Roy, the fast growing kitten

I have mentioned Roy a couple times, but this is the whole story.
Roy came to us from "Lucky Cat Rescue" which has a volunteer named Kara Stambach who attends our church.  She had mentioned to Barb (my wife!) that she had kittens that had been rescued from a Habitat for Humanity project by a worker named Roy. Kara works for Habitat for Humanity and is a wonderful person.  Barb, who also is a wonderful person, accepted the offer.   Here's how Lucky Cat Rescue works.  Volunteers like Kara take in the cats after they have been found and they go through a process in which they are checked out by veterinarians who participate in the rescue service and before they are released to families, they are spayed.  By the time you get a kitten, it has been nursed back to health and thoroughly checked out.  Turns out the person who created Lucky Cat Rescue is Sally Gibson. another remarkable person who is the schedule keeper for Jay A. Perman, MD, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore where I used to work.  But I learned that later.  The fee for the Lucky Cat Rescue cats is $100 and they come with their shots already done.

Roy came to us as a very small kitten and we weren't sure what to expect. The first couple days were spent with Roy being very tentative and unsure about his new surroundings.  But slowly, his "world" began to widen and he started to cuddle and spent the nights with Barb and me in bed...usually with his body touching both of us at the same time.  He also developed a very loud "purr" which delighted us.  And he developed a habit of sleeping close to our heads...often with his back against the headboard.  Can't explain why he does that, but we enjoy it.

Of course, now he is getting much bigger and he loves to play!  One of his favorite tricks is to follow us into the shower and play patty cake with our legs as the water drains down our body.  He also likes to lick the shower water, so there is no accounting for his taste.  Kara was kind enough to send along a box of toys and a scratching pad for Roy which keeps him and us busy. Surprisingly, one of his favorite items to chase is a foil ball.  It's very light and moves quickly.

Now Roy wants his world to expand.  He had taken his first steps outside (without our permission, I might add) as he was pursuing a chipmunk that was feasting on the droppings from our bird feeders in the front yard.  Roy never made the pounce toward the chipmunk but he was very observant. He is spending more time now at the windows looking outside to watch the birds and anything else that is moving.  But for now, he is our loving, fun, active little guy who is behaving like a teenager.

Now, a brief update on the chickens who are approaching three months old.  They are due to begin laying eggs at the five or six month mark, so we have begun making preparations.  We added electricity to their coop so we can heat their water during the winter (there is a light bulb hidden inside that concrete block) and we added light to their chicken coop so they wake up at 4am even though the days are getting shorter.  They continue to grow and our neighbor Art is spicing their menu with lots of other things that hens like including sunflower seeds and warm oatmeal!  Who knew?