October 22, 2003
Where is Noah When You Need Him?
As some of you may have experienced (my Dear Readers from Seattle), some of you may know (my Dear Readers from Oregon), and some of you may not know (my Dear Readers from the other 48 states, Australia (hi, Dot!) and anywhere else), this Monday Seattle experienced its heaviest rain on record, 5 inches in 24 hours. (In Seattle and the 'burbs, it's considered a bad storm when you have to drive around the salmon on the highway. No, not an urban myth. Highways, salmon—all true.) This freakish downpour led to Issues With the Pseudo-Adopted Cat.
Lemme 'splain about the PAC: On the one hand, he is old, he is skinny, he is sick. (I know this because he keeps sneezing little kitty-sized drops of goo all over my knitting. Lovely.) On the other hand, he does not belong to me and even wears a collar testifying to this fact. On the third hand, as I've written in other entries, I am a critterophile so my heart really goes out to the big old tom. On the fourth hand, he seems strongly drawn to me and my house, even though I've done nothing to encourage this. (Wait. How did that box of cat food specially formulated for older cats appear on my kitchen counter?) On the fifth hand, what are his real owners thinking leaving a cat outside in that kind of all-time crappy weather? (Shutting up. Getting off soap box. Putting soap box back in soap box closet.)
Monday, after it had been raining in sheets for hours and cars had started floating away all over the city and it was salmon rush-hour on the highways, I came home to find a sodden PAC huddled on a sodden Welcome mat on my sodden front-door stoop. No prob. Scooped him up; took him in; dried him off; gave him a snack from the non-existent box of cat food; and plopped him on "his" yellow lap blanket, where he slept for the next six hours, bestirring himself only to sneeze on my knitting. But then it was time for all good bloggers to go to sleep, so what to do about Monsieur Poosie? I couldn't bear the thought of putting him out but I couldn't keep him inside either because, well, see "Belong, Me Not" above.
The PAC was in full agreement with the "not going out" idea. When I opened the door for him, he trotted straight toward the opening, noticed the rain, blanched (which is hard for a black cat to do), and put on his brakes. To encourage his decampment, I booted him gently on his skinny old heinie but his front paws were braced so hard I only succeeded in hoisting his butt up in the air. So, if you had been a fly on the wall, you would have seen me outside, at midnight, in my bathrobe and slippers, in the worst rain in Seattle history, cobbling together a little cat shelter for him, lining it with old towels, laying plastic sheeting over the stoop, and putting the shelter on the sheeting. This time, a slightly firmer boot in the heinie and the PAC shot straight from the warm, dry house into his warm, dry kitty shelter, curled up and went to sleep. Sweet dreams, old tom!
Now, what to do about this dripping bathrobe? And is that a sniffle I feel coming on?
Knitting Knews
Thanks to lots of hand-holding (pun intended) by My Dear Readers, I have almost finished one child's mitten. (It was supposed to be adult-sized but "best-laid schemes o' mice an men" and all that.)
After looking at the many different patterns sent to me, I'm now starting to see why I was confused. There are a trillion different ways to knit mittens! Some patterns have a rib cuff followed by a plain stockinette area followed by the thumb gusset; some patterns go straight from cuff to gusset. Some patterns have a long gusset; some have a short one. Some have you knit the entire thumb hole in waste yarn; some have you cast off half of it in waste yarn and then cast on new stitches to make the other side of the thumb hole. If you cast on stitches for the other side, some have you make as many stitches as you cast off, some have you make just two or three stitches and snug the hole up. Hallelujah! I do not feel quite so much as if someone hit me with a stupid stick!
Dear Reader Vaire sent me some extremely helpful photos of mittens in progress. In return, it is my honor to post this picture of beautiful gloves she knit.
Dye Garden Dyegest
After fussing over it like a mother hen for two days, I think I managed to make a variegated yarn which is more than just pathetic and minute smudges of light color on a 99.999% dark background! Picture of dahlia-dyed, variegated yarn swatch on Friday!
Awww, you're a good citizen, Ryan, saving a cat from a certainly unpleasant encounter with a wayward Salmon. Has Monsieur Poosie left the cat shelter yet, or is he an Increasingly Adopted Cat?
Posted by: Melinda on October 22, 2003 05:41 PMHave you thought of posting some flyers about the cat? I say give them one week and then officially adopt him. You and kitty are already in love.
Posted by: Debra on October 23, 2003 08:08 AMMelinda, the shelter ended up being very temporary. By the next morning the shelter--which had been an old Contac-paper-covered box--and the towels were completely soaked and kitty had gone to find somewhere drier. Last night, though, although the rain had let up considerably, kitty had returned to my stoop so I made a sturdier, more water-proof shelter out of an old plastic cat carrying case. I just lined it with an old sweater and stuck it out out there; if he uses it, fine, if not, fine.
Debra, you conniver, you! Actually I know exactly who the cat belongs to even though I've never met them. He belongs to people who recently bought the house two doors down. True, cat and I have a purr-fect relationship but I also have another Pseudo-Adopted Pet, my partner's dog, and kitty and doggy do NOT get along. Anyhoo, I'm just content with having him visit on occasion, and if I can help him stay dry, all the better. All bets are off, however, when the really cold weather sets in and I TRULY can't stand to put him outside!
Posted by: Ryan on October 23, 2003 08:42 AM