Good-bye, my little buddy

Though your size and strength were small, your abundance of spirit was larger than life. A kind knitter said you were a pint lion... and oh yes, you were.

Archie
His new life with me: July 2006
His afterlife: March 26, 2007

Not much ado here

This seems like a slow month. Weather-wise, I'm glad to be leaving Winter behind, yet Spring seems to taking her sweet time arriving. My irises are greening, yarrow is spring up, and the tree buds are fattening in anticipation of leafing.

Knitting-wise, I've had a slow but steady month. I finished my March Socks and started on a bonus pair. More details will be forthcoming as the socks should be done by the end of the week.

Starting April 1 (joke's on me), I will starting socks for DH. Yes, knee-high, size 12 socks! I must have in out of mind when I agreed to his request...or in love. I'm going with Love. His socks will be in Cascade Fixation which appears to be a fine sock yarn once one get the hang of knitting with stretchy cotton yarn. His socks will be black with dark brown toes. Now I've never worked with Fixation so a swatch was a definite must. Now don't you think my obvious choice would have been the brown for testing? Yep, all in agreement. Did I? Heck no!! I grabbed the black first which makes for quite impossible stitch counting. Stupid, stupid. Reached for the brown and started out with size 3s. Didn't like that so I made third swatch (remember, black was first) in size 2s. Not only did I decide that the 2s made a better fabric at 6.5 stitches per inch, but I also got lots of practice knitting with the yarn. It does take some time to determine how much tension should be used. Too much and I was fighting tight stitches, too little and the fabric flopped plus it's hard to knit without exerting a little tension to make loops.

My guys

I am a cat lover. I can remember being obsessed with these soft, whiskered, four-legged pieces of mystery and intrigue even when I was still in kindergarten. Because of my living conditions, I was not able to have a cat much in my junior and high school years; however, as soon as I was living on my own that all changed. I love them, even the ones that spit and hiss and are generally just plain anti-social.

Today, my household includes two males, Bailey and Archie. First up is Bailey. He showed up at our house in late July 2005. When I picked up Bailey and brought him into the house, DH said he knew I was goner the minute I shut the door. Our super vet said he thought he was around 3 months of age so Bailey now has a birthday of April 1, of course, the joke's on us! Bailey is such a handsome cat. He's a big cat as 12 pounds but he's also very long and tall. Bailey is our "fun" cat. As a kitten, I couldn't keep him out of the cabinets, closets, clothes dryer, refrigerator, or even the dishwasher. He was into everything and was everywhere. At almost 2, he has calmed down a bit. One of his pet name is Stupid (from DH) because he makes us laugh. Quite the character!

The story of Bailey is quite endearing because he turn a self-proclaimed cat hater into a Bailey-lover. My DH has never been fond of cats, in fact, he downright could not stand them. Like all cat lovers, I knew the right cat could turn his heart. Bailey came into our lives just 2 months before I lost my beloved Lucy to kidney failure. I got her as a sweet kitten when she was 6 weeks and she was my bestest buddy for the next 14 years. When Lucy died, DH remarked that, perhaps, Bailey was fated to be here. I knew Bailey was supposed to be with us but not because Lucy was leaving me. Bailey was here for my husband. Bailey absolutely adores DH, and I can tell you, the feeling is mutual. DH gets what we call the "Bailey treatment" which involves loads of rubbing, purring, kneading and general all-around, "I can't stop loving you".

And there's little Archie who came into our lives almost one year after Bailey. Where as the story of Bailey and DH is happy, the story of DH and Archie is, well, a bit ironic. DH found Archie at the side of the road during a torrential storm. DH scooped him up, wrapped Archie up in his t-shirt and brought him home to me. We are pretty certain that Archie was born in a cornfield so he had very little to no contact with humans. Since he was quite young also, 3-4 months, he adapted to the home, us and Bailey. Whereas Bailey is quite the extrovert, Archie is an introvert. He trusts me. Poor DH, who prevented Archie from becoming a coyote snack, is not very trusted. I tell DH that it's because he's tall and sometimes loud. All of which can be very intimidating to a fearful little kitten.

Archie is and will forever be my cat. He purrs for me, waits in the bathroom for me to get done showering so he can get his daily morning rubbing, and he chirps for me. I know all you cat lovers know I'm talking about...those little trills that make my heart warm and put a smile on my face. In fact, Archie is quite the chirper. He chirps when he's trying to find Bailey, when he's playing, when I wake him up from a nap, when he curled up in bed and I reach to give him a little pet.

Archie is a small cat...barely over 6 pounds. He's almost a year and he doesn't seem be getting much bigger. The contrast between the guys is so huge. Bailey is like cuddling into a big, plump feather pillow, and Archie is my perpetual kitten, all soft, small, and so completely lovable.