More posts coming soon

I still have more to post with photos of recent knitting. I have just really been finding it hard to motivate myself. I did take photos this morning of some of the recent knitting that I have finished. There is still so much more that I need to get done. Hopefully, I will get some knit blogging done in the next few days.

RIP Bandit "B-Nut" April 2006-January 18, 2011

This still really hurts a lot, but I really have to make it through this post. For a while, we thought Bandit had an upper respiratory infection. He had all of the symptoms...the coughing, runny nose, eye goop. We had brought him to a vet the day after Sasha died and they thought the same thing. They gave us antibiotics, but they were concerned with his weight loss. We started and finished the antibiotics. We thought he was getting better. He started doing the hoarse "Mer-ACH" that he was doing before he totally had lost his voice. We really thought he was getting better. The night of the 17th, we brought him to the emergency vet. They got him into the back and thought he had an upper respiratory as well. Until the vet finally got his mouth open and looked at his throat. He had a tumor that was blocking his throat. He started crashing. They put a tube down his throat so they could give him oxygen and give us time to say goodbye to him. We had to put him down. He passed away at midnight. We never knew he was suffering so much. The tumor that he had was an aggressive one. The vet thinks it was a squamous cell carcinoma. From what I read online yesterday since I was so racked with guilt and couldn't sleep and just wanted answers, that cancer, when it is diagnosed, the cat will usually only live 4-8 weeks. Bandit had lost his voice around Christmas.

We are guessing that Bandit was born sometime in April of 2006 and he adopted Darrin as a kitten. Bandit was Darrin's best buddy. Darrin often fondly remembers Bandit as a kitten loving to curl up around Darrin's neck when Bandit was in bed with him. I always remember Bandit having to lay on my chest and do the nose rub territory marking thing on my nose. Everytime he did that we always told him that he was wiping his boogers on us.



He had a knack for getting comfortable...no matter how uncomfortable it looked to the rest of us. Most of the time he was his most comfortable on one of the afghans that I crocheted. He liked to reach out and grip them as well as knead them.








He liked to hang out with his girlfriend, Misty. This photo was taken as Misty likes to call it during her thinner years.




He always used to check on me when I wasn't feeling well. He would also lie on my chest and purr as if he thought that it was helping me feel better. Honestly, just having him there always made me feel better.








This is Bandit on my chest and in the process of starting to booger me. He must have taken great comfort in knowing that we were his.



He enjoyed "bath-time" with Zeus. I guess it was a good thing that Zeus liked taking care of him. Granted with most of the other cats as well as Bandit, he likes to put them in a head lock while he is bathing them.


Of course, Zeus didn't mind having Bandit take care of him.





He would help me blog and like to play FarmVille, search for patterns and talk to our friends on the Grand Am Owners Club, Facebook and Ravelry.


He liked to hog the real estate of the bed and hang out with his family. Zeus is in the back on his back, Sasha is next to Zeus, Bandit is in the front and Monte is next to Bandit.



Bandit liked to cuddle with Angel a lot, along with cuddling with all of the other kitties. Angel and Bandit are a lot alike. I have discovered this over the past few days. Angel never hung around us much until Bandit passed. Last night she stayed on the bed with us for quite a while (she always used to run off) and this morning after I woke up, she went in to check on Darrin.










He took after Darrin a lot. When a siren went by the house, or a strange car went by, he would run to the window and look, or just perk up quite a bit. He even did that when he was sick.








He had such a laid back personality. I really don't remember him getting upset at anyone. He was always there for a cuddle when you needed one. I am really going to miss that. I guess that is why his son, Zeus is staying by my side. Zeus got that trait from Bandit.




This photo of Bandit he is holding my pouch of crystals. For some reason he liked them a lot. The more that I think about it, he was hanging out on one of my knitting bags toward the end. I just remembered that it was where I was keeping my pouch of crystals. They must have offered him some comfort.


These are 2 of the last photos that I got of Bandit while he still wanted to cuddle with me. I was working on the room sized rug that I am making and he just found comfort to sit on it while it was on my lap and I was working on it. He didn't even chase the yarn like he used to. He just wanted to be with me and sleep. These were taken almost a week before he passed.






Again, I am going to sign off with the poem Rainbow Bridge. I know he is there with Sasha and she isn't alone anymore. They are buried side by side in our yard. Just like they used to cuddle. This is the photo that I have on the screen of my cell phone. Just knowing that they have each other and father and daughter are together is a comfort.




Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Just remember to give your kids - human and furbaby alike - a hug and a kiss. Tell them that you love them. We never know how long or short they are going to be with us.

This was supposed to me my return to blogging post

Well, I guess better late than never to start all of this again. I haven't done much blogging or photographing of my knitting in the past 2 years. It isn't that i haven't been knitting and crocheting, I just didn't feel like doing it. I have decided to start again. These are 3 dishcloths that I made for my business partner for her birthday. I am attaching the links to the patterns for those who are interested in making the same dishcloths.

Dishcloth #1





Dishcloth #2

Dishcloth #3

This was not how I wanted to start blogging more

I wanted to be blogging about my knitting. I never expected to be blogging about Sasha passing. I guess we are doing ok. Yesterday coming home from work was a little rough. She was always the first cat to greet me when I walked through the door. Yesterday, it was Misty that greeted me. I don't think she thought it felt right either.

Darrin had a little of a hard time. He came out of our bedroom (where Bandit is in seclusion) and petted the 4 cats that were waiting for him. He kept waiting for Sasha to come stomping up the stairs (how something so little could make so much noise, I will never figure out). I was in our computer room at that point and Darrin came into the room in tears and hugged me.

This morning I realized something else that she did. She would jump up on the bed and stomp across my pillow to wake me up.

