All Creatures Great and Small Archives - Page 17 of 24 - Ruffing’s

Posted on April 7, 2011August 1, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

She made herself at home

Happy birthday to my grandma this month. She just turned ninety-six and is still doing well. On a sad note, about the same time as her birthday, we got news that my cousin, Steve, who has been battling peritoneal cancer for the past several months, is back in the hospital, and his cancer, which the doctors thought was gone, has returned, or had never entirely left. We are all hoping for the best, and hoping he can feel better. He is such a nice guy, and a great person, to be going through such an awful thing.

During this time, since I last wrote, I have also been kitten-sitting, for Frosty, who is now Josephine. She had another potential adoptive home lined up, far away, but that didn’t turn out to sound like the best option for her. She didn’t mind. She had already decided she wanted to stay here, and we all wanted her to stay too. So, it did work out, after all, and she has brought us some good cheer.

She has been trying out all the cat beds, and toys, and furniture, and has found it all to her liking. She was very shy, and liked to hide in small spaces, when she first arrived, but she has rapidly changed.

She is out and about now, participating in all we do around here, in between playing and napping.

I went out and bought new cat beds (actually these are dog beds from Petsmart) because Josephine kept taking everyone else’s, but she took a new one too, along with the new blankets that came with the beds.

She is a big fan of our kitty gym, and now sits up at the top of it. No more hiding for her.

Josephine seems to be very happy, and is friendly to eveyone. I thought she needed a new name, since she isn’t “frosty” at all. I thought a more self-assured name would be fitting. I renamed her after Jo March of “Little Women” and Empress Josephine. I later read that Empress Josephine had somewhat embarrassing teeth, which made me smile, because kitten Josephine has funny teeth herself.

I had tried out different names, saying them to her, and she seemed to like this one. She mewed back at me. I took that as a sign of approval.

In art toys news, my Hug Me Toad was in this very cute blog feature from Harmonica Mama, and my toys continue to show up in treasuries on Etsy. Toys make me smile too. I enjoy making them, and I like that they brighten someone’s day.

Posted on March 19, 2011August 2, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Catnip toys, catnip aliens?

I’m not sure exactly what they are or what they should be named, but they were pretty popular here today.

Someone was nuzzling them while I was tying to sew them closed, and tried to be good and wait, while I photographed them. When I said it was okay, he dove in.

Not that playing doesn’t make him sleepy. It was a nice sunny day after all, perfect for napping.

I’ve been sewing more slugs and bunnies over the past couple of days too. Santana the Peeping Tom Cat surprised me, when I looked up from my machine. He must have wanted to know what I was making. I think he’s taking notes. He may even have a sewing machine at his house, where he is sewing up his own toys. I wonder what his would look like.

Posted on March 17, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Camo Bunny! Camouflage Hug Me Bunny stuffed animal rabbit toy

Friends have been encouraging me to make camouflage Hug Me Slugs. My friend Marie suggested they would make great gifts for people in the military and their families, who could use an extra hug, and everyone who was chatting about the Camo Slug idea agreed. I was working on them today. Suddenly, I had to take a detour. It may be Saint Patrick’s Day today, but that only made me think of Easter, my favorite holiday. And Easter made think of bunnies. I stopped sewing, drew a little picture, and then drafted a pattern. Within an hour or two, Camo Bunny was born!

Camo Slug will join Camo Bunny. I am making some custom Hug Me Bunny stuffed toy animals too. I can make them in any other fleece color that I have on hand as well. I’ll be adding more ready-made toys. I have a pile of them that I am working on. I will be adding my new handmade stuffed animal toys to our Ruffing’s shop.

Camouflage fleece makes a great cat bed, apparently. My assistant settled right in while my back was turned for a few minutes. Perhaps he was hoping I wouldn’t see him, surrounded by camouflage. He was cooperative about getting back into his own bed, but the fleece won the cuddly contest.

One of the ducks was missing this weekend, and I was very worried until my mom found her…sitting on about twelve eggs! She built her nest, hidden behind a group of trees. I’m so glad she is okay. I was certain she was a he, and so that was an extra surprise. The other boy ducks tried to chase her off last year, when she was less than a year old. The one that is the dad used to snap at her when they came for corn snacks. He’s the big duck we brought to the vet, to have a fish hook removed. They are both survivors, and so we all hope their ducklings will be too.

