Cured!

(click to enlarge)

The bathroom is really, truly done. The guy in the first picture laid the heating mat and the tiles and came back the next day to grout. After the grout had cured for 3 days, Michael sealed the floor and we reinstalled the toilet. Heh heh… we have a working bathroom with TILE instead of yucky white carpet! Woo hoo!

Carisa came to visit before the bathroom was done, so she was able to get a shot of Michael and me working together. See? He really did help.

I have yet to restore the trim. I managed to get the trim that was around the base of the wall off in one piece. We called an audible while the tiling was in progress and replaced that trim with tile. The tile  seemed like a better choice because the kittens will be a bit hard on the wood trim. Wanna hear something ironic? I had to pull the trim off the door in a hurry (to explain why might bring up a disagreement that came up during the backer board install, so I’ll decline to say), and part of that broke. I am hoping to save it, but I may not be able to do so and I’ll have to completely replace that trim. <sigh>

I have, at least, gotten a shelter to call me back about fostering. I have to go to an orientation class, but after that I should have some little ones. The magic date is right after the Memorial Day weekend. I think I might die in the meantime.

There is one other bit of good news I have to share. For some reason, Carisa and I stood next to one another, and the boys noticed something awesome (for me) – I’m taller than she is! It’s the first time in my life that I have been able to say that about someone my age. Check it out!

It’s a fraction of an inch, but it’s there. Whee!

Moving too fast

The world is moving to fast for me. I kept thinking that I had plenty of time to do things, but when I started scheduling all the last get-togethers with my friends and trying to make plans to see and do all the things I need to before I leave San Francisco, I realized that I am not going to be home for much of the remaining time we have here. We have practically 2 solid weeks of travel coming up, mostly business trips for Michael. One of them happens to be in Florida, so we will go see Lane and Jen when we get there. Another trip is to Denver, the same week we are closing on the house (just like we planned). It just feels overwhelming right now. I just thought there was more time. I think I lost  a lot of it due to sickness. Gotta love air travel.

I mentioned in my last post 2 things I needed to do that were the most pressing. I have done neither. To be fair, the Wesley thing resolved itself. I believe that he might have been lonely since the kittens and his parents went away. Every time he got the chance, Wesley hung out in Michael’s or my lap for the first few days after we got home from the house hunting trip. It wasn’t long before the little guy was himself again. The car thing will have to wait until I get home and am <gasp!> foster kitten-less.

We brought Carrot home the day we got back. I called her new mother the next day and arranged her adoption and Carrot was spayed on Tuesday (yesterday). Tomorrow, my sweet Carrot will leave my home for the couple who was meant to have her all along. I kept her tonight because the poor thing hadn’t yet recovered from the anesthesia. Her eyes were dilated and she freaked out around my cats. Carrot couldn’t walk a straight line, and she would lie down next to her toys so she didn’t topple when she reached for them. About 10:00pm she started to become the Carrot I know and love. She jumped onto my lap and rested her head on my heart. I think it must be her way of saying “thank you for taking care of me.” She’s going to be just fine in her new family. Despite the pull I’ve felt to adopt just one more before I leave, I know it just isn’t meant to be. <sob>

I do have the other 4 kittens to distract me from my grief. The boys have all made weight, so I am taking them back to the shelter every day to try to get them adopted. Esme is about 170g away from being ready herself. The only problem: she has ringworm. At least I think it is. It glows under the black light, but other foster parents who looked at it thought it could be chin acne. It really is presenting unusually – there is no fur loss, but there are a lot of dark, crusty scabs like pimples on her chin. Either way, I washed her and they boys with Malaseb and lyme/sulfur dip to hopefully stop the spread of the fungus. I have a suspicion about how they caught it.

It seems a certain Carrot doesn’t understand that she is not a baby and can’t play with the little ones.

The little ones do look great, though. Ernest is fluffy and handsome. Emo has the same fluff and sweet personality as Ernest. Esme still steals her daddy’s heart. And Widget is action man! He really knows his way around a kitten toy.

