Hi friends!
My story starts last Wed night when hubby and I and Kira (the pup for those who don’t know) went to the local pet store for a few doggie items. Next thing I knew, I was filling out adoption papers for 2 cute kittens.
What?
I don’t have time for kittens. I have a very busy puppy. And quilts to make! Patterns to write. We are in the middle of a deck renovation.
Thursday night we picked up the kittens. We named them Luna and Lark.
For the first couple of nights, we kept the kittens downstairs and Kira upstairs. We knew it would take some time to transition to where the kittens and the pup could coexist but… OMG.
Kira lost her mind.
She barked. She cried. She howled. We kept them separated for 2 days (also Luna has a cold so she wasn’t feeling too well). We tried to show Kira the kittens but no. She lunged. She barked. She spun in circles. I have bruises and leash burn marks. OMG.
By Monday night we thought this will never work. She was crazy. If one of us would go downstairs to see the kittens, she would run to the front door to ring the bell to take her outside to go potty. Not because she had to go out, but to get us up out of the basement! (She is crazy but super smart!) The kittens were better behaved about the whole thing.
And yes, we have a black and white dog and black and white kittens!
In the meantime, I was trying to get work done. I made a list of everything I had to get done by Quilt Market (Nov 1) and felt ill.
I have so many quilts to make, patterns to start, others to finish writing and get edited, designs due to various people, classes I am teaching and…. I felt overwhelmed, stressed, down in the dumps.
It was Labor Day weekend, I was working, I couldn’t sit outside because the back area is a dirt mess with no deck and the dog and the kittens were not ever going to get along. Pity party for one please?
The deck guys came, removed the deck, left a mess and we wonder when we might see them again. Hopefully before it snows.
Then yesterday someone agreed to make a quilt top for me (yea!) and then last night, we had the pup and the kittens in the same room and Kira was calm. Well, not calm but not barking, not howling, not lunging at the kittens- just watching. A little whimpering.
All of a sudden we could have them in the same space. Progress.
There will always be times when things feel overwhelming but given a little time and space, things will usually work out. I still have a ton of work to do, and the adjustment between the pup and the kittens will take a while, but there is movement. And hopefully the deck guys will come back soon!
There is a little progress being made.
I take joy in that.
happy quilting,
Kate
p.s. Next week is the first post of the Border Quilt Quilt Along. Be sure to stop back for that! I will be in Paducah teaching but neither travel, nor teaching nor lots of quilts will stop the post from being delivered! Ha!
p.p.s. Thank you to all who commented last week on the Holiday Projects post. The winner of the bag has been contacted!
p.p.p.s. And thanks to all who let me know where they would like to see pop up fabric stash sales. I hope to do a stash sale at the end of September. I will post first on the blog (with a link to the shop page) and then to Instagram if no one snaps the fabric up!
Good luck with the pets…I would love to have another kitty myself, but we travel so much since we retired that having a pet became difficult. So just know that as much of a hassle as it is, they are loving friends to have around in the end!
Nancy,
How fun that you get to travel now that you are retired! When our last kitty died last November we considered not having another pet for a while. And now lookout us. A pup and 2 kittens! They are fun though a little demanding. It is fun to see them starting to interact. And they are sweet and good company!