R.i.P. General…

I went to bed early last night so that I could get plenty of sleep before getting up at dark-thirty to go to Harpers Ferry with my dad on my day off today. General YumYum woke me up 4 hours early, crying out and clawing at my face. He had been doing that for the past couple of days…pretty much since he got his vaccination shot. But I continued to keep him close until he decided he wanted to leave the bed, or lay down at my feet.

When we got back into town, I checked up on him before heading over to my parents’ house to move a headboard. Since Dad and I were heading over to the ski resort to look at this…unbelievable view…Mom offered to watch over the General while we were gone. Heading back to my house, I wrapped him up in the blanket he was delivered in to me when I first got him. Upon the leaving the house, he wriggled and squirmed, trying to lurch out of my arms. I caught him…and next thing I knew…he was gone.

We thought there were signs that he might revive, the way his body twitched, his mouth opening as if to try and breathe. The vet had me check for a heartbeat and movement in his eyes. He figures, though without a proper autopsy we can’t be for sure, that he might have had a pre-existing heart or liver condition, which might have been the reason why his mother abandoned him.

We buried him in my parents’ backyard.




It was just only two days ago I was saying how lucky it was when I took him in, or else some mean dogs might have gotten to him in my manager’s neighborhood. The few good things we could say is that he was cared for…happy during the short time he had…and didn’t die alone.

Meet General YumYum!

And this here would be the picture I sent to my friends and family over the phone the first day I got him! HE’S SO TINY!



He’s relatively 6-7 weeks old, and he was found by my assistant manager. While we were busy busy busy stocking up this week’s inventory, she calls out seeing if anyone wanted a kitten. She had found him in her cat’s cubby, and the little dear wasn’t coming out for anything. Her daughter managed to get him out, but he wouldn’t eat…probably intimidated by the other cats that wanted to sniff him. Even though my baby girl Calista has been very happy with the fact that she hasn’t had to share me or the house with any other felines, I caved and said I’d take him in.



I can’t help it! Where my sister goes and gets two kittens at a time from co-worker’s litters, I have to take in the singled out strays that appear out of nowhere! And for a lot of them, it feels like destiny. They found their way to people I know, be it friends, neighbors, or co-workers, only to wind up under my care.



And ooooooh how he is a charmer! Get down to his level, and he’ll come up and nuzzle in beneath your chin! Let him tumble around in your lap and he’ll fall asleep once he’s tuckered himself out. Then there’s his purrs! Endless! And he loves to hide! Usually beneath the dressers, but he’s managed to burrow into the folds of the blanket and hide in there while keeping all good and warm at the same time! He’s fur is super soft as well! He’s amazingly adorable, and kneads a lot…but I imagine that’s a kitten thing…to get milk and such. And he likes to nibble on my fingers! SO CUTE!



Kitten love is the best!



Oh right! You’re probably wondering why General YumYum?! Ha! I’m such a dork. So, I missed out on the chance of naming Ko-Ko YumYum…because neither I nor my boss could remember the female cat’s name from ‘the Cat Who’ murder mystery books with both read. So the last kitten I got was named Ko-Ko because that name just stuck out. So I figured that if this one was a girl, I could just name it YumYum and be done with it. But then I thought…well, what if it’s a boy? But I still like the name YumYum…so, I figured I would add General in the front. It makes it masculine PLUS it ties in the fact that I got it through work…being Dollar General. SOOO that’s where I got General YumYum!



Also we’ve got my friend’s voice in there! Taxim is from England, and I’ll occasionally video chat with him. Well…he’ll talk, as I don’t have a microphone for my laptop yet…and I’ll just grin stupidly at him because I’m a sucker for British accents and chocolaty brown eyes. Though honestly, I think this kitten is going to give my friend a run for his money. Soft little fluffy bundles of purring are for more adorable than silly English guys!

Anyways…on a different note, as this little bundle of joy has pretty been the one good thing to happen in a couple weeks’ worth of not so good things…you might find me blogging less and less. I’m going through some personal changes that require a lot of my free time outside of work. Consider it as a cleansing period as I purge myself of the clutter that’s been bogging me down, and removing myself from the art world. My ‘Big Brother’ considers it as a sabbatical, until I can get my artistic fuse back…but since I’m downsizing so much of my stuff, I’m sending my art supplies to my sister and her kids to play with. They’ll make better use of the stuff instead of letting the paints dry up…waiting for me to decide if I ever want to use them again, and such. I’m hoping that in the end of it all, it will help me to focus on getting my candle business up and running more so than anything else.