Runs With Needles

Samantha Grace

Adopted: November 20, 1999

Died: April 25, 2008

Oh, Samantha. My sweet Sammie girl. Gracie. I was not ready to say goodbye to you.

Sam’s story begins, like all my critter stories do, at the Humane Society. I was looking for a German Shepherd and found Samantha. In all honesty, she looked rough. She was about 20 lbs. underweight and her nails were so long that they curled under her feet. She was 3 or 4 years old and was skittish as hell. I soon learned that she had a very strong fear of loud noises: thunder, voices, laughter, etc. I tend to be a loud person (in talking and especially laughing) and if I didn’t lower my voice, Sam would go running from the room.

After a rough start, Sam became best friends with my other Shepherd, Max. Those two did everything together and were rarely more than a couple of feet from each other. Their favorite activity together was playing ‘chase’ and wrestling:

If I had to sum up Sam in one sentence I would say that she lived life with gusto and it was a joy to watch how much fun she had every single day.

Samantha loved fetch more than any dog I’ve ever known.

A few years ago I decided to see how long she could play fetch before getting tired of it. At about 90 minutes into this experiment, my arm cried ‘uncle’, but Sam was still running at full speed. While she slowed down a lot in the past couple of years, Sam was still playing fetch last weekend.

Sam also loved car rides. I’ve had dogs that have liked riding in the car, but usually only sat up for a couple of minutes and then settled in for a nap. Not Sam. She sat at attention the whole time and the look of happiness on her face always made me smile.

Samantha also loved water and loved to play with the water hose in the summer (with my help, of course):

Samantha was a digger. Soon after I moved into this house, she excavated a hole under the deck:

She spent many hot summer days under the deck. She also had a spot in the backyard that she dug on a regular basis. She was a serious digger, too. When the hole in the backyard would get 3-4 feet deep, I would sneak outside and fill it in. In just a day or two, it would be dug out again. Then we’d repeat the dance: me filling in the hole and her digging it out again. I think she enjoyed this routine as much as I did.

To say that Samantha loved toys would be an understatement.

The dog was just bonkers about stuffed animals. After any major stuffed animal holiday (Easter, Valentine’s, etc.) I would hit those 75% off sales and buy up stuffed animals by the dozen.

Samantha could (and would) spend hours just watching out the window.

She always notified me immediately of any danger: the neighbor’s cat in the yard, a loose dog running by or the garbage men stealing our stuff.

Sam was insanely obedient. I had total voice control over her and she always obeyed the first time I gave her a command. When we went on walks she would hear an approaching car and immediately move to the side of the road. Sam started losing her hearing a couple years ago and for the last year or so she’s been almost totally deaf (except for very loud or very high pitched noises). Luckily, I teach my dogs hand signals along with voice commands, so I was able to communicate with her. Sam also taught herself a pretty cool trick. One night she didn’t come inside with her sisters, so I got the flashlight out to find her in the yard. The second she saw the flashlight beam she ran inside. That became my command for her to come inside after dark.

My furry family would eventually include Kishka. Samantha and Kishka weren’t as close as Max and Sam, but they enjoyed each other’s company. Their favorite activity was sleeping side by side:

Sam and Sadie were just beginning their relationship, but it was already off to a good start.

Late last year, Samantha was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy. When that happened, I feared the worst. I’m happy to say that I was wrong. Samantha’s DM never progressed very far. She did stumble sometimes, but she was able to go for walks and play fetch right up until the end. For that, I am extremely grateful.

Samantha taught me so much about life: how to live life with enthusiasm and to not let past disappointments ruin a chance for happiness in the future.

Thank you, Samantha, for eight and a half wonderful years. You were a complete joy every single day. I will miss watching you eviscerate your stuffed animals. I will miss falling asleep at night to the sound of your soft snores. I will miss how your eyes sparkled when we went on walks. I will miss your anticipation when I picked up a tennis ball, frisbee or the garden hose. I will miss seeing the dirt fly as you dug to China. I will miss arriving home and seeing your happy face pop up in the front window.

Most of all, I’ll just miss you. Your gentle spirit and lust for life brightened every day of my life. You were loved and adored as much as any dog could be. Rest in peace, my sweet girl.

It’s nearly May and I finally have my first FO of the year:

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on Sadie. I’m always amazed how many comments my dog related posts receive. It makes me feel better about my lack of knitting content.

Speaking of lack of knitting content, I’m afraid it’s going to continue for the foreseeable future. I just don’t have much time to knit anymore. I usually have only an hour or two to knit each week, sometimes less.

My Central Park Hoodie has been frogged back again. Kishka sums up my current feelings about this project:

I do have a plan in place to fix this sweater but since spring is here, I’m just hoping to finish it by next winter.

