When will life slow down for us?????

Again three months have passed by and I didn't post anything new here - mostly because I didn't have time for a lot.......

David and I just started to enjoy living in our house alone for the very first time, we enjoyed that we had so much room now, we loved the evenings in the living room, watched the babies playing and chased them away from our Christmas tree :-)

Well, this didn't last very long...............

Two weeks before Christmas Robert, our former contractor who had built us our master suite downstairs, stopped by asking us if we had some work for him or knew somebody he could possibly work for. To help him out we decided that we should take care of the front door and the storm door, replacing both as they turned out to become some trouble. We also told Robert to look at some funny bumps in the wall next to the door. To make the long story short - we ended up building the whole two story part of the house completely new from the inside out. When Robert started to remove the drywall next and above the door it turned out that the previous owners covered all the structural damages in the house behind the drywall. We had to go a step further and removed also the ceiling in the living room and found even more bad news. The house was absolutely not safe and we still wonder that it didn't collapse or somebody didn't fall through the floors! Since then the whole house, except for the new addition (and even part of that has to be redone) is a complete workzone, the basement, the laundry room, the bathroom in the main floor and of course also our bedroom downstairs are packed with all the things and furniture we have, the kitchen had to be removed into the basement as well ...... it is a complete mess!

What really drives us crazy is, that we will not have much chance to get any of the money back that we have to put into that house in order to make it safe and liveable. Although the structural issues are clear and documented (despite the fact that the previous owners didn't disclose all that when we closed on the house and the housing inspector ignored signs of these issues), nobody got hurt - so a lawsuit would have taken a loooooooong time, cost us a lot of money and in the best scenario we probably only would have gotten a portion of the whole remodeling and construction costs back. Considering that we would have had to also pay the attorney, we wouldn't have gained a lot..... Life can be so unfair and cruel!

David meanwhile established a new website for us, where he posts pictures, comments and also videos about the remodeling. Here is the link: http://dsread.dyndns.org/ Since this website is looking way more professional and has a lot more options than this blog, I will most likely also post some things there and less here.

We are trying to keep ourselves in good mood, it's hard at times - but I also have to admit, that we are very proud of what we have already accomplished in these last three months.

I really hope some day we will have a quiet and pieceful life...........

Never a dull moment....

I don't even know where to start - so much has happened again within the last months.

Well, the biggest events had been Dad's move back to Alton, the auction of his belongings and my daughter Michaela's promotion.

In October two of David's brothers came to our house to go together with Dad through all his stuff to categorize everything. This was supposed to give David and me some more room in our own house. At this point it was already clear that Dad would move back to Alton to give him the option to meet again with friends and to have some company that he missed here very much. He got a two bedroom appartment in a very nice retirement community. Knowing this sorting out of his belongings and making decisions about what to keep, what would have to go to auction and what would find it's way into charity or the dumpster made that whole process a bit easier.

We moved Dad and his stuff with a big truck and the help of David's eldest brother at beginning of November. Everything was mostly said and done in one single day. Dad can live now his life as he wants and the same applies to David and me.

One week later the auction took place at our house. I have only seen pictures - I was in Austria at that time, but I will come back to this a bit later. Woow, this must have been an incredible day! Everything was sold and I guess Dad was very content with the outcome of that whole event. A lot of people showed up at our house and bids got higher and higher. Good for Dad!

Our house looks way emptier, now that mostly all of Dad's furniture is gone and David and I worked on the layout of our own furniture. I think we found a good solution, at least it feels cozy and home for us again and we enjoy our house very much.

The babies are very happy that they pretty much have the run of the whole house now, as the upstairs bedrooms are empty now and function as playgrounds for them.

As I mentioned before I took a one week trip to Austria to surprise Michaela on the day of her promotion to a doctor med.univ. at the University of Graz/Austria. It was in fact a surprise for her and everything turned out wonderful, made me forget the horrible 33 hour trip from St.Louis to Vienna (delay of more than 5 hours, broken airplanes,.....). I enjoyed that week very much, but after that I was ready to get back home to my wonderful husband and to the babies. As much as I enjoyed to be back in Austria, I also missed my hubby and our six little babies. I really wish that David would have been there with me.

