Not only did we decide to go with hardwood in our family room (we discussed the reasoning here), but it was delivered and installed.

We didn’t have much time to flip flop on our decision and just decided that the carpet had to go… and quickly. We had stopped spending time in the family room because the cats follow us around the house and if we were in there, it meant Darwin was there, which meant an increased possibility of accidents. Plus, being 9 months pregnant and having to jump over SpotBot crop circles (as we called them) to get on to the couch was not a fun process. We scheduled our install about 2 weeks in advance and we could not wait until the day came. I was counting down the minutes until that carpet was gone and I told the baby that it could not come until that weight was off my shoulders.

So on Friday, we said our final goodbye to our carpet.

I was never in love with the idea of doing anything but carpet in this room. I liked our dark ottoman and dark entertainment center and thought the contrast of the carpet looked better. I accepted the hardwood as more of a necessity.

And I am completely impressed with how it looks. I love it more than the carpet (note: the floors come off strangely orange on camera)

One of our concerns was that the new floors would not match the existing floors, since they were installed over a year apart. But much to our surprise, they match perfectly.

The slate around the fireplace is now more level with the floors, which is a plus (we still need to find a way to paint this or something)

With the hardwoods, we also had to add an additional quarter round piece of molding. By we, I mean our contractor. We didn’t do these floors on our own!

We had to move everything off our of entertainment center so that it could be easily moved for the install… I still haven’t put it back.

I’ve wanted to de-clutter and restyle our entertainment center for months and this is the perfect opportunity. But, right now I am loving the zero clutter look. Does nesting include wanting your house to look like you just moved in? Though our dining room is suffering now, since it’s home to all of our misplaced clutter…

The lack of clutter isn’t going to last long, since we plan on dedicating this corner to a Pack ‘n Play.

Okay we put the Pack ‘n Play together tonight, but I didn’t take an after picture because we had to stuff it with cardboard and a random globe. We had to make it feel less than cozy since someone liked it a little too much…

Don’t worry, we would never forget about our first babies. Macky will be keeping his corner of the family room.

I haven’t brought their toy box back out yet (it’s just a wicker basket that they know stashes the toys) since I’m trying to enjoy the lack of stuff, but Macky’s bed was a necessity in the room. That guy LOVES his bed and will cry if it’s not around. We think that to keep life as normal as possible for him when the baby comes, he needs to keep his little safe zone. He’s much more sensitive than Mowie or Darwin who adapt more easily and aren’t as attached to routines. We’re trying our best to make the baby transition easy for them. Maybe that’s another post for another day?

Strangely, I think that my iPhone better captures the color of the floors.

They’re still cherry, but not an orange cherry. The ottoman and entertainment center mix in well with the darker spots on the floor. Now maybe you can see why we are so impressed with the new floors? Plus they seem to make the room appear larger, which is always a bonus!

ps- for anyone interested, all of our hardwoods throughout our house are Bruce Oak, Dundee Plank, 3 1/4 inch planks, cherry color

This was not a happy decision because a) I’ve always wanted to keep our sunken family room carpeted and b) the timing is god awful.

It’s no secret that one of our cats, Darwin, has been battling renal lymphoma. In January, he successfully completed 6 months of chemotherapy and was declared to be in remission. This was an absolute miracle considering that the type of cancer he had was especially deadly and the oncologist had never seen a cat make it through a full course of chemo. Darwin did and continues to thrive, despite the fact that he was in such bad shape at one point that the oncologist suggested we stop treatment. We begged for just another week or two of treatments and it worked. We could not be prouder of him and of ourselves– for making the tough decisions we had to make, standing up for what we felt was right in our hearts and never giving up on him.

The downside to this happy story is that Darwin will forever have damaged kidneys. His kidney function did improve with chemo, which is how he is still alive today, but he is still in partial kidney failure. And with that comes the taboo pet owner topic of… accidents.

Darwin spared our family room carpet for months. We replaced our carpeting upstairs and considered ourselves lucky that he never went on our family room carpet. Anyone that has experienced cat accidents knows that they are extremely, extremely hard to stop once they start. Even if you cannot smell cat pee, they can and they continue to reuse certain spots.

Somewhere within the past few months, it finally happened in the family room. Our Bissell Spot Bot and Nature’s Miracle are our best friends. We even have a full sized Hoover carpet shampooer that we use often. While not ideal, we felt like we were managing the issue. One good thing (which is actually a very bad thing) is that Darwin’s pee is not very concentrated because his kidneys aren’t fully functioning. We could get rid of any smell rather easily, at least what us humans can smell. He generally stuck to one small area of the room, in front of our entertainment center (ps- this is an old picture with our old tv with wire hanging…)

After running some additional tests at the vet, we determined that Darwin’s family room issues are mostly behavioral at this point. It’s not that he’s not making it to the litter box in time, it’s that he thinks it’s actually okay to go on the rug since he’s had accidents there in the past. The past several weeks we’ve tried “potty training” him, since we can tell when he has to go. He only uses the family room when Mike and I are watching tv, so we watched him like a hawk. Any sign he had to go and we jumped up, walked him to the litter box and put him in there. If he didn’t go, we kept walking him back. Then we noticed something even stranger– he would only go in the litter box if I personally walked him there. So here I am, super pregnant and jumping up several times at night to walk my cat to the litter box and stand there until he went. Since I don’t sleep well at this point, sometimes I fall asleep on the couch and if he was with me, I’d have to jump up at odd hours in the middle of the night to walk him to the litter box. Needless to say, this method wasn’t fool proof and we still ended up with a few accidents when we weren’t vigilant.

