My Family Moves to India

As if the "period party" weren't enough biological drama, our newest momma cat is also in heat.


She came to us in April with two kittens, all looking a little beat up and scruffy. We decided to call her Bonnie, because she has such a bonnie personality - always purring (except when she's in heat, but we all some of us know what PMS is all about.


Kitten #1 became Krystal, in honor of our dear friend Crystallynn. (You can put that on your resume,
Crystallynn!)


Kitten #2 is impossibly shy, so she quickly became Shadow.

Generally you can find Shadow slinking around behind a bed or dresser. She is like the cat that isn't.

I did capture her once and made her sit for a formal shot. (Similiar to children, you can only get them to do this once.) As you can see, mostly she was about eyeballs. Eyeballs looking for a way to escape.


Well, over the summer the kittens grew, as kittens do, and they are now teenagers - ready to have their first cycles. Huh. Should we have three period parties???



Kristy looking smugly out from under the bed.




Shadow being....well, Shadowy.




Meanwhile, Bonnie has fattened up a bit and come back into heat. For those of you who are unfamiliar with cat reproductive cycles, instead of bleeding when they come into heat, queen cats scream like they're bleeding. What they are really saying is "COME AND GET IT, LUVVVVER BOY!!!!', but what the human ear hears is a non-stop, tortured yowling.

Hence, spaying. We had Bonnie scheduled for a spaying session, but the kitchen sink fell in and that took priority. No one ever said I don't have priorities. Bonnnie got locked in a room with food and water until her screaming stopped or the kitchen sink got fixed, whichever came first.

In the meantime, this handsome suitor came around:


My, isn't he macho?



And Bonnie winked at him:




Even Mikey tried to get in on the action, but he hasn't the balls. (HA! That's a good one.)

He looks possessed, doesn't he? It's lust.

Fortunately, or sadly, however you want to view it, none of the cats have figured out how to open doors or morph through glass yet. All they can do is stare longingly at each other.

Kind of makes you misty-eyed, doesn't it? True lust and all that....

PERIOD on the rag monthly visitor THE CURSE

What shall I say about my invitation to a gala in honor of a young girl's first menstrual cycle? It provokes strong negative feelings. Most of the reasons behind them you'd probably rather not know, and I'd rather not share the details with the general public. I was raised the exact opposite as the before-mentioned article states: heavy on the hygiene and biological aspect, light on the hoopla when my first period came. In my culture, a woman's cycle is P.R.I.V.A.T.E., unless of course you are chatting "girl talk". (Note: All "girl talk" eventually winds its way to either periods or labor stories.)

My experiences with my reproductive organs in general netted me a great deal of pain, doctor's visits, hospitalizations, chronic anemia, infertility, miscarriages, embarrassment, and eventually cancer. I not only have unwanted scars from them, I have unwanted tattoos! In short, I should have had a party to celebrate my hysterectomy!

So I will leave you with a funny story about culture, language, and the "that time of the month". Here it is:

In Japanese, the common term used for a woman's period is "serei", not to be confused with "seirei". "Seirei" means spirit or ghost, as in the Holy Ghost. More than once, as a missionary, I heard American missionaries praying for their periods to bless them instead of the Holy Ghost. And yes, more than once, it was I. It's more funny when it's a guy speaking though....

The Friday Animal Market is held up near the airport, squished in the narrow roads surrounding a large, walled, empty field. It's so crowded that more than once we were brushed by motorcycles as they were walked through the streets. Everything you can imagine is there, including large animals. Here's a small sample:

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Lots to do. Little to say. If you're interested, join me on a recap of my coast-to-coast, intercontinental summer marathon.

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Home leave is not so much a vacation for me as a marathon of doctor's appointments, shopping for necessitites, and desperately weighing luggage, all of it punctuated with visits to family and friends.

We are now halfway through - day 23 of 47 - and so far we have had 3 cavities filled (L); two pairs of glasses (J and T); three tooth cleanings (J,T,L); one audiological evaluation (L); and one mammogram. As usual I had problems getting the mammogram done - this time around, suddenly, no doctor will order a diagnostic mammogram (different than a screening mammogram) because no one in the US has seen me in 4 years. Every other year, no problem with this aspect of the process. This year, a dead halt. Why did I think this could be simple?

We still have one cavity (L), one check-up (L), and the all-encompassing visit to the MIND, where they will, indeed, check out my mind. That's at the very end of our trip, so expect me to land in Chennai in more of a muddle than usual.

In the meantime we have had a record rash of broken electronics - my phone (replaced); my laptop (neither the manufacturer nor Microsoft seems to be able to fix it); the old laptop (an antique - not surprising it is unfixable); and my camera (died as I stepped on US soil). I need to open my own electronics graveyard.

In an unusual turn of events, I fixed one of the electronic problems by accepting a dare from my husband. He dared me to ride the Cyclone, a water ride at Zoombeezi Bay in Columbus, in exchange for an IPad. (Many thanks to Nick for negotiating the deal!) To his great surprise I took the bet and made it off of the ride, only choking slightly as water cascaded into my mouth at the end. Small price to pay for a new IPad...especially as my laptop is toast.

As soon as I get it I'll try posting some pictures of me completing my end of the bargain. Warning: they are not pretty.

The best part of home leave is always the food, the cleanliness, the family and friends. We appreciate all who have helped smooth our way, especially in Ohio and Florida.