The Aja Evolution - Chapter 72, Section M, Line Item 3, parts A through F 🤣 !

It is hard to wrap my brain around just how much adjustment time this little creature, 

called Aja, requires. But clearly we are not at the crest of that mountain top!  

This coming May will be 2 years since a very scared, skinny, jittery and somewhat distrusting little orange female cat entered our lives.  And still there are little changes happening all the time - she is more comfortable in our home and more comfortable with us.  

Sitting on my lap - and not sure she likes this camera “thing” I keep doing.
😆
Its all in the position of the ears!

In the last few months she has been conquering the skill of lap sitting.  Usually in the evening, when all is quiet and I am watching TV (listening through ear buds - so the condo is very quiet), this little cat jumps up to the arm of my chair, waits patiently while I clear what I am doing from my lap, then steps carefully into the space I have made for her - and settles in for some petting time.  

She can’t see I am taking another picture, so the ears
have returned to normal.

But she didn’t start out this comfortable.  

It all began with her version of “drive by” - feet hitting the side of the chair and just as fast, feet pushing off in the opposite direction. Blink and you missed it!  After she figured out that no ‘condo monster’  swallowed her up,  she tried jumping into my lap with no warning ... sometimes landing on the top my open laptop - and then shooting off again, leaving me with a mess on whatever I was working on.  But I knew I was being tested (or maybe trained?)  I was calm.  She was persistent!  Next step in the goal of lap sitting, she started jumping on the arm of my chair and staring at me.  That was her signal that I must prepare her space (my lap.)  Once cleared she carefully settled in - tail whipping back and forth - letting me know she is “on the ready” for something.  Currently, she has stopped whipping her tail and she lets the petting begin.  I am also using these visits to acclimate her to the idea of my arms around her for an affectionate hug and a kiss on the forehead.  The first couple times I did this, she leaned away from me in the opposite direction.  Now she seems to accept it - because she knows I let go. At some point she just might enjoy it.  Its all baby steps with her! 

My husband, too, is working on his own schedule of 'taming the tiger.’  Several times a day he walks into the bedroom and sits on the side of the bed calling to her - and she comes!  Sometimes it is from the far end of the condo - on the run!  She jumps up on the bed and sits primly beside him as he gives her pets.  She obviously wants that time with him, because she always comes.  It is a short time but welcomed by both man and beast! And thank God for it -because those who read my blog almost 2 years ago, will remember, the first night she was with us, my blind husband stepped on her.  She was definitely NOT friends with him that night.  But like all our cats, over time she has figured out that he can’t see, so when he is on the move - so is she!

She also comes out of the bedroom most afternoons and curls up on the floor in a safe place and naps!  We are hoping that someday she realizes that there are comfy chairs just one leap up where she can reside safely as well.  

She has her own water fountain now that provides her moving filter fresh water whenever she wants it.  Yes, we bought her a pet water fountain when we discovered her trying to drink out of the bathroom faucets.  I quickly realized that I hardly ever saw her drink water out of her bowl (which was changed twice a day.). The moment we put the new water fountain down - she began taking long drinks.  That along with her healthy appetite - and she has put on some weight.  When May rolls around, I am sure we will be getting the first of the yearly Vet lectures about keeping an eye on her weight!  (Just like when I go to the doctor.) Ha! Regardless... her fur looks soft and shiny and no bones are showing!! Happy and healthy.  One good looking orange kitty!  

She also has some favorite toys.  Cat Nip Paper Bag is a recent addition!  

The bag smells yummy!

I don’t see anything.  Maybe if I get closer!

Ok!  Going in.  Taking one for the team!!

She also has a crinkle toy that I have seen her bat around and carry in her mouth.  

And laser lights are her very favorite toy of all.  I’ve even found a ball of yarn rolled across the floor - and not put there by me!

Bottom line - she is doing great! And she continues to get her owners trained just the way she likes them!!

Oh yes, we are going to get the weight lecture!!

 

My Left Thumb and Aja

Here is a bit more of what has filled my time since July

 from the perspective of my Left Thumb.

(Yes, my left thumb!)

