And the number of the counting shall be three

So, I bought a Kong for my cats. It's a slightly irregularly shaped ball that screws open and you put treats inside. There's a hole, and as the cat knocks it about the treats fall out. They promptly lost it, so I bought two more. Then the first one showed back up. It gives Arwen an interest in life, and she is incredibly cute about it. Ninja also thinks this is a fine game. I tend to fill them up morning and evening. I fill up whichever ones I can find, so anything from zero to three, depending. And when those suckers go missing, they really go missing. Cannot find them for love nor money. I genuinely cannot imagine where they hide them.

But for about a week, now, all three are consistently easily findable. Sometimes, they've been herded together, waiting for me. Which leads me to believe that the cats (in this case, Arwen and/or Ninja, since the other two don't care about the treats) have figured out that I don't fill the ones I can't find. This speaks rather well for their powers of deduction, and I wonder if it also suggests that they can count to three. No idea.

Of course, one of the problems with trying to measure the intelligence of cats is that, unlike dogs, cats don't really care what you think. Dogs will perform various tasks because they are anxious to please. Cats have a vast and deep well of apathy, and simply will not bother to do things that don't interest them. So designing intelligence tests for them turns out to be hard, it is often not possible to distinguish between incapable and disinterested. But treat balls? Boy is Arwen interested. Vastly, deeply interested.

Afghan the Second

So, I finished the second afghan a little bit ago. It looks like this:



Here's a detail:



I just want to say that I really don't like this one at all.

The first reason is that the yarn I used was vastly less nice. It was cheaper, about $20 cheaper overall, but man does it show. It just doesn't feel nice, and it wasn't fun to work with. Worse, it doesn't really show stitch detail very well, so it is visually less appealing as well as not feeling as nice. I also don't like my color choices. The blue alternately seems to get into fights with the teal and then melt into the teal, and the silver looks a little brown and a little dull. So, really didn't work. I'm unsure about the pattern, too. Although I rather like the look of the center braid, there's no denying that the construction leaves huge holes. It would, for instance, suck as a dog kennel liner, because the dog would constantly be getting his legs caught in it. While it might be ok for snuggling under, it is rather well ventilated, and so would let in drafts. Good for spring and fall, but not so good for winter, perhaps.

I dislike this one sufficiently much that I am not going to give it to anyone. I'll either keep it on my bed, which occasionally needs an additional blanket, or if it irritates me too much, give it to Good Will. (Where it will likely be bought by someone with very little money to take apart for the yarn. When you're poor, and have a fiber habit, that's the way to do it. Also, very cheap sweaters offer a source of yarn.)

I'm knee-deep in my third afghan, and I chose the colors with Carol in mind, so I guess Naomi's afghan will be after the one I'm working on. Hey, Naomi! I could redo this same pattern with prettier colors and nicer yarn. I was wondering what this pattern would look like with the center braid as silver, the surrounding material as black, with an electric teal accent. Or maybe a pretty varigated yarn for the center braid,and complementary colors for the rest. However, there's also another pattern I have my eye on that is large pinwheel motifs put together with flowers in the center of each motif. I'm thinking of using a varigated yarn for that pattern. Do you have a preference?