Shadow gifts us

Evidently Shadow has realized that it is birthday time around our house. Yesterday he brought M a birthday gift of a snake (small garter snake) and today he brought me a lizard. Such a thoughtful cat. He likes snakes and lizards, so why wouldn't we like them too...

cats hindering posts

I'm sure you've noticed the distinct lack of posts recently.  It's not that nothing has been going on, but rather plenty has.  A big part of the issue has been demanding cats!  It seems as though every time I sit down, I end up with a cat in my lap (and sometimes both cats).  And they will stay for a good long while - yesterday I had both cats on me for at least an hour and a half, with one or the other on me for another hour.  I finally had to kick off a cat to get dinner fixed.

It is very pleasant to sit with cats.  I'm getting more reading done than I was for a while, and my lap is staying nice and toasty warm.  But its very hard to blog.  Even if/when they trap me at the computer, they tend to trap one arm such that I'm restricted to hunt and peck typing (which I despise!).

While both hands are currently unencumbered, I'll post a bit about our weekend.  

M took the SAT on Sat morning, for the Duke TIP program.  He wasn't too happy about giving up his Saturday morning for a test, but he was in good spirits when I picked him up.  I took him out for his choice of lunch (Sonic) and then dropped him off for a Scout trip to the Aquarium.  They spent the night there and saw all sorts of aquatic things.  I haven't actually heard too many details of the trip though (he's mad at me for all sorts of things - like making him print out his essay, fixing soup for dinner, not letting him sit on A, ...)

D and A worked on A's pinewood derby car on Saturday morning.  They got it all cut out and the wheels and axels straightened (or whatever it is that they do to them).  A still needs to sand his car and paint it.

Back from our Christmas trip

Actually we got back home on Sunday night, but I've been busy catching up on various things - like laundry, groceries, blogs, sleep, the cats, etc.  

The cats have kept us busier than usual.  When we got home and were greeting the cats, it was quickly apparent that Shadow had an issue - he had a huge lump on one side under his neck.  My mom had been faithfully feeding the cats  - and even bringing her newspaper over here to offer up a lap to any interested cat, but usually it was Pounce taking her up on the lap offer.  She said that she hadn't petted Shadow since Christmas eve and he didn't have a lump then.

Trip to the vet was in order for Monday, and from what the vet said, he probably hadn't had the lump on Wednesday.  Seems that Shadow got into a cat fight and ended up with an abscess.  So, he got shaved and poked (antibiotics) and we get to give him hot compresses and ointment multiple times a day.  He doesn't particularly like the treatment, but he forgives us and will come back and warm a lap within the half hour often.

We had a wonderful time visiting with all of D's family over Christmas - all of his family was there.  Lots of talking, good food, a few games, lots of fun.  But I'm glad to be back home now in my space.  Traveling at the holidays is tiring - there's even more to remember to pack than at other times.  And, of course, we managed to forget something - nothing big forgotten on the trip up, but we forgot 2 games and the fruitcake pan on our way home.  

I've got some pictures to post, but that will have to be for another day...

Pounce helps with quilting

Pounce has been very interested in "helping" me quilt lately. It seems that every time I head down to the sewing room, here comes Pounce!  Here she is on the cutting table, where I was able to do a little cutting with here there.

But here, she has moved and I couldn't get any cutting done without disturbing her.

So, I decided to work on my other project, A's blanket (that is long overdue - I started it probably in Jan of this year).  Do you know how hard it is to sew with a cat holding down the fabric so it won't feed properly?     VERY hard.

I did finally get the animal lap quilt done.  I'll post a picture later (cat in my lap right now, so I can't go take a picture).  A's quilt, well, I finally got all the machine stitching done and now I am working on hand stitching down the binding.  It's going slowly, but it is happening.  I'm about 1/4 way done with the binding.  I'm trying to stitch a little bit every day.

