We don’t know when Finn was born. So we choose the month when Thaddeus spotted this beautiful cat as his “Finniversary” celebration!

Who Saved Who?

Six years ago, we were still grieving over the loss of our beloved cat, Nico.

Thaddeus and I both swore we wouldn’t get another pet.  Grief can be so painful.  But Then Thaddeus saw this listing on a Northern NJ pet rescue place.

I didn’t get it.  I thought “Bamboo” was cross-eyed and completely ordinary looking.  But Thaddeus (the Cat Whisperer) insisted he was gorgeous and we must meet him.

We tried calling and calling and calling, but never got an answer.  So, we just decided to go to North Jersey to check out a much larger pet adoption place and then stop by and see if “Bamboo” was still available.

We saw no cats at the large pet adoption place that screamed to be adopted by us, so we went to Butler, NJ.  The small place was locked up, though we could see dog kennels and dogs inside.  We staked out the place for a while until we saw someone returning from a dog-walk with one of the dogs.  She told us “Bamboo” was at a foster home while he recovered from some medical condition.  She called the foster mom and we arranged to visit.

Our first visit didn’t seem at all hopeful, but we still knew this would be our cat.  We didn’t like the name Bamboo to start with.  His whole neck was covered in raw scabs from where he had scratched himself.  He has a terrible allergy to flea bites . And his favorite way of playing was biting us when we tried to pet him.  We now understood why he had been in the shelter, unadopted for over a year and a half.

Adopted!

It was love at first site!

We arranged to adopt him and changed his name to Finn.  We hit the jackpot (and so did he!).

Finn is nothing like any of our prior cats except in how beloved he is.  He has a morning ritual of insisting on being in my lap while I drink my morning latte and read e-mail and Facebook on my phone.  Petting and brushing him during these morning sessions is required.

He also very much appreciates my soft stomach and will make biscuits for what seems like an eternity.

Finn insists on helping with photo shoots for the blog.

Guarding our back door is his version of CAT TV.  He gets to see birds, squirrels, other cats and sometimes voles and other small creatures.

Suffice it to say, Finn is an incredible joy in our lives and I hope he enjoys his fifth Finniversary with us.

Current Knitting

As you may have noted in the photo shoot above, I did start work on a new crocheted scarf project.

The design is too time-intensive, so it won’t be a design I’ll add to my craft show designs.  But it does have a very squishy, brioche-like quality to the fabric that I love a lot.

I’ve also gotten to the 16 inch length to my Tilt Cardigan!

Now the difficult work of planning where to do decreases, add steeks and shape the front and armholes begins.  Once it’s all established and the proper stitch markers are in place, I’m hopeful the resulting knitted sack will finish up quickly so  I can get to the sleeves.