Crash Landing

I was rudely awakened this morning -at about 4 a.m. no less. The cause -the normal one -the grandson howling!

I thought at first if I ignored him, he might settle down on his own and go back to sleep but though there were a couple lulls in the crying at first, before long, he was letting out longer and louder cries so I got up with him. I decided I'd try giving him some more milk and see if that might be all he needed to quiet him, help him fall back to sleep. And it did quiet him for about 2 hours or almost 3 hours actually. Didn't put him back to sleep though so when he started fussing then right after Kate left for school, I changed him and decided to try a different line of attack with him.

I figured that since as soon as I eat something it tends to knock me out, make me very drowsy that maybe, just maybe, if I gave him more food this time it might just do the trick. So after giving him a change of undergarments, I brought him out, plunked him in the high chair and proceeded to give him a handfuls of a new dry cereal Mandy had got yesterday -mainly for Kate - Reese's Puffs -which are chocolate peanut butter flavored some kind of grain cereal.

He scarfed them up! Giving him a handful, letting him devour that much, then another handful, he ate at least a cup full of these little puff balls of cereal. When I gave him the last handful, I was in the midst then of commenting on someone's blog that it sure would be nice if when he finishes eating this stuff, I can maybe put him back in the playpen and he might just go to sleep and about that time, I glanced over at him and this is what I saw at that time.
Yep! My little sweetheart had done a "crash landing" on me! Note, he left one lonely chocolate-peanut butter puff laying there maybe intended as a reserve for when he woke up.

Very gently, I removed the tray and he started to wake up slightly but I managed to get him out and into the playpen where he then slept till about 10:45 or so! Meanwhile, Gram also hit the sofa and got myself another two hours of sleep then too! Ah, heaven!

This afternoon, my son came down and brought with him the orange cat, Nina. You may recall when Jorge entered the house, Nina was farmed out to go stay at Clate's house -at least for a while anyway, as having three cats here under this roof just didn't set very well with the SIL.

Maya saw Uncle Clate pull in out front and she also spied Nina in his arms first thing too. Jumping up and down, she was so excited, saying "He's bringing the Neener, he's got the Neener!" Clate and his roommate are doing some work to the bar top up at his house involving putting some kind of really wicked coating on it and if Nina had stayed up there over the next three days while this junk dries, they would have had to lock her in one of the bedrooms. And doing that, Clate felt would just be too hard on the cat and would drive her crazy -or crazier than she already is anyway. So he brought her back home here for the next couple of days then.

There's one other thing too and I really hate to talk about this but things have reached a point now with Gracie, the old cat, that Mandy has decided the time has come that Gracie goes to cat heaven. I know how attached Mandy is to sweet old Gracie, after all, we've had her for 16 1/2 years now and Mandy loves her dearly. But she is getting very senile, as well as very weak -has lost way too much weight over the past couple of months so she is just some matted fur over her bones -all or any of which you can feel when you try to pet her. Last night, when Mandy came home from getting some groceries, the front door was open a short time as they carried the bags in and during that time, both Gracie and Jorge had snuck outside. It was at least an hour that they had been out before we discovered both of them were missing and there's no way one can find a black cat, hiding under trees or rocks in the pitch black dark of night. Although I went to the door several times after that before I lay down about 2 a.m., neither cat responded to my calls for them. Then, this morning, Mandy found Gracie off to the side of the front porch, hiding there. She was all curled up but still very, very cold as she has no meat under that fur coat now to help keep her warm if she's outside you know. When Mandy brought her back inside, she was shaking, shivering and if she tried to stand up, she was wobbly and falling over and that is what did it for Mandy then as it was obvious to her that Gracie's time is very near. She was going to see if the vet in Clearfield would put her down today but then set up an appointment in State College where the vet and his staff there are familiar with Gracie, know her issues and medical problems and so the time has been set if she makes it that long till this coming Thursday that Gracie will be leaving us -forever. A very good family friend of ours, Anne Marie, is going to ride over with Mandy to take Gracie to the vet and older daughter will then meet them at the vet's office so they can both then be with Gracie and say their goodbyes to our beautiful and very, very sweet, good old cat. She's been the bestest cat ever to live with us, stayed the longest and well, beyond that, the only other thing I can say is that I know we are really going to miss her -very, very much!

Now - I'm off to fix supper!