I'm So Behind

 I am so behind on my blogging. I didn't intend this to happen, it just did. Life was pretty difficult all March and April. I got very sick. There was a virus going around and the Parkarosa household got it. It knocked me out for almost 2 weeks, then I got something else making me sick. That turned out to be a serious sinus infection. My doctor got me a prescription for an antibiotic and it killed the infection, but it took awhile. Now I'm feeling a lot better. But what a miserable month that was.

In April I sprained my right knee --- in my sleep! I have no idea how that happened. First I knew about it was when the pain woke me up and my kneecap wasn't in it's right place. I pushed it back into place (OWW!) but the tendons were in agony. It's healing, slowly. I'm glad I own a cane.

Another thing not going well is my husbands heart. He has Afib and they have not been able to get rid of it so far. He's had 2 Cardioversions and 1 Ablation. He left the hospital feeling good all three times, and then his heart returned to the Afib. It's affecting his quality of life badly. His doctor said he's lost 20% of his hearts ability with this. He is running out of breath very easily and just feels so lousy. It makes me want to cry.

I went with him to his last appointment with his cardiologist and we're looking at another surgery. It was suggested and, to my husbands surprise, I went for it. I told the doctor I'm tired of him effin around my husbands heart and lets get this fixed properly. I need my husband back to his old self. We have a meeting with the heart surgeon later this month, but we've had to wait weeks for it. We have too many patients and not enough doctors in our area and it's really affecting all of us in a negative way.

Then there's the awful news. My boy, Merino, started coughing up blood one day in March and was definitely going downhill, fast. In addition he stopped using the litter boxes completely, and was drinking an enormous amount of water. Life became nothing but cleaning up cat messes all day, every day. Not a piece of living room furniture was left un-peed on. He was in a lot of pain too. We could see it in his face and how he moved. Not behavior for a cat that's supposed to be as healthy as a horse. 

We took him to the vet later that day, which was March 17th. We ended up having to put him down. He was dying and in pain. I don't know what it was that made him so sick, but it was definitely good at hiding from the vets. Now we'll never know what it was.

Merino Park

2013 to 2025

He was almost 12 years old. He was an awesome hunter and general trouble maker. I'm missing him so much. I don't have my morning cuddle with him anymore. My other cats, his brother, Cashmere, and grandkitty Boba have handled it well. Cashmere looked for him for about a month and finally stopped. They definitely loved each other. I feel bad that there's no way for me to communicate what happened to his brother. I had him cremated and buried in a group burial. It's the first time I haven't brought a fur kid home for burial. The ground was frozen and we couldn't handle trying to bury him. There's no way sweet hubby could have used a shovel, even if the ground was not frozen.

Well, after all that negativity, how about a positive. When my husband and I discussed when we were going to apply for our Social Security, one of the things my husband said was we could afford to buy me a new Prius if we applied. We did just that. This is my brand new blue Prius.

I am very happy with it. I need to mention, though, that I stalked this car. After we applied for Social Security I started researching for a new Prius. I wanted one that was colored with something other than Black, Grey, Silver, or White. I don't know if you've noticed, but the overwhelming majority of automobiles are those colors. Anyway, about a month before we went to the Parker Toyota dealership in town, I was checking their web site fairly regularly. Nothing but a greyscale selection of cars. Then one day, a Blue one appeared on their web site labelled as ordered from the factory for inventory. I checked that car every day. I saw it loaded in Japan, shipped across the ocean, and arriving in port in Oregon. When it arrived in port, I called Parker Toyota. I told them I wanted that blue Prius. They called us when it arrived at the dealership. They also reserved it for me. I put down a deposit for that. 

I love my blue Prius. It's so cool! It's had a lot of changes made since the last one I owned (which was the 2012 Prius V I bought two years ago). It's been redesigned to be a somewhat larger sports car. It has a lot of power, but still gets the same mileage as the old smaller one did. I'm lovin' the immediate response when I push down the gas pedal. It has a lot of electronic doodads I've never seen in a car before. Heated seats, heated steering wheel, cameras all the way around the car. It tells me when someone is in my blind spot. It beeps if a human is near. The cameras for backing up are so much clearer. It can tell me when I've drifted across the lane edge, and correct it - if I had that turned on. Assisted driving is what they call it. It actually can steer the car all by itself. I haven't tried it yet though. It has cruise control too. In fact, there's so many little doodads I haven't figured them all out yet. I also have a sun roof which I'm enjoying now that spring has arrived. It's really nice to drive, and even better-Sweet Hubby fits in it and can drive it comfortably. Hurray!

