Monday, May 08, 2006

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging...

Yup, we are getting "back to normal" around these parts. A few things I want to share with all you peeps on the internets...

1. I am doing "selfish" knitting. KNitting for moi. Baby blanket? on hold. Socks? going on. Mom's sweater? on hold. Cute sweater from new book? cast on and almost to the armpits. :) There is a lot behind all of this and to make a VERY long story short: I'm never selfish. (PC will agree with conditions) So, I want to knit for me. :) I am working on making me happy (see more about this later)

2. I joined 2 knitting groups! I will be attending my first MetroWest Knitting Guild meeting (Monica... do you belong to this one?) this Wednesday. I am soooo excited! Oh, and I joined a local SnB.. and oh my goodness... I felt immediately at home! :) What a wonderful group of women + 1 guy... they are funny, witty, good natured and are able to talk about EVERYTHING.
3. PC and I became "parents" this weekend. Yup. To a FUR-BABY! We adopted a 3 year old cat named "Pumpkin". She's the color of Maple Syrup and so teeny tiny. We think she was a runt. Also, I need some help from all the cat owners out there. (ahem... Sandy? Laurie? Wendy?)

a. we were told that she was 3 years old and "fixed"
b. she appears to be in heat ( a lot of bum rubbing on her part... moving her tail for "access" and she's ...oh, this will get me some google hits... oozing a little from her who-ha?)
c. she has great affection for doing this to PC

I will have pictures of the Pumpkin soon. She is getting used to us and vice versa. She came out of hiding Saturday night (we got her around 4... she started to completely act normal last night) and we thinks she loves us. I was never a "cat person", but this one stole my heart. Now, here is a BIG question:

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF SHE'S BEEN FIXED?

A skein of yarn to the first person who tells me a clear,scientific (i.e. look here, feel there) non-icky (I'm not sticking anything anywhere) way to tell if she's spayed.

Her prior owners were in a hurry to dump her at Angell and leave her there. They were required to fill out a "personality" thing on her, one question being "is she spayed?" They said yes. I think they lied. I need to know. Cause if so... she's going back to the shelter to get fixed. We cannot have all the neighborhood cats in the yard looking to see if Pumpkin can come out and "play." Oh, and she isn't interested in my yarn. At all. *yay*

More photos and knitting updates tomorrow.

:) Mini and PC....oh, and Pumpkin too!

8 comments:

  1. You cat is not spayed. She sould not gointo heat of she was.....

    I called my sister....she's a vet :-)

    Is the ooze blood? If yes, she is in heat.

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  2. I am going to say the cat's not been spayed based on the following:

    How to tell if your cat is in heat:

    1. Immediately preceding oestrus, your female cat may become unusually affection, and rub her hind quarters against furniture, other cats, and/or her favorite human.

    2. The Queen (name for female cats of breeding age) will vocalize loudly. This "calling" may go on for several days, unless she mates.

    3. She will assume a mating position: head down, forelegs bent, rear quarters raised to expose the perineum ( this raised posture is called lordosis), with the tail raised and held to the side of the body. Her rear legs will tread rhythmically, as if walking in place.

    4. Queenie may also spray vertical surfaces with a strongly scented fluid. She will accomplish this by backing up to the surface and raising her tail high. The tail may quiver, and she may perfom the rhythmic treading described in step four.

    5. If your female cat does not mate, she will go into oestrus as often as every two to three weeks, for several months each year, until she either mates or is spayed.

    You may be able to find a scar from a spay operation on the lower abdomen but maybe not - lots of fur and an operation at a young age can heal very cleanly.

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  3. Other than waiting for time to tell? I'd check to see if she has a scar from the operation. Or I'd bring her to the vet--I'm sure they'd be able to tell!

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  4. You'll know if she isn't when she goes into heat. Yowling and restlessness for a few days. That's how I found out :) And they won't spay her when she's in heat - too risky. I'd second going to the vet, there's no real easy way to tell. And congrats!

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  5. Anonymous8:49 AM

    Yeah, you are definitely going to get some interesting hits after the Google spiders crawl your site!
    I know NOTHING about cats, but congrats on the new addition to your family!

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  6. Take her to the vet and have her tummy shaved to look for a scar from the spaying operation. This is what the shelters around here do. Of course, if there's no scar, that might just mean that she healed very well. They do have some hormone tests for cats, but I'm not sure how reliable they are. Otherwise, I think they have to do exploratory surgery. I'm not entirely sure, but I think spaying is the equivalent of a hysterectomy and I have no idea how you would check for that from the outside.

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  7. i had friends who got a "spayed" cat named chloe. turns out it was not chloe. so you may need to go back and see who you have, especially if she is not spayed, and may not have the shots she needs.
    there should be a lil tummy scar. legnth of tummy i think not across.

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  8. Anonymous10:37 AM

    Nope, not a member of that one. I'm in a spinning guild that meets in Sudbury and occasionally make it to the Knitsmiths in Boston. Sounds like fun, though!

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