Forever A Good Boy

Augustus Octavian, "Gus," my constant companion for the last two years has gone to sleep forever. 

We've been battling the onset of dementia for several months now. Various medications and new routines were implemented to mitigate symptoms, like accidents in the house and wandering at night. Nighttime was the worst... sort of like when humans with Alzheimer's "sundown," Gus would behave strangely at night.

The latest cause for concern was him snapping at me when I tried to get him out of the garbage by grabbing his collar after vocal commands were ignored. That behavior was so atypical I called our vet to discuss it. Our concern was not for the humans in our household, but for Artie, Pixel, and Victor. Gus would never knowingly hurt one of them, but with dementia getting worse we couldn't take the risk.

So last night we had a party with steaks, bacon, gingersnaps, and sugar cookies. Today we went for a drive and got ice cream (which I sprinkled peanut butter bone cookies onto) and cheese curds.

Then the three of us went and played at the park for a bit. It was pretty apparent that Gus was in more pain than we thought. Watching him walk around the park was painful as he was quite stiff and moving very slowly.

But now he's no longer in pain, no longer confused, and no longer afraid.

And my Gussie will be a good boy forever.

All of the Things!

I started out moving structures around the house in the attempt at making room for a new printer when we finally get one.  The building for the quilt shop was moved upstairs, which is nice since it's currently sitting where I want it to live.

  Artie "helped."

Then I finalized my sketches for the shelving I need to construct to hold the fabric bolts.  

 I also worked on bolts for my quilt shop and cut fat quarters... lots of fat quarters.  Here are the bolts: 

Then I started making birthday gifts for my mini friends in St. Louis:

- One friend has a HUGE dollhouse that has a wonderful sewing room.  I thought some mini fat quarter bundles would be a nice addition.

- Another friend has been painting miniature watercolor landscapes for a couple of years.  I thought she might like to start her own mini artist's studio.  The portfolio is made of card and covered with a piece of real-life wallpaper that had a neat texture.  The darker "leather" is a football texture scrapbook paper.  I modified the handle from the original by wrapping waxed linen with the scrap-booking paper.  The directions are in Dolls' House Details by Kath Dalmeny.  Same for the watercolor paper with proper deckle edges.

- A third friend had missed two years' worth of birthdays and Christmases, as she was on a mission trip.  She'd been working on a mini quilt shop, so I thought some more fabric and some fat quarter bundles would be a nice addition.  She got three bolts and three bundles, plus one each for each of her last three birthdays and two Christmases.

- I designed a special piece of stitching for Aunt Pat's birthday, but I'll talk more about it further down.  It didn't get finished until Saturday.

Tuesday I woke up late to the news that a friend of ours, Joe, had passed away suddenly on Saturday and his funeral was to be Wednesday night.  That sort of derailed my train of thought for a bit.  FH came home early Tuesday and we cried for a bit.  Joe was 31 years old and it's still unclear as to why he died.  The coroner hasn't released a final report.

After going out for comfort food Tuesday I wandered over to my favorite quilt shop and spied a brilliant blue fat eighth that reminded me of Joe.  he favorite color was blue and this fabric was in the specific shade of his favorite shirt.  It begged to become a bolt of fabric in my quilt shop, so I bought it... and 15 other fat eighths that were neat.  After we got home, I made these:

As I tried to sleep that night I decided we should wear some blue to the funeral, so on Wednesday I made these pins.  They are forget-me-not flower yo-yos, made from the same blue fabric as the miniature bolt.  FH  wore the singleton on his suit jacket and I wore the group of three as a brooch on my shrug.

Then I didn't do much for the rest of Wednesday into Thursday.  Friday we drove south to see friends and I slept for most of the day.

Saturday I finished the last of the stitching on this birthday gift for Aunt Pat.  Originally I was going to turn them into cushions (1.25" square), but there isn't much room in the scene for cushions.

However she needs wall art, so whilst she's in Tuscon, AZ for the N.A.M.E. convention, she's in the market for gilded frames of the correct size.  Aunt Pat gets to visit The Mini Time Machine Museum while she's there.  I'm jealous!  I told her to watch out for witches named Tessie whilst she was there.  I'm afraid if they met there would be more work for me to do for Pat and for Casey to do for Tessie!

Anyways, the design is modified from a piece of embroidery I found in 18th Century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh.  During the 18th century it was popular to work designs completely in chain stitch, usually on muslin garments.  In 1759 (according to Ms. Marsh) the tambour method of embroidery was introduced in Europe.  The differences are mostly visible on the back of the work, but tambour allows for turning curves and corners better.