There's more news which I will address as the week progresses. I've been finishing projects, and starting new ones. It's kept me sane through all the stress that's been in my life. Until then...

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday September 20, 2023

 Current knitting wips. Cardigan for my next Layette set. The dark teal has a sparkly thread in it.

First Christmas knitting. Starting a little early this year. It will be a pair of socks. I found a super cool pattern on Ravelry that combines slip stitch and twisted stitches. I've chosen a turquoise and a coral for the colors. 

Several weeks ago I started a pair of mittens that were going to have cats on them. Well, I couldn't get the gauge required. I tried using a slightly thicker yarn and that didn't work either, so I chucked it until further notice. Last week I dug around in my library and I've found another pattern with cats that is similar. I will get that going after the above socks are done.

My kitty, Merino, is sick. Came down with something last night. Started peeing and pooing and lots of projectile vomiting. Poor little guy. He was still sick this morning and now he has bloody diarrhea. I called the vets office and they have no time available. Not one minute! What the.....?! She said call at 7:30 tomorrow morning and maybe they can fit him in then. Good grief. We've decided to keep a close eye and call in the morning. If that doesn't work, I'll have to call someone in Coeur d'Alene. Sigh. He's been sleeping all day, except for a brief time in a lap where he purred because of the scritches.

In the meantime, our weather really cooled off this week. They're talking snow in the mountains and frosty mornings. It rained a little bit this morning, temps in the 60's. The sun came out later this afternoon. Last week was great! Perfect temperatures. Clean air. I spent time on the deck.

That's it for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Purple Buffalo Checks

 I have been so frustrated with the blog lately. I've been trying to post on here for weeks, but just couldn't find the time, or couldn't take the pictures, or what not. Had lots of ideas for posts too. Oh well. I didn't finish anything in January anyway. This is the first finished knitting project of 2023! Zoey has a new sweater!

Pattern: Buffalo Check Zoey Sweater by Me

Size: Custom Zoey

Yarn: Big Twist Value
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: Purple

Yarn: Red Heart Soft
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: Black

Needles: Circular size 5 and 8

Started: October 22, 2022
Finished: February 7, 2023

Comments: I love how this turned out. It fits Zoey perfectly! I took the Patons Basic Coat pattern (from the Patons book  Patons 939, A Dog's Life) and modified it to fit Zoey really well. I added 2 inches just below the neck ribbing to accommodate her extra long neck, and added 2 inches to the belly part to make it a little longer underneath. I also decreased the neck ribbing by 10 stitches so it's a little snugger. One more thing is I mitered the welt at the back corners rather than making them rounded.

I took the Buffalo Check chart from a hat pattern, Plaid Toque by Lisa Overby. It was a challenge to get the measurements correct. Zoey can't sit still for a tape measure. She wiggles all over!  

Zoey is super happy with the sweater.

One of my cats has not been feeling well. Merino has been not 'right'. He seems to be constipated, his fur is dull, he's not as energetic, and he was off his feed just a bit. Worst of all, he's been pooping in the living room, on the area rug, at night. I can't put up with that kind of behavior. 

I took him to our vet. The only thing they could find wrong was that he was a bit dehydrated. A couple months or so before, my daughter talked me into changing the cats food. I think that is probably the problem.

Merino has a really sensitive digestive system. We have to feed him a special Urinary Tract Health formula or his kidneys will act up. I was feeding him Purina One Urinary Tract Formula. I've been feeding it to my cats for 10 years and they've been very healthy. Turns out, daughter didn't want the cats eating it because it has corn in it. "Corn is not digestible by cats (or dogs)". So I let her change the food. She was feeding them Science Diet Urinary Tract Formula. It has no corn. Well, it's not doing my cats any good either.

I did some googling to find out about corn in pet food and found out the corn in cat and dog food is just the protein of the corn kernel. Not the rest of it. It's highly digestible, and very good for domestic fur kids. My vet said I was feeding them a very good quality food before we changed it (The Purina), so I've changed it back.

