Four months and more cat attacks

Yesterday, Zoe had her four month check up. Everything checked out. She's:

13 lbs, 15.5 oz. (about double the birth weight)

25 inches long (She was 17 inches when born)

Around the 40 percentile for weight

Around the 80 percentile for length

About to start rolling over

Looks like she'll end up with brown eyes

We think she just had a growth spurt, which is why she's tall and skinny. She also got four shots, which made her tired and a little cranky. I left some baby pain medication at the day care because her legs were sore.

Meanwhile, the cat hunting continues. I cleaned up another rodent body on the back porch this morning. It was pretty light, so I whether wonder it's a new one, or just an old one that began to dry out and bore him.

Cat and Mouse

Yesterday while I was watching the Cowboy game and Yvonne was putting the baby down for a nap, Walker began to freak out at the back door. Below is what I found.

Then, after I uploaded the above gem, I look outside to find he's back at it. I was hoping I spooked him off, so he could do these activities somewhere else. No such luck.

I recently took down some vertical blinds and yes I'm lazy. I just dumped them on the back porch. I'm waiting for bulky trash pickup time.

Feline pros and cons

Lately, I've been struggling with my relationship with our cat, Roscoe.

He's been a tremendous pain lately. Well, he's been a pain since we got him. I've always been a dog person, but Yvonne convinced me a cat would be easier in the city (we got him in Chicago). She was right about that. But right away, he would sneak outside when he was only a few weeks old. All the vets would scold us for it, but we really didn't have a choice. He screamed at the top of his lungs at 4am pretty much on a regular basis, whether he's indoors or outside. He still does that. He doesn't have a soft meow, it's always ear piercing. Like a true Chicagoan, he has no self volume control. And man, that cat sheds.

All these things I've mentioned before. But, now with Zoe around, it's become worse. I wonder if he's protesting the competition. Or, maybe it's his way of mourning for Sophi. She did raise him after all. But, he is constantly chewing up pacifiers and bottle nipples and meowing loudly when the baby is asleep.

This morning, we let him inside around 6:30am (our latest feeling is if he's going to scream at 4am, it's easier on us if he does it outside). After he ate a little, he instantly began parading the house and loudly announcing he wanted back out. He was inside not even five minutes. His parade began in the bedroom where Zoe was sleeping. I heard it on the baby monitor clear as day. I tsk tsked loudly for him (that's the only noise he responds to now because it's the only one that indicates he's not about to get squirt by water). His parade paced down the hall and hesitantly scanned the living room (he assumes he's in trouble, but he doesn't understand it's because he's loud as sh*t). After a bounce over the couch, his fanfare came to a loud climax and ended as soon as I opened the back door.

So those are the negatives.

On the positive side of things, he's affectionate when he wants to be. He's a great mouser. The photo above is the remains of a black bird he caught a few weeks back. All I found was a pile of feathers and what appeared to be a wing (above). I found a mouse on Monday. I found a rat a few weeks ago. Roscoe has an unlimited resource for rodents--the alley. And he's always been a great hunter. The dude caught a rabbit in Chicago. Crazy.

And, he's also a pretty cat. He has that going for him.

Day care

Today we started day care with Zoe. We both dropped her off this morning along with a blanket, used shirt (for scent), about 7 bottles of milk and formula, pacifier, 3 changes of clothing and diapers. We also dropped off paperwork. There were a lot of details, and in the end I feel like we were too distracted to be sad. Although, there was a lingering moment of not wanting to leave right before we did.

About 2 hours later, we were thinking maybe we should call. Not because we were worried, but I think more because we missed her. Then, my cell phone rings and it's the day care. She called to say all is good. I guess she knows new parents are like that.

I took Walker to the dog park yesterday for the first time since ... in a while. We had a good time and he got to swim a little. There were some beautiful dogs and a couple trouble makers. But, no out and out mean dogs. It was my first time with only one dog. Some out-of-the-blue hidden lingering feelings erupted last night while I was cooking dinner. But, we move on.