Still Life, With Cats

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March 2015

Cat tales

GargoyleCatEvery morning for the past few weeks, as soon as I sit down at my desk, Nutmeg comes tearing into the office, dashes up the cat tree, and then proceeds to flail around wildly on the top of my desk. Occasionally a little head peeks (often upside down) over the edge, but primarily the only way I know she’s there is the sound of her sliding around on the wood.

At some point she then decides it’s time to see what I’m up to, so then I look up to see a fuzzy little gargoyle peering down at me.

I’m not sure why the top of my desk has suddenly become the best place to play in the morning. But when one lives with cats one learns that it’s really pointless to ask ‘why’. And at least if she is flailing around being cute up there, she is *not* gnawing on the corner of the ledge over the window. No, I have no idea why she does *that* either.

*****

Rosie-closeupSo – an update on Rosemary and her weird mouth hole.

I took her to our regular vet on Wednesday, as per the instructions of the emergency vet. They’d faxed over all the info so our regular vet would have a heads up, and he was, I think, prepared for something really awful. But he opened her mouth and peered in and seemed more than a bit surprised that it wasn’t as bad as he was expecting.

We still have no idea what caused the hole in the first place. She had a bunch of teeth extracted back in November, but it’s not anywhere near where those came out. It is most likely a fistula, although he doesn’t think it goes all the way through to the nasal cavity (and after being extra snuffly and sneezy the few days prior to the vet appointment = because when one’s human is nervously Googling oral-nasal fistulas, and oral abscesses, and oral tumors (for the love of all that is holy do *not* Google oral tumors!), it is important to try to work in as many extra symptoms as you can just to mess with her head, after all – she’s no longer doing that either). The sides of the hole look smooth and clean – no sign of infection at all, so clearly the antibiotics have been doing their job. And bonus, he said it looks as if it’s actually trying to heal up.

So – current plan is that she gets to finish out the 10 days of the antibiotics (which isn’t any fun for us humans because Reasons that you really do not want me to go into more detail on, although I will say that i am SO VERY GLAD WE DO NOT HAVE CARPET), and we’ll keep an eye on it, but right now, the news is all good. Phew.



Bonus Round

So yes, I know that technically the month of daily dishcloths was supposed to be over as of yesterday. But I woke up at about 5:30 this morning, worrying about Rosie and the weird hole in her mouth, and so I went upstairs to check on her (she demanded food, so all was as usual), and then sat down on the couch and stared at the remnants of my cotton stash. I started working on another boring garter stitch square (this time with stripes), but then realized I just couldn’t do it. Not more garter stitch. So I ripped it all out and started over and noodled around until I came up with something a little different. Each pattern repeat reminds me a little of zipper teeth, so I have dubbed it Zip It!

Zip It - 2 color

(I would like to point out, for the record, that what you see here includes the VERY LAST of the teal yarn. Let the cheering commence.)

Once that was done, I scribbled some notes and stared at the cluster of tiny little balls of yarn still remaining and I thought hmm, I bet this would work great with scraps. And so then I knit up Zip It! number two.

Zip It - multicolor

I’ve been working today on firming up the pattern for the thing I spent most of yesterday on (including an awesome photo shoot with some very accommodating friends), but that isn’t quite ready to share. So instead I wrote up the Zip It! pattern, and uploaded it to Ravelry, and have made it available for free. You can download it via Ravelry here.

And with that, I believe I am finally done with the dishcloths. Grand total for this little personal challenge: 32 dishcloths.

Dishcloth-A-Day-32

Boy oh boy, if I ever need to do some serious cleaning, I think I’m now ready.




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