When I have been knitting, I’ve been knitting on my third Log Cabin Blanket:

Sadie continues to settle into my furry family.

Some might even say she’s already spoiled:

I’m discovering new Sadie quirks almost every day. She likes to sleep like this:

Then when I call her name I get this face:

Her visit to the vet revealed that she weights 116 lbs. She should weigh around 80 lbs. Needless to say, we are doing a lot of walking.

The walking is followed by a lot of water drinking:

I caught Kishka sitting like this the other night:

It looks like all she needs is a beer and the remote control.

I’d like to introduce you to Sadie.

Sadie is five years old. Samantha, Kishka and I brought her home from the Humane Society yesterday. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I stopped at the Humane Society Thursday night after work. I’ve been thinking about another cat and/or another dog for a little while now. I decided to check out the cats (since the last thing I thought I needed was another dog).

I checked out all the cats. Twice. And none of them caught my eye. There were plenty of older cats (over age 8), but none of them felt like my cat.

There was a row of dogs across from one of the rows of cats and a yellow lab caught my eye. I’ve never thought about a lab, but I certainly wasn’t opposed to it. She was five years old (the perfect age since she’s not too young, yet younger than Kishka) and I couldn’t stop staring at her. I assumed it was just general dog lust, so I looked at all the dogs that were there.

I found myself back where I started: staring at this yellow lab until the announcement came that it was closing time (when I arrived it was already too late to adopt or even visit an animal so that’s why I was just watching her).

I thought about this dog all evening and decided I’d let Sam and Kish make the decision for me. Odds were, either they wouldn’t like her or she wouldn’t like them. Sam and Kish had met another dog last month and that dog hated Kishka. I was probably getting all worked up for nothing.

The next morning, I was at the Humane Society when they opened. I met the yellow lab and knew instantly that if the dog meeting didn’t work out, I would be very disappointed. She was just a bundle of love and I adored her the moment I met her. Sam and Kish had the last vote, though. If that meeting didn’t go well, this dog wasn’t mine.

The Humane Society worker took her outside and I brought the girls around to meet her. Everyone sniffed and then they ignored each other. Perfect! I breathed an audible sigh of relief and the Humane Society worker smiled and said, “I think she’s perfect for you and your family”.

I went inside, completed the paperwork and walked out with a new furry friend.

I immediately began soliciting my friends for possible names (her name was Annie, but it didn’t suit her and she didn’t answer to it). There were many good ones in contention, but Sadie seems to suit her the best. I’m working on getting her to answer to it and so far, it’s working.

I know it’s impolite to speak of a lady’s weight, but Sadie is, well, enormous. She goes to the vet next Saturday and I’m dying to know how much she weighs. My first goal is to get her down to a healthy weight. She’s so large that she has a hard time just sitting, the poor girl.

I’m always so saddened at the number of wonderful animals at the Humane Society. It really was mind boggling. If you’re thinking about a new furry friend, please check out your local shelters. There are literally dozens (often hundreds) of fantastic dogs and cats and they are just waiting for you.

This is a huge soapbox topic for me. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been told that shelter dogs are inferior to dogs from breeders. That just isn’t true. In fact, I think they’re better than dogs from breeders. Besides the cost (I could never justify paying a breeder the insane amount of money that they charge), these dogs just seem to be so grateful to have a second chance.

Author Peter Mayle said it best: “A found dog never takes anyone or anything for granted. Somewhere deep in the recesses of the orphan psyche, never entirely forgotten even after years of good living and kindly, obedient owners, memories of hard times linger. And this….tends to give lost and found dogs a special appreciation of what the world can offer.”

If you go to the shelter, please consider an older dog. Yes, puppies are cute, but they’re also a lot more work and a crap shoot in terms of personality. When I met Sadie, I was able to see her personality and know that she would be a perfect fit for me and my girls.

There’s another perk to adopting an older dog: she slept through the night last night and is house trained.

She also snores like a freight train.

Last night, I seamed up my Vacation Hoodie. Then I tried it on and the nagging feeling that I’ve had for a few weeks smacked me in the head. The hood isn’t right. Sure, the sweater looks fine:

But it looks awful on me. The hood completely ruins how the sweater fits and how it drapes. Everything else looks great, but that damn hood mucked up the whole thing.

I wasn’t sure about the hood from day one and I should have left it off and knit a collar instead. I’m planning a hoodectomy for the sweater and will start that as soon as I work up my nerve (and maybe have a drink or two).

With the notable exception of the hood, I love this sweater and already have the yarn for my next Central Park Hoodie (without a hood):

Taking that simple picture of this yarn was harder than you might think:

It’s a good thing she’s so adorable:

My faithful watchdog (she’s looking out the front window):

If you live in the U.S. and have seen the news lately, you’ve probably heard about this year’s wicked flu bug. I lost about a week of knitting time thanks to this flu. It knocked me on my back for several days and even though I feel fine now, I’m still exhausted. The moral of my story: I’m getting a flu shot next year.