The other thing I've done is get a water fountain dish. Apparently, little water fountains encourage cats to drink more water. I bought one from Amazon, the ORSDA Cat Water Fountain Stainless Steel, Pet Water Fountain

It's stainless steel, holds 67 ounces/2 liters of water, and the pump is so quiet you don't even hear it. It took a bit before the cats started using it. They enjoyed sitting and watching it for the first couple days. Zoey, on the other hand, being a dog, just drank from it and left the room. Now they're completely ignoring the old water dish, and it's true. They do drink more water now.

Merino is showing signs of getting well. He's eating better, and using the litter box some. Went 3 whole nights without going in the living room, until yesterday morning, where I stepped in it in my bare feet because I didn't see it. Cold, slimy, smelly, and gushing between my toes. 😖😖 I washed my feet over and over in hot soapy water trying to get that feeling to go away.

In the meantime, I was in our local Bi-Mart store a week ago Friday and ran across a little appliance called the Bissell Pet Stain Eraser. It's a little hand held portable cordless carpet cleaner for cleaning up pet messes. SOLD!

 The fact that it's purple had nothing to do with my purchase, either. After buying it, I found out I have an old model (explains the big discount price). The current one is blue. I've used it twice and 

I LOVE IT!

It works absolutely awesomely! Perfect for my low pile wool area rug in the living room. It's easy to fill with the special cleaner. It sprays the liquid cleaner on the stain. Let it sit a couple minutes, then you suck it up with all the dirt. It even has a little brush to work the more stubborn stains. It even sucked up the mess I ground in when I stepped on it. No sign there was a mess there. Easy to empty the dirty water tank too. It has a rechargeable battery. It'll hold a charge for about 15 minutes. I am so glad I wandered into Bi-Mart that day.

Well, that's the news for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's Fair Time

 Today I took some entries for the 2022 North Idaho State Fair. I had just a few for KnitWits. 9, to be exact. For myself, I've entered just 5 items. 

I have 4 knitting entries.

Lovelia, of course, entered as a whole set.

The Bonnie Isle Hat in Adult hats.

The Argyle Mittens in Adult Mittens.

And the Orange Children's Mittens

I also entered the Peyote necklace with Black and White Checks. It was made the year there was no fair because of the pandemic, so it was okay to enter it.

That's it. They have severely decreased the number of classes to enter in, and you can only enter one item per class. They also charged to enter things like they did last year. I had to pay $1.00 per entry. This will be the last time we'll have entries for KnitWits at the fair. With such a drop in entries, and having to pay, it's not worth it to go to all the trouble.

I did manage to obtain some free tickets. The Crochet department supervisor needs two clerks to help her on judging day, which is this coming Thursday morning. Her clerks have crapped out on her and aren't coming, so I will help her. It's about a 2 hour job, and free tickets are well worth it.

We did get a few days of cooler weather. Last Thursday it was one of those rare absolutely perfect days of blue sky, a few puffy white clouds, a nice cool breeze, and the temperature was in the mid 70's. I enjoyed it so much.

On Friday the air got smoky from a large wild fire a ways west of Spokane, Washington. The winds were blowing pretty stiff so I stayed indoors. Then the heat returned. It was 91F today and it's going to get hotter over the next couple weeks. The last blast of summer, before autumn starts tiptoeing in. I can't believe it's almost over already. 

How about a cat picture? My boys were looking so cute laying together on their favorite chair.

Some territory disputes have been happening between them and Boba so they've banded together a lot lately. Doesn't matter. Boba is still winning because young and sassy.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday Again

I've got 2 knit projects in the works for this post. First, I've started the second of a pair of gold child's mittens. They'll be size 4-6.

I've also got the knitting done for the matching hat to the entrelac cardigan.

Just needs blocking and sewing together the pieces. Still haven't found a pattern I like for entrelac booties.

This week we are having glorious spring weather. Sunshine, blue sky, and fluffy clouds. It's very warm. I've been opening windows and doors and blowing out the winter staleness.

The hot tub is leaking yet again. I've told sweet hubby I give up. I'm tired of dealing with it. The damn thing is over 50 years old and it's reached the end of it's life. He's not willing, yet, to let go, so I leave it to him as to what to do next. If we could just figure out where the leaks are, we could probably fix it, but alas.

