Sally and Willow go to the vet

Willow after vet
'Are they coming for me again?'
Sally after vet
'Go away now. I'm not talking to you anymore today.'
Everything turned out okay - the biggest thing was their feline leukemia test. They hadn't had one last year, and Sally had been exhibiting some strange nasal dripping symptoms - which had worried me for a few months now. They are both negative, which means they will have long lives with us :o)

They received their vaccine for FLV and boosters on everything else. The vet also said there was no respiratory issues with Sally - so the nasal thing might just be because she drinks out of the faucet and it leaks back out? Don't know - it is still strange.

Big shock of the day: The bigger, less-active cat is NOT the heavier cat. Weird, huh? Sally weighs 9.5 lbs and stands at least an inch shorter than Willow. She is the active, hyper-I-got-to-get-that-toy-or-bust cat. For no apparent reason, she'll race around like a spider monkey hyped up on coffee. We call it 'seeing imaginary bats.' Willow gets really worried about her at these times, and goes to sit up somewhere high until it is over. But.. *drumroll* Willow weighs 9 lbs even.

I'm flabbergasted. Looks are certainly deceiving ;o) but hey, either Sally has more muscle or just some very weighty opinions going on! (not my quote)

Afterthought: And they had to wear COLLARS! The shame! Both of them were wrested into their 'travel collars' with their names and a phone number stitched/drawn on to them. They sat there for hours before the trip just staring at me like 'This is NOT a good sign Mom. What's up?'

Mouse the Office Manx (Picture Day)

Swap Linky: Check out Lynn's Three Pin Shuffle exchange that she is organizing! It is three pins (to wear on jacket, coat etc). One is your state flag (if you can find it) or country flag, something from your region, and then something for fun.

For those of you who don't know - Mouse is our girls' big sister. She lives at the office, and has recently become an 'inside cat', originally much to her disdain. Now that it's cold outside - being inside is pretty cool ;o)


C'mere!

Kitty curl

Willow refuses to see the obvious resemblance...
Mouse and Willow don't get along well.
P.S.: For all of you who have sent words of support these past few weeks/month - thank you so much. It really has been uplifting and helpful to confide in you.

In other news: Willow and Sally go in for their 1st yearly check-up tomorrow. Mr.J wants to not use the cat carrier this time unless we absolutely need it.

November Walk

On a cold November day
just after the rain
this little blue flower blooms.
The path down to the Lake

Near the lake
A quick moving spider
Things are getting a little better around here - we have some hard road ahead of us, but hopefully we'll all be able to pull together. We really do love Tennessee, and maybe from these pictures you can see why.

Toy and Puppet Links

I'm sitting here with a Sally cat warming my lap - and browsing around a bit.

Blog Find : Wol & Zo, if you can't read Dutch, you can definitely enjoy her pictures. Check out the 'Olmies' Art Dolls, especially! Personally, I find Dutch pretty close to German, which I studied in College. I can read maybe 50% of her first post just from that. If you need it - Babelfish can translate blocks of text from Dutch to English (with limited accuracy).

Morphe II : I've heard a lot about this - and know some of the crafters in it (Hi Marci - I see your birds there!) Check out their group toy shop!

Oh and my toymaking follows an odd vein I was thinking about lately. As a kid - I wanted to work for ILM (Industrial Lights and Magic). I'm sure a lot of kids dream about that ;o) In high school, I was in the puppeteering group - performing for younger kids at school shows. I was thinking in this line because while sewing one of my aliens at the dentist office a week or so ago, a lady next to me started saying how they look like muppets and her son was a puppeteer at a local church ;o)

Puppet Links:
Great puppetmaker's site I found and a guy I met on Flickr S.W.Johnson who makes puppets for Jim Henson's company (I think). He has some great puppet construction photos in his queue and also pics of puppets being operated by puppeteers!

Sweet pictures

I'm so very glad we have these little girls with us.
They really make us smile, even when we are worried or sick.

Movie Sunday

First things first - I have to give big Kudos to Mr.J for doing the laundry for me this weekend. He's been an extremely big help - even with his healing right arm in a flex-cast. It was his idea too!

I'll be back at work tomorrow -- but just desk work and then back home.

We rented three movies today:

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Prarie Home Companion movie - big big thumbs up we've been waiting for this one! So wonderful to see all the bits and catch the 'I know I heard that in a radio episode' bits. It was all great except for the Lindsay Lohan at the end... but then, I guess it had to be somebody.

Big Trouble - great comedy heist/stick 'em up film, where everything goes wrong, for everybody, just when they least expect it. It was on the 'coming soon' trailers of one of the movies we had borrowed.

Must Love Dogs - okay, I picked this one. We generally like John Cusack films (like Grosse Pointe Blank was FUNNY!). This was a sweet romantic comedy that was just what I thought it was going to be - and that was nice.

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Willow and Sally have been getting lots of laptime on this cold November day - they really appreciate the fact that we are at home :o) I've been knitting dishcloths as we watch the movies.