A new family member!

A gift for the whole family is what Hannah received for her 2nd Birthday! She even got it over a week early!! We've been wanting to add some animals to our family for quite awhile now and have decided that Hannah is an animal lover! I called around and found a feed store that often has kittens for free and got on their call list. Saturday, May 25th, we got a call in the morning saying they received some kittens. We got everyone ready and got to the store by 9:30am. One of the kittens was already gone so there were 5 left. Four were huddled in the farthest corner of the cage, very much looking like they didn't want anything to do with anyone. One though, was on the second shelf, happily looking at everything going on around him. Our kids immediately started interacting with him. He was so eager to be petted and held, he couldn't help himself from licking anyone who put a hand near him! All of the kids were saying, "Can we take him?! Please can we take him?!"

So "Socks Licks Woodard" became part of our family that day and was Hannah's early birthday present even though I think she had absolutely no idea what was going on! Just that we added a "tat" to our family was enough for her! That first day, Socks couldn't find enough places to hide once we made our way home. I kept telling him, that while there are a lot of us, 12 hands and feet between all of us and lots of loud voices...there's a lot of love here too! Eventually that afternoon he found a quiet spot on our bed and crashed for 3 hours! Felt like having a newborn around again! ;)

The first several days, Hannah was the only kid brave enough to pick the "tat" up. Socks was so great with her too. His claws would be out, playing with something but the second she scooped him up, his little arms went limp and he just laid there. It was very sweet. I was on the bed with Socks, Abby and Hannah after he woke up from that first nap. I said, "Ok, who's going to pick him up?" and Hannah piped up, "I will!" and scooped him up!

A couple days later though, Hannah started picking him up by squeezing and twisting his fur and needless to say, Sock's claws started coming out. Hannah still wanted to keep picking him up though, so she kept doing the squeeze and twist which made him scratch and bite. It was a bad cycle. She wouldn't give up though and she's back to picking him up nicely and he's back to licking her and putting up with however she does her scooping!

He's been a great addition to our family! He's sweet and social...very social! Right now, he's sleeping at my feet. He's mauled, loved on, carried around, put in baby strollers, Barbie cars, petted and played with by everyone all day long! At night, you'd think he'd crash but the second he hears any crying or a door open, he's down the hallway trying to scoot into any room to snuggle with someone...anyone, some more! It's very sweet and so much like the rest of us!