#madia is still little I love her <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

This popped up in my notes again and it's so weird to read eight months later after all the ups and downs of raising the babies. The absolute shock and joy I had when Maraly's five kittens were born alive and then LEELI'S six were. The stress and happiness of monitoring newborns and their weights and hearing their little squeaks and PURRS (the internet will tell you that kittens can't purr until they're a few months old. this is a lie, kittens can and do purr from BIRTH). Watching the babies grow and trying to find them homes and give ALL FOURTEEN (3 big, 11 little) kittens attention. Tulip, the happiest little kitten who had a heart condition we didn't know about and passed during her spay surgery because her heart gave out but she lived the HAPPIEST four months of life any kitten has ever had, purring like crazy through them all and as fiesty as any of her siblings (and I can't regret knowing her even though I lost her because there would have always been something missing from my life that I couldn't explain and now I've figured out she's a missing piece in my BOOKS that I started writing A DECADE AND A HALF before she was born). Finding homes for the kittens and having to say goodbye to them. Getting UPDATES from their new families about how loved they are. Learning I got to PICK A KITTEN TO KEEP and taking all of ten minutes to decide on Madia, the kitten who God literally handmade for me. How we decided to also keep her brother Farid because my mom fell in love with him. How Maraly and Leeli and Kalmar have learned to run around and play like kittens and are catching up on their lost kittenhoods. How HEALING it has been for all of us to have these precious babies, to have these little lives entrusted to us.

And then remembering before all that when I didn't even know if they would survive, or if Leeli and Maraly would survive HAVING their kittens, and now their kittens are happy and healthy and thriving and seven months old. It's wild to me.

(L to R: Maraly, Madia and Farid on our screened in porch)

Rescue Bengal Kitten update (warning for discussions of possible animal death)

I'm feeling very much like the guy who pulled over on the side of the road to rescue one kitten standing there and ended up rescuing fifteen.

We have been forced to accept that Leeli and Maraly are pregnant. Which is. upsetting, because I really don't think they're more than six months old. Like, I need to stress that as much as I want teeny tiny newborn babies to raise again I didn't want the KITTENS I rescued to be pregnant. But, unfortunately, my mom and I agree that they definitely are. Current likely theory is that when they went into heat at around 4 months (which is APPARENTLY the earliest cats can get pregnant) their former owners couldn't deal with the yowling (if you have never heard a cat in heat count yourself blessed) and instead of getting them spayed they threw them out on the streets. And the girls subsequently got pregnant.

I also have to stress that we don't know if their kittens will be born alive or survive after they're born. Maraly and Leeli (especially Leeli) were STARVING when I found them, and depending on how long they've been pregnant the unborn kittens might not have had enough nutrients to survive....

BUT if I hadn't gone and saved these kittens Maraly and Leeli would have died after they had kittens AND their kittens would have died. Guaranteed. So at least now the little girls should make it through okay and hopefully some of the kittens make it. I am already fully dedicated to doing EVERYTHING in my power to keep as many kittens alive as possible.

Uh, however this also means we'll have to care for an unknown amount of kittens soon which we weren't planning for. We've never really had a surplus of money but goshdarnit if I have to use 98% of my paycheck (the other 2% is for gas) for the whole year to pay for their food, litter and spaying and neutering I WILL do it. They don't call me a crazy cat lady for nothing.

Anyway, sorry for a more serious post about my new babies, but we could really use some prayers here. My mom especially is having a hard time wrapping her head around it. Part of me wants to be excited but I'm also sad that Maraly and Leeli don't get to be KITTENS like they should. ... but this does mean I might get to raise some kittens from newborns and my GOSH have I missed teeny tiny babies ;-;

Here's a happy, sleepy Maraly

tl;dr- my rescued kittens are pregnant and Idk how to feel about it please pray for us

[travelotheque]

Dreaming of summer, I thought of writing about our holiday in Sicily. Being the second time we’ve decided to also explore the Palermo area and the west of the island, saving a couple of days for Noto, our favourite in Sicily.

We chose to stay in Mondello, 15min drive from Palermo, a charming coastal town, with a long stretch of white sand and beautiful turquoise water. In summer it gets very busy, so our advice would be to rent sun-beds and umbrella on one of the many private beaches so that you can enjoy yourself.

