Wrestling

Teagan the kitty: A Christmas Story

About eight months ago, in April, Tony was moving across the country to St Paul to set up his CrossFit. He was bringing our kitty Teagan with him to keep him company while I finished up classes back in Utah. After a long drive, Tony made it the first leg of the trip to South Dakota, arriving at his Aunt Debs house around 2am. When he opened the door, Teagan promptly hopped out of the car and ran into the darkness. Tony was too tired to attempt a search right then, so he went in and went to sleep. The next day Teagan was nowhere to be found and Tony had to continue on to St Paul.

Fast forward to November.

Aunt Deb sent me a text saying they saw a cat on the deck, who she thought looked like Teagan and was wearing a collar. They dont see a lot of cats since they live in a somewhat country area, you know, big expanses of land where your neighbors are across the field rather than next door. So I told her to keep an eye out for her if she comes back around, but they didnt see her again since they have a couple dogs that I assume would bark and scare cats away.

Christmas time.

We go out to visit the family for Christmas and decide to take a look around the land for cats. After walking around for awhile yelling "KITTY KITTY HEEEERRRE KITTY" and looking weird, we settle back inside. On Christmas day, Tony comes through the door, telling me that he found Teagan on the neighbors barn and put her in the car. WHAT! Eight months after we lost her she turns up next door and just lets Tony pick her right up and cuddles on our laps.

I was a little nervous about bringing her home since for all I know she has been living in squalor as a barn cat eating mice and small birds. I looked her over, combed through her fur and she looks great! She is still nice a clean, maybe even a little more plump than when we left her. Maybe the neighbors have been looking after her. She and Oliver even rode home in the same car together with no incidents! They touched noses and sniffed and not even a bark (maybe a small hiss). She has been home with us for two days now and she is just regular old Teagan! The other cats dont really like her that much right now, but they generally just avoid each other, so nothing major has happened. I really can't believe it! It is great and Evie just LOOVES her. She meows at her trying to get Teagans attention and will bend down and put her face in Teagans and laugh. Teagan has been a champ about it all.

We are taking her to the vet this afternoon to get everything checked out (luckily we updated all of her shots just over a year ago so she should be good from the whole wilderness cat thing).

YAY!

I forgot to take some pics of Teagan, but here is Evie talking to Annie the cat.

Words!

I can put words on the blog again! I cant type on the blog from my phone, just upload videos. The plug for my laptop went out recently (the plug stop working? what? has anybody heard of this?) so I have not been able to get on a computer besides a snippet here and there on Tony's computer at the gym. Hence, I have only been blogging via video uploads from my phone. Maybe now I can leave stories and even some pictures because Tony got me a new laptop for christmas!!

While my other was still in working order, it was getting older and replacing the plug (we have already replaced it once) would cost like a hundred bucks anyway so here we are! On my new lap top! It is beautiful! It is shiny! There are no tiny fingerprint smudges on the screen! Best of all, there is a camera! Now I can skype my long lost family members (weeks have gone by, baby Henry must be walking by now, I am missing it all! but no longer.)

Also, I can leave awesome stories for everyone to read (Hi Grandpa Earley!) For instance, we celebrated Christmas a little early this year since we will be spending it in South Dakota. Santa came yesterday morning bright and early. We told Elijah that he had to sleep in his own bed ALL night in order for Santa to stop at our house and leave fun presents and treats. Lo and behold, at 730 am, the door creaks open and elijah shuffles into bed next to me with a big smile on his face. The kind where his eyebrows go up and his nose wrinkles. I asked if Santa came. "YEAH! SANTA CAME MAMA! He weeve preseeents!" It was so fun.

This is the first year he has started to grasp the 'santa' concept and we have been playing it up since Halloween. Any time he is naughty or throwing a fit, we just tell him that Santa wont come unless he his nice and listens. It has worked pretty well. Any chance it will work up until next christmas? Maybe we can do it again for the easter bunny.

Trains at the Botanic Gardens (and these boots are made for walking)

Christmas sing-a-long/Elijah rocks out

Prodigy

Elijah loses the staring contest

At the mall

We are excited to visit!