Finishing Friday Number 3

So I had planned to work on the Christmas quilt today, but I struggle with quilting on the best of days. On days like today when I am seriously short on sleep it is best to just step away from the quilt.

Why, might you ask, am I short on sleep?Why else?

Ever since the kitty water torture therapy, Theo has been coughing pretty regularly. Initially I assumed this was due to hairballs caused by his continual licking inbetween water sessions. So, we regularly smeared him with a hairball goo that he absolutely hates and which he managed to fling onto every surface in the house. A tube and a half of goo and a lot of scrubbing later, we concluded it wasn't hairballs. The last trip to the vet revealed that my little sidekick had gained 3 pounds since his surgery and the vet really seemed to peg me as a big sap and sold me some pain killers and arthritis medicine to see if he could become more active which might theoretically help his breathing. One day of the pain killers gave me a comatose kitty, so we dropped that and just spent a lot more time playing. But he still coughed. So, Wednesday I took him to a different vet--one who had helped us during the entire cast ripping-off episode.

Theo has asthma (and has lost two and a half pounds--yay!).

In general, the asthma wouldn't be so bad, but ever since we have curtailed his outside privileges, he has been using litter boxes more, and of course the clumping litter we have been buying creates a lot of dust & has made his mild asthma much more noticeable--and has covered every upstairs surface with grey dust. The doctor gave him a shot that will clear up his symptoms for 6 weeks and told me to switch cat litter.

A normally easy-going cat, Theo has learned to HATE vets, and spent all of yesterday hiding and sulking. I spent all of yesterday groveling. At 3:00 this morning, Theo was ready to forgive me and was really insistent about it, so that was the end of sleep for me.

Going on 5 hours of sleep, I decided knitting with big needles was my best bet today, so I finished the front of the yoke sweater
(and why they pattern isn't just done as a normal raglan is anyone's guess. Maybe someone at Vogue thinks seams are fun?), and I started the sleeves:I was hoping to be able to say I had used up one more ball of yarn today, but I'm not quite there. But I am really jazzed about perhaps finishing two projects in a row, so maybe I could finally be contracting a little case of "finishitis".....

Comments

Gaidig said…
We have been using the swheat scoop litter, and it works quite well. We don't have a dust problem.

The yoke sweater looks good. I have a thing against seams. When I knit a pattern with them, I usually alter it to eliminate them. It's usually easy to do. That being said, I have seaming to do this weekend.
August 28, 2009 at 11:38 PM
Jillsknit said…
Theo is starting to sound like little Bert. He had deep inner ear infections as a baby ans many, many vet visits later he ended up with Belle's Palsy (still has it some) But all the vet visits left him with a fear of people. When I'm alone he's the sweetest, friendliest, playful little guy but the second he hears a car in the driveway - he's gone. Hope Theo overcomes his traumas and stays the Theo you're used to!
August 29, 2009 at 7:24 AM
Daniele said…
I've come to the conclusion that Vogue just wants everyone to look at the patterns and not actually knit them. Of course, this hasn't stopped me from buying the magazine and knitting the patterns.....

Poor Theo. I use regular cat litter, and then add just a tinch of the clumping in there. It seems to work for me.
August 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Suna Kendall said…
I agree with Daniele about Vogue Knitting. And wow, I didn't even know cats could get asthma. I sure had boring cats! On the other hand, dogs with allergies are driving me bonkers.
August 30, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Kathleen C. said…
Are you sure that 3:00am visit was "forgiving" you?...
August 30, 2009 at 3:18 PM
RobinH said…
Aw, poor Theo. And poor Toni, being awoken at 3 am!

Ours randomly takes it into her head that the arrangement of the humans is inauspicious, leading to her *desperately* wanting a human on the couch in the living room (because sleeping on him there is just *better* than sleeping on him in bed). Fortunately for me, I'm a heavy sleeper, and so do not take the brunt of these episodes.
August 30, 2009 at 8:51 PM
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