Over the weeked I had a spinning party. Only 3 of us from the spinning class I took last summer could make it, but we had a great time. As a result of the party, I got custody of this:

(a drum carder) which turns this:

(loose fiber)

Into these (kindly modeled by Carrot, who went all kid-in-a-candy-store on me):

(fiber batts)

which turn into this when I spin them:

I haven’t yet had time to make any more fiber batts, but I have to transfer custody of the drum carder to Naomi while I am out of town, so I had better get to it soon. It’s just that I’ve been busy.

Later that night I went to a party for a friend from my knit group, Celia. She was celebrating her birthday with her father, Jack. I learned that Jack was the Poet Laureate for San Francisco not long ago. That’s kind of cool in my book.

And finally, I finished the dishcloths for my contest winners. The pictures aren’t in the best focus, but you can look anyway. Which ones will you get, Sara and Anne-Catherine? You’ll never know until you open your mail…

Here are the Ravelry links in case anyone wants the patterns:

Kitty Love

Moon Gazing

All Tangled

Another Round – Contest!

Hi everyone. It’s me again, Sprout. I wanted to tell you that it seems  I will leave this house uneaten after all. As a matter of fact, none of the other cats have been eaten – how curious? I figured I would put an update here because my captor has criminally neglected her blog this week. There is a good reason though, I swear. These tiny Kitten McNuggets arrived a few days ago and she has to bottle feed them all the time. I think if she eats anything it will be these tender morsels. The lady is also knitting a ton of Christmas presents. There had better be one for me in that pile. I’ve been trying to be nice to her. I let her pet me sometimes, and I come visit her in bed when she is lounging. I leave her yarn alone like a good girl.

I’ve asked Carrot to put a personal ad for me on the Internet. We’re going to look for a picture that makes me look unbearably cute, and then we’re going to describe me in a way that makes me seem like a catch. I’m no small thing anymore – I am about 4 or 5 months old. I like to get to know a place before I am comfortable running things. I take excellent care of my fur, and I am softer than your finest cashmere. I like other cats well enough, so hopefully I have a friend or two at my new place.

As for those babies -

There are four of these guys, 1 girl and 3 boys.

This little girl is Esme. Her name comes from a comment left on a previous post asking for kitten names.

This is the little black boy with soulful eyes and a quiet manner.

This is one of the tabby boys.

And here is the other tabby boy. His face is wider than his brother’s, which makes them easy to tell apart.

So, I was thinking – we should have another baby naming contest. This time, the lady will knit you a kitten-themed dishcloth and mail it to you if she picks your submission. You’ll have to be patient for it though because she has a lot of knitting to complete before Christmas and the prize will have to wait until maybe closer to the new year. The comments from this blog go to a gmail account. If you win, the lady can contact you and ask for your address, so be sure to put your email address in the appropriate box! Only the lady who writes this blog and I can see any personal info like that. We’ll announce the choices on Wednesday, so have your submission in the comments by the end of the day on Tuesday. You can submit a name for each kitten, or for just 1 or 2 of them. A dishcloth will be sent out for each name chosen, so if she picks 2 of your suggestions, you get 2 dishcloths. Good luck!

I’ll try to get her to post more between now and then as well. You’re welcome.

Shedding Season

Shedding Season has begun. I am generally pretty lazy about brushing my adult cats, but during shedding season it becomes imperative that I remove all the dead fur. If I don’t do it, I have to clean up hairballs. I choose brushing since it is a good way to spend time with my cats. Plus, I gathered the fur from the brushes (which look just like wool cards) and stored it to spin. I am not planning to make a cat fur item, I just want to experiment.

As far as spinning goes, I finally got around to finishing my wheel today. There was a spot on the treadles that I missed entirely, and I had to work on the footman that I found after I had finished the rest of the wheel. This, of course, means that I won’t be spinning for awhile. Sigh.

I picked today to finish the wheel because I have a knitting deadline coming up, and I didn’t want any spinning projects sitting around tempting me. I am nearly finished with the baby dress for the baby shower on Sunday. I have completed the front and back, and I am now working on sewing it up and adding the sleeves and neckline. I am not going to get all arrogant and say “Oh great, this will be finished way early,” because I may find myself in possession of a few bottle-feeders soon. I got the call today while I was napping (I think I have a mild version of the flu), and I have to work out the details tomorrow.