The promotion was very nice and I was so proud of my "little girl". She really worked very hard for that doctor title and a few days after the promotion she got already a job at a hospital near her home. Awesome!

I also saw my son and my grandkids again which was wonderful a a lot of fun. We also took a look at Wolfi's new built house. This will be a very nice home for him and his family and will give them finally the space they need so urgently. Wolfi said that they will most likely celebrate Christmas Eve there and plan to move into the house in January 2008.

Christmas time is here again and I got busy with all kinds of crafting and painting for Christmas gifts, the Jingle Market in Breese and an Art show in Carlyle. Well, I just came back from the Art show that also featured an art competition. I had entered two ceramic pieces into the competition and both got promoted - one piece got 2nd place, the other one an honorable mention. I am very proud! People obviously like my work.

We are very much looking forward to Christmas, it's a great time here! I have already put up some Christmas lights on the house,our tree is already standing - well, more or less, as the kittens love to climb into it and then branches get bent and ornaments are everywhere spread out in the house. We are lucky if the tree is still standing every morning! hahaha It's getting better now with every new day and thankfully we have "kittenproof" ornaments hanging on the tree. However, it looks very nice and fancy - just the way I like it. I also put up some other Christmas decorations around the house and I think it looks nice and gives a bit of that Christmas feeling

Speaking of the babies - they are doing fine; full of energy and still growing - the boys are as big as Cutie, our (now) 1.5 year old, only Angela (the little girl) is still tiny, but she is healthy and obviously feels very good. We have a lot of joy with this little shits, they are just adorable!

Life is good again!

25 Years Highschool Class Reunion

Just another (short) posting about David's Highschool Class Reunion. It took place in Alton and Grafton, Illinois, so we spent the weekend there in a hotel which we enjoyed a lot! Away from home for a couple of days, relaxing and concentrating on other things than worrying what to cook for Dad (I wish he wouldn't be so picky!) and cleaning poop boxes hahahaha

On Friday we had been in a huge pub in Alton for the first gathering. It was a bit odd, nobody had name tags and David couldn't really tell which people could have been from his class as there were also "normal" customers there. But he finally met a few guys and I could tell that he had a good time.

On Saturday afternoon/evening we drove to Grafton to a restaurant directly on the Mississippi riverside. It was wonderful to sit outside, to watching the boats, enjoying good food, chatting with David's class mates and listening to an awesome band playing. David "rented" a lot of beer (you know, you consume it but you also "give it back" after a while hahahaha) - but he wasn't the only one hahaha

However, we had a good time and it was a lot of fun. Hope to see some of the guys again in 5 years!

The Gang - die Rasselbande

A stormy and rainy but very warm day outside today - the best time to take care of my blog again and to post something...... maybe some stories and pictures of the newest family members. The three kittens are doing incredibly well, they are growing and growing and growing. I took them to the vet last week for their last annual vaccination, they are weighed there every time before they get treated. Trick, the eldest has already 5,4 pounds, Angela only 3,5 pounds. The big surprise was Mephisto (the youngest, the runt), who managed to weigh 4,2 pounds! It shows that he is already bigger than the little girl and we are very glad that he became so healthy and strong.

These three guys are so much fun, joy and entertainment all day long. Snaps, Laces and Cutie got used to them - well, in fact Cutie didn't have a hard time at all. He mostly acts like a cat Daddy, but also like a big brother. He loves to play with them (sometimes pretty hard, but the little ones don't care), he gives them a bath (which means he is licking and cleaning them just like their mother did - and it's a fact that they all have the same mother!), they very often sleep together and when it gets stormy outside and thunder is rumbling all four of them hide in our closet downstairs, cuddled up together - soooo sweet! When David and /or I are in our bedroom, we have all 6 babies around us. And they mostly sleep with or around us in the same room. We are very happy that the transition for the three kittens went so smoothly without any troubles. They are very good, although I'm happy to have no new or expensive curtains, as they are starting to climb them up to get a better view outside the window LooooL Cutie learned them how to climb up walls (!!!!!) which we also don't appreciate very much, but who could be mad at them? But they have already learned that they have no business on the dining room table, that they are not supposed to chew on Daddy's shoes and that cables are also nothing really tasty.

