Long time no blog

Been a little busy around here with the holidays, grandkids, siblings, and of course more foster persians. The bathroom was clean for one day before the last 3 came.

This is Maggie. She's 6 yrs old and turned out to be very friendly. There was some talk about giving her back to the illegal breeder but based on the vet report there was no way that was going to happen. The owners should be grateful that they weren't arrested for animal neglect and cruelty.

Maggie was adopted last Saturday and seems to have settled into her new home and new life as an only cat.

Along with Maggie came 2 very frightened 6 month old babies named Shadow and Violet. They spent the first 2 weeks hiding behind the curtins in the bathroom even though the door was wide open and they could go anywhere.
Violet is a good little girl who reminds me of Jasper (another rescue persian). She is still skiddish but will let me pet her. Tiny little cat. The other day I guess I was taking too long to open the can of food and she cuffed me one on the leg. Little freshie!

Shadow is quite a bit bigger but the same age. She is now my buddy and will come to me when I call her. She and Violet spend their days sleeping on my bed while I work.

Hopefully they'll be placed for adoption soon. I requested they be placed together since they are very dependent on each other for support and comfort.

I've been knitting along on christmas socks so nothing has been finished recently except for these

A gal on ravelry sent out a request for mini stocking filled with gum and candy for the troops. The stockings were fun to make and my kids and grandkids helped fill and bag them. With everything the troops risk to insure our freedom it was a honor to work on this project.

Thanksgiving this year was interesting. I was born on Thanksgiving day and every so often my birthday falls on thanksgiving. This year was one of those years plus I turned 50. Yes 50. I remember when I thought 50 was old. Now I think 85 is old. Wonder what I'll think is old when I'm 85?

W was over and decided to draw some decorations around my house. I knew he did one on D3's slider but I was tickled to see this on the window at the top of the stairs.

It's about time

Oscar says: It's about time that this house is a foster kitten/cat free zone. You have wasted totally too much time on those creatures when you could have been catering to my every whim ... and I have many whims.

Yes Jasper and Rosie have been adopted by a warm and loving woman who lost her beloved persian last year. They will have a happy home life with Karen and her hubby. Unfortunately it's back to being far too quiet around here. The rescue group is taking the last 3 persians out of the breeder's house tonight so hopefully I won't be lonely for too long.

I started some christmas knitting. These will be for my 2nd brother. I've knit socks for his wife and she just raves about them so I think he might actually wear them. His favorite colors are grey, navy, and black but there's no way I'm knitting boring. I'll be making socks for his son in law too who's favorite colors are grey, navy, and black. No I won't be making him boring socks either. They've got some nice dark tones so it should be ok.

My niece's christmas socks have been started too. Her favorite color is orange so I went with this Opal blend of brown and orange. Kind of funky. Hopefully she'll like them. The nice thing about socks is you just have to make one pair for a person. If they like them then you hear about how hard it is for them to have to go without while the socks are in the wash. Then you know that hand knit socks will be appreciated every time.

I had some yarn left over so I whipped up a quick baby hat for a coworker's granddaughter. I love anything that ends in a knotted I-cord on little kids.

D2 was happy to come home from school and see this ....

clean bathroom free of cats and their mess. She needs to enjoy it while she can because I'm sure there will be more coming soon.

The persian update

Working on a casual hat for me. I love the colors of this yarn. I bought it at my last trip to Webs for $2.99 a skein. I'm thinking of mittens to match but I'll have to think about it.

If you haven't guessed already I tend to get obsessed with some types of knitting. I'll be lace knitting and working on 3 different lace things. Get into hat making and I'll make 4 or 5. We won't even speak about socks because that's waaaaay past an obsession. So when a woman on Ravelry said that they were trying to collect 850 mini stockings by November 30th for the troops I had to give it a try.

Cute? I have no idea when this yarn was bought or how exactly it ended up in my stash. I honestly don't remember buying it much less buying 6 skeins of it.