I had some problems with my new vacuum cleaner over the weekend. It would not suck. I discovered that I've been viciously abusing it. I never read the whole manual that came with it. Just enough to get it together and going. I've found out it has 2 filters in it that need to be cleaned regularly. They were thoroughly plugged up. They were very easy to clean. I had to wait 24 hours to put them back in the machine, but I could live with the big mess Zoey had made on the living room rug (decimated pine cone) for that long. I used a broom to sweep up the worst.

Next day I put the newly cleaned filters in and started her up. She still wasn't sucking. AARRGGH! I did more investigating and discovered the hose was plugged. It was so plugged I couldn't get whatever was in there to even budge. I sought the husband for help. He worked on it and eventually worked out the biggest chunk of felted cat hair and dirt I've ever seen. He said while I continued vacuuming with dirty filters, the dirt was compacting in the hose. I've learned my lesson. I will be cleaning those filters regularly from now on.

My cats are shedding like crazy. Despite my best efforts, I can't keep up with it. I've been brushing them at least once, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Still, large gray fluffy tumbleweeds drift across the kitchen floor. Balls of matted hair gather on the furniture. It floats in the air landing on everything. It piles up in the corners of the house. It's driving me crazy. Surely they should both be as bald as bowling balls by now judging by the amount I've been scooping up and tossing in the trash can. But no.

I tried one of the attachments on the vacuum cleaner for the first time today called the Pet Turbo Tool.

I used it to vacuum the cat hair off the upholstery of the new couch and love seat. It worked magnificently! Took every bit of hair off the microfiber fabric. I am so happy with this vacuum cleaner.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Rest in Peace

Chenille Park

2002 - 2017

I will miss you, my little girl.

Random Newsy Stuff

Spring is here. Yay! My flowering Cherry is in bloom. It has 4 small bunches of flowers on it.

Not as good as last year, but I'm not complaining. At least it's blooming.

My daffodils are in full form too. These ones were planted the year we moved here. We had a huge bulb garden. Unfortunately, the deer thought it was their personal smorgasbord. The only thing they didn't eat was these daffs. We planted grass and turned the bed into part of the lawn. The daffs survived and are 25 years old now. I admire their persistence.

This past week I've been working on a baby cardigan for the next layette set.

I got an idea to make it look like a lettermans jacket. It requires knitting in Intarsia if I want to knit from the top down and have no seams to sew. Haven't done Intarsia since I had my shop. I'm happy with how it's going so far.

I had intended to do a Caturday post yesterday, but my plans were altered. So I'll post the pics of my kitties now instead.

Chenille is hangin' in her window bed. She loves this silly thing and spends a lot of her time in it. It's just her size. The boys are too big to fit in it.

Here she is atop the cat tree. I actually took this before we moved the tree to the dining room. Just never got around to posting it. She loves posing for the camera.

I got Merino on the cat tree a couple days ago. He has his "I'm a ferocious panther" expression.

That changed when I started giving him chin scritches.

I could not get Cashmere to sit for a photo. I had to wait until he was asleep. When the boys did this, I had to grab the camera. They don't sleep together very often. There isn't quite enough room for both of them on this chair.

Some news I haven't shared yet. I was texting with my sister earlier last week, talking doll talk as usual. I brought up the subject of an Iplehouse JID doll I've been wanting. I've been saving the money I make teaching knitting classes for this doll. I went to the Iplehouse site to get the link so she could see it, and we ended up both talking each other into ordering new dolls. They were on sale. A good sale at that! Price was knocked down $150. I've ordered JID Asa. She'll have the same face-up as in this photo, and I've ordered that beautiful black wig for her as well. I could not get the red outfit. Not to fear, though. She's the same size as Sierra, so she'll fit in clothes I already have.It's no longer available I guess. She will be here in a few weeks. I'm excited.

We were discussing how hard it is to find clothes to fit these dolls. It's the biggest complaint about them. We're going to see if we can fill that need a bit and make clothes to sell.

Speaking of doll clothes. I've already been working on some dresses to fit the JID girls to sell in my Etsy store. The knitting is done. One is pink.

The other is light yellow with blue fur yoke.

Not very good pics (I took them with the phone while texting sis), but you get the idea. I'm making jewelry this weekend to go with them. Then it's official photo time.

It's a beautiful day out today. I think I'll go get some sunshine.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's a Hat!

