We gave away Willa's best friend

Isn't this little guy just the cutest?  He was hanging around our house a few weeks ago, when we got all the snow and really cold weather.  And he looked pretty unloved, dirty and matted fur.  He was obviously some sort of cruel dump job.  I really wanted to bring him in the house and take care of him until we could relocate him to a shelter or a new home, but the cat of the house, Stickers, was not a fan of that idea.  Anytime he could hear the kitten, or anytime we opened the back door to let Bailey out, Stickers would hiss and puff up all his fur and seem so angry!  So, we made the kitten a box with old towels, and gave him food and water.  He/she really seemed to like it!  It was so tempting to keep the baby, but we had to remain loyal to Stickers and also the little guy really needed some veterinary attention, at least to make sure he didn't have any funky bugs or anything, so Brad put an ad on Craigslist for a free kitten to a good home.  In a matter of minutes, he had several takers and that evening he delivered the kitten to a nice family with another cat, a small dog, and a few kids.  We had not even touched the kitten yet, as I was a little freaked out about the possibility of (eek!) worms or something, and certainly hadn't named the thing, but when Brad left with the wandering friend, Willa lost it.  She cried soooo hard and for so long and was so mad at us.  She just kept saying over and over "I want my best friend Puffball back."  Apparently, she had grown very fond of the cat living on the back steps, and had named it.  It just broke my heart.  Every few days or so, she still tells me that she wants Puffball back.  And that the family that we gave him/her to is so mean.  Please, oh please.  Don't let anymore stray animals into our yard.  The meltdown over Puffball has been traumatic.

Checking in with our feline friend

In case anyone was wondering about Stickers...He has yet to kill a mouse.  He is very kind to Willa.  He is doubling in size.  We like him.

I was warned that this would happen

Over the past week or so, we have slooooowly been putting up some Christmas decorations.  We bought a new artificial (duh) tree at (gasp) WalMart because of a show I saw on HGTV.  It is, of course, a much (much, much, much) cheaper version of the HGTV tree, but it works for us.  I wish I could find a clip from that show to share, because what they did with that house, and that tree, was awesome.  Anyway, we had just started to put a few things on the tree, including some turquoise bulbs that were brand new from Hobby Lobby, when Stickers suddenly decided to take an interest in the tree.  First, he just batted one of the lower bulbs from the branch and was playing with it on the floor.  Which was cute, until it shattered.  Bad Stickers.  Next thing we know, he is UP IN THE TREE.  Like, all the way.  Well, you can see.  And he was just sort of punching the bulbs from the tree with his tiny paws.  And they were shattering.  But for some reason, we didn't put a stop to it.  It was way too funny.  Willa was hysterical.  Brad was making a video.  I was taking pictures.  Very bad Stickers.  He will never learn, if all we do is laugh at him. 

Baby, its cold outside!

 Willa and I played outside the other day.  It was pretty chilly outside but it just looked so nice that we couldn't stay inside.  We decided to take Stickers with us.  He was supposed to have been an outdoor cat, but I am just still too nervous about pets getting hit by cars to let him be outside unattended.  So, we played a little, we followed Stickers around while he checked things out on the track.  Willa drug him around.  As usual. 

 Then, the neighbor dog decided to join our fun.  Here's the deal with the neighbor dog.  She (I'm pretty sure its a she) is a very pretty, sweet yellow lab who we met very shortly after moving in.  Long before we met her owners.  She was so friendly that we wanted to be able to call her by name, but she had no tag so we decided that WE would call her Sara.  Willa even named one of her stuffed puppies after Sara.  It got to the point that I think we all forgot that her name most likely isn't Sara.  We even introduce her to guests as Sara.  We never remember to ask the neighbors what their dogs' real name is.  So...back to my story.  Sara came.  Stickers was terrified.  He climbed the biggest tree in our yard so super fast and so high that there was no way I could get him down.  I had to convince Sara to go home, which seemed to make her pretty sad.  Then I had to just stand in the cold and wait for Sticks to climb down far enough that I could climb up and get him.  I was a little nervous.  I wish I would have snapped a pic of how high up he was.  We were oh so grateful when he was down and safe and we took him inside and snuggled up with him.  Which I did get a picture of:)