i really believe that God uses pets and the caring of pets to help teach us about parenthood.*  many of you know that our beloved ball of fluff the berkeley is high-maintenance.  the dog has needs, besides the normal canine types of feeding, bathing, pottying and such.  he requires pills daily to help the achiness of his back since he has cartilage that are compressed.  he is a lhasa apso so he needs a haircut every 8 weeks or he’ll look like a poofy unruly mop.  we must give him drugs on stormy nights to alleviate pantings and hyperventilation.  and there are several other nuances that i just think are part of his quirky personality.

well, saturday afternoon, while jon was mowing along the back fence row with tall overgrown grass, he discovered a kitten. a very little kitty.  he couldn’t find its mama, but he wasn’t sure how the poor thing ended up in the middle of our backyard.  silly jon that he is, he dragged me out of the house to see it.  BIG MISTAKE.  i automatically had to bring it into the house to care for it.  it’s an orphan kitty! what would happen to it outside without a caretaker.

but back to the point of my post, as i’ve been acting as foster kitty mama to a 2-3 week old kitten that seems healthy and barely can walk, i realize how much work such little creatures are.  i know nothing about cats.  except that i am allergic to them and jon isn’t too fond of felines.  it cries like a sick seagull.  it can barely nurse on a bottle (which took me 2 days to figure out how to get it to use the nipple of a bottle as opposed to my knuckles and hands).  it needs manual assistance to pee & poop (which i learned baby wipes really help from messes allover my hands and arms). it wakes up every few hours to potty, nurse, burp and fall asleep again. did i mention that it wakes up every few hours?

what i am learning from this experience is the following: i really am not a cat-person… i adore this little kitty who i named Yoshi…  i am able to get up every few hours to feed the need of a crying baby… the berkeley will have a rough time adjusting to another being in the house (especially if it ends up stealing one of his toys)… and i am as ready as i can possibly be for a human baby – long nights, frequent bottle feedings, bodily fluid messiness, taking 2 1/2 hrs to get ready to leave the house as opposed to one hour, and a great appreciation for baby wipes!

hopefully we can locate a nursing cat to help with Yoshi.  it really needs a mama of its own kind.  i’m beginning to think it imagines the berkeley’s stuffed dinosaur to be its mama or worse yet, me. 

See more Yoshi pics here.

*disclaimer – i know that pets are not the same as human children, i know it’s not the same, but i also know pets take A LOT of work! *

We’ve been really busy for the past few weeks with work and home, and of course adoption tasks. So we decided to take a little break on Monday to un-labor. Several of our friends joined us on a day-long outing to Chicago.

We chose to visit Chicago attractions that were FREE, since our goal was to do Chicago Cheap and Free. Cheap train fares from South Bend Airport on the South Shore Line, and Free Attractions only. No shopping even, which is very rare for me!

We rode the elevator up to the restaurant/lounge of the Hancock Center.  96 floors up. It was a “Whoa” moment for sure. There’s even an awesome view in the Ladies restroom.   Unfortunately we couldn’t walk all the way around the top, since there was an aggressive host on duty.  But the parts we did see were amazing!

Then we walked all the way to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Did you ever notice how unsociable animals can be?  I cannot remember how many of them turned their backs on us. Though in their defense, it was over 90 degrees out, and in the afternoon. Silly humans, don’t we realize that animals are less active during this time of day?  Also, the Zoo was rather, um, limited.  Half the cats in the Lion House were not in their exhibits. The apes decided it was group nap time. and those indoor exhibits were muggy and did little to relieve the hotness from outside. But we still had fun of course.

Our dining experiences included Portillo’s and Lou Malnati’s.  At the Portillo’s on the corner of Ontario & Clark , most of us ate hamburgers and italian beef sandwiches, even though they’re known for their hot dogs.  It totally hit the spot, despite its greasiness.  My favorite part of Portillo’s though was the neon blue stars hanging allover the ceiling.  (I’m pretty sure neon lights do not match our office decor.)

This was the first time Jon or I had eaten Lou Malnati’s pizza.  Pretty tasty.  We tried the Lou and the Deluxe.  The Lou had fresh spinach, mushrooms and sliced roma tomatoes covered with a blend of mozzarella, romano and cheddar cheese. Something about this pizza reminded me of a family member’s homemade pizza. The crust? The cheese? The Deluxe came with generous amounts of sausage, cheese, green peppers and onions.  This one we ordered with the famous buttercrust.  Our fave : The Lou.  Which Chicago-style pizzeria has the best pizza? Well, that’s up to you. It’s all about personal preference. I’ll leave it at that.

After eating dinner, we headed back toward Millenium Park to relax while we waited for the South Shore Line home.  The worst part of a day-long trip is the time it takes to get home, and it was a long night.  We left Chicago at 9 pm (EST) and didn’t pull into our driveway until 1 am. We are all wiped out today.  Check out random pics here.

Side note: Do you wonder exactly how many miles you walked when you take a day-trip into the city?  It feels like a hundred, but it’s probably more like 10.