My latest projects

I had hoped to work on some hand quilting during the Olympics, but so far it isn't happening.  I have a Bargello top that I was planning on working on, but when I got it out, I realized that I hadn't put the borders on yet.  So, off to find a border.  I did finally get the inner border attached, but then when I was trying to lay it out for the outer border, I had a bit too much help from Shadow.

Now, I'm trying to figure out the backing, since once I cut the borders the width I want, its wider than the backing fabric, so I will need to piece the backing.  Silly me, though, I don't want to just sew 2 pieces together.  No, I feel the need to do something fancier.  Thus the backing is not done yet.

Meanwhile, I have been working on another project.  I had a bunch of animal prints leftover from my bag project and I wanted to make a lap quilt with them.  But just stripes didn't appeal.  So I played around with ideas and came up with this:
This is all the squares on the wall, not in the order they will end up.  I did most of the sewing in the afternoon, then did the ironing and trimming on the dining room table while watching the Olympics.

Snake bit

It appears that Shadow got snake bit.  Or at least that is the vet's best guess.  He seems to be well on the mend now, after 3 trips to the vet, including one overnight visit (with 2 postponements in my picking him up).  It's been a long week for poor Shadow.  

Monday morning when we got up Shadow was napping in the closet on the laundry.  A bit different - he's never chosen that place before, but ok.  But then I noticed that he hadn't moved in several hours.  Hmmm.  I brought him some food and he ate it, so that was good.  Finally around lunchtime I saw him walking and noticed he was limping.  Huh - not so good.  I couldn't find any obvious problem, so I initially thought we'd just wait and see.  A few hours later, it seemed he was limping more, so I called the vet.  No appointments that afternoon, but I got an appt for the next morning.  Nothing seemed urgent at that point - I thought maybe he had sprained his foot.

Tuesday morning, he was limping even more.  Good thing we were headed to the vet.  I made M come along to help corral Shadow.  The vet pokes and prods him.  His left foot is swollen and sore.  The vet thinks it is either a broken bone (probably from jumping off something too high) or an infected cat bite.  She prods some more and thinks she finds a wound on the bottom of his foot - so she takes him off to shave his foot and get a better look.  She comes back with the option of sedating him and draining the pus from his foot or having us do hot compresses at home.  She thinks either would work, but that the opening another wound on his foot would be more painful for him.  So, off we go with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds.  I do hot compresses on his foot 6 times that afternoon/evening.

Wednesday morning I can't tell if his foot is more swollen or not, but we do the hot compress.  By lunchtime, though, it is clear that his foot is more swollen, so I call the vet and they tell me to bring him in and drop him off.  So off we go again.  After dropping Shadow off, M and I head to the library.  I was hoping to be able to pick Shadow back up on our way home, but instead I get a call that they would like to keep him overnight.  They sedated him and drained out a good bit of pus, but they want to keep an eye on him.  They tell me I can pick him up after 9 am on Thursday.

Thursday morning, I decided to call and see if Shadow was ready.  They go off to check and I'm told that they would like to do another compress on him and can I wait to pick him up until after lunch.  Hmmm.  Slight change on my plans for the afternoon, but ok.  We're about to head out to get him around 2 when I decide maybe I should call and check again.  Nope, they want to keep him until after 4pm.  Urrggh.  That's going to be tight.  We have M's open house at 4:30 - on the far side of the county.  M and I dash through open house, talking to his teachers but bringing home all the paperwork to fill out and get to the vet's a few minutes after 6.  I had called ahead to tell them that I was on my way and to please wait for me.  Shadow's foot is still quite swollen, but not nearly so badly as before.  We're instructed to give him warm water foot baths and massage his foot.  They say he doesn't mind this.   She wants to recheck him on Saturday morning.

Hah! - Shadow certainly doesn't like warm foot baths at home.  It takes 2 people - one to hold his front and one to hold his foot in the bath (and keep the other rear foot from gaining purchase and scooting him out of there).  