I don’t believe I have given a comprehensive list of my current kittens. Who do we have now?

First, I have been reunited with Endora and Tabitha. They did not have names before my camping trip, but once they came back to be with me I took the opportunity to name them. The tabby kitten is Tabitha, aka Tabby or Tablet. We chose Endora because it makes a great fall name – Tabitha’s grandmother on Bewitched (wow, that was a long time ago…). The other 2 in that litter didn’t make it, or I’d probably have them, too.

I also have 2 of the temporary kittens from the great pre-camping kitten swap. One of the temporary foster parents named the little boy Patch, and we called the little girl Pumpkin – also great Halloween names that go well together! These are two of the sweetest kittens ever. Patch loves his people, but he loves to purr even more. Pumpkin likes to sit at my feet while I prepare her food. She’s a chubby little thing!

At least some of the kittens have diarrhea now. Poor Endora is on a downward weight spiral, so I know that she’s one of the affected. I know not all of the kittens are ill because I found a few normal poops in the box. Still, I started them all on Amoxi paired with probiotics. I have decided that any time I use antibiotics for kittens, I will start sprinkling probiotics on their food- no sense in letting all the good bacteria go with the bad.

It’s rough right now in the health area of fostering because all of the late season kittens tend to be a little sicker than the earlier ones. The moms are usually on a second or third litter, and they just aren’t up to producing healthy kittens. I wonder if the emaciated moms are easier for the feral cat trappers to catch? I mean, they have to be starving from feeding and growing all those kittens, and the traps are baited with food. I should ask someone about that.

9 is enough

I do have pictures to put on my blog, but you won’t be seeing them today. I have 9 kittens who need a lot of care. Some are sick (5 of them) some are bottle-dependent (a different subset of 5) and all need looking after every few hours.

I had 11 kittens yesterday. I was able to send Moonlight and Wisteria back to the shelter to head down the adoption highway, leaving me with 9. So wait, how did I end up with 9? I went to the shelter on Monday. Toni tried to convince me to take home 4 kittens who had just come in and needed bottle-feeding. I told her no, I had plenty. Besides I was just there to get her credit card so I could pick up kitten food for the group. She convinced Naomi (not Wisteria’s Naomi) to take them. Naomi hung out at the shelter too long, though, and just before she left someone brought in 6 10-day-old abandoned kittens. That left her with a total of 12 (the other 2 are a pair she had before all this named Christopher and Robin). She called me later than night and asked me to take some of them off her hands. I can’t leave someone who has a full-time job, plus a petsitting business on the hook for 12 kittens who must be bottle-fed. Crud – now I’m overworked, too.

Since my brother is coming to town tomorrow, I have to be rid of those kittens very soon. My sister-in-law is a little bit allergic, and with 12 cats in the house it seems kind of dangerous for her. She hasn’t had a reaction to my adult cats, and of course, 9 of those cats are babies, and it is very hard to be allergic to kittens. They don’t make the dander that people are allergic to because they don’t wash themselves. The dander comes from saliva. In addition to all of that, we are going to be camping and away from the house for a few days.

I have no time to knit, crochet or spin. I am hoping to have some time when I unload the kittens. Let’s hope I live that long.

Let it go

I made yarn! I think it took me something like 12 hours altogether, but I have about 190g/535 yarns of worsted weight, 3-ply wool yarn. It’s a little scratchier than I like, but the scratchier yarns are easier for a beginner to work up.

I made this yarn in a colorway that I am not find of. The reason is, I want to be able to give it away or sell it. I have a hard time giving up yarn. If I continue to make yarn, however, it will overrun my house. I won’t be able to knit all of it, and it will be wasted just lying around. I think I am going to make a supply of yarn and open an etsy store. I may be new to spinning, but this is one thing that I am really good at, so I have grand ideas for my spinning future.

I’ve also spun something that I think I want to keep for myself.