Speaking of survivors, and hiding, this is Frosty. Frosty came from a feral colony and is very shy. She is staying with Marie, but she has to have one of her canine teeth removed. One is growing straight out. That’s what gives her lip a slight curl in the corner of her mouth. We’re going to visit with her for a little while after her dental, while she recovers, before Marie gets back home from work. She is such a beautiful girl.

I tagged along with Marie again, on a trip back to Rochelle’s house, to pick up some more cats to be neutered/spayed and vaccinated. This time it was Gypsy’s turn. He is tame and the others are feral. He stayed with us, in a carrier, so he wouldn’t go eat all the food in the safety traps. We took him to Kentucky Fried Chicken with us, to pick up some smelly chicken. The cats went right in the traps, once the chicken arrived. Gypsy seemed to enjoy the car ride, and the chicken…of course.

The cats stayed in their traps at Marie’s house, the night before their surgeries, and then they went back to Rochelle’s house. Gypsy enjoyed being in the house. The feather toy was new to him. He may stay with Rochelle, or, if someone would like to adopt him, he may go to his own home. He may need a little potty training, since that may be unfamiliar to him too. So, that is a wait-and-see situation. We had a cat who was outside in his early months, who was successfully potty trained, after not knowing about litter boxes, and Gypsy seems like a smart boy. He may take right to the idea, since he’s been neutered, without any training. No one knows yet. I added the rest of my photos to a photo-documentary, if anyone would like to read the rest of the story.

Please join Ruffing’s on Facebook, if you haven’t already, and visit our Ruffing’s shop blog. We will be posting our new creations there.

And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everyone! As you now know, I am thinking about Easter instead. I am thinking about Christmas also, stocking up on toys, but I don’t want to miss spring either. Everything is starting to look very pretty.

I took my camera with me on a walk recently. Here is a spectacular forsythia bush, and a yard full of little purple flowers in the grass.

Our peach tree is full of blooms.

The trees are getting their leaves.

And I even saw a dandelion! I don’t care what people say about them. I’m happy to see their bright yellow heads popping up.

I have so much to do. I hope to have more to show you soon.

Posted on March 12, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 1 Comment

Menagerie

I was happy to see the sun shining today, not just because it makes me feel more upbeat than I feel on rainy days, but because we’ve been waiting to photograph Max’s new cat art dolls. Max made some smaller cats in dresses, while I’ve been making toys. I still have some Pixie Kitten bodies in progress that I need to finish, but I keep getting orders for toys, which has left Max at the sewing machine. We will be posting our new creations in our Ruffing’s shop.

The ducks enjoy rainy days, and will come visiting no matter. We enjoyed a visit from them this afternoon. They are wandering more, now that the weather has become warmer, the grasses are growing, and there is more to forage.

I finished this light yellow fleece Hug Me Slug today, while Max was busy working on the doll stories to go with the new kitties. I was on a sunshine theme, I think, or it felt like a good day for yellow.

Below is a sneak peek at Max’s new dolls, Zelda the tuxedo cat, Melody the Siamese, and Amy the white cat. They are about 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 inches tall. Max made their clothes. I did have a hand in resizing Amy’s pinafore, in between my making slugs. I think they are all very sweet. Once I am finished editing their photos, we’ll put them up in our Ruffing’s shop.

We had an extra assistant today, in the form of Santana the Peeping Tom Cat. Santana is well-known to my Facebook friends. He comes over to our house almost every day, to look in all our windows and doors. I’d never seen anything like that before. He has climbed up on garbage cans to get a look in the kitchen window. He lives one house away, and is apparently very curious about his cat neighbors. Today he was curious about cat dolls. He was even trying to get in the house.

Some of our cats do not enjoy his visits, but he couldn’t care less, from the look of him. He loves to taunt. He will stare in, or punch at, the doors or windows for as long as he likes. Here are a couple of videos of him taunting one of our cats.

Below is one of my favorite photos of Santana staring in the house from the back door. I love the look of determination on his face. What a character. Surprisingly, since Santana has been watching us, at least two other cats have shown up to look in the doors or windows too. All our cats, and Santana, are fixed, and so it isn’t due to anything like that. I had no idea we were so interesting. One morning recently, the ducks were on the deck looking in the back door too, in the dark of the early morning. I opened the door, and was surprised to find them there. Someday I may open the door and have a rush of animals run inside.

Tomorrow, I am heading out on another cat-catching adventure. This time we are picking up little Gyspy for his big vet day. Should be fun. I hope I can get myself up and awake early, with the Daylight Savings Time change!