New arrival

                

Isn't it funny the way things happen when you're least expecting them?  Meet Amy:

Our cats usually sit in the window, on top of the bookcase; in general they enjoy catching the sun and being nosy.  We live in a very mixed area, and there are a lot of students in our street.  Our house is right on the street so sometimes we have people stop and look at the cats and we've got used to this.  The other day a Chinese student from three doors along knocked on my window and indicated he wanted to speak to me, so I went to the door.  He said he had a cat but the landlord of their rented house had been told by a maintenance person and he had phoned to tell them they weren't allowed to keep pets in the house. (HOW EVIL...though when I think about the damage inflicted on my furniture by years of having cats I can sort of understand...) He said they knew we had cats so would we take theirs in?  My immediate reaction was to say no, three cats is more than enough. however he asked would i at least look at her.  He and his girlfriend brought her to the house and I fell in love immediately! How could I not take this poor little tiny kitty in? After all, we ONLY have three cats already...plenty of room for a little'un.

Anyway, a few days later she has really settled in.  The other three cats have accepted her a lot quicker than Spangle and Pete accepted Thomas a few years back.  Thomas is being extremely well-behaved and has started to play with her, running about, gently play-fighting her, and she follows him everywhere!  She has completely taken over the household. I've had a rotten flu-like virus this past week, and she has really cheered me up, particularly as I've been off work all week and bored stiff!

And because the young students want to visit her every couple of days, which we more than happy with, we've made new friends in the street, which is lovely.  They're the same age as my youngest, which is cool.  It reminds me of when we first moved here and most of the street was occupied by families and everyone knew each other.  Now it's possibly 90% rented, to international students, who are very friendly, but they tend to keep to their own age group and culture, understandably.  So it's good to get to know neighbours again and also finding out about other cultures first-hand and what they think of us.  It's great to know they love our city and our neighbourhood and they say the people here are nicer than in other parts of the country, which is true.


We weren't planning on getting another cat - not for a while anyway, and we probably wouldn't have got round to it.  But how could we refuse to take in a beautiful tabby kitten who had nowhere to go?

Yesterday I used up some leftover Colinette Jitterbug yarn and knitted her a toy mouse stuffed with merino with a tiny bit of catnip. She loves it.  I'm working on two projects currently, a hat for Christian, using Manos del Uruguay Clasica in black for the ribbed bottom, and red Clasica along with handspun limegreenjelly Bluefaced Leicester for a flames pattern.  I'm also half heartedly knitting some faux Fair Isle socks for myself for the winter, just to get back into sock-knitting.

Recently I've bought quite a stock of lgj fibre, as Jo has started up again, thank goodness.  I have several patterns in mind but I'll list my favourites later.