The Babette

 

Yes, you read that right!  She’s back!  I started crocheting squares December 31, 2009.  I finished all the squares December 31, 2010.  Then I arranged the squares on the floor of my sewing room and except for little bits of sewing together, there they’ve stayed.

Until now.  Yesterday I finished sewing all the squares together and I’m ready to start borders!

I started making the squares with Ramius.  He sat patiently in my lap while I crocheted the squares.  He sat politely while I arranged finished squares on him to photograph for the blog.

Max contributed to The Babette in a different way.  To be fair, Ramius was almost 15 when I started it and Max is 2.  There’s something to be said for kitty maturity.  (Max wasn’t too happy with me for taking this picture.  It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t know what the Internet is.  Hopefully.)

The center of the blanket measures 33x41 inches.  I’ll be starting borders this weekend (a darker plum followed by the medium pink.  I’m going to keep them pretty simple with all that’s going on in the center of the blanket.  I feel like the borders shouldn’t be too much trouble after all the fiddly work, sewing the blocks together.  Right?

Have a great weekend!

Coraline

I've got sleeves attached to the body now! I've read through some of the Ravelry projects for this pattern and there were some others that used a yarn with a different row gauge than the pattern was written for, so using my own ideas and their own, I think I've got a plan. I'm fixing to start the smocking part of the yoke (the fancy stitch area) and I can't wait to start seeing what that looks like in my handspun. I also know now that I'll have plenty of yarn to finish this cardi. I had more than enough according to the pattern requirements, but getting 8 rows per inch instead of 7 means I'm using more yarn. Fortunately, I had 3 skeins to start with, with about 500 yards per skein. I'm almost through with the second skein at this point and I'll be winding the third skein today so it's ready to go. I might even have enough yarn left over for mitts (or something)!

I'm sitting here blogging this morning with a warm, purry lap warmer, so I grabbed my iPhone and got a picture of him. This is the Pink Lemon's eye view of Ramius. Can you see his little paws just below his nose? So cute. And since I saw it when I was sending Ramius' picture to Flickr, here's one of Finn in black and white from a couple of days ago. (Both pictures were taken using the Hipstamatic app.)

Ramius

Mommy got a new iPhone app - Hipstamatic - and she's been taking pictures with it ever since she got it. She says it makes her pictures look vintage. I say I make her pictures look amazing. Here is one of the pictures she took of me, looking great as always*. She's also taken pictures of other things (I cannot imagine why) and she gave the iPhone to Caleb and he took pictures of all sorts of strange things - none of them Me. I mean, when you have such a fabulous specimen of a cat to photograph, why would you take pictures of plants? I bet she takes pictures of yarn or something silly like Finn soon! Crazy people, I need a nap.

*Ramius taken with Roboto Glitter lens and Float film, with no flash. Orchid (Daddy's, not mine) taken with John S lens, Ina's 1969 film, and Standard flash.

Big News and a Swatch

Yesterday morning was spent at the orthodontist's office. Caleb got his braces off! We only started with the orthodontist less than a year ago and now we're done with what they call Phase 1. They expanded both his upper and lower jaws and straightened out his teeth, leaving room for the remaining adult teeth to come in. When he gets the rest of his adult teeth in (when he's about 12), he'll go back into braces briefly to perfect everything and then he'll be done. He's got to wear a retainer between now and then, but that should be a piece of cake for him.

I haven't really been spinning very much the last couple of days, but I have been playing with handspun. Back in December of 2007 I plied three different singles into a sport weight yarn. I had planned to do Coraline in it, but wasn't sure if I would be able to get gauge or if it would have the right drape. I sat down and swatched, washed the swatch and let it dry - sure enough it will work! (And it looks good on Ramius.) I'm not sure how soon I'll cast on for Coraline though - I've been wanting to make a small project, so I might find something along those lines first.

