Another type of Vintage - long time companion furbabies
 

A discussion in another thread made me think this might be a great place to immortalize our sewing room companions. :) I'll start.

Current:
Stormi - known aliases: The Queen, Queen Mab, stormer-lisious, kitten little, the nutter.
Age: 18.5 human years
Unique traits: Likes to chase her food and yowl at it while carrying it around the house. Also likes to run through the house and get onto the top of the dresser and stare at you like a stone gargoyle come to life. Also likes to "aggressively mother" both DH and me by rubbing her face in our (usually freshly washed) hair and if we resist will hold us down to do it. Likes to sleep with her face in my hands. Used to beat the snot out of my printer whenever I sent a print job to it before she went deaf. This is her with my 15-90 and first quilt pieced and FMQed on that machine.

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Shadow - known aliases: nut burger, shadtastic
Age: 16.5 human years
Unique Traits: Her purr sounds like a tree frog, likes to give head butts, knows the word "shower" and will come keep you company in the shower, talking the whole time. Not even flinching when I scream "DANGER!!!" when she gets too close to a running sewing machine... *sigh* That's her with my getting closer to vintage Pfaff and in my studio.

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Dax - known Aliases: DipStick, Daximus, and lots I shouldn't post on a public forum. ;)
Age: Will be 13 in human years this year
Unique Traits: Uh....there's really nothing normal about this dog other than the fact that she'll eat anything that may or may not be food. We think she might be part coyote. The SPCA said Husky Shepherd Cross but a lot of her mannerisms are more coyote than either of the breeds. And if you hear her call, it's pure coyote. She's terrified of the cats and will cry if you tell her to come but there's a cat in the way. The "blanket" she's laying on is the first try at sewing with my 1913 27 treadle. That blanket is also where I learned there was a difference between stuffing and batting. :)

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Gone but not forgotten:
Gizmo - known Aliases: Grey Kitty, The Old Lady
Age: 13 when she passed due to stomach cancer
Unique traits: Smartest cat I've ever known. Very graceful jumper - especially considering she was always an indoor cat. Loved her burgers - would go for a ride in the car to get "burgers". She left us before I sewed, so no projects with her.

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Chappy - Known Aliases: I don't remember??
Age: Approximately 14 years before old age got him
Unique traits: Was a sled dog up north before his hip dysplasia got too bad to pull. Had most of the traits of a sled dog but the build of a wolf. Extremely strong prey drive which would cause a little excitement sometimes when running him with the mountain bikes. One time he even took DH right off the bike when he spotted a rabbit and took off after it at a 90 degree angle from the previous direction of travel. Passed before I sewed - other than the webbing harnesses I made for him.

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Thanks for the pictures. Animals are so wonderful!

I need to get some updated pictures of my critters. A couple of them are more "vintage" than I'd like. (Where does the time go?)

This gives me an interesting idea for a calendar though. Vintage machines posed with vintage pets. I bet it'd be a hit!

Sewing buddy
 

I would like you to meet my sewing buddy. Her name is Doodle bug we call her Pooh Dog and some others I wil not mention. She is half poodle and chihuahua and she is known as a choodle. When we rescued her we did not know this mut was considered a disigner dog. :D She has chosen the den as her room and her favorite place to sit is on the back of the sofa so she can bark at the sewing machines. If I am not careful she will crab my fabric and make a nest. She is a little stinker but so much fun to have a around and and is always there by me to help. [ATTACH=CONFIG]512424[/ATTACH]

Skip

Sewnoma - I agree, they "grow up" so quickly! The Calendar would be a great idea! Just no snow for December, K? My birth month always has something with snow in it!! ;)


Skip! She's adorable! Why do you suppose she barks at the machines? Is it because they get too much attention? :) Yeah, we have a lot of similar unmentionable names for Dax too. She was named at the SPCA before we got her and she knew her name. Once we'd lived with her for a while, we thought she might not have the uh.... mental capacity to learn a new name. ;)

Tammi I really think she barks at the machines because she sees me playing with them and in her little mind should be able to play with them to. I did but a head down on the floor to see what she would do and she tried to play with it like it was another little dog. It was so funny to watch her reaction when it would not play back. She just sat down beside the machine and looked at it like what the "H" is wrong with this thing. She did keep her eye on it and I think she was waiting for it to move. It was a hoot.
Skip

I enjoy seeing the stories of our pets!