I declared this past weekend as “Re-Potty Train Darwin” weekend. We planned to shampoo the whole carpet and use one of our new baby gates to discourage him from getting into the family room. Yes, we know that cats can jump, but poor Darwin also has a neurological disorder that makes him not the greatest jumper. Any obstacle we could use would help. We planned to have the carpet professionally cleaned before the baby comes to solve any remaining issues.

Well, plan backfired. We had twelve accidents this weekend. TWELVE.

I never wanted to get rid of our carpet, even up until a few days ago I was trying to come up with solutions to save it or be able to get a new one. I didn’t want to do hardwood and we tried to think of other materials we could use that would compliment our existing hardwood, but add some contrast and be pet/baby friendly. I didn’t want to lose this battle. Finally a few nights ago I looked at Mike and told him we should just do the hardwood.

We’ve been stressing over the constant accidents and carpet shampooing, worrying about the baby having a safe and clean place to play and embarrassed that we always have Spot Bot circles on our rug. We just need to be done with it and I have to be okay with that. These things happen and it is no one’s fault. In fact, we are lucky that he is still around and still so incredibly happy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The problem is that hardwood is expensive and was no where near in our upcoming plans. We still have to buy things for the baby’s room, planned to replace the playroom carpet and there’s the issue of that mower we need. But this is important and urgent. We want to have it done before the baby comes to save our time and energy and also to keep this place as clean as possible. I can’t imagine I’d be able to feed the baby AND stalk Darwin for signs of a pee-pee dance in the middle of the night. We have savings for times like this, but I’ve just trained myself to never touch it. It took me a little while to be okay with using some of it to save our sanity. I mean, that’s what it’s there for.

We did consider trying to install the floors ourselves to save money. John from Our Home From Scratch happens to live in our area, has the same flooring and offered us his nailer. Oh and his floor plan is nearly identical to ours, so we have a nice visual of what our family room will look like with new floors!

(via Our Home From Scratch)

Because of our time constraints, my inability to help and the fact that we’ve never done this before, we don’t think it’s a good idea to take this on ourselves. What would take someone else hours would take us days, which we don’t have too many of lately.

We plan to pick up a small, inexpensive area rug for now that the baby can play on while we’re in the family room. We plan to put it away when we’re done with it. Maybe someday we’ll get a nice, big area rug to warm up this room, but we try not to think that far ahead. Being able to get an area rug may mean that Darwin is no longer with us, which we don’t want to think of.

After all, things are easily replaced, lives are not.

Stamped concrete?  Wood plank stamp?  How much and where do I get the stamp?

All said and done, I believe it ran us just about $10-$11 per square foot to do the concrete patio with the wood stamp.  We had toyed with the idea of doing a wood deck, but in the end, we decided to go concrete patio.  We had found pictures online of a patio that we swore was a wood deck.  And sure enough, it was just stamped concrete with a dark stain.  It absolutely blew our minds.  And so, we knew we’d make the best decision going with the wood plank stamp.

We used a local concrete contractor who was absolutely fantastic.  As for where you can buy the stamp?  I’m not 100% sure, but it looks like you can order it from these guys.

How is Darwin?

Darwin, Diggy, D, Pickles… whatever his name is today, is doing absolutely fantastic.  His cancer is in remission and he’s back to normal.  Actually, he’s better than normal.  Diggy is doing things we either forgot about or are completely new.  He has an abundance of energy, he’s wrestling with Macky and chasing after Mowie.  It’s absolutely amazing how well he is doing and we are so incredibly grateful.

Lately, D has been loving the new couch and cuddling into me as we watch Jersey Shore television.  The little guy actually has his Halloween costume all picked out and ready to go!

What do you and Rebecca do for a living?

I work for a large financial firm where I kinda-sorta administer the content of an internal search engine of sorts.  I would go into what I do for them, but honestly, you’d just sit there confused and be all like, ok so what do you do again?

As for Rebecca, she works for a [not sure if I'm allowed to tell you] company where she does a boatload of statistical analysis.   She comes home at night and tells me all about her day — from what she did in Excel and SAS to how she did such and such analysis.  And I’m all like, ok so what do you do again?

Don’t you also have a music website?

I do!  My partner (What up!) and I run/manage/develop the music community, SongMeanings, where we encourage discussion around lyrics.   It’s been a bit of a side-job for what feels like forever, but has been demanding more and more of my attention each and every day.  We recently licensed over 1 million lyrics from the various record labels, and we pull in about 30-40 million page views per month.

This one time at band camp I filled out one of those ‘Make a donation, write your name on this card’ things and I wrote ‘SONGMEANINGS.NET’ on it.  The employees were all, OMG YOU RUN SONGMEANINGS!  And I was all like, yeah I do — CAN I GET THIS ICE CREAM FOR FREE?

(Rebecca’s comment: We didn’t get the ice cream for free, but Mike felt like Beiber for the night because a bunch of teenage girls knew who he was….)

Did you guys ever paint that newly constructed wall in your master bedroom?

Nope.  We just LOVE looking at drywall as we drift off to sleep each night.  End sarcasm.

3 cats?  Are you crazy cat people?

Yup!  And proud!  Here’s a little ditty about Jack Macky and Diane Sunny.  We found Macky one random day in a driveway, he was less than a half pound, nearly dead and covered in all sorts of bugs.  We immediately brought him to the vet where she said “EW!” and told us he probably won’t make it.  5 years later and Macky is 20 pounds (what Vet, what!).  Sunny came home with us about two weeks later; he was one of Macky’s litter-mates.  He was bright orange, incredibly fluffy and the name Sunny was all too perfect.

