It rained all night. We really need that rain here. I woke up a few times in the night. Since Cody's gone back to work Winter has been trying so hard to meld molecules with me when we're sleeping such that she almost pushes me off the bed. You parents to big dogs and human babies alike probably know the drill: every time you turn over the kid inches just slightly closer to you so you inch just slightly back. As the night goes on you find you've moved a foot or more. Sometime Wednesday night I tried sleeping sideways on the bed with my back to the pillows. I got smooshed up against the wall. The really disturbing part is her spine is about as long as mine when we're back to back. Big dog, short lady, using 1/4 of the big king-sized bed while the cats could get the rest but usually they choose to lie on the other side or right on top of me.

Frequently I'm a Phunq/Winter sandwich with a Melon on top and a side of Kurry on a big bed of linen garnished with a whole bunch of pillows.

Don't tell me to make the dog sleep on the floor that's just not happening with that sad face and our owner-dog-as-child-replacement codependency. Who watched last Sunday's episode of Huff? Did you hear Huff's mom talk about her ridgeback sleeping in bed with her? That was cool. I love ridgeback spotting. There's one jumping up to kiss a man in a Sheraton commercial that's been playing too. But you have to pause to see the ridge. That caught my attention as I was fast forwarding through the commercials.

Ridgebacks seem to be getting really popular now. I know the (good) breeders view this as a mixed blessing, as that means more people will be adopting them when they don't know what they're getting into or they're more likely to be bred by people who are greedy or don't care about the health and well-being of the breed in general or the individual dog. They're good dogs but ridgebacks certainly have their own minds about things. And that usually involves food or their "person" but usually food. I love my dog but she's terribly spoiled, like me, and, like everyone else in the house, needs to go on a diet. I could see people thinking they're cute but returning them if they were too "difficult" to train. And that is always such a shame.

Other than waking up three times a night to make the dog move I'm doing fine so stop worrying you people who get worried when I don't post often enough (you know who you are). I'm just in the mood to sit on the sofa and knit. I'm in the final stretch of my toe up 2 socks on 2 circs with koigu I got for my birthday last year. Just finished the heel and I'm on the cuffs! They're very bright festive socks, making me want to call them The Birthday Socks.

And I've been making a big fun fringy gypsy stole out of the various yarn I picked up at Artfibers in San Francisco. I really enjoyed that place it was cool for several reasons. I think my favorite part (aside from the incredibly cool yarn at extremely reasonable prices considering the length and content) was sitting in the seating area with the windows open onto the busy street below. It felt very urban loft chic but the sounds of the traffic below was strangely comforting too. Like a different kind of white noise than the ocean. My white noise is usually a fan, various snoring beasts, and a familiar movie. Yep, my house is a mess, I let the pets sleep on the bed, and I sleep with the tv, you wanna make something of it?

So. Good news all around. I finished my mom's scarf on Saturday. (Don't click this Mom!) I'm pretty proud of it. It's a bit longer and wider than the mini pattern called for but that's a good thing! And it's soft. Soooo soft. But I haven't blocked it yet. Not sure I will. Nor have I sewn the ends in. But I'm sure I'll do that.

I also spun the last bit of holiday themed yarn, which is coincidently the last of Madison's Romney wool that I dyed on Thanksgiving.

It's called Hard Candy Christmas. Yeah I like Dolly Parton songs, particularly ones from that movie about a whorehouse. Hope that doesn't blight your opinion of me.

It's 216 yards, a light worsted weight and I'm selling it for 20 dollars even.
I'll put it up in the shop tomorrow but, of course, I'm giving the blog friends a sneak preview. So let me know if you want to snag it before I put it up.

I managed to get to the lab this morning so they could do my hormone bloodtests after fasting all night. They're still trying to get the thyroid hormones balanced. And checking some other hormonal stuff. The new doc thinks unbalanced hormones may be causing the anxiety attacks. Which are better thanks to new meds. But still. They're scary as all shit when they come on me like they have. So it was nice to get that done this morning.

AND I scanned the Santa photos! Yay! These are the best two of the four they took.

Sorry about the larger sizes but they're too cute to be shrunk.

So now all I have to do is work on dad's cabled scarf, wrap some presents, and do some laundry for my trip to B'ham. We're going to forego the big tree this year and just do a little tabletop one on the dining table. And apparently last year I stored the holiday movies somewhere really weird because I can't find them. I'm sure at the time I was thinking how great a storage spot it was. Now I have no clue where they are.

I've been meaning to get a video of the real hedgehog bonking around with her head in a toilet paper tube (we call it tubing) and post it for petblogging monday but I'm tired and lazy today. One of those bad days in my head yesterday. Long story, maybe I'll write about it. The good news is Mr. Man's weekend starts today so maybe we can go do something fun.

