S T A C Y V E R B

Local shout-out: LifeLine Animal Project

As regular Stacyverb readers know, our humble home attracts stray kitties like nobody's business.  We joke about it, but the fact is, the stray critter population is out of control in many places, our neighborhood included.  In the nine years we've lived in this house, SIXTEEN cats or kittens have shown up at our house needing help.  (For the record, we have only kept three of them!)

LifeLine Animal Project understands this problem.  Located in Avondale Estates, LAP is a non-profit organization that provides many animal services for the community.  Among other things, LAP offers low-cost spay/neuter services for feral cats.  In the past two weeks, Adverb and I have caught the two stray females that have been hanging around our house (one is the mama cat of the foster kittens, and the other is her older daughter) and taken them to LAP to be spayed.  We then released them back into our neighborhood.  (If we can't tame them and adopt them out, at least we can, shall we say, close down the kitten factory.)  Total cost?  Forty bucks...yes, that was for both kitties, and included rabies shots.

For those of you who aren't cat magnets and might actually have to seek out your next furry friend, LAP also has animals in their no-kill shelter who are waiting to be adopted!  Take a look here at some of the wonderful kitties who need permanent homes.  And yes, they have dogs, too!

I can't say enough good things about LAP and the important work they're doing.  Please explore their web site and support their services if you can.

Adoption day for foster kittens

As you know, for the past month, we've had a pair of adorable kittens lodging with us.  We've had great fun helping them make friends with humans, and watching them grow, play, and learn to eat solid food.  With all these skills in place, it was time for them to leave the proverbial nest.

Here they are, about 7 weeks old, posing for one final pic with their proud foster people.  And then...

...the happy transfer to adoptive mom, Molly, and her boyfriend, Will.  Baby girl kitten (with Will) now goes by the name Jessie and baby boy kitten (in all his fluffy glory) is now named Sulley. 

It was a bittersweet moment.  We'll miss these little cuties, but are so happy we could find them a good home with someone we know, and that they will be together.

Bon voyage, foster kittens!

Monica visits from Raleigh

This week one of my bestest buds was in town for a work-related thingie and we got to spend some time together.  Monica and I met in college 20 (yikes) years ago and she currently lives in Raleigh, NC.  Saturday night, Monica and Christy and I gathered at my house for an evening of fun.

Monica brought a bottle of this wine, which I hadn't tried before but now definitely recommend.

Christy spent some quality time with boy foster kitten and my official party mascot from our college days, Eager Beaver.

As you can see, girl foster kitten felt very comfortable hanging out with Monica!  Good friends and a cute kitten...hmmm, what's missing from this picture?  Oh, I know...

...a second cute kitten! :)  They are such social little creatures* already, and really enjoy climbing on people.

We had a great evening playing board games, drinking wine, and ordering Chinese food.  As often happens when I'm with Monica and Christy, I laughed until I cried.  I laughed until my face hurt.  And isn't that the best sign of a good visit?  Yo, Slick...come back soon!

*FOSTER KITTEN UPDATE: One of Adverb's co-workers wants to adopt both of them together!  They should be weaned in another couple of weeks and ready to go to their permanent home.  Hurray! 

Fun with foster kittens

Yes, that's right, KITTENS, plural.  Later the same day I posted about the baby kitten who had appeared at my house, I saw the mama cat (yes, this mama cat) carry a second baby up the driveway and deposit it in the rosemary bush with the other kitten.

The good news is, the mother is hanging around and taking care of the little cuties.  The bad news is, there is a family of "stray" felines living on our porch (again).  The other good news is, they're really damn cute.  Witness...

Soggy kittens snuggling on a blankie after a rain storm.

Baby girl kitten cuddling Adverb's arm.

Nap time!  Boy kitten (first to arrive) on left, girl kitten on right.

We took many shots to get this one picture.  They were being wiggly.

Baby girl kitten belly!

We estimate they are about four weeks old now.  In a few more weeks they'll be able to be weaned and to get adopted.  Since we've been petting them since they arrived, they should never fear people, so that is already one step up from their mother.  (Although I have to say, she has been very generous in letting us handle and play with them--hasn't hissed or growled about it at all.)

Sigh.  I'm sad that there are more "stray" kittens in the world, but glad they found us so we can help them.

We already have plenty of these, thanks

You know how sometimes you're in your living room on a beautiful Saturday, and the windows are open, and you hear a noise outside that sounds like a kitten, but then you say to yourself, "No, that's not a kitten, that's just a bird that sounds like a kitten."  Yeah, well...

...at my house, all too often, it really is a kitten.  Sigh.  Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?

San Francisco, part 6: Local color

We conclude my San Francisco travelogue with some random shots of interesting stuff that just didn't really fit in any of the other posts.

San Francisco has lots of cool murals in many of its neighborhood.  This was one of my favorites, in some alley off of Valencia.

This one is cool because it is the whole front of someone's apartment or studio.

I met Cricket the poodle while shopping at this really amazing fabric store in Berkeley.  I loved how glamorous she looked here, riding in her shopping cart, with all the shiny fabrics behind her.  Her human told me Cricket had just come from the beauty parlor.

This tableau in the parking area at the Golden Gate Bridge cracked me up.

More wacky signage, this time in Japantown.  I love the graphics on these, especially the smiling shrimp on a platter.

More of the weirdness on offer in Japantown.  This was in the window of a crazy toy store.

Hustle and bustle in Chinatown.  This was our last day in San Francisco.