One day at Rebecca’s parents house, a cat randomly started crying non-stop at their door.  She was thin, declawed (not cool previous owners, not cool) and was losing her fur from a flea allergy.  We nursed her back to health and then took her in after no one came looking for her.  Oh, we named her Mowie because all she was doing was meow-ing the entire time.

Our life was perfect with these 3 cats for several months.  Then Sunny very randomly contracted feline panleukopenia.  We immediately brought him to an emergency hospital and we fought the virus for two weeks.  After several surgeries, blood transfusions and Sunny telling us he had enough, we made the decision to send him to kitty heaven.   Our little family was devastated.

Several months went by while we mourned Sunny.  Macky would cry non-stop every night looking for his brother.  Mowie wanted (and still wants) nothing to do with him.  Needless to say, Macky was keeping us up every night.

One day, I stumbled upon a cute little orange guy on Petfinder and I fell in love — but we weren’t ready or we thought we weren’t ready.   Then we discovered he had CH, a neurological condition that affected some of his motor skills (he has a very mild, barely noticeable case though).  After doing some research, we found out that CH is caused by the mother having panleukopenia — better known as the virus that Sunny passed away from.  We took this as a bit of a sign and adopted Darwin (see photo as Coke box above)

Here is a picture of Sunny in all his fluffy orangeness.  Before getting sick, Sunny was 19lbs.  He was the original big guy in our family and we credit him with keeping an eye out for Darwin through his cancer.

You don’t eat meat?  I don’t understand how anyone can not eat meat! LOUD NOISES!

We’ve been pretty much meat-free for several years now.  However, whenever I’m with Brian (SongMeanings’ partner) I end up eating meat like the time we were in Philadelphia and had cheesesteaks and also the time in San Francisco when I ate, well, something that was meat.  He’s that friend you have from high school where whenever you’re with them, you turn into your high school self.  (Oh come on, you know that How I Met Your Mother episode.)  But in my case, I eat meat.  But Rebecca hasn’t strayed.

I don’t consider myself a vegetarian.  I just do my best to not eat meat.  And you know what?  I actually enjoy it.  Sure I miss the comfort foods we grew up with, but otherwise, it has made me try new meals and dishes. I actually wrote a series of posts for a while with vegetarian recipes, you can read them here.

Well folks, that is it for me for tonight.  I know Rebecca has several other questions she wants to answer so stay tuned… whenever she wakes up!

Yes, that is all 3 of our babies passed out on the new thing in the room. Aren’t they so sweet when they’re sleeping?

But the sweet never lasts. Especially when you have a cat named Macky and you get a new sectional.

Literally minutes after the guys put the couch pieces together (since he was following them back and forth from the door to the family room), Macky claimed the couch as his and started trouble.

This meant that we immediately ran to Target and snatched up some anti-cat scratch tape. It’s sticky on both sides and is supposed to be unappealing and eventually train them to not scratch the couch. We tried out a piece on the back of the couch for a day or so, then covered a Macky danger zone.

We’ve never bought this tape before, but we have had furniture shredded before so we were being cautious. Thankfully, it is hardly noticeable from a distance and only lets off a little shine.

We knew Macky was incredibly intelligent (he runs to the door when the doorbell rings, plays fetch and cries upstairs when he wants to go to bed), but even we were not prepared for his reaction to the tape. He went to scratch the couch and didn’t like the feel of the tape (effective!), so he decided to use his teeth to peel a piece off (ineffective!). I just removed him from the situation and stuck it back on. So far he hasn’t scratched it again and I’m hoping it was just a curious, “I’m just being Macky” moment.

Thankfully, Macky lost interest in the new couch quickly. However, someone else is couch obsessed (besides me).

Darwin. My cancer fighting, little orange love of my life (his arms are shaved for his chemo treatments, we call them his legwarmers ). He never slept on the old couch in the family room, but he has not left the new sectional. He’s been gaining weight, but he’s still a little cat on a big couch.

He settled on the crack of the chaise and has since been the only member of this family to use the chaise. We are just so happy that he made it to see the new couch that we don’t dare move him. My heart melts looking at his little body curled up there.

I could not wait to get rid of the pillows that came with the couch. I shoved them in our linen closet and put out the ones I’ve been waiting to use

And of course, Darwin was available to model them.

I put the Organic Ironwork euro sham and Harbour Rope pillow (both from West Elm) with a wavy blue pillow I picked up at Bed, Bath & Beyond a while back.

We decided to go with the euro pillows because a) the couch is large enough to handle them and b) we fall asleep here all.the.time. I liked that we could use a real sized pillow and wash the shams easily. It’s supporting my back as I type this

I was a little surprised at how gold the couch is in the room. I thought it was a little more neutral and less clashy with the carpet. It also seemed massive at first. I think it just took a while to get used to the different arrangement and fabric. The couch seems large because instead of having a bunch of room to one side, we have now centered the couch and have some dead space on either side.

One side is housing Macky’s bed (which he sleeps in every time we’re in the family room, including now) and their scratching post (which Darwin is scratching now). Obviously very important elements in this room and I like that they are tucked behind the half wall.

(note to self- time to pry Macky out of his bed and wash it)

They were previously next to the entertainment center (on the opposite side of the opening to the family room), but more about why they were moved in a second. This space seems a little awkward and we were hoping to put a console here to store our laptops, phone chargers, remotes, etc., but I’m torn about where to put the kitten’s furniture.  One option is the other side of the couch!