It’s the merino/tencel blend I got from Urban Fauna. I had a hard time getting the hang of spinning a fiber like tencel, but it just took a few inches, maybe a few feet before I caught on. It’s very fine. I’m not sure if I am going to make this a 3-ply yarn or a 2-ply. I like 3-ply because I understand it wears better. However, 2 ply is easier to spin and it could make a very nice yarn. I think I’ll just get started on a second bobbin and see how I feel.

At long last, a decision I have been putting off is demanding to be addressed. On Tuesday, Wisteria made weight. She is technically adoptable now. The thing is, I can’t bring myself to let her go. I loved her from the moment I first saw her. Shoot, everyone does. She is so pretty, so unusual, so fluffy… Wisteria also has good manners. She is polite to Buttercup and doesn’t press their relationship. She and Serra have a jolly time playing together. When Wisteria is out of the kitten room, I never have to worry where she is – I just look down to my feet.

The thing is, keeping Wisteria would be a big deal. She would be the first foster kitten I ever kept. I would have 4 cats – that’s a lot of attention to give. I wouldn’t have the bandwidth anymore to keep a long-term foster kitten if something came up. It’s one more mouth to feed, one more cat to haul to the vet. Right now, Wisteria is a lot of work. It’s one thing when the kittens are generally contained in the kitten room. If Wisteria were to become mine, I’d have to let her out. She wants to play with me late at night. She needs to be protected from Buttercup. She is terrible at keeping her hind-end clean, and I have to do it for her (I really hope she learns to care for it herself soon).

This is agonizing. It makes parting with my yarn seem very easy in comparison. I thought about the idea of trying to get someone I know to take her, but all my friends are cat people with plenty of cats already. I’ve parted with another cat who I loved as much once before. Her name was Margo (I’m sure her new people have changed it by now). She was this shiny black mom cat with intense orange eyes. She had the same quality that I love in Wisteria – a bright, shining outlook on life. She was self-confident, happy, and affectionate. I still think about Margo a lot. I hope she isn’t a cat who was abandoned (or will be) when her people lose their house to foreclosure. I have no way of knowing.

I have a little more time to meditate on this. My brother and his family will be here in just 2 weeks. We are leaving town to go camping, so I either have to return Wisteria then or adopt her. I am hoping Moonlight will be ready by then, too.

In the meantime, I have continued to knit the baby dress. I’ve added some pink stripes and spots for interest. I was stupid, however, and left the project at Carisa’s house last night, so I can’t work on it today. I’ll just spin instead.

In deep

I have no idea what’s wrong with me. I keep taking on projects despite my new, self-imposed 6 WIP limit. Here’s what happened:

Earlier today I received my Lion Brand email. They talk about new products as well as offer free patterns, pattern stitches, advice, etc. This time they tempted me into a Crochet Along (CAL). I have plenty of stray Lion Brand Wool-ease around, so I thought, “Sure, I should do this.” I mean, it’s an afghan – it should take lots of yarn! It has the added benefit of reducing my stash. I was merrily putting all my new WIPs on Ravelry when – tartar sauce – I discovered that this one makes 7. I wanted to stay at or below 6. I’m going to defend my decision to do it anyway by pointing out that there is a time limit here – 6 weeks. Maybe I can give it to someone as a Christmas present. I should have the baby dress done within the next 7 days, so I won’t be above my limit for long.

The baby dress is coming along well. The measurements are coming out spot-on (for the moment) and it’s working up quickly. The pattern is easy to remember – there are 3 stockinette rows and 1 row with a 9 stitch repeat. The yarn is just fabulous! I love Berroco Comfort in all its different weights. It’s nylon and acrylic, washable, and soft as can be.

In other news, I sent Sunshine to the shelter today. They are going to see if she is accepted by the other shelter we work with. If not, I’ll pick her back up and try on my own to get her into a good home. She has been super nice, and she did well when she was handled by all the staff at the front desk. As soon as she was put into a cage though, she cringed in the back and flattened her ears. Moonlight has been hiding since I took Sunshine away. I’m worried that they are bonded and need each other for security.