Awwww too cute. I want to hug them all! Here is my sewing room companion, Daphne. She was a rescue that was scheduled to be euthanized as she was deemed unadoptable. We have had her for 5 years now.:D

I don't know how to load photos on this new computer yet, so I'll just tell you about one of my 5 dogs. Molly is a 10 year old Golden Retriever that some idiot abandoned in the summer of 2010, she was 5 then. She has been the sweetest dog ever, knows no strangers. Unfortunately she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, has a large vascular mass on the left side of her neck; she not in pain right now. She's not eating but 1/2 of her usual dinner and is getting thin. https://www.flickr.com/photos/391684...57638104137516 Sharon in Texas

Very nice. Love then names and stories. The make everything, including sewing, more interesting and gratifying. Thanks for the stories.

Great photos. Makes me miss my 3 pound babies (all 3 are gone): Lulu (orange tabby - she was about 13 and had possible IBS), Penny (blue and white tabby - about 16 [old age]) and Midnight (black - she was about 8 and contracted FIP).

I would love to get another pair, but we want to travel for a few years and don't want to worry about cat care.

I'm a sucker for pet photos and stories. Especially since it gives me a chance to show off mine!

Here's my favorite picture of my two big boys together. Pookie and Pumpkin. We lost Pookie last year at age 14 (IBS that probably led to cancer). Pumpkin is now 13 and is in treatment for large-cell lymphoma, but the prognosis isn't very good even though he has responded to treatment. Just loving him while I have him. They took very good care of me.

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my little family
 

this is my little guy SweetPea. he is 17.5 and I think he had a minor stroke a few weeks ago. walks funny now but keeps on trucking. and the boy lives for breakfast and dinner. then there is my blue eyed boy Amore who is just a lover. and my little fat girl Phaedra.

OH...now I'm sad...I just lost my "Star Baby," a few weeks ago. Here's a pic of her (Top) and also her sister, "MJ," aka "Wiggles," (below.) I also have a new pup, "Lucy," but no pics of her yet. Will post soon.

~ Cindy

Glenn! I've seen that look too but it's usually when I bust out a few dance moves while I'm quilting and the cats look at me with the same look! Doodle Bug sounds like she's a puppy at heart. :)

I wonder if Daphne was deemed unadoptable the same way one of the vets at the SPCA used to do it here. She'd lunge at them and if they did anything - cringe or look aggressive - they were scheduled for euthanasia. That woman was terrible. Not a lot of animals will do nothing in response to an aggressive move. I'm glad you got Daphne. She looks like she's doing well.

Hey Sharon, I saw in another thread too that you were having trouble typing as well. When you make a post, click on the "A" up in the corner of the tools just above where you're typing (it's circles in Red on this photo) If you hover your mouse over it, it says "Switch editor to source mode". When I get on a machine - usually the "mobile" ones - Win8, iPad, iPhone, etc my cursor freaks out and I "skip" letters until I do that then typing is fine.

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Posting pics is the same on all the platforms I've tried - click the button I circled in blue and upload. If the photo is too big, it will give a really non-intuitive error message - resize it and repost. Easier done on a PC or a Mac than say an iPad. It works this way on all of the devices I use which run the gamut of PCs with Windows (various flavors) and Linux, Android, and iOS (i.e. iPhone/iPad) so I suspect your photos have gotten too big and you're getting errors because I know you've posted pics in the past?

Molly is gorgeous! I have a soft spot for the larger breeds. I don't know how people can treat them so badly and abandon them. She's very lucky to have you!

caspharm - that's the plan for us too. I know the next year or so is likely to be tough on us with these ones and if I can exercise any restraint at all, we'll be a couple of years without furbabies so we can travel too.

Oh! Such a cuddle couple of boys! :) Pookie was OK with pumpkin mauling him like that? ;) That's usually how fights start in our house.

Hey Cindy, I didn't mean for the thread to make people sad. :( I will say that the hurt does fade but the good memories remain. For months, I was a wreck when I lost Gizmo but now I only smile when I think of her. MJ looks like she found a mud puddle to play in. :) I do want to see pics of Lucy too!

melmerr1, your dog may not have had a stroke. there is a disease called "old dog vestibular disease". It's a balance
problem and more common in older dogs but can happen to younger dogs, too. one of my dogs had it and that's why i researched it. her head leaned to one side and she walked with a stagger. the good news is it goes away by itself and causes no permanent damage. you can google it to get more information. Linda

I am still having trouble uploading photos that are apparently too large and don't know how to reduce them, so can't show you my Tucker as quilt inspector. However, here he is in fabric, and the picture that inspired the block. (The preview shows them too large... I will find out what happens when I hit the "post" button...)

