Elmo

This is our new cat, Elmo. Since Maddie died, our plan was to get a cat, have kittens and then get a puppy. Hopefully they would grow up together and be happy. John's sister, Marlene, gave us a seasoned mother cat who she suspected was pregnant. She was right. Enough time has gone by and the cat has gotten large enough that my father-in-law felt she should be delvering soon. What does he know.... she's been penned up in the barn for two weeks now and so far just getting larger and more annoyed with us. She's a pretty independent cat and has gone on "walk-abouts" for two or three days at a time. I didn't want her to have her kittens hidden somewhere and we couldn't tame them so I went along with the plan to pen her up. Boy, do I feel bad for her. Being pregnant with who knows how many kittens and now her freedom has been taken away. I let her out once or twice a day to give her fresh water, scratches behind the ears and more food. She's really going through the food. Maybe that's a good sign. When I open the barn door, I listen carefully for any sounds of lamaze breathing but so far, none. Just a side-note. We didn't name her. Apparently when she was born her gender was in question so they named her Elmo. It wasn't discovered until later that she was a she and by that time Elmo seemed like a fine name for a girl!