Conference misery::feline

    Method for reading newspaper:  spread newspaper out in n sections,
    where n is the number of cats plus one.  Read section that is
    not covered by a cat, until that section is covered by a cat, at
    which point start reading the newly uncovered section.
    

    My craft of choice is stained glass -- and somehow my cats know to stay
    away from my work area when I'm doing glass .... might have something
    to do with my growling at them as I work.  Needless to say, I am very
    mindful of chips of glass flying, and chemicals involved, so I always
    keep a very good air circulation going, too.  Once, however, I had
    designed a beautiful peony window, and had all the pieces cut and
    foiled and in place, ready to solder together.  A friend came by, and
    as I was seeing her out the door, I heard an unmistakeable "clunk" ..
    seems Harry (the Rat) was enchanted by a particular piece, the center
    of the main flower.  I searched and searched for this piece (too big to
    swallow), and since I couldn't find it, and since the cut glass edge
    was wrapped in foil, I cut another piece.  Well, as soon as the entire
    window was finished and polished, Harry brought me the missing piece!
    
    ...Regarding counted cross-stitch ... I did quite a bit of it before
    the holidays, and one Sunday afternoon as I was working away (thread
    hidden carefully away from Harry (the Rat)'s curious eyes, my phone
    rang at the same time as my doorbell rang.  Well, I laid my project
    down, answered the phone, then went to the door.  The call and visitor
    together took about 5 minutes, and when I went back to my project, the
    needle and thread were gone .... I took H(tR) up to the Vet's the next
    morning, after getting no sleep whatsoever, watching him for any sign
    of blunt-needle-lodged-in-alimentary-canal-syndrome.  The vet told me
    that the needle was not the thing to worry about ... the thread was
    what could snarl itself up in his guts and really do some damage.  I
    insisted that he be x-rayed, just so I could be sure of the needle's
    whereabouts.  
    
        Now, Harry (tR) is a 22-pounder, and quite large/long.  They had to
    do an extra-large x-ray, for which he posed very nicely, from his mouth
    to the other end of his alimentary canal ... and what gorgeous insides
    he has!  But -- no needle at all.  (I still don't know where it is, and
    I've turned the house upside down/inside out.)
    
        What REALLY drives him nuts is that I now put my "palette" of yarn
    inside a clear plastic bag ... he can see it, but can't get at it now!
    

      Doing anything involving string, yarn, needles, etc. is precarious
    in my house too.  I don't have as much time as I once did to do all
    those little household craft projects, but what I do, I have to be
    careful with.  Especially the needles.........you have to be soooooo
    careful.  I make loads of catnip mice that I sell,  and let me tell
    you that is hard to do with all those kitties clamboring after the
    herb!
    
      Denise and the gang of 11
    

    I am in the middle of crocheting an afghan and every night I have to 
    fight Thor to leave my craft bag alone. He first starts by digging out
    all the balls of yarn so they start to unwind. Then he grabs a ball of
    yarn and runs away with it. When I finally have every thing retrieved
    he will grab one of the finished granny squares and take off with that.
    He  thinks this is the best game in the world. I have a beautiful had
    made yarn basket. The different colored balls of yarn used to look so
    pretty in the basket. Once the cats figured out what those balls of
    yarn were, I couldn't leave my yarn out. The final straw was when I
    found my white ball of yarn in the litterbox. The yarn know hides in
    the closet.
    

    I had absolutely NO trouble doing counted cross stitch.  Mine left them
    alone.
    
    But now that I'm doing Latch-hook rugs, I have a problem.
    
    There will be no furballs in sight, and I'll take out my kit, spread
    the canvas on my lap, and proceed to start hooking (and keep the wise
    a$$ comments to yourselves, thank you very much...I get enough of that
    from my husband and his father) when SOMEONE will desperately want
    attention and will curl up on the canvas in my lap!
    
    K.C.