My left thumb has registered a significant objection recently.  Who knew that it had opinions!?!  That is an unfortunate evolution because I am in the thick of crocheting 2 sizable projects which I have every intention of finishing and I suspect my new craze - crocheting - is the cause of this thumb revolt. All my other fingers are agreeable to my creative needs.  Since my thumb seems to be full of opinions lately, I thought I would give it an opportunity to express some of them now.

So here we go!

Annie Crochet Striped Afghan Club in Plumberry - almost done.  (Vote from the thumb 👎)

I am nearing the end of this project. I was really drawn to this club because not only did you get a the yarn and pattern instructions for 3 different stripes once a month, but you are given access to the video tutorials.  For me the video tutorials were invaluable. 

I have learned a lot using this club, but I am still not comfortable with the written instructions or the crochet charts with all the odd ball graphic designs the look like Chinese picture writing to me.  Regardless, I love working on this blanket and would consider another Annie’s Club - maybe a knitting club. (from the thumb 👍)

One last pleasant discovery.  The acrylic yarn used is Premier Anti Pilling Everyday Worsted.  I had never heard of it before, but the colors are pure, the feel is very natural, there is no splitting and the stitches are sharp in definition.  My favorite acrylic now.  And it can be found at various yarn websites.

Queen Blanket (vote from my thumb 👎) 

This blanket made with mosaic crochet looks intricate but really it is so simple. The technique of mosaic crochet is a bit time consuming and the size makes this a long term project.  Still, the result is eye catching and very enjoyable to work on. The will be a very big project and will take more than a year so more crocheting is in my future (from the thumb 👎!!!)

Shelley Scarf/Wrap (vote from the thumb 👍)

My left thumb loves this project so I’ve made a lot of progress on this knitted project. 

This project has a simple 2 row repeat and one row is a purl row.  How simple can it get!  Apparently, for me, the simpler the pattern, the more likely mistakes occur.  Luckily, it is fairly forgiving pattern as it is pretty easy to correct a mistake in the previous row from the purl row.  In fact, if you use the right yarn - mistakes can be corrected anywhere in the pattern.  I had to make 2 corrections by actually sewing up errors  (almost like darning) with a separate piece of yarn and weaving in those ends.  Once done, it is pretty invisible.  In a solid color, that might not work, but my yarn has variations of shades.

And now on to my little Princess 👍👍👍:

AJA

Aja is so much fun. Little habits that she repeats and trusted moments that she dispenses (when the time is right for her, of course) are lovely to see. Her latest game is playing catch with our feet as we walk.. Claws are in - and she does a tap tap on our ankles. If you turn, she stops, looks, then runs away. Sort of a version of the game of Tag. At first we didn’t know what she was doing. But she does it frequently with both of us.  

She also is fond of jumping onto my lap in the evenings.  It is pretty much the only pictures I get.  And she doesn’t really care if you have knitting or a computer on your lap.  When she is coming up - she is coming!

When Aja was new to us she was a little 'black box' that was filled with mystery.  When you get a kitten, their black box is totally empty (sort of like their kitten brain - totally empty.) 😁  Adult cats have stuff hidden in their black box.   In her early days with us I made contact with her previous owner through Facebook.  We had a few lovely messages back and forth, and I learned a lot about Aja that she was keeping hidden.  From those Facebook chats there is a phrase that is stuck in my head.  But her previous owner said, “Thank you for giving her a chance.”  Awww ... 

"Giving her a chance...”  I guess that is what it looked like we were doing.  But what Aja and her previous “mama” could not know was - this wasn’t a “chance.”  There was no chance that it might not work out.  There was no “chance” that we would return her to the shelter (which I am quite sure does happen.)  Even if we would only have a marginal distant relationship with her, she was staying.  Aja landed in a home that didn’t rely on chances.  She was ours - for better or worse!  That is how we roll.

That’s all folks!!  

When she is done, she is done.  

I get tapped with her tail a few time in departing and then she is off to other things.

I am a persistent person - if it takes a year - if it takes 10 years, if I want to do something, I am going to do it.  And I wanted to conquer this little cat’s fear and distrust. And I think I have.  But that one comment has stuck with me anyway.  "Thank you for giving her a chance.”  Aja has proved she is worth many, many, chances.  As many chances as it takes - and almost all pets deserve that - unlimited chances because the circumstances of their past lives are really not of their making. She was lucky on several counts.  She had a good life before us and she has a good life now.  We love our little Aja, and I think she finally loves us.

