1. Casseroles. I love casseroles. The way you can put a bunch of ingredients together and make them taste even better? That’s magic. And I love casserole leftovers! Easiest dinner ever!
2. Although I haven’t yet gotten my vaccine yet, I am happy to see how quickly all this is happening. I hear about my aunts getting their shots and Brad’s mother and our friends. I’m hoping to find an appointment in a couple of weeks myself (I’d be looking now, but we’re crazy busy at work for another week, so I want to wait until I can get an appointment and won’t have to feel like I have to rush back to work and get a bunch more done. I’d rather wait a week, when things are calmer, and focus on tracking down my shot then). But I am grateful that we as a state, as a country, as a world are moving in this direction, making it safer for all. After the year we’ve had, it’s so nice to see the tide turning and to know that things are getting better.
3. It is 2 years ago today that we went in to Wayside Waifs in Kansas City, Missouri, to get this guy and bring him home. After we’d lost our first best orange cat Jesse, we were heartbroken and lonely. So Brad started looking at local adoption websites to see if anyone felt like the right cat for us. He’d see someone he wanted to meet, so we’d go and meet the cat, and meet some of the others at that same shelter, and no one was right for us. This happened over and over, and we were about to give up, when Brad saw Don on the website. On a gloomy Wednesday night, we drove out to Wayside Waifs to visit him. The staff were friendly and nice, and we went to a big room to hang out with Don and see what happened. The woman who was in there with us kept encouraging him to come over and charm us, but he just wanted to sit and stare out the windows. There were birds out there! And squirrels! He was fascinated. Eventually he wandered over to us to say hi and take a treat or two. He showed a little interest in playing, but mostly he wanted to look out those windows. After a while, we decided to head out. It wasn’t until the next day that I realized I kept thinking about him. Brad said that he was still thinking about him too. So he called to see if we could come in on Saturday and maybe adopt him. They told us they could only put a 24-hour hold on him, so we ended up heading back out there the next night. The more time went by, the more we knew he was the cat for us, and we didn’t want to chance losing him to some other family. So we made the trip back out there and made the adoption official. Their photographer with her well-timed squeaky toy took this fantastic picture, and a larger version hangs on our wall as a daily reminder.
But we both had to work at our respective offices the next day, so I was a little worried about Don being at home alone on his first day. And then there were thunderstorms. I was sitting at my desk at work, listening to the rain and the thunder and worrying about him home alone. I know a lot of cats don't like thunder, so I felt really bad about leaving him home, in a new place, alone, in a thunderstorm. So I left work as soon as I could and came straight home. As soon as I came in the door, I started looking for him, but I didn't see him anywhere on the main floor. So I ran upstairs to see if he was okay, and that's when I saw a sleepy orange head pop up from the blankets on our bed. There was a big yawn, and then he recognized me and started meowing excitedly and coming over to see me. He had been just fine, sleeping through it all.
I was so happy to see him that day, as I have been every day since. Now, Brad gets to work from home, and everyone in his office knows DonDon’s meows on their conference calls. I still have to go to my office, but every day I get to come home to those excited meows, usually from upstairs, where he’d been napping. He has lots of windows to watch the birds and squirrels in the neighborhood (and the chipmunk who hangs out on our back patio just to mock him!). He is happy, we are happy, and the love we have for DonDon has made our lives so much richer. I can’t imagine our lives without him!
*what is making me happy this week
