In Love With Bamboo!

I’m wearing the best pair of bamboo socks as I write this, which I bought this week at Target. Last night I slept on bamboo-cotton pillowcases (with a 300 thread count; they are soft as a cloud!) And I’m knitting the prettiest scarf of bamboo yarn coupled with a fun pompom acrylic (both super inexpensive at Joanne’s).

I am all about bamboo these days. We have lots of it growing in the yard where it makes an effective—and very beautiful—screen between our pond and our neighbor’s yard, and provides lots of coverage for wildlife.

The bamboo plant is beautiful, ancient, sustainable and functional. It grows quickly and is very strong, and therefore, is a good renewable choice for wood. It has antimicrobial properties, which means it can be grown easily without pesticides, and presumably produces a fiber that has antibacterial properties. In one study, wearing bamboo socks eliminated the symptoms of athlete’s foot in subjects in just a few days! Unlike wool, bamboo is also hypoallergenic.

I like that bamboo has a solid place in history and culture. The Chinese have used it for at least 7,000 years. Over the past 10 centuries or so, it has been used for paper, shoes, mats, rafts, bowls, furniture, scaffolding, medicine, and, of course, food.

My love affair with bamboo really started, though, when I started to knit. I won’t use wool (it’s itchy, and more importantly, its production is cruel to animals) so I am always on the lookout for good vegan alternatives. Cotton and all the acrylics are fine, but it is so much more fun to knit with unusual plant fibers. I’ve found a few nice soy yarns, but the bamboo choices are more widespread and much softer and very attractive. They are especially nice for baby blankets.

Here are a couple of my favorite examples of bamboo!

My bamboo pompom scarf (on bamboo needles, of course):



Our baby cat--his name is Bamboo!

Euthanizing Paco, Our Tabby Cat

We euthanized Paco last night—our adorable tabby cat whose curly tail always kept him slightly off-kilter and made him look like he was running sideways.

He came to us 8 years ago as a stray, moving into the household gradually. Among our most sociable of cats, Paco had a host of friends. He would run off the porch to greet people as they came down the street—people who were strangers to us but who seemed to know Paco.

Paco wasn’t more than 10 years old when he died, and probably not even that. He was the victim of a fast-growing oral cancer that destroyed the sight in one of his eyes in just a matter of weeks. We asked the vet to come last weekend to euthanize him, but then, after she arrived, we decided to wait. Yesterday, I felt that Paco was ready.

But was he? How can I ever know? I am sure Paco was in pain and discomfort. He was no longer his perky self. Yet he purred when I sat with him. He still enjoyed human contact.

I have been sick to my stomach every time I have euthanized one of my cats. The responsibility of ending an animal’s life is incredibly awesome and overwhelming. I can’t know the right thing to do because I don’t have all the facts. Paco couldn’t tell me how he felt and what he wanted. But I made the choice on his behalf with my heart—out of love and compassion. That’s all I could do.

Making Peace with Deer

I live in a wonderful little town that is sort at the end of a road to nowhere. It's filled with green spaces, walking paths, and lovely gardens. But our town is growing rapidly and its edges are gradually nudging their way into the surrounding open spaces.

There is a field overgrown with holly trees a few blocks from our house and many of the local deer bed down there at night. Our yard has been part of a corridor they travel daily, especially in the spring with their young, as they make their way across this edge of town looking for food. Several years ago the neighbor behind us put up a fence between our properties. They said they were "really suffering" from the deer traipsing through their garden.

Across the street from us is a very old house that had a lot filled with ancient gnarled apple trees. For decades, deer nestled into the grass beneath the trees to give birth to their fawns. When the lot was sold, the apple trees came down and a big tall fence went up to keep the deer out.

We love our gardens here, and it is true that the deer can be destructive. But it is easy to make peace with them. We have a fence around the veggie patch to keep them out but they are otherwise welcome in our yard. We don’t plant tulip bulbs because the deer will eat them. But we have hundreds of happy daffodils that they leave alone. The deer nibbled at our apricot tree for years but it managed to thrive just the same. Now it is tall enough that they can no longer reach it and we are harvesting apricots. (Once in a while I strip some leaves from the tree for them because this seems to be a special treat.)

We love seeing these gentle creatures ambling through our yard or settling in for a nap beneath a tree. It takes a little bit of compromise to live with wildlife, but we wouldn’t trade their visits for the best-protected garden in the world!

Finding Homes for Cats With Special Needs

One of the nicest things that happened to me this week is that I worked with a group of the best people in the world to help Peg and Buzz find their forever home. This story had a happy ending because of the combined efforts of a generous veterinarian, our group of faithful shelter volunteers, and a local newspaper.

Tabby kitty Peg had been left to fend for herself on the streets where she nearly died from starvation and a dangerously infected leg. Poor Peg had been declawed and had probably been unable to fight off a predator. Our veterinarian Dr Johnson saved the cat's life by amputating her leg.

Within weeks, Peg was on the mend and bouncing around the clinic on three legs. One day she cheerfully ran up to another clinic resident, a midnight black former tom cat named Buzz. Buzz had recently lost his home when he developed a urinary tract infection and his family couldn't care for him. The clinic staff ran to separate them because they knew Buzz didn't like other cats—and he was much bigger than Peg.

But Buzz acted like he had known Peg forever and the two instantly became best friends. They became inseparable, grooming each other and curling up together like a big pretzel.

Dr. Johnson started to think that it would be especially nice if they could stay together forever—but it's not easy to find homes for a three-legged cat and a cat who needs a special diet. So she contacted the group of volunteers at our local shelter and we all put our heads together. We decided to get proactive. I was assigned to write a press release about Peg and Buzz, and our local pet photographer, Deja Webster, took their photo.

Even in a small town like this, there is lots of competition for newspaper space. But our timing was perfect; it was Valentine's week and this story had hearts and love all over it! The Jefferson County Leader published our article and within hours, kind-hearted souls were calling about Peg and Buzz. Potential adopters were carefully screened to make sure they were worthy of our special kitties and today, Peg and Buzz are in a wonderful home—together.

(Photo credit: Deja Webster)

Working With Animals

My home office--and why I never get anything done.