Ramius and The Babette

I am taking over the blog today and I wanted to show you a couple of squares I made for Mommy's Babette last night. I realize that most of you didn't know I could even do the crochet, but here you go - proof. The crochet is very easy to do, you sit on Mommy's lap and purr unless she makes bad color choices and then you continue to purr while you direct her in the making of the block - unless she drags the yarn across your beautiful coat, which is very itchy twitchy. That's really all there is to the crochet. I can't figure out why she hasn't finished this project yet, I keep purring and purring (and correcting her mistakes - I'm such a helpful cat), but she still isn't done with this Babette thing. Doesn't she know that air conditioning offends me? I will need to be wrapped in the wool in order to survive the summer. Get a move on, woman!

Oh, I also need to clarify a detail that came up in a previous post - something about me making noise in the middle of the night? I have no recollection of any such activity. I would never do anything so vulgar as knock something over accidentally. Clearly there were ninjas that broke into the house without tripping the alarm (they're ninjas after all) and knocked something over. Naturally they were horrified by the ruckus they made and snuck back out of the house to regroup. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Awwwwww!

Do you know how hard it is to sleep when a Pink Lemon shoves a camera in your face? Probably as hard as when a certain cat knocks noisy stuff over in the middle of the night. Of course he followed the Cat Handbook exactly (the directions under the heading Middle of the Night Activities, Accidentally Noisy) and quickly abandoned the scene so by the time I got out of bed* and down the hall muttering some not terribly complementary things about cats, he was upstairs taking a bath. When he saw that I was up, he came running to me purring the whole way as if to say, "Mom, did you hear that big noise, I wonder what that could have been? That was crazy!" Knowing what I know about cats (most baths aren't actually for cleaning, they're used for developing an alibi), and knowing that Finn was asleep with his fuzzy belly in the air (someday I'll have to post a picture of his fuzzy belly - it's out of control) and that no one else was roaming around, I knew that the big noise was Ramius related. I scooped him up and shoved him under the covers and he quickly purred himself to sleep. Thanks Cat!

I have no fibery stuff to talk about today because I spent the day yesterday on a wild goose chase. I'm looking for a butterfly chair for Caleb and all of the ones in boy colors (that aren't on plastic frames - really? A plastic frame sounds like a good idea for a chair?) are back ordered. (To be fair, Target.com has one with a metal frame and skull on the cover/seat part of it, but I'm not sure how they got the skull on the fabric. If it's screen printed on, it will stick to him when he's wearing shorts, which doesn't sound like fun to me.) This is sort of the "off season" for these anyway (they'll be all over the place at the end of summer before the college kids go back to school), but I wanted one for him now. So anyway, no fiber, but you do get a picture of a noisy cat.

*Just so you don't think Mickael is slacking off on his husbandly duties, I'm the best one to check on stupid pet tricks in the middle of the night, he's in charge of checking on weird noises that aren't pet related. Like if an alien sneaks into the house and uses the bathroom. That's all him.

Who Disturbs My Slumber?

Oh, excuse me Mr. Ramius, sir. It's just me, a lone block from The Babette.

Where did you come from?

Your Mommy, the Pink Lemon made me. She started me before the Ravelympics began and finished me in bits and spurts during the Ravelympics.

You have strings hanging off of you.

Yes Mr. Ramius, sir. She hasn't had time to weave in my ends and trim them off yet.

You look a little big to be a Babette block, are you sure that's what you are?

I am one of the biggest of The Babette blocks. There aren't very many of us like there are of the smaller sizes.

Oh, OK, then go away so I can nap now. It's time for my "After-Caleb-Goes-To-School-Nap," the one that comes before my "Mid-Morning-Nap." It's crucial that I get both naps in order to be well rested for my "Lunchtime-Nap."

Sorry to bother you Mr. Ramius, sir. Sleep well.

