Goodbye kitty and goodnight or O! Ye of Little Faith.

My daughter has been bugging me ever since we left Kashmir, and had to give away our dog, to get another pet. I told her that once we got settled in to Penang we would talk about it. How is that for parental non-committal? Of course, she has not let me forget the "we will talk about it" part. We have been talking about it. I have talked about a monitor lizard, an iguana, she keeps talking about a dog or a cat or even a sugar glider of all things. So we settled, finally, on a kitten a friend found. I will admit it was cute. Did you catch that, "was"?

Jessie's friend told her she had a cute kitten she could have. This past Sunday we picked it up on our way home from church. Our friend even put it in a small carrier so it would not run away. We got it home and closed the doors and let it run around the house. Cute. Big green eyes. Jessie named it "Peanut". Unlike another kitten disaster we had a few years back, this kitten loved to cuttle. I like this. Seems more like a dog that way. I think in this narrative, this is a good place to mention I am not a cat person, could you tell? I love dogs. Always have. To me the bigger the better. I know how to handle a dog, how to groom a dog and most importantly how to potty train a dog. Cats are a mystery. Someone once told me, a dog you feed, you pet you take care of and they think you are God. A cat on the other hand, you feed, you pet you take care of and they think they are God. But I digress...

Sunday night at my daughters bedtime she wanted to keep the cat in her room. I reminded her this was going to be an "outside cat." But, ok, I am not heartless. I told her that once the cat started meowing too much she, not I, would take it downstairs. So at 2:45 am Jessie takes the meowing kitty down to the kitchen away from her. But the meowing is too much, the cat is too confined in the small carrier at 3:00 am. I see a small sleepy girl standing by my bed telling me the cat, in the kitchen, is keeping her awake. So being the sucker for a pretty little girl I said I would handle it. I think she just needs to pee. Of course she does. So what do I do? I take her out, in my boxers, to the yard to do her business. As soon as she touched the grass off she runs under the car. Great! Cat on the loose at 3:00 am! So I climb under the car but out she runs like lightning over to the neighbor's yard, then I watched her go into the street. Crazy cat, doesn't she know it is 3:00 am? I run back into the house to open the gate and then back into the deserted street, did I tell you it was 3:00 am, 'cause it was! So, I am now in the street, in my boxers (and I mean, no t-shirt, no shoes, nothing, just boxers!) running after this cat. It then runs in through a drain under the fence into the vacant house like ours (remember the mirror version of our house we first looked at when we moved here?). So I deftly climb over the gate to the house and walk through the tall grass and hope with all hope there is no cobras lying in wait for me (don't laugh, they killed a cobra just next door to us only a month back!) I see the cat but it bolts back into the street. Ok, I am not playing this game at 3:00 am in my underwear. Goodbye kitty and goodnight.

My daughter was heart broken to say the least when I told her the story the next morning. I then spent the next day, searching the streets around our house looking and listening for the kitty. Nothing. That evening a sad Jessie comes home from school and her friend that gave her the cat was not nice to her, somewhat understandable, but also not nice.

Yesterday, still no kitty and it rained, hard. Knocked over some of our plants and even broke a pot or two. A driving rain, like you only find in South East Asia (maybe not, but it sounded dramatic). My hope for Peanut is gone. I speak with Jessie once more and say, "I think we need to realize that Peanut is gone, forever and not coming back." She tells me she will keep praying. With little encouragement in my voice, I tell her that is a good idea.

Maybe it was the rain, for sure the prayers. But this morning As we were getting ready to get into the car we heard a familiar "meow, meow". Sure enough it was peanut under the car looking wet and scared. I got the carrier and put some cat food in it and she entered with little trouble. She is now lying next to me as I type this and Jessie is at school having a very good day. God heard the prayers of a child. God is good all the time.

Joe McNalley & Packing

It is 5:30 am and I can't sleep. So I got up to check my email and I saw a blog post from "The Strobist." Hobby linked a YouTube video of Joe McNally speaking at Google's headquarters a few weeks back. This is really good stuff. McNally is real. Not many pros will show you their bad images and their screw ups. He is a down to earth photographer that connects with most of us. Like Chase Jarvis, you feel Joe wants us to succeed. He does everything he can to help us make it, so if we bomb at this work it is not because we were not told the "secrets."

Buddy, David DuChemin also has a "how to make it as a Pro" blog running today, check it out HERE.

In packing news, things are going well. Some good news, I just found out that because my daughter and wife are both United Premier Executives and I am 1K we each get 3 bags at 70lbs! This is a huge help in moving out to Malaysia. Instead of going out and buying new suit cases we bought some inexpensive footlocker type storage boxes from a local sporting goods store. Made by Contico, these boxes are tough ABS like plastic and should take the abuse of the baggage handlers well. Then later, we can use them as storage for items in Malaysia.

An Animoto Christmas

I really like the simplicity and creativity of the Animoto video creation. Here I took some images from my family's Christmas Reunion and made them, in just a few minutes, into a slick and impressive video. You can do a 30 sec mix for free and a longer one is only $3. I know this sounds like a commercial, but it really is fun and a great way to share images with friends and family.