Little Suprises

A lot can happen in 6 years. I'll write about those years over time but my current urge to begin writing again came from the events of this year. 2017 was a year I didn't see coming, well, for the most part. Looking back through my photographs from this year there several are highs and lows. I think I will start with a high point.

Our neighborhood has a herd of feral cats like I am sure many others do. This heard of cats though, likes to hide its kittens in the walls of our house. Three years ago, we raised my cat Matilda after finding her in a part of the living room wall that to this day I still don't understand how she got in there. This winter, we found two more surprises, Didi and Dexter (more on the names later.)

I got home late one evening and heard a kitten crying. I tried to ignore it as the cats will usually come and get their kittens on their own. This little cry lasted a few days with no mom in sight, almost for a week. To the point where I couldn't leave the kitten any longer and brought him in. A few days later, I heard another cry. I went to investigate but couldn't find anything. The next day I heard the cry again, I looked a bit harder, and found another kitten in our water softener. I couldn't reach it, the water softener was tall and has a narrow opening. I ran around the house looking for something to help this kitten out. My mom suggested her 'grabber,' a stick with arms at the end controlled by a handle at the top. I went outside and was able to grab the little girl out of the tank. We left both of the kittens in a shallow box outside in hopes the mothers would collect them. No such luck. Well, since we had experience raising a kitten before we decided we could do it again. This time my mother was retired and could watch them during the day.

They were brother and sister and as cute as can be. They looked like twins, except Didi had long hair. We racked our brains for good brother-sister names and landed on Didi and Dexter from the Cartoon Network cartoon, Dexter's Laboratory, one of me and my sister's favorites. We soon took them to the vet and got one last surprise. Didi was actually a male. Well at that point, Didi was already Didi, regardless of sex.

Didi and Dexter have been one of the highs for my family this year. They made us laugh when we needed it most. They are attached to my mother's side, providing her some much needed cat-therapy. Dexter likes to ride around in the basket on her walker. They also like to take my paintbrushes off of my desk and hide them around the house. That last one is super annoying, but is so weird that it is funny. I'll take these little things. Together, they light up the dark times that we have seen this year.