Anyways I can get 17 stockings out of this skein of super saver. Finished one skein and since I'm still obsessed with the project I'm working on a second skein.

My foster baby Jefferson was adopted yesterday. The poor baby was so upset about getting put in the car carrier. The last time he was in one he ended up at the vet, flea dipped, groomed, shots, neutered, and generally manhandled. Quite a change from living in a mattress box spring. The woman who adopted him was lovely and I'm sure he'll be very happy in his new house.

Rosie and Jasper are doing much better without Jefferson here. They seem to be coming out a little more and eating well. Jefferson use to run to the food and eat like he'd never eat again; a clear sign that food was in short supply before he came here.

I was grooming Rosie last night and she knocked the brush right out of my hand, hissed, and glared at me like "What the hell do you think you are doing!?!?!" I laughed. Last week when she came to my house for the first time she wouldn't even look at me. Now she thinks she's the boss.

Jasper has come a long way. He will actually let me sit him on my lap and pet him. He's lighter than Rosie in coloring and weight. Jasper is actually very thin under all that fur so hopefully he'll start to fatten up a little now that food is always there for him. He has a sweet personality and will make a wonderful friend for someone. He seems to like to be brushed and doesn't mind me too much after all.

It's heartbreaking to think of these cats being so neglected but I have to say they have all turned around to be very trusting and loving. I thought it would take weeks even months for them to trust again but these Persians seem to settle in fast. I know they'll do well no matter where they end up.

Some more persians

The persian cat rescue mission continues. Lewis and Clark were on tv Monday and were adopted to their new home Monday afternoon. I was like a proud mama watching them sit so nice and confident on the show. They are so loving that I'm sure they are living the pampered life being waited on by their humans.

Jefferson didn't have much time to be lonely because Rosie and Jasper came to live here Monday night.


It was a long day for Jasper and Rosie with a trip to the vet to be cleaned, dematted, flea dipped, groomed, shots, and neutering. Since they had been living inside the bottom of a box spring they were quite overwhelmed. They are very underweight and sick from not getting proper food and having fleas feeding off them for 6 months.

I was making progress with them until I had to give them pills for tape worms yesterday morning. Rosie spit her's out once before it finally went down. Poor Jasper spit it out 5 times before he finally swallowed it. He was so scared that he ended up scratching me and biting my sleeve. After that both of them decided I was the worst human in the world and went back to being in the corner facing the wall.

So I decided to start over and try to figure out how to get their trust. I decided that maybe if I didn't make direct eye contact with them they wouldn't be as afraid. So last night I went up to sit with them and pet them while talking and no looking at them. They both started to relax and purr. It was wonderful.

Jefferson is getting adopted by a wonderful family on Monday and it'll just be Rosie and Jasper for a while. They have 3 cats left to rescue (couldn't get them out of the box spring) so maybe I'll be getting those. It's so hard not to be sad when dealing with these little ones. I try to concentrate on how good their lives will be in the future instead of being overwhelmed on how awful their lives were in the past.

Not just cat petting around here

Since I claim this to be a knitting blog maybe I'll post some knitting. Yes I've been finishing up some stuff lately. My niece and her hubby bought their first home so a house warming gift was required. My niece fell in love with my foster kittens and was begging her hubby to adopt one to keep their current cat company. He's not much of a cat guy so none of my babies went to live in Massachusetts. But it did give me the idea of making Kate the cat dish cloths. I did some more grandchild socks. Oscar decided to inspect the lay out before the picture was taken. She's so helpful.
I'm working on a hat scarf set for a buddy of mine. The hat is a cable hat from Stitch Bitch Nation and the scarf is the Irish Hiking Scarf. They really match well. The yarn is some super wash stuff I picked up from ebay; pink with a light grey strand twisted around. Really nice.