We also took a walk down by the piers on our last day.  (There's Adverb, in full-on tourist mode, by the lamp post.)

Later, we caught the red-eye back to Atlanta.  This was not a relaxing vacation by any means--it was stimulating, exciting and fun.  Thanks for letting me show you the highlights!

Random post of randomness

Yes, suddenly I reappear after two weeks of blog silence.  There hasn't been anything major to report (no news is good news, I guess), but here are some snippets of recent activities.

 

I got this little sweater ready for my cousin's new baby.  Cute, eh?  The yarn really did all the work here.  It's Mochi Plus, a new offering from Crystal Palace Yarns (now available at Decatur's own Sheepish).

 

My friend Melissa has hired me to create her "something new" for her upcoming wedding.  This is the design I've been working on for her earrings and necklace.

As always, there have been art parties to check out.  Here, Adverb lounges in the usual wacky atmosphere at Alcove. 

 

This fuzzy cat and her kitten have become regulars on our porch.  We have hopes (delusions?) of taming them so someone (preferably not us!) can adopt them, but so far they've resisted all our attempts to pet them.  They are getting braver, though--here they are peeking in the window at us.  Aren't they adorable?  Don't you want them?

 

I have great plans for one last summery sewing project, which so far looks like this.  Yeah, I haven't gotten very far.  I need to step it up because I want to wear the dress to...

 

...San Francisco.  Ten days and counting until we head west!

Matchmaker, matchmaker...

Last month my friend Judy (aka Christy's mom) mentioned that she was considering getting a dog.  Someone small, someone who didn't mind cats, maybe someone who needed rescue.

A few weeks later, I was strolling to the library when I met a woman walking two very cute dogs.  I stopped to chat and pet the dogs because that's how I roll.  The woman told me she was just fostering these dogs, they needed real homes, etc.  I wished them luck and we parted ways.  But then suddenly I remembered my conversation with Judy.  I wasn't sure how serious she was about her dog search, but I couldn't let this chance go.  So I stalked the dogs around the block, asked a few questions (the foster mom had cats, and the dogs didn't mind them a bit!) and got their contact info. 

Long story short: this is Max.  He has a real home at Judy's house now.

Although the details of Max's background are quite sketchy, he is believed to be a Chiweenie--that's part chihuahua, part wiener dog.  100% cute and charming.

The vet says he's full-grown, between one and two years old.  He weighs 12 pounds.

I love helping critters and humans find each other.  Congratulations, Judy and Max!  May you have many, many happy years together.

Clever marketing ploy

The other day at work, we had a visit from some students who were distributing a free newspaper.  It's about dogs, they said.  Could they leave some on our front counter?  Sure, sure, we said, being animal lovers.  

A closer look revealed that the paper was the West Highland Herald (as in West Highland terrier), and it was full of clever and hilarious "news" stories written from a dog perspective, about dogs, for dog "readers."  As we puzzled over who published this paper, and where, and why, and how do I get a job there, we noticed that the whole back page was an ad for a brand of dog food.  The whole publication is like one big ad for the food, although the product isn't mentioned anywhere else in the paper.  Genius!  And truly funny!  It makes me want to buy dog food, just to reward the company for making us laugh out loud.  And I don't even have a dog!

The West Highland Herald has a web site, so you can read it for yourself.  Funny stuff.  Be sure to follow the link to The Choking Bone, a mini-tabloid full of doggie scandals.

Critter spotlight: Nacho

On a cold night in November 2007, Adverb and I were minding our own business, eating some chili and watching old episodes of Monk on DVD.  Suddenly we both heard a small mewing voice, one we didn't recognize.  Adverb went outside to investigate and when I followed him, I found him on the porch holding this:

A very cute kitty who appeared to be about 3-4 months old.  She was hungry.  She was purring as Adverb held and petted her.  We gave her some kibble, which she gobbled up immediately.  Since it was cold outside, and there had been coyote sightings in the neighborhood, we brought her into the house and gave her a blanket to sleep on in our little pantry room for the night. 

So.  We put up signs and tried to find out whose she was (we assumed she had humans somewhere, since she was so people-oriented, not like some skittish stray).  No luck.  After a few weeks--although we were smitten--we still considered her a foster kitty, so taking her to a shelter didn't feel like an option.  We wanted to place her with someone we knew, where we knew she'd be safe (and maybe we'd have visitation rights!).  Eventually, of course, we accepted the fact that we had a new kitty.  (Adverb's version of this is slightly different: he claims I always meant to keep her and that my search for her "real" family was just an act.  Not true!)

Okay, so maybe I didn't always know she would be staying, but I think she always knew it.  My main sidekick, Dinah M. Kitty, had gone to kitty heaven that April, and even though we still had three wonderful critters with us, a kitty-shaped hole definitely remained in my heart.  Some people tell me they think Dinah sent Nacho to take care of me.  I don't know about that, but I do know that since that night when she arrived on our porch, I've had a new sidekick. 

Her first visit to the vet revealed that she wasn't as young as we'd thought.  Judging by her teeth, the vet said she was at least eight months old and therefore full-grown.  She wasn't a kitten, just wee!  She still only weighs 5.5 pounds, thus her main nickname, Pip Squeak. 

She sure does cram a lot of personality into that petite little body, though.  And as for her given name, Nacho?  When we still believed she already belonged to someone else, we felt like we needed to call her something while she was staying with us.  But what, we wondered, do you call a kitty who isn't yours?  Well, of course--that is Nacho Kitty.  But she is now!