From Russia with Love: Cats Like to Swim

It's been a busy week for Yulia. We went to Pumpkin Prowl at the St. Louis Zoo Saturday. This picture is of Yulia and Mom in front of a waterfall at the zoo.(Wearing Halloween hats!) We're proud to say the Longhorns did pull out a win over Nebraska that day!(I'm throwing that in for our friend Merle)

We really enjoyed riding the merry-go round at Pumpkin Prowl. All proceeds from the ride go towards conservation of the animals featured on the carosel. ( Pop, our photographer, enjoyed the merry-go round because there was a Bud Light stand nearby. )

After Yulia jumped fully clothed into the Gulf of Mexico last month, we decided we'd better teach her how to swim! She had her first swimming lesson this week. Problem was the only other participant, a portly 14 year old boy who's deathly afraid of the water, wasn't moving quickly enough for her. Not the most patient of children. (Sounds like she has Mom's patience!) At the end of the class, the students were to jump in without any floats, feet first. Yulia chose to do a race-type dive. (Sounds like Paul Barry to me!) Of course, no diving is allowed in the beginners class, so we had to properly scold her although we were really proud! Where did this Russian child learn how to dive? Anyhoo, she loved swimming and is ready to go back. You may see her in the Olympics one day!

Halloween turned into the big sugar-overload day. Yulia bounced to the car Halloween afternoon, showing off her take from the school's fall party and toting more candy than the Hershey Factory. Since she'd already eaten most of it, Mom decided to let her continue eating it. Bad idea. First of all, the teacher had decided that Halloween wasn't a good excuse for getting out of homework, so getting Yulia to attend to her hour's worth of work was a challenge. After a grueling task of writing the months of the year, she decided to throw her candy at Mom. She was promptly sent to her room where she fell asleep. When she woke up, her mood wasn't much better. Seems the cat outfit she'd been wearing to bed, to the post office, attempting to wear to school and counting down the days until she could wear was suddenly NOT GOOD ENOUGH. You see, it was too tight, too itchy and she just wasn't going to wear it. Of course, Pop said she just wouldn't get to go out trick or treating. Mom said, "Yes she will. I paid 25 dollars for that outfit and she's going to wear it and she's going to have fun!" So, after much hissing, scratching and back arching, our little kitten who'd now turned in to a tiger prowled around the neighborhood with Pop and Kozmo. She was ready to return within 30 minutes and was just as happy passing out candy. We're still not sure if Yulia has ever been trick or treating before. She said she had, but we're still not sure how much she's understanding. What we do know for a fact is we've hidden all the candy and it will be given out in small doses!

Scary cat, hyped up on sugar!