Monday, June 09, 2008

My Baby Kitty

OK, so I recognize that I haven't done this in a while, but Ravelry makes knitting content kind of passe' at this point and I needed to come and tell you about my weekend.







A couple of weeks ago, I lost my Baby Kitty. He wasn't really a baby anymore, he was 4, but he was my Baby.


Magnus / Little Rotten / or The Breakfast Terrorist (as he later came to be known) came to us from a breeder near Green Bay, Wisconsin, back on Easter weekend of 2004. DH's parents were in town, staying with us, to help us get through our First Communion and Confirmation before our wedding that fall. We had a big weekend ahead of us and two new kitten arrivals coming in to keep our older kitty company.





It was Friday when I drove from Chicago to Green Bay all by myself to pick up our newest bundle of furry love (the other one would be dropped off the following morning). We had officially named him Magnus, but really he was just Baby Kitty. The whole ride home in his little carrier he yelled at me. "Yeoooooow! Yeow!! Pay attention to me!!" Only when I stuck my fingers through the grate and he could rub his little tiny 3-month-old face on my fingers was he quiet.


It's about a 4 hour ride from Green Bay to Chicago, so we stopped for a little break about half way home. I pulled this big-mouthed, little ball of fur out of the crate and he immediately climbed my shoulder, snuggled under my hair and promptly started purring up a storm. He was so tiny that his butt was on my shoulder and his nose barely reached the back of my neck. While DH may have picked him out, I was completely smitten. Who wouldn't be?


My MIL laughed when she first saw him because she said he looked like some one stuck him in the dryer without a dryer sheet and set it on ""Fluff"!


Little Baby Kitty turned out to be the biggest lover we've ever known. He was my Bud, my Best Friend and my companion. He was just as important to DH. He would climb up on DH while he napped on the sofa and snuggle in for a nap right along with him.



Every night when I came home from work, he would run to the door and greet me. He followed me about the house and often served as a model accessory in my knitting photography simply because he went wherever I went. He rarely, if ever misbehaved, though he did have a propensity for biting off my working yarn about 4" from the WIP....




He had the tiniest of meows when he wanted to talk to you. Yes; he talked to us. He mewed and grunted his disapproval when we woke him from a nap to administer the requisite 400 smooches per day. He "Yeooowww-ed" each morning and evening when he decided it was time to eat and he even yelled at you if he wanted your attention when he felt you weren't giving him his due respect. All of that being said, he was a very quiet kitty. He didn't yowl at the windows or squall in the downstairs in the middle of the night. He used his voice judiciously and only when he wanted to tell you something important like: Dammnit! Feed me!




The first time I took him to the vet when he was a kitten, we were walking into the office as our vet was coming out. Our vet looked down into the crate and said "Well, Hello!" and a full lunged, very frank, "Yeoooowww!" was his response. Little Man was never afraid. When we went to the Vet he wanted to be on his own to walk around the room but would always come back to check in and snuggle in my arms for a moment between sweeps, just to be sure everything was as it should be.

Magnus was a sock foot lover extraordinaire. If there was an unshod foot with a sock in it anywhere in the house, he would find it and make out with it. No matter if he'd never met you before; he loved feet in socks.


Lately, he'd taken to waking me up in the morning. The moment the sun started to come through the window he'd leap up onto our bed, march up my leg, across my butt, straight up my spine and start kneading bread dough on my back as I lay motionless trying to pretend The Breakfast Terrorist hadn't decided it was time for me to get up. If I pushed him off, he would march around my head on my pillow and sit in front of my face and STARE down into my eyes (which were squeezed tight) willing me to get up and feed him. It was at those moments that I loved him the most: his soft warm little body, patiently waiting in the early morning sunshine, willing me to get up and purring softly into my ear. If it was a really good morning, I would get a pink nose on the forehead and a soft little "Wow?" in my ear. Never obnoxious, just insistent.


Last November, DH came home one night to find our Baby Kitty dragging his beautiful little back legs up the stairs to say hello. He was immobile from the waist down. To avoid all the horrid details, we learned he had a clot that had broken free and was blocking the artery that fed his back legs. I refused to let my Sweetheart go. The Emergency Cardiologist vet gave him a bunch of medicine and took an EEG. We learned that even if he got a little better, our Baby Kitty had hardening of the heart walls and probably wouldn't live more than another 11 months. We would have to give him medicine every morning and every night. But he was my Lover Kitty. I wasn't prepared to just let him go.


Over the next 7 months, we cherished each and every day with him. He got tons better and each time we took him to the vet for a checkup, he would smile hugely and say "He looks like nothing ever happened. He's an amazing cat." I never failed to agree. He got his medicine every morning and every morning before I left for work I said "I love you Baby Kitty. You be a good boy today. You'd better be here when I get home..."



Then Saturday morning June 7th, I woke up at 5:50 am as I went to the restroom, I noticed that my Lover Boy was curled up in the hallway against the wall. I'd been worried about him since Thursday night when I came home and he didn't come to greet me. I picked him up and immediately heard his breathing had become shallow and quick. My heart broke at that very moment. I knew the hour glass had run out of sand.



DH and I gave him the emergency medicine they told us to give him when we noticed these exact developments and bundled him in the car and off to the Emergency Vet. Since it was 6:30 on a Saturday morning, they wanted to keep him until Monday and put him on oxygen and a bunch of other meds until the Cardiology Specialist would be back in. In my heart, I knew that we had reached the end and that there was no way on God's Green Earth that I was going to leave my Little Prince alone in the hospital by himself all weekend, just to put a bandaid on the inevitable.


DH and I talked and cried and agreed that it was time. We'd been blessed with an unexpected 7 extra months with Our Lover and we couldn't see making him suffer just so we didn't have to let go only to have to go through this again in a day, a week, a month....