Because of space constraints by the chaise, we had to move the accent chair we had in this corner (you can see it in the photo of Macky with his claws out above). That’s Darwin’s cat house, but it’s collapsable and he hasn’t slept in it in a while so it can probably go upstairs. We would like to put a round table with a lamp over here.

As for the accent chair? Well, it got moved to where Macky’s bed and scratching post previously were!

I know, you’re probably confused by all of the cat paraphenalia and need a full room shot. But I can’t give you one because we still have a bunch of stuff in this room that needs to find a new home. We’re still using our former end tables and ottoman for the time being. They’re just pushed out of the way right now, making it obvious that we need to find replacements with mucho storage.

We want taller, darker, round end tables and the round storage ottoman from Target that I mentioned here. We’ll get to it probably sooner rather than later since this arrangement isn’t quite working. But, two accessories that I planned for this room that I did manage to get were my weathered wood urchin thingys!

They required some mantel tweaking, but I love them

I originally planned to get just the large one, but I couldn’t resist the thought of stacking the little one on a pile of books.

So there you have it, 20 something pictures of cats, old couch, new couch and my West Elm finds all crammed into one post. Overwhelmed and confused? Yeah, me too

I rushed home from work today, snapped some pictures for a post on another topic and ran off to our weekly chemo appointment. The doctor was running late so it took forever, which only made the weekly knot in my stomach grow larger. Then we received the great news. So that other post can wait

We still have to keep that little bit of a guard up since he is still battling cancer and it can come back at any time. He skipped chemo tonight and will receive it next week if need be. Regardless, this is a huge hurdle we have gotten over, one which we were told from day one would be very difficult to achieve. Now the cancelled vacation, constant cleaning of accidents (his kidneys were so bad a few weeks ago that he was having accidents in his sleep ), the twice daily fluids, the pills and the emotional rollercoaster were all worth it for this week. I am so proud of him, unbelievably proud of him. No matter what happens from here on out, he has proved that he is such an incredible little life. One in a million. And all mine.

I’ve always loved this sign from Barn Owl Primitives on Etsy… it seems appropriate to have now

I’m off to smile myself to sleep. Cautiously, as the vet always says

(via House*Tweaking)

Well I think it may be partially possible, we can probably add the shelves but not the stools. This excites me beyond belief because I have wanted to add a different countertop to our island since, well, before we moved in! I thought we could add stools to our island and we planned to extend our countertop with butcher block long before this blog was born. But once we moved in, we realized that the salesperson was wrong when she told us we could fit stools at our island it would be too close of a squeeze near the refrigerator and the lower cabinets next to it.

Despite the sad news, I never gave up hope of making our kitchen more customized. For a while, Mike and I thought we may want to add a sunroom type of thing to the back of our house so that we could extend our island.

(via another model home in our development that has since sold)

But obviously, we have since added our patio and we will not be putting any additions on the back of our house. It was a fun dream while it lasted!

Mike and I have been thinking about adding a bookcase area to our island since I discovered Dana’s. When we talked it out, we realized it was completely realistic if we made one simple change.

The cats can’t eat anymore. I’m kidding I’m kidding. Yesterday, I moved their bowls out of our eat-in area so that it now looks like this…

Now that I look at this picture, it looks like Darwin is standing there like “Maa! Where’s my food!?” He was just photo bombing, as my cats always seem to do. Actually, since Darwin was diagnosed with kidney disease and started his special food last week, we’ve been feeding him separately so his bowl got to stay in the kitchen until he gains some weight. It’s back there by the sliding glass door for now.

Macky and Mowie are now dining, in the dining room. They feel all classy and stuff.

(Yes my cats are messy eaters. Sometimes the placemat and dog tray can’t even contain their messes)

We figure that we only use the dining room for special occassions and during those times, we usually leave just one bowl out for the cats or put their food in our bedroom. This keeps them protected from the chaos and foot traffic, and makes a little more room for people to walk around. Since our kitchen/eat-in area is an area we use daily, we figure we can spread ourselves out a little and let the cats eat in their own room. Don’t worry, we really don’t eat at the same time anyway. They’re on a 8:30am/8:30pm schedule. We usually eat our dinner around 6:30

With the bowls out of the way, we have a lot more room to plan our island area. We’d probably move our garbage can to where the recycling basket currently is.

Then probably move the recycling basket to the opposite corner so that we can extend our island about a foot or so. I thought it might be weird that we have a half wall across from the island and I wasn’t sure if the island was lined up with it, but apparently the island isn’t lined up with anything! It sort of falls in between the half wall and the cabinets behind it.

We have a lot more space now to push our small table over so that there’s still a nice amount of open space in the area.

I think that if we add a rectangular table down the line, we will have even more space. But I’m not ready to part with my $199 table and chair set just yet.

These pictures were taken while heating up some leftovers for dinner. The toaster oven magically appeared on the countertop halfway through my pictures.

Just incase you were wondering where we keep our gargantuan toaster oven Yes we have the fanciest toaster oven around (it’s a Calphalon one we received as a bridal shower gift) and we use it probably once a day. I am not exaggerating, that thing is my favorite appliance in the world.

While I had a bagel, Mike had some Chinese food. So please ignore the weird combination of food on the island during these full kitchen shots

Wouldn’t an island bookcase like this one look wonderful where our garbage can is?

