Happy Easter! Happy Spring! (A letter from Sammie the cat)

April 2011—Happy Easter! Happy Spring!

This tree bloomed outside the front of our house. When we moved here in September, it had green leaves and then lost the leaves during the winter, so it was a surprise to see the dark pink and lavender leaves.

It’s Sammie Ann Beutke DeVito writing. I know how much you all love and adore me, and my clever writing skills, so I thought I’d give you a quick update about how we’re doing in the Bluegrass. 

I went to the vet's office for my annual check-up, and this picture was in our exam room. Too cute! It reminds us of Dolly. I think she would have liked Kentucky.

Easter is so late this year, but it’s finally starting to feel like spring up here in Kentucky. We even had a dusting of snow at the beginning of April. 

We had a little snow just as the trees were starting to bloom. It has snowed here each month since November, so six months out of the year!

It has rained and rained and rained this month. One night, the winds were so bad that the chairs on the back deck blew across the deck and smashed into my mom’s flowerpot, and it broke into several pieces. The wind also destroyed the umbrella on the porch table.

After the storm, my parents surveyed the damage. In addition to the broken pot and umbrella, the grill cover blew off and flew into the neighbor's yard.

My dad used super glue to fix the flower pot.

Cash and I slept through the whole storm. We were dreaming about the two bird feeders outside that attract many types of birds. We could sit for hours watching them and thinking about how tasty they would be for Easter dinner.

My parents both finish teaching for the spring semester at Eastern Kentucky University on April 29, the day of the Royal Wedding in England. (By the way, I was invited to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate, but I really dislike those long flights across the Atlantic. I hear airplane food is horrible, and now they charge you for a blanket and a pillow, and you don’t even get to keep it!)

My mom hopes to teach at EKU again in the fall. EKU’s mascot is a colonel like Colonel Sanders who started Kentucky Friend Chicken, but the mascot is an angrier version of him. Maybe this colonel is upset that he doesn’t know KFC’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.

My dad starts dental school at the University of Kentucky (Go Cats!) on August 1, and he is quite excited. Before he starts this crazy, I mean awesome, adventure, my parents are planning to leave us here all alone so they can visit Florida this summer. My mom thinks we need a cat sitter, but I’m trying to convince her that we’ll be fine on our own. She said if we could learn to use the toilet and flush, we wouldn’t need a sitter. I don’t know how easy it will be to learn that, especially for Cash.

We’d love for you to visit us if you haven’t already. There are lots of exciting things to do. People love horses up here. I haven’t ridden one yet, but Cash and I might go to the Kentucky Derby in May. It’s actually in Louisville, not Lexington. Don’t you think I’d look so cute in one of those big hats the ladies wear at the Derby?

We hope you have a wonderful Easter! I really hope the Easter Bunny brings us a baby bunny and chick, but I don’t think that will happen. My parents look forward to seeing some Florida folks in June. They can’t wait to simmer in the heat and humidity! :)

Love,

Sammie, Cash, David and Allyson DeVito