We found a beautiful airbnb, with the most amazing host. For us, there’s nothing better than having a host passionate about food & cooking. Not only that the room was lovely, fully separated from the rest of the house, with an en suite bathroom and a small private terrace, BUT (and here comes the best part of staying with Tiziana), the breakfast was include and it was AMAZING 🙂 Better than any hotel you’ve probably stayed in, at Tiziana’s we had a different (yes, you got that right) breakfast every morning. Tiziana was very flexible with the time for breakfast, and since she had to leave to work just before 9, she was arranging everything for us in the breakfast room. We were then enjoying it at our own pace.

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Day 1. Apricot & melon salad, croissants & other pastries and quinoa salad with salmon. Plus a whole tart.

Day 2. Prosciutto on breadsticks, tomatoes salad with basil, buffala, cheesecake with homemade raspberry jam, croissants and some other pastries

Day 3. Handmade ricotta cake, cheese & nuts balls, watermelon, croissants, watermelon marmelade

She is also preparing dinner for her guests on request, however, since we were staying with her during the week, she was not able to accommodate our request. However, since she would do anything to please her guests, she arranged for us Sicilian tapas and a bottle of local white wine for us to enjoy and we couldn’t thank her enough for her kindness.

Couple of other benefits of staying with her: 15mins walk from the beach; there are bikes you can use if you fancy; plenty of parking spaces on the street next to the house; excellent location for exploring the area; a lovely and peaceful front yard & back yard.

This is where we’ve also discovered the book of Pino Cuttaia and Madia restaurant, 2 Michelin star restaurant, about which you can read here.

Day trips from Mondello:

Palermo – you can easily spend a day wondering the streets of Palermo and admire the beautiful buildings. Below a glimpse of what we’ve seen to give you some reasons that the city worth your attention: Fontana Pretoria, Quattro Canti, Chiesa di San Giuseppe, Cattedrale di Palermo.

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Cefalu – a bit further away from Mondello, but still close enough for a day trip. You can do both: enjoy the beach of Cefalu in the morning, and wonder the streets of the little town in the afternoon. What to see: Chiesa di Cefalu & the little square just in front; Bastione  din Capo Marchiafava.

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Trapani – another lovely town on the western coast of Sicily, which is worth passing by if you’re in the area.

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Hope you find it useful, and remember you can always leave us a comment in case you’ve got questions or you want us to help you organising your trip to Sicily. More inspiration in one of our older posts.

  Sicily, a place we’ll always go back Dreaming of summer, I thought of writing about our holiday in Sicily. Being the second time we've decided to also explore the Palermo area and the west of the island, saving a couple of days for Noto, our favourite in Sicily.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

The peanut kittens are over 4 pounds!

This is Madia (left) and Tulip (right), the two tiniest kittens from my Bengal cat rescue. As of today, Madia weighs 4.5 pounds and Tulip weighs 4.2 pounds. I remember when they weighed less than four ounces. My lil babies are growing up. 😭

And if you're curious, their brother, Farid, is almost 5.5 pounds. xD

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Leeli's kittens names!

So I said I'd make a separate post for introducing Leeli's babies and here it is! If you haven't seen the one introducing Maraly's babies you can find it here!

If you're just joining this adventure now and you'd like to find out how I rescued fourteen Bengal kittens the story starts here!

Now, without further ado, Leeli's six babies have names! They only just turned a month old, but they've been all doing so well that we named them last week along with Maraly's. So, behold the kittens! (P.S. no tumblr's not destroying the quality for once, the kittens are in perpetual motion it's only through decades of practice that I can manage to get any decent pictures of them at all xD)

So if you remember from the post introducing Maraly's kittens we've named most of them after characters from Inkheart. So this cute little bugger is Dustfinger! He started off his life screaming at everything and being a fightsy little bugger, but ever since his eyes/ears opened he's been much calmer and friendlier. He was the first of Leeli's kittens to start eating wet food and he is VORACIOUS about it! He's a playful, wiggly little guy but he's also very sweet.

This is Farid! He has the same purrsonality as his uncle Kalmar which is happy go lucky and sweet as can be! He LOVES to climb up onto the lap of the nearest human and snuggle- he'll snuggle even if you scoop him up from playing. He'll also climb your leg if given the chance, he and Dustfinger teamed up and attacked my leg earlier today. xD He's the only kitten I've been able to consistently identify since birth because of his black nose!

