Cat Calamity

Well, I hardly know where to start on today's post. So much has happened, it's hard to know whether to start with the good news or the bad news. But since some of you have expressed your concern about Sadie's ears, I guess I'll start there and put an end to the wondering. 

Now here's something: if you're wondering how two people catch a tiny, but very strong, little tortie and load her into a cat carrier, I offer up this image as a warning:

What you see there is the salt and pepper shaker and the Tabasco on the floor. On the counter, you see the broken glass from a candle holder, and a broken ceramic doo-dad. This all happened as we tried to prevent Sadie from jumping up into one of her favorite hidey-holes from whence there can be no retrieval. I would encourage you to click on the link I've given you to read a blog post where I have described said hidey-hole. 

It's always a pain in the keister trying to capture her for a morning trip to the vet. In preparation, I'd closed the door to the downstairs. She has a place to hide down there that we've yet to figure out. Okay, so one avenue of escape cut off. Then, I stuffed a roll of paper towels into the other hidey-hole in the kitchen. She went for it. Then, discovering her error, calamity ensued. We caught her, but not until the house was in a shambles.

So, she's been to the vet and back. The vet could find no obvious reason for her itchy ears: no mites, no ear wax, no infection. The vet suggested it might be a seasonal allergy and offered us a "pill" to try. No, thank you, we said. If we can't catch her to put her in her crate, there's no way on this green earth we're going to be administering a pill.

When she was back home again, she lay inside the open catio cleaning the vet stink off herself.

Pew, Sadie...you've got it bad!!!

Okay, so here's the other near-calamity I have to tell you about. I didn't mention this yesterday because, frankly, I didn't want to talk about it. While we were out on the boat the night before and heading back to the launch, we hit something submerged in the water. This isn't unusual in the Willamette River. There is a lot of floating debris in the water from trees...I'm talking branches...bits of trunk. Most all solid objects are marked with some kind of warning float. So, we're motoring around, fast, but not overly so, when we hit something we couldn't see. It threw the propeller out of balance, and so we had to motor back to the launch at no-wake speed. That was the reason we were getting the boat out of the water in the dark. When Mike got back from the vet yesterday, he had a chance to survey the damage. Here's what he found:

It was a 2 x 2 piece of lumber, and the propeller chopped into it like an axe! We've never seen anything like it. It was wedged in so hard that it required a tool to remove it from the propeller. So the next job was to inspect the leading edge of the propeller blade for any damage. As it turns out there was none. Yay! Disaster averted! 

We've been boating for more than 30 years, and now, two summers in a row, we've had something like this happen. If you remember our disaster from last summer, you'll understand why we were so happy that this turned out to be something minor. Maybe that would always be the case, but it was especially true this time around. There is a lot of construction going on in that section of the river...houses and docks being built...I really hope the construction people aren't throwing their debris into the water for unsuspecting boaters to pick up.

All right, so let me follow these two calamities with the calmer news from the sewing front. The 12th of twelve snowflakes is finished. This one has 115 tiny beads on it. What a pain in the neck (literally) this was. It's a good thing it was the last one and not the first one. It is pretty though.

After that, I caught up on some more housework, and then made my way into the sewing room to finish sewing together the Garden Sunshine blocks.

After that, I added a border and then laid it out for it's picture. Oh...wait.

Saaaaaaaaddiiiieeeeee!!! Mom finished a quilt! We need to inspect it!

Stop yelling, Smitty. I'm right here...and let me just tell you...I have only one nerve left after the day I've had, and you're getting on it. We need to make this fast because there's napping to do.

Okay, well, that didn't take long. I'm happy to say the quilt is kitty inspected and appurroved.

And I'm feeling pretty smug about having my September OMG finished. I'll link up to the party at the end of the month. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be so quick about this, but we're heading out in a few days, and I wanted to get this goal checked off.

So, now I'm in a quandary about the backing. Smitty and I chose this one a couple of days ago.

And we liked this for the binding:

But when the quilt was finished, I realized I didn't have enough of the backing fabric without adding in something to piece it together. I didn't like that idea, and so I revisited the stash and came up with this one. I have enough, but I just don't know. It might be a little too far on the pink and yellow side.

If I used it, I'd use this for the binding:

And I know there's some rule about using a fabric from the quilt top for the binding, but this is my quilt. I make my own rules. And anyway...I'm not happy with either of these. And then...(smacks hand to forehead)...I realized we're heading out on a trip. Maybe we'll visit a quilt shop along the way. Maybe I'll find something on the road. So, that's what I decided. I'm undecided. Either I'll find something along the way, or I'll make up my mind when we get back. All I can say is that these sorts of quandaries are a lot more fun than boating calamities.

So with that I'm signing off for the day. I have one more housekeeping chore to do to feel caught up. I'm planning to harvest some plums and apples for a dessert tonight. If there's time for sewing, I'm going to sandwich and get started quilting the Half Square Affair quilt from my trashy series. What's on your list for the day?