When you make dishcloths you don't use up the whole skein but there's really not enough left to do anything meaningful with. I used the leftovers to make a kitty blanket to throw in the cat carrier. Useful, washable, and great use of leftovers.

I did a lot of stuff and just needed to block everything. Why I was putting of blocking escapes me since it's the magic of knitting lace. Everything looks like a blob until you block it. This is a feather and fans shawl I started for D3 back in December of last year. Yarn is Knitivity.com down home fingering weight in spring green. Love it.

This is a Forrest Canopy Shawl done is Knitivity.com lace yarn in the color honey dew. The colors range from off white to deep green and everything in between. Love it.

And this is a different feather and fans pattern I made for myself. My scarf is from knitivity.com lace weight in graffiti. The entire time I was knitting I wasn't sure if the pattern was too busy for the yarn but after a while I just decided that I loved the yarn so much that I didn't care.

So now I've just got to finish the sleeves on my 5 hr baby sweater (the baby was born Saturday) and whip up a couple pair of baby socks. Then I can start the mountain of socks I plan to knit for Christmas. Already figuring that I'll need to cut back to 7 hrs of sleep a night to finish everything.

Remember to get out and vote!

I've been a little busy

The rescue group I work with usually gives me an endless supply of kittens to love for several weeks while I teach them manners and send them off to live with a new loving family. I just love kittens. However when they called to ask if I could take some of the cats they took from an illegal breeder I just couldn't say no. This is Lewis who is 6 months old. Pure persian with a sweet little personality.

This is Clark who is 9 weeks old and ran the house from day one.

And this last guy is Jefferson who is the prettiest fellow.

They along with 29 others were taken from an illegal cat breeder who couldn't understand why no one would pay $350 for pure persians without papers, vet care, infected with fleas, tape worms, and who's fur was so terrible matted that they had to be professionally groomed to get them looking this good. For the first couple days they were so frightened that they all sat in a corner facing the wall trembling in fear when I entered the room. Now they come running and fall over each other to be pet. What a difference a week makes. Although I'd like to keep them all (actually I'd have liked to keep all the kittens I've had) I know in my heart that they'll only be with me a short time before they find a forever family to cater to their ever whim.

Moving on

My house is currently a kitten free zone. Little Coal was adopted yesterday by a wonderful family. I sent him on with his favorite stuffed mouse toy. So 8 foster kittens since May and all 8 in new homes hopefully living happily after.

But it's a little sad to be able to sit and work on my scarf without kitten help. Not that biting the yarn and laying on the scarf was all that much help but he was only doing the best he could without thumbs.
My own 3 cats are indoor/outdoor cats. I live on 1 acre which backs to many acres of woods, fields, and a pond so the cats have lots of room to wander. And wander they do. My deck is filled on a daily basis with dead field mice, squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. It's a wonderful life for them.

This is Charlie. Charlie came to me 4 yrs ago after being rescued by my oldest daughter from a dumpster in her apartment complex. He was a friendly feral who loved my oldest grandson and would follow him everywhere. His ear was damaged by ear mites so he only really had one ear. We got him checked out by the vet, neutered, and he came to live as a country cat. He was about 5 lbs when we got him and plumped out to 16 lbs with regular feedings. Not a fat cat, just a big guy with broad shoulders and a swagger that showed he was happy.

Unfortunately being a feral Charlie didn't take to the litter box at all so he peed and pooped everywhere. Thankfully we've got hard wood floors or tile everywhere. After a couple months we had to admit that he couldn't be retrained to be inside all the time so his time in the house was only a couple hours followed by a couple hours outside. In the winter on really cold nights we kept him in a large dog crate with food, water, and a litter box placed right by the furnace. Snugly warm. On other nights when it wasn't so cold he'd be sleeping on one of the chairs on the front porch snuggled in a nest of wool blankets.
Charlie was devoted to my husband ... his person .... and would follow him around the house and yard like a dog. He was kind to everyone and since he was mostly white he was particularly drawn to anyone wearing dark pants.