Yesterday was a big day

And I'm not just talking about the Saints win (although that's great too!) You see, 15 years ago yesterday, someone was born. He was a tiny someone and he couldn't see or hear yet, but soon he became stronger, bigger, sassier, and far more opinionated. Soon he became part of our family. 15 years ago, on February 7, in Spring, Texas (just North of Houston), Toytown's Ramius Houdini was born. We just call him Ramius around here. It took us a week to pick out a name for him. I wanted to name him Drake, but Mickael wanted to name him Ned. Neither name was right so we kept thinking and then one night we were watching Hunt for the Red October and Sean Connery's character was named Marko Ramius. We looked at each other and knew that his name was Ramius. We added the Houdini for his registered name because he had a tendency to appear randomly where you were pretty sure he wasn't. I'd see him downstairs, go upstairs and find him in the upstairs hall taking a bath. We've never been sure how he did that trick, but he did it a lot. We figured he was either being transported a la Star Trek or he had Houdini-like talents. The first part of his name is the cattery he was born in - Toytown Tonkinese. Random bit of mostly useless information: unlike dogs, which you can name anything as long as it's different from everything else ever registered in the AKC, cats have rules for their registration names. The first part of their name is the cattery of their birth, then comes whatever name you want (although there are some rules as to what you can and can't use here too - mostly regarding place names if I remember), then that's it if you aren't a cattery (we aren't), but if you are, then the word of is added along with the name of your cattery. For instance, if my blog was a cattery, he would be Toytown's Ramius Houdini of Pink Lemon Twist. By doing this, I can look at Ramius' pedigree and see where his ancestors were born as well as where they lived, just by looking at their names. That concludes today's lesson.

I had to use a picture from a couple weeks ago since it's pouring rain here and it's very dark - there's no way I'll get a good picture of him this morning. Happy Birthday Mr. Kitten!

Do We Spin Around Here?

I found two spinning wheels in my sewing room upstairs and they were whimpering softly to each other about how neglected they were. One of them (the Rose) had some Polwarth singles on it being spun, so I finished up that bobbin this weekend and then I found enough Polworth for a third bobbin, so I spun that up. I've clearly got to let these last two bobbins rest for a bit because I don't even remember how long ago I finished the first bobbin. I know these were spun from 4 ounces of carded Polwarth in a warm gray color. You can see that there were some neps (the little bumps) in the fiber prep. I spun the singles worsted style.

Yesterday Ramius went to the vet to get his fluids checked (we have to have his blood and other fluids checked every 6 months now to stay on top of where we're at with his kidney disease). Everything is unchanged from 6 months ago so his special kidney diet seems to be doing it's job. When I got out his crate yesterday morning to take him (he has to be dropped off in the morning and stays at the vet's until he uses the litter box), he went right in and sat there all morning until I was ready to take Caleb to school. As soon as I put him in the car with Caleb, but not Finn, he started meowing. When Finn didn't come, he knew we weren't going on a road trip (Ramius loves a good road trip) - he knew he was going to the vet. He meowed all the way to school. He meowed all the way through the drop off line. He meowed all the way to the vet's office, where he continued to meow and tell his troubles to a fluffy dog who was getting checked in for a tooth cleaning (the dog didn't really care). They checked him in, but apparently he wasn't done. When I came to pick him up they explained that he had talked to a Siamese named Tsunami all day - they had a conversation, back and forth all day. The dogs who were hanging out at the vet's yesterday were also rather vocal from what I understand. There was an issue with the vet's un-absorbent litter and while they tried to clean him up with some dry shampoo, Ramius was "uncooperative." Yes, they said he was uncooperative. So when I got him home, I had to give him a bath. Fortunately, Ramius likes water so I got him shampooed and bathed up pretty quickly (which Finn found amusing to no end) and he was all fresh. Poor cat had a pretty rough day yesterday. Really the only thing we could have done worse would have been to have 4 or 5 puppies at home when he came home from the vet. Needless to say, he rebathed himself in the sunshine and snuggled in for a long nap yesterday afternoon. He isn't holding a grudge, but I'm glad we don't have to do that again for 6 months.

Ramius Friday

I realized it had been a while since little Ramius was on the blog, so I decided to turn it over to him today. He was very cooperative with photos this morning, but it was still dark enough to need flash which makes his eyes look like some sort of demon cat. His main concern at the moment is waiting for birds. We got a bird feeder a little over a week ago, but so far the birds haven't come to eat. I know it always takes them about a week to come to a new feeder, but we're really hoping they show up soon. It drives us nuts that they haven't come yet, but when I go outside, I can hear them in the neighborhood. On the other hand, the bunnies are still coming. Finn had a great chase this morning first thing before the sun was even up.

