Let me go in a chronological order, else I'll get confused.

Yesterday morning, I started the day with a little and incredibly short bareback trail ride.  Archie took his job very seriously and marched me to the end of the meadow, started to freak out, and brought me safely back.  I don't think I ever stopped rubbing his withers and ever held the reins correctly.  It was a wonderful feeling - the warmth of his coat on that brisk morning.

Left him with his beet pulp and headed to Wal-Mart to get another cat carrier.  Then it was home to clean up and wrangle cats.  Both of our cats were overdue for vaccines and the local pet store was running a clinic.  I feel like I need to give a disclaimer before I admit to going to a clinic for vax.  So, here it is:  your pet deserves a physical exam by a licensed veterinarian at least once a year; vaccine clinics do not count as an "exam," as your pet is only being stabbed and not examined. Why do I feel like I can justify not taking the kitties to an actual vet and just a vet in a box?  It's the five years of vet med experience and the hypersensitivity to all of my animals' physical well-being.  But I am not a vet.

Okay, so we spent an hour and a half there, girls covered by a towel and they were excellent.

Until we got home and one had a vomiting spell, recovered, and the other has been lethargic today.  Consensus?  Our kids are indoors and we'll probably never vaccinate them again (which is so illegal).

We didn't find out about the reactions until later, because it was back to the Humane Society for a photo session and ... dun dun dun.. foster paperwork.  I took the dogs to a different area to photograph them - there were only about five - because they were doing another feral cat trap-neuter-release day and the other runs had play groups in them.  I did rediscover another run in the front that I might make better use of.  It's got a lot of lantanas and flowers.

So, we're fostering a litter of four kittens, aged at about six weeks.  They're took young for adoption, but we discovered them last week.  We were at PetSmart looking for a specific type of stay-the-fuck-off-the-furniture blanket and just wandered by the adoptable pets.  D's been talking about a Siamese for ever.  And, in a little crate next to a cardboard box was a litter of two Siamese and two black kittens (with amazing eyes).  The story is that someone dropped the box of kittens off early, early in the morning, before PetSmart opened, with a sign saying "free kittens."

The rescue working took them but didn't have any available fosters.  So off to the Humane Society they went (where we met up with them, actually - as I think I was taking pictures).  Since I know all the people there now, I told them that I was interested in one of the kittens.  We've been checking the website and stopping by for the last week.  On Friday, the receptionist sent me an email telling me that the kittens were still too young to be adopted, but they really needed to be fostered out.  We talked about it for a night and I emailed the recep back on Saturday.  On Sunday, we picked them up.

Monster.

They've been locked in a crate for about a week now, so when we released them in the guest room, they went ballistic.  It's a joy to watch.

The dogs are very interested, the cats are hateful and I think it's going to be a pretty stressful couple of weeks.  They'll go back on 11/8 to be neutered and spayed and our foster session will be over.  Also, by that point, we should better be able to determine if now is an okay time to make an addition to our furry family.

I call them our little monsters, because they're currently named after Lord of the Rings characters (which suck.. Samwise?  Merry?  Pippin?  Something else I can't remember?).

OPSDMC?  Fail.  Antique chair in the bottom left, knocked over.

Meeting a neighbor's cat.

This morning, I took another pee sample of Savannah's to the clinic to be tested.  If it comes back okay, then she's fine.  I think she might be going on another round of antibiotics, though.  Which also means a cysto and culture.  Poor baby girl.

This is just us out, but damn, it's a nice picture.