(via Megan at Honey We’re Home)

I can’t wait to give it a try. We’ll probably mark out the area and make sure it’s not too intrusive before making any decisions. It’s on the short list right after finishing our chair rail/wainscoting project

Darwin wasn’t quite acting like himself on Monday night, so we were a little concerned. He’s been inhaling his special food like a champ and drinking tons of water. Thankfully, yesterday it was all back to fun and games and I took the opportunity to relax with him.

We watched some HGTV together…

Then I took out some new toys for him from the secret stash…

Which reminds me, part of my about me section mentions making this place comfy for us and the cats. You know, like form and function or something designerly. Well, the cats have a “toy box” where all of their little belongings are kept. It’s actually the smaller of our 2 Target baskets that live in our entertainment center.

(we will hide that tv cord one of these days…and this happens to be an old picture, I have taken the tag off of that Ikea vase)

They love this little supply and can easily access it. It is really adorable to see them dig in there and always grab their personal favorite. It’s equally adorable when we wake up in the morning and toys are suddenly scattered all over the floor. If only I could train them to put them back as well….

The big basket actually has cat toys in it too. I usually keep new toys in there and only give them a few at a time because chances are, they’ll end up under the couch in a few hours. Plus it helps to make Santa’s toy supply last all year. Last night I took some toys out of a brown themed Christmas stocking, which is why Darwin’s supply is so very well coordinated Someday we’ll probably reserve this side for human kids’ toys, since I know trying to conceal that clutter will take years of scheming. And perhaps some engineers, inventors and scientists…

Also falling into the “family room storage basket from Target” category is another little adaptation we’ve made recently regarding the basket we used to store our wood in the winter.

It is now a flip flop basket for the summer, that was moved to the entrance of the room. Mike and I realized we were dumping our shoes by the laundry room door, so to minimize that clutter I moved this currently unused basket over closer to chuck shoes in. It’s weird that I never take my shoes off in the house, but I always have to kick them off before walking on the carpet.

Apparently, Macky thinks this should be a toy box too.

We love having loads of storage in our family room since it’s our most frequently used space. Most of the time all 5 of us are in there. Once we get a new sectional and some end tables that are actually end tables, we may be able to fit even more storage. Can you ever have enough in a room?

That’s our kitten design trick for the day. We’re going to have to come up with a lot more of those since we have to add a litter box to our second floor for Darwin. I’ve been dreading having to do that, but his health comes first. Our first step to keep my sanity is possibly switching litter brands. We currently use Feline Pine and it tracks a lot, which is fine for the laundry room but not for upstairs. Does anyone use any other all natural cat litter? We’re considering Yesterday’s News, does anyone have any experience with it?

To describe my feelings as anything less than heartbroken would be a lie. Anyone who has been reading for a while knows that we’ve been to hell and back with our cats, Mac and Sunny, but I never expected something like this to happen again. It is likely a genetic disease he has had his entire life.

I can say, without a doubt, that this is the first weekend I did not think about the house one single bit. Not knowing how long my little guy has left in this world consumed my thoughts all weekend.

We received a little relief tonight when we learned that Darwin’s blood results were not as bad as the vet expected. I had prepared myself to hear the words “kidney failure”, but hopefully some special food, vitamins and possibly subcutaneous fluids will help him stay with us longer.

There is a lot that I could say, and a lot that I want to say, but I’m not sure I have the energy or the right words. A few months ago, I read this piece in the NY Times written by Anna Holmes that really hit home with me. She put into words what I have a hard time saying. It’s a must read for anyone with cats.

One of my favorite parts:

Unlike dogs, whose wagging tails, endearing clumsiness and panting smiles are evolutionarily manipulative and endlessly entertaining, interpreting the narratives of a cat’s inner life takes extraordinary concentration, which makes the relationship all the more poignant. Mindfulness, I like to say, is what separates true cat lovers from the unenlightened. Without it, a cat is just a sleeping, eating, potential killing machine. With it, a cat is the most amazing of mammalian creations: A balletic, apex predator; a perfect package of physical economy and exquisite Darwinian design. (When someone tells me she doesn’t like cats, I assume she isn’t trying hard enough.)

But the focus they require and their intrinsic self-sufficiency is also what makes watching them die especially devastating: there is a heightened awareness not unlike the way the children of alcoholics or depressed people are said to monitor every move of a sick parent; every cough, every patch of dirty, matted fur and loss of balance is a shared indignity; to have to carry your friend to his food bowl or watch him pause to catch a breath before settling down into the soft nest of blankets you’ve lovingly constructed feels like a heartbreak like no other.

Any maybe my favorite part:

It frightens me too — not just the fantasy but the present-day reality, a heaving that begins low in my abdomen and thunders slowly upward every time I catch a glimpse of a well-worn paw or brush the back of my hand over a soft underbelly. I feel it when I see them sleeping, their beautifully composed tight, little spirals of fur and ears and legs and tails; I feel it when I hear them moving, softly clacking up and down the apartment hallway or ker-thumping from the bed to the floor and back up again.

It feels crazy.

They’re just cats, after all.

That pit of your stomach, nauseating feel? It doesn’t go away.

Maybe I am crazy, but I am proud to call my cats members of my family. And this family is full of fighters.

A couple of years ago, I entered a picture of Macky in Pillow Pillow Pillow’s pet casting call. I saw it linked from People.com and figured I’d give it a shot. So I entered this…

Doesn’t he look so young and cute? Apparently someone agreed with me, because I nearly fell over when I saw that Macky had been given his own pillow out of thousands of entries. Because his cute little face would be sold nationwide, the kind people at Pillow Pillow Pillow sent us one of the hot-off-the-press Macky pillows.