I don't know if I'll be able to blog Monday because after I take Caleb to school I'm taking Ramius to the vet to get his fluids checked and see how we're doing. Have a great weekend!

Listening to something outside. I love the way his coat looks in this one!

Looking at my hand, so he would look at the camera and get demon cat eyes.

Old style Hollywood soft focus. We all have days where we could use a little soft focus don't we?

Random Wednesday

I've finished 3 Christmas Knitting Projects now and I have one more to go! This means that Friday (Caleb has an appointment tomorrow morning, so no blog), I should have actual pictures of something I can show you!

To distract you from a complete lack of blog content, I will share something about Ramius. He can talk. Not just meow, meep, purr and normal cat sounds, he can actually say words - or rather, one word: "Mom." I guess Mom is close enough to Meow (and normal cat noises) that it's not too hard for a cat to say. The funny thing is, he says it exactly like Caleb says it.

Caleb's room is farther from our bedroom in this house than it's ever been in previous houses and while we can easily hear him if he calls, it's a bit of a hike for us to get to him. When he does call, one or both of us jumps out of bed and runs to him to see what's wrong. (Caleb isn't a "cry wolf" kind of kid, so if he calls us in the middle of the night, he's had a nightmare or is sick and he needs us there immediately.) Ramius was apparently paying attention to this and one night, in the middle of the night, I heard, "Mom!" So I jumped out of bed and was racing to Caleb's room. Running next to me, purring more than he usually does on the way to check on Caleb, was Ramius. When we got to Caleb's room, he was sprawled out in a tangle of covers, snoring happily, completely asleep. Ramius, I noticed, was rubbing against me and purring ecstatically. That's when it hit me - it was the cat, not the kid, calling me. Unfortunately, Ramius had figured out how to get me up at night if he wanted some attention and he now does this periodically. Not every night, not even every week, but a couple of times a month or so, he feels that in the wee morning hours, he needs a human awake to play with him. Fortunately for me, I've figured this out and knowing both Ramius and Caleb the way I do, I've gotten a little bit smarter. When Caleb needs us, he calls and keeps calling - the kid has no patience and doesn't even give us a chance to get to him from his first call. Ramius on the other hand has infinite patience and will call and then wait. I've figured out that if I get a second "Mom!", I'll know if it's Caleb or Ramius before I jump out of bed and race through the house. The first couple times it happened, it took me a while to figure things out though. It just goes to show that not teaching animals to talk is probably a good thing, although Ramius figured this out all by himself.

I am in charge today...

because Mommy can't come to the blog. Actually, she could come to the blog, but she has nothing to show you because she's still Christmas knitting. She said to let you know that she has finished Christmas Knitting Project #2 and is working away on Christmas Knitting Project #3. Her goal is to finish it by tomorrow, which will only leave her with one more project and that last one doesn't have to get shipped, so she'll get it done in plenty of time.

Anyway, enough about stuff that doesn't have anything to do with me. Today I am going to soak up as much sunshine as possible and then I'm going to go sit under the tree with all the lights and dangly things and look fabulous. Every year Mommy and Daddy and now the Caleb-thing helps to put a tree in our house. I do not understand the ways of the humans, but as long as I don't see the bottom of my food bowl, I humor them. I must admit, I do look rather fabulous sitting beneath the branches with the twinkly lights on them, but then I look fabulous doing anything.

He-That-Is-Called-Finn seems to think that just because I'm sitting on the floor, I'm fair game for snuffling. This is not the case. I need to train him the way I trained the Small-Loaner-Dog-Called-Barclay. He came over the other day for a play date with Finn and I didn't even have to remind him of my superiority and power. As soon as I walked into the room, he jumped up and ran to Mommy's other side and he kept her in between us the whole time. Yes, the Barclay dog is wise to remember me.

I think I feel a nap coming on now. There's no point in being tired when it's time for my lunchtime nap after all. Being the Supreme Power in the Universe takes a lot of energy, you know.

The Fluffy Pink Squid of Doom is Eating Ramius!