Oh my goodness but I've been so busy! I had a great Christmas and New Years. We spent time celebrating with family. I got some great presents too. My husband got me a new laptop. It's a Lenovo. I was totally surprised. It's kind of cool. I can fold the screen backward and it turns into a tablet with a touch screen. It is also a lot faster and lighter weight than my purple Dell. I love my Dell but it has become obsolete. Most of the new software, including Windows 10, won't run on it, so it's time to let it go.

We got lots of new snow. Saturday night dumped a foot of it on us. It's bitterly cold too.
Single digits at night. Brrr..it's definitely winter.

In my last post I mentioned I'd broken my camera. It was not repairable, so I bought a new one. It's a Nikon Cool Pix B500. It's quite a bit larger than my old one. It is pretty cool too, though I seem to have a problem with keeping the shots from being blurry. It's supposed to have that hand shaking prevention technology, but it's not as good as my old Sony was. I think in time I'll figure out how to work around it though.

I've been getting things ready for the trip, moving vast quantities of snow, working on getting moved in to my new laptop (I'm using it to do this post), and learning how my new camera works. Yet, somehow, I got my Guinan costume done. Yes! It's finished! Here's the hat.

I worked on it all day yesterday. I used THIS pattern that I found with a Google search. It was a very challenging sewing project. Using a slippery stretchy knit fabric made for some frustrating problems that I finally solved with some iron-on interfacing. I'm extremely happy to have it done, and I'm quite pleased with it.

My fur kids wanted their pics taken with the new camera, so here they are. First, we have Chenille, who is 14 years old now. She yowls at me a lot since bringing Zoey home. She's not happy about it, but there's nothing I can do about that. Zoey stays.

Zoey is hard to get good pics cuz she can't sit still so I'm pretty happy with these.

Last week I took her to the vet to get her toe nails cut because the groomers was unexpectedly closed. I had them weigh Zoey for me. She's 27 pounds and almost 6 months old.

The cruise is just a few days away. We're leaving on Saturday, and I have so much to do yet. So I probably am not going to post much.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Live long and prosper. \\//

Hoping for Some Cat Love

Cashmere and Merino seem to be adapting to Ruth being away at college. They're doing much better than I thought they would seeing as how she was their favorite person in the house. They just barely tolerated me. For the first couple days the boys wandered around the house yowling loudly and looking for her. Then they got over it and went back to their normal selves and are having second thoughts about me. I'm helping that idea along with frequent offers of treats. They are all spending a LOT more time in my lap. I can't sit down without someone wanting to be on me.

At one point, Merino and Cashmere started to fight over me-in my lap. I put an end to that right away and did it without losing a single drop of blood. I know they don't actually care about me yet. They just want a warm spot to lie down and their favorite human is not available. But I like to pretend. Who knows, we might actually develop a relationship. In the meantime, Chenille, who does love me, is not happy having to share me now. She'll get over it.

Cashmere in my lap bagging z's.

When they can't be in my lap, they lay on the back of my chair half on my head. Sometimes Merino lays there batting me in the head because he wants his chin scratched. His butt half is heavy. My neck starts to ache if I don't push him off.

On Wednesday I took my car in to an auto body shop for an estimate on repairing some damage. Last winter (or was it the winter before?) my car slid into the mailbox when I was creeping up to it on the ice. The ice was a mound and the front tire just slid sideways right off of it. The result was 2 little dents where the front bottom corners of the mailbox contacted and a nice long scratch as I tried to move the car away. It's never bothered me, so I wasn't planning on getting it fixed. I saw it as a way to tell my dark gray Toyota Camry apart from the thousands of other dark gray Toyota Camry's around here. (It was the only dark gray Camry on the lot when we bought it. Thought it was unique. I didn't realize it was actually the last dark gray Camry and all the others had already been sold.) However, Sweet Hubby has been on my case to get it fixed lately, so I am. The estimate was lower than I expected, so I've made an appointment for the repairs. The closest appointment I could get was February 25th. Must be a lot of folks hitting their mailboxes this winter.

I had a couple Sears repair guys in on Friday to look at my stove. It's a ceramic top stove, and I love it. Doug and the kids gave it to me as a Mothers Day present several years ago when I still had my yarn shop. One of the front burners will only run on high. Off or high is all it will do. Nothing in between. Makes it hard to cook things, and it's the burner I like to use the most because it's a double burner. A large one with a smaller one inside. The guys figured out what is wrong and will be back on Monday with the new parts to install them. I'm looking forward to it.

