I'm a slacker! I haven't blogged since sometime Saturday! Been busy, I guess. Had a lot on my to-do list today, and tomorrow's not looking much different.

My poor kitty is going in for surgery tomorrow morning. He's going to lose his manhood, as well as his front claws. And we're going to lose close to $100. I really didn't feel like we had the money to get the cat "fixed" and declawed, but after yesterday's events, I felt we didn't have a choice. This whole thing could have been prevented in the first place had Michael never brought the kitten home back in May, but he did bring it home...that can't be changed...and I got very attached to the cat, and he got attached to me.

I had been telling Michael for weeks now that we needed to find another home for the cat, and my inlaws said we could bring it by their place and leave it in their yard (they have like 3 acres of land and lots of woods behind their house), so yesterday afternoon, after the cat decided to "mark his territory" in Jacob's room, I couldn't handle it anymore. We weighed out the pros and cons. Even though I grew quite fond of Kira, and think he's a sweet, loving cat, I just couldn't handle my furniture being used as a scratching post, my house getting smelly, and Travis getting scratches all over himself. It was time for the cat to go, so yesterday afternoon, Michael drove the cat over to his parents' house and left him there.

I was pretty busy yesterday with church, and playing piano, and practicing with folks, and then we went to do our "big" grocery shopping after that before coming home, and it wasn't until late last night when I was getting ready for bed that I realized Kira was gone for real. It didn't help that I saw his dish in the kitchen, and his basket of toys that sits on the hearth. And it REALLY didn't help when my sister-in-law came over to see the kids and pick up her dog that we've been "dog sitting" and said that she left her cat over there several months ago and hasn't seen it since and figures that some other animal "got him". I kept saying "Nah, he probably meandered over to someone else's driveway and someone else has him now." But she kept insisting that something probably "happened" to her cat. Just great. So much for at least TRYING to make a person feel better. So when I was about to go to bed, I was practically crying, saying "Kira doesn't understand. He's scared and doesn't know where he is and doesn't know what to do or where to go." He'd gotten used to where everything was here and had a warm place with lots of comfortable nooks and crannies, and now he was left out in the cold. At that point, Michael started feeling really bad about it, too, and so we made the decision to bring the cat back here and look into getting him fixed.

So at 11:45 last night, Michael got in his car and went back over there to look for the cat. There were no guarantees that Kira would even be anywhere around. He could have easily taken off in the woods behind the house. I laid in bed while he was gone, and this may sound really silly, but I said a little prayer. All I said was, "If we're supposed to have this cat, let Michael find him and work it out to where we can afford to get him fixed & declawed. And if Michael can't find him, help me to feel better about the situation and our decision to let him go." I then dozed off, and not long after that, Michael was back with my kitty. He said Kira was stretched out in the carport underneath a car, and didn't want to come out because of one of the other cats that already lives there. But as soon as Kira heard Michael's voice, he started meowing and came out to meet him.

When I called the vet this morning, they said to neuter and declaw him will be $82.50, plus he needs his Rabies shot, which is another $10, so $92.50 is a lot less than I thought we would have to shell out. And I get to keep my baby!!

Well, I'm off to bed, or atleast to put my PJ's on! Later alligator!