Fa Sing

On February 5, 2017, Fa Sing died. He was a bluepoint Siamese cat, 10 years and 8 months old, and the most joyous, devoted, attentive cat I've ever known.

I've had a lot of cats--more than 20--and he stands out in a way that startles. From the first time I met him, he answered to his name. He was only two months old, and we were visiting the cattery to see him and his brother (Than Chai, whom we still have). Fa Sing means Blue Lion, and it was clearly his secret cat name.

He had an enlarged heart, and I mean in every way. He was opinionated, but so forgiving. When our rescue attacked and injured him, he still treated Shadow kindly, and even played with him (his brother, however, never forgave Shadow for attacking Brother).

Fa Sing was with me most of the time, and if I left he met me at the door, and told me all about his day. He followed me, "helped" me drink my coffee in the morning, and slept in my arms every night. If I turned over, he crept over my shoulder and nestled back in on the new side.

He leapt up to ride on my shoulders, let me drape yarn all over him while I was knitting, and even woke me a time or two when I was having a nightmare.

I couldn't save him, but at least we were able to keep him alive about a  year after he was diagnosed, and in the last months of his life I was lucky enough to spend whole days cuddling him and comforting him.

Missing him is still taking over my life in part, and it hurts. It hurts a lot. But it wouldn't be this painful if knowing him had been less wonderful. That silvery, little, pointed face with its wide blue eyes will live in my heart forever.

Colds and Knitting

You'd think the two would play nicely. But with my sinuses all mucked up my brain seems fuzzy. The pumpkin hat was simple enough. But I don't even want to work on the easy lace socks I'm making. And the 30s dress is out, thinking is necessary for that one.

Here's the pumpkin hat before it got to its real owner. Tommy agreed to model, but he looks a little confused. I'm not sure what he thought he was agreeing to wear.

I made a simple garter stitch shawlette for my MiL and am working up an easy ruffle for edging. I managed to make four dishcloths for my SiL's Christmas gift. That seems to be the extent of my knitting ability presently.

Here's hoping this rotten cold will vacate the premises, and soon.

Still. It did provide us all with at least one photo of the Prince of the Harvest. Maybe it's not all that bad.

Quest for a Cat-Safe Christmas Tree

I've been lucky with my pets. Until now.

Than Chai (you remember him, Destructo, The Wonder Kitty?) was a little too fond of trying to climb the tree last year. We locked it into the guest room, but this year there's no room, as it now contains a bed.

So I was mourning the lack of a tree this year, in advance, while paging through a book on Christmas cookies and had a flash of genius. Or hope, or something like that.

What about a tree with ornaments no more breakable & valuable than a cookie? Mind, I haven't gotten to baking the cookies yet (though the dough is chilling even now in the Monitor Top), but over the past week I have done the following:

*gilded walnuts
*made snowflakes from silver doilies
*collected large pine cones, sprayed them w/white paint & added glitter
*studded tangerines with cloves and hung them with ribbon
*bought candy canes

I am going to take a chance with my angel. Only his head is breakable, and the boys haven't tried to climb the tree once. Fa Sing does reach up and ring the bells. I hung lots of bells on the tree to set up an alarm system. It works pretty well, except when the heat sets them off.

Today the Victorian tin icicles arrived from The Vermont Country Store, and they're on as well.

When I have the cookies in place, I'll take some pictures and post them. Probably before next Christmas, but don't place any bets. It's safer that way.

Christmas and Cats

An interesting combination. Especially when the cats are young and haven't grown up with an older cat to teach them their Ps & Qs. Thai Shan would have kept the boys in line, just as Sud Ying taught him (yes, all Siamese. of course).

Than Chai. Of course. As bright as Fa Sing is, he's smart enough to not get caught when he does something naughty. Brawn-sans-brains always gets caught.

On Sunday he knocked down the tree. An artificial tree, so no water or heavy stand, and just lights, no ornaments yet, as we've been trying to ease them into the idea of something pretty that is not a cat toy.

Still, this means the tree will be moved up to the guest room (there's still space, we need to get more furniture). DH didn't want to do this, but I insisted. We had no tree at all last year, as the boys were tiny and into everything...and I love my pretty ornaments. Most of them are blown glass or crystal, of course. And Than Than still hasn't come down from killing his first mouse. (With my luck, the next one will run straight up the tree...if word hasn't gone out on the mouse grapevine.)

So much for cats and Christmas; we'll see how things go with the tree. Maybe we'll get the ornaments on this weekend.

Knitting isn't going fast, either. If I'm lucky I manage about eight rows a week on the Hope sweater. Which means that I'm on row 53 now. At least it's past half-way!

As for the Interminable Stole, ugh. I've decided it has to be "done" (whatever that means) this week so I can block it and send it off to TX in time for Christmas. The boys will be sorry to see it go. They snuggle under while I'm working on it.