While they were here, I also had them look at my dishwasher. Ever since the pump was replaced a couple years ago, it's never worked quite right. I get gunk buildup way faster than I used to. I find myself having to clean it out at least once a month, and the odor! Ugh! Turns out it's not my dishwasher that is the problem. It's the dish washing soap. The formula was changed in all dishwasher soap to eliminate a chemical that was bad for the environment, which I'm all for because we need to stop polluting the planet, but what do I do about the gunk? They recommended a product called Affresh, which is a cleaner that is supposed to clean gunk build up. It comes in tablet form. I shall acquire some later this week. They also recommended a different brand of dishwasher soap that they say works better than the one I've got called Finish because it has a rinse agent in it that helps decrease the gunk build up. I use the Costco Kirkland brand. I guess I'll try their suggestion and see if I like it.

Well, a cat wants my lap so I guess I'll sign off.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Little Garter Checks in Brown

A FO! Hurray!

Little Garter Check Mens Mittens in Brown

Pattern: Little Garter Checks  by me for Knitwits.

Yarn: S.R. Kertzer Northern Worsted
Content: 100% Acrylic, worsted weight
Color: Twig

Needles: Circulars size 5.

Cast on: March 5, 2015
Completed: April 9, 2015

I have an update photo for Hummdog too.

Just that corner is left! I see light at the end of the tunnel. I've had to slow down on it though. The stitching is straining my eyes quite a bit.

We had beautiful weather over the weekend. It was so sunny and warm. I caught Cashmere napping on the deck.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Friday Feline 2

This is Chenille's profile.

She's been in the family a long time, 12 years. In 2002 we went to the local shelter to see if there was a cat we could add to the family. Chenille was just 3 weeks old. She and her 2 brothers had been abandoned in a box on the doorstep of the shelter when it was closed. They weren't even on solid food yet. The heartlessness of some humans is appalling.

The shelter doesn't usually adopt out kittens that young. They care for them until they are 8 weeks old and weaned, but I assured them we'd do right by her. So they decided to trust us. I took her to our vet immediately. He gave us advice on how best to feed her and our adventure began. She had to be fed every 2 hours, including in the middle of the night, just like a real human baby does. My daughter Sarah took on the responsibility. She did a very good job, and learned a lot from the experience. Fortunately, kittens grow and develop quickly so the lesson lasted just a few weeks.

Chenille is MY cat. Or rather, she considers me HER human. She's a tiny little thing. Being taken from her mother too early stunted her growth. But she's my sweetie. She spends inordinate amounts of time snoozing in my lap when I'm knitting, or computing. She talks to me a lot too. I don't understand a meow she says, but I pretend to. This makes her happy.

We have a morning routine. When she thinks I should be getting up (based on her need to see me again, usually), she starts loudly meowing outside my bedroom door. Eventually I get up cuz she's very LOUD and insistent. I open the door. If the water dish is empty, she tells me about it and trots over to the dish to point it out.  If not, then she is just happy to see me.

She usually wants me to pick her up, carry her over to the living room window so she can look out for a minute, then she wants down. After that she waits, impatiently I might add, for me to feed the dog, make coffee, and do whatever else needs done before I sit down and boot my laptop. As soon as I sit down she's in my lap. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.

If she's feeling good, then it's a good thing. She settles down, purrs, and eventually dozes off. Occasionally, not as much as she did when she was young, she'll settle in for a session of toe sucking while I stroke her back. Like thumb sucking, but one of her front toes. She is most comforted by this behavior. Most of the time, though, she's in a bad mood. She doesn't feel well most days. She has a bit of arthritis in her back and she's getting old which makes her grumpy. Then it's getting in my lap, begging me to scritch her head, getting mad at me for scritching her head, yowling and jumping off in a huff, then returning 5 minutes later to 'reluctantly' settle down and go to sleep. She can be quite the drama queen.

Because I'm hers, she doesn't scratch me like she does the rest of the family when annoyed. She bats me with her claws in. Everyone else gets ripped open. Sometimes she'll be so cranky she bites. She doesn't bite me hard enough to hurt me, but she draws blood on everyone else.

I am thankful she chose me.

Live long and prosper. \\//