She’s Young and With It

I have actually been spending some time creating lately.

Clint was having a hard time finding pajama pants that he liked (read: very plain pj pants), so I decided to make him a pair. I pulled out my sewing machine for the first time in several years. I had to reacquaint myself with ms. singer, but before long I was sewing some pj pants. I quickly encountered a problem in that I sewed the inseam inside out on one side. I was really careful so I am not sure how that happened. Then I could not find my seam ripper… I bought a new seam ripper last weekend and I plan to finish those pj pants soon!

Little Neko gets cold very easily so I decided to knit her a sweater. This is something I have been planning to do for some time but never quite got around to making her one. Now is the time! She has a store bought sweater, but she hates it. When you put it on her, she gets very mopey and sticks her tail between her legs. I think it is because the sweater is a bit snug and requires us messing with her feet to get them in the sweater. Neko does not like you to touch her feet. Ever. Thus, a requirement was that the sweater I knit her must have harness straps rather than legs. I found a pattern and got to work.

Unfortunately, I am not convinced she will enjoy wearing a sweater, even one with straps. I also think there is a chance that one of the big dogs might try to rip it off of her. So I am knitting Neko’s sweater in cheap acrylic yarn. I already regret that because acrylic is so, well, acrylic. If Neko wears her sweater and the other dogs do not make fun of her, maybe I will make her another one with nice yarn.

Happy Tofurky Week!

We are going to celebrate with some fried food and/or creamy something that is surely bad for our health.

As is tradition, we will visit studios on the East Austin Studio Tour this weekend. Maybe we can find some art for our East Austin ‘hood.

Our Wembley passed away last night. We are heartbroken.

Wembley came to us in November 2001, about three months after we moved to Austin. Our next door neighbor moved out and seemingly left one of his cats. We do not know whether the cat he left was his cat to begin with or whether he had just been feeding the cat, but the cat ended up living under our bushes for a week. We discovered that he was declawed and we began feeding him. One day I saw a neighbor’s dog chase him into a ditch. That was the day we decided to adopt Wembley.

Wembley missed being an outdoor cat, but it was for his own safety that he lived inside. He was declawed after all. We took him outside on a leash from time to time. Mostly Wembles liked kneading blankets, particularly the black and white blanket that my aunt made. He loved all kinds of treats. Recently we discovered Wellness Pure Delights Turkey Jerky treats and he even ate a few on his last day. He had the fiercest meow of all the cats. It was loud and guttural. Sometimes he would meow loudly when you walked into the room. We thought maybe that meant he was happy to see us in his own way. He was a cranky old man, but we loved him.

He had an emergency and went into respiratory distress just a few months after we adopted him. We found a new vet at that time and we credited him with saving Wembley’s life. It seems fitting that we recently began seeing that vet again just before the end of Wembley’s life. Wembles was diagnosed with asthma a few years ago, and unfortunately, quite a few diseases over the past few months. In addition to asthma, he had an enlarged heart, hyperthyroidism, the beginnings of kidney disease, cataracts and some cysts on his liver.

We thought maybe his time had come a couple of months ago and prepared ourselves for the worst news, but he just had a kidney infection. We were so happy that he was going to be OK. After a dose of antibiotics, he began perking up. Unfortunately, he soon seemed lethargic so he was given a second dose of antibiotics. That was about a month ago. Over the past week, we thought maybe he was not feeling well again and I was planning to make an appointment with the vet today. We kept checking on him yesterday and he seemed OK but lethargic. Clint checked on him around eight last night and he was gone. We are not sure what happened, but we think maybe it was his heart.

I have been blaming myself for not realizing that he felt so bad sooner. He really hated going to the vet and many things such as x-rays and ultrasounds required him to be sedated. We tried to minimize his vet visits as much as possible. We are reluctantly happy that he passed away at home and not under the stress of the vet’s office. We hope he was not in a lot of pain at the end.

He will remain in our hearts always.