I checked on Facebook and her former mama has removed her Facebook page content.  Only her name is there.  I left a message for her hoping she gets it.  I got the sense she really loved this little cat and was upset that Aja was in the shelter 2 weeks before someone took her.  I can’t imagine how hard it was to know her little Aja couldn’t make the move to another state with her.  I am hoping she remembers to check in on this blog to see how Aja is doing.  She is doing just great. (from the thumb 👍).

👍 

Now that I have given the stage (so to speak) to my left thumb, I am hoping that it will start to settle down.  A compression glove, cold packs, no crocheting for 3 weeks and regular applications of Penetrex (an inflammation cream) have had limited success.  Maybe giving it the opportunity to get a few things off its chest (do thumbs have chests?) will do the trick!

So what have I learned today.  Thumbs have opinions, perspectives and chests. Thumbs hate crocheting, but thumbs can’t speak so they are limited to emojis.  I have also learned to be grateful that this little 2-3 inch portion of my body is the only part putting up a fuss.  At my age, that is a fact to be celebrated.

(Now hunting around to find some wood to knock on!!!)

Commenting on the Comments

I rarely respond to comments and questions on my blog now that I use the Pop Up commenting.  I can’t reply in real time on the same post unless I choose to add a separate comment of my own to my post.  I am not sure if that method of reply would be seen since most people never look backwards on the blogs they follow.  Then I got to thinking ... why not have a “Reply Post” that follows the main post a few days later.  So here is my Reply Post.  We will see how this goes.

”Have you made a date [to see Esk] with dear Eskarina and her parents?”  YES!!  I should have mentioned that in my previous post.  In fact, the date was scheduled on my calendar the very first moment I snagged the first shot date!!  I went right to my calendar and counted out the days and marked my “Liberation Day” in bold red print. And there will be a blog post, Michelle, when it happens. “Liberation Day” is April 20 around 12:30 pm (yes I know the time as well) -  not that I am counting the minutes or anything.   However, she goes to day care during the workweek so we are holding off our reunion until the weekend when we have a “Sleep over at Grandma’s" condo all planned on April 23.  It will be joyous in the extreme.  I hope I can get through the first hour of the visit without crying.  Even in the Google Video calls with her - which do happen frequently - I can see that she has grown and matured.  During one of those video calls Esk asked me if I could show her the toys and her bed at my house through the phone 😢.  As I "walked her” on the phone into the guest room, I was fighting tears. While it is lovely she remembered these things and wanted to see them again,  it made me so sad that the only way we could do that was through a cell phone.   And although I am looking forward to seeing her parents as well, I know they are just as eager to have some time to themselves - even if it is just to get some sleep.  😄

And as for Aja!  She is definitely a female, Cynthia.  And I can assure you that the difference between female and male cats is like different solar systems.  The males (we have had 9 of those) are the party, party, party animals.  Pretty much happy-go-lucky!  More dog-like than cat-like.  The females (we have had 2 counting Aja) are the business end of the species.  It is nature’s way of assuring that kittens will survive.  Even in the wild, the female lions are the hunters and the male lions are the “figure heads” who wait for the meal to be brought down by their female mates. The true power is in the female.  It is probably true of most mammals.  It is just more evident in animals like cats - who are unlikely to hide their true nature.

I also learned some interesting things about orange female cats yesterday.  Orange females are relatively rare. This info came from another female orange cat owner who asked if Aja’s personality was “spicy.”  Why, funny you should ask.  Yes!  What a perfect description of her personality.  Spicy. This informal source said spicy personalities are a common trait of orange females.  So off I went to Google to do a little research.  Yes,  pretty much all sources agree - about 81% of ginger cats are male.  Ginger females carry the orange gene on both X chromosomes.  Both her parents had to be orange according to the sources I read.  But the “spicy” personality observation was not supported.  In fact, it was suggested be  the reverse.  While the strongest influence on personality tends to be early socialization, males tend to be the “spicier” of the two.  That observation does not appear to be based on any science like the color of the fur.  You can’t help but wonder, however, ... since there is only observational evidence on personality, maybe there is something to it - just not proven.  Everyone agrees, however, that orange cats are very friendly.  And Aja is.  She just doesn’t always know how to contain that joyous feeling at times.

