gather there are a lot of chemo drugs and sometimes the trick is finding the right combination.

She really seemed glad to have me around and especially cook for her because my father doesn't cook and has just been microwaving frozen stuff. I booked another week-long visit for early February when she is back from Texas.

While I was in WA I did get to see my brother's house for the first time...I'm jealous. He and his wife knew which area they'd be at for a long time, so they bought a long-term house. It's so big and spacious and only a couple years old. He has a decent-sized garden patch, though not as big as I hope to have in the future, though.

Itty bitty update! Still cute. Still nursing, but have just started licking the "gravy" from canned food, so they should be eating that soon. At least one of them has started using the litterbox, but we don't know who.

Buffy has an eye infection- you can see her left eye (your right) is cloudy in this pic:

So she gets antibiotic eye drops for that. Both of them still sneeze occasionally, so they're also on a different antibiotic for the respiratory infections (they were on a different one earlier that didn't clear it up). These darn kittens are going to breed a new race of superbacteria that will wipe out the human race, I just know it. But I won't hold it against them, since they're so cute!

MacGyver is really feisty and likes to attack and bite anything that moves (as well as plenty of things that don't move, too):


Look at the toe pads below! Eeek! The cute!

Boy did the weekend suck. Sniffles, the most sick of the kittens, died Friday. Cyclops, the other small kitten, looked like she was getting worse. She wasn't eating at all. I went to the shelter and they showed me how to feed her from a bottle. Ryan and I fed her as best we could all weekend, but her breathing got worse and interfered with feeding. She died early this morning. So my heart is broken times two.

Momma and the two bigger kittens are doing well, though. I decided to name the mom Isis (that's the name of Catwoman's cat). The boy is going to be MacGyver. I haven't decided on the girl's name yet. Here are some more pictures. I haven't got a good one of MacGyver yet because he is always eating or sleeping.


Any name suggestions for this cute little girl?

At this point in time there are 9 kitties in the house!
Last Saturday Ryan and I went to PetSmart to buy a new scratching post. As usual, we stopped by the kitties for adoption just to look. A woman from the animal shelter was there checking in and asked us if we could help. As she explained, due to the recession the shelter is severely overcrowded, with cages and pet carriers full of animals stacked in the hallways. She asked us to consider becoming foster parents to a cat.

Of course I thought it was THE MOST WONDERFUL IDEA IN THE WORLD! Ryan took more convincing, but I promised that I would give them back and not adopt them permanently. Later that day I dropped off a foster application to the shelter and on Tuesday I got the call that I was approved and could drop by that evening. The lady gave me the option of an adult or litter of kittens, and I jumped at the chance for some itty bitties. They are only 2-3 weeks old and still nursing, so momma came with me too!

Momma is kinda small, a little smaller than Stormy. She's a little wary but friendly. There are four babies. Two are dilute calicos (like Grem! but they are mostly gray), so those are definitely girls. One of the other two is gray with faint tabby stripes (like momma), and the other is gray with faint tabby stripes and white patches under the chin and on the belly (remniscent of Jib).

None of them were named by the shelter, so we get to name them! We are leaning toward a theme, such as characters from a TV show. For now, I'm calling them Momma, Pudgy (plump gray/white), Grem II (plump calico with more orange and white than the other), Sniffles (small all gray), and Cyclops (small calico with orange spot on the forehead).

The kittens are all on twice-daily antibiotics for respiratory infections, but most of them seem to be getting better (Sniffles is lagging behind, hence the name). I also have to rub their eyes with ointment twice daily so they don't get crusty and stick together. The shelter lady was really glad that I could take care of them because being getting away from all the other cats at the shelter will help them get healthy faster.

I will try to get some better pictures and videos later...my camera died in the middle of the last batch. Momma will be here until the babies are weaned, then she can be fixed and put up for adoption. The kittens are here until they are over 2 pounds, since that's when they can be fixed and then will be available for adoption. With all the overcrowding at the shelter, though, maybe they'll have to stay longer or maybe I'll have to take a different batch :)

Love is in the air. No, really. Tessa got engaged over the weekend...in a HOT AIR BALLOON! Congratulations, Missy.

And...today is me and Ryan's 6 year coupledom anniversary! Poor coupledom anniversary plays second fiddle to wedding anniversary, though. No special plans to celebrate.

Tomorrow I give my very first lecture. I've given seminars before and led sections of students before, but this is my first full-length lecture to an entire class. It's an 80 minute class. There are about 90 students. The prof is out of town and wanted me to share my research and perspective on grad school in general. Should go okay, I guess, since it's a topic I know well.

Over the weekend we got about 50 cans of soup for $2. And I'm going back for more. Just a little wheeling and dealing brag since I shut down that blog :)

Haven't been in much of a writing mood. Ryan and I went up to Maine over Labor Day weekend to do a final round of sampling. Went back to school this week. Everything else is pretty much same-old, same-old.

It took 2 years, but I finally grew a ripe watermelon. 16.6 pounds and very tasty!

Cattens are still cute.