Remember?? It's Bridget Peabody! Back in the day.
She's growing into quite a lovely young lady. Let's see for ourselves, shall we? Mama Colleen sent us this update, and I'm so grateful that she did.
Hi Sue,
Gads, time flies! It seems like just a short time ago that we brought Bridget home to Bellingham. I thought you might enjoy an update and a few photos.
First, although we truly liked the name Bridget, Rachel was having a hard time with the "dg" sound, so a few days after she became a part of our family we renamed her Autumn. She reminded us of a little spotted fawn, but I just couldn't burden her with a goofy name like Bambi. lol It took her about a week to get used to her new name, but once she figured out what it was, her little ears perked up every time she heard us say it.
I got her enrolled right away in the kitten wellness plan through Banfield Hospital here in Bellingham and she's right on schedule for her checkups, immunizations, deworming, etc. According to the vet, she is in excellent health, sociable, smart, and quite the character, underscore that last bit. I got a chuckle when I read the comments section on her comprehensive exam report. It said, "Autumn did very well today and was a pleasure to work with."
I cannot believe how much she grew between 16 and 20 weeks! She slept a lot during that time. Rachel would say, "I wish Autumn would wake up so I can play with her, but I know she's busy growing." Speaking of Rachel, she was a tremendous help with Autumn during her first 2 months here. Let's face it, to a kitten everything is an extreme sport, and Autumn definitely needed supervision when I was working. After one particularly tiring day of keeping Autumn out of mischief, Rachel knocked on my office door and said, "Mom, I'm going to my room. I need a kitten break." lol
Autumn plays hide and seek with Frank and loves to go for rides on the carpet in the laundry basket. She thinks it's great fun to bat her toys under the kitchen appliances and furniture so that we have to retrieve them for her. We're happy she's past the thrill of reaching under closed doors with her paw to play with those springy door stops.
She got a "big kitten" cat tree for Christmas this year, which we decided to give her early to lessen her curiosity about the Christmas tree. I hung a couple of shatterproof ornaments and some ribbon on it for her. She treats the ornaments like tetherballs. When she's playing with them, you have to give the tree an extra foot of clearance or you get hit when you go by. lol
She is an absolute joy. We couldn't love or appreciate her more, and feel so grateful that you gave her such a good start. It makes such a difference!
About the photos...when we first brought her to Bellingham, she used to climb onto a pile of gloves I had in a wooden box on a table by the front door and fall asleep. It didn't look very comfortable, so I removed the gloves and made it into a little bed for her. It didn't take her long to outgrow it, but she took lots of nice, long naps on the special blanket you sent with her. The story behind the photo of her reclining Sphinx-like on the step ladder is that whenever I get the ladder out, she races over to claim her spot. If I put her down, she hops right back on. It's one of her favorite games with me. I took the photo of her atop her new cat tree at about 6 a.m. this morning. She wasn't very awake yet, but she loves it up there!
Happy Holidays!
Colleen
Thank you Colleen, Rachel and Frank for loving this girl so much and filling us in on her joyful life. She's very fortunate to have found you all. My heart is happy.
I've been very fortunate for a long time. These little beings don't come with any guarantees. There were actually a few that I lost before I started blogging. I know you can imagine (and some of you know) how difficult that is, but I've learned that sometimes they just aren't meant for this world. They're meant to be angels.
