Missing in Action

Happy Holiday’s everyone! It is so hard to believe we are in the middle of the holiday season. I feel like I am still waiting for Halloween to happen. We woke up to snow on the ground yesterday so reality is here…it is the first of December. I hope you all are doing well.

This is looking out the upstairs bedroom window out to our back yard.

It has been a couple months since my last blog, I would like to take this time to fill you in with my crazy life I live. I am a person that likes to be surrounded with chaos. I feel like I thrive so much better when I have a lot going on. Now, I love those days where I get to sit on the sofa and watch movies all day, but in general, I like to keep moving and need to always be doing something. With that in mind, enjoy my whirlwind of the last two months.

Cats are a big part of my new life here in PA as most of your know and are probably sick of seeing cats from me. While wrangling cats, I have been working on finding what my purpose is here in PA. I made up a bunch of fun seasonal sample treat boxes to hand out to a few businesses to see if there was any interest in my baked goods or hiring me as a baker. I had so much fun getting back into doing some baking especially the fall season smells and flavors. The boxes turned out really cute and everyone loved receiving them. Each box had an apple hand pie, pumpkin whoopi pie, and personalized sugar cookies. I have missed doing my fun sugar cookies so much. I had fun making these boxes.

I made an impromptu trip up to my parents house in Northern Michigan to help my mom and dad with canning up the rest of the garden. Deep down, I really wanted to do some canning for us too. We canned salsa, pickles, homemade V8 juice, chili, hatch chili verde, froze corn and green beans and canned the rest of tomatoes. I was so much fun to help out. It had been so long since I have been able to help my parents with canning.

I have been on a mission to trap this one momma cat and her last kitten that I have not been able to see or trap. They have been so hard to catch and instead of trapping the cats, I was trapping raccoons instead. There was one racoon I trapped that was so angry at me, it wouldn’t let me open the trap for it. It would lunge at the trap door every time I tried to open up the door. That guy was a very scary racoon. I had to go get help to let him out and all of the others were easy to let loose. I have been setting traps probably for a few weeks for this momma cat and her kitten (I have her other two boys in the house and they are vetted). On nice sunny day, I decided not to put too much effort into trapping but wanted to set it up just in case. I set it up out back in our yard and just left it. I actually totally forgot about it for the day. Late afternoon, I went out to grab it and move it over to our neighbors house to try trapping at dinner time. Low and behold, I had the kitten! I could not believe it. This kitten was so mad and scared at us so we set it up in the garage to settle down and to get it comfortable. We knew we had an appointment slot for a cat in two days so we had to keep it comfortable and fed. Chris had this idea of wanting to bring this kitten inside because we had it’s other two siblings so he thought it would be good for it to see the other two to make it more comfortable. I went along with his idea and we tried to get it into a bigger crate to give it space. The transfer went well with out a problem but I decided to try and get the litter pan in the crate at the same time. Well, that was not a great idea at all. This kitten ran and I grabbed it without even thinking and this kitten with it big mighty teeth and claws bit my hand so hard that it hit a vein. It was an instant blood flow EVERYWHERE. As far as the kitten, well she was free in the house hiding somewhere. We are professional cat wranglers (NOT!).

I honestly can not believe I did that but when it comes down to it, I just responded quickly. We got my wounds cleaned out good and the bleeding stopped but man my hand was throbbing. Over the next couple of days, we kept an eye on my hand and found the kitten and got it back into a carrier for vet appointment day to find out if it was a male or a female and get it fixed. In the mix of all of this, I was working on scheduling movers and getting a Uhaul truck scheduled because we were finally going to go and get the rest of our belongings out of the storage units in Northern Michigan. We were scheduling to make the trip the upcoming weekend so i was getting concerned with my hand.

I received a call from the local coffee shop to see if I could come in and chat with them about baking. I was so excited to meet them and chat with them more about baking. Went in and had a great conversation with them.