This morning M and I took Shadow back to the vet, for his 3rd visit (our 4th trip out there).  She is quite pleased with how well the swelling is going down - says there is still edema, but no more pus.  We have to continue the hot water baths on his foot through the weekend, but can then stop them (which is good since M and D will both be back at school fulltime then).  And, of course, finish out the course of antibiotics.

Shadow is clearly feeling better.  He is jumping up on things again, including the counter (ahem - not supposed to be up there!).  It's very good to have him back home again and feeling better!

M's Biopoem

M had to write a biopoem for school - a bio of a living creature. He first thought to do himself, but couldn't decide what to say (maybe too revealing?), so he "interviewed" our cat.

Shadow
Who is soft, sweet, and furry
Who is brother of Pounce
Who loves crinkly balls, lizards, and his family
Who is happy when he gets petted, happy when he gets a lizard, and mad when someone steps on his tail
Who fears the vacuum cleaner and that cat across the street
Who has caught more lizards than I can count
Who wants to have a bowlful of treats
Who lives in Georgia
Cat

Not the Easter bunny

It was way too small to be the Easter bunny, but Shadow just appeared in the house with a small bunny. We don't even know how he came in since D and I were both in the living room with the cat door, but all of a sudden there was the cat and a squealing bunny. I opened the front door to try to shoo them out, but Shadow decided to take his bunny out the cat door.

Now every time I hear a noise, I keep wondering if he is trying to bring the bunny back in. Please no.

I suppose I should just be glad that I wasn't awakened at 3am by a squealing bunny.

Critters before breakfast

Yesterday seemed like a normal ordinary day... that is, until I got out of the shower, only to discover bird feathers all over the back hall.  But NO BIRD.  Urrrggh.  The cat is not known for taking his "friends" back outside, so now I have to wonder exactly where this bird is?  Is it decaying under some piece of furniture??  (I checked under the obvious sofa and chair, but haven't done an exhaustive search yet.  I guess I'm waiting for my nose to tell me...)

Then, while I was eating breakfast, I heard the cats and discovered that Shadow had brought in a snake.  Just your ordinary small garden snake, but still not what I want to see during breakfast.  I decided it would have to wait until I finished eating.  But by that time, the snake had disappeared.  Oh no, another missing critter!

Mid-afternoon though, a snake appeared with no cat around, so I think it must be the missing morning snake.  I ushered it outside in the dustpan.

Today the cats have brought in a lizard and another snake.  Joy.  I guess the snakes are coming out of hibernation/hatching/whatever.  We're certainly seeing more of them now...

The cats help me quilt

The cats have been trying to "help" me quilt again. They are so cute, but can be so very unhelpful. This morning Pounce kept trying to walk on the fabric I was trying to cut. Sorry cat, but I can't see through you, nor can I cut between your legs. Later on they each took a turn lying on the pieces where I had them laid out on the bed. Still not actually helpful, but I can deal with this.

Then when I tried to lay out the fleece M wants for his quilt, Shadow decided he needed to lie down and have a bit of a wash. M will be delighted if Shadow wants to come visit him and the quilt in bed.

New Quilt Project

I have a challenge quilt to work on for my quilt group, but I've been having trouble getting started. For a couple of reasons - 1. trying to decide exactly what to do
2. it's cold down in my basement sewing room

So, finally last week, I decided I could at least solve the 2nd problem. I took the space heater down there and got the sewing room fairly cozy. Shadow had to check it out...

Then, even once I had decided what I wanted to do, it seemed so "final" to cut holes in the fabric. But this is what the fabric looked like once I was done cutting out the pieces...

I was pretty impressed with myself that I managed to get these 4 done the first day. Y-seams and all!

 

Here's where I am now. Next is to decide how to put them all together. I'm thinking of a lattice between the windows, either black or brown.

 

Things that rustle in the night

In our case it is cats. 2 cats, who, last night went rustling around over on my side of the bed. Woke us both up out of a sound sleep. I went over and shooed them away, but they came right back. Finally D shut them out of the bedroom, deciding he would rather "hear them paw at the door than rustle around over there".

