Moments of O-ness (No relation to Honus)

Olivea named her Giraffe Chucky Sue. She named the little girl in her potty book FooBoo. (I'm not sure that is the correct spelling, I should ask FooBoo's Mom.) She named her two play doggies Sparky and Bluejay. I love that she is creating and pretending.
I woke up last week to hear her over the monitor saying in a great southern accent, "I'm Doc Hopper". This followed by "I'm not Doc Hopper" in normal Olivea accent. I let her see a toy drum at Target and she said "I'll play like Animal". So of course I had to get her the drum. Today in Trader Joe's the checker handed back a Clif bar we were buying. Olivea said thank you then read C, L, I, F and said "that spells Clif".
With all the mess and stress in our lives right now, she still brings out laughter, fun and wonder whenever I'm with her. And I've found someone to watch the Muppet Movie with me. I've almost got the Rainbow Connection memorized, so does she.
These are the awesome benefits of showing up.

Derek

This Cat could cluck like a chicken. He would sit at the window and talk to the birds. Nigel would lick him and then bite him, and sweet Derek would never rise to the bait. He would just sit there and give Nigel no satisfaction.

We named him Derek after Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap. With Nigel, we called them the Spinal Cats. He was a lover and not a fighter, so other bully cats made his life hell at the shelter. So we brought him home to the biggest bully cat of them all. But I think he was happy with the trade off. I think they did like each other. I was even worried that they would miss each other when Lianna took Derek to live with her, but I had never seen Derek so happy as when he got his own place, no bully cats around.

Nigel and Derek had great teamwork when it came to getting obese. Nigel cannot stand for the food bowl to be empty, and Derek couldn't leave the bowl till it was empty. So while Nigel begged for more just so it would be there, Derek ate it just cause it was there. Unlike Nigel, Derek's head wasn't huge, so when he added all the weight he looked terribly unproportioned. Lianna got Derek down to a good healthy weight and Derek actually started to play.

Derek was one of the nicest cats I have ever know. Ginger and Derek, two orange sweethearts. He would let you pet him till your hands fell off. No turning and biting you like Nigel. He would cuddle. Todd loved how he could orchestrate his movements by petting certain parts of his neck or back. He would have been so happy with some older person who had time to just sit and watch TV with him. Oh yeah, he loved to watch TV.

He died on Sunday March 30, 2008. I hadn't got to see him that much in the last couple years. I will miss him. He was a gentle and just plain nice cat.