Bye Bye Beanie

God bless you Venus, 8/1999-11/4/2008

We had to take Venus into the vet this morning because she was having trouble walking. At first, we suspected one of the kids had hurt her leg, but that was not the case.

She had a blood clot that was causing paralysis in her hind legs. There was nothing that the vet could do for her, and we made the decision to put her to sleep since she was obviously in pain and not herself.

It was a tough situation for Erik and I who remember her as a skinny little kitten with long legs. I think it was even harder because it was so sudden. She was fine over the weekend, but we noticed something was wrong last night when she didn't come running when the food bowl was filled. That was when we noticed she was having trouble standing on one of her back legs. By this morning, she was having trouble with both legs.

Beanie was a great cat and will be missed greatly by our family.

Halloween

The kids had great Halloween this year. Ella was a butterfly. The wings were not easy to find because she did not want fairy wings. They had to be butterfly wings. I finally found some adult sized ones at JoAnn. I shortened the elastic straps and they worked just fine.

Tate was a pumpkin. The costume was Ella's two years ago. He had definite opinions about what he did not want to be, but he finally agreed to a pumpkin. He was adorable.

I was unusually warm for Halloween this year so we saw a lot less hockey players and a lot more Hannah Montanas (not usually a good choice in 30 degree temps).

Erik and Grandma took the kids out and they made it the whole street this year. Tate had been refusing to say "Trick or Treat" until he realized that people gave him candy when he said it. By the end of the night neighbors were not only getting "Trick or Treat" but "Thank you" and "Happy Halloween."

Now we'll see how long it takes them to get through all of their candy.