Puppies!

As I prepare for us to begin another year of school, I am reflecting over our Summer.  What an eventful Summer it was! We always officially break for summer after Aaliyah's and Cassidy's birthdays in June (they are 1 day shy of being 2 years apart) until the Tuesday after Labor day (Raymond DeSean is a Labor Day baby).We adjusted the end of our school year because the cousins joined us for about 5 months. I homeschooled my 3 plus my nephew (we enrolled the 2 girls in the local public school).  This Summer we visited two working farms, went to a several local events, visited several museums, and went to Oklahoma, California, and Mexico; and (the topic of this post) lost 1 beloved dog, but gained several more.

February of 2008 we adopted Nikitta into our family.

She lost sight in one eye last year and sight in the other eye sometime in late April.  The vet said there was nothing they could do; but to keep a close eye on her for signs of depression.  Sure enough she began to loose interest in playing and started to sleep more and put on a lot of weight.  With great sorrow we decided we would have to put her down.  About a week before we were scheduled to do so, my husband went out early one Sunday morning to go feed the chickens.  Directly beside the door was a grey puppy all curled up.  She wouldn't move.  We offered her food and water, but she seemed disinterested.  I offered her milk and she lapped it right up.  We kept and eye on her and she soon regained enough strength to stand and eat. This was when we noticed that she had a dislocated leg and a bloody foot.  We guessed that she possibly fell out of the back of someones truck and wandered around until she just found a safe, quiet place to die.

To make a long story short...We took her to the vet. Advertised for her owner;but never found her.  She seemed to join right into the family; so we decided to keep her after about a month of no response from anyone.  We even took her on vacation with us in July.  The grandparents wanted their vet to check her out, so she did.  Well, it was from this visit to the vet that we discovered that Nadia was no pup! She was at least 2 maybe 3 years old and was pregnant with at least 4 pups!

One week after we returned home, Nadia birthed 9 puppies!!! 5 boys and 4 girls.  Just one more thing to add to our adventure for this Summer...we now have a barn cat! Cassidy has been praying for a kitten; but I thought surely the Lord was say "no" since I am allergic to cats.  No such luck!

9 puppies

Nadia when she first arrived.

Our "new" cat officially named "Kitty". 
Not very original, I know!
Aaliyah holding the cat on the day of the eclipse.