Although they got bigger, they still have their squeaky noises, especially Angela does. She can bitch about everything - if you pet her too much, if you pet her not enough, when she is hungry, when she (!!) starts to play rough and her brothers do the same to her - yeah, she is definitely a princess... hahaha

Mephisto is the most quiet one. He is also the most hungry one, his hobby is to eat all the time - regardsless what it is: catfood - wet and dry food (oh, after he has emptied his plate he always looks if the other ones left something on their plates), cat treats, but of course he is also the first to be around us when we have something to eat - especially in the evening when David enjoyes something from McDonald's or Hardy's ..... such as French Fries (= Pommes Frittes) or Cheeseburger. I also have to be very careful with the refrigerator - he would climb into it to see if he can find something to eat (you should see how long his neck gets! Must be smelling real good inside! LooooL) Because of the fact that he is so silent, I happened to lock him into a kitchen cabinet for almost three hours and the bathroom as well a couple of weeks ago. He didn't complain while being locked in there, made absolutely no noise. I was only wondering, where he was, 'cause normally all three are around us when we are home. So I started to search for him and it took me quite a while until I found him! Poor little guy. Since then I really pay attention when I close kitchen cabinets, the fridge or bathroom doors.

So - here are the pictures of our babies (taken last week)

The biggest and oldest, Trick. He reminds us so much of Moritz! Same face, same white legs,.... I bet he will be a gorgeous, beautiful male cat one day with a bushy tail - just like Moritz had it before it had to be amputated.....

Mephisto - the youngest (the runt). With the vet's help we managed to free him from his terrible hard and bulky round belly - I guess he had a lot of parasites and would have probably died outside if we hadn't taken him in. Now he is almost as big as Trick, but still has a bit of that cute kitten face. He must have an incredible will to survive - considering the nasal and eye infection that he had shortly after we moved them into the green house. The troubles with his digestive system, he probably had a lot of tummy aches! But to see him now, so sweet, so active and so well developed is a real joy for us. So I ask you - isn't he adorable?

And this is Angela, the bitchy princess. She is so precious! Oh, I forgot - we first thought, that all babies are boys! Well, at the first appointment at the vet it turned out that we have a little babygirl among them - and it's very seldom that red cats are girls! Most of them are boys. The red colour is always forwarded by male genes to the next generation - which are mostly boys. So we have a very precious little girl! But she also has a lot of "boy stuff" in her genes - she can be incredibly wild when it comes to running around, doing stupid things and playing. I bet you would not imagine that by seeing that picture! hahaha
Typical evening still life in our bedroom. David making phone calls (see his wireless ear plug?) while checking his email accounts and eating something that he picked up at McDonald's or Hardy's on the way back home. Laces has her nose already in the French Fries bag, while Mephisto is sniffing on the wrapped Cheeseburger (of course - Mephisto!) Angela and Snaps are waiting for Daddy to share his food with them and Trick got distracted by something interesting in front of the bed (maybe my toes, he loves to play with and bite into my toes!)

Trick snuggles to Cutie while Angela tries to do the same with Snaps. Trick and Cutie are real buddies. They truly love each other.

Angela in the basket. She loves to suck on the fur-fabric while making the basket "soft" with the typical cat treading. She even starts purring so loud to the sucking sound when somebody pets her head - all that must remind her of the time as a baby kitten sucking on Mommy's breasts.

Afterwards she tries to take Cutie's attention away from Trick

...and she was successful, Cutie gives her first a full bath.....

and then some love bites!

