Tuukka

It has been a very nice summer this year.  We have spent a lot of time with family, the business is going well, the Bruins made it to game six of the Stanley Cup Playoffs succumbing ultimately to the Chicago Blackhawks who had an amazing season, and we are enjoying life on the homestead.  We also have a new addition to our little family.
We kicked off the summer on Memorial Day down in Newport.  Art's Dad had their 2 bedroom unit and I was able to rent one through RCI as well.  So we had enough room for all :-)  We had a weekend together with the main family; Karyn and Ralph, Pam, the twins, Abbie and Zeb, and Susan and Charlie all spent a night or two or three.  We also got to spend time with Art's cousins and Bud's sister Jean and her husband Tom.  We did sneak off to Boston that Saturday to see a B's playoff game against the Rangers with Will and Sandra.  Fabulous!!  We won that game :-D

















 



We added our precious little Tuuka in mid-June.

We went around to several shelters but they either didn't have a kitten that fulfilled Art's wish list or they had too many rules and 'though shalt...'s to fuss with.  Then we stopped, on a whim, in a pet grooming place in Milford that had 'kittens' written in the window out front.  They had three little fluffballs eight weeks and two days in age.  Two boys, and a girl.  The little boys were both cute.  One was a perfectly colored tan tabby and the other had brown tabby on top with white socks and a frock.  When I went into the cage to get the tan kitten I accidentally brushed the brown one.  He started purring immediately.  Art scooped him up and he flopped over on his back purring loudly.  The tan one just kind of looked at me like I was annoying him.  I promptly put the tan one back as Art said, "I think we found him."  Less than three minutes later we were out the door with our new little fluffball.  I think it took us about that long to name him.  Tuukka is named after the Bruin's Finnish Goaltender Tuukka Rask who, as it has been pointed out, is very catlike.  He has been a love from day one.  We are talking Zoi snuggly and the rate he is growing I think he will be able to hold his own against Blizzie.  He also loves playing with Zdeno.
We had an interesting intro as two days after we got Tuukka Abbie and her pup Teddy Bear came to stay for a couple of weeks.  Sadly, Abbie broke up with her boyfriend and needed a little time away.  We were glad to have them and the pups had a blast together.  Teddy was awesome with the kitten as well.  Tuukka loved to attack his tail.  Teddy just lay there and let him.  We had a couple of Bruins parties and lots of visitors in the house (Pam and the twins came up for a couple of days as did Opa) so the kitten had lots of attention.  He was fine with it and the twins, and Sydney, loved to cuddle and play with him.












Art's Dad put his house on the market yesterday.  We are hopeful that he is going to come live with us.  We may freshen up the cottage/workshop so he can have an alone place to do his carving, etc.  We are thrilled that he is considering moving here.  He is going to babysit while we go on our adventure North soon.  I have set up a few activities in town like the four score and more club and coffee hour.  Hopefully he will find this town as warm and welcoming as we have.
The chickens are doing fairly well.  We have had the rotten fox in the neighborhood.  At least three of us have popped some fur off of his tail but sadly no one has gotten him.  He has taken down two roosters and at least seven girls this year.  I don't care how cute you think they are after they kill so many of your pets you lose the loving feeling.
The business is going well.  So much better than last year.  We hired another Temple local earlier this summer that is going ok.  Another one was awful and we had our first threat of a (false) workman's comp claim.  We are still trying to hire one or two more people.  We are already booking in September though, which is a good sign.