Just when I was winding down for the night...

So, I just put Jack to bed and was beginning my wind-down for the evening. All had gone well. I had prepared an amazing meal (if I do say so myself) for some of our most favorite people in the world, Dave & Leah, Benjamin and baby Eve (Eve gets extra points because I was at her birth :), Ben gets extra points because Jack said he is 'like my little brother'. Fresh whole wheat bread, beef stir fry, rice with cilantro, and steamed broccoli. Yum. Then Dave and Leah brought baklava...to die for...and we had a good hot cup o' joe.
Life was good, oh, life was good.
Notice the picture of the little runt kitten? That's Grace just over a year ago. Grace came to us when my dad discovered a family of kittens, all dead except for one who was barely breathing. Grace. He brought her to us late one night when she was about two-three days old. I knew that if I could just get food in her and get her through the night, she'd have a chance. She had absolutely no fur and looked like a shrew. Her skin was all scabs and fleas freely crawled in and out. I know, yuck. But she was so weak and so small . I don't know if you've ever hand-raised a kitten before, but it's amazingly like raising a baby. Every two hours, round the clock, she had to be dropper-fed. After she ate, I had to, uh, stimulate her to 'go'. A mother cat normally does this by licking the kittie's backside. Since I couldn't talk Jon into doing this, a warm, wet cotton ball did the trick nicely. You should have seen us celebrating her peeing accomplishment a day and a half later. For poop, same routine...After she ate, she had to be wiped down head to tail with a little damp, warm cotton ball, roughly, to imitate a mother's tongue. This is supposed to help her learn to clean herself. At all times, Grace had to be kept warm with a heating pad or hot water bottle. Again, around the clock. Imagine trying to go to the library or to the store. She goes too. I was a 'sling mama' with my boys and I was a sling mama with Grace. Baby wearing. She went everywhere with us, with her bottle (eventually she was on a teeny bottle), her cotton balls, and her hot water bottle. Ultimately she opened her eyes and her ears opened up. Of course, she thought I was her mommy and I never once discouraged her.
Maybe I should have because she has absolutely no cat sense. She drives the other cats crazy, messing up their 'almost' kills and all. The other cats will stalk a mole for hours and she'll just dance up and mess up the whole attack. You can almost see the other cats shaking their heads and walking away....
But my non-cat-savvy cat Grace (actually she's Jack's cat) got her little butt kicked tonight. She has just started going outside and she's not really good at it. The other cats really try to help her, honest they do, but she's dumb as a brick I tell ya'. Her eyelid is now scratched totally open and her little extra eye-membrane-thingy is torn and hanging down over her eye. Her eye is dripping, not tears, but blood. I can't even get to the other parts of her to check her out. Jon held her down while I cleaned her up and put med on her and she just about bit me! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
And I thought the night was nearly over.