Being a combination cat does carry risk factors and early this morning between 4 am and 6 am one of those risk factors came true for Charlie as he was hit by a car and killed. He had 4 wonderful years living the country life that replaced an awful existence of being a dumpster cat. And he has humans how will miss him very much. Thanks you, Charlie, for being a part of our family for the past 4 yrs.

This and that

Foster kitten Coal is having a grand time now that he's the only kitten around. His favorite thing to do every evening is to watch the fire in the fireplace. He's so cute.

I'm involved in a ravelry group traveling scarf thing and this is my part for my scarf. I kind of remember buying the yarn but don't remember what I was going to use it for. How did I decide on knitpick eggplant? I reached into a box of yarn and pulled it out without looking.
Coal says: Your cell phone? I thought it was my cell phone. Don't you know that everything in the house is mine? When you're a kitten everything is a kitten toy.
And while I know I should probably be actually finishing some of the projects I've got going on I find myself starting other stuff anyways. Like this feather and fan scarf I started on Sunday using Ray's wonderful lace yarn. The colorways is graffiti which I thought might be a little busy for feather and fan but as Rachel Zoe would say, It's bananas.
I've got at least 5 hrs on this 5 hr baby sweater and as you can see all I'm missing is sleeves. What a wild color. Not traditional baby stuff but I love how babies look in vivid colors.
Gotta go see what Coal is knocking over now.

Thanks

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you've all sent my way. I've been grieving for my father as he slipped from the man I knew into God's hands for a while so his death was a relief. He is no longer in terrible pain and doesn't have to think about everything he use to do but couldn't any longer. My grandchildren attending the service which I'm sure made my Dad smile. He was so family oriented that he would have been upset if they hadn't attended. One of my Mom's friends thought they were a little distracting but we all loved having them with us.

Anyways, life has a way of moving forward even when you don't want it to happen so Monday I received this package. UPS express box. Must be important stuff. Dusty and Ashley were all excited.

Dusty says: I don't see any kitten toys anywhere.

Now mind you that I work on a computer and never write down a single thing due to patient privacy so I have no need to paper, pencils, markers, files, note cards, etc. The only thing I'll be using out of this entire package is that 2009 calendar.

I have a coworkers who has been under treatment for breast cancer. She's been having a difficult time due to infections. I decided to knit her a shawl and was just hiding the last ends when my father passed away. It gave me a lot of comfort knitting this and I hope it gives Pat a lot of comfort using it.
I should be working on this stuff ............
but instead I casted on a 5 hr baby sweater for another coworker out of this red heart yarn. The colorways is lipstick and it's really pretty. Rose is going to be a grandmother for the first time so I thought hey you can't go wrong with a 5 hr baby sweater .... not that I can actually do one in 5 hrs but that's another story for another posting.
Yesterday afternoon a woman and her 3 sons came over to look at my foster kittens and ended up adopting Dusty and Ashley (my package assistants). The only one left right now is Coal and he's a little lonely. He'll have a new family soon enough.

Hope everyone has a good week. Fall is in the air in New England and it's my favorite time of year.

Bye Dad

About 3 weeks ago the doctors told my father that there was nothing more they could do. He signed the paperwork to go into the hospice program and they were assigned a wonderful case worker named Ginni. I can't say enough about hospice or the caring and consideration they've given to my family through a difficult time. I don't know how they can deal with death on a daily basis and still be upbeat and caring.

Last night my brothers and I watched as Ginni pronounced our father and assisted my mother by making a couple calls. While it's not easy to say good bye to someone who has shaped you into the person you've become, I'm glad that he's no longer in pain.

Good bye, Dad. Thanks for everything.

Out of the mouths of babes

My oldest daughter lives a little over an hour away and since my dad is sick she's been coming down every week so the kids can play at papa's and great grams to cheer them up. Friday they all came down for a visit. After playing at the great grandparent's house for a while they ended up at my house.