Terra, Leigh, Marie and Lefty, thank you for your kind comments on the crochet.  I am definitely a novice in crochet.  The actual stitches aren’t hard but knowing where to begin and end rows still is sometimes a mystery.  Last year I started a crochet blanket and got about 5 inches done when I discovered the blanket was getting wider.  Obviously I had been unintentionally increasing on the edges.  I ripped it all out and decided crochet just wasn’t for me.  Then I discovered the Annie’s Club Kits - I liked the patterns and each kit came with video assistance. You could see quite clearly where the hook needed to go to begin or end.  While the cost of the total Kit is pretty high for what is acrylic yarn, the assistance and knowledge building more than make up for the cost.  And when you commented on the colors in the blanket I had to smile. I like browns and tans also, but there are no browns and tans in the blanket.  I tried so hard to capture the colors and failed miserably.  The colors are in the plum family with a pop of turquoise for contrast.  Even the professional pictures that came with the directions don’t show the colors correctly.

Finally to my walking friend, Karen, Happy One.  I think of you often and how lucky you are to have such a beautiful place to walk every single day (for 6 miles - yes, folks, she walks 6 miles every day - my hero!)  While our move to this condo was perfect in many ways, walking paths or even just sidewalks are in short supply in Elkridge.  It is not Columbia, where the developers were following the vision of James Rouse with pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. And Sandy, your idea for audio books while walking is something I used to do when I was on my own walk.  It does pass the time.  I am trying to get out later in the evening by myself when he has gone to bed.  He is an early to bed (7:00 pm) but late to sleep (10:00 pm) person - listening to his audio books for a few hours before sleeping.  With the longer days this works ok.  I get in a short walk around my condo development. (boring, but walking). But I miss wandering around randomly and spontaneously like Happy One does. 

Not sure how this worked for you guys.  I feel like I closed the loop on the last post with responses.  I probably won’t be back blogging again until I see Esk - in the flesh - on the 23rd - with a box of tissues in my hand and my other arm around her slim little body.    

Stay well all! 

A "Don’t Fence Me In” Update

The habit of writing seems to be lost on me of late!  The thought of writing pops up at regular intervals but the action seems absent.  Lately, if there is a structure to anything in my life - I seem to resist it!  Regardless, I am here now, so update time.

COVID-19 VACCINATION update

I am within a week of being fully vaccinated - meaning that I will soon pass the 2 week waiting period after the 2nd shot.  I won’t be barred from seeing my family anymore (specifically my dearest grand daughter.)  FREEDOM!  But I have been fortunate in this pandemic.  No illness and little to no reaction to either shot.   But I will continue mask wearing and social distancing until we are closer to herd immunity ... because that is the sensible, logical and the “adult” thing to do - until we ALL can be free!!

DIET update 

I spent time thinking about my diet - not for weight loss but mostly for health.  I finally settled on a mostly Mediterranean diet.   But it isn’t really ‘mediterranean' if you aren’t being semi compliant!  In the end I settled on listening to my body’s needs! And what is needs are smaller meals, more veggies, less meat, lower carbs and no 'no-nos!’ That is as much limitation as I am willing to do.

EXERCISE update

I miss walking.   Walking "my way."  And during this pandemic,  any kind of walking has been scarce.  I refuse to blame the pandemic. Nothing has kept me from going outside and walking during these months.  Nothing but myself and one small deterrent.

What is most satisfying about walking is the solitary time, walking by myself.  Setting my own pace, viewing the scenery, thinking about things - mind drifting, no socialization or expectations.  But my husband also needs to walk and due to is disabiity, he cannot walk alone.  Oh I know there are blind folks who can do absolutely everything independently, but those kind of people are very rare when you lose vision as a senior.  That means when I walk (with him) I am "on duty."  I have to be on alert the whole time to make sure the obsticals are announced or avoided, always checking our pace since he has exactly one speed - fast - but he doesn’t have the heart and lung capacity for that speed any more.  His mind drifts, he forgets to “listen” to the messages his cane gives him.   I know it sounds (and feels) a little selfish to want to have some alone time on my walks.  But the only fix for this is to find time for 2 walks a day.  Working on this.