And here we have Violet who is a struggle to get a decent picture of- which is ironic because she has some incredibly striking markings! She wants so badly to be the leader of her siblings, but she does not have the presence yet. She cries a lot to try and get their attention and is always eager to join in activities with her littermates. She likes to perch (often on my knees) and watch the other kittens before joining in.

This sweet little bean is Meggie. She likes to wander off on her own adventures and sometimes gets distressed when she loses track of her siblings. She's very calm in nature and doesn't tussle as much as her littermates. I often see her hanging out with one of her sisters- when she's not off on her own that is. I'm not sure why she looks perpetually worried, but she was smiling when I was cuddling her earlier. <3

So I mentioned in my post introducing Maraly's kittens that I had one special little kitten with a Wingfeather name. This is Madia. For those who don't know, Madia Wingfeather is the Wingfeather kids' great great grandmother, I believe, and it's her whistleharp that Leeli uses after the end of book one. To make a long story short, Madia looks like Mozart, the kitten I got my username from who also sparked my 4 book original series, The Restoration Saga. Mozart's litter was a tragedy for me, and Mozart herself died when she was only 3 weeks old. Madia looks so, so much like her, and Madia sounds a bit like Mozart so this is my compromise for not naming the kitten "Mozart 2". Madia is an adventurous little soul! She likes to investigate everything and she might actually be the leader of her siblings. She is so, so sweet and she loves to be held and cuddled. She was the runt for a while, and I was worried about her, but she now weighs over a pound and has passed the title of runt on to...

Tulip! Tiny Tulip is the littlest of all the kittens and I absolutely adore her. I love, love, LOVE tiny things, ESPECIALLY tiny kittens, and all runts have a special place in my heart. Tulip is a little fluffball and I named her Tulip because it suited her. She has a very Bengal attitude, wanting to see everything and be anywhere something is going on. She is NOT intimidated by her bigger siblings and cousins! In fact, she often attacks Ellie, the biggest of all the kittens, to playfight with her! That being said though, she does often take refuge hiding by my feet or on my knees and I frequently scoop her out of situations that are getting out of her control. She doesn't mind some cuddles but she wants to run around and be fiesty too! She is the only kitten still under a pound but she's consistently gaining weight and I'm so proud of her. <3 Oh, and she and Madia are besties! I often see them playing and cuddling together, so we're going to try and get them a home together.

So there's your introduction to Leeli's six kittens! I love all these babies so much and it is going to be very hard for me to give them up, especially Madia and Tulip (they're my favorites, I'm not even going to try and hide that xD). They're getting so big and busy and they're so much fun!

Bonus pictures of Leeli's kittens!

Madia, Farid and Violet posing and being adorable!

Leeli's babies get to meet uncle Kalmar too! He's so sweet and good with the babies! ;-; This is him with Farid.

Would you even believe me if I told you Madia and Tulip posed like this on their own!? And then sat and waited for me to take pictures of them?! They're just the cutest things I can't ;-;

Dustfinger and Tulip are twins, Dustfinger's just a lot bigger!

Alright, that's all the pictures tumblr will let me post for now. I hope you enjoyed! And now that I've made the second name post I can post randomly about the babies! And so I shall. :D

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Artham and Aurundelle with a kid headcannons? I read your other post with these and thought they were adorable so I thought I'd ask for a few as well. (you can answer this ask at anytime, I just wanted to ask for them)

Hi, yes, sorry this took FOREVER I’d seen your other ask about this but March happened and March was, uh, not that great. But it’s April now, new month, hopefully a better one!

Okay so since I have talked about this some before I’m just going to lean into my own headcanons really far with this. I can do more general ones if you would like but I was thinking about this the other day and really enjoying the ideas popping into my head so I��m just going for it. *contains spoilers for all the Wingfeather books*

So being of this persuasion myself I really love the idea of Artham and Arundelle adopting kids. It also seems like something they’d do; just find a kid who needs a family ask ‘is anyone going to take care of that?’ and then not wait for an answer.

And since I’m neurodivergent and currently work with neurodivergent kids this is also high in my mind so the kids are autistic.

I don’t exactly know how they acquire these children- a boy and a girl- but some ideas include the girl washing up on the shores of Anniera in a little rowboat with a note that contains her name and age, no explanation. The boy they rescue from an abusive situation and Idk how that goes except for this really cute little scene in my head where he asks (either verbally or through sign language) if Artham’s a guardian angel on account of his wings. Artham just kind of laughs and tells him no, he’s not an angel, but he is a guardian.