A bit later she ends up lying between Snaps and Cutie:

She really starts very soon to attract boys! LooooL And look at Snaps - he is totally relaxed hahahaha

Playtime! Angela (left) and Trick (right)

Mephisto has something better to do meanwhile - of course EATING!!!!

So much action gets me tired!

Lets take a little nap (Mephisto - stretched out, and Angela)

I guess you got a pretty good idea about our three little brats. Yes, it is a lot of work every day (cleaning three huge litter boxes several times a day, preparing meals, cleaning and filling up the water bowls, cleaning up messes,.....) but it's worth it. We get so much back from them - especially love and appreciation. We are so glad that we ended up taking them into our house and not finding places for them, which would have ment that they would have been split up for life. They are so attached to each other, we just couldn't separate them. And they are very thankfull. Cutie is glad to have play buddies again, Snaps also starts to play with the little ones ( I guess until now they had been too little for him) and Laces also warms up to them.

Some people might think that we are crazy for having 6 cats in the house and taking care of 2 other ones outside (Mama Kitty, the mother of Cutie, Trick, Angela & Mephisto and the fourth baby, which escaped us after moving the kittens into our greenhouse). Yeah, we might be crazy, but David and I love cats, we have seen what can happen to them when they are living as wild cats outside and we didn't want this to happen to these adorable little ones. No animal deserves such a life and if we can only rescue a few of them, that makes us feel happy inside.

Life is going on.....

A little bit more than a week has passed until we lost Moritz. I am thinking about him every single day and although we are still sad about the loss, the pain is getting better.

In the memory of Moritz we have taken the three little babies inside and call them our own. Yeah, we first wanted to find places for them, but I'm glad we didn't. These three little guys are so connected to each other, it would have killed us to tare them apart and give them away. It was already very painful to loose Moritz, but it would have been additionally painful to also loose these adorable little guys.

The move was very easy - for us and for them. The first days I had them in my bathroom to get them used to their new home, now they are already exploring the house and they mostly play in the living room where it is bright all day and where they have enough room to run - and they do! From the living room to the kitchen, into the dining room, further into the hallway and into our big laundry room/office. They really enjoy that big playground that they have now and don't make any effort any more to get outside. Momma Kitty has seen her babies inside our house (through our glass storm dorm) and it seems like she agrees that we take care of her babies. And the babies are not searching or squeaking for her any more - they have accepted their new Mommy and Daddy - and their new "siblings" Snaps, Laces and Cutie. Especially Cutie is happy to have playbuddies again and sometimes it even looks like he is slipping into the role of being their "Cat Daddy" - he is cleaning them, they sleep some times together - snuggled next to each other.

It is great joy and fun to watch the little ones. They are growing fast right now - especially the runt Mephisto. God, he can eat! He is always the first at the food bowl and he even emptys the plates of the other ones.

Since yesterday all three are starting to spend more time also downstairs in our bedroom suite - especially when David and I are there. It was most likely Cutie who led them downstairs - we had some thunderstorms lately and Cutie is very scared about the thunder. So he hides into our closet downstairs and the little ones follow him, although they obviously aren't scared a little bit about thunderstorms. In fact yesterday, after David came home from work, we had a big one - but the babies were together with us in the living room, playing, while Cutie was hiding downstairs to get away from thunder and lightening.

And Mephisto was even sleeping next to the open window while it was storming outside...
It looks like all three are very happy in their new home - and we are happy that we have them with us. It was the right decision, although we have more babies inside now than we always wanted. But they need us, they know that they are loved here and that's what they need for a happy and unstressful life - in comparison to a life outside...... Moritz would agree and I know that he is happy as well with this solution. All three are so alike him that we very often wonder if he had not been their biological Daddy.....