OK, that's not actually happening at all. Ramius is fine. This is an "action shot" of my lap while I was working on the Cherry Blossom shawl and Ramius was sitting in my lap, under the shawl. Didn't mean to frighten you.

Know what I did this weekend? I finished the round and round knitting of the shawl! Now I just have to do the edging (all the way around) and I'm done! I'm a little more than halfway into my third ball of Shibui Knits Silk Cloud and knowing how edgings can eat yarn like it's going out of style, I think the four balls that were called for in the pattern will be just right. I know I'll have some left over, but I'm pretty sure I will have to use part of that fourth ball. (Just to clarify, the pattern calls for 4 balls of Silk Cloud. If you're using KSH, you'll need 5 balls of that as it's slightly heavier weight and has a bit less yardage per ball as the Silk Cloud.)

Ramius Thursday

Instead of showing you the pathetic little bit I've done on the Fluffy Pink Squid of Doom since you last saw it (sorry Cherry Blossom Shawl, that's just too good of a name for you), and that I haven't even picked up Cassidy, I give you Ramius! Ramius did help me work on the little bit of shawl I did last night, but eventually it made him feel twitchy and anyone who's ever tried to knit with a twitchy cat in their lap will understand why I put the shawl away. Ramius is very happy that he has the house back to himself - even if he has to share it with Silly Finn. He'll be even happier later today when Silly Finn gets a bath! (Finn hates baths, but desperately needs one and today is the day.) Nothing like a sad, wet, doggy to really make your day special!

Furry Friday

As I've mentioned, we currently have 5 little furballs in the house right now since Mom and Dad's two cats and dog are staying with us until they get moved down here later this month. In the meantime, I figured I'd give them all a day on the blog since they're just so cute, and let's face it, if I blogged them with knitting, you guys wouldn't pay any attention to the knitting anyway!

I finally got some pictures of Cinnamon, Mom and Dad's Siamese. He is more shy than Shibori, so it took a while before he'd come out and see me long enough for me to get pictures. He's lighter than Ramius is and he's also a bigger cat. His eyes are icy blue like the underside of a glacier, where Ramius' eyes are aqua blue, like an aquamarine (the aqua eye color goes with the mink coloration of Tonkinese).

Of course, partway through Cinnamon's photo shoot, his little brother Shibori (the Bengal) started wiggling into the frame.

Shibori is a shameless attention hog - whether it's a camera or lovin', he's going to be in the middle of everything.

And he really doesn't care if the lovin' is coming from a human or his little dog buddy, Barclay! Barclay is spending time with his kitties every day - sometimes he just passes out on the floor, but sometimes they play together a bit. Last night Shibori was rubbing on Barclay hard enough to knock him off balance. We had to make the decision for everyone's safety that Shibori and Cinnamon stay in the guest room, separate from Ramius who doesn't like the idea of other cats in his house, and separate from Finn who is trying to welcome the new cats a little too enthusiastically. I know if we had to, we could work past the Finn part of the issue, but Ramius (AKA Leroy Brown) is just too aggressive for this to work out. I certainly don't want Cinnamon and Shibori turning against each other - they have to live together.

Barclay on the other hand has full run of the house since he and Finn and Ramius are getting along wonderfully! Barclay quickly became a member of our "pack" and he and Finn follow me around all day and do everything together. Ever wonder what a doggie slumber party looks like?

Here's one! The thing that really cracks me up is that Barclay is on Finn's bed and Finn is on Barclay's - they are sharing so nicely! (Not food, Finn wants you to know that he isn't sharing food and when it's feeding time, he's been working on his technique and has beaten his previous eating time record by several seconds. He's been wondering if the US has an eating team and if he could maybe try out for it.)

Finn also wanted to show you all his new toy. Since Finn was a puppy, he has been ripping stuffed dog toys up and strewing stuffing from one end of the house to the other. Naturally, we made the decision not to give Finn this kind of toy years ago. The other day, he found this Dino-Roar (Fisher Price made them a long time ago and this was mine). He seems to like the noise it makes and he hasn't ripped it up yet, so we've let him keep it. He walks around and squeezes it so it roars (or whimpers) and is really enjoying it. This morning he discovered that Barclay is the perfect height to set the Dino-Roar on his back and chew on it there. Barclay was not amused.

