Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Happy Homecoming, Evangeline!

I just shared this on Facebook yesterday - where I learned the proper term is "Gotcha Day"? - but since this is for posterity, I'm also posting it here. I want to remember this.

Plus this gave me an excuse to scroll through a thousand Eva photos, pick out a few bunch of favorites, and talk about them. AW YEAH.

PREPARE FOR AN ONSLAUGHT OF KITTY CUTENESS.




One year ago today our neighbor Rebecca pulled off the highway to rescue a tiny black kitten, huddled on the middle yellow line (!!). It was so small that at first she thought it was a hair scrunchie. Then, after Rebecca got the fuzzball into her car, the kitten disappeared so thoroughly that it took her a few hours and disassembling the dash to get her out again!

One year ago today we'd just lost Tonks, and I was fighting a losing battle to keep my Lily alive. I still can't talk about it - can barely type this - but suffice to say Eva came into our lives that day, and eventually our hearts.

Evangeline was my light through the grief, her persistent distractions and demands all that kept me grounded. It took me months to admit I loved her, but now every day I'm so grateful she's here.

I forgot to mention Eva's birthday last month (or our best guess at what her birthday is), but I think today is the REAL celebration. So happy homecoming, sweet Eva, my Evangeline. Prepare to get LOTS of treats and belly rubs.


  
Here's Eva today, but let's take a stroll down memory lane as she grew up:

 ERMERGERSH.

 Her first bath:

 
 She eventually forgave us. 
(Look how tiny her head was! We think she was about 4-5 weeks old.)


DAT FACE.

 Keeping our router warm.


Once we adopted Suki a few months later, it got a lot harder to get photos of just Eva: 


Suki was top dog from day one, and still bullies Eva around a bit, but they are devoted sisters:


I'm convinced all cats should come in pairs, and these two are living proof of how beautiful those pairings can be. 

(I know there are a lot of exceptions, but if you can bond them young, it's an incredible thing!)


 These are the faces of cats up to no good.

 Eva has lived ON me for most of this past year, and if I had a nickel for every blurry attempted selfie in my iPhoto I could buy a REALLY fancy coffee. 


 
I think I've watched those 10 seconds about 100 times, heh.


 I taught her to be a shoulder cat from the beginning:

 
 ... which I occasionally regret now, while she's attempting to claw her 10-pound self up there.




 






The struggle of photographing a black cat in low light will plague me the rest of my days, but sometimes I catch her in sunlight:





Eva loves John just as much as she loves me, but it's hard to be jealous when you get adorable moments like this:





 Thankfully she's gotten too big to try THIS anymore:



 But she still plays meerkat to look out the window: 


Thanks for indulging my virtual slideshow of fur baby photos, gang. This was obviously mostly for my benefit, but I hope the cuteness made you smile!

Now here, have a head flop and some toe beans for the road:


::melts::



*****

If you'd like to help support me and John and Eva and Suki, then please consider shopping through our Amazon links! ( USA, UK, Canada.) It costs you nothing, but helps pay a few bills around here, which we dearly appreciate. 

And if you're feeling crafty, check out my tutorial page! John's been updating it this week, so now there are 165 different craft posts in there, all with thumnbails on one page for easy browsing. I can't believe we've done so many... and I can't wait to do a few hundred more.

18 comments:

  1. Happy gotcha day, Eva! I can never get enough Eva and Suki pictures.

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  2. Wow! It's Gotcha Day for my Pidge too! Got her 4 years ago as a 10 month old cat. Still goofy and awkward phase since her full name is Pidge the Graceless.

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  3. So very sweet. Not for the first time do I wish I were not allergic to floofs. I hereby give you permission to post weekly Eva/Suki pix. At least monthly, please. 💗💗💗💗💗

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    1. I would suggest you subscribe to the Instagram for your kitty fix. Loads of Eva & Suki there.

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  4. I can never get enough pictures of this gorgeous girl! I'm so glad you all found each other when you most needed to.

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  5. We lost our almost 21 year old Savannah last year in the same time frame as you lost Tonks and Lily. Two days after, we adopted Sakura from a local rescue. She is such a love and I am so glad she is in our lives. I can't NOT have a cat in the house. I need that interaction and even though we got Sakura two short days later does not mean we did not love and still miss Savannah. You can share Eva and Suki as much as you'd like!

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  6. We got an adorable 2 year old pug last month. Gotcha Days are great!

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  7. I needed this today. It has been a week of pet sadness and I so needed something happy!!

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  8. I personally go for adoptiversary more than Gotcha Day. But Homecoming works great too! Eva hit the jackpot when she found you guys. <3

    PS -- I've found a red background is great for photographing the really dark furs. My dark brindle boxers POP in pictures when they were on my red couch!

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  9. D'awwww! Eva looks a lot like my black cat, Echo. I honestly don't remember her very much as a kitten, as we got her when I was very little, but I've seen pictures and MAN was she cute like Eva.
    It's funny, I have three cats, and they all tolerate each other-until we dogsit and then they're all best friends and hide beneath my bed together. But the minute the dog goes home, they're back to swatting if one gets too close to the other's food bowl. But I've also seen completely antisocial cats learn to be friends, too. My grandparents had two cats for almost ten years, and one of them passed away. The two were never best friends, but after Celeste died and Loki was left alone, when my grandparents adopted another cat, Cleo, all Loki wanted was to follow her everywhere.
    One more cat note; like Andrea said, black cats photograph very well against red backgrounds. I discovered this one day because Fabian and Echo, my black kitties, like to sleep in my photography lightbox.

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  10. LOL -- I need more sleep! I read Nalie Therese's last sentence as the kitties liking to sleep in her photography litterbox and wondered why she had a special litterbox to take pictures of.

    I too am terribly allergic to the floofs, so I love it when you post pictures here, as I'm not on any social media. Thanks for the Eva (and Suki) pics -- I am having a bad day and this lifted me up a bit.

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  11. Ahaha, Cowgirl68, don't give my cats any ideas!

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  12. Your pair are adorable, and Eva is especially sweet!

    Our golden knight who rescued us from grief is Zola. You can see a few pictures of him here:

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  13. Happy gotcha day!!! I just lost my oldest baby, as she passed over the rainbow bridge last week. She was 19. So seeing these baby pics just makes me happy and think of the love I had for her.

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  14. As the fellow owner of a black cat, I feel the pain. Ruthie is my little love but, well, between her black fur (though the white "dissent ascot" helps) and inability to stay still unless she's on my chest/face, it is hard to take a picture. Happy Gotcha Day, Eva! From me and my furballs, Katniss and Ruth Bader Ginspurr.

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  15. The best pictures we have of our black furball are taken with a prime lens. Makes an amazing difference. For the day-to-day phone snaps, he tends to come out with very poorly defined edges that just don't convey his extreme cuteness. The bane of my life.

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