The Naked Cowboy & A Growing Family...

Lately Owen has really been into being a cowboy. It doesn't matter if he has pants or not, all that matters is his hat, gun, and vest. Some days it feels like all I do is put that vest on him and take it off, then put it back on him again.

As for the 'growing family' part of this post's title, we added several new additions over the weekend...

Yep. Cats.

I know, I don't like cats. They creep me out. But we've been told that if we have cats to eat the mice around the place then the snakes won't be tempted to slither up here and eat the mice for dinner. And I would much rather have cats than mice or especially snakes. And a lot of people have mentioned the abundance of rattlesnakes in the area and that they often get run over on the roads because they like to lay on the pavement and warm up. Awesome.

So anyway, we saw a listing on craigslit for free kittens and I called the lady. She gave me directions to her place that went like this:

"Head up the mountain to mile marker 7 then turn at the mailboxes. Watch for the place with the black cows, don't turn there 'cause that's Bob's place. When you get to the field with the goats, that's our driveway."

Since when do people give directions involving their neighbor's cattle and their own goats?

Well, we followed the directions to mile marker 7 and couldn't find anywhere to turn so we called the lady & she told us the name of the road...which probably would've been nice the first time she gave directions, but oh well. Her husband made sure we were in a 4 wheel drive vehicle because "it can get kinda rough". He made no mention of the fact that we would pass a sign reading

Local Traffic Only.

Primitive Road.

We continued up the narrow 'road' which was more like a pathway with tread marks and overgrowth from trees and bushes, then we finally passed "Bob's place" after noticing the black cows. Needless to say, we were relieved when we saw the goats and the lady standing on her porch waving us down. The boys each picked out a kitten and we began our trek back down, hoping that another vehicle didn't start heading up toward us because there was no possible way that two cars would pass each other on the "Primitive Road". But we made it home and after much deliberation and even some arguing among the boys, have named all three kittens and are trying to help them get used to their new home. They live in the garage for now and like to hide beneath the freezers, so we've got to figure out how to keep them out from under there.

This morning Pudge raced in the garage and stole the kittens' bowl of food, then he took it outside and scarfed down their breakfast. And, as if stealing their meal wasn't enough, he finished the job by peeing in their bowl. I guess we've got a little jealousy brewing among the family pets. It's a bit crazy that in two months we've gone from no pets to one dog, three kittens, a pond full of goldfish, and three frogs.

The grey and white kitten is named Gilbert, the black one is Sampson, and the striped kitten is Fin. We have no idea if they are boys or girls, but hopefully they will be good at catching mice and staying away from coyotes and whatever else wanders around here.

We've been seeing so many deer lately, there were two in the front yard when the boys and I got home this afternoon and when we drove down last week we counted 13 in one field, along with one elk. We've seen elk twice at the neighbors house and downtown on the hospital lawn on Sunday we saw two bucks, about four does, and four fawns. Jeff saw another wild turkey and on Friday a little bunny hopped across the lawn. So we are enjoying the wildlife and hopefully we don't accumulate any more family pets for quite awhile.