    Cheryl,
    
    Like we said before, it's in the name.  Our Zelda LOVES yarn.  I weave
    and knit.  Both of these are ALWAYS accompanied by Zelda.  She chases
    the yarn, can't figure out why, when she gets the yarn in her mouth, it
    continues to move.  She loves to lie under my loom.  There I am trying
    to press the foot pedals to the floor only to have a black cat under
    them keeping them in their proper place...
    
    Zelda also loves to lie on projects in their various stages of
    completeness - so I never have any project that doesn't have black cat
    hairs on it.  I tell people that part of the uniqueness of my projects
    is the fibers I use!!!!
    
    Just accept it....Zelda is going to be a crafts kitty.  Just think of
    the joy of sharing your interests!!!!
    
    Ellen

    
    
      Always always when trying to write a letter or read a magazine and 
    even if I keep one hand patting them and the other on the magazine,
    nope that's not enough attention, they want it all, the whole undivided
    attention and yes, they do manage to win and get it...They are so
    funny, but yet they can tell that all eyes are not on them.....
    
    
    Diana, Tykey & Domino...
    

    I haven't done as much knitting lately as I used to.  Maybe, it's
    because I now have 4 cats, and once a upon a time I just had 1.  Now
    that they are adults, they are better about leavingmy yarn alone now,
    but when they were kittens, it was hopeless.  I can knit with a cat on
    my lap, but often she/he will decide to grab the yarn as it's moving by
    and of course, put it in mouth and bite it.  
    
    They also like to chew on the pen top as I am trying to write, and of
    course, lie on the newspaper that I have on the table, hoping to read. 
    Misty sits on my lap while I'm putting on makeup in the morning.  She
    stretches up on her hind legs to give me a hug and kiss, then checks
    out the eyeshadows, etc, and walks back and forth in front of the
    mirror.  She definitely wants attention in the morning.  She even
    reaches out her paw to tap me when I'm standing near her.
    
    Steffi

    
    	My biggest problem with doing cross stitch was trying to
    	keep cat fur off of it!
    
    	Reading?  Forget it.  They have to be in my lap or on what
    	I'm reading.
    
    	Writing....Audrey loves to attack the pen.  She has this fetish
    	about the antenna on our cordless phone too....
    

    
>    	My biggest problem with doing cross stitch was trying to
>    	keep cat fur off of it!
    
	Two solutions: 
		1) wait until the x-stitch is done to try to remove the 
		   'texturing' with a pair of tweezers (and a magnifying glass)
		2) only do x-stitches (or any other type of project) that are 
		   the color of the cat hair!


	Simon loves to help me X-stitch.  He sits attentively on my lap.
	Everytine I try to find a hole with the needle, he rears back, takes
	both front feet and 'straight-arms' the place where I'm trying to 
	put the needle.  The end result is that the hoop keeps popping apart!!

	Hannah used to try to keep the thread 'adequately moistened' last fall
	when she was temporarily an only child. She has given up this practice
	now that there might be someone else to observe her doing the 
	'kittenish' act.  

	I keep trying to get either of them to act as props for the charts,
	but so far, just as I get the chart positioned, they feel the need to 
	move.

	Joshua used to plant himself on top of latch hook rugs, making them 
	totally immovable when you needed to shift them.

	Becky used to sit on the afghan I was crocheting, making it difficult
	to flip the entire piece without first moving the 'anchor'.  I resorted 
	trying to reserve a portion for me, and just trying to deal with a 
	twist every other row.  
 
	Of course, when I am filing several months worth of stuff and have it
	all spread out on the floor in neat little piles, that's exactly the 
	time they choose to play tag-and-slide! 

    You've got lots of company on this topic!
    
    Trying to write out bills...time to eat the pen, swat it around,
    climb in mom's briefcase, sleep on the bills!
    
    Trying to cross-sticth or needlepoint...that yarn's "mine", what
    happens if I watch mom from underneath the hoop, oh look at this
    big bag of thread!
    
    Trying to paint sweatshirts...paint brushes whiz around the tile
    kitchen floor, is there food (or just paint) in these little bowls,
    if I climb up your back will I get a better view?
    
