One of the things I’ve loved about living in the country is allowing our kids to have animals. We’ve experienced the full circle of life as the kids have witnessed both birth and unfortunately the death of some of our family’s pets.

Today we got to experience new life. “Chives,” our loving cat, had kittens. Because several of us are allergic to cats, Chives lives in the barn and more often in the garage. We knew she would give birth any day but tonight when we returned from Kolya’s cross country meet, we heard the sound of a very different meow. Kolya climbed up to a top shelf in the garage and peered into a box of Christmas lights and there was Chives and four kittens. They had probably just been born within the hour.

We each climbed up the ladder to take a peek but we really haven’t had a good look at them yet. We did manage to snap one picture, though. I’ll share more as we watch them grow!