Stunt Macky normally hangs out on our entertainment center these days, since he is a part of the “litter” series and his pillow is too kitten-sized to sit on the couch. Plus we like to minimize wear and tear on this once in a lifetime, commemorative piece

Quite possibly the best part of this (as if it could get any better for a pet momma), is the tag.

The inside reads…

I didn’t write that, the people at Pillow Pillow Pillow did, but isn’t it the cutest and most accurate description ever?? All I submitted was the caption above and they added the Princeton tiger blurb. The online description takes the story even further…

Macky the tabby cat lives in East Windsor, NJ. He is strong and beautiful and fierce, with bright orange eyes and striking black stripes running across his silky grey fur. Even though he’s a little kitten, Macky fancies himself a tiger. Literally. Maybe his parents read him too many story books, or maybe he wandered off one too many times to Princeton University (it’s just down the road), where the school colors are orange and black and the mascot is the tiger. Whatever the reason, the fact is, Macky believes from the top of his head to the tip of his paws that he a ferocious beast. Humor him, and you’ll get along famously. (But remember – even though he loves it when people cower in fear, Macky doesn’t bite!)

We love our little pillow, but this thing is teeny tiny and expensive. We originally wanted to buy them to give them out for Christmas a few years ago (and support Macky’s college fund), but we decided that $41 was too much for a tiny pillow.

Seriously, it’s $41. How disappointing. But we’re very happy to have received one, though we wish some of the profits from the sale of the Macky pillow went to help other abandoned kittens or something. We didn’t really think he’d win and didn’t think through the pricing or anything. But we’re proud parents, nonetheless

Also, more recently Macky was made into some vinyl wall art

See him in there? Isn’t he the cutest?

Pillow Pillow Pillow also came out with some organic totes, but the litter series wasn’t released I was looking forward to going to the grocery store with Macky’s mug on my bag. Maybe someday.

So that’s the story of how Macky became famous a few years ago. I always knew he had some star power in that little body of his, so I’m so proud that someone else out there saw it too.

ps- If anyone is interested in buying a Macky pillow, you can do so at the Pillow Pillow Pillow online shop or at the fine retailers listed here. Macky was not paid or perked for this post. He doesn’t really receive money towards his college fund and will be taking out loans like the rest of us. When I asked him for permission to use his celebrity status on my blog he said “who care!” and proceeded to lay belly up in his bed. He said there will be no autographs or press conferences given at this time, but sends his love to his fans.

This is the longest post I have ever written, but the subjects are totally worth it

Five years ago tomorrow, our lives were forever changed without us even knowing. Somewhere deep in the bushes of my parents house, a litter of precious kittens were born. Around 4 weeks later, we discovered them.

In fact, here is a picture from that day.

These two exact kittens would find their way into our home and teach us selflessness, worry, patience, responsibility, and most importantly, love and heartbreak.

It all started with Macky. If you know anything about Macky at this point, you know that he needed a dramatic entrance into our lives. I had just graduated from college, literally several days before, when I walked outside to see if I could spot that litter of adorable kittens anywhere. It was a Monday, and Mike and I were leaving for our first big vacation together that Friday, a graduation celebration of sorts. He was going to pick me up to go shopping for some vacation clothes when I spotted a lifeless kitten in the driveway.

And by lifeless, I mean I thought I had spotted a dead kitten. The kitten was covered in flies, soaking wet, ribs sticking out, covered in every bodily fluid imaginable. It was one of the most upsetting sights I had ever seen in my life. Then I saw that kitten take a breath. I had to wipe my tears and spring into action. I had no clue what I was doing or what I should be doing, but I ran into my parents house to grab an old dishtowel. By the time Mike had arrived, I was standing in the driveway, holding a practically dead kitten in my hands.

We jumped in the car and headed to a vet. When we arrived the vet told us he was in horrible condition. Showing her disgust that he was covered in diarrhea and maggot eggs, she told us he was literally being eaten alive. Then she gave us her advice, something I will never forget, she told us we should put him down.

We of course refused. I asked if they could clean off his bugs and stabilize him so we could bring him home. They told us it would be expensive and I guess they thought that since we were two young people, we wouldn’t pay the bill. But we were adamant, so the little kitten had his bugs removed, received an IV of sugar water for a few hours and then we were told we could pick him up. The total? $200. The result? A baby kitten named Macintosh Hercules, weighing in at just one half of a pound. It was the best decision of our lives.

He lived in a laundry basket lined with a heating pad that first night.

At that point, we started documenting Macky’s adventures in a blog (eventually named macandsunny.com). I am forever thankful to have so many little stories and pictures saved on the internet.

We sat vigil and fed him every 2 hours as we were told to.

But, Mac did not want to eat at all. He slowly developed an appetite over the next 2 days and started to lick milk off of our fingers. Within another few days, he was lapping milk from a lid. Then we gradually mixed some soft food in with his milk. It formed a ridiculously sticky substance that we couldn’t get off of his little face.

Within several days we knew we were in trouble. This little guy had one hell of a personality.

In the beginning, he wouldn’t go anywhere without us. He slept in our dining room and wouldn’t enter the family room unless we did first and called him. The carpet was like tall grass for him and he cried every time he had to make the long trek. His litter box at the time was just a tiny shoe box lid.

Then came the time when Mike and I had to go on our vacation and leave our new buddy. Mike posted this on our blog:

Two weeks ago, I was psyched to go on this cruise. I mean totally psyched — new places to see, a new adventure, and certainly time away from the rib-joint and Rutgers.

