Monday Morning Quarterback

God made the cat in order that man might have the pleasure of caressing the tiger.

- Fernand Mery

Well, it turns out that not everyone enjoys caressing a tiger, as my story below will illustrate. But first, a quick update on my weekend "sewing". I had to spend a couple of hours in a waiting room while my car received its 50,000 mile service and I used that time to cut rectangles out of fabric remnants from the pencil rolls that I made for my friends and co-workers for Christmas 2008.

Once home, I quickly stitched up a batch of little fabric pouches...

It was a bit of an illogical thing to do, as I have no personal use for 16 little fabric pouches...

But the fabrics are so cute and the pouches are so quick that there's a kind of immediate gratification about the project. :)

Now, on to my somewhat discouraging cat story.



To me, Oliver is so sweet and adorable, that it's difficult to remember that not everyone feels the same way about him, or cats in general. But it is true. My new sewing student, in particular, does not like cats. It didn't seem like it would be a problem, as my (3) cats are not big fans of company and generally keep to themselves when we have visitors. But the last time that Xiaomei was here, Oliver came out to play. She had put on her skirt so that we could determine the best size for the elastic at her waist and,unfortunately, the long piece of elastic was dangling on the floor. To a kitten, it was an irresistible lure...

In the process of jumping for the elastic, Oliver accidentally gave Xiaomei a tiny scratch on her ankle. It was truly small - less than 1/4 of an inch long and shallow. I get bigger scratches several times a week when playing with him and think nothing of it. But because she was company, I washed it off, added a dot of neosporin (an antibiotic) and a bandaid. At the time, she seemed fine.

Once home, however, she started worrying and by nightfall she had worked herself up into a state of near panic that she would contract rabies and needed to go to the hospital for rabies shots. I spoke with her husband and, of course, reassured him that all 3 of our (indoor) cats get all of their shots every year and that there was absolutely NO WAY that she had rabies. But she was, apparently, extremely distraught for the next 24 hours or so - pretty much until it was difficult to even find the place where he had scratched her.

Of course, objectively speaking, her reaction was irrational. At the same time, she really did experience those feelings of panic - and I feel just horrible about that. I would never want anyone, much less a friend, to go through something like that. :(

Needless to say, neither one of us think that our house is a good place for her to spend more time. And so, there won't be any more sewing lessons. I'll still see her during the weekly ESL class where I volunteer, so we'll keep in touch.

It was just something very unexpected and sad... :(

So, I hope YOU had a good weekend and are ready to face another Monday morning! :)