Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Our New Baby

It's official. Brad and I are now responsible for a little life, other than our own. We now have a cat. :) Meet Dora...


My brother and sister-in-law may as well be the cat whisperers. They have rescued many cats and Jessie, being a licensed vet-tech, has a HUGE heart for anything furry. Dora showed up on their doorstep a while back and after unsuccessfully trying to find her original owner, they took her in and gave her the name Pandora. Unfortunately, they already had three cats...and those other cats didn't take too kindly to her.

John had told me that they were trying to find a new home for her, because she was basically living in fear of the other cats and that she would probably do much better in another home. I thought about it, but wasn't a huge cat person, so I sort of brushed off the idea and tried to forget about her. On Halloween I went over to John and Jessie's house to see my nephew dressed up in his peanut costume. It was that night that I saw firsthand what Pandora's life was like. The other cats were very mean to her and she was one stressed out little kitty.

I went home that night and told Brad that my heart was just breaking for her. Brad, who has a HUGE heart for animals, suggested that we take her in. I wanted to, but we had two big hurdles to get over. 

1) I am allergic to cats. Whenever I would touch a cat, my skin would break out in a rash. And I had never been around a cat long enough to know if I had any more allergies (sneezing, coughing, etc).
2) Our apartment complex doesn't allow animals, unless you have a note from a physician stating that you need a pet for companionship. Legally, they have to allow "companion pets." Since we don't NEED a companion pet for mental or emotional reasons, we sort of felt like it was wrong to ask our doctor to write a note.

A few days later, the nurse from my doctor's office called to give me some test results. So, for some reason I got really bold and asked her if they had ever written notes for companion pets. She said, "Sure! I'll have the note ready for you at 8am tomorrow." WOW! I also asked what she thought about my cat allergy. She said that I most likely have an allergy to all pet dander (I even get itchy sometimes after petting my parents dogs). She said that most likely, if I live with a pet, I will get used to and become immune to their dander. She thought it would be rough at first, but that I'd eventually get used to the cat.

After I got off the phone with her, I called Brad and he said, "Call your brother and tell him we want her!" So I did. That night, they brought Pandora over. Jessie had told us that she would probably hide for a few days, because she was in new surroundings. When she figured out that we were nice and that there weren't any other cats around to attack her, she'd probably warm up to us.

Well, it didn't take long and she was on the couch wanting to be cuddled! We have definitely fallen in love with her!



My allergies are doing great. I am careful and make sure to wash my hands before touching my face and I have taken a few doses of Benadryl to help with the itchy skin and itchy eyes, but other than that, I seem to be doing well. Oh, and it just so happens that Dora (as we call her) has a favorite spot on the couch. And it happens to be my favorite spot on the couch. :) We'll see how that pans out....

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Birthday Boy and Halloween

October 19th was my hubby's 28th birthday. TWO YEARS FROM THE BIG 3-0! I try to remind him of that quite frequently. :) This year, Brad wanted something simple, so I made him dinner and dessert. Not too exciting....but the recipe I made for dinner was delicious!

Our dinner was delicious. I got the recipe off of Pinterest and it came from this website. It was so easy. I took a package of frozen chicken, a can of black beans,a can of corn, a brick of cream cheese, a can of green chiles and a can of rotel tomatoes and threw them all in the crockpot on low while I was at work. I came home, shredded the chicken, and VOILA! You can put it over rice, in a tortilla shell, or use it as a dip with chips, like Brad and I did. It was yummy!

 



Oh, and I made Brad birthday brownies. Oh....and my nickname for him is Stinky. Kind of embarrassing...


About a week and a half later, we celebrated Halloween! Brad and I aren't super into Halloween - we don't really dress up or party. But, I did go see my nephew Cooper for his first Halloween. He was, of course, ADORABLE! His prenatal nickname was "Peanut," so that's what he ended up being for his first Halloween. John and Jessie played along and dressed up as a box of cracker jacks and a snack vendor. It was very cute!

My brother - the cracker jack!

HOW CUTE!

 The whole family...

Mom and Dad stopped by as well! Cooper was already tired, obviously....