Happy Birthday, Audrey!

 

Happy Birthday to the kangaroo-wookie!

Thank you for all of your kisses, SquirrelBarker5000!

Happy Birthday, Hazelnut!

 

 4 years old and still stirring up the crazy!

 

Hazelnut loves the snow and pouncing on frozen ground.

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

 Olive Tree the Birthday Prom Queen

She loves people and she loves to be told she's pretty.

Happy Birthday, Hazelnut!

 

Happy Birthday to our supervisor, Hazelnut!

3 years of hyper-vigilant supervision.  :)

Christmas Gorros

 

Christmas hats for Yesie, Paola, and Mia

 

(featuring Audrey and Hazel)

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Yesie picked a pink and white Owl Hat made with a progressive pink and white dc remnant and glitter yarn accents. The pattern is based on this owl hat pattern. 

Paola originally picked a cotton, rainbow hat with earflaps, but then changed her mind (many times) to a strawberry hat. 

Mia picked a sparkly berry cat hat with silver ears.

Happy Birthday, Audrey

 

Happy Birthday to the largest baby I've ever called family.

 

Kungfu Panza

Panzer vs. Hair Clip 

in 

The Great Battle of the Oval Tub

Happy Birthday, Hazelnut

 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Hazelnut Filbert!

Thank you for being my monkey and my neck-sitter.

 

Hazelnut

This here's Hazelnut Filbert.  She's my newest rescue furbie.  I snagged her from the Humane Society amid a herd of crying, disappointed girls in line behind me.

Sorry to disappoint, young ones, but this nutjob is hanging out with me.  :)

And biting everything that can possibly be bitten...

Bye Bye Benicio

How lucky I am that I keep kitten milk on-hand. It doesn't matter how many decades pass without using it, for that one night when a half-dead kitten shows up long after pet stores have closed.

Much like that random night in May when Benicio crawled up from the creek. At first, I thought the sound was a baby.  Then we spotted him under the bushes.  He was so malnourished that his head and body were the same size. His whole face was crusted over with conjunctivitis and his bony body was covered in fleas. I gave him a light cleaning and a brief, frantic meal, and put him to bed in a box on a heating pad.  When his cries woke me up at 5am, I was completely surprised that he was still alive.

 

I remember the first time we realized that he had sight behind his ulcerated eyes.  I remember when his bowlegged back legs started to work and he went from dragging them around to a funny, little gallop.

 

15 years is three times longer than a feral usually lives. Despite a heart murmur, chronic herpes, the darkness that crept in at the back of his eyes, and a serious distaste for the dogs, he was my wild baby.  How he begged for pets from up in a tree or the roof of the house with a non-existent squeak. How he barely made a sound and only wanted attention from a few of us, until after Blink died. 

I remember the time that he drooled up my nose, cuz he fell asleep against my face.  He used to shove his nose in my hand and drool into it while I pet his face. It was a lifetime of cleaning him up before giving him love, and a life worthy of it. I imagine he made his way back to the creek that he came from. 

Benicio. Nisho. Bad Nisho. Nichi.

Patches Cat Trap

Tried out one of those internet-recommended cat traps.  I do believe it was a success:  

The trap has attracted it's feline subject.

Subject decides to gather more information from a distance.

 Subject melts into fur pile.

Cat Trap Mission: Success

Dirt Girl

My name is Pumpkin Patches. 

My interests include rolling in the dirt. 

And cleaning my toe beans on white comforters.

Pumpkin Patches

I adopted Patches from the wonderful Petaluma Animal Services (PASF) shelter on a foster-to-adopt program. Renamed her Pumpkin Patches She had been turned in repeatedly for litter box issues. She spends the majority of her time hiding in the bathroom, but she's working on her bravery and she's a HUGE fan of belly rubs.

Gnome Hats

 

I've fallen in love with this pattern.  I rarely make the same thing twice, but I've made about eight of these hats, to date.  They've become my favorite way to use up all of my old Red Heart yarn; it gives a nice, stiff structure for the peak of the hat.  I never do the loop at the top that the pattern shows. I think it looks goofy.

I found this Earflap Hat pattern on Lion Brand's website, so you won't be able to view it unless you are signed up to the Lion Brand site.

~~~

I call the blue one Princess Habba (after a Swedish toy that my friend's son gummed to death as a baby) and I think I just might keep it for myself.  I got the flower from 10 Petal Popcorn Flower on The Laughing Willow blog, but I stopped after row 4; the popcorn row.

 ~~~

I finished the ear flaps with either a braid of 20 to 30 yarn strands or a simple icord.

 The dogs are always ready to help.

I decorated the maroon hat with sage green yarn remnant and a pink and white flower I made up by either dc or sc into a loop.

Thank you to my hat model, Heidi.

Project Wildlife

Project Wildlife is a non-profit wildlife rehabilitation and conservation organization in San Diego, CA, that my sister volunteers for.  They assist over 10,000 birds and mammals representing over 320 species each year.

 Striped Skunk Kit

 California Ground Squirrel Kit

 Long-tailed Weasel

'Project Wildlife is a critical community resource for residents and businesses in San Diego County, one of the most biologically diverse areas in the United States with the greatest number of endangered species. People from all over the county bring wildlife patients to Project Wildlife for care and many local businesses such as landscaping companies, government agencies (e.g. Animal Services, CalTrans, SDPD), and animal organizations (e.g. SD Zoo, SD Humane Society, SeaWorld), depend on the life- saving services provided by Project Wildlife.' 

  Hummingbird Hatchlings

Gull Chick 

 Raccoons

Project Wildlife is also a candidate in the ideal4acause contest to win $1000 for their organization.  Please follow the link to vote for Project Wildlife.

Cupcake for Kyndal

I found this cupcake! pattern on Ana Paula's Amigurumi Patterns & Random Cuteness, which is an accurate blog name. I used leftover yarn to make a chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting and bead sprinkles.

I added a few bells to the stuffing to make it jingle.







Thank you as always to my models Kayla and Lily.

Cat Hat for Kayla's Birthday

The Birthday Girl

I made this cat hat for Kayla's purple-themed, 12th birthday from this monkey hat pattern from Easy Makes Me Happy.

I used Red Heart Shimmer yarn in Purple and followed the teen/adult pattern with the exception that after row 20, I hdc 2 extra rows. I also attached I-chords on the ear flaps.

Present pile

~~~

We are going to decorate it with eyes and whiskers, so there are more pictures to come. I could only get this quick picture since festivities were in full swing.

Pet Birthdays

Panzer, my Cat Tales Rescue rescue, is 2 years old this July.

He's still quite a handful. He likes to harass the dogs. He loves to lick Brisbie. And Brisbie? She's not a fan. She growls to warn him off, but he still tries to sneak in and lick her. He seems to be partial to her ears.


People think he is sweet because he is fluffy and squishy, but there is a wild raccoon inside of him. It makes me think of the Black Keys lyric 'The look on the cake, it ain't always the taste. My ex-girl, she had such a beautiful face,' from the song Next Girl. If I could get him to wear a collar it would read 'Watch your fingers.'

~~~

Brisbie and Tatum's birthdays are in August.

They got old peanut butter jars of blissful happiness.

Tatum, a rescue from Nevada County Animal Shelter, is 9 this year. She survived a cancerous tumor on her paw last year and got quickly back to her status as FIRST! one to the ball.

Happiness is apparently a branch around your neck and a tennis ball in your mouth. Panzer followed her around keeping the world safe from the dangers of branch ends.



Brisbie, now 7, and her resident handler, Kayla. She gets Brisbie to perform acts I would never have guessed possible.

All eyes on the ball.