So this morning one of my tasks was to try to figure out what in the world they were so interested in at 1:30am. I picked up my clothes from last night - nothing interesting there. I move aside a bag. Hmmm. What is that that Pounce is looking at? - almost looks like a piece of her fur. Wait.... it's not a tuft of fur, its more than that. It looks suspiciously like chipmunk. Shudder. While I went to go get some newspaper to pick it up with, it (and Pounce vanish). Joy. Now I have a piece of chipmunk tail somewhere in the house.

Now I know what I'm looking for - the rest of the chipmunk. And I found it just moments later.

 

It had climbed under the edge of something. Note the lack of any fur on the tail - maybe its tail had been hanging out and that was all the cats could reach?

All I know is it was dead by that point and is now in the trash. But I still haven't found the missing tail. A "treat" for later, I suppose.

It's getting closer

It's getting closer and closer to Christmas and we're getting ready, though maybe not fast enough... The tree is up (although it leans a bit - at least its leaning towards the window and not into the room). We got the lights on tonight, but I think the ornaments will have to wait until tomorrow. It looks like Grandma and Grampa may get to help us decorate (or at least watch us decorate) the tree. Their room is ready (and the bathroom too) and the rest of the downstairs is at least passably clean. You can walk through it without having to worry about tripping over toys. Big improvement! It's cleanliness tends to slip as the kids play and then neglect to clean up before getting out new stuff.

I took a load of stuff to Goodwill this morning and then this afternoon I was already finding more stuff that was supposed to go. Oh well, its the start of another pile...

The Christmas cards should finally be going out tomorrow. At least some of them would have gone out today, except that we ran out of ink last night. The printer has been telling us that its low on ink for months now and has kept printing merrily away. But now, it evidently really was out. So, I got new ink (though it doesn't like the color ink I got. Ungrateful printer!). I still have to assemble the rest of the cards. They may not get there before Christmas, but at least I will have mailed them before Christmas! Another fun find - when I picked up the pictures, it seems they managed to cut off most of one of the cats in the photo. Oops. I managed to cut off part of the cat with A in this picture, but the photo place cut off more than half of what was there.

People will just have to guess at what she looks like! Not much I could do about it at this point and with 30 copies of that picture printed. I would have if they'd cut off one of the kids, but well, the cats are much loved, but are not the focus.

On Living with Cats

I've learned a few things about living with cats the last few years. Some of these I remembered from other cats, some are new to me.

1. Do NOT leave the butter uncovered. You will come back to find it oddly smoothed... and then have to cut off a hunk of it.

2. Do NOT leave your water cup in the bathroom more than half full. The cat WILL drink out of it - in preference to his water dish, the water in the bottom of the sink or anywhere else the water is left strictly for the cat.

3. Watch where you sit. We've found urps from the cat the last 2 mornings - one on the chair cushion in the kitchen and one on the quilt in the living room. Luckily these are really just chunks of dry catfood, but I certainly don't want to sit in it.

Cats and Quilting don't always mix

I've finished up a project recently, despite the extreme need to "help" from Miss Pounce.

She was quite intent on sitting right in the middle of the fabric I was trying to cut. And then she would wander back and forth in between me and the sewing machine. I "still" can't see through her - not at the sewing machine and not at the computer!

Here's the finished product:


This is supposed to be a lap quilt size for someone in a wheelchair. I hope it is a good size. Before I make another to donate, I will check again and find out.

Double Kitty Love

As its gotten cooler, I often get a cat on my lap when I sit down in the favored chair (or sometimes when I sit in any chair - like right now I'm typing one-handed because I have Shadow on my lap and arm).

The other night Pounce was in my lap when Shadow came by. He looked at my full lap (I tried to convince him to lie next to Pounce, but no go). Then he walked down past Pounce and settled on my lower legs.

I enjoy cuddling with a kitty (or 2), but 2 down the legs is a little odd.

New Kittens

Awww, isn't the kitty cute!