CLEANING OUT update

I joined a blog event last fall called Making Space. But as I suspected, I found the discipline of blogging about it hard.  I enjoy reading the posts of others, but I am happy to clean out on my own when the spirit moves me.  

My current decluttering has focused on exercise tapes and cook books.  

I get absolutely NO satisfaction out of exercising indoors.  If I am forced to exercise inside, I prefer to have a list of exercises that I can do while I watch some sort of distracting TV.  And yet I had a shelf and a half of exercise disks - each one I thought would be “the one” that helped me get in shape indoors. I am down to about 5 disks.  Big declutter there.

I hardly ever crack open a cookbook.  Same logic - I buy the book thinking this is “the one” that will help me enjoy cooking.  I will make wonderful tasty things from that book. Never! When I want a new recipe, I just hop on my computer and print something out.  I have several loose leaf binders of recipes I have pulled from the internet that I use when menu building.  I have donated a great number of cookbooks, and now I am in the process of cannibalizing a few - pulling out any recipes I made that were good, but never repeated because ... well ... hardly ever crack open a cookbook.

Funny, I never thought I would get rid of exercise tapes and favorite cookbooks.  And here I doing both.

KNITTING AND CROCHETING update

Scarf - my only knitting project right now. Finger weight yarn and it will take a long time finish because ...

... I started an Annie’s Club project called Plumberry Sampler Afghan in crochet.  

This is an indoor shot of the first 6 rows of this Afghan.  The colors are hard to capture correctly.

This is an outdoor shot and the colors are closer to normal.  

And even with natural light, the colors don’t show as true.

I am enjoying working on this - it is a great crochet learning project.  And the yarn they use for this is wonderful stuff.  Acrylic, but hard to tell without the label.

Queen blanket, also crochet, is well underway.  This is the most satisfying project I am working on at present.  No pictures to share yet but the finished object should look something like this.

My colors will be somewhat different, but you get the idea.  It really is a fun and easy project.

And then there is this little lady, Aja.

Yes, that is a smug and self-satisfied face.  Don’t those eyes say it all.  

She has made large strides with my husband.  And he has put great effort into it.  Several times a day, he goes into the bedroom to “visit” Aja.  He sits on the bed and she jumps up and rubs and rubs and rubs - and he pets - and usually it ends peacefully.  She gets herself over stimulated ending in a hiss or a swipe, but that is more rare now.  Oh, she does come out of the bedroom and wanders around the condo regularly, but she is most comfortable where her two beds are and food and litter - and she has safety behind the gate at the bedroom door (it has a cat door in it - and no one but her can pass through.) So she can come out any time she wants.

Here she is behind my recliner.  And if you look close, Milo is in the recliner.  Guess she felt the coast was clear if he was asleep.

Next month it will be the first anniversary of her adoption.  She has come sooo far since that skinny frightened and distrustful cat came to live with us.  Change is hard for her.  Not everyone could give her the time and distance she needed to adjust.  I kind of feel like she was just meant to be with us.  We love her so much and she has shown in her own way that those feelings are returned.

I think I hit all the topics.  Until next time ... 

Aja and The New Windows

Time for another Aja update.  

I don’t think I have ever done this with any of my previous cats ... regular updates to share adjustment progress.  Nope!  But all those cats came to us as kittens - moldable as clay!  No big deal.  Aja came fully formed with a life and experiences before us ... and as such, she has been evolving on her own schedule with every month that passes! And, of course, she had an owner who loved her before and wanted to know how she was doing!  She is doing great! 

 

And then I threw a sledge hammer into that delicately built relationship we have worked on.

 I decided to do something very big, very messy, very noisy and somewhat cold!  

The big event that happened this month were window replacements - all 10 windows in the condo were ripped out in what appeared to be a very noisy demolition.  See, I got this great idea in October (when the weather was moderate) that a major home improvement project during a pandemic made perfect sense.  But what I didn’t count on was a January instillation.  

