A New Start & Thank God for Friends

Since I finished up the second Seasonal Saltbox chart from Little House Needleworks last Saturday, I'm moving on to the third chart in the series, "Blessed are the Merciful". This is the "summer" chart in the set. I didn't have much stitching time last night after taking a little nap, loving on my Callie-bug-girl and my Hannah Grace-cat and playing with the Tumble bug, but I did get some stitching done.


This morning, I broke down and frogged my BBD piece, Evergreen. It's now ready to have that entire left side restitched. You know, I'm really not a fan of frogging and I usually try to "wing it" when I find a boo-boo, but this one just wasn't going to work out if I left it.


Stitchy friends really are the best! My non-blogging friend, Robin, sent me a couple of packages this week. One was expected, but the other was a total surprise and certainly lifted my spirits!


The first package, which I was not anticipating, contained a sweet card, LHN's "He's a Flake" ornie chart, a piece of Quarry fabric from Sassy's Fabrics, and some hand-dyed silks from HDF. Robin loves plying me with silks! The second package contained the Just Cross Stitch ornie preview edition. I thank God for the blessing of Robin's friendship.

And now, some pics of Tumbleweed, who's growing like a weed! He's just growing more precious by the day! He now wants to be petted and loved on when we enter his room and he's giving head rubs, head butts, and purrs. He's also made a run for it when I was having difficulty moving the screen door out of the way one morning. He liked that and now wants out every single time we open the door! However, he's really not ready for that and neither are our girls. We're hoping to start the integration process later this week, though.

Progress Reports

Just to let everyone know, I have been stitching, just not much. Having a 10-week old kitten the house really takes up a lot of my time, you know! :) Also, I lost some of my stitching mojo in June, but it's slowly returning.

But first, let's start with a finish! Yes, I said a finish!


Blessed are the Pure chartpack by Little House Needleworks

Here are the first two seasonal saltboxes together. I'll be starting the next square on Saturday.



Caroline by Miss Crescent's Crowne has been my lunchtime stitching project since the beginning of June! Needless to say, I don't do much stitching at lunch or I'd be done by now, but it's been a fun stitch anyway.


Lastly, Evergreen by Blackbird Designs. Have I ever mentioned that I've never stitched a BBD without having to frog??? Well, it's true and the pattern continues with this one. I have to frog the entire left vine, leaves, and flowers on this thing because I'm missing one row of stitches!! I tried to figure out a way to work around it, but it'll throw off the entire design, so out it will come. :( Phooey! Phooey! Double dog phooey!


The Tumbleweed is adjusting well in his new home. He's still in the front bedroom, but today we put the screen door up, so he's got free roam of the room and he can see the girls and they can see him, but they can't touch each other (I hope!). He's enjoying his freedom, but spends most of his day napping under the bed. He loves to play in between naps. He's still a little unsure of the humans, but he'll come out when we talk to him, but any quick or unexpected move on our part sends him skittering away. We've decided that we'll have to continue to socialize him and just take it nice and easy with him. Some of that skittish behavior may go away or subside when he begins the integration process with our girlie cats.

His Name Shall Be Mr. Tumbleweed!

We picked up our new little bundle of joy on Tuesday. I was so proud of his rescue mom. She didn't let the tears fall! I'd have been a nervous wreck! He's been a perfect little angel since his arrival, except for last night when he escaped from his cage. With the cage door locked tight. We considered calling him Houdini.

He is eating very well, using the litter box like a champ, and enduring the hisses of Hannah. When he's crying his little head off because he wants some attention or it's first thing in the morning and he's ready for his wet food, Callie goes into the room and lays down by the cage. He quiets down immediately. I really hope the 2 of them become fast friends. Hannah will be a much harder sell.

He's in our front bedroom inside a big cage that has his litter box, water & food dishes, comfy bed, and some small toys for him to play with. I also have a fleece string wand toy tied to the top of the cage and the end dangling down to the bottom of the cage. He has started to play a bit with his toys by himself, which is a really good thing and means he's becoming more comfortable in his new home. Mark is going to install a screen door on the door to the room so he can have free reign of that bedroom. We've discovered that the air circulation in that room isn't the best, so leaving the door open while he's in his cage is the best alternative at this point in time. We discussed moving his cage into the den, but we decided that he's not ready for that and neither are our girls.


Mr. Tumbleweed really still isn't sure of people and he's not a fan of hands, so we have to move slowly around him. He LOVES his new daddy, though!! I witnessed Mr. Tumbles giving Mark rubs, head butts, and general friendly lovins. He's not quite so fond of me, yet because I pick him up and snuggle him and I wipe off his feet daily. He'll come around soon enough, though. He's still a bit on the scaredy side and isn't comfortable being out in the wide open spaces of the bedroom. He loves to hide under the bed, but will readily come out to play with the string toy. However, any little noise or quick movement sends him back under the bed. He's quickly enticed out with the toy, though. We're making progress with him, but it'll take lots of patience and TLC for our little man.


Here he is playing with the string from under the bed. This was our first time to let him out to play.



He loves to grab the string and kick it with his back paws. He's so uncoordinated that it's comical to watch him.



He's got the cutest buttons on his tummy and a stripe under his chin that is so adorable. I think I'm in love!


Okay, off to feed the baby and get some shut eye. Look for frequent updates on Mr. Tumbleweed!

We're Expecting a Little Boy!

A little kitty boy, that is! The husband and I have decided to expand our cat family by adding a little boy kitten to our home. We really hadn't planned on adding a third cat to our home because one of our cats is old and has some kidney problems. Stress isn't good for her, but I think we're prepared for what's to come. Our other girl has feline herpes and stress can trigger a flare up. Both of them are in good health (for them) and I think they'll do fine. However, after reading this little guy's rescue story and seeing his pictures, I knew he had to come live with us.

Here's the story his rescue mom posted on July 1st on the cat message board I read. The "bridge" she is referring to is the Rainbow Bridge.

[quote]OMG! Just did a dramatic rescue...was almost a "bridge report"

Tonight my hub, daughter and I were at the pool for my daughter's swim team practice. An hour into the session, a HUGE thunderstorm broke out so we all quickly packed up and headed home.

We were at an intersection and the water was rushing down the streets all the way to the curb. We stopped at a red light and out of the corner of my eye I saw a small kitten come out of the rushing water and grab the back tire of the suburban in front of us and climb into the wheel well! I immediately yelled at my hub, "Get out and tell them not to drive, there's a kitten on their tire!"

He ran out and stopped them and then I turned on my flashers as he looked at the tire. Now, dh is not one to ever "get involved" and he "gave up" about 5 seconds into it. I told my daughter to stay in the car and I went out. I ended up more or less sitting in the running filthy water and called the kitty and looked. It took about a minute and I saw it so I just reached in blindly, hoping for the best, grabbed and pulled him out. He responded with a lusty cry of protest.

Another car had pulled over and a young man said he was so glad we'd seen the kitten too as he'd had to circle into the parking lot and knew he'd probably be too late to save him. I said that I'd take the kitten and we loaded him up, wrapped him in my daugher's swim towel and headed home.

I called my neighbor, the cat breeder and asked if he could bunk at her house for the night. She had a cage prepared for him by the time we got there. We gave him the once over and noted no fleas or apparent diseases. He's a boy, about 10 weeks old and a plain brown tabby with an ENORMOUS low "boy voice" for his small size. He's now settled in with a cushy bed, litter tray, food and water. She'll call a friend in the morning about taking a "new barn cat" and I said I'd pay for his neuter if she will. I cannot take any more cats for myself.

Anyway, I'm soooooooo glad we were able to save the kit's life. I would have been traumatized for MONTHS had the light changed and the car moved. Now I just hope his new "forever home" is just a phone call away.

Thanks for listening....[/quote]

We've been exchanging messages for the past week and I've been working on the husband to say yes to adding him to our home. I've stressed and worried over what the new kitten will do to our girls and how they'll respond and whether or not I want to put them through the stress of adjusting to a new kitty. I've worried about kitten-proofing my house and how much more stuff (clutter!!) we have now than we had 5 years ago when we added our last kitty. I've stressed over the fate of this little guy if we didn't adopt him. So much stuff to consider and think through. Mainly, though, I had to win over the husband, no easy task! I finally got him to commit and say yes this morning, after having numerous discussions about the kitty.

He'll be coming home on Tuesday. The lady who has him lives about 75 miles southwest of Fort Worth, so we'll be meeting Tuesday morning to make the trade off. He's already had his second deworming treatment and had his first kitten shots. He's been cleared of all the bad kitty diseases (feline leukemia, FIV, and heartworms) by the vet and is estimated to be 8-10 weeks old. He's too little to be snipped, so he'll have that done when he's 6 mos. old. He's been eating well and has already gained 1/2 pound. His fur is getting softer since he's getting healthier. He did have some flea bites, but he's been de-flead. He also was a bit anemic, probably from the flea bites, but he's gotten a B12 shot for that and is expected to recover on his own just fine. He's been introduced to the mom cats at the cattery and did very well with them. When I spoke with his rescue mom this morning to make arrangements for the meet up, she mentioned that the lady who's keeping him had moved him to a bigger area with a cat tree and he was going crazy with it! Guess DH is going to have to get busy making a cat tree for our house.

He needs a name, too. He's currently called Percy, but that will change. Originally, he was being called Stormy. I like "people" names for the most part. We already have Callie and Hannah Grace, so nothing that sounds similar. If you have suggestions, leave them in the comments. Look for updates on Tuesday about his homecoming! I'm sure there'll be TONS of pics in the coming weeks and months of him, his antics, as well as with my other 2 kitty girls.