Wanted: Laundry Help and Rat Eaters.

 We'd like to introduce our newest family members:

 Violet picked out this cat and named him "Moon" because

he's black as night but has some white that shines on him like the moon...

or something like that.

Don't try to talk her out of this name.

You won't get anywhere.

Several have already tried,

right, Grandpa?

 This is Tiger.

Tiger is a girl

with a name that will not be replaced either.

Violet already tried.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

I had a beautiful long-haired orange cat named Mr. Knightly

(yes, taken from the movie "Emma";

I liked Mr. Knightly.

Does anybody not like Mr. Knightly?)

My cat Mr. Knightly would always come visit me when I hung clothes out on the line in the evening.

Yes, I hang clothes on the line at night because that's usually when I finally get around to it.

It dries by the light of the moon.

Maybe Moon kitty will take Mr. Knightly's place.

Mr. Knightly got hit by a car about 3 weeks ago.

My Farmer found him.

I was sad.

I still have to hang the laundry

and it gets lonely.

 Hi, Moon.

Will you come help me with all my laundry?

Violet had a pretty calico cat named Candy Kiss.

Candy Kiss was a little cat,

but a fierce hunter.

She took care of the rat problem in the barn.

She left the tails to let us know about it.

She took care of the pigeon problem as well.

The feathers were witness to that.

I think she must have known how to fly or something;

either that or she had suction cups on her little feet.

Actually, truth be told, my Farmer put some super long beams up to the rafters so she could get up there and deal with those birds.  They made really big messes all over his hay.

Hay is worth putting beams up to the rafters for.

No more bird bombs falling into my Farmer's hay.

My Farmer really liked Candy Kiss.

One week after my Mr. Knightly died,

Candy Kiss got hit by a truck.

I won't tell whose truck it was,

because it was an accident.

We didn't want to tell Violet who it was because we didn't want any hard feelings.

She can have hard feelings that take many years to go away

and the neighbor doesn't need that in his life.

There were lots of tears over Candy Kiss.

I can still see in my mind the image of Violet and Levi walking down from the barn together,

both of them crying.

There was a burial up in the back yard

and a pine tree was planted on her grave:

the Candy Kiss tree.

 Hi, Tiger.

Do you like pigeon meat?

Would you like to learn how to balance on a beam that goes to the rafters.

I hope you eat rat tails as well as the rats.

 There is lots of practice going on up in our bathroom these days.

Hunting practice;

 and there are two very happy kids who spend lots of time in the bathroom with them,

especially Violet,

doing her math and other school with a kitten snoozing on her lap.

Rest up Moon and Tiger.

You'll have another big day tomorrow.

Welcome to our life.