Welcoming Willie to the Family

A few weeks ago we welcomed a new kitten to our house.

We first met her in June at Wiscoy when we were picking up food for Chica and Butler. The Hundred Cat Foundation was hosting an event and they had a bunch of kittens there along with many volunteers introducing them to people at the store. They regularly have cats at the store for adoption.

At the time, she was called Ashley and she was found with a really bad eye infection that made her very weak. If they didn’t cure the infection, they were afraid she would die but removing the eye was also dangerous as they weren’t sure she would make it through surgery because of her weakened state.  Obviously she survived. Both Mike and I held her and she was so adorable and snugly.

Over the next few weeks we talked about her on and off and I checked their adoption site to see if someone finally took her in.  At the very end of July, they posted a picture of her on their Facebook page and we talked about her more and decided to visit again just in case we had to have her.

It turns out we did and on August 10th we brought her home. We renamed her Wilhelmina, Willie for short, like the pirate in Goonies.

She lived in the laundry room for her first day and a half at home to ensure a smoother transition with Chica and Butler.

She met her new brother and sister under the door.

And Chica and Butler waited patiently on the other side. As you can see, we rubbed Willie’s scent on various rags and towels and had them all throughout the house so that they could get used to having her smell around.

And then finally, it was time to meet.

Chica took a day or two to warm up and hissed at her constantly. Through this process, we assume that Chica is in charge around here.  Butler, on the other hand, went right up to her and began to chase her around and play.

By day four, Chica and Willie were buddies and everyone was mostly adjusted again.

They watch as we leave for work in the morning.

And they play a lot. In this video, all those noises are Chica’s and I promise they are happy sounds.

Willie is a very welcome addition to our household.  She is so sweet and cute.

 

Weekend Project

Two weekends ago we gave away the bed in the guest room and we’re getting things together so that I can have a room for me in our house.  Remember my card catalog? As soon as we find someone strong enough to help Mike move it, it will be ready to use in my new space.

But for now, I was concentrating on this great little $5 wooden desk that Mike picked up for me from Penn State’s Lion Surplus.  They had tons of these desks which are solid wood except for a laminate top.  Mine was mostly in good shape except for some places where the wood was scratched.

I took it outside to start sanding and in about five minutes, it was pouring so I ended up working in the garage for the rest of weekend. Sanding was much easier than I thought it would be, but fortunately, this desk didn’t have much surface to cover.

I chose a bright, sunny yellow color and got started.

This is what it looked like after the first coat.

Maybe it was my painting technique but I did four coats of paint just to play it safe.  And I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Chica already seems to like it.  It’s placed perfectly for looking out the window.

Knitting Challenge

Butler is usually good about just laying in my lap while I knit.  But tonight, he wanted to play.

If they were a celebrity couple, they’d be ButChic

Okay, people have heard me say that a million times, but it’s true!  And it’s still just as funny to me as it was after Mike told me that a week after we got them.

Here just a few recent shots of Butler and Chica. It’s so hard not to be a Crazy Cat Lady when you have little guys like these guys.

Oh, and don’t worry – laundry no longer sits up there since this happened.  Too dangerous!

Like I Needed Another WIP?

In the past two days I worked a couple more pattern repeats on my DNA Scarf. This pattern looks so cool but it requires paying attention to what you’re doing since all thirty something rows are completely different and not memorizable.

Last night, Mike and I decided to watch a movie and since all of my current WIPs really require me to pay some kind of attention (okay, not the socks that just need a simple ribbed pattern on the top but they’re in a long hibernation), I figured I might as well just start something new.

About two months ago, my friend Ali sent me this beautiful yarn in a Secret Turkey exchange among a group of friends.

The yarn is Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester DK and it’s from Nova Scotia.  A few weeks ago when I was organizing my stash, I realized that it would be the perfect yarn for a Honey Cowl.  I guess I’ve had that in my mind since then and watching a movie seemed to be the perfect excuse to get started.

I didn’t get far because I had to ball the yarn (I don’t have a swift or a yarn winder so I do this by hand over my legs) and cast on and get started.  But I love how it’s started and it is such an easy pattern.

I cast on 160 stitches to make the in between size cowl and I suspect it might not be as wide as the pictures.  But I can tell this is going to be warm and pretty.

Butler really seems to like it.

Or maybe he just likes that the shade is open and he can see the snow from a safe distance.

And here’s a bonus of both of them. Because Chica was there too.

 

Caught in the act

I found Butler and Chica doing a whole lot of snuggling today.

They are such good friends.  Butler recently taught Chica how to play.  She was always one for chasing string and Butler carried toys around in his mouth and chased them all over the house.  Now she’s doing the same thing with the toys.

Those guys!

Only a little bit left of my cuff to knit. Not sure I like the colors I chose but I didn’t have any large amounts of leftover yarn so I had to use a few different at once.  We’ll see how it turns out.

 

The Guys!

These are our guys.  We adopted them on Friday, April 13th from Centre County PAWS and it feels like we’ve had them forever.

This is Chica Barnfell.

She is a little six pound tortie who will be two in August.  She’s miniature – a perma-kitten. As a result, she’s called Chica but she also goes by Peanut and Nugget and a variety of nicknames of those three names.

She also has this respiratory issue where she snorts and wheezes a lot. They had her checked out a variety of ways and we are assured that she’s fine. The vet suspects that she had a cold or other infection as a kitten and as a result, her respiratory system didn’t fully develop. But she can run and keep up with the other kitty so that’s all that matters.  Plus, the way she snores is kind of adorable.

This is Butler Lynn Belvedere.

He’ll be one in August and he’s already bigger (especially longer) than Chica and probably weighs about ten pounds.  He is the goofiest kitty.  When he’s playing, he makes these sloppy but slick moves that make him seem like a comic ninja.

Butler is big on toys.  He carries them all over the house in his mouth. When we adopted him, they gave us a bag of his toys and he came to us with a little yarn pom pom that we called Rainbow Guy. Poor Rainbow Guy has slowly died all over the house. So recently, I grabbed some yarn scraps and made them tons of new toys.

Here is Chica snuggling up to a new toy in her bed.

And here’s a bonus of Butler, ignoring his toys, and trying to hunt bugs outside the window.  Look how long he is!  Plus, see how he is being naughty but it is sort of adorable and hysterical?  Yeah, that’s how cats get away with doing things you’d never allow anyone else to do because they are too cute.

Here is a history of their closeness.  They were mere acquaintances that first day or two.

Then they slowly got closer.

And now they sort of do everything together when they are awake. In a little over two months, I am confident that they are super tight. They both clean each other now regularly.  The next buddy milestone I’m looking forward to is finding them sleeping with each other.

And here is the most recent shot of the buddies. If they were a celebrity couple, they’d be ButChic.