The Daily Dose of Deana: Crittur Luv

Well, yesterday morning, our kitty we've had for over 12 years, Bay-Bay, didn't show up for her breakfast. I had a bad feeling that she was gone. When Jamie came back from town, I mentioned it to him, and he immediately went to look for her in her favorite mouse-hunting spot. There he found her soft, fuzzy little gray body. I was really glad that we were able to find and bury her, and know for sure that she wasn't off suffering somewhere. We don't really know exactly what happened to her. I suppose it's possible that she could have been hit by a car, but highly unlikely, since she always quickly ran away to a safe place the moment she heard one coming. She had been getting skinnier and skinnier, and I had noticed her drinking more and more water lately, so I think she went the way of most kitties that live that long -- their kidneys inevitably end up failing them. She was around 13 years old. She didn't act sick, or like she felt bad in the least. So I suppose if it had to happen, it happened the best way it could. Needless to say, we're all going to miss her terribly. :'(

On a lighter note, thankfully, Lilly deals with pet death extremely well. Almost too well. This morning she suggested that we make a pair of mittens out of Bay-Bay's pelt. O__o Oh, well, at least she's not upset! :/

Lilly is definitely one-of-a-kind. I'm glad she's not a prissy girly-girl who doesn't like to get her hands dirty. In fact, she played around with walnuts a week ago, and her hands STILL look like they've been in a coal mine! It's almost embarrassing. All week long I kept dreading for a note to come home from school, scolding me for not cleaning my kid. Thank goodness one never came. I figured if they tried to clean her hands up at school, they would see that they were stained beyond help, and it was just gonna have to wear off, so I didn't worry about it too much. :)

Back on the subject of pets (and speaking of crazy Lilly), this morning Lilly announced that she has 2 pets in her room; a bunny (presumably one of her 9 trillion stuffed animals), and a mosquito. Yes, a real live mosquito, folks. And it's apparently Lilly's "pet" now. It must have flown into the house several days ago, because I noticed it buzzing the ceiling in her room the other night when we were reading a bedtime story. There were actually 2 ~~pets~~ mosquitos to begin with, but I was able to swat one of them when it paused to attempt to suck my pants leg.

A little while after Lilly introduced us to her new "pet" mosquito, she proudly showed us this:

Oh, a cute little toy car, you say?

NOPE. It's the storage facility for the creepy shed skin shell of a cicada that we discovered laying in the birdbath the other day, and she INSISTED on keeping. (I must admit that the weirdo doesn't fall far from the weirdo tree, however; I myself collected hundreds of these things in big jars when I was little)! O__o

(Here's a closeup picture of what those things look like, if you've never had the good fortune to find one yourself):

(I know, AAAAHHHH!!!...OH JESUS... OH LORDY!!!) Let us take this moment to state that we will not be held responsible for any nightmares that you may have for the next week or so!

Yes, I'm glad that Lilly isn't too squeamish (although she did freak out and scream her head off when I brought a huge frog home in a box one day. And she screamed just as hard when I drug in a baby snapping turtle too). (OK, so maybe it's Mama who is the real weirdo here, LOL)!

The point is, in this family, we all really love our pets, and even the critters that happen to momentarily hop, fly, or slither into our lives. Over the years, we've had over 10 cats, several dogs, goldfish, and the occasional visiting possums, coons, deer, wild hogs, turkeys, foxes, coyotes, birds, squirrels, frogs, turtles, snakes, bears...well, you name it. And we love 'em all.

Here are a few pics of our current pets:

Domino: