The Cat, part deux

So we still have the cat - yea us! We have finally decided on a name for him, and I kind of love it. Thomas. Thomas the cat. Or Tom Cat, if you love a good play on words like me! Actually, it fits pretty well since we live in the Thomas house, on the Thomas farm, but is still a little odd to call a cat by a man's name!

Thomas has been steady in hanging out on the back steps, sleeping in the sun. Every now and then he'll venture off and once brought us back some type of rodent and placed it right on the mat so that we would see it as soon as we opened the door. Thaaaaanks, Thomas...! :)

Mr. Thomas almost became the guest of honor at a Chinese dinner the other night, though. Ella and I were outside collecting his food bowls to take inside and fill when he put both front paws (and claws) and mouth around my ankle. I suppose he was just so happy that we were feeding him that he gave me a love nip? And I suppose that I was just so overcome with emotion in return that I gave him a lovely, first class flight to the bottom of the stairs with my other foot, the one that did not look like a pin cushion. Since then I think he and I have come to an agreement: no nipping on his part and there will be no kicking on my part.

There has been more going on at the Thomas/McClure house than just the dadgum cat, I swear! Hopefully I will be able to share more about it soon!

The Cat

The cat is still around, y'all.

The good news is that the funky eye membrane issue has gone away - yea! The bad news is that a) we may have resigned ourselves to being the proud new owners of a cat and b) the prospective new pet is nameless.

(I haven't fully committed to the keeping of the kitty who at this very moment is curled up at the top of our back steps and tries his best to bolt inside as soon as the door is opened.)

We entertained the idea of naming the cat the other night. These were the suggestions:

Ralph (David)
Buford T. Justice (me)
Roscoe (David)
Orange Cat (David)
Lance (that would be Ella's suggestion - after the previous mentioned cute boy from kindergarten)
and finally.... Willie (me)

Ella really liked Willie, seeing as how she's a big fan of Willie the Wildcat from our K-State days. And this is a cat, after all. So David looked out the back door, make a cross in the air and deemed the cat Willie.

Today Ella has decided that Willie is no good. His name should be Cat. Can you even do that?! I mean, I know you can since my dad had a cat that we called Kitty for forever. And a friend of mine had relatives with a dog named Puppy. But really? I don't know... I may go back to pushing for Buford T. Justice.

The Lasershow

Last weekend we joined some friends in heading out to Stone Mountain to see the Lasershow.  We were a bit late getting on the road and ended up arriving within minutes of the show starting.  We knew better, but decided to head over to the lawn to see what the situation was… Yeah.  It was absolutely covered, and what I mean by that is that there wasn’t a single blade of grass showing. 

We had spotted a slightly decent spot to watch the show over by the tram ride, which worked out really well.  Look at all of the space we had! 

The view of the mountain was only slightly blocked by some tree tops, but we got most of the show.  I was able to connect with my Georgia girl roots by looking at those Confederate war heroes craved into the mountain!  When they played Elvis’ American Trilogy I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to emotionally weep or stand up and cheer.  Thank goodness David was there to keep me in order.  (There’s just something about Robert E. Lee breaking his sword over his knee that gets to me.  David, not so much.)

I was able to snap this picture after only 749 others before it!

The Red Phone

Tuesday, Ella came home with this picture from art class, where they were instructed to draw what they wanted from Santa.  This would be a kitten and two puppies, as described to me by Ella Grace.

Since I have not learned my lesson about arguing pointless issues with a five year old, I engaged Ella in a 15 minute discussion about Santa’s available communication methods, since I intended to get word to the North Pole posthaste that under no circumstances was Ella Grace to get anything furry for Christmas.  Since Ella has not learned her lesson about arguing with her mother, she volleyed back and forth with me about the fact that Santa does not have a phone and does not receive mail, so of course I would be unable to deliver the ‘don’t you even think it’ message.

Ah, motherhood.

Fast forward to this evening when David looked out the living room windows and saw a young, very hungry cat climbing our back stairs.  We quickly scooped up some leftover taco meat into a cup and took it outside to the cat.  Eventually, we were able to coax it over to eat and within about .37 seconds we had a new best friend.  A pack of cheap, paper thin lunch meat does down the kitty’s gullet and we decide that a quick run to the local Dollar General for some cat food is in order.

 

This poor guy is so thin and hungry that he puts away two cans of food and some dry food.  We could see a dramatic change in his belly once he was done!

I don’t know what’s going on with these membranes (?) over his eyes, but he is super sweet and wants to rub up against our legs and purrs with his motor on high.  We’ll see what happens in the next few days if he sticks around and Lilly doesn’t run him off, but I have one thing to say:

ELLA HAS A DIRECT LINE TO THE NORTH POLE.