Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cats, and Yarn. Not always a good combo...

Every day I come home from work to find that any yarn I have left out is littered about the house. Even if I have tucked it away carefully, and almost hidden it inside of things, those cats find it and drag it around the house like a dead mouse.

Last Friday morning, I woke up and opened the basement door to let the cats out. They sleep in the basement because they are still rambunctious kitties - and will meow at all hours of the night right outside our bedroom doors. I had enough sleep deprivation when my girls were infants, and I'm not wanting to relive that, so the basement is a perfect place for them. Anyway, they normally race out of the basement and head straight for the kitchen for their breakfast. Maisy came right out, but Lucy was nowhere to be seen. This is unusual, as Lucy LIVES for food. So I knew something was wrong. I found her in the basement, looking a little freaked out, and chasing her tail. Upon closer inspection, I realized she was not chasing her tail, but rather chasing the 6" piece of yarn that was hanging underneath her tail. Need I say more? She had obviously eaten some yarn, and it was not quite through her system. (She has good taste - it was Koigu!) I called the vet and they wanted to see her to be sure what yarn was left inside her, wasn't wrapped around her intestines. So I put her in the kennel, and drove all the way down to Charlotte. I left her, and a few hours, a kitty enema and $122 later, Lucy passed the rest of the Koigu. It was another 2.5 feet! So that yard of Koigu is perhaps the most expensive yard I've ever purchased. Moral of the story, when you have cats, you REALLY need to be careful with your stash! Once they start chewing on a piece of yarn, they can get it stuck and then they HAVE to swallow the whole thing. Anyway, she is fine now. But it was more than a bit dramatic!

This week we've gotten a lot done at the shop. Remember our 5th Anniversary Sale is next Saturday, May 19th from 9am-5pm! We have been pricing samples and BOY are there a lot of them. Every time we get rid of a yarn, we have to pull all the samples - so we have quite an inventory of sweaters, bags, scarves, etc. DON'T miss it! Cash only for samples - they'll most likely be set up outside the shop.

This week we received a LOT of new colors of Ultra Alpaca - many heathers and wow - are they gorgeous. They will be online soon, maybe today... though I have just put up 6 new sweater kits, and I think I need a break from Photoshop and the computer in general.

The big relay is on May 27th and it's RIGHT around the corner! I am running 8.6 miles (legs 1&2) and I've been working up to it. I actually ran 6.2 on Sunday and felt great! Well, I felt great while running it... afterwards was a different story! Kalen is running leg 3 (6.5m) and Michele and Barb are doing legs 4 & 5 (each 5.5m). So as a part of my training, last night I went running with a group of folks from Fleet Feet, which is just down the street from us here in Essex Junction. We only did 3.1 miles last night, but it was a little faster than I normally go, and so it was a great workout. Fleet Feet has a free running group - one on Wednesdays at 6pm - for people who can run a 5k but are working up to a 10k, and then one on Thursdays at 6pm - for people who are just starting and will run/walk and work up to running a 5k. Do any of you want to join? Two or three of us will be doing the Wednesday group. It's fun! A number of the people who were there last night had just run their first 5k. It was neat to see how excited they were - they never thought they could do it, but with practice and a supportive group, they all did do it!

No comments: