This week

I just haven't been good at blogging. I am in Wilmington, helping take care of my sister, who has some mysterious condition. She was in the hospital all last week, more doctors appointments this week, and still no answers. We are just hoping to get some answers soon! She is sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I am so lucky to have a husband who urges me to be here to help, friends who are helping with my kids, and a husband who is taking care of things at home. It's very frustrating to watch your loved one, my only sister, go through this and not be able to make it go away. I couldn't imagine being home and not pacing the room with worry, so I know I need to be here. Ah, I druther on.....
We have yet another foster cat, Goldie is peeing on the boys' beds, so she is going to the vet to get tested today. The new kitten looks like her. Andy said that Mrs. Park is doing great and is coming out more and more. She's a sweetheart. I could keep her if there's no issue with Goldie. I just cannot keep a cat who is peeing on beds...not acceptable. Not sure what we would do with her, but probably see how she does at another house. If she does it there, then she would more than likely be a barn cat or find an indoor/outdoor home.
Well, need to get ready for sissy's doctor appointment. I will be missing the Mighty Mo race this Saturday since I will be flying home that day. Oh well, not even a consideration. I haven't been training much so not worried. I am going to try yoga this week if I can get my Paw Prints paperwork done! I need to strengthen my muscles....running isn't enough.
More updates later, at least we're counting on it!

Exciting News

I have some very exciting news. We got a grant a few weeks ago. It is small, but it is already making a difference. Beth has contacted several people who advertised free kittens back in May, and offered to get the mom cats spayed at little to no cost. These people haven't been able to afford to get the cats spayed themselves, so this help will prevent the births of surplus kittens. Beth, you are amazing, and I'm so lucky to be working with you! What an inspiration.
When I can get more details, I will post more. I am out of town and busy with family stuff that just came up, but I hope to post this weekend. This is great!!!!

Signed up for the Sioux City 1/2 Marathon

There have been a lot of personal things going on today. Some of our great friends that were our neighbors in Mooresville are here to visit for the day. They will be here until morning. I am trying to help Beth with the grant money organization. That has been harder to do with all the other stuff that came up that needs done. To prove a point that what she is doing will help, she called someone from the newspaper ad who was giving away kittens. This is the mom cat's sixth litter in a short amount of time. Once her kittens are weaned, she will be spayed! So no more kittens from this cat anymore! Beth also met someone who heard her talking and has a cat who needs spayed. He's a college student and this will prevent him from having to give away kittens. It's amazing how many kittens one cat can produce. We have to stop the madness! About 2-400 cats are euthanized each MONTH in Sioux City by Animal Control.
Anyway, once I can get my thoughts organized, I will update my readers and post some pictures of the wonderful little kittens that I have here now. The mom cat is Sadie...what a sweetheart, but she does come across rather grumpy. I guess I would too! So much change for a cat.
As in the title, I decided to go ahead and sign up for the Sioux City 1/2 Marathon. This was a part of the deal, of Kelli's Challenge. I can only hope to bring in a few more dollars! Next huge thing is the craft fair....we need crafts to sell.

Mrs. Park

Mrs. Park came home from the vet today. She was spayed and front declawed. Beth is doing an experiment and wants to know if declawed cats are more adoptable than non-declawed. She is getting lots of inquiries about her cats and some peope are not interested at all if they are not declawed. It doesn't make any sense because some cats do not tear anything up. Case in point: Goldie. My other cats were tearing up my couches and other things but Goldie does not. The only thing she may tear up is Tigger's ear, and that hasn't happened in a while. So I urge anyone to not get their cats declawed if possible and if they do start to tear up your house, then make the decision to do it. If the cats we are offering for adoption are all spayed/neutered and have thier shots, what is the big deal about getting it done for yourself? My prior foster, Montana, hasn't been adopted yet, which totally boggles my mind. She is so sweet, doesn't tear anything up, and behaves. Ah, who knows. Anyway, Mrs, Park will be adoptable in about three weeks.

We are offering low-income spay/neuter/immunization for people in Sioux City. We assume the grant money for that purpose will go very fast, but if you know someone who has an unaltered cat in Sioux City, please contact me and we will try and help. There is a co-pay depending on income.

We are working on our next fundraiser for the fall. All craft items are needed to sell at the craft fair. It should be a fun and interesting time!

We have had a great time today and hopefully again tomorrow. Oh, I forgot to mention that I was away for a few days to visit my grandma. My cousins and their kids plus my uncles/aunts were there so I decided over a few minutes to go. What a great decision. It's so neat to see my kids play with my cousin's kids where we used to play 25 years ago. Wow, does time fly!

As for running, I haven't been able to much this week due to being away and not having child watch help. I am revisiting my running schedule to see when the next one is. The one that I know is coming is Aug. 1st in S. Sioux City. I'll see if there's one sooner, but not sure if it's in the area. Then there's that pesky weather! I am going to take up yoga, thanks to my cousin Sarah. It rocks and hopefully will help shave that last minute from my times that I have wanted. I've been a little lazy the past month but need to get back into it!

A new foster cat

Here's a picture of me at our campsite, a picture of a mug that I had made for Beth, and our new foster cat, Mrs. Park. Let me start with camping on Friday. I wasn't really thrilled about going, but we were all geared up to go so I went along. Once we got there, my mood lifted and the boys had a good time running around and finding sticks for us to burn. My hubby and I are not good firestarters so we did have to borrow some lighter fluid from the neighboring campers. It helped so we had a big enough fire for hot dogs and s'mores. It was a really neat camp area at Stone State Park here in Sioux City. The sites are small, so at least there were several vacant so we could change the one we reserved. The nice ones who lent us the fluid ended up being a little foul mouthed. I don't think the boys really noticed the language, and I know I'm not the perfect example, but I certainly do not talk like that in front of my kids (or in general). They did have a child there so it was completely inappropriate in my opinion.

After we all had enough of firefly catching and s'more eating, we decided to get to bed. My wonderful hubby cleaned up our site and helped the boys brush their teeth and herded us to the bathrooms (the more modern and less smelly ones) a little walk away. It was a very pretty evening but we wish it wouldn't have been cloudy so we could have watched the stars. At about 11pm, I heard a cat rowling a ways away. I thought I was at home! It stopped but just a bit later, I heard the cat right next to our tent. I got her attention, snuck out of the tent, found our last hot dog, and fed it to her. She was hungry. And very friendly. Darn. I had a few thoughts running through my head....I could take her home, but I didn't know if she would make a huge mess or if I could even get out of the park. I knew it closed at 10:30 so didn't know if the gates closed. Then I could just let her stay out and hopefully find her in the morning. BUT I thought she would follow me and keep us up anyway with her meowing or me thinking about her. What to do, what to do.....

I took her home at 11:15 that night and returned at midnight. No gate issues and she was hungry. I set her up in our basement where she had plenty of soft places to sleep and plenty of food and water to have. Tyler named her Mrs. Park for obvious reasons. She is shy but when I call her, she comes and just can't get enough petting. She also gorged herself with food. She seems to be doing fine and I will take her to the vet this week to get her leukemia tested and find out if we can get her spayed right away.

I thought Beth was going to kill me when I told her, especially since she had just said that they can't take in more cats...the hotel is closed. She called yesterday to share the absolutely wonderful news of getting a nice grant to fund our first spay/neuter clinic. This will change the lives of the animals in Siouxland and hopefully make a huge impact on the number of cats euthanized. I hope anyway. After she told me the news of the grant, I told her of our "find" at the park while we were camping. Of course it was ok since we both know that we can't say "no" when a cute furry face is meowing in ours.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, so we will forge ahead and get started this week. What a wonderful way to spend time.....making a difference.

Stay tuned as I have some more things to post about Animal Control.....

Some updates

This picture is of a cool firework we had (in Nebraska). I think it is a John Deere tractor. It's hard to say. We had a tank, a firetruck, and a tractor. They are difficult to take pictures of!

This week went fast! And slow when the boys were grumpy. Here's some updates from this week. First of all, a few cats were returned to Paw Prints. People adopt kittens because they are oh-so-cute and when it's time to move to a new apartment, they return them when the new landlord doesn't take cats. Well, it's time to take responsibility for your animal that YOU chose to adopt and find a place that does take cats! That is what owners do. They are not shirts, they are animals and you are to take care of them. That is what adoption means. Sorry, but people who do this drive me nuts.

Paw Prints is not participating in ArtSplash this year. It will take a lot of money up front and then with all the other booths, it may never be returned, plus it takes a LOT of time to prepare for and work these things. Their time is better spent getting money another way.

