The passing of Vladamir

I am absolutely shattered at the passing of Vladamir last Friday (29th June, 2018).

After battling kidney issues for 6 weeks, it was time to say goodbye. My beautiful boy had deteriorated to the point where he was skin and bones and he was having difficulty swallowing.

But for the eight years that we had him, we had the best time. He was the most gentle of cats. Befriending anyone who arrived at our place, he loved to jump up on laps and make people feel very special.

He was so patient as well, especially with our special needs boy Nicholas. He could pull his tail, lift him up, throw him and he would still be gentle with him.

He was a rose between two thorns, our girl cats and he will very much be missed by all. 

He is probably running around up there with Boris and Anastasia and having a grand old time.

Embracing 2013 with a new kitten

I have moved through 2012 so fast last year, I have hardly had time to catch my breath.

I look forward to connecting with myself in again in 2013. I've been re-thinking the direction of Konstant Kaos and what I want to achieve in this space and I have lots of exciting ideas.

2013 will be a year of stability for the family. Nicholas is starting to talk a lot better since his ear operation and since we removed his dummy a week ago, he has vocalisation has started to develop a lot more.

The arrival of another furry freeloader "Mishka" into our household has brought out behaviours in my 2 year old that I could not anticipate. So here are some cute kitten pictures to make you smile, a very vocal and adventurous 14 week old female Russian Blue.

The quintessential Russian Blue picture ...

Gazing into the distance

Rolling around on the carpet, sun-seeking. She is an Obanya Russian Blue, re-housed from a couple who got her two weeks ago but needed to find a home for her quickly because of changing personal circumstances.

Both Vladamir and Natasha are keeping her in check. Vladdy doesn't really care much about another cat, but Natasha is hell bent on showing her who "top cat" is.

We didn't end 2012 wanting another cat, but I saw the add on gumtree and felt that the family (and Nicholas) would benefit.

Happy New Year!!!

Do you love Russian Blue cats?

Back in March I uploaded one of my favourite Russian Blue photo's to Soceity6 and created an iPhone cover for myself. The picture was taken looking out of our front door at Nash Street and all three cats were just soaking up the sun. I have an enlarged version hanging in the hall way at home. Tasha had just finished washing Anastasia and Vladdy was doing a nice big stretch. Looking at the picture always brings a nice smile to my face, which is why I guess I used it!

 

$35US not a bad price for a custom case

I must admit that it has worn rather well. It is only now, that it is starting to chip at the edges and I am generally a hard user of technology. The phone cover was printed and delivered quite quickly and I was impressed with the quality of it. I am tempted to upload some more of my gorgeous photo's to this site to see if anyone is interested in my work.

What do you think, should I?

The hubby's iPhone cover is dying a slow death, so it is time again to turn my crafty energies  to re-designing a phone cover for him. Something steampunk I think ..

If you want to buy a copy of the Three Amigos iPhone cover, Society6 have free shipping (http://society6.com/KonstantKaos?promo=126017)  until the 14th of October.

If black and white is not your thing and you like something more colourful, the wonderful Ms Curlypops has some fabulous designs in her shop a well. Check out her Facebook post with the free shipping token.

And then there were two

I've been sitting on this blog post for some time now. It is quite an emotional one and I guess it has stopped me from regularly posting.

We got Anastasia in November of 1995 and on the 10th of October 2011, she passed away. She was effectively our "first born".

She was always quite reserved and hated to be picked up. Probably due to being picked up as a young cat, she strugged and landed on the tiles and fractured her front paw. So if she wanted to smooch you, it was entirely on her terms. She was never a lap cat, but would happily sit next to you.

This photo was taken when we lived in Noble Park. Not long after we got Boris he instantly fell in love with our Russian princess. Boris was a street cat that we found a home for. Battered and bruised we brought him into our home and instantly they became a couple. Whenever I look at this photo, I hear Lionel Richie and Dianna Ross' Endless Love.

Ana and Boris are together again under the rose bush in our front garden. I miss her terribly, but in the end her kidney's had shut down and whilst we could have put her on a drip and prolonged her life for another month, it wouldn't have been fair. So we had to make the call, and it was such a hard one to make.

At least Natasha has Vladamir. It makes it easier on them to have someone to play with. I caught Tasha washing Vlad the other day the way that she used to wash Ana, he wasn't too thrilled with the experience but I suspect he liked the attention.

So that is what I have been upto ... not much craft happening, lots of interior decorating, Nicholas and I did sleep school and he is sleeping much better. But I guess I haven't felt like blogging much and now you know why.

Passing of Boris

I was so busy doing stuff yesterday I forgot it was the anniversary of the passing of Boris our beloved Russian Blue three years ago.