On my family's front: my daughter has arrived in Dunedin/New Zealand where she will practice at the University hospital there. It's one of the last big steps for her medicine study.
It is obviously winter time over there - hard to imagine while we have a hot and sunny summer here, spending a lot of time outside on the deck, on the porch or in the swimmingpool. Michaela told me that it's freezing over there and the house where she and her studying friend are currently living in has no furnace. Life is very expensive over there - even for European people! So they will take advantage of the fact that they will be provided with food and all kinds of other free stuff at the University. Other than that she says that New Zealand is a beautiful country, the people are very nice and helpful and it's a great experience so far.

My Mom is doing pretty good, she only has a few more radiation therapies left - thankfully, because it's also very hot and humid in Europe right now.

On the home front: David is searching for a new job and it looks like he's about to get a new one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed right now, he's having an interview this morning and I'm waiting for his call to hear the result..........

Life is getting better and we for sure enjoy every single new day.

Moritz

It's very sad - we lost our baby Moritz ..................


Two days ago in the later afternoon it showed that he had become sick again. He didn't want his dinner, only a little bit of cat milk. His ears were hot and his inner eyes closed up more and more with every new hour. He made some breathing noise, so we think he started with a cold again, maybe another pneumonia. We tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible, but it was already clear for us, that one day this sad situation will arise.


He slept through the night, even went to the litter box. But he still had no desire to eat or drink. I called the vet's office in the following morning and although the vet is normally not in on Wednesdays I got a return call two hours later with the message to bring Moritz in at 2 pm. I can't describe the feelings here that I had these last few hours with Moritz. I held him in my arms, I was lying next to him, I pet him, I just wanted to make him feel good and not alone. David had already said Good Bye in the morning, we knew that this would be Moritz's last day.


The vet examined him, Moritz was seriously sick and any new treatment would only made him more suffering, which we wanted to avoid. It was hard to make this final decision for him, it was hard to say Good Bye, it was heartbreaking when they took him away....



Moritz, I hope you felt and still know how much you have been loved here although we didn't have you for a long time, ...... how much you are still loved, we hope you have a painfree, funny, wonderful time now - again with your tail. I also hope you are together with my Dad - you died on his birthday. Thanks Moritz, that you waited until it was for sure that the 3 little kittens (are they maybe your kids?) are healthy without that terrible virus that you had been suffering from. Mommy and Daddy promise you to take care of the little ones in the memory of you.

Have a good time on Mommy's and Daddy's star........



We will always love you and always remember you!

Four weeks have gone by since the last posting - four weeks of fun, joy but also disappointments and sadness.

It turned out that Moritz is seriously sick, first suffering from pneumonia, now he has leukaemia and there is no therapy for him. He will die probably pretty soon. I didn't know that he was already infected with that special cat-aids-virus when he had pneumonia, I would have had him put to sleep if I had known. It was at that weekend when my friend from Switzerland arrived here, Moritz was about to die - but somehow I managed to get him through. I slept on the floor next to him, fed him with a syringe some special food every other hour, it was a very hard time for me and for him. Two days later the vet finally tested him and we heard about the terrible truth.... My next concern were our three other babies, especially Cutie who had been playing with Moritz all the time and all four sometimes change food bowls and use the same litter boxes. So I took Cutie, Snaps and Laces to the vet and had them tested as well - thankfully all three are not infected and I had them vaccinated immediately.


This picture shows Moritz after he had pneumonia. As shown his ears, nose and paws are not rosy pink any more - that's because of the leukaemia.....

I also had taken Momma Kitty for spaying to the vet, had her inside in our big bathroom during the first night after the surgery and then I needed to keep her away from her four new babies - they could already eat kitten food, their mother's milk was not enough to feed them any longer and on top of that the little guys would have been a risk for Momma Kitty's fresh wound from the surgery. Somehow and with the help of our friend we finally managed to catch all four little guys and I put them into my greenhouse. Unfortunately one of them escaped, but the other three are still inside and doing pretty fine. They meanwhile got used to their new home and love it there. The fourth one is obviously together with Momma Kitty on our porch, I had put up one of these big blue plastic bins (I cut a hole on the side as an entrance) and in fact I saw the little red kitten walking back and forth on our porch the other day. So it looks like Momma Kitty and her little son are living in that bin and that's a good shelter for them.

