Amazing Kitten Experience... on the Brink of Death

My friend's cat had a litter of five kittens. When the babies were two weeks old, the momma cat died. Since then, we have been caring for the kittens, bottle feeding them, making them poop (I hate that job!) and keeping them warm and loved. They have been doing very well until the last week. They all started getting sick. One of them passed away. Little Bino curled up next to my son and fell asleep. He never woke up. We were heartbroken.

Last night I went to Nikky's house to bathe and feed kittens. Our plan was that I would take the sickest kittens home with me, since I am up all night anyway, so that they can have round the clock care and take their medicine every hour like they need to. When I got there, three of the surviving kittens looked good. They were crawling around.

Gizmo wasn't looking so good though. He had his Colloidal Silver but was really taking a turn for the worst. When I tried to feed him, he gave a half-hearted swallow. He ended up going limp like a rag doll and his breathing was labored. I lipped to Nikky "I don't think he'll make it". We took turns holding him as went downhill. He started twitching occasionally and let out a sickly sad cry here and there. At times, he actually stopped breathing, then would jump, let out a cry and start breathing again.

Nikky really started crying and her girls noticed. They came over and once they realized what was going on, they started crying too. We hugged them and sent them to bed and I told them I would let them know when he passed. I went back to the living room and I could hear them crying. It was so sad, but we didn't think they really needed to see this and he was slipping away even more.

It was my turn to hold him again. He couldn't hold up his head anymore, he was completely limp... so limp I thought he was gone. I tucked him into my coat and hummed a tune "Go now in peace" and "I am opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love light of the One." It was the only way I could keep myself from sobbing. He started moving around a little and I took my coat off before I died of heat stroke. He started having spurts of feisty fits .where he tried to crawl or walk but then his little head would slump down and he would flop over and just lay there.

After HOURS of going through this, he had curled up on my arm and was sleeping, his breathing was coming back to normal and he didn't really move very much for a good hour. While he was resting his brother, Curtis, crawled up my leg and onto my lap. He stared at Gizmo for a moment, looked at me, crawled forward slowly, sniffed him, looked at me... then tried to clobber the snot out of Gizmo. I quickly grabbed him and put him on the floor. He crawled back up a few minutes later and did the same thing. I put him back down on the floor again. This happened quite a few times.

The last time it happened, he crawled up, swatted at his tail and then looked at me. I told him to stop, Gizmo was sick. He immediately looked down at Gizmo and then pounced him. Gizmo, who was on the brink of death not too long before, sat up, looked at Curtis and then Curtis pounced him again. I was working on getting Curtis off him when Gizmo got up and crawled off looking really pissed. I was stunned. Here is the kitty that couldn't even hold his head up or move not too long before and he just crawls off!

Over the next 30 minutes or so, he really started coming back to life. He eventually got on the floor and wrestled with Curtis for a minute before he went under the desk and fell asleep. When he woke up again, I got him to eat and he ate like he was starving.

Today he has been very sleepy but he is doing well. I am still amazed at the whole experience. If I was someone who believed in miracles, I'd say this was one. But I think he's just too ornery to die!

Nanowrimo: Finding a Novel When You don't Have One

What is Nanowrimo?

This year I am participating in Nanowrimo, writing pandemonium at it's finest. It starts November 1 of each year and finishes off November 30. Your goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month. Create and account at Nanowrimo so you can track your word count. At the end of the month you can copy and paste your typed words into a verifying box and if you've reached 50,000 words, YOU WIN! Don't worry, they won't steal your story! It's all about getting that novel out of your head and onto paper (or word processor).

What if you don't have a story?

It's okay if you don't have a story to start with, it helps, but you don't have to have one. If you don't, here are a few steps to follow to get you started and help you find your story. Type it all down! It's part of your novel!

Create a character, item or place, the first 20 words

Think of a character or place and start writing about it in 20 words. This is your eye catching description to lure people into reading your story. I'll make one up real quick to show you how. We'll make a character named... hmmm, Cuppa Joe and he lived in Thermos with a... magical coffee bean. I know, it's silly. But whatever... Let's just roll with it! Here are my 20 words for each one.

