Monday, August 27, 2007

Good Idea / Bad Idea

Two steps forward, two steps back.

Travis got to an attic mouse caught in the sticky trap in time - I always hope that we'll get them before they expire, and he got this one. (I don't love rats or anything, but I do want living creatures to have as much right to life as we do.) Travis pulled it out of the glue, put it in a bucket, and later transported it to a nearby empty lot. (With a rather lot of not-help from me - I was supposed to hold the bag open so he could put the rat in it, but I ended up screaming, dropping the bag, running inside and slamming the door, and the rat got free. Travis managed to catch it and get it in the bag himself, but he wasn't pleased with how completely girlie I turned out to be. Understandable - I mean, I was a little surprised myself.)

However.

He also, after two years of threatening, decided that he had finally had it with paying the groomer to give Rooster his late-summer haircut (when he gets hot, he starts over-grooming, so he usually gets a haircut around August), and he made a decision. He decided...gulp...he decided...

He decided that he can shave the cat himself.

I'll spare most of the gory details, but let's just say that there's a good reason why you take a cat to a groomer. Rooster has been remarkably patient about the whole thing, but we have indeed determined that this is a task best done by a person with training, patience, a harness, and actual pet trimmers (as opposed to whatever hair clippers are found on sale in the shaving department.)

(Before you call the ASPCA, Rooster's fine, good-natured, and unharmed, and completely unshaved as yet. He has a small bald patch near his tail, and he's been given a rather lopsided trim, but the whole thing was so hugely unsuccessful that the project was abandoned before any real damage could be done. Also, he's still convinced that he's the prettiest thing in the world - that cat will never suffer even a small blow to his self-esteem. I'll get a picture to prove that he's still in one piece, if not a little raggedy-looking.)

Weekend: Three more skeins of handspun. More on that later, probably. The knitting is still largely secret - sorry! I did start a boring stockinette sock so I'd have something public...and I bet you're dying to see pictures of a stockinette sock. (However, it is knit with one of my new favourite yarns.)

Fiesta Boomerang

It's like knitting with kittens, it's so soft and yummy and delicious. (Hopefully Travis won't try to shave it.)