The Chili's day was dismal. Only $37 was collected so I assume that no one else came who was given vouchers and no one requested them when they came to eat there. The good thing that came from it is that Chili's wants to give Paw Prints a full week in August, October, and December and also allow them to put up literature and info on cats up for adoption. This should make a big difference. Now only to design the table tents....

I had a Tupperware party and they provide fundraising opportunities. The products are more limited and some prices are higher, but the organization you are raising money for gets 40%. With just a few orders, I raised $135 for Paw Prints, plus we get something to have and use at home! What a deal. I urge anyone who wants to raise money for a non-profit to have a Tupperware party. There are so many other things I wanted to order but my wallet said "NO".

I went for a run this morning and if only I hadn't pushed the 10 minute snooze. I thought there was a little distant lightning and by the time I got the furthest away from home, it was getting a little scary and started sprinkling. I can handle the rain just fine, but not the lightning. Thank goodness my parents live closer to where I was! I stopped by there to call my hubby (of course the kids were up because of the thunder- they don't sleep through anything) and he had to come get me. I've never had that happen before!

Time to get some boys down for naps so we can have a good night camping. Yes, camping. We shall see!

A long run today

I decided to go for a long run today....instead of 8 miles, I stretched it to 10. It didn't feel the best but I chugged through anyway. I felt like I had a bungie cord working against me and was taking it inch by inch up the steep hills. I was just about 3-4 miles into it and a police car pulled up. I was thinking...what in the world could I be doing wrong??? It ended up being a high school classmate of mine who was a police officer. He had a K9unit, which was a beautiful black dog. Not sure what kind and I wanted to pet him/her, but decided to keep my fingers. It was nice to see him.
The boys were a little grumpy and I was a little grumpy so it wasn't the best day. I think the best part was knowing my mom and aunt made it safely to my sister's house in Wilmington.

Paw Prints will be having some sort of craft at ArtSplash this year. I am helping Beth decide what to do. I assume the boys will be helping too! I am not sure what the next race is, but it's coming soon. I have a lot more miles to put in and run.

On a sidenote, I am saddened by the death of Michael Jackson. I think we all need to pause and remember how important it is to take care of our bodies. They are so precious and we have to treasure them. I am always amazed at my boys' beautiful innocence. I hope they take care of themselves as I hope they do now. Thinking of them as teens driving two ton cars and breaking bones while playing sports makes me want to go on anti-anxiety meds! I'm sure I'm not very different from most parents.

Well, more later this week. I will have a race schedule figured out and I hope to know how much we got from the Chili's event and from Tupperware.

Happy 4th of July!

I can't believe it's been a week since I have written. So sorry, yet again!

Here's a picture of Goldie Girl. She may be Goldie Gone if she keeps up her shenanigans. I am at a loss of how to deal with the cat pee in the house. It frustrates and angers me more than I can describe with out using a lot of these: &%$#@ but I'm trying to pin down exactly who it is. I do have my suspisions and she is pictured here.
I decided not to run in the race on Saturday. We all ended up sleeping in and breaking all our old sleep-in records by not getting up until around 8:30. WOW! That is when I would have been done with the race, so it was good to get rest, but I think I would have done well in it. Next time!

Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Sonia!


We had a fundraiser day at Chili's on Thursday. Not sure how much we are going to get, but hope it's $1-200. I had my fill for lunch and dinner there! Dessert was exceptionally yummy! This upcoming Thursday I'm trying to have a Tupperware party to raise money as well. I know it should be a decent amount from just what I plan to order! We will see.


I had an idea for Paw Prints to march in the Rivercade Parade here in a few weeks. I will have to work on that one this week. Paw Prints was asked to participate in ArtSplash this year so we're trying to come up with simple crafts for kids. Hopefully we can get that ironed out as well.


We have had a wonderful 4th weekend. We took the kids fishing at Beth's house Friday and caught some keepers. They went back in the pond, but would have made a yummy dinner! Yesterday we had a get-together at our house and it was a great time with great friends. There were 14 kids and 12 adults. Too bad the weather wasn't good enough to get the huge water slide out! We saw lots of fireworks last night too. Each 4th of July makes me feel so very thankful that we live in this wonderful country. It certainly isn't perfect, but I couldn't imagine living in any other country! I send a thank you for everyone who has made our freedom possible!!!!

We are off to play more at the river today. Thank goodness for the warm sunshine. I think it was warmer at 9am than it was the entire day yesterday. Goodbye jeans!
Happy 4th of July to everyone!