SPARKIE AND HER NEW HAT!

Hi dear friends.   I just wanted to tell you about my exciting visit to the VET at the end of December.  Mom said we were going to the vet to get the "snip-snip"....I wondered what that meant, since I already had all my shots.  Well, I soon found out.  I came home with stitches in my belly and my belly all shaved slick as a whistle....and I have such a cute belly too.  They used some new fangled way to stitch me up, but I didn't let that stop me from licking now and then.  By the end of the week my incision was beginning to open up, so mom took me back to the VET and they had to put me back to sleep again and re-stitch my cute little belly.  And to make matters worse, I had to wear the CONE OF SHAME.   They gave me a plastic hat and it fit around my neck and stuck out so I couldn't lick my belly any more.  I could hardly walk very well because it threw my balance off....mom said it would be the longest week ever!   After a few days, I was able to walk pretty normally, and even eat and drink my water.  But I couldn't lick my tummy.....so I guess the cone of shame worked just fine.
I healed up and after a week they took off my pretty new hat.  I was glad of that, because I  was getting tired of wearing that thing.  Even the vet said I was quite a little dickens, not like Tommy Boy who was such a mellow fellow.  But, then, I am still a cute little kitten.  I won't be able to use that excuse forever! 
Mom says I am calming down a bit.   I don't climb up her pants anymore, but I am  too fat for that trick.  I am not biting her quite so much either, and sit and let her pet me once in awhile, too.  If I weren't so cute, I couldn't get away with half of my tricks.   I like to annoy mom and dad by running around the living room in circles, jumping on  mom's special chair, then the couch, and hiding in the corner,  only to repeat as many times as I can.  Pretty soon I will be an old lady cat and just lie around sleeping.  Then mom will say,  "Why don't you run around and play??"
Parents are so hard to figure out.  Instead of sitting in front of the computer screen, I am so sweet, and just sleeping on a pile of mom's invoices.  What a good girl I am!  Mom says she has to work on her website now...and I know how   hard that is for her.  She always says she is not a techie type.  Maybe I can learn how to update her website.  I bet  she would love that!  I hope I can do better with my blogging this year.   For some reason, it is hard to sit down and get to it.  It seems like I always have so much to do.  I hope you  all get lots done in the weeks ahead, too.  Sparkie

 A couple of Freddy's newest quilts.  She has been in Arizona teaching and featured artist at the AQS show.  She also has quilts on display at the Back Porch quilts in CA.    Such a busy girl.

See my new hat???  I think it needs some flowers or a few bows!!

Ken made fruitcake this year. I don't eat it, but he gets the biggest rave reviews from fruitcake lovers.  He has been using this recipe nearly every year. I found it in the newpaper  almost 50 years ago.  It is called the Grand Old Recipe.

Maybe I should have saved this for the Easter Parade.

Here I am busy writing my blog.

There's a Tree in the Living Room

Hi friends...gosh,   I have been keeping mom so busy that she hasn't even had a chance to write for soooo long.  Shame on both of us.  Well, to be fair, she was sick for almost three weeks most of January with her sometimes usual bronchial asthma stuff.  I think she escaped last year, tho.  
Anyway, one day dad came into the house with a HUGE box....pretty soon he was making a giant tree in the corner of the living room.   Mom and dad kept talking about Christmas, and how we needed an artificial tree so the  Sparkie would be less likely to eat it!...I don't know exactly what this Christmas thing is, but after the tree was all set up dad put some pretty lights on it and then mom had two big  tubs of something she called ornaments.  I had lots of fun trying to knock them down and found some little wire hook things that were for hanging the ornaments.  Mom kept taking them away from saying I could play with them because they were too dangerous and I might swallow one.   Oh, oh, that could mean another trip to the vet...but that is another story I will save for my next post.
Mom said she was going to use her patchwork ornaments because they wouldn't break.  I did have fun playing with them on the tree though.  One day I made mom laugh when I marched by her with a cute little star ornament in my mouth.  I knew it wasn't a mouse, but it was still fun to play with.
Actually, I was pretty  a pretty good girl.  I only jumped from the arm of the couch across to the middle of the tree.  I never did climb up very high.  Of course, every time mom saw the tree wiggle, I would hear SPARKIE!!....Then I would run like the wind so I wouldn't get in too much trouble.

I love to drink water out of the faucet and play with the running water.

One of mom's unbreakable ornaments.

Lunch at one of my favorite nurseries with Opal....great place for photos...good food, too.

Aunt Marilyn sent me this toy....mom and dad love it because it keeps me occupied while they eat so I don't bother them begging!  It is fun to chase the little mouse around and around!

Christmas is fun with all the lights, paper, ribbons, and other goodies, not to mention interesting new smells and foodies to  attract me.  (Mom seems to think I have an unusual attraction to food and thinks it is funny when I come running every time I hear a candy wrapper crinkle.!)  I must say that I do have good hearing when I hear those wrappers crinkle.

I also have great hearing every time I hear the  faucet running.  Poor mom can hardly brush her teeth....I get right up on the counter and drink water out of the running faucet.  I have to admit I do look pretty cute drinking water out of the faucet and jumping onto the counter any way I can.  Mom says she has never seen a cat so intrigued by running water.  I wonder   if the koi pond will be as much fun as the bathroom faucet.  I hope I don't fall into the pond....there could be frogs and other critters in there.
I heard the timer go off,   and I think I smell some pizza baking...oh, boy!   It is sad, though, because mom and dad will only feed me cat food....no people food.   I can always dream!  Well, I better get on with other things for now, like teasing mom and scrounging for some pizza....I will tell you all about the VET on my next post.   Sparkie