Meow.

I realize this is a little crazy cat lady...but I found this poem by Harold Monro and I LOVE it. It perfectly describes my pretty kitty, Sushi, as she is certainly someone who is never tardy for a meal.  In fact, she is by my head every morning at 6am, placing her paw on my shoulder to let me know it's time for breakfast. 

I took some pictures the other day of her in the sunshine, and thought this would be a fun way to share them. 

When the tea is brought at five o'clock,
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care,
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.

   At first she pretends, having nothing to do,
She has come in merely to blink by the grate,
But, though tea may be late or the milk may be sour,
She is never late.

And presently her agate eyes
Take a soft large milky haze,
And her independent casual glance
Becomes a stiff, hard gaze.

Then she stamps her claws or lifts her ears,
Or twists her tail and begins to stir,
Till suddenly all her lithe body becomes
One breathing, trembling purr.

The children eat and wriggle and laugh;
The two old ladies stroke their silk:
But the cat is grown small and thin with desire,
Transformed to a creeping lust for milk.

 The white saucer like some full moon descends
At last from the clouds of the table above;
She sighs and dreams and thrills and glows,
Transfigured with love.

She nestles over the shining rim,
Buries her chin in the creamy sea;
Her tail hangs loose; each drowsy paw
Is doubled under each bending knee.

A long, dim ecstasy holds her life;
Her world is an infinite shapeless white,
Till her tongue has curled the last holy drop,
Then she sinks back into the night,

Draws and dips her body to heap
Her sleepy nerves in the great arm-chair,
Lies defeated and buried deep
Three or four hours unconscious there.

-Harold Monro 1879-1932

Not many people "get" her. OK, no one gets her but me...she is a little difficult. She only likes...me--and Jack is no exception. I rescued her when she was a year and a half old from the San Diego Humane Society. I saw her in her cage and she was  just beautiful...in a mangy, skinny, wiry, dirty sort of way.  She looked right in to my eyes and gave me this huge, sad, scared yowl that will echo in my head forever.  She was just five and a half pounds, and she had horrible collar neck from her previous owners--they had put a collar on her when she was a kitten and didn't bother to increase the size as she grew. She was absolutely terrified of humans and life. I took her home and have spoiled her rotten from the first moment she was mine. That was seven years ago. 

I don't know why she was dropped off at the Society, and I can't imagine the abuse she lived through. I can only guess that she was mistreated by a man, which is why she has an unusual aversion towards Jack and other males. To this day, she hates having the back of her neck touched by even me. As she has become more comfortable in our house, her personality has been growing. She has turned into an absolute diva, so we call her our little Miss. America. Well, I call her that. Jack calls her "football" or "sausage," nicknames representative of her transformed gluttonous shape.  It's hard to put her on a diet after imagining what she went through when she was so small. She is an extremely well behaved kitty, but she likes things to operate her way. She will only be touched when she allows it. I'm glad she has Miso...our other kitty we adopted a few years ago, to keep her company. She has taken him in like a son, giving him baths and such. In turn, he keeps her on her toes and gives her the exercise she needs. I think having another kitty in the house with her has has helped warm her heart towards whatever she has endured in her life. I can't even imagine what that must be, but I'm glad she is now safe and cozy and warm with us...with a ridiculous choice of fluffy beds, her own section on a cal king, catnip on demand, a gourmet grain-free diet, filtered water, and a tri-weekly dose of relax drops.

{Rescue Remedy Relax Drops have been an all natural way to really help with her anxiety...I highly recommend if you have a pet with emo issues. She prefers them on a half teaspoon of Wellness grain free turkey & salmon wet food...I mean, this is crazy, right?}

Long. Week.

This pretty much sums up my thank-goodness-it's-friday-but-i'm-a-cpa-so-it's-really-thursday-because-i-work-tomorrow type of day:

Actually, this week in general has been trying for both of us. Jack has had midterms for the last month. I'm in the pit of busy season. It's been a frozen pizza, crackers and string cheese for dinner, coffee at midnight, stare at colors on the tv, work till my brain turns to oatmeal and go to bed to get up and do it all over again, four day hair (thank you Lord for dry shampoo), sort of week. And it's almost over. I work a half day tomorrow, but then Jack is meeting me in the city so we can play. And I have Sunday off to regroup. By regroup, I mean go to Church, the grocery store and do laundry, cook for the week so we have something in the fridge, and attempt to make my house look like a home instead of a FEMA camp. We take this time of year one day at a time. And to celebrate tonight, I've dusted off this bad boy:

Ok, it's still kind of dusty. I'm not good at cleaning...but I can prepare the heck out of a tax return. That counts, right?

Noah.

This week, our friends Rachel & Jon welcomed their first son into their family. You might remember her from the baby shower a few weeks ago. She was two weeks early when she went into labor, so his arrival came as quite a surprise, but she looked as beautiful as ever when we visited her at the hospital in Berkeley this weekend. When I say beautiful, I mean like amazonian princess beautiful. It was unreal.

Jack was able to take a few hours from his study time this weekend to come with me to go meet this little man. I didn't get too many pictures because I was sort of overwhelmed with all the excitement...talking with Rach and Jon, and staring at and holding this cutie. I whipped out the camera for two minutes and below are the only pictures I remembered to get while Jack was holding the baby:

Noah is an absolutely adorable itsy bitsy. He looks exactly like his daddy, Jon. Like, seriously...Jack could have been holding his friend, Jon. We were confused who was who. Spitting image at two days old. Welcome to the world, little one! You have the most amazing parents, and we love you already!