And now? As we leave for the cruise tomorrow afternoon? My feelings have certainly changed. I never imagined how a little kitten could impact my feelings. He’s such an incredible little guy and already holds so much of my love. I’m sure going to miss him. I plan on bringing him home some sunglasses, maybe some Bahamas sand, too. Oh, and a neat little pina colada umbrella, too.

I miss him so much already and I haven’t even left New Jersey yet.

The good news? We just might be coming home to Mac and one of his brothers or sisters. Keep your fingers crossed! Two bundles of joy! If it’s a boy, I’m hoping to name him Pixel. And a girl? Maggie or Pixie. Regardless, we gave full naming rights to Rebecca’s parents. I just hope they keep our suggestions in their thoughts.

My parents did snatch up one of Macky’s siblings for us. Not just any sibling, but this guy.

We were in love with this orange kitten even before Macky found himself in trouble. We considered taking in two of them and we knew we wanted that orange one. The problem was that these cats were technically feral and at the time, we didn’t even know there were a total of 5 kittens. The two little fluffs in the pictures were the only two we had seen for weeks. And that orange one? He was friendly from day one.

My parents were able to get their hands on him and brought him to the vet. We were told via email on our cruise that we had a new baby boy, and that Mac loved him immediately. They had been separated for over a week now, so we were worried that the orange kitten would reject Mac for whatever reason or would bully him. Once we got home, we realized our fears about this big orange kitten, who weighed double of what Macky weighed, were completely unwarranted.

We named him Sunny, which wasn’t one of our name choices, but we couldn’t resist because of his bright color and sweet demeanor.

We officially had the two cutest kittens in the world, and they were the best of friends.

Macky quickly developed into the troublemaker- overly curious, couldn’t sit still and loved to play. Sunny was a giant lover- he would cuddle with you, clean you and get so happy to see you that he panted like a puppy. They were the ying to each other’s yang and they worked so well together.

Except for that time when they were 6 months old and Sunny accidentally broke Macky’s leg in the middle of the night. They were running around at 3am and Sunny knocked over a giant surround sound speaker. I guess Macky wasn’t paying attention and it landed on him, breaking his leg at the hip. Noticing he was in pain, we brought him to the vet who told us it was just a sprain. She gave him a cortisone shot and told us he’d be fine. The next morning, Macky was actually crying tears. We knew this wasn’t right and called back. They told us to bring him back in, where another vet found a break very high up on his leg. Macky spent 4 nights in the hospital and required surgery. Poor kitten could not catch a break!

The first year of their lives were riddled with vet visits, mostly for Macky. He often got sores on his mouth similiar to ulcers that puppies get when they chew things they aren’t supposed to. Macky became a pro at taking anti-biotics and actually liked the taste of them.

Sunny on the other hand, was a much easier cat. He was laid back and the sweetest thing you’d ever meet. One of my favorite Sunny memories was documented on their blog. We had a party one night and Sunny was beyond excited to see so many people:

Let me tell you, Sunny was the life of the party on Monday night. He was roaming around from person to person — “play?” “pettt meee?” “make me go in circles!” are just some of his catch phrases of the night. At one point, Sunny decided to sleep in the middle of the living room. He was so entirely comfortable with everyone. Sunny certainly made us proud.

Sunny was quickly assigned the role of kitty ambassador. People who didn’t like cats, loved Sunny. We could have 20 people in our house and he would go from person to person, greeting them with a purr and a whip of his giant Maine Coon tail. He was a dream.

During the kittens’ first year, we rescued Mowie. Macky and Mowie have had a love/hate relationship from day one. But Mowie and Sunny? Secret cuddle partners. Sunny was able to tame the vicious beast that was Mowie when we first took her in.

We even managed to get a family picture once.

With their first birthday quickly approaching, I wrote this:

Tomorrow Mac and Sunny will turn 9 months old. That’s 3/4 of a year, 75%. It’s amazing how quickly they have grown up. That’s why it’s wonderful to have this site and look at the archives from June, August, even October and see how much they’ve changed. The two of them used to fit in half a shoe box together…now Sunny’s tail won’t even fit in a shoe box. Their personalities are still the same as the little ones they had when we first met them. Sunny has always been super sweet and laid back, Mac is a little hyper and has the cutest facial expressions…they just have such adorable personalities. Although they’re getting old, they still have this kitten naiveness to them, which Mowie doesn’t have. Or maybe Mowie has a good sense of judgement regardless. Even though Sunny is nearing Mowie’s height and length, you can still tell he is the younger of the two. Brace yourselves for April 27, 2007 and the biggest first birthday party you’ve ever seen. Think super sweet 16…cat style.

We were looking forward to getting past that first year of crazy kittenhood. We enjoyed a lot of fun times after that- Macky learned how to play fetch, Sunny wandered into the fireplace and became covered in black, and they discovered a secret hideaway in our kitchen.

Yes, Macky just so happens to be a phenomenal fetcher, as we captured in this grainy video where Sunny joins in at the end.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We also had fun at Christmas time a few years ago. This video shows Mac and Sunny’s personalities better than I ever could in words. Sunny decided to lay on the gifts, while Macky attacked the camera.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But we had no clue what the end of year two would bring. If I could go back and hit pause, enjoy that moment of naivety, I would.

Sunny began having seizures in late 2007. We of course had no clue what was happening to him and spent a lot of time going from vet to vet, specialist to specialist, receiving no answers. He was doing okay though and always bounced right back from them. I took this video the day after one of his seizures, to show our family and friends that he was doing okay.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We took a weekend trip to Ohio in April 2008. We were nervous about Sunny’s seizures and decided to bring the cats to Mike’s parents for the weekend, so that he could have someone with him 24/7. They did great all weekend and we picked them up on Mac and Sunny’s 2nd birthday, April 27.