In the meantime my new friend Erin sent me this rockin little pet. Go pet her and see what she does. Add a "huff" sound to when she jumps and a wet wiggly nose and you've got a pretty good animated example of what real hedgehogs are like.

adopt your own virtual pet!

Oh, and I found zippy in the driveway the other day but it was fine! I stopped Cody from backing out of the garage so the zipster could run back to the sideyard. I've been making him check the driveway every day before going to work lol. The good news is Zippy was on the back porch this morning munching on the fruit I'd put out the other day. It was a bit dried out so I put some cut pears down and Zippy was happily holding the fruit still with its front claws and munching away on them. Despite the crazy construction going on behind and NOW in the next-door neighbor's yard. No idea what's going on there but they had a backhoe running. Yeeks. Well, at least I don't have to stick needles in Melon while the house is vibrating anymore. She's doing great! Bugging me to feed her the nastyass tinned kipper snack as I type.

edit ten minutes later - Well, the UPS guy rang the bell when he left Winter's greenie subscription and guess what else I found on the front porch? Another baby turtle! Looks like we have a front yard and a back yard Zippy! I should give him some sliced pear as well now.

I've been trying to keep my posts about knitting and sick pets to a minimum lately but the Melon cat has been doing it again: refusing to eat no matter what I put in front of her.

We've been through all kinds of cat food brands and flavors, wet and dry, and plain old tuna, I even gave her some grilled steak I was eating when she seemed interested in it. It's a bad sign when she throws up within a minute of smelling food though. That means she's nauseated again. It's an even worse sign when all that comes out is yellowish stomach acid.

So we went back to the vet this morning to get more liver tests and get a refill on her anti-nausea meds. When they weighed her last month she was seven pounds. She's five and a half now. Seems she's dehydrated again as well, despite my trying to give water with an eyedropper. So they did another subcutaneous iv with fluids, added a vitamin shot and some antibiotics, gave me a quick lesson in how to give her a subcutaneous iv at home and sent me on my way with my own iv bag of fluids, needles, liquid and pills for the anti-nausea meds, more science diet prescription a/d food, and some new oral syringes.

And a creepy metaphor about how Melon's been circling before she goes down the drain. Oh, thanks!

We had a different doctor today, one of those kinds that's really good at making you feel like a crappy pet parent no matter how much time and money you've put into keeping them well. And he looks just slightly too much like Dr. Phil for my personal comfort. (Have I ever mentioned just how much I hate Dr. Phil?) Insinuating things like assuming that the other pets might be eating her food and I'm not noticing. Uh, no.

Melon has her own wet food that I feed her at specific times on the counter and I stand there and watch her eat until she finishes then I cover it and put it back in the fridge. If she's not interested after a few tries I leave it in the guest room for the other cats and try something else. These days the cats have unfetered access to two completely different brands (Science Diet Senior and F & S Hairball Control F & S Adult Light mixed together) of dry cat food at all times. Phunq and Kurry share two kinds of wet food at least once a day. Usually it's a fish-flavored Fancy Feast grilled which is the only thing Kurry will eat these days and a Foster and Smith can of wet food that Phunq will eat.

The dog has been on a diet so she gets 1/2 cup of dry dog food (F & S Lamb and Brown Rice F & S Canine Adult Light mixed together), 1/2 can of unsalted green beans for filler, and a tablespoon of mixed dry supplements which include Barley Dog, joint supplement dry mix, and Missing Link Vetrinary formula. She gets that three times a day. She also gets one greenie a day.

The hedgehog gets a mix of F & S Adult Cat Light dry food, Spike's Delight premium, Zoo insectivore, and Old Mill sprinkled with Bugs n Berries, Missing Link Cat formula and Peanut Bugger. I usually toss a few roasted mealworms and a calcium gut-packed cricket on top as well. Sometimes I give her a teaspoon of baby food or cat food as a special treat.

Kiss my ass that I don't take good care of my pets bucko.

We have a new celebrity in the house and she's been exploiting her status to endorse a candidate.

Ok I'm kidding. She probably wouldn't support Kerry she'd probably want whomever the green party candidate is. She pretends to be all spiky and tough but she's just a big bug-munching hippie that spends most of her day on her belly with her head in a toilet paper tube. This anomaly is why I think hedgehogs might be my animal familiar but that's another story.

Anyway, Dell mentioned a new pet blog the other day and they've been taking pet photo submissions! If one gets chosen you might get a fun prize for your pet! So I submitted one of zola, a few of winter and the kitties too. So right now there's a loverly shot of Zola at the top of the page and we'll be getting a surprise in the mail soon!

It's a great site with lots of interesting articles (they also accept submissions for journal entries and such) and even pet related news so go check it out and we'll try to keep Zola from demanding million dollar contracts and only whole brown roasted waxworms in the downstairs room of the cage.