I'm very weepy tired staying over night at my brother's.  He's playing Zelda: Twilight Princess and he's in the part of the game where the main character is in wolf form playing with a group of cats.  It's a hide-and-seek game with the kitties.  The sound effect the kitties make makes my heart leap.  Oh, too terrible indeed for me!  I swear, even if they aren't real, just hearing a cat's meow makes me look around for one to take care of or cuddle or play with.  The other day I was at a friend's animal specialty store where she houses cats that need homes.  One of them was a tiny orange stripe and spotted kitten that I nicknamed "Mango" because he looks exactly like a fuzzy mango.   His coloring is literally peachy orange cream, as if someone painted him that way.  On purpose.  Just to torture me. Yes.  With his incredible cuteness.  His eyes are amber gold, therefore making him seem even more like some kind of fruity, silly thing.  He immediately jumped on me, played with and licked at my hair, and was full of happy energy.  The kitten had just gotten over a bad sinus cold (infact all his litter mates and mother were sick, almost died until my friends took them in) and so all his pent-up energy had to go somewhere.  I was relieved and touched by his deciding to play with me for a little while.  Little Mango inspired me to write a little story about a kitten with "super" powers...  Thank you, Bast, for that.  I'll have to feature that wee tale here someday soon.  It's a parody of HEROES, but animals are the heroes, not people.  So, yeah, it's all "SAVE THE KITTEN, SAVE THE WORLD!"

I fall way too easily in love with cats.

So right now, at 1:30am, needing to sleep and dream, waiting for my silly brother to stop his game, and hearing those electronic kitty meows accompanied by banjo music, I'm going a little crazy for feline company.  Ah, and finally Mark just finished playing with the kitties and fulfulled the video game mission...  Good Gods, I know what my dreams are going to be filled with tonight!  

Tomorrow TODAY the nephews, brother, and I are going to visit Appleton.  Yes, we're off to hunt for treasure.  I'm determined to find -- UGHHHHH!  Mark is driving me crazy at this very moment.  He's now looking over my shoulder and teasing me about farts.  Yeah.  Mature.  I know.  We're in our mid-30's and fight as if we are still children.  Well, I guess my brother will always be my little brother to me, but still...

Okay, I'm going to dream now.  Kick the brother out of the living room so I can crash on the couch.  Oh, speaking of animals (not necessarily related to cats but they are an essential part of a cat's taste), the boys went fishing the last couple of days and little Nick caught probably the smallest Walleye I've ever seen.  They put it back in the water, of course, but had to mention it because it's too cute for words. My eldest nephew, Josh, actually managed to catch a fairly large Northern Pike! And he caught it right after my brother told Josh that, in no way, shape, or form should a big Pike bite down on the tiny lure he was using. Too funny.  On further note, Nick and Josh did a very sweet thing; they used their weekly allowance to give me a gift today -- a Chipmunk they named Elvin (that's Alvin with an E, silly boys, but they spelled it that way just to set it apart from Alvin & the Chipmunks).  No, it's not a real one, but a stuffed animal that is so soft, that I'm going to go to sleep tonight with it tonight. Good to be loved, eh?

Now I'm seriously off to bed... Well, off to a couch actually. 

I plan on counting kitties to help me sleep!