    Trying to clean out the manicure kit...what a nice big box to lay
    in, oooh cotton balls and q-tips, and orange (chewy) playsticks!
    
    It's so infuriating....but so cute!!!!!!  But no so cute at 3 a.m.
    We've learned to hide any potential toy before bedtime!
    
    C.
    

    I can relate to this one! I do a lot of cross stitch, and Feendoonie
    can be nowhere in sight, and just appear on my lap! I got this great
    cross stitch calendar this year that is totally dedicated to cats! It
    has complete pictures, but three of the months have 4 head studies
    with one of them being December, the heads have a green wreath around
    them! It's wonderful! Lots of shading too. (Pam, I'm working on these
    for the shelter!)
    
    Anyway, as soon as it's known I'm trying to sew, 'Doonie wants to be IN
    the calendar! Of course this makes it impossible to read, as it's
    moving constantly! Or she decides she needs to sit on top of it, and
    attack the thread as it goes back and forth. Unfortunately, this
    usually means that Mom gets grabbed as much as the thread! 
    
    I also have to be VERY careful where I put the piece of thread I've cut,
    cause she'll take off with it. This makes me very nervous as I don't
    know whether she eats it or not, but I never see it again! I usually
    sit on it while I'm working now.
    
    Gotta love 'em though! ;-)
    
    Y
       

    
    Oh Boy can I relate to this note!!
    
    Panther Jane loves to cross stitch, she sits on my lap and pokes her
    nose into the underside of the frame. (I'm sure that she is trying to
    show me the correct placement of the next stitch :-)  Occasionally she
    will reach out a little paw and gently and with great delicacy, using
    only one claw proceed to unthread my needle!!!  (I am working on a
    terrific piece too, called "Purrrrfect Garden" 6 cats and lots of
    flowers, really yummy colors to.)
    
    Panther also loves to quilt.  When my quilting hoop is set up she would
    spend her time on top of it!!! while I was trying to quilt!!!!  But
    then I should note that she has always been facinated with sewing.  She
    will sit behind the machine whenever I am sewing, (provided she has no
    other pressing social engagements,) and watch in utter facination. 
    When I was machine sewing the quilt top she used to hide under the
    heaps of fabric while I was sewing blocks.  I would wonder why the
    material would suddenly not advance through the feed dogs any more :-)!
    
    I am sure Panther likes these crafts, and not Daddie's model rocket
    building because they are genteel and refined, just like she is!!!
    
    Feline Crafty,
    
    Sue Spingler
    
    PS to get the cat hair off your cross stitch use those sticky tape
    cylindars on handles, they work fine for me!
    

    Or you could use your handy dandy Mr. Sticky!! ;')
    
    Jo

    I must be VERY careful with my soldering iron, working on my PCBs.
    She wants to maintain electronics, too... And she helps making the bed
    every morning, so I have to raise 10 minutes earlier.
    
    (BTW, Be careful with yarn, PLEASE! I know about a cat, who ate yarn and
    had to die because of it. Please be careful!)
    
    As for potential toys (re. .11) - you cannot hide the whole world...
    
    Nat 8-)

	My wife loves to make quilts and I made her a quilting rack a couple
	of years ago.  The problem is that every time she is working on a
	quilt our cat Ginger thinks that it is the worlds best kitty hammock.
	Even better if she is working at night because of the bright spot
	light my wife uses for light, which Ginger just assumes is a sun
	lamp.  Not to mention that the spool of quilting thread makes a
	great play toy as does her leather thimble.

	I have a wood working shop set up in our basement.  Our late kitty
	Diva showed no fear of power tools and would try to get up on the
	table saw or radial arm saw when I would be working.  I had to keep
	a sharp eye out for her anytime I was working down there.  Diva
	also seemed to love the smell of Elmers wood glue, when I would be
	working on a glue up she would sit with her nose over the open bottle
	of glue and sniff and sniff and sniff.

