She wears a harness

Much to her disgust, miss Malaika is now an indoor cat.  When she is allowed outside, she wears a harness (available from Dragonfly Harnesses in Northriding, Johannesburg), and mom is attached to the other end. 

 

 

She had a rough start to life and was probably left to roam around wherever she wanted to.  But now that she lives in the big city, there are fierce dogs in the neighbourhood and lots of cars around.  She always wants to jump over the garden walls and go exploring, so she is not allowed outside without mom holding onto her.  Sorry baby but we gotta keep you safe! 

Failure to launch crochet group

I love crocheting but adore crocheting with other ladies while drinking coffee and eating cake.  So I recently joined a crocheting group on meetup.com.  To meet new people and to crochet. 

 

With Lynn & Madyke - she knits huge blankets as gifts for people, she is so talented (and brave!)

 

The group of ladies (whom I've never met before) meet monthly to knit and crochet together.  I invited Lynn and Pat to join me at the March gathering, and Pat invited her friend Fran.  We arrived at Mugg and Bean in Cresta on time, ready to meet everyone and ...  no-one from the group showed up, even though 11 other ladies had accepted the event on meetup.com.  Seriously!?  I think that it's incredibly rude to accept an invitation and then not show up!  This was really a failure to launch crochet group.

 

We refused to waste the afternoon so we got a booth, ordered drinks and got busy handcrafting.  One of the ladies from the group (Madyke) eventually joined us.  Despite the disappointing start, we ended up having a gorgeous afternoon, and plan on getting together again quite soon.

Pat is making squares for a winter poncho

Lynn is knitting  a gorgeous baby blanket to take along as a gift

when she goes to New Zealand in December;

my ripple blanket is almost finished

Pat and her friend Fran .  I loved meeting you Fran,

and look forward to many more crochet dates with you!

Very rare plant

This is the very rare 'brattus cattus' plant which is found in my garden
* it is quite delicate and needs to be watered and fed daily
* it is reasonably-fast growing
* it is reasonably low-maintenance
* the drip tray can be quite stinky and needs to be cleaned daily
* it bites, but also melts hearts with a high cuteness level
* similar varieties are available at animal shelters

 

 

 

She had 4 legs

My last blog past was a month ago, sorry.  It was not an intentional blog break...work is just crazy busy.

 

I received a photo of Malaika as a baby, when she still had 4 legs.  When she still lived with another family.  Her front right leg was amputated in December.  And then she came to live with Ruby and I.  She still sleeps in exactly the same way as she did when she was a tiny baby.  It's been a tough start in life for this little one.

Love you princess, even if you drive me nuts by waking me up at 4am to play.