introducing ela

I know it has been a while since our last post (and it was only pictures), and for that I am sorry. We do not really have any excuses except the same ol' same ol' "we have been busy, blah, blah, blah", but we are coming back with a lot of posts these next few days. I know we will be missing home a lot with Thanksgiving coming up and everything, so I think this will be a way for me to cope with missing everyone. I will just have to come on here and tell ya'll how I miss ya'll and what we are doing and all that jazz.

It is kind of late here on Sunday night, and I should be going to bed...but I have just been thinking about everyone at home a lot and wanted to write something to feel closer to everyone. I thought about what I could tell ya'll and what I could say to make sure you are all missing me back, but I decided I did not want to make anyone cry tonight. I have now decided to write something happy. We have a new member of our family (NO IT IS NOT A BABY). We got a cat! Now, I know all those dog people are going to judge us and ask what have we become...cat people? But before anyone judges us on our choice of animal (and really you should not judge anyway because they are all animals anyway...cats and dogs...some are even friends and would probably be hurt if they knew their owners did not like their friends), I just want to make sure it is known that it would be next to impossible for us to have a dog here (and I am a bit afraid of dogs now because I have to walk with rocks in my pockets in case a wild dog decides I am worthy of chase). We live in an apartment building on the third floor, and we are both gone all day. If we had a dog, our apartment would probably end up being covered in poop (and some of you may say a litter box is just as bad and I might agree but I think I would rather have it all in one place...much easier to manage). Anyway, I am done defending our decision because I do not want to make Ela (it is the Turkish word for "auburn" and you will see why we named her that in a minute...pronounced Ella) feel bad like she was our second choice or something. She was actually our third, but she does not need to know that (we tried to get a stray kitten from school but a snotty nose fourth grader beat us to it...and then we tried to catch a stray kitten one night but that did not work because he was much to fast for us and obviously did not want us...and then we went to the vet and there was Ela). So, we went to the vet last week because we heard they may have some kittens they needed to find homes for, but we ended up finding Ela. She is about 4 months old, so at first we were not sure because we really wanted a kitten. But then she purred and was so sweet and actually somewhat like a dog. She had a hurt foot, so I told Bo we could not not take her home. She was so sweet and cuddly, and she actually wanted to live with us (and of course we wanted her too...please do not think we did not). We brought her home with all of her gear (you know...all those things cats need...food, litter box, ect.). We decided we should give her a bath because she had been on the street and had only had shots at the vet...no bath). I felt a little bad about making her get in water the first night we had her, so I made Bo be the bad guy and bathe her. It was hilarious. She was running into the shower wall trying to get out, but in the end she was clean and lovely (and I was her favorite for a few minutes).

She is still so cuddly and acts like a dog. She is the perfect pet for us. She even loves to get her belly rubbed. Well, I guess that is enough chit chat...here she is...

This is on the daily...of course.

So this is my happy post. We are happy she likes us and does not realize we know nothing about cats and can only play with her like she is a dog...perhaps we have her tricked. And one more thing for this happy post...it snowed last week! It was a real snow that was still there when we woke up the next morning...it was so beautiful and my first snow before Thanksgiving ever.

Lots of love,

K