Happy Homecoming, Evangeline!

I just shared this on Facebook yesterday - where I learned the proper term is "Gotcha Day"? - but since this is for posterity, I'm also posting it here. I want to remember this.

Plus this gave me an excuse to scroll through a thousand Eva photos, pick out a few bunch of favorites, and talk about them. AW YEAH.

PREPARE FOR AN ONSLAUGHT OF KITTY CUTENESS.

One year ago today our neighbor Rebecca pulled off the highway to rescue a tiny black kitten, huddled on the middle yellow line (!!). It was so small that at first she thought it was a hair scrunchie. Then, after Rebecca got the fuzzball into her car, the kitten disappeared so thoroughly that it took her a few hours and disassembling the dash to get her out again!

One year ago today we'd just lost Tonks, and I was fighting a losing battle to keep my Lily alive. I still can't talk about it - can barely type this - but suffice to say Eva came into our lives that day, and eventually our hearts.

Evangeline was my light through the grief, her persistent distractions and demands all that kept me grounded. It took me months to admit I loved her, but now every day I'm so grateful she's here.

I forgot to mention Eva's birthday last month (or our best guess at what her birthday is), but I think today is the REAL celebration. So happy homecoming, sweet Eva, my Evangeline. Prepare to get LOTS of treats and belly rubs.

  

Here's Eva today, but let's take a stroll down memory lane as she grew up:

 ERMERGERSH.

 Her first bath:

 

 She eventually forgave us. 

(Look how tiny her head was! We think she was about 4-5 weeks old.)

DAT FACE.

 Keeping our router warm.

Once we adopted Suki a few months later, it got a lot harder to get photos of just Eva: 

Suki was top dog from day one, and still bullies Eva around a bit, but they are devoted sisters:

I'm convinced all cats should come in pairs, and these two are living proof of how beautiful those pairings can be. 

(I know there are a lot of exceptions, but if you can bond them young, it's an incredible thing!)

 These are the faces of cats up to no good.

 Eva has lived ON me for most of this past year, and if I had a nickel for every blurry attempted selfie in my iPhoto I could buy a REALLY fancy coffee. 

 

 Still my favorite video ever of Eva.

I think I've watched those 10 seconds about 100 times, heh.

 I taught her to be a shoulder cat from the beginning:

 

 ... which I occasionally regret now, while she's attempting to claw her 10-pound self up there.

 

The struggle of photographing a black cat in low light will plague me the rest of my days, but sometimes I catch her in sunlight:

Eva loves John just as much as she loves me, but it's hard to be jealous when you get adorable moments like this:

 Thankfully she's gotten too big to try THIS anymore:

 But she still plays meerkat to look out the window: 

Thanks for indulging my virtual slideshow of fur baby photos, gang. This was obviously mostly for my benefit, but I hope the cuteness made you smile!

Now here, have a head flop and some toe beans for the road:

::melts::

*****

If you'd like to help support me and John and Eva and Suki, then please consider shopping through our Amazon links! ( USA, UK, Canada.) It costs you nothing, but helps pay a few bills around here, which we dearly appreciate. 

And if you're feeling crafty, check out my tutorial page! John's been updating it this week, so now there are 165 different craft posts in there, all with thumnbails on one page for easy browsing. I can't believe we've done so many... and I can't wait to do a few hundred more.