The morning before she passed, I should have paid more attention. I should have noticed that she wasn't acting the same. Yes, she was sleepy, but she would usually wake up enough to play with the wrapping paper when I was wrapping something. I should have listened to the voice in my head that was telling me to stay home, but I didn't. I wish I could have done something more for our Ooo Ooos. She was so young. She shouldn't have gone this young.

The cats keep looking for her. Zeus keeps going to the step that Sasha died on and sniffing and looking for her. Misty and Angel keep sniffing the towel that we carried her to the car in. I figured I should leave the towel there for them for a while. Bandit still has to be by himself until he is done with the meds. We also have to keep an eye on him to make sure he is eating and drinking...he hasn't started really doing much of either. Although he has perked up a little. He has been getting on the bed with us instead of staying on the back of the chair and looking ot the window. He walked around the bedroom last night and tried to do one of his typical things when he has a water bowl - he tried to flood the bedroom with it by knocking it over. This morning will be his dose 4 of 15. I am not looking forward to those last few doses. By that point, he will be fighting us more.

I guess that is all for today. If you have a pet, give them and hug and tell them that you love them.

Bandit Update

We brought Bandit to the emergency clinic tonight. We have been really worried about him with the sniffles. He has been getting worse. In the past 2 weeks, he lost 2 pounds. They ran blood work and urine testing on him and concluded that he has an elevated white blood cell count. He has concentrated urine with a high protein level. But his kidney and liver function is fine. He is on antibiotics for a week. The vet thinks he needs an abdominal ultrasound. We are going to wait and see how he is after the antibiotics. At this point, I am hoping and praying that he is going to be ok. After going through what we went through with Sasha last night, we need him to be better.

RIP Sasha "Ooo Ooo Baby Girl" August 24, 2007 - January 8, 2011

I know I am going to have a hard time with this post. I know I have to get all of this out. One of our other cats, Zeus is lying under the desk while I type this, purring up a storm like he always does. He must know that he is helping me to be calm.

One of our cats, Sasha, passed away last night. We were out at the Empire and Eastern Holiday dinner and when we got home, I was walking up the stairs to feed the cats. I found her lying on the stairs and she was unresponsive. I screamed for Darrin. We hadn't taken a close look yet and we thought it was Bandit, our cat who has had the sniffles and is going to the vet today to get checked out. We started CPR, wrapped her in a towel and sped off to the emergency clinic. She was still warm at this point. By the time we got there and handed her to the vet, she was gone.

Sasha was born on August 24, 2007. She was the kitten of Bandit and Misty. Darrin and his mom helped with the birth. I was not around at this point. Darrin and I were just friends. Sasha was the first one born. She had 2 siblings; Zeus and Angel. They were born in that order. Here is a photo of Sasha a few days after she was born. She is being held by my mother in law.

This is another photo with her and her siblings nursing from Misty. Sasha is the one in the middle, Zeus is cuddling Misty, Angel is the one on the end.



This is a photo of Sasha with Angel and Zeus. Again, Sasha is the one in the middle and, Angel is next to her and Zeus is barely visible in the frame on the bottom.




These are some photos that I took with Darrin's camera after I moved in. This is one of her and Zeus on the stairs...their favorite place to hang out and wait for us to get home. Toward the end, Sasha had taken a liking to wait for me to come home on the chair by the front door. I am really going to miss seeing her squint at me when I walk in the door after work. Zeus is on the left, Sasha is on the right.




Sasha LOVED windows. She loved to watch the birds and squirrels and talk to them. She was such a talkative kitty. A lot of the time she would just walk through the house, just talking to herself and then look at me to see if I agreed with what she was saying. I am really going to miss our conversations.




This one was taken on a winter's day in 2008 when we opened the windows to air out the house. As you can tell, they all loved the open window. Sasha is the one looking at the camera, as if to say "This is MY window, please tell them to leave!". Left to right: Angel, Misty, Zeus, Bandit, Sasha.



Sasha adored boxes. Didn't matter what size the box was, she had to get into it.







She was a very diplomatic cat. She rarely fought with the other cats. Sasha was always there for them to lean on and cuddle with if one of the other cats needed it. This is a photo of her and Zeus on a pile of Darrin's laundry.




This is a photo of her just chilling with Angel.




This is another photo of her cuddling with Zeus. She was his pillow, kind of like my sneakers are his pillow at the moment. Guess he is telling me I can't go anywhere until I finish this!


This is my all time favorite photo of Bandit and Sasha. You can tell they are father and daughter. I just love the love that existed between them. Bandit is on the left, Sasha is on the right.




Even when we brought Monte in, she loved him. They were buddies right from the beginning. They may not have cuddled together, but they had each other's back. These photos are from when Monte was a few month old.






The one thing she didn't like was when another cat tried to share the catnip on her. She loved her catnip.


I am really going to miss her helping me out around the hosue. She used to love hanging out in the kitchen, meowing at me with enthusiasm to tell me that I was cooking something wrong. She also love to lay on the laundry when I was trying to fold socks. Sasha also loved to attack the sheets when I was making the bed.














One of the things she knew how to do was get comfortable ANYWHERE! She adored being on my crocheted afghans. She liked to knead them while she was falling asleep.










This is the last photo I got of Sasha while she was helping me wrap our friend's daughter's birthday present yesterday morning. She was fine then. She was a little tired, but she always is sleepy at that time of the day because she is up all night. Misty was with her in this photo.


I still can't believe that she is gone. It just happened so quick and Darrin and I are still in shock. Some people may think I am nuts for loving our cats this much, but Darrin and I don't have any kids at this point. Our cats are our kids. I am going to leave you with Rainbow Bridge.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...