Aunt Pat's current roombox is set in 1755, so I used plain old chain stitch for the piece.  I chose the colors to coordinate with the doll, who is dressed in pale peach silk.  The foundation fabric is fine cotton lawn, basted onto muslin.  I will probably be the one to frame them once she gets her frames bought.  That will be on another trip south.

We got home late Sunday night.  Then I had to deal with all the unpacking, laundry sorting, oil changing, grocery buying, etc that gets done after a trip.  Happily our neighbor had invited us for dinner tonight, so there wasn't a need to do any cooking.

That's all for now.  I'm working on the quilt shop this week.  We'll see how far I get with any of that.

Pollux: Loved Now More than Ever- March 29, 1999 - May 24, 2013

I know I'm a day late... I've been distracted.  It took me a while to come to grips with things and figure out what I was going to say.  I've borrowed some details from Castor's memorial because, they were twins.

Pollux was born as one of seven kittens to a mother owned by a couple other college kids in the town my university is located.  He and Castor were the only two Siamese looking kittens in the entire litter.  We wanted named that wold reflect their twin-like appearance and ran through several, rejecting the most obvious ones like "Cain and Abel," "Romulus and Remus," and "Heckle and Jeckle."  I came up with the idea of Castor and Pollux.

Like his mythological counterpart, Pollux did indeed outlive his younger brother.  His personality was different from Castor's in many ways.  First off he was more reserved, still friendly, but he would give people time to settle in before he'd invade their laps.  He also would take a turn around the room to visit with all of the people before settling down.  

Unlike Castor, I didn't pick Pollux.  I didn't want Pollux.  I wanted their white and gray brother who never got a name.  My then boyfriend picked Pollux as his kitten.  When we split up, he left Pollux with me.  I was saddled with a second set of vet bills for another cat with irritable bowel disease.  It was hard, but I made sure I could afford the food they had to eat so they would be sick less and medicines when they needed it.

Over time, his nickname became "Pollywog," which eventually shortened to "Woggs."  He began to become more of "my" cat than I wanted, but he was still my responsibility and Castor loved him.  I learned the hard way that he had a penchant for pasta in Parmesan sauce and peppermints.  Peppermint was his absolute favorite, but he wouldn't turn down the chance to steal pasta.

After Castor died, Pollux was my link to both Castor and Confetti.  We also became more watchful of his condition, in case he started developing any of the same symptoms.  For almost two years nothing changed.  He still loved to drink water from the bathtub after someone showered, still slept on his back with his front feet curled over his belly, and played with his toys.  Then he snagged a claw on something, pulling it out of his foot and the wound became infected.

Last Monday Pollux wasn't doing well at all.  He was still fighting with the flare up of irritable bowel disease that came with those antibiotics he had to take for his foot.  His balance was off, he seemed more distracted, and despite eating like a horse he was still loosing weight.

FH and I decided to see how he progressed during the week and to spend as much time with him as possible.  Artie and Pixel didn't seem to care about what was happening, but Artie did become more aggressive toward Pollux.  I think Pollux's smell was changing and that bothered Artie.

I spent a lot of time stitching in Pollux's company last week.  We'd listen to the birds outside the window and he'd sniff the air when the breeze came through.  Sometimes he would decide I needed to put down my work and have him in my lap.  That's when I'd watch a movie and pet him until he decided to go have a snack.  We also let him fill up on his favorite canned foods.  At night I slept with him in the guest room, shutting the young cats out.  That way he had me to himself.

Friday rolled around and he was no better, in fact he was worse.  When we listed off our observations about his attitude and symptoms, our vet told us that Pollux's liver was definitely failing and it was very possible that his pancreas was also failing and the irritable bowel disease may have turned into cancer.  That left us with only one option for his care and comfort.  Pollux didn't flinch and like Castor, he looked relieved.

Artie and Pixel spent some time looking for him after we came home with the empty carrier.  Gus did some investigating of his own and did his best to make me relax.  I've been trying to wind down from the stresses involved with palliative care and loosing a member of the family.  

Enjoy your rest, my Pollywog Kitten.  Remember me to Castor, Confetti, 'Bert, Tempie, and Meat Loaf.  I'll see you all again someday.

Say Goodnight, Gracie

Rest in peace, little sweetness. May your little corner of the Heavens give you unlimited peas, Cheerios, and yogies.

Gracie February ?, 2009-September 2, 2009