This is Momma Kitty

and these are two of her four kittens:

All four babies are boys for sure, the three in my greenhouse will be tested for the cat-aids-virus next Tuesday and depending on the result I will have them vaccinated as well. We will most likely take one of the kittens inside to replace Moritz when he will not be with us any longer and I am desperately searching for new good homes for the rest. I would like to keep them all, but unfortunately this is not possible. I hope we will find a good solution for everybody.

The visit of our friend was a great experience and a lot of fun for us. We had a great time together and it sounds like our friend enjoyed the vacation here. These three weeks went by so quickly and I only hope she will come back visiting us.

Thank you very much for your support during these three weeks! We really appreciate what you had done for us and for all of our babies.....

Dad is doing better these days, he has started eating better again and his depression is also getting better. He joined a geriatric group including some therapy at the local hospital and it looks like this helped him. He is also meeting his girlfriend again once in a while. I don't know if this will last, we all got more or less used to take every day like it shows up - looks like this is our new "normal" for now. But it's definitely not a final solution.

David is currently in Germany for another business trip, he will be back home in two days. I can't wait to have him back, I miss him so much. The first week was not so bad because my friend was still here and we had a lot to do before she flew back to Switzerland. But this second week is really very long and David is also very ready to come home. Two more days, honey!

Less Improvement.......

It's about 3 weeks ago since Dad's accident. He's doing better with his broken ribs, but suffers from depression. Thankfully his doctor is helping him a lot, today we have an appointment at the hospital with a therapist from the geriatric group. It's supposed to be kind of a "talking" meeting with psychological background. Dad was also offered to join a geriatric group that meets periodicaly - I hope that will cheer him up a little bit and give him some distraction. Most of the time he is only sitting in his rooms, watching TV, sitting in front of the computer or only thinking about the accident. Yesterday Elli more or less broke up their relationship - the main reason is because Dad will not have a car any more and she feels too young to sit at home (her own words).......
As I said in my last blog, I'm pretty much stuck at home again to support Dad in all his needs. Sometimes it's very tiresome and I also have times where I feel helpless, depressed and start crying for no reason. We are still facing the problem with all of Dad's stuff sitting in our house, which also drives me nuts some times. Example: next week a friend of mine from Switzerland is going to visit us for three weeks. There is absolutely no way that she could bring her suitcases into the guest bedroom as the hallway is blocked with Dad's old stereo cabinet and the speakers. He doesn't use this stuff anymore, he doesn't want it in his rooms, but he also doesn't want to get rid of it. So it sits there and collects dust. I have to find a solution for that within the next days......

I'm also facing the next problem right now, Moritz is obviously sick, but I can't figure out what he has. He's absolutely not activ any more like he had been until yesterday, he's not eating, just sleeping on the floor and his whole body is like dead weight on him. So, when I return from the hospital later this morning I will have to take him back to the vet. I hope it's not anything serious, I'm worried.

Last Sunday (Mother's Day) Momma Kitty brought me her 6-7 week old kittens on our deck, they are hiding now und the hood of the grill. There should be four cute, red little guys, but they are rarely all together. Momma Kitty now spends most of the day on the patio as well. I'm desperately trying to find good places for the babies, as they wouldn't have a nice and for sure not a long life outside as wild cats. Sadly last Saturday we found Smokey (one of Cutie's brothers from the litter one year ago) lying dead on our porch. As far as we know there is only Cutie left from that litter - Socks died last fall for some reason, our neighbor found her in a ditch on the other side of the street. Baby Garfield never showed up again, so out of four babies it seems like only Cutie, the runt, stayed alive. I don't want the newborn kittens to have such a life. As much as I would like to keep them it's not possible as we have already four in the house.

God, I only hope life will become a little bit easier again these days. It's almost to much to deal with and I'm soooooooo tired......