Bell Witch Cave

My parent's just made their annual trek to North Carolina and stopped by on their way to NC and on their way back. Garen' sister Kristen also came to visit recently and she brought her adorable (albeit crazy) puppy Charlie with her. Luke didn't know what to do with all of the attention and a puppy in the house. Poor Nilla was afraid to come inside.

Speaking of Nilla...a few weeks ago Garen let her inside and he came and told me she was bloody. She had a 5"-6" long, 1.5" wide patch of fur missing along her back and the spot looked like it had been burned. So I took her to the vet and they think she was hit by a car. I'm not sure what happened to her, but I am pretty sure she wasn't hit by a car. She never goes in the street, plus there was nothing else wrong with her. Well, she is fine. The patch is very slowly healing and looks disgusting. It's like raw-hide is slowing peeling off. I wouldn't be surprised if it is Thanksgiving before the wound is healed.

So while my parents were here this last weekend, we went to Bell's Witch Cave, which is about 20 minutes down the road. Apparently this family, the Bell family, is haunted by a witch who predicted both world wars and the end of the world...oh yeah, and it poisoned Mr. Bell. There is probably more to the story, but we didn't pay for the entire tour - just the cave, so we only heard part of the story. The cave was pretty cool. They recently had a geologist out to look at some of the formations and it look like this area was a ocean millions of years ago and in particular - a coral reef. It really did look like coral reef that we were standing under. There were other oceanic fossils in the cave too. We took Luke with us. A very young spelunker!

I took Luke in for his 6 month check-up last Friday (he won't officially be 6 months until Thursday) and he weighed in at 16 lbs 12 ozs! He is almost double his birth weight and he has turned into a bit of a chunky monkey. He is 26.5" long, which puts him in the 50% for weight and the 50% for height. Dr. Roads says his heart murmur is still gone, but we are still taking him to Vanderbilt for a final "clean bill of health" in November. Luke can sit up...well, he can't get into the sitting up position, but if we sit him down, he can stay sitting and he can catch himself if he starts to fall to either side. But if he falls backwards, he is down for the count. He can also walk. Okay, not really. He can hold onto our fingers and walk. He has no balance and his feet are not coordinated, but he has a purpose, and we don't help him much. He gets mad if we help him, he is very determined to do things on his own.