Spayed Puglet

Daisy got spayed today! I dropped her off early in the morning and then Tim and I picked her up on our way back home from a late lunch. She’s been sleepy and a lot less active than normal, and so she has spent most of her time cuddling up with me. I think Lena was pleased that Daisy hasn’t been running around like crazy today, but by tomorrow things will be back to normal. I think Lena is getting used to Daisy—she isn’t so afraid anymore, and instead seems curious about the dog. In fact, earlier Daisy was on my lap and Lena jumped up onto the chair (fully aware that the dog was there) so she could sniff at her.

In other news, tomorrow we are going to a Japanese festival downtown with Kristen and perhaps Adam and Jeff, and afterwards Kristen and I will continue experimenting with cochineal, using what we learned last time.

Driving Miss Daisy

Today I put Daisy the pug in the car and took her to the vet, and luckily all the news was good. They found her to be in great shape overall and she tested negative for heartworm. She also got her first set of vaccines, including rabies—now has a shiny green tag hanging from her collar. It turns out she is approximately 10-11 months old and was in heat recently. The good thing is that she’s old enough to spay, so I’ve made another appointment for her for next Friday. While she’s under the anesthetic they will also microchip her. I don’t know if it’s at this time or at a later date, but she will still need some more vaccinations. Everybody at the vet loved Daisy, and she made sure to look as adorable as possible, with her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly.

Lena is still not terribly impressed with her, but today she got much closer while I was sitting on the floor sorting mail. It’s like she’s trying to understand what kind of crazy beast I’ve introduced to the house. She’s also eating more, and moving around the house more than she had been moving. She does still spend a lot of time on my computer chair, so she has left a circle of fur where she has been sitting. I don’t know if they will ever be good friends, but I think they will be able to live together fairly well—they definitely need more time, however.

The Naming Game

The pug puppy still doesn’t have a name, but I’m zeroing in on one. I had asked my friends for suggestions, and the top contenders at this point are Daisy, Lucy and Ziggy. I am leaning toward Daisy because the puppy is my little flower, but if a more appropriate name comes along I will consider it. I am hoping to have a decision by tomorrow when I take the puppy to the vet. Tomorrow I’ll have to get her started on her shots, and I’ll also find out her approximate age. I hope we can already set up a date to have the puppy spayed, too. She is on my lap right now. We went for a long walk today and she is completely pooped out. And Lena is starting to venture closer to the puppy, so I think she’s feeling better about the situation. That’s a good thing because she had barely eaten the last couple of days and I was getting a bit worried. And now it’s time to crate the exhausted puppy and hope that she sleeps through the night and doesn’t cry too much!

New Family Member

So the adorable pug puppy I mentioned on Saturday has now become part of our family. I realize more explanation is needed, but I will explain that all later. She is now sleeping (and snoring!) in my lap and needs to be transferred to her crate so we can all get some sleep. Lena isn’t too happy but doesn’t seem too upset either since she’s just outside the room and has settled into a comfortable position. She did get chased around by the puppy, but it was because the puppy saw her as a playmate. We’ll have to work on all of that! And the puppy still needs a name…

Experimenting With Cochineal

Yesterday I spent several hours with Kristen as we gathered the materials necessary to make our bug dye and later tried out the first part of our experiment. We will need to have at least one more dyeing session, but the good thing is that we learned a lot yesterday. We went out and bought some un-dyed yarn at Fiber Factory and some lime juice, and while we were out and about we got a little side-tracked and invested in pedometers and had a delicious lunch at Pita Jungle.

When we finally got back to her place, we salvaged what we could of the bugs she had already collected, and ended up deciding that we needed to harvest a new batch. The old ones had gotten blown onto the grass by the landscaping people and by the adorable pug puppy they are temporarily watching. So we had to harvest some new bugs, but that wasn’t a problem considering that their prickly pear cactus is covered in the cochineal bugs. We also started a fire on the grill and set some water to boil.

We were worried about how we would separate the bugs from the white web that surrounds them, but once we added them to the boiling water we found that the web material floated to the surface and the bugs separated from it. The water quickly began to turn a reddish, slightly purplish color—very cool! We were worried that because we hadn’t been able to obtain oxalic acid that the dyeing wouldn’t work, so we had also purchased some blue dye to add to the water, thinking that as a commercial dye it would have whatever chemicals we were lacking for the mordant process. What ended up happening was that although we added very little of the blue dye, it took over the color of the water. Kristen managed to get some more of the red to show up by crushing any bugs trapped in the web material, and the water turned a deep, dark purple—but it was still very blue. Since we didn’t want to waste our yarn on blue dye, Kristen offered a white pillowcase that she never used, and we threw that into the pot of water. Now we know that in order to release more of the red color, we need to crush the bugs before putting them in the water. As for the oxalic acid, I wonder if we really need it. Just in case I have looked up possible sources of oxalic acid in common plants and foods.

I look forward to our continued experimentation with cochineal—next time we will not add any of the blue dye. And if worse comes to worse and we can’t figure it out, Fiber Factory has a class in April!