Hello Hello?

Hello Internet. It has been a few months, hasn't it? It was never an intended blogging break, but it sort of turned out that way. I'll try to do better for you in the future, I mean well.

So... where were we? Nearly 4 months have past in the Nielsen household and a lot has happened in our lives, and we have a lot to catch up on... I'm going to make a series of posts to catch up on the happenings around here.

One thing I want to touch on first, that was a big part of our lack of blogging, was a loss in our lives. March and April were difficult months. Queequeg began acting not her normal self in beginning of March. Thus began multiple trips to the vet every week, trying to pinpoint the cause. After working with our local vet and getting a lead on a possible cause (that they weren't equipped for), we traveled to the University of Florida twice for exams and testing. After 4 weeks of searching, we got our cold hard truth. Queequeg had advanced cancer in both of her middle ears. We ended up with almost 2 more weeks with her before she let us know when it was time to let go... Of course we took it very hard. She wasn't a old cat, as she was middle aged and still had half a lifetime in her. Most of all, she was our friend. A constant companion for nearly our entire marriage. Hell, I think she is in a 1/3 of the pictures on this blog. She was always close.

Our Quee

I was in no mood to write during and after that, as we were both coming to terms with Quee.

After a while, we thought maybe we should get a new distraction in our life. A random stop at PetSmart, to browse fish aquariums. We left the store deciding to adopt a cat from the shelter. A few local animal shelters house available cats for adoption at the store and while passing the cages, one cat melted our hearts instantly. She picked us alright, not the other way around. We applied for adoption and in about a week and half, we brought home our new distraction.

Little One

She is 7 months old and full of energy. She is the perfect distraction for us. She is a very interactive cat like Quee was, but in a whole other way, which is perfect for us. It makes us remember Queequeg as her healthy self more, not the dark last weeks of her life.

We call her "little one" most of the time, but she is rapidly outgrowing that handle. We thought we decided on a name for her after a few weeks, but both of us aren't too crazy for it anymore, so that is TBD yet. Her and Diogenes are getting along, in the annoying little sister sense. She is always trying to get him to play. They will lay or sit near each other but she just can't resist the urge to tackle him when he isn't looking.

Our May and June have been busy months for us with family visiting, going on a vacation, work overload and projects around the house but I'll post more about that later. Stay tuned!