I held my Darling Baby Kitty in my arms and DH rubbed his little white Bugs Bunny feet as the last breath of life left his precious body.




Sweet Baby Kitty, you will always have a special place in my heart. May Kitty Heaven have all the Chicken and Rice with Gravy you can eat and may chin scritches and sock feet abound.




All my love,



Mamma




Magnus

Jan 18th, 2004 - June 7th, 2008

Thursday, May 08, 2008

I got Tagged!

I got tagged by Alyssa. A dear friend of mine who up and abandoned our knitting group by moving to Oregon of all far away places and then went and had a baby that we can't cuddle and coo about in person! That's OK, I guess, we still love her anyway.

So here's the skinny:
The rules are:
*Link to the person that tagged you.
*Post the rules on your blog.
*Share six weird things/habits/quirks about yourself.
*Tag six others. And let them know they’ve been tagged!

So, here are six weird things about me:
1. I love 80's Euro-pop. My brother and I are going to a Yaz concert in July!! I'm so excited!
2. I'm super picky about the food I eat. If it's not fresh, I'm a total snob.
3. Despite Ravelry's newest innovations, I've had my yarn stash cataloged in an excel spreadsheet for a long time now.
4. I make homeade veggie smoothies and I put beets and cabbage in them and I LOVE them. Shamelessly.
5. I love Dancing with the Stars with absolute abandon!
6. I have a BA in French, a MS in Social Work and I am an IT professional.

I tag:
Tam
Drin
and ummm... I'm thinking.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night....

There has been much Christmas knitting in the last few weeks and I've got most of it done, too. Some things fell by the wayside for delivery later in the winter season and some things fell off the radar all together, but those items which were essential (e.g. the long awaited Dad Socks) were completed.

More pictures later this week as I'm off on vacation the whole time! Woot!

Merry Christmas to all and may all your New Years' dreams come true!
jen

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Why I have the best Husband in the World....

He went to the Container Store without me. For which he is not the Best-Husband-in-the-World. We love to go each year and see what fun new wrapping paper they're pushing. But because he made this annual pilgrimage without me, lookit what he brought back for me!!

TWO ROLLS OF SHEEPY GOODNESS!

Good man.

BTW, there has been knitting. Lots and LOTS of knitting, but most of it is for gifts and I can't post pictures here yet. I'll try to get some shots on Christmas of the giftees wearing said gifts....

Holly Hippodays!
jen

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Paying it Forward on Thanksgiving

OK, so a funny thing happened to me out in the blogosphere today: I was surfing around my favorite blogs in Bloglines I happened upon Liz's blog Athena Dreams. Now, I've always liked "Athena's" knitting. She's a very talented lady, dontcha know.

Well, she had a post about Paying it Forward. I thought to myself, "Self, that's a wonderful idea, but she's already got her 4 people." or so it seemed to me. I posted a comment on her blog that said something about ... "well, I'm not 1st, 2nd ,3rd or even 4th, but I love this idea and I've always loved your blog. (blather, blather, gush, gush) "

Guess what, I got a reply from her! She said I was 4th and that now it's my turn! So I sent her my address and her I am, paying it forward.

Here's the basic principle. I want to pay it forward for all the blessings I've gotten. I could wax poetic about all the women who've come before me who have enabled me to have my own career, the right to vote, and the luxury to choose sides on any number of political topics. But I'd rather talk about the more practical things I'm thankful for.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband who has supported me in so many ways since we met more than 7 years ago now. He is a true blessing. (Even if I do occasionally want to reach for the frying pan to clunk him over the head. Trust me the feeling is mutual. Love and clunking. It's a good thing.)

I am thankful for my family. Though they drive me crazy sometimes, I know I could have gotten much worse in the cosmic draw.

I am thankful for the second chance that we've had this week with our wonderful little kitty Magnus. He's very sick and I'm not sure he's going to last very long. But I prayed, yes, I prayed and some of my Dear Friends prayed (or sent good thoughts to the cosmos) and we get a second chance. I am thankful for this and for all our dear furry friends.

And speaking of friends, I am thankful for all my wonderful human type friends, both the Fiber Fanatics and the "Regular Folk". (Don't worry, that Fiber thing generally isn't contaigous...) Thank you all for being a part of my life.

The roof over my head, the wonderful career I have, the plentiful bounty available to us here in the US of A (yes, that, too is quite a blessing) and let us not forget the blessing of indoor plumbing and central heat and A/C while we're at it!

So, here's my plan (which I conveniently borrowed from Liz). For the first three people who respond to this post who are not my Mom (sorry Mom! But she gets knit stuff from me anyway); I will send you a hand-knitted item. I'm not sure what or exactly when but I can guarantee this: sometime in the next 365 days you will recieve a package via snail mail with a hand knitted item from me as a thank you for all the blessings I have recieved in my life.

Happy Turkey Day!

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Have I mentioned that I have a problem?

The new RAVEN series from Socks that Rock was just released today.....
Yeah, I'm out of control. But then, I got to use my 10% Sock Club coupon so that's alright then isn't it??? Isn't it?

If I hadn't gotten Lenore in the mail last week I probably wouldn't have fallen so hard for this colorway series, bu then that could be a lie, too.

So, here's what I'm thinking: Grawk is my hands down favorite colorway I got it in Laci for my long awaited Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlesticksknitting.com.

I also got Haida for my Butterfly Wings Shawl from Goddessknits.com.

The rest? Pure greed. :)

Hello, my name is Jen and I have a problem.

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Dear Lenore,

I love you. You are beautiful beyond compare. You have a depth and a richness that I have not heretofore experienced with BMFA fibers. Your darks are so dark and your reds are like a subtle life line running throughout.

So beautiful!

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