Ottobre for October

These Ottobre tees are so fast and easy to sew up that it almost feels like cheating. This one is done except for the bottom hem, which I'll do later tonight. The fabric is from Lucy's Fabrics, but months and months ago and it's been sold out for a long time. Sorry.

I bound the neckline using a 1/2" double-fold binder with my coverstitch machine. Because of the bumps and basting stitches of the center front gathering, this slightly bigger binder worked better than the 3/8" binder I used on the first version, I also used brown thread on top so I didn't get away from the brown completely. ;-)



For this one, I lengthened the short sleeve pattern to 3/4 length, curved the bottom edges and then bound the edge. The end result is a quasi vent and a tiny bit of a bell shape. I like it for something different. This is another tee I won't be able to wear for a while yet, as it's still hitting 90 degrees here during the day. Blech. Enough already.



And now for an abrupt change of topic …

Below is Gizmo, our cat. He's a tough cuss and has got to be on Life #10 by now. Whatever life he's on, he is 16+ human years old and we've had him since he was a kitten. When DS#1 was a toddler and still an only child, he and I picked him out at the horse stables just down the road, where cats run amok and the stable owners are more than happy to send them off to new homes. DS named him Gizmo, after the Gremlins movie character, because he thought our then-new kitten looked like Gizmo the Gremlin.



I didn't mention it earlier because we were all a bit depressed, but DH *very accidentally* ran over Gizmo in our driveway last Saturday (just before DS#2 needed to leave for his Homecoming activities). I took DS#2 in one direction and DH and DS#1 took Gizmo to the ER vet. They both left their cellphones behind so it was a long wait until I heard an update from them.

The vet examined Gizmo and didn't find anything right away. He didn't feel any broken bones or injured internal organs. But Gizmo was very obviously hurt and limping at his hind end quite badly, although he wasn't complaining a bit. Unfortunately, further testing and x-rays were going to cost over $800 and even then, we might not find out anything. So, we decided to bring him home with some pain meds and observe him before making any big decisions.

Gizmo has always been an outside cat. His choice, no matter how much we tried to make him an indoor cat. Probably something in his horse stable genes. He has a "home base" in our garage, where there are food and water dishes and litter box. We set him up in the garage on a blanket and there he stayed for 24 hours. Sometime Sunday night, he managed to limp outside without our knowing. I'm guessing when DH was taking out the trash. Poor DH already felt bad enough.

We looked all over for him on Monday. Our property, the neighbor's property where he would sometimes go for a sneaky bite of her kitties' food, and we walked the dog path a few times. Nothing. No Gizmo. Tuesday came and went and still no Gizmo. Even though he always stayed outside, he never really went too far and we always saw him every night and every morning, for greetings and feedings. Gizmo just never went away overnight. Ever. Until Sunday.

So, we figured he was bidding his final adieu to the world and we probably wouldn't find him. As Wednesday came and went with still no Gizmo, I just knew we wouldn't see him again. He was hurt and weak when he left — how would he ever be surviving these days without food or shelter?

Thursday afternoon, our neighbor knocked on the door. As soon as I saw her, my heart sank because I just knew she was coming to tell me she had found Gizmo's body. But no! Yes, she had found Gizmo but he was most certainly not in kitty heaven. She told us he had been laying next to her back porch all morning and hadn't moved for hours.

DS and I ran over to her yard with a basket and blanket, scooped up Gizmo and carried him back home in the basket. We still had his pain meds so we immediately gave him one pill and then some water and some cat food. He vacuumed up the food immediately and was looking for more. I knew that if he was eating and drinking, he wasn't planning to off himself. So we set him back up in the garage and checked on him every hour or so. He would be on the blanket one time and off another. So he was definitely moving around.

As of today, he's very much improved. He's still limping, but only slightly. He hasn't been back outside since Thursday but he hasn't acted like he's wanted to go either. He seems to know that he needs rest and TLC. The photo above was taken just before I started writing this.

This little old guy is 100% Tough As Nails.