Yes, we've lost a few along the way. Every one we've ever had were dogs (or cats) that someone dumped on our doorstep. Within the first year after we built this house in 2000, there were an additional two that were literally dumped on our doorstep. One was part poodle, part maltese, and was the sweetest little dog I've ever known. We lot "Little Bit" in the China contaminated food mess about nine years ago. He was dark gray, light gray, black, brown -- a little bit of everything. He was attacked and severely injured by the dog up the street. It cost us over $1,000 to get him healed up. Little Bit was the smartest and most obedient dog I've ever had. The next rescue was little "Buddy" who survived the longest of the three we had -- he had a malignant grown close to the heart and despite the expenditure of quite a few $$$$$$$, and many tears, we couldn't save him. I have pictures of them somewhere around here, but I've got so much of my Aunt's junk (stuff) dumped in my house I hardly have room to walk through it. If my back ever gets better (please God) I'm going to get rid of a lot of this stuff (junk)! Whatever, LOL!

Jeanette

I know I probably shouldn't say this, but I swear, I was ready to declare WWIII over the melamine contamination in the China dog food ingredients! "Little Bit" was MY dog, but he loved everybody!

Jeanette

That was just a perfect moment, perfect photo opportunity when I actually had the camera. Pookie had been sleeping on my bed (giant beanbag chair-style thing filled with foam) and the only way Pumpkin could cuddle up with Pookie was to be on top of him. Pookie didn't seem to even notice until I started taking pictures. Pumpkin has always had the amazing superpower of being able to do the cutest possible thing at any given time.

Here's Flickr album of them: https://www.flickr.com/photos/solarp...7650783647620/

Sheri, I'm just amazed at your fabric rendering! I have no gift for rendering something life-like like that! Tucker looks like such a lovable furball! :)

What do you suppose causes people to drop animals with you vs. any of your neighbors? I mean for me, I suppose it's obvious that I'm a sucker for animals... ;) I often wondered if Gizmo's kidney problems started with the Eukanuba / Melamine food problem since it was at the same time but since her kidney disease was Chronic not Acute, the vet ruled it out without tests. In the end, her kidneys aren't what got her anyway. I was pretty angry about the food contamination too. There was no good reason for it to ever happen and no way to bring any of those companions back. We got lucky because we had all of our animals on Eukanuba at the time but somehow not the contaminated formulas. It was a wake up call though and we moved them to a local food - Orijen - (it's actually made in the town we live in) and we've now moved them all to homemade or raw. Stormi and Shadow are on homemade and Dax is on raw.

LOL! Pumpkin has the same "forced cuddling" methodology as Shadow does. "I will make you cuddle, I don't care if you want to or like it!!" ;) It's like when she kneads on my chest and purrs in my face at 3am. You're cute kitty, but not that cute.... Every once in a while I manage to get a photo op like that but just as often I manage to get a photo of the beginning of the war that results. Pumpkin has a very worthwhile superpower. ;)

Holy Cow! How did I forget her other nickname? The most important one?

Shadow is AKA the Jester. The court jester to the queen of course. :)

I will look into that. He is actually getting better. He is stronger today and can do stairs again. And his balance is much better... Thank you

My current furbabies:

Skyler - [ATTACH=CONFIG]512873[/ATTACH] Part Lab, part Chow (?), his litter was dumped in a freezing field in November, 2000. Saved by an irrigation worker cleaning out ditches (Yay!). He is 14 1/2 and still a happy boy!

Tigger - [ATTACH=CONFIG]512874[/ATTACH] Tigger's mom was rescued from a tree by my daughter and husband. She was pregnant so I wouldn't let her go to the shelter. We kept her and Tigger and found homes for the other kitties. Mom cat died some time ago - Tigger is 11 years old and helps me a lot when I'm on the computer!

My favorite - [ATTACH=CONFIG]512875[/ATTACH] This is Rowan, my granddaughter and sometimes cat!

Margaret

Sorry all the pictures are sideways!

Margaret, Your photos aren't sideways here... unless you mean portrait instead of landscape and that's not a big deal at all! Looks like you have some pretty lucky and contented furbabies. I don't understand people who dump animals. :(