The kids have a few years between them, with the boy being the older (I’m thinking he’s around 6-8 and the girl is about 3). The boy can talk but doesn’t until he’s been in Anniera for a long time. The little girl is nonverbal but she might talk someday- who knows!

I think Artham and Arundelle would do great with these kids because they’re just by nature such kind, sensitive and caring people. Also I headcanon that Anniera was- even back when they were kids growing up and before- always very accepting and accommodating to people who were different, whether it be neurodivergence or physical disabilities (Madia names her disabled son “Beloved” after all). And now, of course, with all the people who used to be cloven and lived with physical/mental disabilities for years they’re just as open and accepting as they ever were.

I think they’d still teach their kids THAGS just like, an adaptive version of it. And like, I need you to imagine Artham knelt next to a tiny little girl doing hand-over-hand trying to teach her how to draw and write her name. I need you to imagine the impromptu concert sessions that these four have in their rooms, sometimes at like 2am because no one can sleep and singing is a winner for everyone and it’s just Artham and Arundelle singing and dancing together while their kids bounce around the room happily. (also on that note, Leeli practicing songs is a big winner for these kids, especially the boy, because she’s just singing/playing the same song over and over again and if it’s a song they really like then, well, she could have a little buddy sitting off to the side watching her with delight for hours and you better believe she keeps doing it long after she’s learned the song because it makes them so happy)

Arundelle taking the kids out to plant flowers and every time, without fail, one of the kids tries eating dirt and it takes her a full minute to register “wait, this is BAD I should stop them” because she was a freaking tree for 7 years and forgets.

Forget SWINGING to self-regulate, these kids dad can just swoop around with them and FLY and they’re DELIGHTED. (and so is Artham) Like, they probably have a system worked out where when one of the kids goes over and tugs/pats his wings a certain way they want to go flying and he’ll just do it no questions asked, he leaves in the middle of meetings and things and nobody ever says anything because it’s adorable. Sometimes he’ll also just scoop up one (or both) of the kids when they’re getting upset and preemptively take them out flying. And like, this hits all the sensory stimulation things, they can go up and down, spin, dive straight at the ground and pull up at the last second which leaves them all laughing and giggling.

Arundelle teaches the kids some more grounded calming techniques and she’s just always carrying around random fabrics and rattles and chewies and spinny/bendy/manipulatable things. She remains extremely good at sensing the moods and needs of all her family members and often has just the right thing at the right time. Also I just suddenly had the image of her teaching the kids to weave baskets to calm down. Castle Rysen ends up with a lot of baskets.

I think Artham and Arundelle are just the most chill parents with their kids tbh. They’re almost always the “take a deep breath” “what do you need” “what’s wrong” “come on let’s go somewhere quieter” parents. They’re really good at redirecting/figuring out what the actual problem is. They only actually punish intentional defiance, which is in rather short supply when the kids are little.

Sometimes they do get stressed and overwhelmed tho and when the other one notices they offer to watch the kids for a bit so the other can calm down. Arundelle ends up doing this a lot because Artham still has a lot going on in his head and can get stressed very easily in the right conditions. Also, they never try and hide his fits from the kids, but sometimes they do send them to stay in their cousin’s rooms or with aunt Nia while Arundelle calms Artham down. Artham’s breakdowns are actually oddly good for the kids to see since they have meltdowns/sensory overload and freak out sometimes. But dad does it too so it’s nothing to be ashamed of, right? It’s just something to learn to manage. (thinking of it like that helps Artham too.)

When the kids get older Artham teaches them how to defend themselves (and Arundelle helps, along with Janner and Kal sometimes). He also teaches them to sail, which it turns out they enjoy because while the sea can be unpredictable, handling a ship is usually not (there’s specific responses to each situation of wind/waves) and they learn the routine of it quick.

Both their parents teach them how to sew/knit.

Blanket forts live permanently in Artham and Aurendelle’s room and the kid’s rooms. They’re little safe spaces. Occasionally the kids find their parents hiding in there too and they just sit down next to them (or in their lap) in companionable silence.

Artham and Aurendelle love having kids. They have long talks about the kind of parents they want to be and what’s best for their kids and confront parenting fears. They encourage each other a lot.

Okay, I’ll stop, but I just really love the idea of Artham and Arundelle and their little neurodivergent family, I could talk more about them and their kids but I’ll stop for now because this is already long. Feel free to request something different if you want!