Sunday, July 27, 2008

My Madaline



Madaline, my cat, is a tortoise. She's over 12 years old, sometimes ornery, but she's all mine. She recently went through, and put us through, some significant trauma. While we were on vacation she suffered what the vets believe is a stroke to her spine. We came home and she was completely paralyzed on her right side. Poor thing. This cat is all about independence. So for about two weeks, we excercised her, took her to the litter box, etc. We also engaged a vet to give her accupuncture treatments. She was doing some movement on her own, perhaps by dragging. Then, one saturday afternoon, she just stood up and started walking. She looked like she was drunk, but she was doing it. And everyday since then, she has gotten a little bit better. She's not afraid to try anything, even if it doesn't fare well for her. She's learned that her front leg isn't going to respond every time like she wants it to, so she's compensating for that in how she moves off of furniture and down our stairs. I really admire her fortitude and compuncture. I saw this post this morning about the sacredness of animals and was inspired to write a little about my Madaline.


Through all of this, we learned about not only the steadfastness of our love for our animals but their trust and love for us. Madaline knew that not all was well for her, but she trusted me to keep taking care of her. In additiona, we engaged a vet that does accupunture and a friend that does chiropracty to help Madaline along. While Mad wasn't excited about the treatments, she looked to me in trust while they were occuring to keep her safe. And as an aside we know that these alternative treatments really made a difference in her recovery. Mad showed significant progress following both types of treatments, and both provided immediate pain relief for her of one type or another at one time or another. We're both excited to be back in the sunshine!

Friday, July 25, 2008

New Question

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit?

anywhere in my house. I love upstairs in my living room, or downstairs in front of the TV. I also love outside in my garden, where I'm very inspired. the mosquitoes are a bit tedious this year though.

What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

water to drink, sometimes an audio book, and my imagination.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

One more Cookie A pattern

Look what I received today from my Secret Pal... Gothic Spire from Cookie A. WOOT. I can't wait to start knitting. Thanks Secret Pal. I'm off to be a hospitality volunteer for the Register's annual great bike ride across Iowa (better known as RAGBRAI. This year it is going through Ames. What is a hospitality volunteer? Well, I'm going to cheer all those 15000 bike riders as they come into Ames.

Thursday, July 17, 2008




This game is making the rounds of various blogs. It also appears to be a good way to avoid your mundane tasks.......






Create your own by creating your answers and placing them into the Search feature on Flickr and then copying and pasting the URLs into Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker.







The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Anita
2. What is your favorite food? pesto
3. What high school did you go to? Yankton High School
4. What is your favorite color? olive green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? dwight yoakum
6. Favorite drink? water
7. Dream vacation? italy
8. Favorite dessert? banana split
9. What you want to be when you grow up? a gardener
10. What do you love most in life? flowers
11. One Word to describe you. virgo
12. Your flickr name: knittinggardener

Do you think bylooking at this that it actually gives you a pretty good picture of me?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Secret Pal #6

What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?

I take it all. I always over pack projects to take along. I never ever know what I might want to work on. something simple, something hard. I take too many books, cuz I want something to pick from. I take my embroidery hand projects too! And, they always take up space in the car--plan on it! LOL. and then sometimes all I do is lay in the sun. but I always work on something in the car. I'm glad of the variety though, keeps me stimulated.

Hey secret pal, wave to you! I recd your postcard. Mount Sugarloaf looks to be a very pretty area! Iowa is not all flat either, nor cornfields. LOL

Secret Pal Question #5

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?

I love water water water. combine that with bike riding and family and friends that would be awesome!

2) Where is one place you’d like to go?

Italy, that would be cool.


and considering I just got out of the hospital after a surviving a ruptured ovarian cyst... I'm up for anything right now!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Another SP Question

1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?

Hmmmm....this one I have to think about. I am an impulse buyer when it comes to yarn, so, oh wait, I know.... I haven't fulfilled any of my desires on the STR line and I don't have any Cider Moon. plus I would just love someday to purchase the peacock yarn that the harlot used by perchance to knit.

2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

I just adore yarn by claudia's handknits. and I do like the bamboo yarns, they are so nice to use, and feel so good against your skin. oh, and shuibu.