I live right by a town park so D1, D2 and I took the kids over for a walk and to play on the playset before dinner. It was a nice day and we basically had the playset to ourselves. There was a guy with an older woman and 3 girls who looked to be ages 2, 4, and 6 on the beach area. After a while they moved off the beach and the older two girls came to play on the playset too.

The boys were at the top of an enclosed slide and the girls were climbing up some netting so W said something like, "Look there are spiders on the spider web." The 6 yr old was offended and told him "We're not spiders we're girls." Meanwhile Missy A walked up the stairs and was hanging around watching everyone.

I was watching what was going on and saw the 6 yr old look around to see if anyone was watching her. Then she took 2 steps sideways and threw her hip against Missy A which knocked the little 2 yr old right down the steps on her back. By the time I ran around to get to the steps D2 was there picking her up and trying to calm her. "What happened?" D2 asked. "That girl knocked against her and pushed her down the stairs." I answered.

All of a sudden the little girl stammers "It was an accident. I didn't do it on purpose." I answered, "I saw you do it and it wasn't an accident."Of course the adults are across the park leaving the 6 yr old in charge of her 4 yr old sister so there’s no other adult to jump in. We decided it was time to walk back to my house anyways so I said, “I bet you cause a lot of accidents. The bad part is that you also tell lies when you do bad things.”

As we were walking down the stairs to leave the playset my 3 yr old grandson N said in a very serious tone to the girl “God saw that.” Then his 5 yr old brother chimes in with “And Santa saw it too.” It was all we could do not to burst out laughing.

Hopefully the Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairey weren't watching or that little girl is just screwed.

Finally off my lazy butt ...

to do a little update. Moe was adopted by a wonderful young woman and is happy in his new home. She's a non knitter so it's a perfect pair. It was a good thing because I already had taken in these guys and they were all sick so Moe couldn't play with them. These two are Coal and Dusty. They are both males and extremely friendly.

This is Ashley. She was so scared when I first picked her up but now she's the first one to come running and sit in my lap to be pet.


There's been some knitting going on. I bought some yarn off ebay a while back. It was cheap because it was poorly koolaid dyed. So I ended up using both balls working two rows from each ball in order to get it to blend better. So far so good.

Working on a green hat in the same design just in the round.

And finished a pink hat from the same pattern.

Worked on some dishcloths for my neice who just bought her first home with her hubby.

And I'm using the left overs to do a blanket for the kittens to snuggle in. I wanted something totally washable.

Finished another pair of socks for W

Just a little more to go on Missy A's jumper

And plugging along on a shawl for a work friend who is out recovering from breast cancer. Usually I'd use a nice wool but since she's by herself I decided to use Herrschners 2 ply afghan yarn because it's washable.

And since one can never have enought sock yarn I bought these from Ray. I couldn't decide on a color so I ordered 3 skeins with the instructions of do anything you want as long as the colors include blues and greens. I think he did a wonderful job and I was so please when I opened the package. These will all be socks for me, me, me.


All the kids are back in college. D2 started a 2 yr radiology program at Naugatuck Valley Community College. S1 is there too finishing his 2 yr engineering degree. D3 is at Eastern Connecticut State University working on her 4 yr degree in social work.

W started kindergarden and is having a wonderful time. N started preschool and he's having a blast. A is home with mommy asking where everyone is when they are at school.

My dad was getting small dosages of chemo trying to shrink the tumers in his liver to give him some comfort. Unfortunately the chemo was doing more harm than good so last Tuesday they decided to stop all treatment. He signed the paperwork needed to go into the hospice program on Wednesday. Mom's freaking out, dad's resigned to the fact that it'll all be over sooner rather than later, and as usual I'm not dealing with anything other than supporting both of them and pitching in as much as I can. Since stopping the chemo he's been eatting better and has more strength so it's in God's hands now.