The one that got away... so far...

If there's ever going to be a cat that curiosity kills.... it's going to be this one

Rocky is the nosiest cat I have ever seen. When I do laundry, he has to sit on the washing machine and watch it fill... every single time. The washer never does anything new, but as soon as he hears me padding down the stairs to the basement, he's right under my feet, ready to pounce on the washer as soon as I open the lid.

The toilet is just as fascinating. When Dave's here out of politeness I close the door when I do my business... but that doesn't fly with Rocky. He beats on the door until I open it and the minute I stand up to flush, he's standing too, paws on the side of the seat watching the water swirl away.

It's a rare occasion when I have a bath by myself. Usually he sits on the side of the tub and dips his tail in. He's fallen in several time, but it still doesn't deter him. His favourite part is when the plug comes out and all the water drains away. When it's down to the last little bit he even jumps into the tub to chase it down.

Once, I unknowingly left a pot of vegetable oil uncovered on the stove (I had made french fries) and he came bouncing up to bed, covered from head to toe in oil. I'm not sure if he went for a swim or just had a messy meal. If oil and water don't mix, cats and oil and water (the resulting bath) most certainly don't.

I recently got a vacuum cleaner (and on a totally unrelated tangent... I am never ever sweeping my floors again... not that I did it very often, but I want to kiss whoever invented vacuums for bare floors) and Tux (who's a total pansy) and Peno (who's ... well Peno) disappears as soon as it's turned on. Rocky? Rocky stalks it. He boots out of the way as soon as it turns toward him, but he tries to sneak up on it... pacing a few feet behind me... I've tripped over him more than once.

However his biggest fascination is the Bowflex. I bought Dave a Bowflex a few weeks ago for his birthday (okay really I bought it for me, but he gets a skinny girlfriend as his present eventually) and Rocky thinks it's just the coolest thing. Most of the time, he's chilling out on the base, sprawled out like a Sphinx. When I'm using it, however, he gets far more excited. I'm not sure if it's watching the bows (which he's gotten in the head once or twice) or the cords, or if it's just the novelty of me actually exercising, but as soon as he sees me in my sweats headed for the machine he's there. For a while I was able to keep him safe on the bed a few feet away, with a firm "No" every time he stood up to come over and get in the way. Last week, however, "no" wasn't going to do it. I was doing leg extensions and he let out the most pitiful cry and came barrelling across the room, jumped in my lap and then proceeded to climb my chest. Fortunately the seat is on a slight recline, so it wasn't so much of a climb that it required claws. He laid across my chest with his paws up over my left shoulder and purred, contentedly watching the bows while I finished exercising.

The cat is seriously messed up

In other news, I haven't been getting much knitting done. Dave got me Civilizations and I've been a little busy, what with my quest for world domination and all.

So until I have some knitting content to post... here is a picture of some of the wool mom and I recently dyed. The colours are: (L-R) Summer Vineyard, Bluebells and Cockleshells, Sunflower Garden and Louis' Last Sunrise.

Fat Lip

Tux has a fat lip...

He's also losing tufts of fur from the back of his legs and his bum area. He's really fluffy in that area, so he's not getting any bald spots....

I did a little research on the internet and it looks like it's probably from an allergic reaction. It's not his food, so maybe he ate a bad bug... or got bit by one.

This happened to my mom's cat Mr. Tibbs a couple of years ago and the swelling dissapeared after a couple of days. (He didn't lose any fur though)

Has this happened to anyone else?

From the land down under

I finally got a chance to use some of the Austrailian opals I bought earlier this year... click on my Etsy Shop in the side bar to check them out!

Foot fetish

There's just something about baby feet... like cat paws they are among the cutest apendages in the world... and if baby feet are cute.... baby shoes are even better...

These are a Christmas present for my new neice...
every girl needs a proper shoe collection, no matter how old she is.

These were made out of left over bits of mom's sock yarn... it's a great way to use it up and makes awesome booties... the pink ones are made from the Saarjtes pattern, and the rest are variations on that theme.

I've pretty busy with work which is why I've only had time for booties... but Mom and I did get a chance to play with dye again... it's a great way to spend a rainy afternoon... you can check our progress out here .... and in my defense - a little spray nine gets most of the dye off skin just fine and the rest washes off in a few days.

Getting some quality computer time has been difficult lately

Someone has decided that this is his new favourite place to sleep

It doesn't leave me much room to manouever the mouse!

One-third of the way there!

My Bestest Friend In The Whole Wide World - Samantha -

...had a wicked awesome birthday party yesterday!

It was a lot of fun, even her newest, cutest baby wanted to party...

... of course three seconds later, he dropped the bottle, it smashed on the groud and ended up with glass between his toes. (He was unharmed however... but for future reference, don't leave me alone with your babies, I'm totally irresponsible)

LYLAS Sammy!

What every cat should learn how to do.....

Feed themselves....

This is something Tux learned how to do about six months ago. I buy cat food in giant bags, so to make it easy to feed every day, I keep a tupperware cereal container full of food, and serve tehm from it each day. I have a bad habit of leaving it on the table, which is entirely accessible to cats. Rocky and Peno ignore it... Tux however knows it contains the good stuff. he'll rub on it until it falls over or falls off the table completely. As it's not real tupperware and only a cheap knock-off from the dollar store, the lid comes flying off and kibble goes everywhere.

I know if I don't get woken up two hours before my alarm, I left the food out again and Tux has fed everybody.

Now I've been really diligent about putting it away, because stepping on kibble first thing in the morning isn't pleasant... it's crunchy, pointy, and kind of greasy, all at the same time.

The incident pictured above happened yesterday. I has just brought home a new bag of food from the vet's, fed them and filled up the kibble container. I MADE ABSOLUTE SURE I put the kibble container in the cupboard... however, what I failed to do was far more important.... I didn't put the giant bag in the cupboard.....

Cat bum, heat wave, and fun with colour

First... there is a downside to moving the TV stand in front of the window... now when I watch TV.. I also get to watch....

CAT BUM!

It's been pretty hot here the past couple of days, and while I do have an air conditioner, it still gets pretty muggy on the first floor (air conditioner is upstairs)

When not flashing bum, the scene pretty much looks like this:

I've had a little more fun with my dye kit

Clockwise from top left: Silk/Wool laceweight, 100 per cent alpaca fingering weight , Superwash sock yarn, superwash sock yarn and 100 per cent alpaca dk weight,. I couldn't wait to knit some of it up, so yep, I cast on yet another project.... I knit this hat up last night, and I am working on a pair of matching mitts right now... I know mittens in July.. but I wanted to knit something small and quick (and I only had one ball)

Keep your eye on this blog... I'll be launching a contest soon!

Fat Cat and Stinky

How do you make a pair of bad cats happy?

Easy....

Rerarrange the living room so the TV stand is in front of the large window. I did this a couple of weeks ago and now my cats pretty much ignore me.

I also decided to plant them some grass so they'd stop eating my plants. At first it went over really well. They munched and munched and munched, leaving my peace lily alone. Then Rocky decided to have a dine-in lunch....

Then I guess it was soooo comfortable he decided it was a good place for a nap A really good place.... Then Tux decided it was a good idea too.....

Now Rocky fits in the planter really well... he's a little long, but he's the right width. Tux however... ...has a little too much girth and it spills over the sides.

Now the grass is completely flattened and half dead adn they've gone back to eating my peace lily....

....sigh....