Vanity Fur

**Now with pics!!**

Louie is our cat. We have had Louie since the summer of 2002. Since before we got married, before we had kids, before we moved 47 times. Before everything. We're used to Louie and his antics.

He's a typical cat and a not so typical cat. He LOVES people. Not typical. He LOVES to kill mice and birds. So typical.
At times he can't be bothered to acknowledge your presence. Typical. At times he will follow the kids around waiting for them to sit down so he can jump into their lap. Not typical.

But like any cat who regularly ventures outdoors, Louie has learned that he needs to cover up his funky feline stank if he wants to sneak up on his unwitting prey. To do so, he will find a nice patch of dirt or old discarded fireplace ashes and roll around in them. The result is a very messy, but very stealthy Louie.

I can only assume that was his intention yesterday, when he got a bit more disguise than he bargained for.

Elizabeth and Dylan were outside playing in the yard, lest they wake up the very crabby baby from his very needed nap. Even though Elizabeth had a little cough, I bundled her up and sent her out to run around a bit.

You can imagine my surprise when the two of them come screaming across the yard and up the front steps in a full panic.

"Louie's gonna get us! He's gonna get us!"
"Mom! I'm scared!"

I jumped up and ran out onto the deck and after calming the children I surveyed the land for Louie. I found him lounging on top of a picnic table, licking his foot.
Very dangerous.

"Why are you out here screaming? Louie is NOT going to get you!" I said.

"But mom! He's all ORANGE!" Elizabeth said.

"He's all orange?" I was very confused. "Well, come inside if you don't want him to get you."

The kids came inside and I shut the front door behind them. Just then Louie bounded into the house from the WIDE open back door.

I looked at him, and he at me. He was indeed all orange. He is usually gray.
What the hell?

I touched his now orange fur. My hand did not come back orange. His cute little white sock feet were now orange. His head and part of his back on one side, a lovely shade of rusty orange.

Well, this was a mystery.

Not having the time to investigate, and not wanting to deal with cleaning up a layer of orange mystery dust from every surface of my house, I kicked Louie outside and shut all the doors so he couldn't get back in.

I got busy with kids and dinner and forgot about the orange fur mystery until Bob got home when the kids started yelling, "Daddy daddy! Louie is all orange!!" and "Louie is macaroni and cheese powder! He's gonna get me all cheesy!"

"What?!?!" Bob said.

"Oh yeah, Louie is orange," I explained.

"WHAT??!?!" Bob said, again, then examined Louie's new tint and went outside to investigate the source of the orange.

He initially thought Louie had triggered a can of orange spray paint, or alternatively that our neighbor (who we just LOVE) had sprayed Louie with spray paint. But that theory was dismissed when we observed that not only was the top of his head orange, but ALL four feet were orange.


We decided he must have walked INTO something orange, then rolled around in it, like he would a pile of dirt. But where was a pile of orange dirt???

It took Bob about 20 minutes, but he finally found a small pile of red concrete dye with kitty footprints all through it.
Mystery solved!

Since the source of the orange tint is actually a dye, it seems that Louie will be orange for awhile. At least until his fur grows out. I can't see taking him to the pet groomer and asking for a color correction.

The one in which I don't know what I've gotten myself into...

Last night was the parents' committee meeting at school.
I figured, since all three of my kids will probably be going to Head Start, I've got a good four more years at this school, so maybe I should go to the meetings.

Bob and I and all the kids went. They had child care set up for the kids to play which was awesome.
About midway through the meeting, they announced that they needed to elect a representative to the regional Head Start committee that meets every six weeks in Flagstaff...

Now, as my mom always says, I don't want to be IN a club unless I can be PRESIDENT of the club.

So I asked Bob if it was OK and then volunteered myself.
*Shockingly* noone else volunteered! (I don't mean to be mean, but some of the parents, wow.) At least they came to the committee meeting. There were PLENTY of parents who didn't show up. There's probably about 80 kids at that school, in the four classes. So, 80 sets of parents.
There was maybe 20-25 adults there at the meeting, so about 25 percent turnout. Not terrible. But wow, not great.

I was elected unanimously, yay! So now I'm the Show Low representative to the regional Head Start parents committee. I'm still not sure at all what that means, besides going to Flagstaff every six weeks for a meeting. Hey, it's only two hours or so away and I can shop at the "mall" while I'm there!

Also, the dad who heads up the male involvement activities at the school (just dads coming in with their kids and doing a craft or something dad-like) told Bob that they were moving away in a few months...maybe Bob will take over the male involvement?? Probably not. He's not MUCH of a joiner. But I think it would be fun for him and not much work.
Last time the dads and kids carved pumpkins. Next time it's building a pre-fab wooden crayon box. All the supplies are donated, so it's free and fun. We'll see how that goes.

HOLY COW!!!
LIVE BLOG UPDATE!

My computer is right by the front door, cozy.
I just heard some crows realllllly loud out there, so I knew they were either on the porch or on the house. I hate crows, they had to go.
I opened up the front door and two HUGE GIANT DISGUSTING HUGE crows flew away from the house. One was on the roof, one in the tree right next to the porch.
Right in between them, on the porch railing was my kitty Louie! They were trying to attack Louie!!!
Thank goodness I scared them off, they were as big as he is!
As they flew away I said to Louie, "Are you OK?"
He jumped off the porch railing and ran into the house and said "Meow."

Picture Page - with extra Louie!

Here is Dylan sleeping with his Louie footstool.

Here is Louie enjoying the snow

Elizabeth shows off her injury. Her cousin gave her a piggyback ride that had a sudden and unexpected end. Her face hit the road. Game over. Still Fierce!

Louie does his best impression of a chihuahua. Not happy.

Benjamin enjoys some sort of mushed concoction. Some DID get inside the boy.

These insane lunatics live with me

UPDATEDHunting season is open!

Scroll down for the latest update!

I hung up a few bird feeders last weekend making a little area for our feathered friends right by our front deck. So the birds can snack and we can watch them. Everyone is happy.
Louie is VERY happy.

The first day that the bird feeders were up, he spent the whole day laying behind a tree casing the joint.
Today, he pounced. Probably for Hitler's birthday.

Not 20 minutes after Bob left for work, I found a mess of feathers all over the living room carpet. Oh, and a bloody headless bird.
I'm getting tough though, I just scooted it onto a dustpan and tossed it into the yard. Dylan watched out the window as the bird "flew" to the ground. He was fascinated.

Lucky for him, about 10 minutes later Louie brought in another bird, dead but not headless. I vacuumed up THOSE feathers and scooted the NEW bird onto the dustpan. This time I showed the kids the dead bird. Elizabeth was horrified. Dylan was overjoyed.
It's now 8:30 am.

Birds - 0
Louie - 2

Tune in later for the final score!

***UPDATE***
As of 1:30 p.m., no additional avian casualties have been reported. Sources attribute the abatement of feline/avian hostilities not to a unexpected truce agreement, but rather high wind conditions forcing the feathered contingent to seek appropriate shelter. More details will be published as they become available.