We had Mac and Sunny in one carrier and as we brought them up the stairs in our condo complex, just a flight from our front door, Sunny had a seizure. The details are all in this post.

He stayed overnight at the emergency vet to be monitored and when we picked him up, he was SO excited. He actually ran out of the carrier on the vet table to see us. We had to tell him to get back in, we had to get home! They whole ride home he was rolling around and purring. He wasn’t even mad that we kept him there overnight. He was such a little saint.

A few days later, Sunny became very sick. He was vomiting non-stop and had a fever. We brought him to our local vet, then an emergency vet, who told us they couldn’t handle his illness and they didn’t think he would make it. But he was fine just several days ago??? We couldn’t wrap our head around it. His entire digestive system was paralyzed and he couldn’t retain any food. Plus his fever was soaring. They suggested we bring him to Red Bank Animal hospital, over an hour away, since they had better technology to diagnose him.

That car ride was the worst ride of my life. I was so scared he was going to die on the way there. And if he didn’t, I felt like I would. I couldn’t catch my breath from the news we just got, I couldn’t even see straight. We got to Red Bank and they gave us a little hope, they were optimistic that they could try a few things to save him.

He had surgery to insert a feeding tube so he could at least receive some nourishment to fight whatever this was. In surgery, they biopsied a piece of his tissue and determined he had panleukopenia, or feline distemper. 70% of cats who contract this illness do not survive. We still believe to this day that he caught this highly contagious disease from his overnight stay at the vet.

Sunny hung on for a week and had began to look better. One day we went to visit him in the kitty ICU and he actually stood up when he saw us. Before that, he wasn’t able to even lift his head! We were hopeful, until he suddenly took a turn for the worst. The next time we went to visit him, one of the vet interns tearfully told us they didn’t think they could do anything else to get his digestive system to work. We looked at him and we knew he had had enough. So on May 21, 2008, less than a month after his 2nd birthday, Sunny went to heaven.

It was completely devastating for all of us, and my heart still hurts for Macky. We still struggle with how a sweet innocent cat like Sunny could suffer through what he did. He was one of the most amazing living beings I have ever met, full of pure innocence and sweetness.

We slowly tried to pick up the pieces of our lives and adopted Darwin in October 2008 to keep our lonely Macky company. Darwin had cerebellar hypoplasia- a condition that could have developed if his mother contracted panleukopenia while pregnant and survived. Plus he was orange. We thought that adopting an orange cat who survived panleukopenia was a fitting tribute to Sunny. So we named him Darwin Sunny. Darwin was the name given to him by the rescue group.

But Macky wasn’t safe to resume his normal kitten antics.

On April 26, 2009, a day before his 3rd birthday (and a year after Sunny’s last seizure), Macky had his first seizure. We could not believe this was happening again. The fear we had for him, and still have for him, is probably at an unhealthy amount.

There was one difference this time, we were educated. We knew how rare feline seizures were, so rare that whenever we told a vet Sunny had seizures they didn’t believe us. So we immediately brought Macky to the neurologist at Red Bank, who deals with mostly epileptic dogs. And this point we’re thinking, it HAS to be genetic. Two siblings with seizures? But because feline seizures are so rare, they told us not to get our hopes up, chances were Macky has an underlying illness.

We went home and decided we would see how he did. No booking of MRIs and no tests, because in my heart, I believe he is just epileptic. He had a cluster of 3 seizures that night, which Sunny never had. Six weeks later we moved in with my inlaws to begin the process of buying our house. When we moved him he had 1 seizure.

We moved Macky into the house on April 23, 2010, 4 days before his 4th birthday. He didn’t have a seizure when we moved him this time. We were terrified he wouldn’t make it here, or that he’d go into a cluster of seizures in the car. We weren’t even excited about moving because we were so terrified.

For the first time in two years, Macky had a Happy Birthday. And then something magical happened- he went nearly a full year in between seizures.

This year he had one seizure in June and one in December. I think it’s safe to say that this year was his best year yet.

There is something very special about Macky. He has this emotional bond with us and loyality to us that sometimes is unbelievably human. He is extremely intelligent and knows when we’re happy, sad, stressed or not paying enough attention to him in a given week. A few months ago I was really sick, so sick that Mike went to sleep on the couch and I texted him things I needed so that he wouldn’t catch my virus. But Macky came upstairs around every hour, gave me his under his breath call, which not quite a meow but more of a way to announce he’s in the room. There is no doubt in my mind that he was worried about me. Mowie and Darwin didn’t do this, nor did they sleep on my feet like he did. And Macky never sleeps with us unless he knows something is wrong. He really is one in a million.

Macky still has the crazy personality he had as a kitten, but lately he’s been showing more of his Sunny side. He is the best big brother to Darwin, taking him under his wing as Sunny once did for him. He has gotten huge in our house, growing like a fish in a bigger tank. He loves his bed and announces when he wants to go upstairs, he still plays fetch and we love him with every single ounce of us. We are so proud of him, he has been through so much in 5 years. And I’m proud of us, for never taking no for an answer and fighting to get him where he is on this very bittersweet day. I think it’s safe to say that our relationship with Macky is co-dependent- we need him just as much as he needs us.

Happy 5th Birthday Macintosh, here’s to 20 more with your loveable face.

And of course, Happy Birthday to Sunny too. I hope they serve birthday cake in heaven