Wisteria is getting close to being available for adoption now. I’m guessing 10 days away. I’m not sure I am ready to give her up…

How sweet

How sweet are these kittens? Many of them are kissers. They love to sniff our lips and occasionally lick them. The babies love to rub their faces on Michael’s stubble – I think it’s like a mommy tongue. It’s really gross when Puddles rubs his nasty, food covered face against our nice, clean ones, but what are you going to do? He’s a sweetheart, a lover, and I wouldn’t want it any other way (but I’m not going to lick him clean. Yuck!).

This is what feeding time looks like now. It is a zoo in that kitten room with so many hungry kittens. As you can see, Moonlight thinks we are good cooks.

With so many kittens, it really is hard to give each one the time he/she deserves. When I sit down, they all want to be in my lap. I actually love the big family love fest, but it’s hard to fit that many babies in.

The picture looks a little weird because I Photoshopped the image off of my t-shirt. I use old clothes that I no longer care for when hanging out with the kittens since they are likely to be clawed to pieces.

Despite the large, needy family, I’ve managed to start and finish a few knit projects. I know, I know, I had done so well getting my WIP list down. I have 2 deadlines coming up. My sister-in-law and brother are coming in a few weeks, and I would like to send them back with 2 set of dishcloths – one for them and another that they are giving away as a gift. I am also attending a baby shower in a few weeks (I think 5), so I am making a baby dress. I don’t think that the mother reads my blog, so I’ll post the pictures as it comes along.

Here are the dishcloths (the whole set of 3):

Yes, I can count. The third and fourth pictures are of the same dishcloth. It’s an illusion knit – when viewed head-on, it just looks like a regular, striped dishcloth. When viewed from an angle, it looks like a checkerboard. Cool, no? You can put any hidden design you like in these things.

The baby dress is going to be made in Berroco Comfort dk. I am making it mostly in lilac with yellow and pink accents. The color names are something more frou-frou on the color card – I’m practical and call ‘em how I see ‘em. I’ve only worked on the swatch at this point. I didn’t get gauge and I had to go down a needle size. It won’t be so bad if I’m a little off since the baby will grow into it pretty quickly. Still, I don’t want her to have to wait until she’s 7 to try it on.

What do you think of these pictures for Sunshine’s advertisement? Do they make you want to take her home?

Borrowed Babies

I saw a series of shows on TV recently called “Baby Borrowers.” The show is a social experiment. The producers give teenaged couples (18ish years old) a few days in which they must care for infants, toddlers, preteens, teenagers, and elderly people. Some of the teens came into the experiment thinking that child-rearing would be easy. Some wanted children right away and saw no reason to wait. Some just wanted to prove that they were grown-ups.

Even if you never intend to have kids, I think that this is worth watching. I truly believe that many high-school kids who think that having a baby is the answer to their problems will rethink their positions on having children. I’ve never wanted kids myself – I think of them as screaming poop machines – and I got a lot out of it. There are life lessons about relationships, cooperation, creative problem solving… seriously good stuff to be gotten from this show.

All of my babies are borrowed. In most cases, my kittens are orphaned. Even when the kittens have a mom, she generally needs my help raising her babies. The babies tend to be these amazingly wonderful creatures that I feel lucky to have gotten to know, even for a short time. There are so many wonderful things about fostering kittens. Above all though, this stuff is work.

A typical day goes like this:

1. I get up in the morning. I don’t really feel like doing much other than reading my newspaper comics and drinking my tea, but I know there are babies depending on me so I warm up their bottles while trying to attend to only my most pressing needs.
2. I go into the kitten room and see who needs feeding. The bottle babies are all screaming and want my attention at once. I listen to several minutes of hungry, crying kittens while I am feeding one of them who isn’t cooperating.
3. The bottle-babies still haven’t settled down yet because they still need to go to the bathroom. I get out the baby-wipes and rub their genitals until they they are able to relieve themselves. If I am lucky, no one has diarrhea, but that isn’t the norm.
4. I grab the towels that are covered in various forms of kitten excrement and toss them into the laundry. I also grab the heat disk so that the babies have something to keep them warm (kittens cannot thermoregulate themselves until they are several weeks old).
5. While I am waiting for the disk to warm in the microwave, I wash my hands. I grab clean towels and a can of food for the bigger kittens.
6. When the disc is warm I return to the kitten room and remake the beds. At this point I can put the bottle-babies away for their morning sleep.
7. I move on to kittens who need to be helped to eat. This is a messy process, so I make sure I am wearing my scrubs or an apron. It helps to be wearing pants (as opposed to a nightgown or shorts) so that my legs don’t take a beating from kitten claws.
8. I put the wet food on a plate and grab a baby spoon. I attempt to insert said spoon into a struggling kitten’s mouth. The kitten does not want food – she wants a bottle. Too bad. I have to be the meanie here.
9. After about 20 minutes of trying, the weaning kitten catches on. She hates having to feed herself and deeply resents me for denying her the bottle.
10. I bring out the baby wipes again and scrub the kitten because she is covered in food. There are food-prints on my clothes, on the floor. The kitten has food on her entire underside. All of this needs to be cleaned.
11. I let the weaning kitten run off to do her own thing while I look for the broom and dustpan. She and the other kittens have kicked tons of litter out of the box AGAIN, so I have to sweep it up.
12. I find a puddle of vomit or diarrhea on the floor. I check all the kittens to be sure no one is obviously sick. I clean up the puddle.
13. I handle any kittens who just need attention. I snuggle the fearful kittens. I play with the kittens who need exercise. I remind them to eat because they need to get big.
14. I finally get to eat breakfast. It’s been about an hour and a half on a good day. My stomach has learned not to anticipate an immediate breakfast by now.
15. Repeat steps 1-13 every 6-8 hours if the bottle babies are at least 3 weeks old. If they are smaller, prepare to do this every 4-6 hours. If they are newborns, give up all hope. You have just become a slave.
16. If anyone is sick, remember to add the medications (and the ensuing battle) to the schedule.

I have to put the needs of tiny little people above my own. I forsake sleep, food and recreation. I have my heart broken when a foster kitten doesn’t have the decency to survive. And the icing on the cake – I have to give them all away just when it gets easier. Why would anyone do this? I can give you 133 reasons why. Their names are Abbey, Nebula, Orion, Cupcake, Cream Puff, Wisteria, Margo, Caterpillar, Sundae….

How does this work?

I’ll begin today with a question: Does anyone know how to get grants for a non-profit group? Please leave a comment if you do. I’ll follow up in email.

Here’s the thing – Toni’s Kitty Rescue (see my sidebar) was started by a volunteer who saw that San Francisco’s city shelter needed a foster program. Since Toni got started, her program has grown every year. As the group got bigger, she made it into an official non-profit group and was able to accept donations – all was fine and dandy. Now the group has grown so large that we need someone to do administrative duties about 20 hours a week. The woman who does it now has been volunteering (and she’s amazing, let me tell you), but she needs to make a living. Toni and the rest of us don’t want to lose her, so we’d like to pay her. The problem is that we don’t get enough in donations to do that – we would need to come up with $15,000 – $20,000 a year (maybe a little more). So, any help figuring out how to attain that goal would be greatly appreciated here. We’d like to continue saving these cute little guys in greater numbers!

The kittens I am fostering have been as darling as ever. Last night I had a lot of people in the kitten room – 5 to be exact. The undersocialized kittens did a great job – both of them purred at one point. The babies were loud and hungry. Wisteria was the center of attention as often as she could be.

One of my guests was holding Wisteria when she began to get bitey. I think she’s teething, so she kind of gnaws on whatever she gets her mouth on. When Wisteria bit my guest, he turned her over and folded her up so that she couldn’t get his fingers. Still biting, Wisteria got ahold of one of her own legs and bit pretty hard! She bit so hard, in fact, that she let out a yelp. I noticed this morning that her bites have gotten a lot gentler.

I haven’t gotten as much spinning done as I thought I would this week. It’s partly because I had several meetings to host and to attend, and partly because I don’t like the wheel I am currently using.

I think that the wheel itself works fine. I’ve learned 2 things from this wheel, though: 1) I don’t like the castle style because of the way you have to reach down to start the wheel, and 2) I don’t like the way that the treadle is best worked with the left foot. I treadled much better with my right foot, but I think that I am going to like the double treadle even better than a single right-footed one.

I need to top off the babies and get to bed (I just missed the midnight time line again!)