Ramius thinks Dino-Roars are stupid, but he figures if Finn likes it, that's fine as long as it doesn't disturb his nap. He would also like it if someone would come get these spare cats since the guest room is South facing and gets lovely amounts of sunshine all day long.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to love your fuzzies!

Monkey See, Kitty Do?

I've finished my first Monkey sock with the exception of Kitchener stitching the toe closed. As you can see, it has been inspected before I close the toe. It's important to have quality inspection, don't you think?

Ahh, here you can see the full sock. Of course the inspector is still keeping an eye on things!

We've gotten a lot done over the last couple days around here, but nothing bloggable. Just tying up loose ends before school starts next week. I will add that Caleb sailed through his impressions at the orthodontist without even gagging. The pediatrician also said he's doing great! A few more errands to do today and then maybe I can get more knitting done this weekend.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Some Good News and Some Not So Good News About Ramius

First of all, I didn't mean to panic anyone by the blog title and the picture you see above I did just take this morning. I've been trying to figure out for a couple of weeks what, if anything I was going to tell the blog about Ramius' health and I've come to the conclusion that with the way you guys comment and ask after him him and Finn that I should share what's going on. (After all, I've been babbling about Finn's allergies for several weeks now.)

As I mentioned in June, Ramius had his teeth cleaned. He is currently 14-1/2 years old. He's actually more active, pouncy and social since he had them done, which is a good thing. The day they cleaned his teeth they did a blood sample first to make sure he'd do OK with the anesthesia and when they did the sample, they found that his creatinine levels were higher than normal. Creatinine (not to be confused with creatine) at elevated levels can indicate kidney disease.

I brought him back 3 weeks after the tooth cleaning to redo his blood tests and so they could get a urine sample to see if his kidneys were doing their job. (Creatinine can also be elevated from dehydration and stress.) His creatinine levels were down from the first test, but still above the normal range. His kidneys were concentrating his urine properly (still functioning right) and the two other markers for kidney disease in his urine that they checked for were within the normal range, although at the high end.

This led the vet to the conclusion that Ramius has kidney disease, but we think we caught it at the very start. Usually when kidney disease is discovered because the cat has symptoms, the kidneys are mostly gone and the disease doesn't give the cat very much time. Catching it when we did with Ramius, before symptoms even showed up, and when it's just getting started means we could get him on a special low protein diet to make his kidneys' job easier. There's no cure for cat kidney disease, but it can be managed when you catch in when we did. He will have to eat this food for the rest of his life (he likes it - yeah!) and he will have to get blood work done every 6 months for the rest of his life to keep an eye on what's going on inside him, but if I didn't know what was going on, I would never guess that he was getting sick. He still pounces on wiggly toes under the covers, still jumps on counters he's not really supposed to be on, still lets us know when we've displeased him, still looks down his nose at Finn, and still begs for ice cream (now officially off the menu for him).

I don't tell you all this to make you feel sorry for us, but Ramius always gets comments, both on the blog and from his pattern modeling. When I went to see the Yarn Harlot speak, I was as likely to get asked about Finn and Ramius as I was about Flamenco (which I was wearing). I don't let our personal life appear on the blog, but I felt like I should mention this now, rather than just letting you know at the end. I don't have any kind of potential timeline and honestly, I haven't asked either. They made it sound like we could manage this for several more years before things really start to go downhill. So this is what's going on. He seems to be feeling better than he was before June so that's a good thing, and we'll follow the vet's directions to help his body as much as possible from here on out.

Thanks for listening. I'll have fibery stuff back tomorrow.

She'll be Coming around the Corner When She Comes

(With apologies to whoever it was who came around the mountain years ago, wearing scratchy red pajamas and driving six white horses, no less.)

I've reached the 72 inch mark on the long side of the Rosebud Pink Wrap and now I'm heading into the last corner! Can't tell? How about a closeup of the third corner.