20 words for Cuppa Joe:

A round and dark man. Warm and loved by many. Popularity makes him the best man for the morning show.

20 words on the magical coffee bean:

It was a deep roasted family secret. No one knows where how it got her. He must guard it or die!

20 words for Thermos:

A highly energetic land. No matter what the season, it is always warm, fragrant and sought out by many tourists.

 Going further! The next paragraph or so...

Next, write a paragraph about them. Expand a little on what we already know. Tell a little about him/her, the item or the place. What's the best thing about him/her? (Nice to look at, great person) What's the worst? (a bit of an addictive personality, Not a night person) What is the style of Thermos. Is it modern, victorian, primitive, kind of like Vegas or more like a mountain retreat?) Just go into some detail.

And now we start exploring

Start exploring your character with a biography of him/her or you can use these resources to help you develop your character further. Here is a form that really gets into the details of your character. Interview your character! Here are 100 questions to get you started. Here is another character development worksheet that I also like.

Start exploring your scene with a some history about the place. Here are some questions to get you started. answer them in any order you want. This also works for your item.

1. Where is this place (or where is it kept)? (City, town, country, mountains, beach, outer space, on the moon, in the town of Thermos etc)
2. Who lives there? (No one, 300 million people, a small family, a tribe, a crazy cat lady)
3. What is it close to? (Another town, a stream, the mountains, an elk herd, the highway)
4. What features are the best about it? (The beautiful waterfalls, the coffee shops, the satanic book store, the schools, the people)
5. What is the worst about it? (The crime rate, the vampires, the sharp jagged cliffs, the crazy cat lady, the constant humming on a full moon from the bean)
6. What is the history of the place or item? (How was it started, built, supported, etc. How was it found, created or bought. Who first had it?)
7. Are there any interesting dark secrets of the place or item? (The butler did it, the mountain that flattened a tribe, a murder no one dares talk about, the pot holes are portals once a year on June 28, The trees talk. The bean is mysterious and people disappear, the town blames the bean)
8. Take me on a tour of the place! Imagine that you are taking me on a tour of the place and write what you would tell me on the tour. (We are turning onto Main Street where you find most of the coffee shops. This old building was once a tea shop until the towns people burned it to the ground...)
9. Show and tell your item. Same concept. Imagine I came over to visit and you are showing all your stuff. We run across this fascinating item of yours... tell me all about it.

Start reading backwards

I don't mean to read the whole thing backwards, literally. Start at the bottom of what you wrote. read the last sentence first and highlight anything you can explain further or describe. Here is a sample to show you.

Cuppa Joe is a dark handsome man that lives in Thermos. When he was a young boy, his father gave him a magical bean to protect at all costs, even if it meant dying for this bean. His father disappears, never to be seen or heard from again, before he can explain why. Now, Cuppa has to discover the mystery of the bean on his own.

Go through and highlight some things you can explore further. Here, I highlighted some for you...

Cuppa Joe is a dark handsome man that lives in Thermos. When he was a young boy, his father gave him a magical bean to protect at all costs, even if it meant dying for this bean. His father disappears, never to be seen or heard from again, before he can explain why. Now, Cuppa has to discover the mystery of the bean on his own.

Here are some samples of what you can expand...

Cuppa Joe Fill out a character sheet on him.
dark handsome man Really?! Is he as good as he looks? What style clothes does he wear?
Thermos Read above and start telling about it.
young boy What was his childhood like? What school did he go to, if he went to school? etc
his father OH OH, character development time!
gave him How did that go? Was it a ceremony? Was he like "Here. Protect it or die. Night, son" or was there some huge hubbub about it where he took him on a camping trip far away so no one could hear anything he said? Was it on purpose? Or did Cuppa find it and ask a ton of questions?
magical bean What does it do? Why is it magical? tell me about it!
protect at all costs HOLY COW! for a coffee bean? WHY!? What is so special about it? 
His father disappears, never to be seen or heard from again Oh, how did that go? Was it huge media story time, was there a man hunt? Any ideas or suspicions? Does he come back at the end of the book (as a human or a ghost)?
discover the mystery of the bean Yea, what is the mystery anyway?
his own Why on his own? Can he tell someone? Like, his best friend? Or was that in Dad's pep talk about protect it or die? Or maybe no one wants to have anything to do with it?

