Smitty's Night Out

How many times have I typed these words? "Before I go on, I want you to know that Smitty is home and safe." As of this morning, he's assumed his alternative name for the time being...Sh*tty.

Here's the story: The kitties go out every morning, but first Mike rides the ATV all over the property and down into the woods to scare away any predators. We haven't even seen a predator all summer long, although we do hear them at night on occasion. Also, Mike has been outside with the kitties all summer, running saws, drills, and electric screwdrivers, riding the ATV, and running the tractor. In other words, he's been out and making a lot of noise. Also, we check in with the kitties about once per hour, just to be sure we know where they are. Then, they're in every afternoon around 2:30...well before nightfall, and it's all been going smoothly. No close calls that we've been aware of.

Yesterday, the routine was much the same. Mike was outside making noise, I was inside cursing cleaning the refrigerator. (Clean now! We can actually open the door without gagging!) Mike left for the hardware store around 10:30 and returned around noon. It was about that time we both realized it had been quite a while since we'd seen Smitty. At that point we weren't too worried, but when coming-in time came and we still hadn't seen him, we started getting a little nauseous. Then, dinner. Then, sitting outside reminiscing about all the good times we'd had with Smitty. Then, we both walked the property calling and listening, thinking he might have gotten up a tree. Then, Mike rode the ATV all around trying to scare him home. Then, bedtime. We went outside and called and looked again, this time with a flashlight, hoping to see his glowing eyes. Nothing. When I woke up at 3:00 a.m. I went outside yet again and called. Still nothing. When we got up this morning, we were convinced the worst had happened.

Then, we went downstairs, and who do you suppose was sitting at the door, meowing, hungry, and looking all miffed at having spent the night outdoors. (We left the catio and kitty door opened, but closed off the rest of the house to keep Sadie from getting out.) Oh. My. Gosh. I didn't know whether to kiss him or kill him, but I picked him up and hugged him for all he was worth.

Interestingly, the image above came up on my Facebook memories this morning with the caption: "This is how your cat looks when he sees a bad woofie in the yard." That's kind of how he looked this morning...a little shell-shocked. We suspect he got chased up high in a tree and spent the night there. It's unlikely he got into anyone's garage. Our neighbors are all too far away, and he wouldn't have roamed that far.

Regardless, the end of the story is this: Both kitties are confined to house and catio until we leave on our trip. We're too old to be staying up all night worrying about the "kids." If one of them went missing now, it would be awfully hard to leave on our scheduled departure date. We feel as if we've dodged a bullet.

So despite all the terror and worry, I did some sewing yesterday afternoon. Right now I'm working at finishing five more blocks for the Mulligan Stew quilt. If you're new to this blog, I'll tell you that this quilt comes from the book "Hobo Quilts" by Deborah Henninger. You can read more about the book and the quilt right here.

Yesterday, I did these blocks. The first two were paper-pieced. Let me count the ways these two blocks reminded me of why I hate paper-piecing. If I had more time, I'd enumerate them one by one.

The next one was back to this-quilter-friendly fusible applique.

Sadie, oblivious to the worry about Smitty, decided my fabric was a purrfect place to attend to her purrsonal hygiene.

When I told her she wasn't being helpful, she said, "Help? What is this, 'help'? What an odd word. I'm afurraid it isn't in my vocabulary. Please explain."

Later, she took a nap on Mumm's the Word. Shhhhhh...baby is sleeping.

Today we're heading down to the Oregon State Fair. I'm glad Smitty came home just so we could enjoy seeing the quilts at the fair. It would have been kind of a bummer otherwise.

As for my projects, I'm trying to do a little work on all my WIP's before we leave on our trip. If I'm successful, I'll finish two more blocks for Mulligan Stew, and I'll make the March block for Tuxedo Tales...this one:

It's looking promising, and so I'll keep plugging away. Now that the refrigerator is cleaned, I feel as if I can conquer the world!