Hinahina is still eating tuna, but that’s about it. And because of her renal failure, she can’t stay on it forever. But for now, she is still pretty alert, though she sleeps a lot. Well, who wouldn’t, at her age? She still wants cuddles and pets, and doesn’t look too bad for a sick kitty.
Tomorrow we should be getting the results of her urine culture back. Until then, we wait, and enjoy the time with our girl.
One of the ewes around the corner from us had twin lambs a couple of weeks ago, and I was lucky enough today to get a photo of them. They’re not always near the fence, but today they were.
It was good to see new life in the midst of my sadness about Hinahina.
In order to fully understand the photo of the day, and my sadness, please go here and read my 2008 post about our kitty, Hinahina.
Hinahina is now about fourteen years old, and has been Nolemana’s faithful companion in his office for all these years. About four months ago she developed the beginnings of renal failure, and she’s been doing really well on her special diet, so well in fact, that the vet said last month that she didn’t need to see Hinahina for another six months.
But last week Hinahina stopped eating, and for the past five days we have had more tests run, X-rays taken, and three more exams. Our vets, working together, think that she has developed several issues that are complicating the renal issues, including the possibility of diabetes or something worse. We’re now awaiting the results of Hina’s last culture, but things are not looking good. She’s eating a little bit of tuna, but she can’t stay on that very long, and given the circumstances, it looks like we’ve got a difficult decision to make. That will be on Monday, when the culture results come back.
Our poor girl isn’t feeling well, and one of our vets gently said, “Not all wars are meant to be fought.” He and our other vet are a wonderful team helping our pöpoki.
This is a photo of Hinahina at the vet’s. I hope that there is something that we can do medically when her test results come back… but right now… I just don’t know. The thought of going through this again so soon after losing ‘Ukulele and Kukui is really hard…..
Today was a day I’d been looking forward to a lot: the annual Aurora Colony Handspinners’ Guild Spin-In in Aurora, Oregon, where members of the Guild gather for a day of fellowship and you guessed it, handspinning. There were about twenty of us there today, and it was wonderful seeing all the different wheels, methods of spinning, and fiber being spun. At one point or another, most of us wandered around the room ooh-ing and ah-ing at what we saw.
I knew a few people there and got to meet more and make new friends. It was a wonderful day; Suzette and I sat next to each other with our Ladybug wheels and enjoyed the day together. It was all very relaxing and enjoyable, and now that the days are longer, I will join the Guild once a month at their meetings in Canby.
I’m putting together the photos that I took when I was in Hood River. This is the Hood River Bridge over the mighty Columbia River and the hills of Washington State behind them.
The flowering trees at the entrance to the gym I go to are in full bloom right now. When I’m there, their scent follows me for quite awhile as I walk by them coming and going, and if there’s a breeze, I get showered by the falling petals. It’s wonderful!
Today I put together a collage showing what I bought this weekend at the Fiber Fair. Easy to tell I went tonal this time, and definitely bluesy.
So many of my spinning fibers are multi-colored and very bright; I love spinning them but they don’t work too well on lace or patterned projects, so I wanted to get something that would work well for my lace knitting adventures.
The undyed fiber? Well, Suzette and I are planning a dyeing day at her house one of these days, so I get to create my own colorways! I’m kinda scared about it, never having done dyeing before, but I know the colors that I love so it should be okay.
I got home from the fiber festival yesterday and suddenly realized that I’d forgotten to look for a matching yarn for a special knitting project I’m going to be starting soon. So I decided I’d just drive back up to Hood River again! Why not? It’s a lovely drive and I don’t mind going alone. So off I went, about 11 a.m. I figured I’d have plenty of time to look around because the marketplace closed at 4 o’clock. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It closed at 2 o’clock! No biggie. I had two hours to look around, talk to friends and enjoy the atmosphere.
I didn’t find the yarn I was looking for, but it was good to be there. I really enjoyed the afternoon. This was a fabulous fiber festival, and I am in awe that it was the idea of just one person who put last year’s first festival together. Kudos to Yvonne of Lavender Sheep for making it happen!
I love going to fiber festivals. I’ve found that the people who attend them couldn’t care less about what I look like or how much I weigh, whether or not I’m wearing makeup, or what kind of clothes I wear. That stuff just isn’t important. I never feel as though I have to dress up or impress anyone; we’re all connected because of our love of fiber. Kinda like being among all my friends and ‘ohana from da ‘aina. The outside stuff just doesn’t matter; what’s important is what’s on the inside.
But I digress. Here’s today’s photo, full of fibery goodness. It was a terrific weekend!
Today Nolemana, Suzette, and I drove up to Hood River to the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival. We didn’t get to go last year, so Suzette and I were really excited about going. Nolemana said he’d like to go, but his level of excitement was much less than ours. He’s not a knitter or a handspinner, but he said he’d enjoy our company and see what the CGFF was all about.
We had a great day. I got to see friends I don’t get to see except at fiber festivals, and Suzette and I had a wonderful time enabling each other. The floor was carpeted, and water was provided by the Best Western Motel where the event was held. It made for a pleasant shopping experience indeed.
The drive up the Gorge was absolutely breathtaking and the three of us ate lunch with a view of the Columbia River.
All in all, a terrific day!!
One photo couldn’t do justice to my day today. So you folks get to choose which one you think is the saddest, worthy of the photo of the day.
About a month ago I finished a really pretty cowl. I knit it out of my handspun. It was the first lace project I’d ever knit, the first handspun I’d knit, and I was mighty proud of it.
Nani, yeah?
It looked really good when I wasn’t wearing it. The lace pattern showed up great and I loved the feel of it. Oni one problem: Each long edge rolled up toward the center so that I was left with this ugly coil-y something around my neck, despite some rigorous blocking beforehand. Every time I looked at it I got upset. It had taken me so long to knit it, so long to learn how to do lace, and now I was left with something I hated.
So I went into Littlelamb and Ewe today and showed Cindy the Knitting Destroyer my trouble, and after talking about it, we both agreed that frogging the whole thing was the best way to go. She’s a great frogging enabler when it just hurts too much to frog your own knitting.
Oh. You don’t know frogging? Well, rippitt, rippitt, ribbitt.
Now you know.
Here is the good nurse, finding the end of my knitting where I’d woven in the ends.
She starts pulling out my knitting. Remember, I gave her full permission to do so. It just hurt too much to do it myself. Hours and hours I’d spent on that cunfunnit cowl!
Here is the mad Yarn Nurse Kavorkian at work. She has put the end of the yarn in the electric ball winder, which is slowly pulling out all my carefully knitted stitches. Oh, da pain!!
The yarn ball is getting bigger and bigger, and my knitting is getting smaller and smaller.
Eventually it was pau. My cowl was no more. And here is the proof. Do you think she looks like she’s having fun?
I will find another pattern for my pretty yarn. After I’ve recovered.
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