Remember the cat fixing dilemma?

Problem solved!  This weekend my brother Matt, his wife and two boys came up for a visit.

(This is the best I could do on a picture, because the second you tell one of my brothers that you're going to take their picture, they pull a face - he was just coming out of a face.)

When they told us they were coming, I told Matt that there was just one thing I needed him to do if he came up...  Fix our cats!!  (Matt is a veterinarian, so he does know what he's doing.)  This turned out to be a very memorable experience!

The day Matt and Kelly were going to be arriving, Kami wondered to Caden and Maddie if they thought Uncle Matt would fix the cats that night.  Maddie asked them, "What does fixing the cats mean?"  The kids were a little uncomfortable about explaining everything to Maddie, so they giggled nervously and then said, "Let's just say that he basically cuts off their whole bottom!"  Maddie, justifiably horrified, asked, "Why does he have to do that?!?!"  The older kids later told me about this whole conversation, so I was able to straighten her out and fill her in and get her up to speed.

Sure enough, once he arrived it wasn't long before he said, "So where's that ma cat?" We set up a card table in the garage and he set to work prepping Priscilla.

We had to take a picure before it got too gruesome

Now as a side note, Priscilla had her kittens when she was still really young, so she was really just a small teenager cat (that's how I thought of her.)  When she had her kittens, I felt so sorry for her and every time I saw her I thought, "Oh, that poor thing.  That's so sad that she had to go through all of that!"  Then she did such a good job raising her kittens, and seemed to enjoy relaxing with them and teaching them how to hunt and being a mother.  By the time it was time to spay her, I had completely changed my way of thinking about things and I felt like, "Poor thing.  She'll never get to be a mother again!"  (Now, I know that in admitting to my sentimental feelings about my cats, I am opening myself up to more jabs from my brother Nathan.  A few of my brothers have no fond feelings for cats, and Nathan left a pretty funny comment on my last blog about this.  Even though I like my cats, I laugh every time I think of it).

I was feeling sorry for the cats and the surgery they were getting, so I didn't watch a lot of the whole procedure, but the kids kept me up to speed.  Especially Maddie.  She stayed and watched the whole thing and ran to get whatever Matt needed.  It was very educational for us all, I assure you.  I will spare you most of the details.First he put them to sleep, and Maddie came running in asking for some Vaseline.  I asked what that was for, and when animals are put to sleep (at least cats) they leave their eyes open, so he puts Vaseline on their eyes so they don't dry out.  Next she ran in asking for some yarn.  She explained that this was to tie them down to the table for the surgery.  She also came in for a flashlight and hydrogen peroxide and to regale us, several times, with all of the gory details.

Caden watched for a short time, and then came in and told me that he thought he'd take a little break.  On a hunch I asked him if he was feeling a little dizzy.  He said no, but a few seconds later admitted that he was.  I told him to go lie down on the couch.  He was moving slowly to the couch... much too slowly.  I yelled, "Hurry Caden!!" and ran up behind him just as he fainted to the floor face-first. His body went all rigid, and one hand went all funny and hooked, and he started twitching like crazy.  But he was only out for a couple of seconds (whew!).  When he came around he was a little embarrassed, but said that he had always thought it looked like it hurt when the guy on Tangled fainted face first, but it didn't hurt at all! He's still impressed by that.:)

I ended up with even more respect for Matt's job.  I told him that no one in our family has any idea what he does.  We all think we have an idea, but we don't!!  I couldn't do it.  And I was also very impressed because Kelly can assist him in things like that and it doesn't even phase her any more.  What a team.

So that's the last on the saga of our cats, but I wanted to include a couple more pictures I took during their visit:

Caden can fold towels like animals, and he made these for Matt and Kelly's room. Their boys were excited to pick which towels they wanted for their baths.

Isabelle reading to the boys.  Nolan and David are the same age and played so well!  Nolan was really excited about how "nice this buddy is" to him. I could kick myself, because I never got a picture of Jonathan (he's Abram's age.) But we'll always remember the top of his head from the picture above!