Biggest Purrs in the World

I'm getting Athena-sugar now!

We're not even pretending that the treat container is scratching her behind the ears. It's very much on her terms, but that's how it should be.

I'm getting about 15 seconds at night, but she's also approaching me in the basement (which didn't happen before) and becoming much more confident everywhere. She just let me touch her in the morning! in the dining room! So, every day means progress.

There's been a lot of little things I've had to learn:

• Shoe heels on the floor scare her. Henry gets worried too, if it's somebody he doesn't know. Maybe that's early memories of being under the porch? I wear softer shoes now.
• No grabbing at all. Even if the reason my hand is moving toward her is that Henry is pushing it from the other side.
• If she starts looking anxious, I'M the one that needs to run away.

my CATS have FLEAS

'though it's hard to tell around the poison ivy rash.

I'm willing to bear the pain - I think I exterminated the ivy that got me last year. Yea!!

The thing about cats and poison ivy is that it's ivy, it's a vine. So, it's long and string-like. This means that after you pull a tendril and it breaks off above the root, you need to dispose of it immediately. Otherwise you'll look around to find a kitty rolling in it and biting it as if it were a ball of yarn. Pulling it has it's own dangers. It sends the vine snaking through the grass like a particularly attractive rodent.

Luckily, no adverse effects. On the cats.

Not being willing to gain the 20 pounds I did last year, I'm forgoing the prednesone and helping the itch with Aveeno Body Wash and Benedryl Itch Stopping Cream. They help enough - for about two hours after I wash and apply the cream, I'm fine. Then I reapply the cream as necessary.

So, my cats have fleas. My plan is to go to the vet's before work and get that (expensive, but effective) Advantage Flea Control. So, I went to bed between 10 and 11, thinking I'd get up between 7 and 7:30 (when the vet's office opens). Sweet dreams. Henry started yowling for his wet food at 6:30. So I rolled over and put in an ear plug. At 6:45, Orpheus, who's allowed in the bedroom started wreaking havoc. This isn't fair. On the other hand, they hate the flea stuff. And I'm not going to feel one bit guilty about applying it to the little b@$%@&*s.

On the knitting front: I went to see the knitting guru, Jolie, at Purly Gates. You know how my collar folded over on my first adult sweater? It was because I sewed it so that you couldn't see the edges, so they came together like this: = , on the inside of the sweater. This was pushing the collar over. I picked off the back part and re-sewed it to display my sloppy edges.

Jolie shares my passion for the knitted, three-dimensional construction of cloth. What gets her going is flawless technical knitting. She's doing a cardigan that is knitted and folds in such a way to create no seams. A knitter's knitter. I, on the other hand, am in my third year and have huge mistakes in each of my pieces. Thankfully, knitting is forgiving and I can quietly repair and hide my boo-boos. Except for that short-rowed jog on the bottom of my 1st adult sweater.

I showed her my lace cardigan, the bottoms of the sleeves are curling. Yes, I bound off my picot too tightly. She recommends steam and, if that doesn't work, backing out and binding off more loosely. Jolie suggested either going up two needle sizes, or (how do I explain?) not dropping my bound off stitch from the needle right away. You work the second stitch on the left hand needle before dropping off the first stitch. Then you work the third stitch before dropping off the second stitch.

They got in some more of that el cheapo acrylic mohair, so I am going to be able to do the reversible-ribbed cabled shawl in the Vogue book. We'll call it the Vogue shawl, since I'm not yet doing garments that have names. This will be a nice stepping stone to the complicated cables in Rogue. Sigh. Which is what I'm working up to with the socks and all.

BTW, I LOVE socks. Fast and simple, yet intimidating for most knitters (little do they know). Lovely. I've just completed 1 1/2 of my first pair, using the wonderful, wonderful directions in Simple Socks. I'm planning to do a pair for a Friend. A pale blue merino, with a design done in a self-striping yarn. I'm considering buying an hour of 0ne-on-one from Jolie to learn to do instarsia. I do pretty well out of books and off of patterns, but I always miss something small that's just not there.

Anyway, it's 8 am and I'm already running late.

Athena got petted!

Last week, Athena rubbed her head against my hand.

Since then, she hasn't allowed her to pet me.

On the other hand, I've perfected the art of scratching with two fingers while holding a bag of treats. After she's rubbed her head on the treats, and my hand is behind her head, I flip out two fingers and scratch her shoulder blades. BIG purrs.

BUT, she's still offended when she realizes my hand is involved.

Today, she actually rubbed against my hand and let me scratch her behind the ears!! Like, realized that I was petting her with my HAND and allowed it. And purred!

We're still working out the finer points. But if SHE approached ME and asked for it once, the second time is right around the corner. Whooo Hooo!

The Lion King

You know, in Disney's The Lion King, how Simba runs away from his pride after his father gets killed. Then, the next time we see him, he's a young male?

That's what happened to Henry when I went to Aberdeen for a week. He's bigger than Alma now. Both the kittens are almost a year old.

Henry has more-or-less figured out the no biting, no scratching rule of being petted and played with. It's kind of crazy, there are animal shelters that won't take or will automatically put down cats that bite.

Four out of four cats in Varda's household bite. What's the problem? Cats bite. They just shouldn't draw blood.

On that note, the Black and White cat up the street needs to get the memo about not drawing blood. I think he's the one that bit Henry. Which required surgery. Ouch.

I'm considering a guerilla neutering.

Amazing!

You know how I've been offering Athena stuff that I have in my hands? Well today, during the bedtime dance, I tried to get her to sniff the cat box odor remover. She actually rubbed against it! A couple of times!

Of course, each time she rubbed against it, she looked at me like "How dare you touch me?" But, she did it again. This is the closest she's ever come to asking me to pet her! Her tail touchedmy fingers for a second!

Also, when she was waiting for me to flick her treat across the room, she batted at my finger! Like, she's suddenly less afraid of my hands. She's willing to be impatient with me, instead of just scared.

This will only happen after 10pm, but it's a major crack in the wall she's built.

Yea!!

Miss Chatty

It's 10pm. I just put the cats in their room. At Athena's request.

I'm sure I've described how that works. First, I clean their box. Then I make sure that they have fresh water and a little food. Then I give Alma, Henry and Orpheus treats. I flick Athena's treats across the floor, so that she can run and pounce. She prefers it that way, and she gets some much needed exercise. Finally, I turn out the lights and close the door on the family Cat. Orpheus gets to sleep with us.

Unfortunately, this past month I've been gone quite a bit. First I was gone the 16th and 17th, then the 20th through the 23rd. When I got home on the 17th, Athena was pretty happy to see me. So much that, when I started the bedtime routine, she actually forgot herself enough to strop my legs. She's very soft.

As a matter of fact, she's the most physically attractive of my cats. She's compact and well put-together with a round face. When she moves and sits, she makes a series of curliques. Her tail is always gently rounded in a pattern of graceful curves and her body seems to follow that lead. Unless she's skittering across the floor like some sort of abused feral.

The feral act is what I was treated to on the evening of the 23rd. Until about 9:45pm. At which point, Athena thought it was time for bed and became very adamant that the routine had to be followed exactly and immediately. I had a couple of more days of wild kitty in the morning and princess at night, until she got over my absence.

She will sniff my balled fist, touching it with her tiny nose, though she remains terrified of my extended hand. I've started requesting her to sniff it several times a day, though it's no big deal if she won't. I had a mini-breakthrough on Saturday - I was cleaning the box in preparation for bed. Athena was excited and was rolling around on her cardboard scratching box. I gave her my fist, and she grabbed it with her paws and pulled it toward her. When she realized what she'd done, she considered scrambling away, but I pulled back my hand and ignored her. She calmed back down quickly. Hopefully, that will go to build the idea that she is really safe. I'm also trying to hold things for her that she seems interested in: the banana that I'm eating, the box of treats, my book, etc. She'll sniff about half the time, which might get across the point that everything's generally ok.

The yearly vet appointment is fast approaching, but I think that Athena will skip it this year. It's just too important that she be socialized.

One interesting point: Athena is a talker. I say "Athena-mina," and she says "meow." I say "Don't be a silly kitty," and she says "meau." I say "Is it time for treats?" And she says "mewp." For a cat that "doesn't like" people, she's quite the conversationalist. She will half-way follow me around the house when there's not another cat to hang out with too.

She's got a little pattern that she needs to follow in order to come up on the sofa with me and her family, but she's getting a lot more comfortable with that. And, if she were allowed in the bedroom or on the bed, she'd get up there with me alone. I was actually playing with her under a piece of paper until she realized that it was my hand and ran away. Or at least I would have been were she allowed on the bed.

And she'll play with the feather on the string if I'll wiggle it for her.

I just wish that we could bring her the rest of the way home.