cats – Jo McVey Photography

Meet Blaze!!

A few weeks ago, on the night of the Paris attacks, a stray cat wearing a purple collar came to our back door around 4pm and started sniffing around the trash bag I had placed out there. When I opened the door, he ran down the steps and then looked back. I squatted down to the ground and made a couple kissing sounds and held my hand out. You could almost see the joy flood his little face. “This person is nice!!!” He ran over and immediately started purring and rubbing all over my hands and my legs. I had never seen him around the neighborhood before, but he felt pretty boney, so I decided to put a little food out for him. Before I could even get the food on the ground he started gobbling it up, meowing and groaning as he ate. Boy was hungry! I went back inside and continued going about my day with the boys, but he just stayed on our patio, right by our back door. After a little while he started pawing at our door, begging to come in! I recorded this video of him. (Don’t mind my chipped red nail polish)

I obviously couldn’t just let him in. I mean, we have two other cats as well as a St. Bernard. I don’t know who this cat is, where he’s been, or what he’s been exposed to; not to mention, our female cat is not the most accepting of new feline friends. I figured he’d finally get bored and go on his merry way.

Well, the next morning, he was still on our patio, so I decided to take some pictures and make a flyer to put around our neighborhood. I also posted his picture on a local lost & found Facebook page and on Craigslist in the lost & found section. I mean, he was wearing a collar and was super friendly, so he had to belong to someone, right?

By the end of the week, no one had contacted me about him, so I brought him to the vet to have him scanned for a microchip and to do an overall wellness check. The vet said he was about 1 – 2 years old, and except for some ear mites and a few fleas, he was relatively healthy, if not a little skinny. I asked how long I should wait for an owner to come forward before deciding whether or not we should keep him, and he said about a week or two.

Well, two weeks later there was still no owner, and he was still hanging around our house all day, every day. So what did I do? I called our local low cost spay and neuter clinic and made him an appointment to get snipped! My husband made him an awesome insulated cat house for our back patio, and he has slept in it every night. Even on the coldest nights it’s SUPER warm in there!

The boys love him, and he loves hanging out with them when they’re playing outside. We named him Blaze after the boys’ favorite character on “Blaze and the Monster Machines”, their favorite show.

He is extremely snuggly…almost annoyingly so (possibly from being starved for attention the past few months while he was a stray). He has claimed me, or imprinted on me, or whatever you want to call it. I’m his person, and I can’t sit outside without him jumping on my lap, climbing on my shoulder, or rubbing all over my legs, arms, head, whatever body part is within his reach. What can I say? He’s a ladies’ man…and I’m pretty awesome.

He’s been a really special addition to our family, and we’re so lucky that he chose us.

The Laundry Basket

For years I have been carrying piles of laundry from our bedroom, and now Grayson’s bedroom, to the laundry room just using my arms. That has made for several trips back and forth, picking up dropped socks and undies along the way. Well, last week, when my mom was visiting, she bought us a laundry basket after I asked her to take some clothes out of the dryer. I don’t know why I’ve put off buying one all these years, but it has certainly come in handy!

Grayson has enjoyed it too! It’s a little play pen for him, and the day my mom gave it to us, I took some picture of him sitting in it. There are probably very few babies out there that don’t have some sort of picture of them sitting in a laundry basket.

Lazarus had to come over to investigate.

Grayson has gotten so used to me shoving a camera in his face that he will rarely look at the camera anymore, so I had to acquire the help of my mom to make him smile.

And boy did he smile!!!

You know that country song, “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck”, well there’s just somethin’ ’bout a baby in a laundry basket!

He’s so little in it!

The only reason he’s looking in my direction for the photo is because I held his favorite stuffed animal, Pooh Bear, above my camera. Oh the things I’ll do to get a decent picture!

“Alright, Mom, can we be done now? I’d like to get back to playing with real toys!”

How Our Lives Have Changed

It’s an amazing thing to say that I’m a mother. Steve and I are parents! I never thought this day would come, and now my son is about to turn 8 weeks old. Where has the time gone? Our lives have changed in many ways since little Grayson Russell came into the world. Lack of sleep is one of them. The first 3 days of this week in particular were difficult. Grayson slept pretty good for the first stretch of sleep (from bedtime at 8pm until about 1:00 – 1:45am), but after that he was up every 45 minutes to an hour on the dot, and since it would take me at least 20 minutes to fall back asleep every time I would put him back down, I was only getting 30 minutes of uninterrupted sleep at the most. After the 3rd night of this, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, especially since I wasn’t going to bed, myself, until around 11pm or midnight each night.

Luckily, two nights ago, Grayson slept the longest he has ever slept in one stretch — 7.5 hours!!! I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the clock. I actually woke up once when he started fussing a little, made a bottle for him, and by the time I came back in the room he had fallen back asleep, and stayed asleep for another hour and a half! And last night was probably his best night ever. He slept from 9pm to 4:10am, and then, after he ate, he slept again until 6:30am, ate again, and then slept until 7:45am. That has never happened! Even the night before when he slept 7.5 hours straight, he was still up every hour after that! This is just one of the ways that I know that my little man is starting to grow up. He is not the tiny newborn baby he was just 8 short weeks ago, when he would only sleep for 2 hour stretches at a time!

Since his birth, we have celebrated Steve’s first Father’s Day, as well as our first wedding anniversary. My, what a difference a year can make! Grayson can now pretty much hold his head up by himself (although we still support it just in case…..he’s still a little floppy at times). He’s starting to “talk” to us as well, and always greets us with a huge smile every morning. Mornings are definitely his most happy time of the day! He even gave me his first laugh this morning. I can’t wait to hear him laugh more and more!

Our kitty, Lazarus, absolutely LOVES Grayson. Whenever Grayson is laying on the floor, Lazarus always has to come and lay right next to him. I know they’re going to be best buddies for several years! Our other two kitties, Lacey and Fancy, are good with him too. They were only curious for about a day, and now they either completely ignore him, or just treat him like another member of the family. It’s still a competition to see who can take up Mommy’s lap the most, though.

Grayson absolutely loves bath time. Whenever he’s grumpy in the evenings, bath time always calms him down. He could probably splash in there for an hour if I let him! We’ve made it part of our nightly routine, and he knows that after his bath, it’s time for bed.

When he turned a month old on June 24th, I made sure to take lots of pictures. This one is my favorite from that day. Such a happy boy!

We also celebrated his first 4th of July!

I think he’s starting to get used to having a camera in his face, and it’s a good thing, because I don’t plan on putting it down anytime soon!

He even poses for me occasionally. 🙂

Steve is a wonderful daddy, and Grayson sure loves him! He gives him the biggest smiles whenever Steve picks him up. And then of course, if he gets fussy again, he gets handed back to me. Haha!

Another thing that calms him down if he’s being fussy is being burped. He doesn’t even have to get anything out, but just the sitting up and patting his back will usually instantly calm him down. Of course, nothing calms a fussy baby like a nice bottle of milk. 🙂

We’ve been out to eat at a restaurant twice with him, and both times he did great! We try to time things perfectly so we know when his happiest time of day is, and then try to do most outings during that time. It’s worked for us so far!

I can’t believe our little man is going to be 8 weeks old tomorrow! I hope the rest of his life doesn’t go by this quickly, or we’ll be in real trouble! I’ve tried to take as many pictures, and even videos, as I can so that we’ll always have lots of memories to look back on as he gets older. Slow down, Son! You’re growing up too fast!!!