The cat came back, thought he was a gonner, but the cat came back . . .

Much rejoicing was made in our home today!  

As soon as I'd dropped the kids off to school this morning and stepped back into the house, the phone was ringing.  When I answered it, our son was exclaiming,  "Mom, we found Joe Joe at the door of the school!  Come get him", so I turned around and went back to the school to rescue him.   Joe Joe had been missing for 2 weeks, which was especially worrisome since his Mother, our beloved Kitka was run over a few days before Christmas and we were already sad.  He'd lost his collar, so no one could call us.  The Principal said he'd been hanging around near the stop sign where the kids cross over for a few days now.  

We've also been sad, since our pet hamster Bubba, which Santa brought our youngest, died within a few days.   Then our oldest's only remaining rabbit -- white colored Floppy, got out of his cage and hasn't been seen or found in all this white snow.  We keep putting veggies under the play house, in hopes he's burrowed in there somewhere where the dogs cannot find him. We'll see what spring brings.

Well, Joe Joe is reunited with his sister Shelly Belly and they still like each other -- for the most part.  You can tell he's been roughed up and is quite skiddish, and was suspicious of her at first, but is readjusting.  Here they are together again this afternoon.  

Oh, and the new pet hamster, Rosa has done well, except for when Shelly Belly knocked her cage over to get to her.   Rosa quickly ran up her tunnel tube and the kids all went running when they heard the loud crash.  If we keep the door closed tightly, she's fine.  When they were kittens, they used to stay in this bathroom, now it's the hamster's bathroom and is off  limits to them.  Yikes!  living with animals is work and can be stressful -- that's why I told Santa, the Easter Bunny and my husband to all stop bringing animals as gifts, but my husband assures me all of these lessons are helpful for our children.  As for me growing up,  all of our animals were outdoors as opposed to sharing my bathroom!  Well, I do have a cute picture of "Blackie" my Tom cat sitting in my sink, now that I think of it:)