But this bundle of cuteness is not in MY house - oh no, my cats would seriously disapprove. This is one of my mom's new kittens.

Here's A with one kitten:


And M with the other kitten:


My mom is enjoying her new kittens immensely. The kids and I have been to visit them twice.

From the moment the kids heard about the kittens, they thought we should introduce our cats to my mom's kittens. So, the second time we visited, we took Pounce with us. BAD IDEA! She hissed and growled and hid under the furniture. Behaved MUCH worse than she did when we went to the vet last week (and she had to put up with resident cats there too). I had thought that meeting on relatively neutral territory might be ok. The kittens thought everything was fine - they paid no attention to Pounce at all. I don't think we'll be trying this again anytime soon!

Shadow update

Shadow seems to be feeling better this morning. He climbed into D's lap and purred at him. He purred at me when I petted him. He ate a small bit of food.

Of course, this is after the fact that he threw up that water we gave him, around midnight. He was nice enough to throw up on a piece of dirty laundry rather than the carpet. D thinks maybe he got something out that was bothering him. Who knows - I'm just glad he's acting more like normal Shadow.

I'll still call the vet and see if I can get him in to be checked over and for his shots, though.

Shadow is sick

We don't know what is wrong, but he's not quite himself. I hadn't seen him since this morning, but that wasn't anything unusual until it got to be dinnertime and he hadn't come in. When it got to bedtime and he hadn't appeared, I started to worry a bit. A and I called him, and he didn't come, but Pounce did. I thought maybe I heard something, though, so after the kids were in bed I got a flashlight and checked under the deck. Shadow has a favorite cool spot under there, in amongst the ivy - a patch of bare dirt where he can keep cool.

I brought him in, and checked him over as best I could. I didn't feel any problems, but he didn't want to head into the kitchen to eat. That is unusual. Usually he would head in to eat if he hadn't been in in several hours - or at least would head into the kitchen when I went in there.

He did jump off the chair and then back on a few minutes later, so he seems to be moving ok, if not speedily. I brought him one of his treats and he sniffed it, but didn't eat it.

At this point, I called the vet (of course, what I got was a phone number for an emergency vet). The on-call vet is not anywhere near here (of course not, that would be too handy!). They didn't have any real helpful advice, but said I could either bring him in tonight or take him to our vet in the morning. D wasn't home yet at this point, so I couldn't leave. Once he got home a few minutes later, we both checked him out - still no problems we can find.

I had asked the vet if there were any reasons not to give Shadow food or water and they couldn't think of any. So we gave him a bit of water with a syringe. He wasn't wild about it, but didn't mind too much. I feel better, as I worry he could be dehydrated. Dr. Google seems to say that it would take more than 12 hours without water to cause any real problems.

At this point, I think we're going to wait until morning. Shadow thought about jumping into my lap, but didn't - he took himself over to lie in front of the AC. That's another of his favorite spots in this hot weather. He seems to be resting comfortably (and isn't throwing up his water - that's a good sign).

Looks like we'll be heading to the vet's in the morning, though. Even if he's feeling ok in the morning, he's due for his shots.

The Lure of the AC

We succumbed to the lure of the AC today - it was time - the house hit 85 by mid-afternoon and the outside temp wasn't due to go below 80 before about 10pm. I'll miss those cooler morning temps in the house (We haven't been getting up early enough to have the attic fan do much good just in the morning - it seems to take several hours to cool the house down). The house was still at 82 when we came back from dinner, but it felt quite pleasant. I wonder when the AC will finally get the house to 79 (our current setpoint)? Even though we're in the midst of a drought, I think the house is humid and that is some of what is making it take the AC so long to cool the house down.

I'm not sure the kids particularly noticed that the AC is on, but the cats did. They like to hang out in front of the AC vents. Previous cats have liked hanging out near the heating vents, but these cats are the first I've ever noticed that like the cool AC blowing on them. I think the cats won't be so happy that the windows are closed, though - they like lying on the window seat and looking out the window (and getting the breeze).