Her was very much a loved cat and he left a hole in our hearts when he passed away from old age in our arms. We burried him under a rose bush in the front yard, a red one called "Cardninal". Today the rose bush has a healthy bud on it and it will probably flower this week.

We used to call him "lardo the wonder cat" as he had the uncanny ability to sleep wherever he wanted to. He would sit on the edge of the couch and wait for Andreas to come home and then run to the door to greet him. He was very vocal and in the end he was deaf and very loud.

He came to us a "dumped"cat and within a week of having him we discovered he had crystals in his urinary tract and for a while he also needed Valium to calm him when going to the toilet. He was the most expensive cat we have had needing many vet visits in his stay with us to fix his digestive tract and also remove rotten teeth. He loved his bravery bandana's from North Fitzroy Vet Clinic.

The one thing that I remember about him is that he had so much love to give, to anyone who would take it and in the end Anastasia and Boris were so close. We have had Vladamir for about a year now, and it was just the other day that I caught him washing Anastasia. It has taken a year for her to get used to another male cat.

My Green Room

Melbourne is dragging herself kicking and screaming out of winter.

In between a few lovely days of sunshine there is 4 or 5 days of overcast weather that threatens rain. Our water storage's are fuller than they have been in the last 10 years and for the first time restrictions on watering our gardens have been lifted.

I normally love to pick my daffodils, but I just can't bring myself to cutting them from my garden. They stand proud, encouraging the other bulbs to hurry up and show themselves. The great thing about our garden is that the design cleverly hides all those weeds that really need to be pulled.

I was rather excited to notice that my fresia's have bloomed. I will definately be picking these as they smell so good inside the house.

Of course with sunny days comes the opportunity to open my front door and let our inside cats pick up on the spring smells.

Vladamir taking full advantage of this activity, probably lamenting over his incarsination since he came to stay with us earlier in the year.

Vladamir in Sunday Sketch

A friend of mine, Creative Fidget, loves to sketch and takes with her a sketch book and a mini water colour paint kit. She sketched this at my place last week.

You can see Tori's car quilt and Vladamir curled up on the couch, Emily is patching on a table behind the couch.

Vladamir

We have had Vladamir for about a month now, we got the reminder in the mail for his 1 month shots. And he seems to be settling in quite nicely.

The reason why we wanted to get a male cat was because the two females were fighting a bit too much. Actually, it was Natasha (2 years) who wanted to play fight with Anastasia (15 years). Anastasia has a bit of arthritis so she doesn't really want to do the whole rough and tumble kitten stuff.

But since Vlad has arrived, Natasha and Vlad play fight up and down the hall and Ana has a sigh of relief! Vlad still doesn't have full reign of the house. He sleeps in the laundry and spends time throughout the day in the laundry when things are getting a bit "zoo" like or he had decided to mark his territory.

But overall, they are all getting along quite fine. Vlad is a typical male Russian Blue with lots of purrs to go around and he is very very placid. Tori will go upto him and give him a hug and he isn't phased by that at all.

Vladamir

We have a new cat in our lives ...

Vladamir is a 2 year old stray that needed a new home and our home was missing the presence of a Russian boy.

Snooch aka Caramon

It has just passed a year since our lovely Boris passed away, our Russian Blue vagabond that we loved so well. I searched my blog to see if I had mentioned him and I hadn't :(

He was with us for just over 10 years, we opened our doors to him when he needed a home. The vet estimated that he was about 18 years old. He loved Anastasia and they got along so well. He was a slut and would give *everyone* lots of love whenever he could. It was quite obvious when he was deteriorating, his rapid decline happened over 4 weeks and he passed away in our arms on the kitchen floor.

So I had a shed a tear when my husband told me tonight that Snooch aka Caramon from Two Lumps passed away a few days ago. Pictures of snooch and the cartoon itself reminds me so much of Boris. It still feels surreal when I come home and I realise that he is not with us anymore, he was such a large part of our lives. I have a few more pictures of him on my livejournal scrapbook.

Tori's Technicolour Granny

My blanket for my daughter is coming along quite well, but I do have to get more wool as I want it to be big enough for both of us to snuggle under while watching such classics as "Monsters Inc." and "Bear in the Big Blue House" (in german of course!).

... but then I discovered that I might have to make it a little bigger as both the cats seem to have taken a liking to it (Anastasia snuggled under the blanket and Natasha on the right trying to attack her and become Top Cat).

I am averaging about 2 squares a day when I drive to work. Stationary at the lights is when I do my crochet, oh and when I am stuck in peak hour traffic on Punt Road.

I also have another scarf to crochet for moi and another beanie that Tori can wear to childcare. Everything gets wrecked that goes to childcare and I don't want her lovely one that Oma and I made to be covered with paint or even worse ... lost!

What is on your crochet to-do list?