One of my family members has a toddler/baby who comes to stay at our house once every month or so. The child cries… a lot… I dread the day when/if I ever have to put up with that on a daily basis.
Babies are sweet, they’re cuddly, they’re adorable… but they also crap, vomit and cry. How could the parents ever get any “alone” time when raising a baby?
You get creative. Also unless there’s a good reason for crying, one does not tolerate tantrums or whining in our household. “Why are you crying? Are you bleeding child? No? Then don’t make me give you a reason to cry.”
3 essentials of babying- food, poop, and sleep.
Those are really the only reasons they cry unless there is a real source of pain- injury, or sickness.
My kid was actually very easy. He would literally be smiling in his sleep, then wake up the same way.
Also,
Before we even got the skirting and decorations done.
Well, feels like I abandoned this thread, but figured an update was due.
Unfortunately, we had to find Scout (the dog in the first post), a new home. He was a great dog, just not the right dog for our family with our four cats and young son. My wife and I are both experienced dog owners, but our training attempts weren’t cutting it. We like to think at least we saved him from the kill shelter (our guilt of re-homing him talking), but he does have a perfect home now.
Anyway, speaking of cats…
This is Ramona. We got her just before Christmas two years ago. She’s an adult cat now, but I still love this picture. Super sweet, super scared of everything.
This is Bonnie. We got her before last Christmas (see a trend?). She’s our resident dingbat.
This is Lucy, our stress eater. Her name is short for Lucifer. We knew when we adopted her over four years ago that she was a hag. Her cage said she “will put her teeth on you when she’s overwhelmed.” That translated meant that she would find a way to bite you when you’re across the room. But when pitted against the cute kittens that were also up for adoption, we knew which one we had to choose.
Funny story, true story shortly after we brought Beelzebub home, we found out my wife was pregnant. She told Lucy she had nine months to get it together. Our son is 4 now, and they are somehow the greatest of pals.
Then there is Gretchen. My wife had her before we met, and she is just the most chill cat around. Here she is on the roof helping us paint our house.
And because who doesn’t need more cats? We now have some strays hanging around. Our son has taken to naming them. It started normally with Kirby thanks to an Aesop Rock song. Then came Pear. Then Chocolate Chip. And now Instant Pot.
Pear
Kirby (my dude or dudette, not sure)
@flappinit @punnyguy I’m tagging you guys as we’ve talked cats in the past. I’m probably forgetting about a couple more persons, so I apologize in advance haha
So today I was taking my gf home and we drove past a car that was pulled over the side of the road on a street right near my place. What I saw was a lady walking away from her car trying to get a cat to follow her.
I couldn’t tell for sure what was going on, but for a split second it looked to me as if she was abandoning the cat or something. I wanted to get to the bottom of it, but I couldn’t just pull over and ask if she was leaving the cat there. So circled the place and stopped at my house to get some cat food, then drove back there. I pulled over asking if the cat was hers, with the excuse of me having seen it on the road and wanting to feed it.
Turns out she was with another woman, and they routinely give up some of their spare time to track feral cat populations, feed them, trap, and neuter them.
They seemed to be well-versed in what they were doing, and asked if I lived nearby, saying that it’s a pretty rough spot for them to visit and they could use some help.
I told them that I’d be more than happy to help if I could, and that I go for walks pretty often, and that street happens to be somewhere I find myself in often when doing so.
So they started telling us about all the different feral cats that live there, and how there are a few different “zones” that map to different families of related cats.
They told us to follow them briefly to another nearby spot, so we got back into our cars and drove a couple of minutes.
We ended up at a spot that had at least 10 different ones, that ran towards us as they saw us coming, waiting for food. I’d never seen that many cats together.
So yeah, looks like I might be helping some kittens soon 
Here’s what it looked like when we got to the second location
There were a lot more around us that I didn’t film
Trap, spay/neuter, and release is a very worthwhile program to help feral cats.
Great that you’re going to help those ladies!
My condolences. That hurts like nothing else.
So sorry. Our little Hudley crossed the rainbow bridge on the 2nd. Just rips your fricking guts out.
Condolences 
Awwww love this!
There’s a short story I feel the need to share here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a happy ending.
So a friend of mine who’s obsessed with cats first met one near her place. She was hanging out on top of a parked car.
The cat was friendly and let her pet her and all that. My friend starts taking that route everyday when going out, and the cat’s always there. Eventually, she meet and old man who tells her that the cat was abandoned and a lady is taking care of her. That explains why she’s always hanging around the same spot.
Weeks go by and eventually I go visit this cat too. She is indeed very friendly and as soon as she sees me for the first time, she runs towards me much like a dog would do. She’s absolutely gorgeous.
Now, fast forward to today. My friend hasn’t seen the cat for two days. Today, she walks by the usual spot to find this on the ground
The card reads “for Sofia” (the cat’s name), along with yesterday’s date and what seems to be a poorly drawn heart.
My friend and I were distraught. There isn’t much else a flower like this can mean.
I can imagine my friend is feeling even worse than I am. I had only seen that cat twice in person but we often talked about her and we found her absolutely adorable. I often joked that, if someone else wasn’t taking care of her already, I would’ve taken her home with me. And I really wish I had. I don’t know what happened to her, but it’s so saddening and she left me with a very sour feeling. I can’t come to terms with the way this happened, going from seeing her be fine one day, only to find what’s basically a grave where she used to be just two days after.
She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful cat I’d ever seen.
So sorry for the loss 
She’s such as beautiful kitty
I just can’t stop playing movies in my mind about what could have happened.
Maybe she was left outside during the night and died due to the very cold weather we’ve had for a few days? Or she got ran over by a car?
I wonder if she felt left to her own fate, if cats are even able to have such feelings. If things could have been different had somebody taken her with them instead.
