Harry Potter Mania

So, I decided to experience some of the craziness that is a Harry Potter midnight book release. I decided not to attend the festivities before the actual book release (which began at 9:30pm), as the Barnes & Noble where I reserved my copy seemed to have it pretty geared towards little kids. Instead, I took a 2 hour nap in preparation for getting & reading the book. Well, I should have gone a little earlier than I did - check out that crowd (may be hard to tell, but all the little bumps in the above photo are heads....hundreds and hundreds of heads).


When you arrived, you got in line and received a wristband (yellow for reserved, blue for non-reserved) and a ticket with a number on it. Then, they would call groups of people in to purchase the book by 50s. All the yellow-wristed people (who'd pre-reserved the book) went first; people with blue went last. I think it would have gone a little faster if they'd made everyone actually purchase the book ahead of time - then, they could just hand you a book in exchange for a receipt. Misty and I arrived right at midnight...and got number 871. We were told that 3000 people pre-reserved a book (obviously, not all of them showed up for the midnight release - some will go pick theirs up at a more reasonable hour).


Ah, payoff. I had the book and we were on the way home at, yep you can see the watch, nearly 3am. Thankfully, the Starbucks connected to the Barnes & Noble was open and I enjoyed a Grande Skim Caramel Macchiato while waiting (highly recommended - so yummy & caffeinated!). The reactions of people getting the book were fabulous. The first groups would come out screaming and everyone would clap for them. The middle groups had lots of curious eyes wanting to take a quick peek while waiting their turn. One young man (teenager) caressed his book and said "Ah, beautiful" while passing us. Two little girls, maybe 8 years old, got their photo taken with their new books and a Harry Potter silhouette - they were adorable and so excited for so early in the morning. When it was finally my turn, I let out a quiet but happy "yay", which still brought a smile to the VERY patient and, thankfully, happily caffeinated Barnes & Noble workers.

It is 2:30pm now and I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book (I crashed for about 30mins right before my chiropractor appointment, but have otherwise been reading most of the day). I expect to finish by tonight. Have to say, JK Rowling's done a good job so far. First chapter seemed a little awkward, but sequel books generally do have a rough time getting started. Different than the others, of course, and I feel sad not to see a couple characters show up that I particularly liked reading (the plot she's chosen makes it difficult to get everyone in, but maybe they'll show up by the end). She is also bringing in the loose ends from previous books. Hopefully, they will be tied up nicely with a good payoff for us readers.

R.I.P. Lena

We had to put Lena to sleep last week. She hadn't been eating and we felt like it was cruel to force-feed her in the hopes that someone would forgive all her bowel issues and neurological issues and older age to adopt her. We had moved her to the cat room a while ago and she enjoyed sitting on my computer desk, basking in the sun. We knew she was probably a lost cause, but are glad we could offer her a nice ending in a home and not locked in a cage. She got to be part of a family and be cared for, which is what we all want in the end.

Lena on Petfinder!

Aw, doesn't she look cute all curled up sleeping? Lena is now starring on Petfinder and in need of a home. Please go check out her page here.

In other news, Misty helped kill a rat snake Tuesday night. Apparently, one of our neighbors actually found it in his stove! And this was no tiny newborn rat snake either; this sucker was big and pissed off. They had to actually pull the entire stove outside the house to try to get it out. By that point, it was rearing its head and striking anything that came close. Misty would normally leave a snake alone or try to relocate it to safety (she's done that when we came across one while hiking with the dogs; I froze, but she used a stick to get it to the side of the trail). Anyway, everyone was concerned that the snake would bite one of the dogs or kids (not to mention no one could get close enough to move it elsewhere without getting bit), so they decided it had to be killed. I didn't watch, but it is dead and now we're all sleeping with the lights on and hoping it didn't have babies in the walls.

Kitten Pile

Awww, aren't they so cute? Believe it or not, all 4 are in the pile (Charlie Brown is underneath, playing the role of a pillow). Thankfully, the bigger kittens quit picking on Cosmo. That means that all the kittens are staying in one room together. They are filthy little things and make a huge mess, but at least it is confined to one area. I've been busy recouping from a little toe surgery, so Misty has been doing a lot of the foster care. But, I'm back to work today and back to helping out. Luckily, Lena also calmed down after her first couple days and has had only a couple very minor accidents, which allows us to have her free in the cat room (she can't jump the baby gate - why is it the only cat we have that can jump it is the oldest & fattest cat we have?).

Finally Overwhelmed

Well, we may have finally reached our breaking point. Our house is full of animals...well, it has always been full of animals, but now it is REALLY full of animals.

Last week, Misty did the kitten exchange (our ready-for-adoption kittens went into the F.A.R.M. place and we took on some new ones). I stole this idea from someone else, but we are going to start naming all the kittens in each group with the same starting letter. Since we already did two groups this year, we started this group with the letter "C":

The little guy above is Cosmo. He is only two weeks old and still very much on the bottle. At least he takes the bottle well; we had a few that just couldn't seem to figure it out and made you just want to scream. The only problem with him is that he is the only 2-week-old that we have and so he gets lonely. He's too small to be with the other kittens we are fostering b/c they just trample him.


When I'm not feeling quite so overwhelmed, I'll post better photos of the other 3 kittens. They are (from right to left): Charlie Brown, Cisco, and Charlotte. Charlotte is the only girl. They are 4-weeks-old and in the transitional phase, meaning they get the bottle a little bit but can also eat wet food. They are also learning how to use the litterbox. Translation: they are a big stinky mess.

Finally, we have another "foster" named Lena (this is the bigger animal news I had hinted at in the previous post). Lena is a 10-year-old cat that has neurological damage, so she is unsteady on her feet and doesn't do well jumping off things like chairs or couches. She was surrendered by her owner b/c she was getting boarded 10 months out of the year, which was simply not fair. She has medications that she takes in wet food, but we were told she could also eat a little dry. Not so much - she threw up the dry we gave her. We had also been told she only leaks a little (from the rear end) in the mornings, but is otherwise good about using the litterbox. She had some big accidents her first day with us. We are hoping these are all just reactions to a new environment and will clear up soon. She wouldn't be able to run free with our dogs (her wobbling might cause them to snap at her in surprise) and she can't run free with our cats (Sati would pick on her just because she could), so we're thinking of building her an enclosure. I saw a cool one online that seemed like a great idea and not too expensive. Click here to see it (it is made using wire shelving units). We did buy her some newborn diapers yesterday to help with the leaky stool (which would have allowed us to keep her in our bedroom instead of the downstairs bathroom), but they kept sliding off since, as you can see in the photo below, Lena has no tail. Any ideas would be very welcome at this point.


In other news, Tasha has another UTI and has been having accidents all over the house and Shelby chased Sati down with the intention of harm today (Shelby has been going blind and deaf, which often causes dogs to react badly to strange shadows - like cats running past; Sati was fine). I think work has become my vacation at this point.