The Vacation Hoodie is almost finished. I’m blocking the button band now:

All that’s left is seaming and sewing on the buttons. The blow by blow details of this project are on Ravelry.

I started my next sweater. This one is a pullover and this is the back piece:

I also have a scarf on the needles:

The girls have been sharing the chair in front of the window lately:

I’m making steady progress on my Vacation Hoodie. The hood is almost done and the sleeves are blocking (excuse the shoddy pictures…..they were taken indoors at night):

The majority of my knitting these days is being done while enjoying TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar. I say this every year, but I have got to get a bigger Tivo. There just isn’t enough space to record all the fantastic movies. I love seeing my favorite movies (Casablanca, The Philadelphia Story) and discovering new favorites (like Hold Your Man). In terms of movies, I was definitely born about 50 years too late. Give me Grant, Gable or Bogie over any of the movie stars out there today.

My girls are still doing what they do best:

The other day I snapped a picture of Samantha and I think it’s my favorite picture I’ve ever taken of her (and I’ve taken a lot!):

Going back to work after my holiday break has put a serious damper on my knitting progress. My Central Park Hoodie was flying off the needles during my vacation. Now I’m back at work and I got hit with a killer cold so progress has pretty much ground to a halt. I have finished (and blocked) both the front pieces and the back pieces. I also finished the first sleeve tonight (this picture was taken yesterday):

I’m chronicling step by step progress of this sweater on its Ravelry page.

I find few advantages of being up and on the road at sunrise, but I do enjoy seeing things like Pikes Peak just after sunrise:

Before I bid 2007 a fond farewell, let’s take a quick look at what I knit during this year. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was fond of knitting pairs this year…..

A pair of blankets:

A pair of unfortunate felted items:

Two pairs of fingerless mitts:

A pair of hats (and then realized I hate to knit hats):

Sing it with me…..FIVE KNITTED SCARVES……

And finally (drum roll, please), thirteen pairs of socks!

I don’t set goals (knitting or otherwise) for the new year, but my current knitting plan is to finish my Central Park Hoodie:

It’s New Year’s Eve and I am very happy to bid goodbye to 2007. In regards to the quote in this post’s title: tonight, I will staying up to make sure 2007 leaves. There’s no two ways about it. This year has sucked. It has been the worst of my life.

I said goodbye to my Michigan Kitty and to my Once In A Lifetime dog. I miss both of them every single day. However, I can look at pictures/videos of them and smile. I’m so lucky to have had such wonderful animals in my life.

Also this year, I learned that the disease that struck down Max is also stalking Samantha. Samantha is doing okay. The recent bout of cold weather has been tough on her, but hopefully it warms up soon.

I’ve been battling hip and back problems for most of this year. However, there is some good news about this. My hip problems have completely healed. My back problem, however, will likely continue for the rest of my life. But, there is good news about this (really). To keep my back pain at bay, I have to work out every other day. I never would have predicted this. I am soooo not a ‘working out’ kind of girl, but it keeps me out of pain, so I do it religiously. I don’t enjoy it (in fact, I hate nearly every second of it), but I do it and I feel fantastic.

There have been other horrible things that have happened this year (which I haven’t blogged about). Thankfully, there are good things happening as a result of these bad things, too.

I am hopeful that 2008 will not just be a lot better than 2007, but will be a fantastic year.

Back in September, I finished my Pink Clouds socks. At the time I talked about how the yarn (Claudia’s Handpainted) didn’t seem that special to me. After three months of living with the socks, this yarn is on my ‘never again’ list. I wear these socks once a week or once every two weeks. They’ve always been hand washed. And, yet, they look like hell. The color is fading/wearing off the bottom of the socks and they are pilling like mad. I am so disappointed in this yarn. The cost for this pair of socks was $22.

At first, I thought I might be expecting too much from my socks. But then I remembered my Pinky Purple socks. I’ve worn these socks weekly since March and they are also hand washed. They have some slight pilling on the foot, but that’s it. They look nearly brand new. The yarn for these socks was Knit Picks Sock Memories. The cost for this pair of socks was $6. The old saying “you get what you pay for” does not apply to sock yarn.

I am enjoying my vacation from work this week. I’m watching a ton of movies on TCM and knitting a Central Park Hoodie. This is my first sweater ever and I am intimidated as hell. But, I’m knitting on and figuring stuff out as I go. So far, so good:

The girls have been lounging around:

Sam’s been keeping an eye on the kitty:

Kishka fell asleep like this last night:

She’s also gotten really tired of all the pictures I’m taking: