Tricotomania and more

I was away for just over 24 hours. Blitzen had been asleep on the bed almost all day and was a bit peeved that I didn’t let him out when he woke up late in the afternoon but I’m pretty sure he’d rather be around to be fed than be outside. And it was threatening a thunderstorm. I couldn’t find Donner but I knew she’d come back for breakfast at least (she’s a very outdoor cat in the summer). So I left a message for my lodger and went off to the retreat.

When I got back last night (about 7:30), they were both in the kitchen waiting for me. They went out right away. Blitzen came back in later (he meows by the back door or stands on the patio table in view of the kitchen window to get my attention). He slept with me and was very affectionate last night. This morning he had some breakfast and went outside. (Donner came back from breakfast, too, but she’s gone off wherever she goes again.) A little while ago I heard a little meow. I looked by the back door and couldn’t see him so I came back to my computer. I heard it again. I went to the back door, couldn’t see him but stepped outside. He was lying there in the driveway (the garbage can was in the line of sight from the door) and wanted me to come over. I went and he had a dead chipmumk near him. I almost took a picture but thought there would be more people who would be horrified than anything else so changed my mind.

I think he intended it as a present. I acted suitably proud. I stroked him and chattered a bit. Then I went inside. A little while later he meowed again. The chipmunk appeared to be gone. I let him in and he asked for food (he goes to the door of the cupboard the bag of food is in; I told him he should just eat the chipmunk but I guess he likes kibble better, wierd cat). When I let him back out I noticed the chipmunk was across the driveway. I got some newspaper and wrapped it up and threw it out. I hope he isn’t offended but I know my neighbour is upset by the cats killing small rodents and birds and stuff.

Hopefully that’s all the welcome I get. I’m not keen on gifts of small rodents. I accept that it is in the nature of cats to kill (and even torture) things. I would MUCH prefer them to eat them afterwards. And they are not killing things that are in any danger of extinction. In fact, the chipmunk, mouse and starling population could probably use a bit of natural control. But I don’t really have a use right now for dead rodents. I suppose when we get into biology labs requiring dissection my tune will change. I do find myself looking at the poor dead chipmunk and thinking that I could just bring him in and open him up … Homeschooling literally changes how you look at thing.

(And yes, in case you were wondering, Blitzen is the 3-legged cat. As my vet said, someone obviously forgot to tell him he was missing a leg.)

We often sit out on the front porch early in the evening. A lot of people walk (or run) past as we are near a large green-space where folks walk their dogs and so on. The cats often join us, Blitzen in particular is all about being with the people. Sometimes one of them hides in the garden and keeps an eye on all the passers by, making sure the dogs move right along. Last night I took a couple of photos.

Here’s Donner in the bare earth next to the hostas under the Norway maple at the front of our property. The sidewalk is just visible behind her.

Blitzen prefers this window box. It is right next to one of the chairs on the front porch. Those pansies are the only flowers in the box. It looks a bit odd when he isn’t there taking up the remaining space.

When I walked into the living room this morning, I saw some evidence of how unschooling works. As far as I can work it out, you acquire resources and leave them somewhere accessible. You make sure folks know they are there but you don’t make too much of a big deal about them. One day, they get taken off the shelf and used. Usually at really odd times.

In our house, it seems that even Blitzen is interested in learning some chemistry.

For those that are interested, that is The Periodic Table: elements with style. I suspect this means that, as tiring as Shakespeare camp is, Tigger (who is not a cat, just to be clear) was reading it at 8 a.m. this morning.

The quilt in the background is one I made for her when I was pregnant and that Tigger still uses as a lap blanket. The shawl Blitzen is lying on is Peacock Feathers knit in some fingering weight alpaca I got from Elann several years ago.

We went out to help J. with her garden (which is also partly our garden) on Tuesday. One thing we did was mulch between the rows with hay. We brought a bit home to mulch the garden here.

Blitzen thinks that was a GREAT idea.

Look how content he looks.

Of course no one thought of that when the spacing for the planting was decided. He had to be moved from that particular spot as one of those broad bean plants is bent over a bit.

This will become clear later.

I meant to take a photo of Donner for you but she went out again before I had a chance and I probably won’t see her until breakfast time.

She is a very dominant cat. She’s in charge of the territory behind the house. And I’m pretty sure she patrols a rather large part of the immediate neighbourhood. She is also quite talkative with a wide range of different sounds. She greets us when she comes in and seems to say thank you after she eats.

And she is messing with our minds. Seriously.

When I first let her out, after she was spayed back in January, I bought her a collar with a little metal tag engraved with her name and phone number. She wore it for a while and then it got lost. My neighbour found it on the fence where she sneaks through to another yard. She wore it for a while and then it went missing again. I looked around and couldn’t find it. I figured it got stuck on a hedge or a fence somewhere in her vast territory. So I got her a new collar and a new engraved tag. This one was red with white paw prints and a little bell. It got lost within about 2 days. I figured she didn’t like the bell. Probably cramped her style.

But by this time she had been out a lot and she always came home so I was more comfortable with her being out without a collar and tag. I didn’t waste any more money on collars. I guess this was about April. All summer she has been out most of the time. She comes in to eat every morning and most evenings. She also catches small animals. I don’t know if she eats them or not.

Yesterday we went to stock up on cat food for when we are away. And I decided that maybe the friend who will be living here might be more comfortable if Donner had a collar and a name tag in case she got lost or hurt or something. So I bought a collar. The only one left in a style I like (a safety style) was in pastel colours but I bought it anyway. The engraving machine was being fixed so I got a cheap tag with a paper insert. Tigger duly filled in the information and put the collar on Donner last night before she went out.

This morning, Tigger was up first. She let Donner in. I was awake but not in the room but I could hear. Donner had a bell. Tigger looked at the collar as she was putting the food down. Red, with white paw prints, a bell, and an engraved tag with her name and phone number. WTF?

I can picture the Far Side cartoon. Donner has a stash of collars under the shed and she goes down there and changes into a new one muttering "This will really mess with their minds. Bwahaha."

I haven’t seen her this evening, though I heard a bell a little while ago. So heaven knows which collar she is wearing. And whether she has lent the bell collar to a friend to mess with our minds even further.

Edited to add another stunt. (3:16 p.m.)

I figured that Blitzen’s adjustment to the tripodal life would involve changing some of his habits. For example, Blitzen prefers to drink water out of the toilet. Even though there is a dish of water near his food, he eats and then goes in the bathroom for a drink. I know that a cat drinking out of a toilet sounds complicated and it requires a certain amount of skill and balance. But that’s what he likes.

I figured maybe with 3 legs, this wasn’t really going to work. I have even been trying to remember to put the lid down so he doesn’t try and end up going for a swim. But last night, when I woke up at 2:30 a.m. needing to pee, I came down and had to wait. Blitzen was having a drink. He didn’t fall in. And he didn’t have any problems getting down. He wasn’t wet, so I assume he didn’t have any problems getting up either.

This morning we couldn’t find him. We looked everywhere and he was nowhere to be found. Our house has sloped ceilings in the bedrooms and in my room the chests of drawers are set into the knee-wall. They aren’t really built in. There is an opening (with a supporting beam along the top) and they slide into the space. There are two chests of drawers with a set of shelves between. The cats have enjoyed jumping up on the shelves and then climbing onto the chest of drawers and dropping down behind them.

Tigger went upstairs to get dressed and heard a bump and a meow. She pulled out the shelves and, sure enough, Blitzen was behind there. The jump is higher getting back out. (The top shelf is lower than the top of the chest of drawers.) Glad someone heard him though I had suspected and might have pulled the shelves out to look at some point.

Later… we went out to run some errands and when we got back he seemed to be missing again. We heard an odd noise. Tigger investigated. It was a door banging. He had got himself down behind the dryer and there is a hole into the side of the cabinet the sink is in (between the dryer and the washer) so he’d gone through there and was trying to get out of the cabinet. (Is there an emoticon for rolling your eyes?)

I think this means he’s feeling lots better. He sure moves fast if I open the back door for any reason. But the stitches must come out. Then we’ll see.

Every once in a while we come home and can’t find Blitzen anywhere.

Yesterday he was here. Tigger moved the basket into the middle of the room to take the photo but it was in a corner.

He seemed happy to be moved around in it, too.

I have also left the cat carrier in the kitchen after taking him to get his pain patch removed on Saturday. I think I have said that my cats are a bit odd. They seem to like the carrier (though not necessarily going anywhere in it). I had to remove Donner from it to take him on Saturday. And this morning, here he was.

We wonder if his tail had been left out to prevent anyone closing the door and taking him someplace.

Since no one will let him outside (he is rather cross about this, btw), he likes to sit on the windowsill and look outside. For the first few days he couldn’t get up there without assistance and there were some odd moments of cat hanging by his front paws. But today he jumped up on his own. Here is a photo of the windowsill in which you can see how far it is from the floor.

He fell off a couple of times today. I think this is related to some muscle spasms on the amputated side. What remains of the leg sometimes does odd things that send him off balance. These are clearly not intentional as he makes a noise that clearly indicates his distress at what is happening. I’m hoping these are associated with the nerves healing and will stop.

I’ve decided on some criteria for letting him go back outside. His stitches must be out. They come out on Saturday. And he must be able to climb the stairs reasonably well without getting too tired. Being able to get up onto the windowsill by himself seemed like an important step that got me thinking about this.

One of the vet techs suggested that other cats might pick on him so he should be pretty strong when he goes out. I’m not sure if his sister would protect him. I think so. Even though she is generally kind of dismissive of him (hissing at him and swatting at his nose on her way past, for example), I have seen then sharing the torture of small animals they have caught. I did wonder if she was teaching him how to kill. She is clearly in charge of the territory immediately behind the house. I’ve seen her see off another cat just by staring it down.

But there is a balance between his readiness and his clear frustration with being kept inside. As I type he is sitting by the back door meowing loudly to get someone to come and let him out. When we went up to read Tigger’s bedtime story we got him to walk up
himself. He is slow. I think it frustrates him that he has to do one
step at a time (front paws, then back paws on the same
step before front paws can go up another step). It was clearly hard
work but I think he might have significantly improved by the weekend.

For those who are interested, this is what he looks like from the right side. I think the weirdest part is being shaved and it will look much less disturbing once his fur has grown back.

My mail. At the back some Koigu for socks, some Zephyr laceweight in Ruby for the Hanami stole (HT to Sara S), and a bunch of Jameson and Smith jumper weight for a foray into stranded knitting. Two colours are backordered and I’m hoping they’ll come in before I go. I have found a Canadian supplier that I like — Four Season’s Knitting. Ted told me about them and I have had good service.

I’m going to knit some hats that Janine designed for a workshop. I’d love to go to one of her workshops, not least because she has the whole range of J&S colours and you can play with them in the workshop and get a feel for how to combine things. But she lives on the west coast which is a long way from here. So I invested in a shade card and made do with that. I’m reasonably happy with how it turned out.

This is Blitzen’s mail. He does love a box. I’ve taken a bunch of photos of him today but I’ll put them in a separate post.

(For those that don’t know, click on the photos to make them bigger.)

So, the little guy was doing really well. He was a bit active last night but stayed in Tigger’s room. He did figure out how to jump up onto her bed (it isn’t very high but still a bit of a challenge). And he worked out how to use the litter tray.

Today he slept most of the day but then that’s his normal daytime thing anyway. He was still in Tigger’s room, supplied with litter tray, food and water. We have an older house so her door doesn’t close exactly right but it was pulled pretty tight.

We went out for a bit and came back about 4:30. Just after we come in we hear a noise and then there he is. In the kitchen. He’d pulled open the bedroom door and come down the stairs. The stairs are not carpeted but he seems to have managed. Then he got all upset that I wouldn’t let him go outside. He hung around downstairs for a bit, sat in that fruit basket, tried to sneak outside. Then he asked me to help him up the stairs. I guess this is harder.

He’s sleeping in one of the doll beds in Tigger’s closet. I think maybe all that stair climbing wore him out. Hopefully he’ll stay in there all night.

I’m choosing to interpret all this as him recovering well.

Tigger wrote a blog post complete with a poem. She’d love folks to visit and comment.

We’ve just brought him home from the vet. They gave him a certificate.

He was purring when they went down to get him to bring him up to me. And is mostly just starved for affection (since they can’t sit around cuddling him all day over there).

I won’t take a photo since most of you probably don’t want to see all his shaved bits and sutures and stump and whatnot. He’s got to work out how to walk and things so they recommend keeping him in one room for a while. So he’s up in Tigger’s room, which is also the only room with a carpet — easier to walk on than hardwood. But mostly because that is where he likes to sleep anyway. She’s dealing with the affection deficit right now.

I think he’s going to be fine. Funny looking but fine. His sister is not so sure. She hissed. But she’s been doing that to him all summer so no change there.