Meet Willow

 We, as in myself, hubby, and daughter, have a serious mouse problem in our house. We are inundated with them. In the last week, my dog, Zoey has killed 3 of them in the living room-paying homage to her dachshund heritage. They've been in every room of the house. I'm finding nests everywhere. We've all gone on the warpath. But it's a hard task. I'm seeing just how much hunting and mouse maintenance Merino and Cashmere were doing. Something has to be done.

 I'd like to introduce you to my new kitten. This is Willow. 

We've had her for a week. I got her at the local shelter. She is now 9 weeks old, and she's feral. When I say feral, I mean it. You can't believe how hard it was for them just to get her out of her cage and into a small carrier just so we could meet her. I tried to touch her and she bit me, and scratched me twice. She's a very wild little girl. 

I decided to take her home. She's an incredibly beautiful little girl, There's a low chance of adoption because she's so wild. We took on the challenge. My daughter and I have been reading up and watching videos to learn how to tame a feral cat and we are making incredible progress! The first day didn't go so well, I got bit again, and we both got scratched. She's feisty! Since then, the progress is better.

We've set her up in the sun room in our wire dog crate, which is pretty large because I bought it when we had Cable. We've got the cat carrier for a little house, a small litter box, and all the things a kitten needs: Food, water, and toys. 

One of the things we're doing is, once we can get a hold of her, we wrap her up in a towel and turn her into a burrito. Like swaddling a baby. That way we can hold her without ending up bleeding and it's been quite successful! 

The first time I held her like this, she was pretty scared. I could feel her shaking in fear, but after about 15 minutes, she started to relax. I gave her a complete tour of the house, including where she doesn't belong-like kitchen counters and the table. I took her first selfie too.

She's a quick learner and is starting to understand we don't want to hurt her.

The second time I burritoed her, she relaxed right away and actually fell asleep in my arms. It's been so long since I've been able to do that. For the first time today, she asked to be picked up by my daughter and cuddled. 

She's vocal when she wants something. She wants to play with Boba so bad, but he's a little afraid of her yet. I'm looking forward to her being able to have freedom in the house, which should be in the next week or two.

Now, for more news. today hubby and I are leaving for the airport to catch a flight to Miami, FL. We are going on a cruise to the Caribbean. It's been 9 years since our last one (to Alaska) in 2017. We had to stop when my husband was laid off from his job. We couldn't afford it. Well, now officially retired and getting our Social Security, we can cruise again. My brother-in-law has a girlfriend and wants us to meet her, so he talked us into going with him and Trisha. We're taking Norwegian Cruise Lines Escape for 7 days visiting Cozumel Mexico, Belize, and two other ports who's names escape me at the moment. I am so excited! 

I'm taking two knitting projects with me. This ship has organized knitting get togethers. I've gotta do that! I'm taking the dog sweater,

and the scarf I started a few months ago. 

I don't know if I'll blog while away. I will have Wi-Fi, and I've installed the Blogger app for posting on my blog on my phone. I guess I'll have to see how it goes.

Our daughter isn't going with us, so we've got someone taking care of the fur kids. 

It's been oppressively hot around around here the last couple weeks. Our heat pump stopped doing air conditioning about 2 weeks ago. I got a repairman to come look at it today and, as I feared, we need to replace the heat pump. Good heavens! Have the prices gone up. Our old one was bought 11 years ago. We paid just under 5 grand. The new one is over $16,000! Urg. Fortunately, we've got money saved up for it. But really?!? 16 grand? Anyway, it will be installed next week so daughter doesn't have to deal with intense heat while we're gone.

And that is the news for now! Until next time...

Live long and prosper. \\//