Our beloved, high-maintenance cat Buzz was diagnosed with diabetes last year. He requires twice-daily insulin shots, making our vacations more complicated. A lovely vet tech, Grace, takes care of him. This year my friend Kelly Marshall offered to take him to her house for a week—she was undaunted by the needle, and she loves Buzz.
Buzz’s collar disappeared, so I wanted to order a new one quickly, as Kelly thought she was going to try to walk Buzz on a leash. (Good luck with that!) I found one that was labeled as an Aztec design, but it looked like Norwegian rutevev (geometric square-weave) to me!
It looks like I could have woven it on my cradle loom.
The collar also looks like the types of bands attached to some Norwegian costumes, like these.
These are featured in a feature about endangered types of handcraft, “Stakkeband på voggevev,” (Costume bands made on a cradle loom), published by Husflid, the Norwegian Handcraft Association.
The collars came with no problem, but the vacation to Kelly’s house was not in the cards. On the day we left, I noticed an abscess on Buzz’s head, which led to careful watching by Grace, then a trip to the vet where she works, and cleaning out of his wound. Now he has antibiotics, pain meds, and cleaning solution for his head. And I have gory photos. I’ll spare you those, and just send this one where he is perched on a festive baseball blanket, hissing at the vet. The only thing Buzz hates worse than the cat carrier is ending up at the vet.
When we traveled in the winter, the big issue was a substantial snowstorm, and worries about whether we would have to have snow removed from our roof and get the car off the street. It’s always something. Thank goodness for Grace! And thank goodness for my next door neighbor Roger! He feeds Buzz lunch and keeps our beautiful deck plants alive. They allow us to enjoy this most un-Midwestern of settings, the ocean.
And eat lobsters.