One crazy week

Well life threw a few twists. The weather has been causing my nerve endings and other neurological tweaks to go haywire to the point of my non medical remedy for my sleep seizures to not work. I've thankfully gone three nights without one, but very exhausted nonetheless. I ripped my pants picking up Snoopy (the 18 pound bundle of ornery at the shelter), and he seemed to find it amusing.

 

Here he was telling me that he had nothing to do with it.

Work was bustling like crazy, I thought I was going to have dreams of all the customers who were saying "We're from Fairbanks!" "Do you have a Fairbanks special?" "Why don't you guys open an Arbys up in Fairbanks?" (There was an Arbys in Fairbanks, but it got no business at all so it got shut down), and then the good 'ol "I'll have (insert multiples of 10) roast beef sandwiches/sliders." I'm still not sure what in the world was going on to have alot of people from Interior Alaska down here, but it was nuts. With how often we get asked for a Fairbanks special, which is something we stopped doing 8 years ago, I have strongly considered doing a group of decorator custom stablemates and call them "The Fairbanks Special."

I have also managed to create jeweled Egyptian Arabian halters, nothing too fancy but they turned out way better than I expected. Honeysuckle and Sundown really like them.

 

Honeysuckle's bald face does not like my camera at all.

Spot also gave us a huge scare. She started acting lethargic and uninterested in everything, and the Bengal kittens were watching over her intently. Because she's the leader of the little "colony" and was showing a great deal of weakness, Bear kept on attempting to attack her but was foiled by DeEtta's speed and Gizmo's size every time; so my service animal in training decided to be Spot's body guard. We started to get worried when she stopped grooming herself and was turning down the offer of treats, and started wondering if she needed a vet visit on Friday.

Between Friday night and Saturday morning things took a very bad turn. Spot had been sleeping on my bed since Wednesday by DeEtta's beckoning so I got used to sleeping like a corkscrew. Around the midnight hours going into Saturday I woke up to a very upset and distressed DeEtta who was mewing up a storm and worriedly mothering Spot with Gizmo sitting on the floor upset also. I turned on my light and found Spot bleeding all over my bed and herself and barely responding to the Bengals. Fast forward to a few hours later and we had the vet telling us she has pyometra, basically the cat form of endometriosis, and they were giving her a very small chance of survival. For those who don't know what pyometra and endometriosis are, and are too lazy to look, they are basically infections of the uterus and are very life threatening.

The vet told us the recommended choice was surgery that had a 30% chance that was out of our budget despite getting paid the day before, and there was a smaller chance with how weak she was of it being successful. She did give us the option of trying antibiotics, but told us it had just as much of a chance of being successful, but was way cheaper; so we took that route knowing that if she wasn't better in 48 hours we had to take the sad route of euthanasia. Saturday was still scary with her, but Sunday morning we found her eating and moving around. Since then she's been improving wonderfully, and is strong enough to not need a guardian kitty and swiftly reminded Bear of her place. She still seems a little tired, but I don't blame her. Here's to hoping the next week goes smoother!

 

Sunday night she was being herself trying to make Jason stop playing Division.

Everything and nothing

Well it's been a couple busy days for sure, with work and responsibilities. In the model horse aspect I have gotten one of the many "Holy Grails" of my collection: Hidalgo on the Silver mold!

There is one flaw he has that I will have to keep a close eye on, a seam split at the base of his tail. Other than that he is in beautiful photo showing condition!

Very tiny, but still bad news...

Speaking of photo showing, I fail at using lighting but still somehow have models that have placed in an online show I participate in. When I entered in the first show, I figured it would be simple-pull out my boxes of models, snap some pretty pictures, enter them then put my horses up with no problem. How wrong I was! When I started setting up my appaloosa foal on the Ashley mold, DeEtta (who was fast asleep in the other room until now) hopped up, sniffed the model, then grabbed it by the head and ran off to chew on the ears. Lil' Ditty escaped with no scuffs or breaks thankfully, and the Bengal bundle of terror left the others alone for the rest of the session.
A couple nights ago I pulled the boxes out again to find models to enter in the upcoming show. Other than the battle with my photography nemesis -the shadows- and not so awesome background choices/materials, it was running smooth. DeEtta was behaving herself and was happy in the box I supplied for her. I set up my stablemate who I fondly named Hazlenut Latte to photo and the peace was gone.

 

No DeEtta she's not edible!

It was supposed to be a picture of a pretty stock horse mare. Nope. I captured the mighty Sasszilla going for plastic prey. After that I tried chasing her away so I could finish but had to hold her in one arm while photographing a couple more horses before giving up.
Today I had better luck after purchasing basic colored poster board and stealing the desk lamp to try again. Bear was a huge help by distracting DeEtta for me, so nobody was traumatized this time around.

 

 

Today I found out I am capable of making tiny tassels (yay!), the next step is mastering the rest of the components for an Arabian presentation set, which I am more than eager to acquire my newest herd member to use for general sizing. Will definitely be sharing her when I get her home.

Crazy attempt

Decided to wind down from the day by turning the braid DeEtta tried to eat into a halter. The progress I have done looks good on Tamarisk. Here are progress pics for what audience I do have to grin (or cringe) at.

Definitely wasn't centered!

 

Shiny chain hooray :)

 

Browband was far enough for the night.

Next step, failing at tassels!!

Research research research...

A whole day with the house to myself and not able to sleep in  (love you too DeEtta) so what shall I do? Sit in my corner and ponder on which project to work on! I tend to give myself a few projects at a time to keep from burning out or getting impatient with one, the downfall is keeping them safe from bengals. Being in a two bedroom manufactured home means the high energy kitties get bored quickly and do everything from running laps, bouncing off walls and people, and jumping on everything. As a result all my models except for a handful are packed away. 

 

DeEtta's big sister Gizmo says "Hello!"

  Waking up with a headache really limits what I'm willing to do, which takes dremel work and painting out of the equation. It is a mild enough case where I can put on my glasses and research on techniques. One of my projects is learning how to make Arabian show halters, which have already proven to test me. Not wanting to get angry and give up early I decided to see if I can find a method that clicks with my novice skill. It also wouldn't hurt for me to look into real world things like ideas for a catio to keeps at least the kittens happy.

And six hours later of research, distractions, lunch, and a braid stealing kitten I managed to make this! Yay me, except that when I look closer it's blatantly obvious that I used too dark of thread to sew it. Oh well, victory sometimes only comes one step forward. Maybe I can use a darker green for accents.