	Craig  

I love to knit and Honey loves to help.  He can always tell when I'm getting
ready to do a S1,YO,PSSO (ah, knitting!  The world's first programming 
language!), cause he times it just right to hit my needle and cause me to
drop a stitch or two.  In fact, I'm now very, very expert and picking up
slipped stitches.

This takes the cake, however...I had knitted a gorgeous sweater for a friend's
birthday, and I had very carefully unknitted all the Honeyfur out of the
sweater, washed it very gently and laid the sweater on one of those sweater
dryer gizmos.  Well, to Honey, this looked like his favourite sweater on
a hammock and I came down stairs in the morning to find him sacked out on top
of the sweater, sleeping very soundly.  My friend, who is terribly allergic
to cats, is probably still sneezing today......

Mary

    Re: .17 reminds me...
    
    One time I was doing some sewing for a friend...her daughter needed
    some skirts let down, and she doesn't sew.  Her daughter (AND her
    husband) are all allergic.
    
    I was being ever so careful while doing the hemming (I didn't realize
    there was so much skirt in a pleated skirt!) when Rico decided that it
    was "attention time"...and curled up nice and snug in my lap...on the
    skirt!
    
    So when I was done, I also had to wash and press the skirts.
    
    I also had just ONE teensy problem with cross-stitching...Rico would
    lie down on my lap while I was doing one craft, which was ok.  He
    didn't touch the thread or play with the needle or rub against the
    hoop.  The problem was, I was working with a very dark blue material,
    and usually had something light on my lap so that I could see the
    holes.  Rico is dark, dark sable brown.  (On a side note, I have dozens
    of Tiki and Rico hairs in that particular craft, but they're staying. 
    It is for ME.  It was going to be a pillow, but it is too pretty...I'm
    framing it.  Hairs and all.)
    
    K.C.

    Nippa won't bother me much when cross stiching, because I usually
    do in in places she's not there.....hmmmm when I move will this pattern 
    change??
    
    But, she loves to sit on my dad's woodworking projects while he's doing
    them, she will also climb ladders to help him.

    Trying to sew last night with a sewing machine.  Spike decided all that
    up and down motion needed to be investigated.  I was so engrossed in
    watching the needle that I didn't see him jump up onto the table.  Next
    thing I know, the thread is jamming.  AFter a couple of expletives I
    noticed Spike had pawed at the thread as it was running off the spool,
    and was happily batting around a little pile of thread he collected. 
    Mind you, Spike is a suspected Maine Coon, about 25 pounds and as big
    as my dogs. How I failed to notice him I'll never know.  Kind of like 
    opening your refrigerator and failing to notice the elephant sitting 
    in the bowl of Jell-o!              ............Sarah 

    My crafts are beading and weaving. When Eddie Haskell (aka Eddie
    Rascal) hears those beads rattling, he comes running!! I have to keep
    a spray bottle right at my finger tips, otherwise he tries to eat the
    beads! I keep them in small spice jars, and he loves to knock them all
    down once I set them out on the table, they make such a wonderful
    sound! I have to keep them in a COVERED box. 
    
    This weekend I was setting up my loom. Eddie seems to think that a
    loom with no warp on it is a great cat tree! And when I did start
    putting the warp on, he thought it was even better! Well, needless to
    say, Eddie was soon banished to the porch!
    
    ng 

    I understand how you all feel when trying to write letters or read
    a newspaper Bosco is right there (he's a big boy...almost 16 lbs) 
    laying on the paper or chewing on the tip of the pen.  This is our
    quality time???
    
    When I try to take a shower every morning, Money sits on my towels
    (warms them up for me?) and watches the shower curtain move.  Some
    times she falls asleep on them and I feel so bad about waking her
    that I tiptoe down the hall dripping wet to fetch another towel.
    
    When I try to put on makeup Smudge is right there sitting on the
    bathroom vanity and sticking her little paws into the open drawer
    helping me by digging out the emery boards, new tooth brushes or
    whatever else she can find in there!
    
