As you may know, Henry is a yarn snob. He only fondles fibres with 100% natural content. Therefore, I believed my cowl being knit with Nashua Ivy (50% alpaca, 45% merino, 5% synthetic) was safe. I thought wrong:

Fortunately he didn’t try to kneed or lick or roll in it… but he certainly likes it more than anything acrylic! The pattern (for the knitters out there) is the Herringbone Cowl from Hungry Knitter. [Click for my project page on Ravelry].

Hope everyone is having a nice Whiskers on Wednesday. Henry is napping obviously!

Craig snapped this photo of Oscar and sent it to me just for Dogs On Thursday! (Isn’t he a keeper? Craig  I mean… oh I guess Oscar’s a keeper too. He’s a sweetheart.)

Anyway, Oscar was sulking because he’d just been told off (doing something naughty I assume). He apparently stayed behind the curtain for 15 minutes or so.

Happy Dogs on Thursday from Oscar in Manchester, England. Hope you all have a happier DOT!

We cats must inspect everything that enters our domain. We must approve of it before it is allowed to stay. Recently, mommy brought home these weirdo green things. They don’t taste as good as that bamboo-y stuff at mommy’s mom’s house…. don’t worry, I tried it. I guess they can stick around. All these silly things do is sit there anyway. They’re no fun. kthnxbai ~ Love Henry

P.S. The plants are here to stay. I went to Home Depot Garden Centre and asked for plants that needed either a.) no sunlight or b.) minimal sunlight. The smaller plant is a Money Tree with a beautiful braided trunk. It needs minimal light and lives on my kitchen window sill (I’m in a basement suite). The larger plant is a Peace Lily and needs nearly no natural light. It is in the living room.

P.P.S. I did an art project with these new arrivals. Photos of that shortly.

Chan recently lost a dear friend to breast cancer. Sissy and Gretchen, being the supportive furkids they are, initiated the Pink Parade to help raise awareness for breast cancer. Henry and I decided to help out… unfortunately he doesn’t like to dress up as much as Chan’s girls do! You can easily join in too! Visit Sissy and Gretchen’s post to learn about the initiative (you don’t have to use pets).

My first idea was Henry’s hot pink mouse… but he is not a very independent player. It took a few tosses to get this shot, and after the mouse fell he looked at me like “okay, now what?”

My next idea was my hair! I dyed my hair purple several months ago and then lightened it up over the holidays. Henry loves sitting on my shoulder like this and rubbing his head into me. He also likes to chew on my ponytail too. But I still didn’t think this quite conveyed what I wanted to.

So I subjected Henry to his least favourite activity: dress up. Mainly it just confuses him. He has never liked to be “under” or “within” things like blankets or covers or outfits.

Princess Henry

However, if you catch him asleep and unawares… you can do what you like! [This is an old photo] (In real life, his tiara is pink)

I’ve been home a week today (it feels like much longer) and once I got home, I scooped up my kitty and gave him a snuggle. I texted once the plane landed and my dad picked me up from the airport. We met my mom at my apartment where they’d just finished cleaning up (after the kitchen reno — more on that later) and brought back my boys.

My mom said that once they brought Henry back to my apartment, he scoured the apartment for me and when he couldn’t find me, he looked at mom and just. kept. meowing. He looked at her like, “okay, I’m back. Now where is MY mom?” (according to my mom’s interpretation).

While I was gone my parents took very good care of both Henry and Chico (my chinchilla). Dad and Chico bonded and on the way home from the airport, dad told me how Chico’s new favourite treat is walnuts. He said once he tried to give Chico a piece of fresh banana, and he wouldn’t even touch it until he’d had a walnut.

HAPPY WHISKERS ON WEDNESDAY

Here are some photos Craig and I took of the dogs when it began to snow last week. I really enjoy taking them out and the snow makes it even more fun. Happy Dogs on Thursday!

8 inches of snow on the Racecourse

On the path at Peel Park near the University of Salford

Making a snow angel while the dogs lick my face and jump over me.

Snow snuggles with Oscar

Oscar sporting new Snow Boots

I’ve arrived safely in Manchester, despite severe delays in London Heathrow and last week’s threat of a British Airways strike. Fortunately the strike was averted due to court order and my flight was still scheduled. I left Sunday night and we were late leaving from YVR (Vancouver, BC). I was worried I wasn’t going to make my connecting flight up to Manchester. I was running through the new Terminal 5 in Heathrow, which is owned and operated by British Airways.  There were about three security checkpoints and insane queues, I didn’t think I was going to make my second flight.

Fortunately (for me) it was delayed about an hour so I was able to make it to my gate on time. Then it began to snow and we sat on the plane for hours waiting for a de-icing rig for our plane. All the planes in Heathrow were in the same situation — there were only seven de-icing rigs for the entire airport. Incoming planes had no gates to unload at and were sitting on the sides of the runways. Outgoing planes were stuck until we could be de-iced, and any flights originally scheduled for after 7:00pm takeoff were completely cancelled. Finally, after three hours on the plane, my flight left around 8:45pm. We finally arrived safe and sound in Manchester where Craig had been waiting for me.

Yesterday was spent recouperating, I slept in pretty late and then we went into Manchester city centre to finish our Christmas shopping. The city was pretty busy and it hailed several times while we were there. We took a walk around some of the German Christmas Markets scattered around the city centre.

Last night we took Craig’s dad’s dogs for a walk, and they absolutely adore the snow. This is Harvey jumping up for a snowball as Craig tosses it. And yes, that is the scarf I knit for Craig.

Today we’ve already taken the dogs for a nice long walk around the Racecourse in Salford. Salford is a city within Manchester and where Craig and his family live. The Racecourse was formerly a racetrack for horses and now is a playing field for football (soccer), etc. The Racecourse used to be really huge and also includes a lot of forested areas with walking paths along the River Irwell.

I’m living in a basement suite, which was fantastic when we had a heat wave this summer. But now that the temperature is dropping, these cement walls aren’t so comforting.

Since the upstairs neighbours control the central heating, and the baseboard heaters are hidden behind furniture, I brought out the trusty radiator! It heated up the apartment nicely, and quickly became Henry’s new best friend!

Unfortunately he kept waking up whenever he heard me turn on the camera (such a little camera wh0re!) so I didn’t get some of the cuter photos.

But later, I decided to put his blanket pad beside the heater for him. He loves it so much!

Whenever this ottoman is cleared off, Henry immediately jumps on it and claims it as his new perch.

Being in a basement suite, I wish he liked things a bit higher because he hasn’t looked out a window in months! He used to love sitting on my computer chair looking out the second-floor window, but now he doesn’t even jump up on the window sill (where accessible).If I lift him up on the window sill he only stays there a matter of minutes.

Whenever Henry totally relaxes and just vegges out on the carpet, he lies on his back and tends to just watch me. Then he’s start meowing and moaning until I talk to him. (If he doesn’t want attention he goes elsewhere.) Here’s some fantastic poses of Mister Pudgey chilling out.

This was taken from my seat on the couch. (Please excuse the background mess)

This is the chair beside the couch (with his blanket pad).

P.S. He’s watching me and lying like this as I type……