Keep going! 

As you write, continue developing each character that comes along, each place we go to in the story and each item that means something. Then read backwards for each part you write. 

Eventually, you will start to form a story that you can work with and form into a novel. As you expand on each item, person and place you will start to see more ideas coming to mind. Keep it up! You can do it!

1667 words a day isn't hard when you are describing things for us!

Update on the Doctor appointment.

I got up and ready to go yesterday morning and by the time I got to my friends house the Doctors office called. They cancelled my appointment because the doctor is sick. I am waiting for them to call and reschedule. They were supposed to call yesterday but I didn't hear from them. I called to see if they were rescheduling yet and they said they were trying to figure out what was going on since the next appointment openings are in the later part of the month.

My friend told me to call the nurse and tell them what is going on so I do plan to call later in the morning and talk to a nurse. I'll let you know how that goes.

Homemade yogurt... What a flop! But the cottage cheese was quite tasty!

With the price of yogurt being what it is, I decided to try my hand at making our own yogurt. I researched recipes and ideas and found a few sites that made it sound so easy. Even a moron can make it! Really? could you send the moron to my house because my last four attempts ended in sour milk. I was afraid to use it for anything.

Yogurt Flop #1
The idea behind it was that you heat milk to a certain temp, which I did. Then cool it down to a certain temp, which I also did. Then add a plain yogurt with live "cultures" (read as bacteria, MWAHAHAHAHA!) in it and stir. Put it in a crockpot with the lid on and cover with a heavy towel. Leave it for however many hours and VOILA! You have... sour milk? WTF?

Yogurt Flop #2
So I tried it again, this time I used the crockpot. Apparently I am an idiot when it comes to yogurt making. My next batch needed to be heated in the crockpot for however many hours, which I did. Stir in the yogurt again, which I did and then wrap it in a heavy towel. This time I wrapped it in two towels and then let it sit overnight. when I opened the crockpot the next morning, I was really hopeful because it kind of looked like yogurt (but not really). I went to stir it and it was rather soupy and smelled like rotting... something. Ew. It was GROSS!

Yogurt Flop #3 and #4... I give up!
My two batches went about the same. Flop and FLOP! One of them I actually was afraid to do anything with. Is yogurt supposed to foam? I don't think so. Anyway, I poured it down the sink too and hoped it wouldn't eat through my sink or the pipes. It didn't.

Cottage Cheese!
I finally gave up on making yogurt and decided to try something equally scary. Making cottage cheese! The idea is that you buy a quart of buttermilk in a certain type of carton. I bought the only one I could find and hoped for the best. Then you boil it in a pot of water (still in the closed carton) for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let sit overnight.

I'll be honest, the smell was, uhm, well...  fragrant. Let's just put it that way. I was really worried. The kids thought I had lost my mind and my few friends that came over swore off ever eating at my house again.

The next afternoon (I totally forgot I was making cottage cheese!) I opened the carton, gagged and then poured it into a drainer lined with cheese cloth. I let it drain for awhile. I wasn't sure what it should look like so I just waited until it didn't look totally scary. Then I dumped it into an empty, cleaned cottage cheese container.

Okay, so it didn't LOOK like cottage cheese and I spent nearly a half hour trying to convince my kids to try it first. I ended up with the short straw and went first. It wasn't bad at all. Actually, it was the best cottage cheese I have had in awhile since we moved from Tennessee and I can't get Mayfield's dairy products anymore. My oldest son was like "Oh hell no I am not trying it! I know that trick!" That's where I eat something and pretend it's delicious until he takes a bit... then I spit it out because it actually is putrid.

I eventually convinced him to try it. He liked it too! It was more like a super soft cheese spread than cottage cheese but the flavor was awesome.

I'll have to keep attempting to make yogurt. I'll let you know if I ever succeed.