When we picked up the kitten from it’s vet/fixed appointment we found out it was a VERY spicy female. She was full of ticks and fleas so we had to deal with that immediately. Luckily I had a topical flea/tick treatment that we gave her right away while she was still a bit out of it and in her carrier. Since she was the siblings of Austin and Mini Mew we had to keep with the theme and we named her Vanessa. To this day, she still hides from us most of the day and comes out at night while we are not around. But we know she is safe and warm for now until we find a great place for her to go. We didn’t want to send her back outside on her own again. She is here with her brothers.

Since we were leaving for the weekend, I thought I should go ahead and have my hand looked at from Vanessa’s bite. I called our clinic and go right in that day. Went in and had them “look” at it and said this is what I needed but they can’t do it there and sent me to the ER. Just so you all know, Rabies shots are only at the ER so there is no point in going to your clinic. sigh. So off to the ER I go…. First rabies shot done, rabies globulin done, tetanus shot done and antibiotics in process. Both arms and both thighs and my hand all got shots. I was not feeling great after that trip but we went ahead with our weekend plans to go up to Northern Michigan to get out belongings.

Picking up and packing up the Uhaul truck went great. We hired a couple of local guys to help us load the truck with all of our boxes and furniture from our two storage units. They did a great job and it only took us 3 hours to get that job done. The trip back to PA was good but a very long trip. I was really not feeling great but we made it back. Had two guys help us on this end to unload the truck. After the truck was unloaded and truck returned, I crashed for two days with high fevers and just slept for those two day. I knew I had to go back and get my second rabies shot but I could not muster the energy to leave the house let alone the bed. I spent the 3rd day on the sofa with no energy and hives. All of these medications took me out. As I was down not feeling great, we were sitting in a house surrounded by boxes EVERYWHERE and all I wanted to do was to unpack. Finally by Friday, I felt a bit better and well enough to head up to the ER for my second rabies shot. Then 7 days later, I was back for the third shot and 7 days later back for the fourth. No other reactions from any of the other shots. phew. Unpacking was happening in between everything.

I also received a call from the local coffee shop asking if I could come in and start baking scones for them. woo hoo! My sample box was a hit and worked like a charm.

Halloween came and went so fast, I think it was a blur that passed through the night. The week before we were getting ready to fly out to WA, we found out that one or a few of our 21 indoor cats had roundworms. Ran to the vet and got medication for all 21 cats. That night was a late night trying to give everyone their medication. Of coarse some were easier than other (meaning Vanessa) but we did it. Cleaned and sanitized every single cat box, blanket, towel, and cat bed.

On November 8th we flew out really early to head back to WA state for a family gathering. We also took one of our kittens with us because he was adopted by our daughters co-worker. He did great on the flight and got handed off to his new owner. He is doing great.

Our trip was great. We had reserved a cabin down in Long Beach WA for a week. The girls hadn’t been to the beach for some time so we all decided to meet there for a family trip. Weather was hit or miss but we did have some great days to get out to the beach and the light houses. We celebrated our oldest daughters 25 birthday and we did a big family Thanksgiving dinner since we were all together. We saw a couple of close friends while in WA and spent time with family. It was a great trip and it was nice to have all us in WA all together. We survived the Seattle hurricane just fine!

Once returning back to PA, we were in full mode because we had a show the coming weekend we needed to get ready for. The area we live is a big art community so small business Saturday and artist Sunday were going to be good days for a local show. In the middle of this week getting ready for the shows, we lost one of our outdoor ladies to a car. We were so devastated and it took us out for a bit while we recooped from that and getting her buried in the back. Thanksgiving was a chill day for us - it was just Chris and I so nice and quiet but good. I think we needed that day to just remember what we are thankful for. It was a good day.

Small business Saturday and Artist Sunday was a great weekend. The local company Clifford’s Carpets hosted us with a few other artists. It was a great weekend and meet so many people and other vendors and artists.

I believe that is the longest update ever! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. As you do holiday shopping, don’t forget that both Chris and I have fun merchandise that is so unique for anyone on your list. We both have calendars for 2025. Go check out our stores.

Happy Holidays! Love from the Doll’s