    ...but wouldn't life be dull without our little helpers???  :-)
    

Re: .22

>    When I try to take a shower every morning, Money sits on my towels
>    (warms them up for me?) 

Robin, apparently Money thinks you deserve to be dressed in fur. :-) :-)    

Ah, the times that I've stepped out of the shower to grab a nice, fresh 
towel, buried my face in it -- only to feel like I then need a shave!
That's when I know one of the furbags got into the linen closet again!

Linda

    Sawdust is really into woodworking and quilting.  If we are working in
    the shop, she's up on the stool keeping us company and performing 
    inspections (she doesn't help).  If I'm quilting, I have an extra fur
    lump on my lap someplace under that nice warm quilt.
    
    But, the most favorite activity of all times in our house (according
    to Patchwork and Sawdust) is cutting out pattern pieces for clothes.
    If I billow out the fabric onto the floor, I have at least one BIG LUMP
    under that fabric.  And once I try to lay the pattern pieces out, I
    have two cats chasing each other over the tissue paper making great 
    noises and usually tearing the pattern to shreds!  It is funny to
    watch, but I can get absolutely nothing done unless I close them out
    of the room.
    
    We're the cats - gotta love us!!
    
    					Mair
    

    I just love it when the Pat Brody Shelter has it's bi-weekly
    craft meeting over Priscilla's house and we try to stuff the felt
    toys with catnip with about 35 cats/kittens watching over us!  Yikes...
    oh what fun...it's a great place to be!!!
    
    Sandy 

    Can't read a book or paper without one of the gang trying
    to sit right in the middle of the book or paper...and we
    don't even try to do any projects on the livingroom floor
    in front of the TV.
    It's also impossible to make a bed in my house, without
    all these strange "lumps" appearing under the sheets and
    blankets! (:
    
    

    I've been making kitty beds for the Pat Brody shelter, and of
    course, Mocha had to "try out" (or break in??) each bed.  I should
    put a "Good-Cat-Keeping" seal on every bed she "certifies"!!

    
    I thought Ginger was unique -- pulling my knitting off the needles..
    preventing me from doing any cross stitch, stealing basket reeds;
    by she does join ,e in the shower -- water and all, and then shakes
    it off !!!
    
    After  being a dog person for years, I'm learng to love...o.k.
    I do love Ginger....
    

    I too, do a lot of crafts....I can cope with the knitting and
    crocheting being pulled out of my hands or having a tug-of-war over the
    yarn. I can even deal with the pen being batted out of my hands as I'm
    writing a letter/paying bills. But I've been making jewelry for the
    past year or so and I work with semiprecious stones/beads and those
    tiny seed beads.
    
    I admit it takes me time to design earrings and figure out what colors
    will look nice together. I pull out all my stuff and am happily seating
    in the sunlight or near a bright lamp and it never fails. I put each
    color into separate plastic yogurt lids, have finally gotten the needle
    threaded (one could go blind doing this) and am working on the
    earrings when Escoh decides she wants to help me. She slowly comes up
    and jumps into the middle of my work. Beads go flying, the thread gets
    tangled or comes out of the needle. Brandy just looks on from a safe
    distance...
    
    Picking up those little seed beads is challenging.... If I make dangle
    type earrings Escoh just has to make sure that they have good movement
    and will swing back & forth easily. Once when I was home sick, I tried
    to do the earrings in bed. I ended up picking out beads for weeks. It
    was worse than cracker crumbs and I had even changed the sheets a few
    times!
    
    Brandy on the other hand likes to help me with my homework. I'm
    taking an Anatomy & Physiology course that has an accompanying coloring
    book that will be collected at the end of the course and graded. Brandy
    _loves_ to sit/lay on my text book and bat at my coloring pencils as I
    color. I have a few pages that look like a toddler got hold of them. I
    left the book unattended and Brandy figured he'd continue while I was
    away. I now color at work during lunch....  ;^D
    
    What can I say, ya gotta love 'em for wanting to give you a helping
    _paw_....
    
    My cats also think that sweaters drying on those mesh sweater dryers
    make a wonderful kitty hammock!
    
