Happy Mother's Day weekend 2020

Mother's Day weekend this year was filled with excitement! Here are the highlights...

On Thursday night, Rose lost another tooth! She loved that it was her 8th tooth and she had just turned 8 a couple weeks ago.

Saturday morning I caught an incredibly beautiful sunrise off our deck!

After enjoying the sunrise, I baked a Dutch Baby for breakfast, one of my favorite treats. 

Mike had some errands he had to run in Helena, so Rose and I got to spend the morning together. She is the the undefeated Candyland champ. 

After dinner we got to do our "family walk" down to the garden. I love our tradition of a postprandial stroll each night in May-September.

This particular photo (below) was from a few days prior (5/4), but it shows that our two outdoor cats, Bart (on the right) and Stalker (on the left) usually follow us on our walks on our property. Bart moved here to MT with us in 2017, and Stalker was originally a "garden cat" (like a barn cat, but for our gardens). But last year he and Bart ran into each other and totally bonded. We were glad these two boys had each other and seemed to really enjoy each others company. 

But recently Stalker has been acting weird. Just not himself. He mostly stopped going on walks with us, would meow for lots of attention, and seemed to spend more time just laying in the quonset (where he and Bart have their cozy, insulated house). 

Then, SURPRISE, on Saturday night we found out that Stalker isn't a boy!

Do you see that tiny little kitten?! Stalker is a MOM!

I've had such a mix of emotions over this: shame at being an irresponsible owner who did not neuter her pet and thus contributed to animal overpopulation, embarrassment that I was unable to tell a girl cat from a boy cat (LOL), and a little bit of excitement that we could watch this little kitten grow up.

Rose, meanwhile, is THRILLED. This girl loves cats so much, and she is absolutely in 7th heaven right now. Now she has decided that she may want to be a feline veterinarian (instead of a history teacher or a scientist), and she has been doing tons of research on how to help Stalker take care of her kit. I love seeing her excitement!

Sunday morning we did take a short family hike, per our Mother's Day tradition. 

The rest of Sunday was a blissful day of relaxation for me - I took a bath, read a book, and had a delicious dinner. And, of course, checked on Stalker about 20 more times.

Monday morning it was back to work, after one more quick check on Stalker. 

Lo and behold, there are now TWO kits!!!

Stalker seems to be doing a great job as a new mom, and Bart is usually sleeping with them to keep them all warm. 

Rose has named the kittens Ivy and Jay, after her two favorite characters from the Warriors books that she and Mike have been reading. She and I would both hang out with the "Quonset clan" all day if we could, but Mike sends me to work and her to EFC each day so the cats can have rest and privacy. :)  

I'm starting to feel more excitement than shame about having unplanned kittens. I think this is part of the transition from MN to MT for me. In the past, I was a city girl who followed all the rules for responsible pet ownership. But now I'm a bit of a rural girl who is adjusting to new rules for working farm animals. So as I continue to make this mental shift, I'm choosing to focus on my happiness when I see Rose falling in love and possibly planning her future career as a result. I'm sure there will be plenty more photos yet to come as these kittens grow up!!