All ten windows were removed at once - letting in all the wonderfully cold January air (not!).  And, of course, there was noise!!! Lots and lots of it.  And there were 4 strange men walking in her condo, walking in her sacred bedroom where even the dog isn’t allowed.  And they were making very big holes in her bedroom walls.  And they were here from 8:30 am until 3:00!!  And it was cold.  

As this was all going on, all I could think was ... we are going to lose all the ‘brownie points’ we had accumulated with our little Diva, and we would be starting ALL OVER AGAIN!  Sigh!

You can’t see her but she is hiding behind the laundry basket.

After all, we had achieved a lot ... “lap time” on both our laps!  Yes, she had even taken to visiting my husband - the blind guy who stepped on her the very first night!  Whatever was I thinking when I scheduled this back in October.  Well ... what I was thinking was that the windows would be installed as promised in early December when it would be warmer.  And I sincerely didn’t understand that ripping out old windows was such a destructive process. 

As the work was going on, I started to worry that Aja, who was hunkered down in my husband’s closet might decide to come out and sit on the window sill - where there WASN’T A WINDOW THERE ANYMORE.  I was fixated on that thought. My God.  She could fall.  I tried to encourage her to come out so I could put her in our bathroom - where it was warmer, and had litter, had food and her comfy cube bed. Nope!  She wasn’t moving.  In fact, she looked at me as if she didn’t know who I was!! My husband assured me that Aja was definitely not leaving her hiding place to sit on any window sill - not with all these men and the noise!  

The condo temperature surprisingly didn’t drop below 50 degrees.  We sat around in our coats freezing but the temperature really was reasonable.

New and Improved.

When all was said and done ... the job was completed, the 4 men left, the heat was back on and the quiet returned ... out she came!! Like nothing had happened!  All was right in her "Diva World!"  Amazing.  How she recovers from stuff is one of the measures I have used to see how she is really adjusting and how confident she is.  How well she “recovers” from a trauma.  In the first few months any interruption in the routine took a day or more before we saw her again.  Now ... within the first hour ... she struts out like she is reclaiming her kingdom!

All in all - I think she has decided this is definitely her home

and we are definitely her servants!  

And she is definitely right on both counts!!

It is Aja Time!!

 It is time for an update on my favorite feline.  

Aja!

She is doing very well.  She has been with us about 7 months and she has developed her own little set behaviors and habits that we can count on.

She enjoys sitting in the windows - of which she has 3 to choose from in our bedroom.  

This is a great profile shot of her.  Lovely.

My favorite picture of her so far!!

She is so beautifully marked!

She has also filled out a bit as she does enjoy her mealtimes.  She frequently

jumps on my lap, and we have even rubbed noses together.

She is also the 'door greeter' when we have both been out.

And during our dinner, she comes out and sits near by watching us eat.

I say she is visiting with us.  My husband says she is reminding us

that she hasn't been fed yet!! 

🤣

She is better now at accepting petting.  When we first got her I thought she

had a condition that causes a painful hyper-sensitivety in some cats when petting. 

 I have since changed my mind.  

She enjoys the petting so much that she simply looses control. 

(Sort of like me with pizza!) 

And how do I know when that reaction is coming?

She starts to drool!  (Me too, with pizza.)

And she starts to lick her lips!

If you keep petting after the lip smacking begins, 

she becomes so over excited she will hiss and bat at you - 

wanting you to stop and wanting you to not stop!  

Typical cat behavior.

Drooling and lip licking are her "tell."

We get along fine now that I know what to look for.

Again at the windows.  Lots to see.  She also loves that

cube she is sitting on.  It has an opening underneath on one end and often sleeps inside it.

Too bad the picture below is so dark.  It is really quite cute.  

She likes to sit on her scratching board and monitor the preparation of her meals.  

My husband does the water changing and the feeding - tasks designed to improve their relationship.

And she had become better friends with my husband!

I take care of her litter box.  

 

And she takes her meal times very seriously.  Loves wet food.

This is her position by the cedar chest that sits in the living room.

She likes to sit here and watch us while we eat.

She is getting better at letting me take her picture.  She is a beauty!

Yep!  I think we will keep her!

(not like that was ever at risk!!)