I get to decrease on every row now, and it's moving along pretty quickly. Next time you see this project, it will be blocked.

We've had some good things happen here this week with Ramius and Finn so since I'm pretty sure half of you are only here for them anyway, I'll share. I don't believe I've ever shared this with the blog, but Finn has allergies. Not occasional sneezing allergies, full on ear infections, pulling fur off his feet to nibble at the itchy places, scratching his fur out allergies. He will actually come running to me when I get out the hydro cortisone cream because he knows it makes him feel better. He has both food allergies as well as environmental allergies and we had tried a number of things with the vet in Virginia. Everything would help clear him up and heal his skin, but it was just reactive - we weren't preventing the allergic attacks in the first place. Since we moved here to Texas, his allergies have been getting slowly worse so on Monday we went to the vet here to get a new perspective and try to get the little guy feeling better. They asked lots of questions about his past allergies, treatments we'd tried and just got a feel for what was going on. Then he asked if Finn had ever had a cortisone shot. Finn had briefly been on cortisone pills but he had never had a shot. Apparently giving cortisone shots is one of those things that older vets are more comfortable with than newer vets because cortisone can cause trouble if there are other health issues happening in the animal. Except for his allergies, Finn is a healthy dog, so he got a cortisone shot on Monday. (Our new vet has never had a bad reaction to cortisone shots in otherwise healthy dogs and even treated his own dog's allergies with it.) Finn hasn't scratched himself or picked at himself since. It is such a huge difference in his behavior! I know he feels better, his skin is healing and I think he can actually think more clearly without the background "itchy, itchy, itchy" he had running through his head 24/7. At this point we wait and watch to see how long a single shot lasts for him and then we'll figure out a plan with the vet.

Ramius got to go meet the new vet yesterday for a general checkup. He is allergic to his yearly vaccinations so after he'd had them at age 4, I decided to stop getting them for him and just take him in for checkups. He's an inside cat and it's just safer for him health wise not to get the vaccinations. He's never had his teeth cleaned and at 14-1/2 I figured he desperately needed them done. He does need them done but they really aren't too bad at all (the vet says this is because he has good genes). Apparently Ramius also has the coat of a 3 year old and is in very good health. We're getting his teeth cleaned on Monday and the vet said that should hold him over for another 15 years or so! It was good to find out that he was in good health. I hadn't noticed anything going on with him, but at 14-1/2 I could have just seen them tell me that his legs were fixing to fall off or something. (Just to be sure, I've checked and his legs are all firmly attached - didn't want to start a panic.)

A stand off

This was the scene on the stairs this morning.

I'm happy to say it did end peacefully and Ramius walked down the stairs and past Finn with as much condescension as is possible in each and every molecule of his being (he's a cat - he's a professional).  Finn did not chase him but ducked his head in acknowledgement of his own shortcomings and did his doggy best to apologize for not being born a cat.  (He's Ok now, he's sprawled out on the floor with his legs in the air as only a dog can do.)

I on the other hand have been ruffling on Pattern 15.  I will continue to ruffle.

A Note to Knitters

My person is a knitter.  I know you know this, because that's probably why you're here in the first place.  I am a cat, and I think I'm a pretty tolerant cat when you get right down to it.  I don't chew yarn, and except for a single incident with some alpaca fiber when she first started spinning, I can be trusted on my own in the fiber room (unlike certain large blonds in this house who shall remain nameless).  I very rarely chase knitting needles and while stitch counters are fun to play hockey with, I always wait for her to lock it first.  Clearly I am a Saint among cats.

That being said, I don't think a cat should have to tolerate yarn being strung across their side or getting bashed in the head with a sock in progress, just because the cat chose to sit on their person.  I mean, how much more obvious can I make my Twitch of Displeasure when the yarn strand touches my fabulous coat?  I can't attack the sock in progress, even though it's smacking me every time she changes needles or I'll get dumped on the floor.  I'm willing to use my manners for the sake of civilization, but shouldn't there be some knitting manners established?  I'm going to get my people on this and we'll issue an official declaration - but now I have to take a nap.  I hope I don't have nightmares about unfinished socks!