When Knitting Was a Manly Art

One more post on this subject and I must let it go.

The first kitty we had to euthanize was our sweet girl Tilda May. A beautiful, mouse hunting tortie, she had contracted Feline Leukemia and survived nearly a year. One afternoon we returned from work to find her very sick and a quick run to the vets ended with her being put down. The only cat in our lives and because of the disease, the vet recommended we not bring other cats into the house for at least 6 months.

Six months later Ben and Jake came into our lives. They just seemed to become *my* cats. Jake in particular has always been the most demonstrative and loving of the pair, but Ben had his ways.

Over the past years, we have picked up rescues, feral borns and abandoned kitties, along with those born here on the farm to our uncatchable feral momcat. Our current count is 23 and there is no way I can stay blue with all these cats.

Trying to work in the greenhouse today was an experience. As soon as the door was opened, 6 cats streaked in, searching for warmth, frogs or just a place to get out of the rain. I had cats on my lap, cats on my shoulder, cats rubbing my legs and drooling in my ears.

I feel and understand the pain that Wendy is going through. Our loss of our first cat was a horrible experience, as was and is the loss of each cat that follows behind.

But for us, it’s like having a huge extended family. Everybody supports the others. As I type this I have our little rescue kitty Sybil sitting in my lap, chewing on my hand and covering me with yellow cat hair. I love my old man Ben and I’ll miss him for a long time, but how can you stay sad with all this love.

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Ok, this has nothing to do with cats or knitting and only remotely with plants.

How do *you* pronounce Fuchsia? A discussion going on one of my gardening lists started a thread about correct pronounciations of plants. Of course one of the most common pronounciation mistakes seems to be Cotoneaster, which is usually pronounced by someone who’s only seen it in print as ‘Cotton Easter’, instead of it’s common pronounciation of kot-tõn-ee-ã-ster. The discussion led to the correct pronounciation of Fuchsia. It is correctly pronounced as fuks-ee-a, not as I’ve pronounced it all my life, fush-a. A check through a plant dictionary, confirms the first, but I *think* I’d get blank stares if I went into a nursery and asked to see some fuks-ee-a’s.

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My thanks to everyone who has commented on Ben’s death, especially Wendy who lost her sweet Izzy on Monday. The internet and these blogs have created a community and family for me that I can’t imagine existing even 5 years ago.

The Gansey continues .. Probably forever known to me as Ben’s Gansey. I’ve worked so hard on this sweater throughout his last days, I’ll always think of him when I see it.

I’m about 12 or 13 rounds into the first zigzag purl section. This shot was taken yesterday evening with the last fading light coming through a west facing window. While the picture won’t win any contests, it does show the beginnings of the purl zigzag pretty nicely

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My old man Ben ended his struggle a bit past noon today, just two weeks short of his 15th birthday. He’d been getting weaker and weaker and was becoming more agitated and vocal last night and this morning. I called the vet at about 11am and and hour later I was holding him while the vet injected the barbiturate and he died quietly.

I brought him home and buried under the trees above the house. A very nice spot.

Think I’ll take a little break from the internet and computers, but probably not my knitting. It’s kind of strange, but I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the Gansey through all this and I really just need to continue.

Later…

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Sat on the bed this evening with Ben lying against my leg and finished the last of the straight stitch for the lower body. Now I can start putting a bit of purl patterning on the sweater.

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It’s hard to stay depressed around here. First off I’m too damn busy. We have our first plant sale of the season in less than a week. Saturday and Sunday of next week will be spent at the Clackamas County Master Gardners Sale in Canby, Oregon. Eileen is in panic mode, though I know we’ll be alright.

Then it’s the cats.. Have I ever mentioned we have cats???… Feeding the sheep and horses usually means an entourage of a half dozen cats, all looking for attention. One of these days I need ot take my camera along so everyone can enjoy the parade. Then, two of the boys have decided they like Gina’s dry dog food. I came into the barn this morning to see two cats standing with their two front feet in Gina’s food tub, crunching away and Gina standing behind them and not sure what to do. Very funny.

Ben continues. Still not eating, but drinking quite a lot and still able to get himself in and out of the pot when he needs to. Really not much weaker, but sleeping a whole lot more than usual, even for a cat.

Only a small amount of work on the Gansey this morning. Two more rounds completed, but surprisingly, I’m really enjoying this sweater knitting. Somewhat mindless, but this is something I can knit for myself. Most of my lace knitting just wasn’t masculine enough. Even subscribed to Janet Szabo’s newsletter, Twist and Turns. Look’s like some interesting stuff.

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For the next few days I expect to continue posting Ben’s progress. If this is too much to read, you should probably skip reading this blog for the next couple of days.

We’ve managed to get him to eat a bit, but only by offering canned tuna. He’s still mobile, though he’s getting a bit more shaky each day. I found him laying on the back of the couch this afternoon looking out the window. He’s still seems comfortable. When he can’t take care of himself, I’ll have to make the final decision.

Gansey continues through all this. I’m about 5 rounds short of starting purl patterning. Finished three rounds this morning.

Comments have been turned back on. Last night’s post was a thing I really needed to do and I didn’t expect or want comments on it.

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What follows should probably be probably be skipped if you’re looking for knitting content. While this a public weblog, these are private thoughts.

As I sit here contemplating the coming death of my old man Ben, I try to remember all the good parts of his life. Eight of his nine lives were used up one evening when he was less than two years old and was hit by a car. He managed to drag himself home and when I got him to the Vet and discovered how badly he’d been hurt, I was sure he wouldn’t survive. Thirteen years later, he lies quietly on my bed. He’s been a friend when no one else was, asking nothing more than to lie next to me on the couch and be petted. He’s had a good life and a long life.

14 years of raising animals has taught me that all things come to an end. I’ve buried more animals than I’d care to count. Some have died by my own hand. Death is never nice, but I’ve learned to respect death as well as life. Every spring we welcome new life to the farm and no matter how hard the past year has been, the lambs make us glad we do what we do.

Ben has had a good life and I wish him an easy death. He deserves that.

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This hasn’t been a very good week for cats..

One of Eileen’s favorite barn cats came down very sick last week. He had a vicious GI infection and we were very worried about him. He’s been on antibiotics and is still confined to the garage until Satuday morning. He’s much better and extremely bored.

Then on top of that, one of my old men (Benjamin) has been having problems.. Losing weight and just looking older than his 15 years. Two days ago he stopped eating and his weight has dropped precipitously. We feed exclusively dry food and on a whim Eileen tried some of the canned food we use to tempt the outdoor cats in at night. He ate nearly everything she put in the bowl. I added a bit more recently and he cleaned most of that up also. It looks like he may be having problems with his teeth and has been unable to eat enough dry food to hold his weight. So it’s off to the vet tomorrow to see if they can find out what’s going on.

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Slow progress on the Gansey. I wasn’t going to post a picture until I got the 4 1/2 inches of the lower body done, but I thought I post one now as much as a record for myself as anything. A bit over three inches done.

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