Saturday, April 26, 2008

Justine

I may or may not have mentioned the kittens' Number One Fan (outside of their nuclear family, of course). Her name is Justine and she's currently in first grade.

First, the setting: our townhouse is set a couple feet off the ground, so steps to the front door, that kind of thing. We also have floor-to-almost-ceiling windows in every room (before you think we're overly posh, let me tell you that the windows are also very Dry Rotted and our landlord can't afford to replace them, so we are currently looking into ways to keep the outside out, so to speak. Does anyone know if there's a kind of caulk or caulk-like substance that will work on windowsills?).

Our kitchen window is on the communal yard side of our house, which means that the kits can -- without having to jump to a windowsill -- watch all sorts of kids playing. And vice versa.

So when we got the kittens last year (already? Wow.) and I'd set up a little corral-fence in the kitchen right next to the window, a certain five-year-old (at the time) girl got to watch the kittens grow up from tiny puffballs to the sleek cats they are now. We couldn't bring them outside until they'd had their shots, however, and the one time we managed to get the cats out before it got too cold, she was at a friend's house. And modern adult/child neighbor relations being what they are, we couldn't very well invite her inside. So she made a habit of coming to our kitchen window after school every day. She kept a small stick near the window and would lightly scratch at the screen and the cats would come running and flirt shamelessly with her. (Molly especially would Pose Like A Supermodel at her. I have no idea where she got that from.) She'd put her hands against the screen and the cats would rub up against her hands. Cue the violins.

Until this past Sunday. We took the cats out, and Justine was home! She got to pat them silly and was the giggliest, happiest little girl in the world. Especially since the cats recognized her scent and were incredibly friendly with her. She drew us a picture of herself at school (everyone: awwww) and has been stopping by the window for a chat/play with the cats every day. Yesterday, her mom let her come inside for a visit. Mom can see into our kitchen from her front step (where she was sitting, watching her older son play catch), so every once in a while Justine would stand in the window and tell her mom she wasn't coming home ever.

Plus, she wore the cats out pretty good. She even got Molly to chase her up and down the hallway -- that cat hardly ever wears out. We managed to get Kermit out of bed for a midnight (for him) snack.

Kids are such fun.

1 comment:

Nate said...

This Old House didn't say what the stuff is called, but this season they did show an epoxy product that can be used to repair portions of sills and such. You basically cut out the rot, scrape off nearby paint, put some sort of cleaner/binder on the wood, and use the epoxy to rebuild what you took out. It can't (or maybe more properly "shouldn't") be used to replace a whole sill, but it can be used to replace, say, a quarter of a sill along with part of the casing.