My Little Kitties

A feral tortoise shell calico cat took up residence in one of our sheds several months ago and we began to feed her. We soon discovered that she had four kittens who were a few months old. The kittens would come out to eat, but only when we were at a safe distance. In fact, I didn't realize that there were four kittens for several weeks as the shyest kitten only came out when she thought we were gone. We trapped all of these kittens -- we adopted two and a friend adopted two. But it is still a slow process of socializing them into domestic life.

Then we set our sights on the mama who was much more leery of the trap. It took some real stealth to entice her into the trap. We had to cover the trap with towels and layer the floor of it with newspaper so that she couldn't see the wire. We put another layer of newspaper in front of the trap and dropped oily tuna fish in a trail into the trap. Voila! That did the trick and we brought her to our vet to be spayed and get her shots. She will continue to live in our shed as long as she wants and we will continue to feed her.

The big surprise came when the vet asked if the first kittens were still nursing. When we responded that the kittens had been away for at least a month, the vet stated that we should go looking for more kittens because the mama was still lactating! A search of the shed revealed five little kittens! So, we have become the surrogate parents for these little kittens. We have been bottlefeeding them with replacer formula, cleaning them up, and teaching them to eat kitty gruel from a bowl. It is pretty exhausting!

They are five weeks old now and little bundles of energy! Three of the kittens must have had a Siamese daddy because they have the classic coloring of a Siamese. Their mother is a dark tortoise shell calico and they don't look a bit like her. The fourth is an orange tabby kitten with a white belly and the pinkest nose I have ever seen! The fifth, and the smallest of the litter, is a black "tuxedo" cat -- black with a white belly, bib, and feet. She also has white whiskers, a white star between her eyes, and a stripe of white hair inside each ear. We have named her Badger and she will be a permanent part of our kitty family. The three Siamese have adoptive families waiting for them. Only the little orange ginger cat is unspoken for. If we can't find a good adoptive family, he will stay with us, too.

Chemo hat

My friend Cris asked me to knit a soft hat for her sister who is just starting chemotherapy for breast cancer. Of course I said yes! Just happy to be able to do something positive for her. When I found out that her favorite color was blue, I started stash diving for the softest blue yarn I could find. Turned out to be Sublime baby cashmere silk merino dk in a soft baby blue color. Decided on the Shedir hat as it has cool cables that keep the project interesting and challenging. I have finished the main part of the hat and am beginning the decreases. My goal is to finish the hat by next weekend so that Cris can mail it off to her sister before she loses all of her hair. I am trying to knit good wishes and healing energy into each stitch. I promise to post a pix soon.

Autumnal Equinox

Seems like nature kicks it into high gear around the autumnal equinox and puts on quite a show with the wildflowers. The roadsides near my house in north Florida are positively smothered in flowers right now -- goldenrod, ageratum, asters, Spanish needles, morning glories, cypressvine morning glories, swamp sunflowers, and lots of other flowers that I don't know the names of. This fall display is every bit as impressive as the big spring bloom, but comes in a different palette. The fall palette is bright yellows, purples, and reds. And lots of butterflies add extra color as they flit from flower to flower. I have to remind myself to keep my eyes on the road as I drive the back roads on my way to work -- I am so drawn to the flowers and the insect activity. Ah, if I could only repeat a little of this design in my own gardens. Nature does it so effortlessly and it is always beautiful!

Discovery Launch

I am remiss in not posting about being a "Launch Guest" at the Kennedy Space Center for the August 28 launch of the Spaceshuttle Discovery. This is the first spaceshuttle launch that I have ever viewed in person. When I was a kid growing up in central Florida, I saw launches of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects from about 50 miles away. Of course, space exploration was something new and fascinating back then and we trotted outside to watch every launch from our front yard or the school yard. But I have not lived in central Florida for many years, so missed all of the space shuttle launches. Fate intervened last month when the launch had to be delayed and we just happened to be visiting family in Cocoa. My brother-in-law is friends with someone who works for the rocket manufacturer Pratt and Whitney. He was able to get us VIP passes to the space center where we observed the night launch from the grandstands three miles away! It was sensory overload -- the rockets turned the night into day, there was a loud roar, and I could feel the rumble in my chest! I just kept thinking about the astronauts sitting on top of that fireball and how brave (or foolhardy!) they are! I could see the fireball for a long time and even could see when the rocket boosters fell away. What a fabulous sight -- I have to say I got a little choked up by it!

Summer Reruns and Surveys

Just as the summer television is populated by reruns, my summer knitting is revisiting all of the UFOs in my work basket. I am determined to finish as many of these little buggers as I can before taking the plunge on new projects. So far, I have finished the kestrel socks and am working my way through the Elizabethan ruffle scarf. These are fairly recent projects, so this has not been so very painful. However, I dread the bottom of the basket that is filled with really old UFOs -- like some of the very first projects that I started a few years ago when I picked up my knitting needles again after a many year hiatus. Is my gauge still the same? I don't think so -- I started out as a very tight knitter and now I always have to go down two sizes or more on the recommended needle size to get gauge.
I have also started an ambitious (read: crazy) project to inventory all of my yarn stash. The theory behind this is that I can scan my inventory for yarn for new projects and stop buying so much! So far, have inventoried about half of the stash and am organizing it by weight of the yarn. Ravelry's yarn function has been really helpful with this. Only found one yarn not listed on Ravelry so far.