farm cats

We took an impromptu trip to North Dakota yesterday, which isn't as weird as it sounds out here in the sticks. Mike's mom and sister and her two kids Hannah and Ava (Ainsley's cousins) were going to be there for a night staying with Mike's awesome Aunt Lynette at her farm just over the border, and it's just a two hour drive from here, so we decided to go be part of the fun.

Lynette and her husband live in the house and on the farm that Mike's grandparents lived in for years, so it's cool to take Ainsley back to her roots a little bit. While we were dating we went up a few times for weddings and other things, when Mike's Grandma Norma was living, and she was and remains one of the coolest ladies I've even met. We would go to the Borderline Bar with Mike's sister and her husband just a few blocks from her house in the tiny town, and then when we'd stumble home late Norma would be up to make us roast beef sandwiches. Then in the morning it was a never-ending feed of eggs and bacon from dawn onward, for whichever kids and grandkids and friends would stop over for food. I really, really wish Ainsley could have gone there with us, but Norma died of cancer on the St. Patrick's day before our wedding. She would have loved seeing Ainsley and her two cousins together.

But, Mike's Aunt Lynette is a pretty good lady herself, and it was a nice night and morning (complete with never-ending eggs and bacon and then a huge turkey farm lunch ... we ate turkey, it's not a turkey farm ... it's a cow farm ... or whatever they are called ... oh, never mind).

Best of all for the girls, there were ... (wait for it) ... KITTENS! Four adorable three-week-old kitties living in the garage, as farm cats do. It was pretty funny, as KITTENS were one of my favorite things on my grandparents' farm when we were growing up. And our cat Murray actually came from this same farm, in fact, his sister is the mom to this current batch. This is our beautiful specimen of cat:

The KITTEN Ainsley loved up on all morning was Murray's spitting image, down to his feral nature and general distaste for people. But no matter, Ainsley was in love, as evidenced by these pictures:

And for a split second my icy heart was melted and I forgot that this little KITTEN would grow up into a CAT that would surely hate me as much as his kin we already have at home, and I thought "maybe, just maybe, two cats would be a good time" and then my husband noticed my train of thought and shut me down. But it was fun while it lasted.