Gordon and Abby

I live in a semi-rural area surrounded by vineyards and horses. The property I live on has two houses, the old rambling weatherboard house the girls live in, and the smaller but much newer brick house the cats and and I live in.

The girls look after rescued horses in the surrounding paddocks whereas I get all the freedom of the space without any of the responsibility.

The girls also have three ferrets, six dogs and a sheep they raised from a lamb called Gordon.

Gordon was raised with the dogs, came in every night and sleep with the dogs near the fire in winter and eats dog and cat kibble whenever he can get near it.

He also does an excellent job of keeping the girls' yard from needing mowing. Mine unfortunately was looking quite shabby as my gardener cannot visit any more.

So I had a chat to the girls and they asked if I would accept Gordon in to chew on my grass and I have such a think lush amount and, as it is coming into winter, there's not enough in their penned-in yard to keep him fully fed.  I was happy so every few days the girls lead him out of his yard and into mine.

The first time they did, Abby was very wary and cautious of what this animal was and why was it in her yard .... she slunk down in the grass and slithered on her belly all around the sheep. Then ran back to me meowing querulously but wouldn't let me pick her up. She then slithered back around until she was right in front of Gordon and then leapt up about two foot in the air all paws a'waving doing the best Scrat impersonation I'd ever seen.

The girls and I doubled over in laughter.  Gordon didn't even pause in his chewing. I ran inside for my camera, but could only get one shot in before another car pulled up and Abby ran off.

So now Gordon visits regularly and the girls and I make sure the door to the sleep-out is wired open just enough the cats to get through but not Gordon.  Turns out we were wrong.  Also turns out Gordon gets lonely.

He doesn't like being over here by himself, especially when he can see the dogs have been let into the paddocks with the horses without him.  So whenever I'm home Gordon wants to be inside and that would be fine if he didn't piddle and poo everywhere.

Trubs is not happy about him being inside, it makes her very nervous, so we're keeping Gordon outside now.  I can stand watching his big sad lonely sheep eyes more easily than I can stand watching Trubs being nervous and worried.

So there's the story of Gordon and Abby :)

Abby with Play Box

With a sale on, we decided that Christmas has come early for the cats. They have fresh dry food, new collars, new identity tags, new squishy toys and two pieces of furniture.

One is a tall cat tree (with sisal for scratching and sleeping platforms at a range of heights) and the other is a play box for Abby.

Here is video I shot of Abby's first meeting of the play box. It has two furry mice dangling from the ceiling inside the box.

Merry Catmass

We went on a bit of a goose chase today hunting down non-existent plastic bags for a reorganisation of my thread filing system, but on the way home we stopped by our local pet supply store.

We love this store: it has a huge range, very friendly staff and assists local cat and dog rescue associations.

With a sale on, we decided that Christmas has come early for the cats.  They have fresh dry food, new collars, new identity tags, new squishy toys and two pieces of furniture.

One is a tall cat tree (with sisal for scratching and sleeping platforms at a range of heights) and the other is a play box for Abby.

Here is video I shot of Abby's first meeting of the play box.  It has two furry mice dangling from the ceiling inside the box.

Mel's Sunday Update

Wow a BIG update from me this time!

Presents Out
I have stitched two presents this year.  Both for friends who read my blog so I wont be putting up pictures until after the presents have been opened.

I took both pieces to the Grand Opening of the Colours Down Under bricks and mortar store yesterday and one was snapped up to put on the wall.  I had to apologise and snatch it back to post to my friend.  I think I might be stitching a second copy of that chart up. Pictures of the new store are here.

I have sent out a few non-stitched gifts and a few more Christmas cards to friends, so crossed fingers they all arrive in time.

Other stitching
On Halloween this year Tracy Horner of Inkcircles designs made available the chart, Four in the Bush.  As she suggested here I am stitching this with Carrie's Threads: Soot, Peach, Pina Colada, Dried Sage, and Garnet.

I'm using Carrie's silks! I'm loving these silks! They are the easiest threads I have ever stitched with! They glide through the fabric and no tangles or knots. These are the threads you have dreamed about !!!!  Anyway WIP pictures are here.

Presents In
I have received and opened my first Christmas present this year and by sheer coincidence it is from Tracy!  I purchased Reindeer Games: The Huddle and the Celtic Cat notecards from Tracy last month. When Parcel number 2 finally arrived (parcel number 1 is still lost somewhere) it contained all of these goodies:

• A Beautiful handmade card - stunning!
  
• A "Practice Safe Hex" badge {snicker} Will wear this to work!
  
• A beautiful red and silver heart fob (so beautiful!)
  
• The Inkcircles chart: Smell of Sulfur (my favourite)
• Some gorgeous Carries Threads in *my* sorts of colours: Epiphany, Jewel of the Nile, Wildfire, Thanksgiving, Green and Wild Orchid!
• Inkcircles chart: Mother Maya (which I am tempted to stitch in Wildfire!)
• Inkcircles chart Celtic Beasties: Christmas ... or Knot (one of my all-time favourite charts)
• Inkcircles chart Much Heralded Sampler (which includes all the medieval motifs I adore!)
• And finally some MEL chocolate (90% bitter) It must have been made for me LOL!

Thank you so much Tracy! This is completely unexpected and just like you to be so generous! Thank you so much my friend!

Picture of this treasure trove is here.


Wow lots of things happening. How's everyone else's last couple of weeks been?

Yes I had to include an obligatory photo of Abby!  Trubs was sensibly away from the sun in this near 100oF heat!  Multiply wont let me just upload a pic to a blog entry at the moment, so there's a series of five *action shots* added to Abby's folder.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Mel's Sunday Update (on Monday)

What with working yesterday, I completely forgot to post this ...

Our insane attack kitteh currently has cabin fever.  At aged 4/5 months she has come on heat.  The vets wont neuter her while she is on heat or at the moment anyway because she is too small.  The only answer has been to lock her inside the house for two weeks or risk her getting pregnant.  Every entrance to our home (doors and windows) have all been sprayed by multiple male cats .... we are under siege!  (without Steven Segal!)

So for the latter part of last week and I suspect the next 10 days I wont get any stitching done.  The kitten simply goes feral when I pick it up and she has actually stripped the needle from the floss and carried the needle off, (while I'm trying to catch her) too many times already.

Pause while I clean up and change clothes.  Eating coco pops, blogging and fending off bored attack kitty at the same time is a dangerous occupation.

Anyway, in the earlier part of last week I did manage to finish off Part 7 of Vienna Ball.  The peacock.

Album here.
Peacock here.

Hugs
Mel.

Life, the universe etc

So what's been happening lately?

Well first Trubs.  My dear sweet grumpy old lady has had reasons for her grumpiness.  She went under anaesthetic the other day and had X-rays taken.  She has arthritis in her elbows.  Said arthritis is actually *worse* that the arthritis in her knee joints that we have been treating for the last couple of years.

While she was under they took various blood tests, cleaned her teeth and did everything they could think of that would need doing sometime in the next little while so they wouldn't have to put her under again.  Apparently this is a very risky procedure for cats of her age and they don't want to do it more times than necessary.

She is now on an oral liquid pain killer each evening.  And will be until the temperatures warm up.  After that we can administer it on an "as needs" basis.  We are also giving her Cartrophen booster injections every three months instead of just the yearly set she had been getting. 

We are also looking into heat pads for her basket such as this and adding more fish oil and possibly glucosamine into her diet.  As she is only 14 years old, the vet says the arthritis will move into her feet and toe joints as time goes on, so we are looking at long term strategies to help her cope.

Just having the oral painkillers on a daily basis is definitely helping.  She was moving more freely in the sunshine this afternoon and is much less grumpy towards us and Abby so we think she must have been in considerable pain this winter.

I'm very glad we changed vets :) This one has a much more sympathetic outlook on long term management whereas the previous vets were just, well we've given her the yearly shots, you should expect elderly cats to have aches and pains!

We spent this afternoon out in the warm sun with both Trouble and Abby playing in the overgrown backyard.  Stephen took some photos which have been uploaded to his flickr account here.

Abby is growing well and is at times a little terror and at other times is a poster kitten for adorableness.  She is at various times named Abby, Polly, Insane Attack Kitteh, Psycho Kitteh .....  See Stephen's pics, she is growing up so fast :)


In other news, I've not been looking after myself the way I should and my weight has ballooned out to nearly 100kg (216 lbs).  Before I moved to Western Australia I had dropped my weight to 83kg (183 lbs).  I've also been a bit too lax on the gluten front.  Stephen eats a lot of gluten containing products in his daily intake (as normal people do) and I've been adding in "just a bite" here and there too many times.  This culminated in a massive digestive attack while we were out a restaurant last night and may also explain the dry scaly patches and rosacea on my face and neck since moving here.

To test this out, I'm going completely and utterly strictly gluten-free for the month of August and see if it improves overall energy, happiness levels, weight management and skin health.

No other news to report. We're getting along OK here and finally slowly settling into routines so things should start looking up sometime soon.

Cat Photos by Mr S

My nearest and dearest took these photos of our lovely two cats :)

Photos taken: 7-21 June 2009.

Abby

The newest member of the family. Joined us on 6 June 2009 at approx 7 weeks of age.

Interesting weekend

Well Abby has now joined the family.  She is totally fearless and as you can see, Trubs is keeping her distance but there's no outright hostility.  As soon as they agree on their boundaries and personal spots I think it should all work out fine.

Personally I think Abby should have been renamed Polly.  She loves sitting on my shoulder while I type or stitch.

Speaking of which, this weekend I also finished Part 3 of Vienna Ball.  I haven't included the beads or treasures.  I learned from Mystery IX and will leave them to the very last.

And that's the update :)  Off to open Mariann's RR and start it.