Well, we officially have a new member of the family.

You mean I'm finally gonna have a baby brother?

No...nothing quite like that...and I already have a little brother, thank you.

It's this cat. Now named Shadow. I'm sure I mentioned it a few entries ago. We pretty much confirmed it's ownerless when we teamed up with a neighbor to find it's old address. At first we traced a phone number through whatever serial number Shadow had on her collar. That line was disconnected. Today we got an address, and Shadow's old home turns out to be a vacant apartment building on a not-so-good street about four blocks away from our house. We gathered that they residents moved out a year ago...quite a long time for a cat to be a stray on the streets, no? Maybe our home is not the first refuge for this cat.

We've now taken Shadow in the house. Got a litter box for her and everything. she's spend most of the day peacefully loafing around and exploring every dark corner of our little house, meowing every time she wants us to open a door for her (which is strange -- she recognizes doors?). The cat has it's ups and downs, but mostly ups. It's obviuosly been a house pet before, so we don't even need to train it. It's comfortable going up and down stairs, and it even knows the right place to "go."

If this isn't all enough, some little chiwawa was poking around our backyard all afternoon. It's actually some little girl's dog who was visiting next door. Apparently the dog's name is Cookie.