    Roslyn   

    Notice a direct correlation between cat-owned and craft people?  What
    are we...NUTS?
    
    (But we love 'em!)
    
    K.C.

    I am doing calligraphy for my wedding invitations, and of course the
    minute I get started either one of my furfaces jump on the table.(Part
    of our problem is that we give them run of the house so the kitchen
    table is not off limits-anything else for that matter)
    What they like to do is rub up against the tip of the pen or bump into
    my board.  They tend to rub into pen tips whenever we write, or sit on
    the newspaper when we're trying to read it. :-)
    
    shannon
    

    Re: .31
    
    They're trying to tell you that you need to decorate the invitations
    with pussycat paws.
    

When I started my newest jigsaw puzzle this weekend (that's as crafty as I
get these days!) Tigger (big orange tiger) insisted on "helping".  He'd even
pick up pieces and try to eat them, or at least look like he's trying to!  I
was wondering if it was maybe the odd wax coating this puzzle had, that had
a smell he liked.  then I figured it out :-)  This puzzle is an adorable picture
of 13 kittens cuddled up together, luckily in various colors. :-)  There is a
good chance the puzzle doer has a cat or cats of their own.  Therefore,
the manufacturer decides to play a practical joke, and sprinkles cat nip on
the puzzle pieces!!  And all along, I thought those little green lint/dust
bits were just shards of the cardboard backing to the pieces :-) :-)

Jill

    My kitties won't let me read, write, type, crochet, needlepoint,
    etc....
    
    They'll just get up in my lap and lie down in the middle of whatever
    I'm doing.  And they can lay really heavy.  The other evening I was
    dialing into the system, and Boots was laying on the other side of the
    table pretending to be sound asleep--he'd been there for over an
    hour--I no more than got the modem tone when he hopped up and ran over
    to stand in the middle of my keyboard.  
    
    What fun creatures they are....
    
    Candy

   I found that you just have to make certain that your spouse (or we'll say
someone else just in case) is doing something the cat like better. Our cat
attacks my wifes crochet all night long so he does not bother my keyboard.
If she is not there then that is another story, as he like to crawl over the
keyboard then. He will sit on my lap for awhile and then decide to pounce.

   Of course he saves his catnip toys for the middle of the night.  I even put
them on top of the entertainment center one night only to find that he had
managed to get up and get them all. I woke up one night to find him rolling
around the living room floor holding a catsnip mouse.


		/Ken

    anyone know the difference between cats who bug you when you're on the
    terminal and when they are trying to walk over the keyboards, step all
    over the keys.....and those cats who, when they try to bug you and are
    trying to walk over the keyboards, are smart enough to straddle the
    keys on the keyboard?  Is it, like, INTELLIGENCE?  Is one of my cats
    stupid?  8') 8') 8')
    
    I just wish she'd do that when I'm making my baskets....
    
    I just think it's so funny watching my Princey do everything she can
    NOT to step on any keys....
    
    Michele

    Michele, cats walk on keys when you are typing a memo to your manager.
    Cats never walk on keys when you're entering a note in Feliners. 
    This is a given. :^)

>    Michele, cats walk on keys when you are typing a memo to your manager.
>    Cats never walk on keys when you're entering a note in Feliners. 
>    This is a given. :^)

I still get teased about the time Missy Hana stepped onto my keyboard
and very quickly terminated a memo I was writing by entering several
random keys and some line feeds and then closed out the E-mail message,
forcing me to send out a memo that appeared to end something like this:

"in conclusion, I just want to add 

 8886jk3- vcbt,,
			xwmtty


				ewwwrt!>?"


The person who recieved the memo simpy returned a copy to me with the
closing, 'having a bad day, were we?'

I didn't try to explain...he wasn't a cat owner....

				D

    
    it's actually a difference between my cats....one walks over the keys
    clueless as ever...while my other one will walk over the keyboard but
    tiptoe around the keys.....it just seems so amazing to me....
    
    mich